NP530Uxx Thread (Series 5 ultrabook)

Easy Software Manager / SW Update will find the new software and drivers.

For BIOS updates see the first post in this thread. I recommend using the BIOSupdate.exe program to download any BIOS update which you then manually install.

John

 

is it possible to upgrade this laptop with an mSata ssd.

 

The notebook uses a normal (but perhaps only 7mm thick - you need to check) HDD which you can replace with a 2.5" SSD of the same or less thickness. Samsung 2.5" SSDs are 7mm thick but many brands are 9.5mm.

John

 

i know that.What i want is to upgrade this laptop with a "mSata" mini ssd.is this possible?

 

Unfortunately Series 5 ultra portables do not have mSata ports, just integrated expresscache on the Intel versions. I'd like mSata too!

 

You can put an mSATA SSD into this adapter so it fits in the HDD bay but there's no other bay to put it in (like on some Lenovo or Dell models where you can have 3G or mSATA).

John

 

Do you know if these Samsung laptops have user manual about how to disassemble into small pieces, just like Dell and HP are include step by step user guide?

 

North American customers can purchase service manuals for their Samsungs from samsungparts.com. I haven't yet seen a source of service manuals for owners in other countries.

John

 

Thanks for the info, I just checked and found the documentation for $28. It's expensive comparing other manufacturers are providing service manuals for free. Anyway I'm sure I'll find the way to re-paste the CPU.

 

How good is Samsung 530U3C battery life? I am looking to buy a sister laptop and now i am aiming at this one with ivy bridge i3 cpu.
Also temps. I saw notebookcech review and temperatures were 40-50!!!!

 

I have NP530U3C-A01SE and I'm wondering which SSD-drive should I buy... I just noticed that HWiNFO64 shows that 500GB HDD is in Sata2-port. Is it because Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 in my laptop is Sata2 or does this only have one Sata3 interface (used by unchangeable Sandisk iSSD)? So if I buy Samsung SSD 840 (Pro) I can get most out of it in my laptop?

 

I did some research, Intel HM76 Chipset supports up to 6 SATA-devices, and 2 can use SATA3-interface. So I assume that my SATA2 500 GB HDD is in SATA3-port and when replacing it with Samsung SSD 840 (Pro) I can get all SATA3 benefits in use.

 

It is usual for the primary storage device to be SATA 3 while the optical drive is usually given a slower port. However, you can't be sure until you use a SATA 3 storage device.

I would note that SATA standard is backwards compatible and the interface will run at the fastest speed supported by both the port and the device. I would get an SATA 3 SSD and hope the port supports it. Even if it runs at only SATA 2 you will be struggling to notice the speed difference unless you are streaming large datasets.

John

 

Thanks John.
I do not have optical drive, 500 GB HDD is primary storage.
I suppose that Sandisk iSSD cannot be changed? It's SMD-component, right?

 

The ExpressCache iSSD is a chip soldered on the motherboard. I doubt if it is given an SATA 3 channel since it's speed is more in the SATA 1 class.

John

 

Hi guys! I'm new here, and must admit that I'm pretty impressed looking at size of this forum.

I've got few questions, I hope someone can answer them.
1. There is a "battery cut off" hole on the bottom of our notebooks. Do you treat the hole as well as pulling out the battery? I do not want it to wear out when I'm working at home, on the power supply.
2. Second question - Is there any program for speeding up fan? I don't like when internal components get pretty hot under stress.

Thanks for all answers, and sorry for my English.
Greetings.

 

Leave the battery in and enable the Battery Life Extender in (Easy) Settings. This option limits the charge to 80%: Once that value is reached then charging is stopped and won't start again until either (i) the charge drops by several percent or (ii) the computer is disconnected from the mains power and then reconnected. The purpose of the battery cut-off hole is to be able to disconnect the battery while it is still inside the computer. However, the cut-off only works while the computer is disconnected from mains power: Reconnecting mains power automatically reconnects the battery.

I don't know of any fan control program, either from Samsung or others. What do you consider to be hot and what temperatures are you getting under full load?

John

 

John, Thank You for your fast reply. I was thinking same way about battery, computer is connected whole time when I don't need to carry it, and battery life extender is on. So as I understand is not bad for battery to keep turned off computer connected to power source.

About temperatures - They seem OK, I mean they are like in reviews 530u3c with similar specification. I just wanned to keep them <~60 degrees (Celsius) under load, when I don't care about noise.

 

When I'm at home the computer is left plugged in with Battery Life Extender enabled. If you are worried about the periodic top-up charges (to 80%) then temporarily disable BLE, left the battery charge to 90% then re-enable BLE.

You can invest in a notebook cooler which might help drop the temperature a little. Most users don't like excessive fan noise and there are very few incidents of notebook failure due to heat provided the cooling system is working properly and keeps the temperatures below about 90C. In my opinion, temperature is something to be periodically checked because rising maximum temperatures could indicate the cooling system is clogging up with fluff (and the faster the fan runs then the more dust it will suck in).

John

 

Ahh sorry, one more question. Is there any way to take off back cover, without losing warranty, to clean the fan on 530u4c? There is only access to HDD / RAM.

 

You can clean your fan with high pressure air by a compressor, than you do not need to take apart the laptop. Otherwise I agree it is very unwelcome to loose warranty just because customer want work inside, like re-pasting the processor.

 

In reality, you will only lose the warranty if you damage something while removing the back (get a good set of screwdrivers). While Samsung discourage users from going inside their computers, they do not provide any seals. Also, if you do see any excessive temperature increase during the warranty period then you could ask Samsung to fix the problem.

John

 

Good to hear that, thanks.

No, not in my country. I like my notebook too much.

 

I just got the NP540U3C-A02UB core i3 touch screen, an open box at Best Buy for $630 and decided to swap out the 4 GB of RAM it came with for an 8 GB stick. When I opened it up, I found an empty slot; the stock 4 gigs is on the board. I added the 8 gigs and lo and behold, I am now reading 12 gigs installed, 11.7 available. And it is fast! very happy with this Laptop.

 

There is new BIOS version for 530U4C - P06ABH. I wonder if there is still linux-bricking problem.

 

Has anyone installed Windows 8 to this laptop? I installed W8 Pro couple of weeks ago and it's very unstable. Almost every time I close the lid to put it to sleep it restarts. If I choose sleep from startmenu (start8), it won't reboot during the night. Also, restart button doesn't work, desktop closes and restarting text and rolling balls appear but it won't restart. All drivers installed from Samsung website. Any idea what's wrong?

 

Hi EveryBody,

I've just buyed this Ultrabook, but it comes pre-charged with windows 7 Home.

I would like to know something else about how does it work with windows 8 before format it and lose all.

Would I lost any funcionality following the "-guide-how-install-windows-7-8-via-usb-np700z.html" like iSsd Caching , Intel Rapid Start, HIbernate function, ...

Thanks in advance.
Víctor

 

I re-installed a lot of drivers with Samsung SW Update tool and now this seems to be working just fine.

 

Still In windows 7 Home, yesterday I installed all updates I found on Samsung Software Update.

After that, I realize that when I put the lid down, a blue light keeps on in the laptop. That didn't happen before, when the laptop changed to Hibernate mode, nothing noticeable where shown.

I repaired the full system to a backup from one hour before. Does this happen also in windows 8 whit that laptop, the blue light is on when hibernate mode?

Thanks in advance.

 

Victor, only charger light when in sleep/hibernate with Windows 8.

 

Thanks Niksu, I'll try it then.

 

My laptop is Np530U3B-A02ES with win8 pro now. I've been able to enable the express cache but, what about the hibernate partition that i had before in win7. Is it necessary?

 

The separate hibernation partition with Windows 7 was most likely for the Intel Rapid Start Technology. I believe that Windows 8 has its own fast start equivalent. How is the sleep / hibernate / resume performance with your Windows 8?

John

 

Hi John, thanks for your response. I didn't success with lid up auto resume option, I had to press the start button.

When lid down, the blue led kept on.

Also, I've got too much error with the old easy setting application due to non compatibility with w8.

Eventhough the eccmd -info command showed working expressCache, easy setting didn't show anything about It.

Finally, after 5 or 6 hours intalling and uninstall drivers versión, I came back ti win7 últimate, in which all works correctly without effor.

Enviado desde mi Galaxy Nexus usando Tapatalk 2

 

I have just purchased the NP530U3C and NP540U3C. I plan on returning one of them, am weighing up usefulness of the touchscreen vs it being glossy, and the additional weight and thickness.

Anyway something I have noticed, when in Internet Explorer on the touch screen version, I can pinch and zoom on the screen and it is very smooth. If I do the same with the touchpad on both notebooks, it is jumpy.

Is this normal and is there any way to get it as smooth with the touchpad as the touchscreen?

 

I've bee reading the whole thread.. I recently bought a 14' Samsung S5 NP530-U4C-S01ES...many people asks about installing windows 8..it's possible, and quite easy to install. In mine I've got (all these partitions in 1tb mechanical hard drive):

partition 1 - windows 8 (no 100mb system partition..it's only usefull for bitlocker, so I dont need it) (primary partition)
partition 2- ubuntu 12.04 root (primary partition)
partition 3 - extended partition
partition 4 - ubuntu 12.04 ( home partition) (logic partition)
partition 5 - data storage for both OS (in NTFS format) (logic partition)
partition 6 - linux swap (logic partition)
partition 7 - samsung recovery partition (accesible from GRUB) (primary partition)

As you can see, Ive got windows 8 pro 64bits and ubuntu 12.04LTS 64bits in a dual boot configuration. I still keep Express Cache for windows 8 (in the soldered 24gb sandisk i100 SSD) and samsung recovery (I didn't touched at all that last partition of the HDD during repartitioning, so GRUB created an entry for windows 7 samsung recovery that I still can use (I've tested) so the truth is this a triple boot enviroment (windows 8, ubuntu12.04 and windows 7 recovery)

The only problem is when I access the samsung recovery (from GRUB, not from F4 during boot)...even if I don't use any of the functions of samsung recovery, after accessing it, then the laptop wont boot windows 8 or ubuntu12.04 until I repair GRUB with any Linux live CD. It seems just by accessing recovery, GRUB is erased (or changed) and it must be reinstaled/reconfigured again.

Ubuntu works quite fast in this laptop (of course, UEFI disabled until Samsung fix their Linux related bugs) and windows 8 too. Even with no Express cache for Ubuntu, it's quite faster (booting, response time...) than windows.
I also use VMware workstation 9 in both operating systems, so I'm able to run windows virtual machines inside ubuntu and viceversa, and the performance is quite good as well.
Something I dont like about samsung is that, even I've paid for a CPU with VT-d instructions (intel virtualization for directed I/O), and Extended Pages Table, IOMMU etc... only the old VT-x instruction (basic CPU virtualization) is available thanks to the chipset chosen and the implementation of the product made by Samsung ... just for saving costs.
So no passthrough in XEN, VMware ESXi or KVM testing in this " ultrabook". Of course, I don't need it in a production enviroment, just for educational purpouses...but if I've paid for a CPU with that technology (intel core i5 3317u), I'd like to be able to use it.(because many laptops from Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba etc..got it, why samsung not?)

At this point of my experience with my NP530u4c-S01ES, I ask myself (and anybody interested) if the SATA DVDrw drive can be replaced for a SATA HDD with one of those HDD caddy's I've seen around. (see this post)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/727881-samsung-s5-2nd-sata-hard-drive.html

and I'm also looking for a good/fast/cheap 128gb SDD to also replace the mechanic 1tb HDD included.

another question is about external graphic cards. (mine got a dedicated nvidia GT 620M, but I'm interested in a better one).
I've seen different solutions using an HDMI port from the laptop to an external GPU, like for example this one:

External Graphics Card - Add a eGPU video card to your laptop PE4H PE4L - YouTube

and I would like to know if there is any posibility of using an external graphic card in this laptop.

So thanks for you help!

 

''Stick with rules''

 

Hi urgiv, welcome to the Samsung forum. And congrats on your new laptop

Samsung doesn't provide Win8 install media with their laptops, and unfortunately Microsoft doesn't provide publicly accessible downloads like the ones for Win7. If the previous owner wiped the Recovery and you don't have install media from other sources, you may be out of luck.

The links below are some posts that cover various legal sources of ISOs downloads.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...y-bridge-np900x3e-np900x3f-3.html#post9323404
http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/706510-samsung-laptops-bricked-using-uefi-9.html#post9287299
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...780z5e-np870z5e-np880z5e-205.html#post9312619

Please do not ask for or discuss illegal or "alternative" sources on the forum, since it is against our forum rules. This includes asking members to share their disks. Nobody received Win8 disks from Samsung anyway.

 

THX for you reply
I owning mine personal official copy of Win 8 is not really problem to install it but sometimes is not stable as pre-factory install

Sometimes is better have original pre-factory partition and install by pressing F4 from it. Easy processes.
I only want to have computer like from factory but I know is difficultly save somewhere large amount of data as recovery partition.

and member eternota have same model due to mine request.
As you know all laptops in factory using same image to install WIN 8

 

As I already have (through Dannemand and other forum users), you will also find out, that even if you get an .iso from the partition you won't be able to recreate the Recovery partition. It requires a special Samsung soft that you can't get your hands in to it legally, or even in a illegal for that matter. Many people here have tried to recreate recovery partition, and all have failed.

Regarding "stability", just install SWUpdate and install all drivers and soft from Samsung through there, you'll be fine.

Cheers.

 

Thx got reply
Laptop arrive tomorrow and I can start making experiments ;-)
but have small issue laptop have TR keyboard
have you guys anyone spare keys all whole palm rest to sell?

 

I have a whole palmrest to sell, but it might not be helpful to you cuz.. 1- keyboard is PT-PT (portuguese-Portugal) 2- Laptop is 530U3C (13.3"), not U4C (14").

Good luck.

 

I understand what you're saying: You own a Win8 license, and in theory it shouldn't be a problem how you get hold of the software. But clearly that's not how Microsoft sees it, otherwise they would make install media available for download (as they did with Win7). Until they do, we have to stick by the rules here.

It doesn't matter how you and I think it should be, what matters is what the lawyers of the world think. We cannot put NBR at risk by allowing discussion of "alternative" sources or sharing of software on the forum. That is why our forum rules are very strict on this point:

Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong, I am merely explaining why we have to stick to these rules. As you can imagine, this is not the first time the subject has come up here.

Skor78's answer was also spot on: Even if you got hold of an image backup of someone else's Recovery partitions (you'd need both SAMSUNG_REC and SAMSUNG_REC2) you wouldn't be able to re-create your own Recovery from it. However, if you also get a so-called USB Admin Tool you could actually do it. The procedure is described in this post (for SRS5, it's similar for SRS6).

Even better, if you had a bootable Factory Image backup on a USB stick, created on exactly the same model as yours, you could actually use that to re-image your drive.

But still, please don't use the forum to ask for or facilitate sharing of these, for the reasons I described above. As I just posted to another member in a similar situation, I think you should press the seller to provide Win8 install media to go with the PC.

 

No problem

I alredy read few link what you advised all clear for me now not a problem I going keep rules.

Look's reinstall WIN 8 and all driver and software from Samsung will be not big deal.

THX for help - when done I will update

 

All installed include all new app and drivers as you guys advised by this forrum

THX a lot win8 ent N working brilliantly now

 

Hi all,

I just bought Samsung Series 5 a week ago and I have some question:
1. According to battery bar app the battery wear rate is about 8%. I've calibrated the battery twice from BIOS. Result from first calibration the battery wear rate is 11% and from the second reduced to 8%. Is it normal or should I contact samsung?
2. Which touchpad driver version works best with series 5? I've tried several versions from other brand and v11.7.8.5 from samsung seems the best for me.
3. I need to connect my laptop to external monitor and I know that I have to buy an adapter/dongle to do that. What kind of connector on the small end? is it micro HDMI or proprietary from samsung?

I'm using Windows 7 on my laptop.


Thanks.

 

I would ask Samsung to replace the battery. 8% wear as new is excessive. Tell them you have already run the calibration and got 11% down to 8% but no more. You are entitled to have the advertised capacity (45Whr?) with a new computer. My last two computers have come with batteries where the actual capacity is more than design so there's clearly some allowance for variations.

The premature wear could also indicate a battery with a poor life expectancy which is another reason to push for a replacement. My X3B arrived with a battery with 3% wear and deteriorated quite quickly (I wasn't alone - it seems there was a bad batch). When it reached 30% wear I got it replaced under warranty.

John

 

Okay. Thanks for your advice.
I'm going to observe the battery wear for at least 1 or 2 months before going to samsung for repair.

 

Hey guys!

I am a proud owner of a NP530U3C - DE, the german version. I have been always happy with the ultrabook, but lately some severe problems have occurred.
I had my laptop in sleep and carried it home, and at home it had shut down. I tried to start it, but only the I/O LED would come on, but nothing else happened. It had been bricked the whole day. The next day, I got it to boot and was able to backup all my files.
Ever since, I can get it to boot, but usually it takes me two tries: the first time, It wont get past the samsung start screen, it wont start up windows 7. So I switch it off again and the next time it works. It always takes 5 seconds now before even the samsung screen will show up when starting. If i get passed it, it boots relatively normal. Some times, when workling with it, it radomly shuts off (usually after about 30 min of use). Other days, like right now, I can have it running for hours with no problems.
And It also won't shut down properly: If i try to shut it down normally, I can see the windows shut down screen and then the screen gets black, but the fan keeps spinning and the WIFI LED as well as the I/O LED are glowing, and it wont shut off. The only thing that helps is switching it off by holding down the power button.

Does anyone of you have clou what the porblem might be about? Where it might be located? I have the feeling that it is a hardware problem, that's why i did not reset it yet. Any ideas?
Any help is very welcome....I love this computer and I don't want to get a new one

Thanks,

Flo

 

Hi. I'd start by searching for a bios update for your laptop. If none available, set bios to factory settings or hit reset. If this doesn't work the issue is probably hdd or hw. If you're still under warranty, use it!

Good luck.

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