New Samsung Series 7 NP700Z7C-S01US Laptop i7 3615QM 650m Review!

Great idea. I believe bluetooth and wifi are both on the same chip as well which interfering with each other. Bluetooth can be disabled somewhere in Easy Settings.

 

You definitely do NOT sound dumb! As namaiki said, Bluetooth and WiFi are on the same card, and both have radios.

If you use Win7 and disable Bluetooth in Easy Settings, it actually power downs the Bluetooth module completely (and you can keep this setting across reboots). When I used Win7, I also disabled Bluetooth AMP on the Advanced tab in WiFi Adapter Settings (double-click the WiFi adapter in Device Manager).

For those using Win8, it's a bit trickier: Here you have to use Charms - Settings - PC Settings - Wireless to disable Bluetooth. (And you MUST have Samsung's Bluetooth drivers installed for this feature to be there. I prefer Win8's slimmer built-in BT driver). But it doesn't actually power down the Bluetooth module, it merely disables it in Device Manager. The module is still powered on (otherwise Device Manager wouldn't see it). And this means the radio could still be on. You can still disable Bluetooth AMP in Adapter Settings.

There are several other things you can do to help WiFi on these Samsung laptops -- particularly relevant for models with Intel 6235 WiFi adapter, which is known to be troublesome. I've tried to summarize the most common in the thread linked below, but admittedly, I didn't include this Bluetooth advice -- which I probably should. So thank you for sharing it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/727499-wifi-remedies-samsung-laptops.html

 

Hahaha, thank you for that!!
I hope I helped someone out there.
And I better save that WiFi Remedies thread.

 

Hi all,

I'm probably posting in the wrong thread but I'll give it a go here. I have a Samsung 700Z7C. It was slow as a dog with the 1GB hard drive so I finally decided to upgrade it to a SSD. Everything went fine, tested it with the back cover off as soon as I installed it, as it is a real PITA to get the plastic bottom off of it. Installed windows, all of the drivers, and it was now the fast machine I wanted all along. But then after putting the cover back on, I restarted it and the screen remains black. The lights are on, fans start spinning, but the screen shows nothing.

Looks like I just bricked it and voided the warranty at the same time.

Anyone have any ideas of what might have gone wrong when I put the cover back on it? I haven't tried prying it all apart and looking for loose connections yet.

 

@DeepS6X: Yikes, sorry to hear about that. Hopefully it's just a connection problem and not a short on the mainboard.

I took the liberty of moving your post to this thread, which is the Owners Lounge for your model. I think you have a better chance of a response from other owners of this model here. If you don't get a response within 24 hours, you are welcome to try posting in a new thread -- or maybe even in the 2013 Series 7 / Ativ Book 8 Owners Lounge, which is very active.

Fingers crossed for you!

 

Thanks. I didn't know where to post it.

I watched Paul's video on upgrading the Z7C to a SSD, which was very helpful, but that back cover is still a B*tch to get off. Like I said, everything was working with the back cover off, I even tried the bluetooth kill suggestion above to improve the wifi performance, and it seemed to work for me as well. If it hadn't, I was going to try popping in the new intel 7260 802.11AC wireless card.

I wouldn't say killing bluetooth did wonders for the Z7C, but it did help a bit. Previously the best speeds I could get out of the computer were almost exactly half of what I could get out of every other computer and wifi device in my house. After killing bluetooth, it jumped to about 25% slower. Still bad, but no longer horrible.

Maybe I just squeezed something too hard trying to get the plastic clips to lock together again.

Powering it back on, the fans start spinning, the lights next to the power button light up, it is plugged in so it is charging, but it just hangs with a blank screen.

I'll pry her open again tomorrow and put the old mechanical hard drive back in and see if the problem is drive related. I doubt it though, as my M4 has been rock solid while half a dozen SSD's I've owned have all died.

 

Well it turns out that the problem was with the ram. Somehow snapping the case back together dislodged the clip on one side of it. Popped it back in and everything works again.

By the way, I believe in Paul's SSD upgrade video for the Samsung 700Z7C he implies that the other memory stick could be accessed from the back side of the mother board. Not true. It is soldered to the motherboard right under the replaceable one. I didn't try replacing the 4GB stick with an 8GB stick, but I've heard this will work on this laptop.

The SSD does make it even quieter. It is still a wee bit louder than my Zenbook though, but of course, with a GPU that is to be expected.

 

One last thing that I should add to the thread. It might help people learn from my mistake. If you are upgrading the Samsung 700Z7C hard drive to an SSD, when taking the back cover off, start prying it away in the monitor corner that doesn't have the VGA port, then work your way around popping the plastic clips. By the time you get to the VGA port, the cover will slide over it quite easily.

Cheers all!

 

Hi there

Firstly, thanks for the excellent thread. I have been lurking for a while and picked up some very useful information.

I installed an SSD as was highly recommended and have to say and I am delighted with the improvement.

Unfortunately I seem to have damaged the case slightly (wear and tear, not whilst installing the SSD).

The plastic on the front left corner has chipped away a bit, and the top left corner by the screen is slightly dented.

I want to replace the strip of plastic at the front that separates the top cover from the bottom cover and also the top cover itself. Does anyone know if these are available to buy (preferably in the UK) anywhere at a reasonable price?

thanks

 

Hello jmdon, welcome to NBR.

We normally refer to samsungparts.com for spare parts. Even if you do not purchase from there, you can use it to lookup the parts number, then Google that to locate suppliers closer to you and/or with better prices.

In this case I didn't actually check myself whether the parts you seek are listed on samsungparts.com.

 

Curious why you want to replace the top cover.


I'm about to finally replace my HD. I was thinking about upping the RAM to 12gb while I'm at it. Has anyone an opinion on this one? Would it work with this laptop? Suspiciously cheap...

 

There's nothing wrong with the price of the Kingston RAM. Crucial is even less expensive. Either should work.

However, if the BIOS on your notebook is less than 1 year old it might include a bug that has made the computer fussy about the RAM being used ( see here for example). The last BIOS for my NP900X4C killed support for the Crucial 1.35 / 1.5V modules I was using so the computer appeared dead. I put back the original RAM and it came back to life.

You might want to get the RAM from somewhere which claims compatibility with your Z7C so you can send it back if it doesn't work.

John

 

Thanks, John. Helpful as always. I read someone say that they didn't experience this issue with this stick. I might go with that one instead. Thanks for the heads up.

EDIT:

So I finally swapped the drive. A relatively painless process, except for the bottom plastic being so fragile. Everything seems to be flying with no issues. I have just a couple of questions that I hope someone might see and provide some tips on:

1) So far, the only issue/annoyance that I'm experiencing is that Bluetooth is always ON in Easy Settings. If I turn it off and restart, it goes back to on when i check easy settings. I have even disabled my bluetooth device in device manager and it still turns on by default in easy settings

2) I'm not entirely sure what happened to my 8GB of ISSD. I erased it during Windows installation and I did not install the ExpressCache software, basically completely ignoring its' existence. I expected it to appear as an extra drive but saw it as "unallocated" space in disk management so I just disabled it there. I don't need it but I hope I did the right thing.

3) I see that my RAM says 8GB (7.79 usable). Any reason why the usable RAM is slightly less? (I did not upgrade my ram yet, it's still 8GB). Oh and while I'm at it, when I was checking msconfig, I noticed that the "number of processors" is checked and shows 8. What?

 

bump (hope that's allowed).

 

1) Windows 7's "Easy Settings" program used to have an option to default Bluetooth to be turned off. Seems to have disappeared in Windows 8.
2) You could format initialize and format it if you want to use it. Similar to you I have just left it there doing nothing.
3) The usable memory may be less than the installed memory on Windows 7-based computers
The amount of CPU cores that Windows sees is double because of hyperthreading.

 

Oh wow! Just found this forum after purchasing this back in September 2012 in the UK (NP700Z7C-S01UK). I replaced the 1tb drive with a Samung 840 EVO 250gb SSD. I am having a small problem after starting Windows however. After about two minutes the whole thing will freeze and I cannot access internet. I have to disconnect from my connection and reconnect. After that and when it unfreezes I have no more trouble. It only started happening after installing the SSD and it only occurs at start up or when restarting from Hibernation, Sleep etc. Also when I select "Restart" it gets stuck at the screen with "Phoenix" over at the bottom right (it also lists what buttons to press for the BIOS and Recovery).

As I said it's not a major thing but it's starting to get repetitive. I don't think I ever updated the BIOS so perhaps it's something to do with that? By the way is there a kind of FAQ for this thread please? The same questions probably have been asked and answered repeatedly but I don't fancy reading all 212 pages!!

Thanks for any help guys!

 

Hi kooyonga, welcome to NBR.

Did you re-install Windows on the new SSD or did you clone it from the original HDD? Which Windows version? And did this model originally come pre-installed with Win8 or Win7 (Win8 models came out just when you bought this and have a completely different BIOS).

If you were re-installing Win7 on the SSD, I highly recommend you follow the steps in our Win7 install guide, which includes critical steps for changing from UEFI mode (used by WIn8 models) to legacy BIOS mode (used by Win7 models).

If you were re-installing Win8.1, you definitely need to update to the latest BIOS. In fact, I doubt you could have completed installing Win8.1 with that old BIOS. I would update that BIOS in any case. When you DO update your BIOS, make sure you follow the safe practice in our BIOS Update thread.

This is the Owners Lounge thread for the N7C model. While some Original Posters of such threads do an amazing job of keeping the Opening Post updated with frequently answered questions (such as this) it is a lot of work and rare.

The Samsung Forum Sticky list (at the top of the Samsung forum) contains some links to common questions. You can also use the Search Thread feature or Google searches such as site:notebookreview.com/samsung NP700Z7C SSD installation.

 

Hi there!! I forgot about this so sorry for the delay. To answer your questions I cloned the drive which had Windows 7 pre-installed. I did actually install a fresh pirated copy of Windows 7 on the new SSD before I figured out how to clone the existing drive and it was also having the same problem (freezing for about a minute or two a minute or two after booting!!).

I tried disabling AHCI but kept getting a BSOD after the Windows logo.....


SOLVED!!!!

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f108/solved-device-ide-iastor0-did-not-respond-within-the-timeout-period-634560.html

 

Thank you for the update. So disabling Link Power Management solved it for you? That's good to know if others should report similar problems. For those who don't want to edit their registry (as advised in that link) LPM can also be disabled under Advanced Settings for the Windows power plan. The High Performance plan has it disabled by default.

 

Thanks for those tips. Even though I put registry keys upto "Port4" it still caused another freeze for me today (and showed up in Event Viewer). So I added a "Port5" and went for the "High Performance" plan as you said. The fecking thing is unreal....it just keeps coming back at me!!! If I never see "iaStor" again it'll be too soon.

 

Hi all,

My laptop model: NP700Z5C-S01CA
SSD: Intel SSD 520 Series 120GB
RAM: 12GB

Note: Replacing ODD with HDD is not a good idea! your fans will be one all the time, the laptop will become very noisy!

I replaced the bottom case with this one:

NEW Original Samsung NP700Z5A NP700Z5B NP700Z5C Bottom Shell Bottom Case D Cover | eBay

I paid US $25.00

**********************************************

Does anyone know where I can buy a new set of screws?

 

I was given a Samsung NP700Z7C01US that seems to be completely dead. When the power pack is plugged in, no lights turn on at all on the laptop. I've tried removing the optical drive as well as hard disk. Still nothing and nothing happens when power button is pushed. Tried removing battery, still nothing. There is no physical damage and all seems well inside the laptop (even removed motherboard to check for problems). The power pack I was given is a replacement to the original (cat chewed the original power cord) This is the power adapter I was given: http://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Laptop-Charger-Samsung-Chronos/dp/B007COEPO4

Is there anything else I can try troubleshooting-wise? I'm assuming there *should* be some led that light up on the laptop when its plugged in? Should this laptop run even if the battery was completely dead or even removed? The laptop had no issues before it would no longer turn on. Tks

 

When it's plugged in, the battery charge light is turned on. Can't remember if it's orange or blue. When the laptop is turned on the power button glows red.

 

Tks for the reply namaiki! Any idea if the laptop should still work if say the battery is completely dead (dead as in will no longer charge) or if battery is removed? I was told battery life had become extremely short before the laptop stopped working altogether.

 

Sorry, I haven't tried removing the battery.

 

Took me a while to figure out, but it seems that my laptop's USB 3.0 ports get routed to USB2.0 speed after I put my NP700z7C into Hibernation on Windows 8.1... I can't recall if this used to happen when I was still using Windows 7.

 

Check if for any driver or firmware update for the USB 3.0 Host Controller. You will need to identify the chip. SiSoftware Sandra should be able to do this and a site such as station-drivers.com is likely to be more up-to-date than the Samsung downloads.

John

 

Thanks. I downloaded Sandra and had a look.

The USB 3.0 chipset is an Intel chipset. There probably isn't any standalone firmware update available and I have the latest BIOS installed.

Windows 8 uses a standard built in USB 3.0 driver. In Windows 7 I had to install an Intel specific one so I wonder if there are some differences there. Still, the Windows 7 driver can't be installed on Windows 8 and Intel recommends using the Windows 8 built-in driver.

Not a big issue though. I can finally use my USB 3.0 devices at 3.0 speed consistently again! Windows 8 does have hibernation hidden by default so there might be a reason for that too.

 

I take that back. My USB 3.0 is borked again. It really is a mystery... Might try reinstall Windows 7 again when my new SSD arrives in the mail.

 

@namaiki: I've had some issues with USB3 in Win8, but they all went away in 8.1. I've had other issues in 8.1, but not with USB3.

My Sammy has ASMedia USB3 controller, not Intel, so that's different from yours. Win7 used Samsung-provided USB3 drivers, but Win8 and 8.1 use built-in ones.

 

Just tried updating my Intel Bluetooth drivers since they are connected to the same USB hub or port. Hopefully that will do it...

 

Am I correct that there is another RAM slot on the motherboard? I have the 8GB RAM that is in the underside slot but was curious about adding another 4GB to the second slot (4GB is quite cheap these days). I already had my Chronos opened up before to put in a SSD. I found it a painful experience to be honest.

I did read through this entire thread last year and I seem to remember some people saying it was a pointless upgrade....can't be sure though. The forum could do with having a "search thread" option!!! I'm not reading through 200 pages twice.

 

I checked some pictures of the motherboard on Google Images. The other side of the board has the RAM chips soldered. Not removable or upgradable.

 

Hi couldn't find this info yet..

Do somebody know where is the BIOS chip located in this laptop?

I need to extract it to re flash it.

Thanks!

 

Does anyone have any trouble with their Wifi? I had Linux Mint installed for a long time and had no trouble. Changed back to Windows 10 two weeks ago and the wifi connection keeps dropping. I know it's not my router because everything else is fine. The Chronos keeps losing connection or changing to "Limited" (which basically is the same thing).

I then remembered it was a little quirky back when Windows 7 was on it when I first got it. The only thing I can think of is that it could be a driver problem? Correct? I mean it worked fine in Linux Mint so surely that's the only difference?

 

Are you gaming?

 

Nope

 

I cam here for a recommendation. Since I own this laptop, does anybody know of any other (modern) laptop that is similar to this one. I just need an upgrade in GPU. Looking mostly for good gpu, screen and sound quality.

 

Any idea why this laptop would not boot off of a Samsung 850 Evo SSD? Boots fine to my usb drive and installs windows just fine, but when I remove the usb drive it just goes to a boot menu and wont boot off of the ssd

 

How did you install Windows on the 850 EVO? This notebook has ExpressCache which can confuse the Windows installer resulting in the boot files being installed on the non-bootable ExpressCache. See this guide about how to work around the problem.

John

 

Thanks!! I will be trying that guide later this evening.

 

That worked perfectly. Thank you so much.

 

hi all, I have had the charging-not charging issue for about 2 years. As soon as I let it go below 92% battery, I had to switch everything off so it goes back to 100% and stay at this charging level. I have read every information possible on the internet and the only convincing solution i came accross was about getting a 120w AC adapter that would replace the weak original one.
I went for a 90w Lavolta, and after a full test, it seems the problem is solved and is indeed about the power unit not the battery, not the power socket, nor the power cable that needed to be twisted, plugged in deeper or whatever.
I have been able to game at full power for a few hours, the green "fully charged" led never flicked. The Lavolta AC costs about 30$.
I hope it will help

I also had the OEM HDD failing, replaced by a samsung SSD, its a new laptop now, incredibly better!

 

Thanks for this interesting report. If your original, Samsung, PSU was rated at 90W as is your Lavolta PSU then I have to wonder whether the Samsung PSU hasn't been delivering the design 90W. Perhaps it has spent too long running close to the limit and something has got tired. Once the system realises that the PSU isn't good for 90W then it starts to draw on the battery and perhaps there is a hidden rule about not draining the battery below 92%.

John

 

I am not sure about any rule, 92%, 89%, it could have been pretty random. As soon as the battery would go down a bit, the PSU could not either provide power more than intermitently to the laptop, let alone charge the battery. The only solution was to switch it off so that it would charge back eventually to 100%.

Now it seems to be working much better, I can game and the laptop stays charged at 100%, so I believe the oem PSU was just tired, 4 years of super intensive use in a hot climate.. it is just the age of it, although it started havins issues early in the third year.

All in all, I had to replace the screen, the HDD, and the PSU, as well as a repaste. In 4 years of 18h/day use, its not thaaat bad.