New Samsung Q330, Q430 and Q530 notebooks

McAfee AV is bundled in. i have used norton in the past. that takes over the computer in entirety. i have to search for a good antivirus now. I have heard Kasperesky is good.

 

Start with AVG free since you can get that installed now instead of McAfee at now cost while considering your options. I use ESET NOD32 because it does a competent job while being low on resources (see also the NBR review of AV software a month or two ago), but the 1 user cost is quite high (unless you are in the UK and grab this offer). If you can find a couple of friends who also want decent AV software then you can share a 3 seat x 3 year deal at a very reasonable price.

John

 

Glad you're happy with your purchase ijjub.

I experienced the same slow boot times upon first receiving the computer. However, as John suggests, once I uninstalled the McAfee software everything sped up significantly - didn't need to fiddle with the startup programs at all.

 

Sorry, didn't see the last two responses when I posted.

Not a major issue - as I'll probably get Comodo or similar - but my Windows Firewall has suddenly given up on me and I'm unable to turn it on again. Any ideas why this might happen?

 

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out as I've been looking all over the internet to no avail. I'm currently looking for a new laptop to use for DJ'ing running Traktor Scratch pro and therefore require low latencies for real time audio. I was hoping someone with the Q330 would be able to run a DPC latency check for me and post their findings?
DPC Latency Checker

Thanks in advance.

 

In case anyone is worried about a link posted by a newbie, I can confirm that I know about and have used that software. It would be interesting to know whether the Q330 keeps outside the red zone.

John

 

Thanks John, completely overlooked that fact!

If anyone has any laptops of a similar spec and price to the Q330 they could recommend, along with the DPC latency results that would also be brilliant.

 

Here is a sample latency plot which I've just done on my Dell E6410. Those big red spikes surprised me but went away when I shut down HWiNFO32.



John

 

This is what I currently have on my Dell Studio 1535, hence why I'm looking for a new laptop. Been trying to sort this out for weeks now and tried everything that's been posted in various forums across the internet without any luck.....

 

Did you see this thread about latency in the Dell Latitude forum. It identifies most of the usual causes.

John

 

Thanks John, hadn't found that thread so I'll give it a read. I've tried many things from similar threads, pretty much disabling all devices without any luck. I've already ran the windows performance toolkit in conjunction with dpc latency checker and found that the culprits are:
ndis.sys
ntkrnlpa.exe
dxgkrnl.sys

but haven't been able to find a solution.

 

Hi Mungers,

These are the results for my Q330 i5:



I dj with this laptop regularly and have no problems. (I use an external sound card, though).

Walter

 

That looks good.

John

 

Yep I agree John.

Thanks for the help Walter, much appreciated.

 

You're welcome

 

This shouldn't happen in HWiNFO32. Which version do you have and what had you open (summary or sensors) ?

 

I have rechecked (version 3.65-1065) and it is the sensors that causes the big spikes. Close that Window and the latency is fine. So the reading of the sensors causes big latency spikes.

John

 

Please post a screenshot of those sensors so I can check.
Also can you try to disable the values one by one to determine which reading causes it?

 

I will investigate and report back in the HWiNFO32 thread. We are getting off-topic here.

John

 

mcafee is gone forever. machine now works like a dream. able to use my nokia as a modem to connect to internet. i am pleased i opted for samsung.

thanks to all.

finally decided on kaspersky. seems to be good. not slowing down the system.

 

Kaspersky is great protection, but it most certainly does slow you down. To be perfectly honest, if you're running a 64-bit OS, you need little more than Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 and a competent web browser with updated plugins (Google Chrome).

 

Does anyone here with the Q330 find the HD cover has flex on the left side?
Thanks!

 

Just thought I would post my feedback on my Q330-JA03, I bought it as it was the best spec 13.3" laptop at the best price.

The good:

Screen: Sharp and bright, excellent!
Keyboard: Good feedback and minimal flex.
CD Drive: It's silent!

The bad:

Build quality: Not really what I expected for a machine at this price. Creaky plastics, flex on the bottom panels and on sides. I am not sure if I had too high expectations... but my cheaper netbooks are better made!
Touchpad buttons: Feel a little cheap but do the job.
Screen closure: No magnet or clasp

On the whole, this is my first Windows laptop (former Mac user) in a while and although I am glad I made the switch back. I did expect more from Samsung. I am still awaiting the part which I hope solves the flex and buldge on the bottom panel... but I am not sure anymore!

On the whole, it's fast, good screen, and portable. Just let down with some poor quality plastics! I think the Q430 with the aluminum is probably what I had expected!

Would I buy Samsung again - probably, but not after looking at other brands.

If you're looking for a Core i3-370m; good priced 13.3" laptop. Give it a look,
but the build isn't something to write home about. It's not terrible, but not up there with what I've seen on other brands. However, the next 13.3" comparable spec laptop was £130 more! (Toshiba)

 

If anyone is still looking for one of these in the US, Microsoft's online store has the Q430-JU01 on sale for $499+tax. I picked one up (about $550 with tax and expidited shipping). Don't know how long it's on sale for, though.

Samsung Q430 - Buy from Microsoft Store

 

I saw this and was thinking about buying it today. I haven't gone through this whole thread yet to see it people are happy with this or not.

 

tried to buy it too late - sold out!!!!

 

Bummer....I have been looking for this laptop. Never knew that MS had a store let alone sell Samsung product....maybe they will get some more in....they still have in listed on the site but just out of stock.

 

hi,
i have a samsung q430. do you know if exist a battery more powerfull for this notebook?
al least 5600 Mah?

 

i've searched for hours and couldn't find one.

 

What is the battery part number? Batteries tend to be shared between a number of models.

John

 

Anyone know if there is 9 cell battery for Q330?

 

Do both Q330 and Q430 contain full aluminum casing ? (Outer shell, keyboard frame, armrest ) ?

Is "QX410" a later version of the Q430 ? What's the difference ?

Thanks

 

My Q430-JU01 arrived yesterday and so far this is a awesome system! It has both the Intel HD and Nvidia 310 graphics. Is is possible to run ONLY NVIDIA or will it only switch to NVIDIA when needed? Maybe that is why the colors appear washed out.

The first full charge to a green light of the battery according to the indicator was going to last 1 hr 52 min. I actually got around 3 hrs. Then I charged the battery overnight and the indicator said upon boot 2hr 46 min. Then I rebooted about 20 min later and it said 1hr 56mo (91%). Then 5 minutes later it was 2hr 17min (90%). I made no changes why is this changing to show more battery life? What settings are people using to optimize the battery? Are you using the Samsung optimization? Is anyone using the battery life extender? Do you think that it really works?

So far the wireless has been working great and pulling in nice speedtest times.

The speakers sound incredible!

The trackpad and buttons are very responsive along with the track pad scrolling. I think that is the perfect size. The larger trackpad on the QX410 has a tendency to get in the way at times. So far I have not had to tweak those settings.

The island style keyboard is very smooth and fast response typing. There is no flex that I can see.

The sleep mode is very fast and wakes instantly.

I have removed Norton online backup, McAfee and many of the kids games. Best way to do this is run revo-uninstaller for a deep cleaning. I never trust the programmers uninstall.

I had to disable hardware acceleration to get youtube videos to play. I could hear the sound but there was no video.

The colors seem to be a little washed out but I have not tweaked the settings yet. Can anyone share what they did to improve the colors so they don't appear washed out?

More to come......

 

Window's estimation of remaining time is based on remaining battery capacity divided by the current power consumption. The latter depends on what the computer is doing. The CPU and HDD are quite busy when the computer boots / reboots but will then spend much of their time in lower power states.

Try using the Windows 7 calibrate command (Start > Run > calibrate). You probably need to tweak the gamma setting.

John

 

Thanks for the info. I typed calibrate and Win7 said "Windows cannot find 'calibrate.' Make sure you have typed the name correctly and then try again."

Can the Nvidia be used by itself all the time? How do you know when Intel HD is being used vs Nvidia?

Update: I found the color calibrate under the display area. Looks better now but still not as crisp as an Acer display. If I could only run NVIDIA that should help....not sure the Intel HD is the best option.

 

Then try Control Panel > Display and see if Calibrate color is listed. I thought it is a a standard feature of Windows 7 (which I assume you are running). The display drivers also usually include a gamma control.

John

 

Just went over Amazon's reviews for this laptop.
The main complaints were:

1. Screen quality - "one of the worst screens on the market"
2. Battery life of 90 minutes, 120 minutes tops, mild use. (if it's true this thing is useless)


I am really interested in buying this after not finding the QX version of this PC.
Can anyone bust the above claims ?

 

I can bust both of these:
1) After some tweaking using the color calibration for Win7 the display is much better than out of the box. I have seen several screens that were worse than this one by far. I am still trying to tweak it some more. It has both the Intel HD & Nvidia but I am still trying to figure out how to use just the Nvidia chipset for graphics. I cannot figure out which graphics are being used.

2) Battery life is much longer than 90 minutes for sure. I am getting between 3-3.5 hours and did not tweak the power settings.

 

That's more reasonable ! Thanks for clarifying !
Re the materials used for this machine. Is the entire keyboard plate also metal ?
Is there any flex to the lid or keyboard ?

I must say, if the entire upper part of this is aluminum, then similar notebooks from other brands cost over 1000$ .

 

You are welcome! I have been researching these for many months. My wife & I both have Samsung netbooks NC120's and they are very impressive with 7+ battery life. So I have been looking for a notebook replacement for quote some time as my current medion notebook was top of the line with a P4, Nvidia, 512MB, 40GB HD....this has been rock solid for seven years but I am maxed on memory. So I am trying the Q430 that I got for $599. Could not paying $799 for the QX410 model since the body was the size of a 15.6" screen but inside had a 14" screen.

I have the Q430-JUO1 model....there were 3 total models for the Q430. The cover is brushed black aluminum with no flex that I can tell. The keyboard is silver brushed aluminum and the track pad is aluminum as well as the 2 buttons.

 

anyone got a cooler for this? what do you recommend? a pic would be nice..thanks

 

I have taken Q430 laptop recently.It is working fine.I face some problem with battery placement.The battery is not tight in its place. Its slightly shaking. Is it a problem? One more thing,The USB port that can charge after shuting down is not charging even after it was switched on in startmenu. can any one help me.Thanks in advance.

 

I have this noise problem with my samsung q430 laptop, whenever I start watching a video, downloaded or streaming while ac plugged in, it plays fine but as soon as I unplug the ac while watching it, the video starts to lag/stops with this like bufferring(vibrating) noise. I'm guessing it has to do with power(battery) and graphics or something? anyone has similar problem? this is really annoying

situation 1: while plugged in -> open up youtube video -> play it (plays fine) -> unplug the power ac -> video lags and video's audio starts to make vibrating noise randomly -> plug the power back in -> noise stops

situation 2: unplugged (no ac connected to begin with) -> open up youtube video -> play it (then it plays fine) -> plug ac -> plays fine.

 

yes my battery is samething , i put a small piece of paper then solved problem
as far as USB Charging you have to turn it on, using software to turn it on, it called USB charger

 

It's most likely to do with Flash. Is your CPU or GPU slowing down when running on battery? (A program such as HWiNFO will show the CPU speed). Perhaps Flash checks the CPU speed before it starts playing the video and chooses an appropriate quality setting. If the CPU then slows down it doesn't switch to a slower setting.

Which web browser are you using? Firefox has an option to select whether to use hardware acceleration. You can try with this enabled and disabled.

John

 

where you guys find drivers for this laptop. samsung website doesnt have enought driver for window 7 64bit. my keybaord FUNCTION button like brightness and short cut doesnt work.

 

Here is a selection of 32/64 bit software (for Q430). Try installing the Easy Display Manager.

John

 

2 Questions:

I have the Q430-JU01US model. This came with the Atheros 9285 wireless card which has a tough time to pull 150MB/s from a router at 2.4GHz, 40MHz bandwidth and WPA2-PSK security. This is getting very frustrating that it will max at 65MB/s. Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this issue? If this was possible what make/model of router are you using?

Is it possible to replace the mini-PCI wireless card on this laptop? Has anyone over replaced this wireless card with an Intel 6300? Does anyone know how many antennas the Q430 has?
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I have had this laptop for about 8 months now. This has happened about 5 times now. As I touch the power button periodically to awake from sleep the screen will come on then a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) appears. It says Systems Service Exception with a stop code of 0x0000003b error. I cannot see the rest of the code has the whole laptop reboots. Is this a Q430 issue or a Win7 64bit issue? Has anyone had this happen? If so, what did you do to resolve it?

I have always really liked Samsung products. I have 2 N120 netbooks which have been solid as a rock. But I have been disappointed with the Q430.

 

The wifi card is normally easily accessible under a cover on the base or under the keyboard. It should be easy to change and take a look to see whether it has 2 or 3 antenna wires.

I never trust sleep. The error should also be recorded in the system log which you can inspect using event viewer. Graphics drivers are a frequent cause of problems. After checking that you have the latest BIOS and drivers you could refer the problem to Samsung support.

John

 

Thanks John for the info. Could you explain more why you do not trust sleep mode? The quick start from sleep was one of the cool features on this laptop. It saves from booting up everytime then logging into sites again. What do you recommend?

What log should I be looking in? There are several to choose from? I looked at the system log but what should I be looking for? There are a ton of entries here. I do not remember the exact date when this last occurred.

Thanks for your help!