Q310 windows 7 64bit

Just got Windows 7 for my Q310. The 64x installation failed for me during the "Completing installation" phase with the helpful "The computer restarted unexpectedly" error.

You *can* install Windows 7 64x on a Q310, but you have to disable Native AHCI first in the BIOS. F2 on startup -> Advanced -> AHCI Mode Control = Manual -> Native AHCI Mode = Off.

Basically if Native AHCI is on, Windows 7 64x won't startup. Presumably turning it off impacts performance/features in some horrible way but I'm not too up on this...

From reading this thread it sounds like a simple BIOS update would resolve this serious issue.

Samsung: Everyone who buys Windows 7 for a machine with >3Gb of memory will expect 64x to work. PULL YOUR FINGER OUT!!

 

Quick update: I installed the latest Windows 7 64x nVidia drivers and the machine then refused to startup. Rather than back out I decided to give up and install Windows 7 32x as there are clearly issues that need sorting with 64x on the q310...

 

hey guys,

i am about to do a reinstall. So i was going to go with a dual boot of win 7(x32 as i understand 64bit won't work..yet!) and win xp(32bit or 64bit??? are there any problems with xp 64bit).

Anyway i am wondering if the samsung software will work on 32bit win7...i use the FN keys a lot! and have seen a few people having a few problems with these specficially!

Thanks

Ian

 

Couldn't we send this to some watchdog thing, like, say, in a computer magazine? Selling a machien with 4gb memory and a 64-bit processor, but with a faulty bios that stops 64 bit OSs from working and refusing to fix it even though they fixed the same problem in another bio, seems at least a bit dodgy.

 

Yeah I suppose we could, but which computer magazine would you recommend?

 

I dunno, Computer Shopper/PC Pro? That the most popular British ones I can think of. Maybe we should email them again, saying that it's not fit for purpose under the Sale of Goods act ( http://whatconsumer.co.uk/the-sale-of-goods-act/). I dunno how many of you are from Britain though...

 

The Sale of Goods act applies only between seller and purchaser, so if you didnt buy it from samsung you cant rely on it.

But following from that point, Samsung supply the Q310 with a 32 bit operating system, they provide/support drivers/software for 32 bit only.

When you bought the Q310 there is a common intention between youself and the seller that it will be used as it is.

By removing the 32 bit operating system, you have modified the product and changed the manufacturers spec.

You are therefore not using the product as it was intended and cannot rely on the fitness for purpose argument.

 

On the other hand, they advertise it as having 4gb of RAM, but don't support any OS that can use the 4gb of RAM. That sounds like something you could use on them.

 

I just want them to explain why they updated every other laptop released in the last year, and singled out the q310 as the one they ignore.

 

Hi everyone,

Been reading this thread from the beginning today with interest. I think the Q310 is a great laptop but very suprised that it will not take a 64bit OS.

Will be contacting Samsung today, not sure it will make any difference, but the more people that do it...... they might do something!!

Hope this gets fixed

 

Hi Everyone,

I have been reading this thread with great interest as I own a Q310.

I had problems installing Windows 7 64bit. (random restart on first boot)

So following nathandolan79's advice I turned off AHCI in BIOS than removed one of the RAM leaving only 2Gb in. I also tested both memory and found a hardware fault on one so removed that one. The other stick is ok.
I successfully installed Windows 7 and updated all drivers. Also successfully installed nvidia 64 bit drivers. Testing it since a day now the system seems stable, performace is good.

I haven't tried making the hotkeys work yet. I haven't tried puting another 2GB memory in yet. (obviously not the faulty one) I haven't tried turning AHCI back on. I will post an update once I tried these.

Oh and I also wrote to Samsung asking for a BIOS update.

 

I came across this forum by chance whilst looking for 64bit WLan driver update for my Q310.

I had previously downgraded Vista to XP, and my x64 Windows 7 upgrade disk refused to run inside XP or as a boot disk. The solution I had to do was install 64bit Vista then run the upgrade within Vista. After installation I forced AHCI on from the BIOS (becuase I wasn't sure if it was detecting 7 as Vista or not), and it works still.

Everything seemed fine except for the graphics which is detected as standard VGA. Whilst nearly none of the drivers from Samsung website works except for the camera and HDMI sound output, the driver from nvidia themselves seems to work, I'm getting experience index 4.2 for Aero.

The driver I got was version 186.61 (win 7 x64).

I haven't tried any of samsung's software yet, so none of the fn key features work but they're not a deal-breaker for me anyway, but I'll keep you updated.

Wireless works fine despite me wanting an update on the driver, what prompted me was device manager has it as Intel Wifi Link 5100 which sounded a bit generic to me. Like I said the webcam driver works (used the Vista one), and lastly the sound is detected as a generic "High Definition Audio Device" so I may just snoop around to see if there's a more specific driver around.

Happy Q310 voyage!

UPDATE: Bah like other people I went into infinite loop of restart on startup, went into safe mode and uninstalled the nvidia drivers and things are back to square one. It seems more of a nvidia driver problem than Samsung maybe?

 

Adding to my previous post I did a clean instal...

@timothy: I am using the same nvidia drivers happily since 2 days so I doupt it is that. How much ram do you have in your laptop?

For me:
From Fn keys sleep, mute works the rest not yet.

In my case sound card updated through windows update by selecting the newer driver from optional updates. Same goes for wireless.

 

Its 4GB, and I understand there seems to be a memory mapping problem.

However I find it strange that the restart issue only kicks in when I install the driver and returns to normal when I uninstall it.

Has anyone tried applying the Q320 bios to Q310?

Edit: Actually yep, took out 2gb this morning and it worked even with the driver installed. Now working backwards, it could be because the correct driver topples the machine's working memory threshold with the extra video memory? Arg!! £700 quid for an inferior product!

I'm also in contact with Samsung, probably not any kind of outcome I'm hoping for. Sad thing is even if I was prepared to go back in the market for another laptop, there's simply nothing much that can beat the spec of Q310 anyway.

 

Have you checked the BIOS for any graphics memory options? If so, try changing the settings then retry with 4GB.

John

 

There is no video card option in the bios...

I can confirm that turning AHCI back after install will break the system on the windows loading screen (ie.: result in bluescreen)

I will try putting back the 2GB of memory next.

@timothy: what stage does it breaks? during restart or in windows? have you done a memory test?

EDIT: turning AHCI off again will prevent the error. Reinstalling the OS is not necessary.

 

If any one can stomach it any X64 operating system will work with either one of the 2gb sticks removed. I have purchased a 1gb stick from pcworld for £10 to drop the memory to 3gb and this works fine with windows 7 x64 + all the extra X64 samsung software will work as well as well as several linux distros including ubuntu, fedora and opensolaris.

 

The BSOD comes because Windows doesn't automatically install all the different HDD drivers.

You may find some useful guidance in this thread on changing the HDD access mode.

John

 

It breaks during the windows loading icon (with the windows animation), it basically just reboots itself. Doing F8 to safemode works I guess because it doesn't map the video memory without the driver.

I've given up on x64bit for now and dropped back to x32. I used the magic keyboard software for q310 and it didn't do much other than mute and something else. So I gave the Q320 magic keyboard software a go and voila everything works. So you guys might want to give Q320 softwares a go.
Q320's magic display also works wonderfully.

 

Thanks John! Looks promissing. I will try this on Sunday as I need my laptop tomorrow and wouldn't want to break it If this works the only issue is the memory...

Samsung just updated the drivers on the website the day before yesterday. Did anyone try those? I hope they will update the BIOS as well...

 

standard reply from Samsung, as per previous posts

"With regard to your notebook and the recent issue you have experienced, we have recently received confirmation that there are no plans to offer 64 Bit support for thismodel. This means that it is unlikely that a firmware upgrade will be released to enable 64 Bit support for units running in excess of 2GB of RAM. If you are at all unhappy with this information we would suggest that you address your concerns in writing to -

Samsung Electronics Customer Service
PO Box 17243
Edinburgh
EH11 4YB"

Guess a letter off to Customer Services is next, no email address given. I find it hard to believe that they are not supporting this model, its not that old! and other models have been given the necessary upgrade!

 

Q310 Window 7 64-bit drivers are on the samsung support website!

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...0UK/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=support

finally

I am looking forward to the BIOS update

 

let's hope so, fingers crossed!

 

John, I tried this, and it still doesn't work. After registry modification it still blue screens on boot.

Anyone managed to install Intel Matrix storage?

EDIT:
Correction it does work but AHCI should be auto and not manually forced.
And you only need to do this correction: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Now everything works apart from RAM over 3GB

 

New BIOS is downloadable from the samsung support site.
I am going to try it now

EDIT:

Right, don't bother, it doesn't improve anything, also Samsung took down the 64 bit drivers from the website which they had on earlier on this week.

Arrrrrg!

 

Well done Samsung, well done!

This officially sucks, why the hell would they release a new BIOS that seemingly fixes nothing, and doesn't add 64bit support, even though many users have been asking for it!

 

I can't even get that BIOS update to run. The installer thinks my current BIOS is higher than the one that's just been released. Weird, but not surprising!

I've sent a letter so Samsung Customer Service this week so I await their reply to see how they justify all of this.

 

i just managed to get q210 to work with windows 7 x64 (4gb), samsung has released a new bios update. Everything works fine including the graphic drivers.

 

The q210 has been able to work with 64bit os like Windows 7/Linux , before the new bios update. This is of course cold comfort for those poor souls having the q310.

 

Hi guys!

I found a "workaround".

You want to run 64-bit but don't want to remove a memory module? read on

1) Install Windows 7 64-bit (clean install) or if you have it installed go to step 2

2) start "msconfig" (just type it in quicksearch)

3) select "Boot" tab and click "Advanced options..."

4) tick the box for "Maximum memory" and type in 3584 (leave it as 2048 if you had Windows 7 64 bit installed with one memory module removed)

5) restart (put in 2nd memory module if you had it removed)

6) install nvidia drivers from the nvidia website (if you just put in the second memory modul repeat steps 2-4 so change max memory to 3584)

This won't give you the full 4Gb of memory but it will give you more than 3Gb of memory in theory and saves you having to remove one of the modules, so you can run 64-bit just as happily as 32-bit.

I kind of like 64-bit so I really hope Samsung will release a working BIOS... In the meantime I am running it on 3GB of memory...

EDIT:

in msconfig/boot you can go as high as 4095 although in control panel it will say usable memory 2.99GB. note that if you write in 4Gb i.e. 4096 click ok than click on Advanced options again the max memory resets to 0... This must mean something

 

there is a new samsung bios... 3rd of Dec. did anyone give it a go?

 

Tried it and got an error message saying the current system Bios is newer then the update. Looks like they put a wrong/old bios file on the website.

 

It still say 10SU... so the version is the same... than why are they changing it? I can't try it because i am running 64-bit and it gives me a driver error....

 

There might be new stuff in the Bios file but they might have forgotten to update the version info. Somebody with an older bios, say 07, might have a different experience.

 

Just checked the byte size of the latest file against the previous one and it's identical. Guess they just changed the date!

 

No in factall they changed is the description under OS. It used to say Win XP/Vista/7 now they removed the "7"
lol?

 

I sent samsung an email about the whole issue with Q310 and 64bit windows 7. I also mentioned how it shouldn't say "Windows®. Life without Walls™. Samsung recommends Windows 7" above the product page for the Q310 as it might mislead customers into thinking this laptop fully supports windows 7. Here's the product page if you want to see for yourself-

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...ies/NP-Q310-0UK/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail

Anyway, here's the reply I received-

"It seems from the part of your mail we have received you are looking for drivers for your Q310 and a BIOS upgrade to overcome a memory mapping issue with this unit when using 4GB of RAM and a 64 BitOS. We are yet to receive confirmation of which notebooks in our current range will be receiving driver or software support under Windows 7. Upon release all softwares will be uploaded to our website and will be available from the download centre. In this case we suggest you continue to check our website for the latest available drivers for your product.

We have recently received confirmation that there are no plans to offer 64 Bit support for this model. This means that it is unlikely that a firmware upgrade will be released to enable 64 Bit support for units running in excess of 2GB of RAM. If you are at all unhappy with this information we would suggest that you address your concerns in writing to -

Samsung Electronics Customer Service
PO Box 17243
Edinburgh
EH11 4YB"

It seems that they're not planning to do anything about the problem currently but maybe if we bother them enough they'll get round to it.

 

Hi,

I have the same problem with my Q310 as02, 4GB ram and I've installed win 7 64bit and original nvidia drivers for 9200M gs. But it reboots and I can only enter in recovery mode.

Anyone have installed win 7 64 bit with original nvidia drivers?

Thanks a lot.

 

Hi uoah,

Apperently it is a bios memory mapping issue. You can limit your memory to 3GB than it works. See me post on the end of page 13 on how to do this.

Apart from the memory problem the original nvidia drivers work just fine. the new version came out early december and gives you a bit of performance boost ;-)

Thanks.

 

My system won't even let me install the 64Bit version anymore so I cannot try this!

I guess we are SOL when it comes to using this system to its full potential, and thus, this will probably be the last Samsung laptop I purchase!

 

I agree with you on that. My next laptop will probably be a Dell or maybe move to Mac. My brother bought a Dell XPS model 2 years ago and they fully support Windows 7 64 bits. I bought my Q310 13 months ago, mainly because I got a lot configuration for my money. Unfortunately, I can't use it to its full potential. The same configuration on a Dell laptop would have cost me £200 more (Studio 15 laptop 13 months ago)

My Samsung Q310 came with 4gb (I think most or all do) of which I'm just using around 3 on Windows 7 32 bits.

I have a Samsung LCD TV and I've had no problems with it and that might be their core business and what they do best. Maybe they need some years to catch up to companies like Dell when it comes to after sale support and infrastructure.

 

same problem with me, but has solution...

this problem can solve upgrade BIOS firmware to 11SU..

let you contact to SAMSUNG customer care and request new BIOS firmware.

(not yet uploaded SAMSUNG download center.. )

 

hello sayajames
can you send me the bios for the q310?
The Support will not send me the bios file.
many THX

 

Hi,

Bios flash for me to please Can you PM - thanks.

 

Can you PM me the bios update as well please. Or can someone upload it somewhere.

Thanks

 

Does this 11su bios update really exist?
I search through the web about 11su bios, and i found 3 posts on other forums with the same/particular "11su"... but no longuer link to dowload it... Fake?

Ps: using Q310 xe2v8600 with 4gb RAM too... and want to use 64bit OS...

 

I am interested to see if this 11SU update exists too!

Fingers crossed, but not holding my breath!

 

Now it's more than 3 months that Windows 7 came out, and more that 1 year the beta is available and no firmware available to get my full memory. I really fear this lack of memory can make me forget to click on Samsung product for future shopping ..

I have other problem with this firmware : it don't recognize some SSD, like my Patriot Warp V2 of 32 Go : The bios don't recognize it !

 

Can someone please upload the firmware somewhere? Or send me and I will do it. I think it will be benifical for all of us.

 

I don't think it exists, we might as well give up as I don't think Samsung are going to do anything about it!!