Samsung 15" Series 9 NP900X4C with Ivy Bridge CPU

Joined just to post this, but I currently have 2560x1440 via HDMI right this moment. Yes, I am using NP900X4C, not one of the newer models.

I found the trick on another site. The mode isn't advertised, but you can forcibly add it. I'm on linux and the following 2 commands did it for me:

xrandr --newmode "2560x1440" 220.812 2560 2608 2640 2720 1440 1443 1448 1478 -hsync -vsync
xrandr --addmode HDMI1 2560x1440

Unplugged the monitor and plugged it back in, and it started using the new mode.

EDIT:
For the curious, the monitor I'm using is Asus PB278

 

Very interesting.

Can you figure out what the refresh rate is? Some owners of the Book 9+ managed to get this resolution through their micro HDMI port by dropping the refresh rate (to 30Hz, IIRC).

John

 

Refresh rate is 56hz

 

How would I add this mode in Windows 7?

 

this is where I got the info from. Has instructions for other OSs.

 

Is anyone having the annoying virtual keyboard toolbar continuously pop up on their taskbar? I've disabled it on the menu, and tried disabling the service "Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service," but it still insists on popping back up. It may be a Windows 8.1 bug, but I'm wondering if anyone's figured out a workaround?

 

Well, I was confident about 2012 Serie9, but after months is almost certain that Samsung won't support 8.1 on NP900X4C shipped with win7...
Shame, shame on Samsung's support.

 

Well, I don't know if it officially supported by Samsung, but I have upgraded my NP900X4C from Windows 7 to 8.1.
Everything is working as it should.

regards

Per

 

Thanks for this info. Perhaps one reason for your success is that the X4C doesn't have switchable graphics.

Did you do a clean install and enable UEFI?

John

 

Yes, I downloaded 8.1 and did a clean install.
No I don't have UEFi enabled.

regards

Per

 

Yesterday I noticed my X4C getting very noisy when left on idle.

The culprit proved to be CSRSS. I had left a USB 3.0 HDD plugged in and the problem appeared to be that discussed here. I applied the fix (enabled "USB S3 Wake-Up" in the BIOS and today left the computer unattended with the HDD plugged in: Silence.

John

 

Great tip John. My X4C fan was also going hard when idling and I mostly just ignored it as it came quite again the minute I reactivated it (woke it up). But I also enabled USB S3 Wake up in the Bios and it's gone now. Cheers.

 

Yeah, I updated as well, but since then Samsung SW Update stopped working, no way the software find my model, no 8.1 official drivers. You have to install drivers from similar X4C. Did you found a way to make SW Update work again?

 

No. if you mean as it worked in Windows 7. But for me it is OK to download
new drivers manually through SW Update.

regards

Per

 

Has anyone else been notified through SW update that there was a new version of Settings? I've installed it, and seem to have lost functionality of my screen brightness keys...all other Fn keys work, just not the brightness keys...

 

Other threads have reported problems with the latest Settings. One person found that they needed to install it twice, the second time by using the Find Model > Export facility.

When you have it installed then check that all facilities, such as Battery Life Extender, are still present. If not, then you'll have to revert to an earlier version of Settings. I'm being cautious and keeping to 2.0.0.38.

John

 

Thanks for the info John, I'll report back my findings!

Edit: Looks like my A06US model has fallen off the charts. I'm going to try the K01US varient, as it has a settings listed under Win 8.1.

 

Well, after trying several different versions of Settings, re-installing the HD4000 graphics driver listed on SW update for my model running Win 8.1, and then trying a re-install of 2.0.0.38, I'm not able to adjust the brightness at all, regardless of adaptive brightness being enabled or disabled. (Even with adaptive brightness enabled, I used to be able to adjust the brightness limits using the hotkeys.) I wonder if a recent Windows update is conflicting somehow? All functionality is showing under Settings.

Edit: When I say I'm unable to adjust the brightness at all, I mean with the Fn keys. I can go into control panel and adjust the brightness.

 

The underlying problem is the interaction between Settings (in particular dmhkcore.exe) and the graphics driver. I used to think that the brightness controls would only properly with a Samsung-tweaked driver although I'm now using a newer driver direct from Intel and the Fn key brightness controls still work. Are the other Fn key controls (eg the keyboard backlight control) working?

You could check if you a restore point from just before the Settings update and go back to that if it exists. The alternative is to keep trying versions of Settings and graphics drivers until something fixes the issue. It may be worthwhile first trying an uninstallation of each then installing something recent.

John

 

Yep, what's strange is that all other Fn keys work just fine. I know the connection for F2 and F3 isn't the problem; they both work as function keys.

I'll try uninstalling both, installing the latest graphics driver from Intel, and then play around with different Settings versions.

 

Yola another Samsung software debacle. Mine said update Easy Settings which I did, then I was getting double overlay images (volume, brightness etc) when I pressed a function key - annoying but not critical. Over the next few days I noticed my two-finger scrolling was not working - which is very supremely annoying.

I like my Series 9, but Samsung software and cross compatibility etc is very very disappointing. I wouldn't even dream of porting over to Windows 8.

 

Well, no luck with the newest HD4000 drivers. It must be something to do with the latest updates pushed to Win8.1. My Ubuntu partition controls the brightness just fine. I'll just wait it out for Samsung to push out a fix. Hopefully it'll be rather soon...!

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

 

@supertoast and other: I am sorry, I got a little late to this Settings discussion.

You generally need Settings versions 2.1.x or newer for best compatibility with Win8.1, particularly (but not only) regarding the Fn-keys. The latest version of Settings I was able to find is 2.3.0.11 under model NP930X5J, but I have not had a chance to test it yet.

However, Settings versions newer than 2.0.x do not have control for all features on older Samsung laptops (such as Battery Life Extender and ExpressCache); these features still work in Win8.1 but Settings versions 2.1.x and newer don't have the tabs to control them. I personally prefer Settings 2.0.0.55 for that reason (available under Win8 drivers for model NP880Z5E-X03CA).

Note that some Fn-keys (such as volume) are handled by Windows, so they are not indicative of whether Settings is working correctly. And depending on which Settings version you use, you may need to disable Adaptive Brightness in multiple places (as described here) before it can be adjusted with Fn-keys. Of course a compatible Intel graphics driver must be installed as well in order for any brightness control to work. Test that brightness can be adjusted with the slider in Windows Power Settings to verify that.

Some of this was trivial and probably well known by you guys, for which I apologize. I tend to include all I can think of for completeness, in case someone Googles this down the road

I'll post an update in our Settings/Easy Settings thread when I have had a chance to test the new 2.3.0.11.

 

Thanks for the info, @Dannemand!

Looks like it's a no-go for me with 2.3.0.11. What tells me that Settings 2.0.0.72 works for me is that I can adjust the keyboard brightness and enable/disable the touchpad. I don't think those work natively with Windows 8.1, I could be wrong though.

Brightness definitely is adjustable for me under control panel. The brightness keys are the only ones not working right now, and I'm stumped!

I'm beginning to believe more and more that it was some update for Windows that broke the tie with Settings somehow. In 2.0.0.72, I have no Wi-Fi toggle, either. Hmm......

 

Thank you for that update, supertoast.

It's a good point that if keyboard backlight and touchpad enable/disable works, you would expect that to indicate Fn-keys are working.

It is still possible that 2.0.0.72 (and any 2.0.x version) adjusts screen brightness through a BIOS call which is no longer permitted in Win8.1 -- and which probably wasn't officially permitted in Win8 either, it just happened to work. I don't know this for a fact, but I highly suspect that their affinity for hacks like this is why Samsung has had so much trouble with Win8.1.

If 2.3.0.11 (and other newer Settings versions) don't work for you either, I am afraid I don't have any other suggestions.

 

@Supertoast92: Is your BIOS P**AAC (original Windows 7 X4C versions) or P**ABK (versions released with windows 8)?

I think Samsung made so many BIOS changes to improve Windows 8 compatibility that they found it necessary to release a new BIOS instead of updating the existing one. Consequently, as Windows 8 evolves then the residual incompatibilities of the AAC BIOS become a bigger headache.

John

 

It's P10ABK, which has really given me headaches myself. My model, the A06-US one, came with Windows 8(.0) installed, so I would guess it started with some version of the ABK varient BIOS. I know that when I first installed P10ABK, I lost the functionality of the system resuming on its own when I opened the lid (of course, I made sure to test this before the Rapid Storage timeout occured, at which point it would be in hibernation mode instead of sleep). More recently though, my machine had regained the ability to wake itself on lid open, but in the process had lost Fn key control of both screen brightness and Wi-fi toggle.

I'm jumping around with Setting versions still with no avail - 2.2.0.5 controls all but brightness and Wi-fi.

 

Thanks for that clarification.

Samsung do make unnecessary BIOS changes which have unwanted side-effects. In my own case this was removal of support for 1.35V RAM. Now, on some other models the latest BIOS removes support for (some, maybe all) 8GB RAM modules.

Not that this helps fix your problem which should logically related to the interaction between Settings, the graphics driver and possibly the BIOS.

John

 

Thanks for the input as well, John!

The only thing is, even if I go through and thoroughly uninstall the graphics driver and Settings (C cleaner, registry scan and all), and install the graphics driver and Settings versions I know worked before with BIOS P10, I still don't have full control. That makes me lean towards something Microsoft did in a recent update to Windows 8.1. I'm not certain of course, but that's my bet! I guess another step for me would be looking into removing the UI mods I have (Glass8 and/or Start8), but I highly doubt they're interfering in any way. (I guess I'm arguably running Windows 7.5 on my machines with these UI changes .)

 

Well, I just decided to go with a clean install of Windows 8.1, as a Samsung rep recommended I try a refresh, but for some reason my refresh partition wasn't there. Sooooo...now I'm on a fresh copy with all the software recommended by Samsung, other than the new "Smart Desktop" piece of software that was recently released.

The problem still persists. So, I guess there's something with either a recent graphics driver update or this version of Settings. John, what graphics driver are you using out of curiosity?

 

Device Manager says I'm using graphics driver 10.18.10.3412 dated 22nd January 2014, but this is with Windows 7.

John

 

Thanks John!

Good point that you're running Win7 though...what's strange is when I did a clean install last night of Windows 8.1, it was from a build back in September of 2013 (I know I wasn't having backlight issues last year). Before doing any updates, I installed the HD4000 driver and Settings, with no avail. I ended up emailing Samsung support this morning, hopefully they might have an answer soon! Until then, I guess I'll keep snooping around with different graphics drivers. It's puzzling how the keys work in Ubuntu, and they were also working fine just a few weeks ago under Win8.1.

 

By Jove, I think I've fixed it!!! If anyone else comes across an issue like this, here's what was going on:

Around a few weeks ago, I had decided to calibrate the battery. Why? Good question, I was a bit bored. Something must've gone awry with the ACPI functionality afterwards, and I just now thought of giving the battery the disconnect reset (pinhole on bottom of system). Sure enough, after plugging it back in, all Fn keys are working now as expected! I'll never understand Samsung's logic sometimes.

By the way, I had just recalled that a solution similar to this was posted somewhere quite awhile ago...I just now had remembered about it.

Phew!

 

Thanks for the update.

I don't remember the system reset being previously used for messed up Fn key controls but I try to remember it this time. I would have expected that reinstalling Settings would have cleared glitches such as this.

John

 

Yeah, it was funny how suddenly the connection came to me. After installing several of different versions of Settings and HD4000 graphics drivers, I was quite stumped that nothing was fixing it. I had also noticed other ACPI issues within the past few weeks though that helped me make the connection, particularly that the system wouldn't sleep when I closed the lid, nor would it wake up if I opened it after manually putting it to sleep.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

 

One or two other members reported how the paperclip procedure cleared the ACPI tables and subsequently fixed some issues with Fn-keys. I think member oled was one of them, though I could be wrong. It makes sense, and it's now been reported by several members, so I am inclined to making it official!

 

Great laptop but Windows 8 doesn't really work well with it. Crashes a lot

 

Which BIOS do you have? X4Cs with P**AAC BIOS were released with Windows 7 but the versions released with Windows 8 have the P**ABK BIOS. Samsung evidently found that a new BIOS rather than a simple update was necessary to achieve full Windows 8 compatibility but plenty of people are successfully using P**AAC with Windows 8.

Also check your BIOS is up-to-date. Samsung released updates for both BIOS during the past 6 months, presumably for better Windows 8 / 8.1 compatibility.

John

 

Been running windows 8 on this laptop since the day it was released, same with 8.1 - no issues at all to be honest.
Check all you drivers are up to date

 

Hi

I've lurked on this thread ever since I bought the laptop (Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C - A01UK) and found it to be the most knowledgeable place regarding the laptop and so am hoping someone here may have an answer to the following query.

My power adapter for the laptop has recently stopped working. The LED on the adapter is no longer lit and I've tried changing the fuse with no effect.

I'm hence looking to source a replacement power adapter for the laptop.

Has any one purchased a replacement power adapter for the laptop in the UK? If so, may I have the part number(s) or a link as to where you purchased it from online?

I believe Samsung's part number for the power adapter is: "Samsung Slim Power Adapter AA-PA3NS40"

They don't sell it online anymore: link

Searching on Google for it has not brought up any hits on where I can purchase this genuine part from. Has anyone had any success with using a 3rd party adapter with the laptop?

Any assistance gratefully appreciated.

Best regards,
JC

 

You can buy the official part from Digicare (one of the Samsung UK service agents) but they charge £7.50 delivery in addition to the £34.24 basic price. The numbers to search for are BA44-00272A and AD-4019SL. I bought one recently for my NP900X3B because the PSU had died but I only got the official part because I'm being reimbursed by John Lewis under their extended warranty.

However, my favourite PSU is this one by Batt Pit. I've got one and it works fine. Overall, it's smaller than the Samsung PSU and has got an L-shaped power plug (most the of compatible units have straight ones) and it takes a 2 pin Fig-8 mains cable plug so the main cable is thinner and lighter (= more travel friendly) than the 3 core cable with the standard PSU (I'm not over-worried about not having an earth connection when travelling because the earthing might not be good).

Remember to transfer your Windows key from the dead PSU before you recycle it.

John

 

Hi John,

Many thanks for the links. I've ordered two of the Battpit AC Adapters as they are a third of the cost.
Also, thank you for the reminder regarding the Windows Key.

Your helpful posts on this thread are really appreciated.

regards,
JC

 

I need to upgrade my RAM from 8 to 16GB, but I'm not sure if I can use 1,35v modules(low voltage)... Did anyone tried this? Does is work at 1,35v?

 

1.35V modules used to work but Samsung messed up something in the last BIOS update. I know that from experience because I put in 1.35V modules (2 x 4GB) to save a bit of power. The BIOS update appeared to brick the machine so I put back in the original 1.5V RAM ready to call for service and then the machine came back to life.

However, it might be just that the BIOS didn't like specific modules. A recent BIOS update for the NP870Z5G resulted in some 8GB modules working and others not, so it's not clear what has caused the problem (which might also result in the X4C not liking 8GB modules).

However, if you avoid the latest BIOS updates then you shouldn't hit this issue. P06AAC (for the older Windows 7 X4Cs) and P08ABK (for the Windows 8 versions) pre-date the RAM problems.
If your BIOS is newer then read this thread. The full names of the "good" BIOSES are ITEM_20130219_1005_WIN_P06AAC.exe and ITEM_20130717_1173_WIN_P08ABK.exe.

John

 

Thanks for you reply. I'm currently using P07 BIOS, so I will probably need to rollback to P06.

Did you noticed any battery runtime improvement?



Looks like Samsung screwed up again, maybe it's a strategy to sell new laptops...

 

Try P07 BIOS and if that doesn't work then do the roll-back. Before P06 there's ITEM_20121126_861_WIN_P05AAC.exe and before that ITEM_20120825_636_WIN_P04AAC.exe.

I tried to report the BIOS RAM support issue when it first happened but, whereas in past years I've had dealings with support people in UK I was put through to someone in India(?) who sounded as if they were reading a script and couldn't understand my problem. The good news is that some of the Book 8 owners managed to get the message through and one got a response that the problem had been replicated and was being worked on. Whether Samsung will realise that it affects several notebooks and then reissue updated BIOSes for all remains to be seen. Their hardware capabilities are better than for the software.

John

 

I will try and report here next week .

 

Got the RAM today, it's working fine with P07AAC. The modules are Kingston KVR16LS11/8 1.35v.

 

Thanks for this update.

I wonder what the difference is between Kingston and Crucial 1.35V RAM.

John

 

Maybe different timing settings, don't know....