Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4C with Ivy Bridge CPU

If you do a fresh install of windows 7, I would have to download all the drivers,including all the included Samsung features,correct?

 

If you didn't use the Samsung (Symantec) supplied programs to create the OS, drivers and software backup, correct.

 

Is that the Samsung Recovery Solution or the backup option on Norton?
I have backed up everything on Samsung Recovery Solution and am ready for the next step.

Sorry for all these questions, in the process of being acquainted with windows.

 

Samsung Recovery Solution = Norton/Symantec Ghost the last time I checked.

 

Found the problem. Turning the "Eco Mode" in Easy Settings causes WiFi and Bluetooth to be turned off on startup.

 

Just returned my ASUS UX32VD, so thinking of getting the Series 9 15inch. However, the display seems to be okay not great - any rumors on an upgraded panel for this puppy?

 

Anyone know if it possible for samsung to release a fix to make the keys illuminate brighter? I hope so

 

just got the i5 version of the laptop today from amazon. this has to be the best laptop that i've ever seen/touched! the keyboard is perhaps a mm or so too shallow but i think i've gotten used to it in about 15-20 minutes.

here are some of my questions:

1) there is a system recovery dvd in the package. so do i still need to create recovery media? (is there a way to create one via a usb flash drive?)

2) my power brick (the fat one) seems to be pretty hot when plugged in (was just looking at it after charging the system for about 30 minutes). not hot enough that you can't touch it but definitely very warm. do i have a need to be concerned?

3) what exactly does the silent mode do? when i press the silent mode button (fn f11), it turns up the brightness of the screen and states that silent mode is on (and dims the screen when silent mode is off). i can't hear the fan noise in either case. not that i want to hear fan noise but is that what you are experiencing?

so far the i5 with 8gb of ram seems to be fast enough for me. i think i'll really enjoy using it. thanks everyone for the detailed information that helped me to make my decision on the laptop!

 

Is there any way to ensure that when I restart or turn off completely the computer that when I bring back to the computer, Wifi and Bluetooth are turned off?!?! On the Samsung Control Center, I already have that option on both wifi and bt enabled, to maintain the previous settings when system restarts, but sometimes even if wifi and/or br are disabled after a restart or turn off, those settings are enabled. Also happens if I disabled both, put the laptop on sleep, and after the sleep they enabled by them self's...

Any ideas?!? Is this a bug from SCC ??

 

Silent mode does a few things compared to Samsung-optimised. Most noticable are:

-passive cooling is used when you plug the computer in, while active cooling is used during mains-power-usage for Optimised. Both profiles use passive cooling when you're on battery, so that might be why you don't notice a difference.

-The screen brightness is adjustable. How bright the screen is in each mode depends on if you have environment-autoadjust on, as well as the brightness that you last used on that setting (if at all).

-Intel graphics moves from "balanced" to "maximise power saving" when you run in silent mode. Aero effects are turned off on mine when I used silent, (ie transparency turns off).

No idea, but I just tried what you said, and I can't get wifi to stay off neither when I reboot. I don't have a problem with that though.

I have noticed that when I do a reboot that some settings don't take effect until a little later after the desktop loads. For example, I have disabled tapping on my trackpad, but after the system loads, tapping works. In fact, tapping works, but clicking does not. It's not until after a little while (20 seconds?) from when the desktop loads that tapping is once again disabled, and clicking/gesture controls are re-enabled. I assumed that had something to do with the trackpad process starting up.

I waited to see if the wifi turned off by itself afterwards following the same logic, but it didn't happen.

 

As I recall from my testing in April, this was due to Samsung Easy Settings. Some versions of that program didn't actually write your preference. And you are right about the second part. There does seem to be a delay from the time Windows boots until the service is up and running with your preferences applied.

 

Hmm, mucked around with the laptop for a bit:

1) Tested the laptop's screen in direct sunlight. It's very visible. Even in that environment, I found the maximum brightness setting painful to look at. That's one crazily bright screen. For better or worse, when I'm sitting with other models available indoors, I wonder if my screen really is on the lowest brightness setting. That's a good thing, but also a bad thing if you assume that being able to adjust the screen even dimmer could save more battery.

2) HDD encryption.. read up a bit on this today in case I run into theft. Does anybody here use it on this model and can voice their opinion on its usability/performance/battery life?

3) Ran into a problem while I was testing the wifi issue stated in the previous posts.. "SWMagent is restarting" kept popping up every 5 minutes or so. I've reinstalled Easy Software Manager 2 times now or so, and it just seems to have trouble starting properly (so it re-initiates the cycle over and over). I've uninstalled it altogether right now since it doesn't seem to keep things updated properly anyway. Quick google shows that it's a bug that's annoying some other people as well.

The problem did highlight the fact that msconfig doesn't seem to list every single start-up process. (eg Samsung recovery solution). Spybot Search and Destroy's start-up tool also confirms this. Does anyone know if this has anything to do with fast boot technology overriding and managing the start-up processes on its own? Easy-setting contains some more options to fiddle with, but even that doesn't look like the entire list.

 

This is because some of the startup processes are started as scheduled tasks.
You can see them in the task scheduler.

 

Anyone have an ideas of how to get a core i7/256GB SSD spec model with a UK keyboard?

 

Hello all, my first post here and I'm so glad I found this forum. Really helped in my decision to purchase the Series 9 laptop instead of the Zenbook Prime or MBA.

I just received my computer from Amazon.com today and definitely want to upgrade to the 256GB Crucial SSD. Are there any step-by-step guides available for this? Want to make sure I don't mess anything up.

 

Wait and pray that Samsung UK will decided to introduce this higher spec model. It might be as an X4D not X4C.

There are no detailed guides but there is discussion of the steps here and a photo of the SSD in place here.

John

 

When upgrade the HD, I know there has been discussion about cloning the old HD to the new one but I was wondering if it possible to install the new HD and then just doing a fresh install of Windows 7 and load all the necessary drivers and software seperately. Also, I haven't received my computer yet but does it come with a windows installation disc/usb drive?

 

1. Please don't call it a HD. It is an mSATA SSD that is smaller than a RAM module.
2. A clean installation is possible. Before you remove the supplied SSD first make a backup of the Samsung software and drivers using Samsung Recovery Solution. Then you can make your won installation using the supplied Windows disc (assuming you get one - there seems to be some variation between countries) and the drivers and software backup. Almost everything on the backup disc is available for download. You can install the Samsung Easy Software Manager to manage the installation of everything else (the backup disc starts this first). If you don't receive a Windows disc then you can get one here.

John

 

For those of you in the USA, looks like COSTCO.com is now carrying the Ivy Bridge 15" model. See Costco - Samsung 9 Series Ultrabook Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz 0.58" Thin, 3.63 lbs.

 

1. Thank you for the quick reply, it'll help a lot.
2. I don't want to sound mean but your comment about the HD makes you sound like a stuck up snob and was uncalled for. We both know what I meant by HD and that comment wasn't needed.

 

You might know what you mean but does that also indicate that everyone else reading the thread does.?

John

 

Finally tried updating the BIOS, and UEFI stays broken. Sometimes it boots, sometimes it crashes with a Machine Error log message, sometimes it crashes even before getting into the bootloader. Is there any place where I can report this to Samsung? It would be great to have a working UEFI environment.

 

The term hard drive (HD) came from the early PC days and meant a drive that wasn't a floppy disk. Rotational disk hasn't really ever been a common term used by the general public. HD is a layman's term for the storage device in a PC and frankly many people simply don't know the different between a solid state device, and a device that has spinning platters. Usually the general public is oblivious to those distinctions and their eyes glaze over when you start talking about RPM, much less SSD and whether they are SATA II or SATA III. So I think HD was ok in this forum and context.

I knew what he meant. But by the same token I'm pretty sure John meant no malice.

 

You will have to raise the problem with Samsung support in your country and hope that they pass the message on.

John

 

Tha surely sounds like a major pain in the back. I'll see what I can do, though I highly doubt that the support center of Samsung Italy even know what UEFI is (by the way, I believe this applies to any vendor I can think of). I'll probably have to escalate such a generic problem through layers and layers of call-center technicians before anyone even understands the meaning of it.

 

You should do it anyway and document the number of calls and amount of time it takes. Support is a key aspect of the lifecycle of a product. It isn't enough to make a beautiful product. It actually needs to work for the life of the investment. For most of us, that is at least three years. Therefore, I am very interested in how they handle this issue for you.

 

Just got my X4D last week for $1488 here in the Philippines this has the same specs as the one in the US 256 ssd 1.9ghz ivy bridge 8gb ram and it is just unbelievably light and fast! Screen is a little too bright for me and viewing angles arent that nice but I can probably live with that.

The only annoying thing about this is the wifi! It is definitely inferior to my old 2007 macbook and 2009 mbp, there are some areas where I'm getting nothing and others where I am having trouble connecting. Changing power management to High performance definitely helps but it still lacks the range and stability of my previous notebooks. I tried out a Series 7 17 incher before as well and it had the exact same issues. Samsung really has to step up on this problem.

 

Sorry to hear about your speaker problem, I hope you can resolve it. I'm thinking about getting the same model at the MS store nearby, what are your overall opinions of it (is the fan too lound, how is ssd performance, screen, etc.)?

 

Hello,

the power brick of my 900x4c makes a whining noise, when the battery is fully loaded.
A long as it is loading the battery it is quiet, but when 100% (res. 80 % with battery life extender) is reached, it starts whining. Not too loud, but you can hear it quite well it in a silent room.

Do all of the 900x4c power bricks make the same noises or is it just mine ?

 

I think my PSUs are quiet (or maybe my ears are too old to notice the whine). I suspect that a components is oscillating under some loading conditions (similar to the CPU whine that troubles some notebooks). If the sound is annoying you then I suggest you approach Samsung support regarding a replacement.

John

 

My setup produced a whine when I first got it, but it is no longer apparent. No idea if it'll wear off for you, but mine happened even when it was charging so it might be an entirely different problem. I also did not localise it to the power brick neither.

On the other hand, my trackpad just froze on my when I woke the laptop up from sleep today. It's happened once in the past too. Toggling the trackpad on/off function didn't have any effect..


edit:..hmm, just read John's account and fix of a similar problem. I suppose I'll try it next time it happens. Wonder if I really have to wait an entire minute though

 

VGA dongle - is this the correct one? VGA Dongle

It indicates for Series 7? I don't want the HDMI to VGA, i want to use the VGA output on the RIGHT side of the machine.

 

Is there a HD light on the Samsung 15, when the hard drive is being hit, I don't see any light blinking anywhere?

 

This site suggest part no AV2N12B.

There is no light. Perhaps the designers consider that it is not important with an SSD. You can use a software utility such as this.

John

 

Perfect, the dongle you recommend. Appreciate it. Found it on Amazon.

 

On further testing the 900x4c, I noticed a strange cracking noise. At first I could not locate the origin, but now I think it comes out of the loadspeakers when switching the notebook off (only sometimes and also when volume is set to 0).
Might not be a big issue, but is strange nevertheless. I would suspect that switching off should not make a crackle in the loadspeaker. It somehow makes you worry that there is a hidden defect which could cause worse things.

 

Hey everyone,

i just bought the Series 9 X4C-A01CA (i5, 1.7ghz) and for some reason in dim lighting situations the screen keeps on dimming and brightening again...has anyone experienced this problem or know how to fix it?

Thanks.

 

I noticed this after upgrading to Windows 8 and reinstalling easy settings. Go to Display and turn off the auto-dimming feature.

Cheers,

Will

 

I started hearing this today as well, new machine i got yesterday from the MS store. After installed Java and got Eclipse running, when i would close Eclipse, i would hear a small cracking noise. But only in this case.

 

No reason to. This is not a mechanical nor an electronic hardware problem. It's mostly a problem of OCD... :wink:

 

My detailed thoughts on the NP900X4C have now been published. Please contribute your thoughts.

John

 

Hi John

Excellent review, thanks. I particularly appreciate comparison with Lenovo Thinkpad series as my main machine is a W520 but looking for an alternative when I don't need the grunt and/or travelling a lot.

Thanks again
Gus

 

Hello,
this is really a very helpful review. Thank you!
One question regarding wifi performance: was your test setup with 802.11n or g? Perhaps n improves the situation?

eric

 

I like to think a few comparisons add value compared with a review of a machine in isolation.

These points are best discussed in the specific discussion of the review but the answer is that my home router is, while n-capable, working as g. Perhaps because of some other computers on the network. It's something to investigate further when I have time. The sub-par WiFi hasn't caused me any problems while travelling. In one hotel I couldn't connect to the network due to weak signal but my backup hardware (USB WiFi adapter with big antenna) couldn't connect either.

John

 

Excellent detailed and honest review!

I've heard that some people have noticed worse wifi performance when routers are sending out multiple bands.

 

Correct. I've just tried to write an explanation of the procedure here.

John

 

Hey Everyone,

I just switched from an old Mac to the new series 9. Would anyone be able to tell me which bloatware I can remove so that my laptop is running optimally?

What I have is:

1. Adobe Flash Player
2. CyberLink YouCam
3. Easy Settings
4. Easy Software Manager
5. Easy Support Center
6. ETDWare
7. Samsung Interactive Guide
8. Microsoft Silverlight
9. Microsoft SQL Server Compact 2005 edition
10. Samsung Multimedia POP
11. Samsung Recovery SOlution 5
12. Samsung User Guide

are there any other things that a new PC owner should know when configuring a new laptop? I'm new to this whole PC thing so any help is appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Andrew

 

Hi, just a quick question. I'm using the Touch pad with Photoshop CS6, but find that I'm unable to utilise the the quick short-cut for the Move tool using the space-bar. That is when I press the space-bar, I get the hand tool icon on the screen; but am unable to move the image around using the Touch pad.

Have you had a similar experience or are you able to use the Touch pad? If you are able to use, can advise how you are doing so.

Thanks

David

 

I will annotate your list;

1. Adobe Flash Player Keep - Used by a lot of websites
2. CyberLink YouCam This includes a decent webcam control
3. Easy Settings Keep - Interface to a range of system settings
4. Easy Software Manager Samsung's utility for keeping the Samsung software and drivers up to date
5. Easy Support Center Not essential
6. ETDWare Keep - touchpad driver / software
7. Samsung Interactive Guide You might want to look at the guide and then remove it
8. Microsoft Silverlight A few websites use this. You can delete and wait to encounter one of those few
9. Microsoft SQL Server Compact 2005 edition I'm surprised to see this on the list
10. Samsung Multimedia POP Probably not necessary
11. Samsung Recovery SOlution 5 Don't remove yet. See below
12. Samsung User Guide Read it

are there any other things that a new PC owner should know when configuring a new laptop? I'm new to this whole PC thing so any help is appreciated! Run Samsung Recovery Solution > Backups and make a backup of the Samsung drivers and software. Then you can reinstall any of the above. The Youcam package is not available for free download so get it backed up

Try my suggestion here. That thread may relate to a different notebook, but it's the same pad.

John

 

Is anyone else experiencing 8-10% battery loss when you and your computer go to sleep for the night? I think I remember reading about a similar problem on the X3B thread ages ago but I am lacking the patience to wade through the 193 pages of postings. I have the A03US.