Questions about NP700G7C - manual control of ModeShift items; Admin Tool

I have a few questions about the Samsung NP700G7C...


1. To create the Admin Tool USB drive, I found instructions for a different Samsung laptop that said to create it in Management Mode by going into Recovery and hitting Ctrl+Alt+F10, password: "secclx". Is that procedure and password still correct for the NP700G7C?

Also, how large a USB drive will be needed for this?


2. Is there any way to manually control what ModeShift does? I'd love to be able to set everything, but most especially, I want to control the KB backlights. I don't care if it requires a command line execution or if I have to code a program that interfaces with an API. But is there any way at all to do this?

 

I would think if it's Samsung Recovery Solution 5 the password should work. Just try it, couldn't hurt.

The USB Admin Tool is few a hundred MB, should fit on a 512MB stick or larger. It contains the software to be contained on a new Recovery Partition, which is probably the biggest chunk.

Update: Note that the USB admin tool does NOT contain your System Software or the Initial Image (factory installation). Those must be backed up separately. I'm on my phone now. When I get to a pc, I can find a post that tells you the details of that.

Update2: Almost forgot: Here is the link I promised to a post about what to backup if you want to make sure you can always get back to factory condition. It mentions the USB Admin Tool, of course, along with other things.

 

Would it be enough to create the USB Admin Tool, then backup the data on the recovery partition through Windows (normal file copy) in order to be able to restore the laptop to its initial condition?

 

Yes, that is actually enough. You'll need to tweak the ID of the Recovery Partition in order for Windows to see it and assign a drive letter to it.

This post should tell you all you need to know about backing up and re-creating your Recovery Partition. I should have linked it the first time, I'd almost forgotten about it.

 

Thanks!

Now I just need to figure out how to manually control either ModeShift or the KB backlights, and I should be good to go.

 

Afraid I cannot help you much there. Dig into Easy Settings which provides the manual control for these. I know it makes some BIOS calls for other features, and maybe these are the same. It loads a bunch of scheduled tasks at login and also has two services: One is the SABI.sys kernel driver, the other is called SamsungDeviceConfig or something (not at my PC now). That's Easy Settings 1.x, they changed it in 2.x

Anyway, some of these must expose an API, but figuring it out could be a lot of work. Maybe if you're lucky some Samsung engineer sees your post and PMs you something

 

Thanks!

Out of curiosity, when I looked for non-letter drive partitions, I came across four of them. Two were specifically marked by samsung (22 GB and 1 GB), one was 100 MB (I'm guessing what Windows uses), and the last one was about 500 MB (about 350 MB used).

Which one(s) do I need to backup?

 

This is how the drive is partitioned from the factory (and also if re-partitioned with USB Admin Tool). When Windows is run the first time, Samsung Recovery Solution will ask if you want to adjust the Windows partition and create a Data partition. The result will be 4 (four) partitions:

- SYSTEM (100MB Windows boot partition)

- Windows (whatever size you choose)

- Data (whatever is left)

- SAMSUNG_REC (Recovery, 22GB on my Z3A, more on Ivy Bridge)

If you backup the Recovery and SYSTEM partitions and create a USB Admin Tool, you can always get back to factory (with some work). You can make an image of Recovery, but it's really the file and folder content you'll need - all of it.

Check the links I posted earlier, the second one in particular should give you an idea of the process.

 

The partitions are different for this model. For Disk 1, here is the breakdown of partitions in the factory default, only booted once configuration:

Code:

Partition		Capacity	Used		File System	Type				Status

Windows RE tools	500.00 MB	318.85 MB	NTFS		GPT (Recovery Partition)	None
SYSTEM			300.00 MB	46.46 MB	FAT32		GPT (EFI System Partition)	Active
<blank>			128.00 MB	128.00 MB	Other		GPT (Reserved Partition)	None
C:			674.69 GB	39.66 GB	NTFS		GPT (Data Partition)		System
SAMSUNG_REC2		22.04 GB	21.04 GB	NTFS		GPT (Recovery Partition)	None
SAMSUNG_REC		1.00 GB		807.48 MB	FAT32		GPT (Recovery Partition)	None

If I delete and reconfigure all partitions except the two samsung ones, will Recovery still be able to function properly to restore the factory default configuration?

 

I'm glad you posted this. Clearly this is a GPT partitioned drive, which means you got a Win8 model - AND your version of Samsung Recovery Solution is probably the new SRS6.

My research and tests and the details I have posted so far are based on SRS5. It's possible (even likely) that SRS6 runs UEFI mode instead of the classic BIOS mode. It could be very different - I just don't know.

I would tread carefully before wiping that disk. I'm sure countless new owners have wiped their disks and not experienced any problems -- because they're not concerned about restoring to factory.

You should search around some more of others have tried this. And yes, make backups of both REC partitions and the SYSTEM partition.
I would definitely make sureI have that USB Admin Tool -- though the password may have changed. I would also save the Initial Image and System Software while in recovery.

Boot and test that USB Admin Tool, and do as much checking and verifying as you can before wiping.

 

I don't know if it's SRS5 or SRS6, but I can tell you that the old password still works here.

So, if I intend to leave the Recovery intact, but plan on wiping the system and doing a clean install of Win 7, I assume that you would recommend that I leave the five non-data partitions alone (i.e. everything but the C drive)? Should I format any of them before installing Win 7?

 

Yes, you should format the Windows partition. I suppose you could also delete it and create a new one, but why complicate things.

I apologize for not being very responsive these days. Family and Christmas, you know...

Something else: Look for posts from gadgetrants, he did exactly the same thing: Clean install win7 on a Win8 model, and got it all working. He and I discussed it in another thread, I'll see if I can find it when I get back to my PC tomorrow.

Update: This link takes you to the thread where gadgedrants and I discuss his Win7 install on his Win8 PC. He is sharing some great info there!

Update2: gadgetrants is also very active in the Z5C thread (that was a link) where he has shared a lot about his experiences. Look for posts since late Nov (approx) and ahead.

 

No worries, and thank you for all your help!

Seperate from the backup, I was thinking about keeping the recovery system in place, but then I encountered the Auto Repair "feature" for the first time and killed all the partitions quickly, doing a clean Win 7 install.

 

LOL

That's fine, go for it!

It sounds like at least you got to make that USB Admin Tool and backup the Recovery partitions. Who knows if you'll ever need it!

And thanks for confirming that the password still works!

 

The partitions are different for this model.






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WoW gold| Diablo 3 Gold| Guild Wars 2 gold

 

I don't know if anyone's noticed, but the mode switch works to switch the KB backlights even without Mode Shift installed. It looks like that part is hardware controlled.

That means that if anyone doesn't care about the changing of power schemes or hijacking of other OS settings, and you only want to be able to switch between the backlight schemes, you can leave Mode Shift off of your system completely, and it will work just fine.