NP700Z5B-S01UB refuses to finish booting

I recently picked up a Samsung NP700Z5B-S01UB that was abandoned after the owner couldn't get it to boot into Windows reliably. Sometimes it would take 4 or 5 tries before it would load up and eventually got to the point where it wouldn't do that anymore. I suspected corruption, so when I got into Windows out of pure luck I ran an SFC check and a disk check and the regular HDD came back fine. At this point I decided to go into Samsung Recovery 5 (SR5) and see what my options were. After looking around, I thought the most logical thing to do was a complete system backup before anything else. Surely this was the way to go like HP and Dell do theirs, right? Apparently I missed something or it just isn't panning out because it just won't let me restore from the backup I made.

Here's what i've tried:

1. Made a complete backup to an external HDD using SR5. It created a bunch of user1.w files, 1 through 55, a .wcl file, and a .woo file. I tried renaming these to "init" while leaving the extensions intact to try and restore it that way, and it won't do it because it's on the root of an external HDD. These files are close to 300GB, so no way it's going to fit on the 8GB SSD, and I don't have a flash drive that big either. Did I miss a step, was I supposed to turn these into an ISO somehow that's in a manageable size? Selecting the restore option in SR5 looks for a recovery point, which just isn't there, so that's useless to me. There has to be some way to use this complete backup.
2. Since the backup option failed, I went with the nuclear option of upgrading to Windows 10 and doing a clean install. Unknown to me, this destroyed my recovery partition on the 8GB iSSD even though I was installing on the other disk. Windows 10 actually installed fine, booted right away, and worked. I thought I was in good shape, until it started detecting drivers and automatically installing them. Drivers installed successfully, everything was usable, no problems, until I restarted. As soon as I restarted, I ran into the same problem before that Windows 7 had. POST successfully, a quick message saying preparing Windows, and then blank screen. Keyboard's lit, monitor's lit, no HDD activity light. Restarted laptop, POST finishes, goes to blank screen.
3. I got another 2.5 drive of similar size in known good working condition, installed Windows 10 on it on another PC. Didn't feel like taking laptop apart to insert the HDD, so I set it up as an external connected via USB and booted up. Windows loaded successfully without issue, automatically installed drivers, and BAM, unusable again after restart. Just that annoying blank screen.

Here's the current state of things:

• I recreated the recovery partition using the USB Admin tool and F4 works to get into SR5.
• BIOS is accessible without any issue, running firmware version 15.
• I have no initial image thanks to the Windows 10 install. Attempts to use Complete System Backup made in SR5 don't work (or i'm trying to do it in the wrong place?) when using the SR5 tool.
• Renaming my backup to init makes it recognizable, but it wants to be on a flash drive and is too big for the max recovery partition size of 50GB.
• Windows boots and works without any issue until automatic driver install. I suspect this is what happened with Windows 7 as well.

I am hoping that it is a firmware and driver combo issue that may have been resolved with a firmware update that I don't have on the laptop, but I can't find the firmware on Samsung's website. Dell and HP make it so easy that i've been spoiled, and Samsung reps haven't been helpful.

Here are my questions:

1. Where can I find the latest firmware? BIOSUpdate tool can be found here (courtesy of John Ratsey). If it can only be downloaded via Samsung's FW updater, what is the name of that software? BIOSUpdate.exe, or is alternatively named "Update Software" on Samsung's site, if found.
2. How do you properly use the Complete System Backup created by SR5 when the total size is so large? This is my fallback plan if Win10 is just incompatible.
3. What Samsung branded software is typically included in order to enable all of the features of this laptop?

Edits for clarity as well as solutions as they are found in order to help others.

 

I won't try to diagnose your problem but see here for a link to Samsung's BIOS Update program. There's also discussion somewhere about how to track down other versions of the BIOS - there's a wealth of knowledge in the sticky list (look above this thread in the forum).

You can also find all the official Samsung drivers / software (but not the BIOS) for your notebook using Samsung's SW Update which you can run on any computer. Use the find model function to get the files for your notebook.

John

 

Thanks for the link, John. I'm going to verify what revision I currently have and will try to update it.

Any thoughts on the SR5 complete backup situation? If Windows 10 still isn't compatible for this model right now then i'd love to get going on Windows 7 again using that backup. Is it one of those situations where you have to use the SR5 software in the Windows OS environment in order to use that type of backup that it created?

 

I don't know the finer details of SRS but you need SRS 6 for Windows 10. However, before you try changing anything you should make a complete external backup.

John

 

Thanks for the tip regarding SRS5 and Win10 compatibility. I hate to clutter the forums with multiple threads for each topic, but do you recommend that I make a separate topic for the SRS questions as they relate to this issue or is it fine as is?

 

Carry on here now you have started. The thread title can, if necessary, be edited to reflect the evolving theme.

John

 

With win7 when you boot, can you F8 and then boot to good previous hardware configuration?

 

That used to work occasionally before I got fed up with it and tried the Win10 fresh install, but never reliably. Last night I dedicated some more time and attention into this and made a few new discoveries, some of which are giving me hope, and others, not so much.

1. BIOS is current, regrettably, at revision 15FD. I reset all settings to default as a precaution.
2. Reloaded Windows 7, installed the Software Updater from Samsung immediately and began installing drivers such as the USB 3.0 controller, a Samsung Link update, a patch, and all the recommended items it found. Everything installed in the predetermined order that it had, and it saved the video driver install for last on a separate restart. Everything was fine after the first restart on the initial round of driver updates, and it immediately starting to download and install the Nvidia video driver update. After successfully installing the video driver and restarting, the OS went back to it's old ways and reverted to a backlit screen again after POST, rendering the install useless. Apparently none of these updates created a restore point, so I couldn't revert and try again without a lot of work.
3. Deleted all partitions, installed Windows 10 Pro build 1607. Everything installed, no unknown devices in device manager. Given the issue that I came across with Windows 7, I immediately removed the automatically installed video driver for the Intel HD graphics (showed up as Intel HD 3000 in device manager). The AMD graphics card showed up and automatically installed as an AMD Radeon HD K7400M, which was bizarre to me since I was expecting another model (Radeon HD 6490M), so I disabled it, and restarted. It worked, I came back to the desktop, no issues. Driver for Intel HD graphics reinstalled itself, so I kept uninstalling it, forcing it to use the generic driver. I did this several times after installing programs, doing Windows Updates, and created restore points along the way, and it continued to work. In order to save time, I started to look for ways to keep the driver from reinstalling itself automatically in Windows 10 but hadn't had any luck. I imagine it's probably a group policy now instead of something simple like it used to be when it was under System Properties/Hardware in Windows 7. One of my attempts to keep the driver from automatically installing hosed the OS and all the restore points I created are useless since they generate an error about AppXStaging so i'm back to doing another Windows 10 fresh install.

 

Another update.

After playing around with this, i've isolated this issue to the AMD Radeon HD 6490M drivers that are autoinstalled and improperly recognized. Samsung stopped adding new drivers after a certain point for this model via SamsungUpdate, and the ones that the did have on there for Windows 7 cause this problem as well. My recommendation for those of you doing new installs for this particular model is to immediately disable the AMD card upon successful entry into Windows, whether it is Win7 or Win10 (currently build 1607) until a stable driver is found. This seems to be an issue that many are having with this generation that use AMD cards as evidenced by research that i've done on other sites as well as a similar problem indicated here by sparkle999. I'm going to try a Leshcat Catalyst driver and will report back if it works in Win10 to resolve this issue.

After that, i'll be testing out versions of SamsungSettings to get F keys working as well as brightness for the monitor and keyboard backlight, and potentially the ExpressCache. I found information here from Dannemand about getting 2.0.0.89 to work with Win8x, but the post is dated, it won't let me reply to it, and I don't see a way to PM him. As of today's posting, the model listed to find this software shows up in the list but says there are no downloads available. I did find it again under model NP930X5J-S01US though and will be trying that.

 

@Camelonian: I've been away from the forum the last week and not following this thread. But I was pinged by a fellow moderator and will throw in a few quick pointers.

I still run Win8.1 on my NP700Z3A, which is the same generation as your NP700Z5B, and very similar except it's a 14 inch screen. It's even the same AMD 6490M and same BIOS version (15FD being the latest). I assume NP700Z5B is indeed your model, as described in the OP, although the thread title says NP700Z5C.

I still use Settings 2.0.0.89, as it has support for Battery Life Extender and ExpressCache, which are not supported in Settings versions newer than 2.1. But to be honest, I haven't tested any newer versions in a long time.

I did a test installation of Win10 last summer to lock in my free upgrade, and I managed to get everything working -- except ExpressCache, which I postponed till I would actually need it. I reported my findings in this post. Getting ExpressCache working on Win10 is described in this post.

The Settings thread you link was automatically locked after having been dormant for a long time. We can re-open it if you want to post there, but I may not have time to provide much input the next several weeks.

Regarding SRS5, I would only bother with that if you are trying to get the laptop back to factory state with Win7. As John pointed out, SRS6 is needed for Win10, as discussed in member @Gulfmaster's excellent thread here.

I hope this is of some help...

 

Thanks for the reply! I saw it last week and have been continuing to make some progress. You are correct about the title, this is a NP700Z5B-S01UB but I don't see how to edit my mistake. Could a moderator assist me? As far as the Settings software thread goes, I was going to just update some info there regarding where to obtain that same version of settings since the model you had mentioned was no longer available for selecting downloads to keep people from poking around at random.

• I installed Settings 2.0.0.89 and and I am able to change a number of things, including brightness and backlighting. However, I don't see ExpressCache as showing up. I'm not sure if that is by design or if there's a misconfiguration.
• I installed ExpressCache by formatting the iSSD and deleting the partitions. After that was done, I located and installed the Lenovo 1.3.118 software for Windows 10 (found here). It installed without any issue, restarted the PC, and automatically formatted and configured the drive. I restarted a second time and it was noticeably faster and I was able to use ECC commands on it.
• I abandoned SR5, the backup I had, and Windows 7, given how promising Windows 10 was looking. I will need to capture a new Windows 10 for use as an initial image once I get the AMD issue worked out as well as install a newer version of SR.
• My biggest issue that remains and keeps this from being a success is this AMD card. I have isolated it completely to the card and have a strong suspicion that the FeatureTestControl values for Intel and/or IntelKMD that are installed by default are wrong, even with the Leshcat drivers. I've used DDU in safe mode to remove any and all traces of both the Intel and AMD drivers as well as deleted the C:\AMD folder to ensure that it's all gone. Upon restarting, both were set up as Generic Display Adapters and I was able to install the AMD Leshcat driver successfully as well as the Intel driver (after restarting from the AMD install). It's important to note that despite the AMD card actually being a Radeon HD6490M, that Windows 10 actually renames a lot of these "legacy" VGA cards to K7400M, so having the wrong name isn't so concerning anymore. At this point, the right resolution options were available, I was able to use HDMI to hook up to another monitor, and things were looking great. It's as soon as I restart from that point is where it goes back to the black screen of death that is so common. If I disable the AMD adapter then it works again, but then the Intel adapter doesn't work with it's drivers anymore either and loads up a generic driver.

I'm going to continue playing around with different FTC values to see where the sweet spot is that stops this black screen of death and will let everyone know as well as create a guide for this model for those that need it.

 

Thank you for the update. And well done with the progress you are describing.

I changed the thread title, thanks for confirming your model number.

ExpressCache does show up in my Settings 2.0.0.89. The fact that it doesn't in your case, makes me wonder if EC is running correctly. What does ECCmd -INFO show? Did you copy the EC.LMF file from your Samsung version of EC after installing the Lenovo version? (as described here)

And it sounds like you are on the right track with SRS and know what you are doing!

Regarding the AMD 6490M: On my Win8.1 I am using driver version 13.251.9001 from Windows Update, which also displays the card as 7400M. In fact, all non-Samsung provided drivers I have tried does that. My driver is from 2014, but everything works, and I have no desire to mess with that!

I am almost (but not completely) sure that when I did my test Win10 installation, I also used a Windows Update provided AMD driver. But something tells me I had an issue of some kind, I just cannot remember. I wish I could be more specific

I assume WIn10 is able to use Win8.1 drivers, so if all fails, I guess we could extract the driver installation file from Win8.1. A lot of work, though. Leshcat is probably be the better way to go...

Please continue to keep us posted with your findings. I'll add this thread to my list, since it covers all of the Sandy Bridge Series 7 models.

 

I've been pretty busy the past few weeks and hadn't been able to play around with this much, but got a chance to this week. Starting to lean towards the GPU possibly being burned out. Resolutions work and everything else seems okay with the Intel card, all the FTC values i've tried don't seem to matter, and ULPS is off so I know it isn't that. May try reheating the AMD GPU to see if that corrects the problem.

Will post some screenshots of ECCmd -info here in a bit, I think it is working.

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the admin tool for SRS7? I may end up just using 6, but would like to create a guide and use 7 if it's available.

 

A belated thank you for the update.

I do not recall discussion of SRS7 in here. You could check the link in this post and see if it has been updated with SRS7. Or send member @dosibox a private message about it.

 

I found a post last week about a couple methods to try that basically involves grabbing the .wim image from the SRS 7.3 recovery download and placing it on a bootable USB flash drive. This is all done successfully but I run into problems when I go to create the admin tool. It allows you to create the tool but forces the tool creation destination to the same USB that's being used to run SRS without any option to select a different one, which is so unnecessarily restrictive and frustrating.

I was going to try loading the environment on the hard drive itself, make it bootable, and then try the tool but haven't gotten to do that just yet. Found another post here that details a similar process that may work as well, so it'll be another avenue to try. Will try PMing dosibox first though per your suggestion ( thank you) just to save time if there's an admin tool iso handy.

Oh! It looks like my media that I uploaded was approved, so i've got those ExpressCache images here for your review.

SamsungSettings by Camelonian posted May 10, 2017 at 12:35 PM

ECCmd Info by Camelonian posted May 10, 2017 at 12:33 PM

 

I see you found member @Gulfmaster's excellent SRS thread, which has become our new go-to resource on SRS. I am falling behind on SRS matters myself, and had not even noticed the SRS7 discussions in there

From your screenshots I'd say it looks like ExpressCache is working and doing what it is supposed to. But I am still surprised that your Samsung Settings doesn't show it: Again, I have a Boot Management tab with an ExpressCache toggle (see below). That's with Settings 2.0.0.89 (found in SW Update under model NP930X5J, Win7 drivers, inside the Easy Settings 2.0.0.89 package) and ExpressCache 1.0.0.98 (found in SW Update under model NP540U4E, Win8 drivers).



(BTW, I find that the easiest way to include images in a post is using the Upload a file button underneath the text entry box. But it only works when writing a new post, not when editing a post.)

 

Personally I never used SR5 or others. I just used the default windows backup and restore.

 

I may try reinstalling ExCache again once I get SR working, and thanks for the tips on image uploads. Win10 backup and restore works well, just trying to experiment some with the SRS software to see what's new.

 

I finally installed Win10 (Creators Update) on my Samsung NP700Z3A last week. I haven't used it much since, but I managed to get everything working.

As described here, I installed ExpressCache 1.3.110 and copied EC.LMF from my previous Win8.1 ExpressCache folder to the new ExpressCache folder. That works fine and speeds up my disk quite a bit, as usual.

I continue to use Samsung Settings version 2.0.0.89, which (as described here) is the latest I can find that still supports BLE and EC. Everything seems to work (Fn-keys, keyboard backlight, power plans, Silent Mode, sleep/resume etc). I DON'T get an ExpressCache tab in Settings, which I attribute to the non-Samsung EC version. It is only rarely I need to disable it anyway. I DO get a BLE tab, which I used frequently when I want to charge to 100% instead of 80%. (BLE can always be changed in BIOS, but it is more convenient in Settings.)

My only problem was Windows Update insisting on installing an AMD driver that causes a long delay during boot and whenever an app enumerates the device tree. I finally installed Leshcat's combo driver, which works, and so far has stopped Windows Update from messing with it.

Other than those, all drivers were installed automatically during Windows Setup, and a few subsequently by Windows Update. Needless to say, I did NOT connect to WiFi during Setup, to prevent Windows Update from running until after I had installed the Leshcat AMD driver.

The hoops we have to go through to keep our computers running DESPITE Microsoft's attempts to mess them up

 

My amd gpu is burnt for sure and I wonder if anyone knows how to physically disconnect this garbage. I have installed the latest version of windows 10 (1709) and everything is perfect but do not even consider installing the amd trash drivers. For this I disable windows update and for this reason I would like to remove the chip. Thank you.It seems that turning off a coil voltage regulator near the gpu does disconnect the chip, can anyone help?