Samsung 2012 Series 7 Chronos (NP700Z3, NP700Z4 & NP700Z5 series) Owners Lounge

I've done that. Do we want to keep the Z7 in this lounge or create another one?

John

 

So I've created a new Owners Lounge for Z7, makes useful threads easier to list and more relevant.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...s-7-chronos-np700z7-series-owners-lounge.html

EDIT: Duplicate thread spawned itself. John, please delete this one below.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...s-7-chronos-np700z7-series-owners-lounge.html

Yong

 

Well, I think it's more because not very many people have these, and also because it's harder to find. There's only like 2 places that carry these 14" chronos (amazon and walmart), while the 15.6" chronos has more models and can be found at almost every big electronics store.

But your reason sound more appealing . I'll get this 14" soon and will post if there are any major problems.

 

Well I haven't posted here since picking up my Z5 in January - no issues to seek answers about until now

I bought my Z5 in John Lewis and I seem to remember that not all iterations had a plastic palm rest, but mine does. My problem is that the left hand edge of where the plastic meets the keyboard section has started to poke up as if it's becoming separated from the rest. When I push it back down, there's almost like a sticky noise like there's glue or something that it presses down on. It stays down for a few mins and then comes apart again. I'll post a picture as it's a relatively minor break in the seam right now, but I'm concerned that it might get worse or perhaps spread across the whole line of where the two pieces of the body meet.

In short, is there anything I can do about it? I don't necessarily want to return the whole machine because of it, but I'm not sure if it'll get much worse and something that I should worry about?

In the absence of a photo showing exactly what mine looks like, it's the part in this picture above the stickers where the palmrest meets the keyboard that's coming apart. Samsung Series 7 Chronos 700Z - photo 9 - Pocket-lint

Also to add, the machine has never been dropped or man-handled

 

Interesting - I didn't realize that there were some models like that. My Z5A has a single piece of metal from the front to the back without any seams.

 

I can't remember the exact reason why some regions/models shipped with a one-piece vs the two-piece with plastic palm rest, but right now I'm wishing I had an all in one

 

There were some Euro versions that had plastic palm rest i think. Mine looks like one piece and I got it from US.

 

Samsung said they wanted to keep the weight down. However, I feel they want to keep the cost down instead.

 

It's also most likely to keep the price lower, since importing them could cost more in other regions then US.

 

Hello everyone,

I think I have some problems with my express cache. When I close the lid the laptop should go into sleepmode. I don't know if he does this. But when I open the lid my laptop won't start, even if I push the button. I have to reset it. When I check the express cache I noticed that there's there no data on the ssd. (only a green bar).

P.S. sometimes the laptop start wel from sleep. When this happens the blue bar in the expresscache is present. So the problem is the expresscache.

The problem occured when I installed the new update of Samsung Control Center.

Does anyone else have this problem?

 

Hi Kevin,
I have not the exactly same problem like you, but after I installed the new update like you my ExpressCache is completely gone and I couldn't get it back until now, so the chance that this update is somehow flawed is pretty big.
See my post in the exprescache thread.

@All WARNING:
DO NOT INSTALL THE NEW EASY SETTINGS IF THE OLD ONE IS WORKING FOR YOU!

 

Indeed, I downgraded easy settings and everything is working flawless now. Good tip, don't update easysettings.

 

I heard someone said that the new Easy Settings completely mess up with other component before. Did you try to reinstall the EC driver and SDK after install the new Easy Settings? Maybe when we upgrade the Easy Settings, it would not keep the connection with EC, therefore, we have to reinstall the driver again.

 

What is Phoenix SecureGuard ?

I found a driver with this name installed in the device manager, inside System Devices category. Based on this I'm afraid it is some kind of backdoor that samsung put into our computers, just like the old PhoenixNet that came built into the firmware of some motherboards in the past.

I proceeded to delete it and haven't noticed any impact in system performance.

 

Phoenix is makes bioses, and I suspect that this laptop has Phoenix bios, which makes me think that this program us used to control (and protect) the bios settings from within Windows? Perhaps making it so Easy Settings is the only application who can change the settings using a special key or something?

 

It is not a virus. Instead, it is a mechanism to protect your computer from damage of information on your system when the laptop fails. In other word, if some drivers or some components fail because of something like virus, malware, or by user, there might be a chance that it could damage the system or bios. This program will help to determine and protect that happen. It looks like a spyware or keylogger because it can track every component that had been loaded when we first start up the laptop.

 

Based on the descriptions I have read, and coming from the same BIOS manufacturer that created firmware based spywares, I can't find any objectiveness on it's purpose, besides allowing the manufacturer to arbitrarily install propaganda or to retrieve user data on the computer after it has being sold. If it is there to protect something, it would have prevented me from formatting the whole hard drive, including the recovery partition and installing a different OS version. My guess is that your personal data will stay more secure without having this functionality.

 

My brother just got his 700Z5C and when he closes the lid and opens it again the machine does not ask for his windows password. I don't know if my 700Z5A behaves the same way since I don't use that feature.

Either way, I was thinking that perhaps it's Samsungs Hybrid Sleep thingy that messes things up, and also that I've read something on this forum about someone having the same issues, but I don't know if it got solved.

Any feedback and/or ideas are very welcome.

 

Hit the start menu key and type this:
Require a password when the computer wakes up

You should be able to enable this setting on the screen that will pop up. You may also want to change what closing the lid does on the same screen. Hybrid sleep is actually a Windows feature. Samsung is just putting their name on it.

 

He said that it works in all the other ways the computer sleeps, using power button, timeout etc, but just not when closing the lid...

Oh well, I'll make sure he have everything set to the same thing next time I talk to him.

 

The latest version of Easy Settings has a new section called "Boot Management." See if the version on his machine has that. Check to see if Samsung Fast Start Mode is enabled in the Lid Open Action section - I haven't tried it myself so I don't know if that results in the behavior you describe.

 

On my system, it doesn't appear that Samsung Fast Start Mode affects password entry on close/open lid cycles.

 

On my system, enabling Fast Start does the following:
- Changes Start Menu default shutdown action to "Sleep".
- Disables the blinking LED when the computer is asleep, making it appear to be completely off, but it's not. It's in sleep mode and it's slowly draining battery power if not plugged to AC.
- Enables waking up by opening the lid, which is default in other computers I've seen.
- Wakes up from standby in about two seconds.

In the other hand, disabling Fast Start does:
- Changes Start Menu default shutdown action back to "Shut down".
- Enables the blinking LED when the computer is asleep, which is default in other computers I've seen and helps to indicate that the computer is using some power to be kept in sleep mode.
- Disables waking up by opening the lid, so you have to press the power button to wake the computer up. (not default in other computers I've seen).
- Wakes up from standby in the same two seconds.

I think waking up by opening the lid is the only real benefit of enabling Fast Start. All the other changes could also be manually set up in windows power options and start menu settings. So you have to chose between:
a) Fast Start on -> No standby blinking LED, Yes waking up by opening the lid
b) Fast Start off -> No waking up by opening the lid, Yes blinking LED

Password entry behaviour is being the same in both cases.

 

How about keep Fast Start and you go to Power Option, in the power advanced configuration, change the option to require password when wake computer up. Also, if Fast Start, as you said, is only change those things, you better not use that and change it by yourself. Pretty much I did not use Easy Settings unless I need to control my fan. Easy Settings is really messing up with power option plans in Windows.

 

I keep Fast Start off so the standby LED works when in sleep mode. The drawback is having to push the power button to wake up instead of just opening the lid if it was put to sleep by closing it.

I'm just reporting this because everywhere else I looked for technical explanations about what Fast Start does simply treated it as a new type of sleep technology, sometimes relating it with hybrid-sleep technology or making confusion to think that the computer will magically boot in 2s from a power off state. But in my own observations it's much just like a LED-on, LED-off switch for the standby LED, controlled by Easy Settings, making the computer appear to be completely turned off when it's actually sleeping and consuming power to hold it's memory state.

 

The reason I think it called Fast Start is actually because Samsung does modify the sleep behavior. Also, keep in mind that Fast Start will definitely have something with the EC. Don't confuse with hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep or another word is hibernate. As I said before, you could do those things by yourself. Going to power option and change each option that you want to be and you all set.

 

Hybrid sleep is NOT the same as Hibernate. It's a hybrid of Sleep and Hibernate, hence the name.

Sleep and hibernation: frequently asked questions

 

If you have a link to any page that explains or could just tell something about what changes Fast Start does to the system other than the ones I've mentioned, I would appreciate sharing this knowledge.

I can really see that my series7 wakes up from sleep much faster than the older laptops I have, but this happens regardless of having Fast Start enabled in Easy Settings. Maybe it's just the option name in Easy Settings that might have been poorly chosen, and could be something like "Disable standby LED and enable wake up by lid open". These changes cannot be done solely on windows power options screens.

 

It's solved.

Go in under "change advanced power settings" then you will see "Samsung Optimized" where you will have the option to choose "Require Password on wakeup".

So it's a seperate feature for these Samsung notebooks and not under the normal power options it seems.

 

Does any one have a copy of the wallpaper image that is set by default on these. I put an ssd in mine and went with a clean windows install but I really like this wallpaper. It's the same one as in this image.

http://cms.mobile88.com/gen/news/articles/2012/2/2/_222012113221.jpg

 

It's in Easy Software, under Theme.

 

Either go to Personalization via right clicking the desktop and choosing it, or go thru Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Personalization

When there click "Desktop Background" at the bottom.

At the dropdown "Picture Location", choose "Samsung".

And then just select the wallpaper!

 

Anyone knows a few applications that are still not recognized by optimus? I m getting more annoyed by this computer every day and I 'd like to get a refund.

 

What is it that annoys you?

I've had mine for half a year now, and I use it a lot and I love mine. Any problems I've had with it have been easily fixed, and they have been very few.

 

The list might get quite long:
Loss of wifi signal, my asus that is 5 years old has better wifi reception
The fact that we will never be able to update the graphics card drivers and the performance is mediocre at best
The crappy build quality, 4 keys are sunk in (not all the way but cant miss it by just looking at the keyboard, the touch pad is sunk in bottom right corner, the palm rest made of plastic is already showing signs of wear and is darkening.
Easy settings takes nearly a min to popup

Quite a lot of issues for a "premium" laptop

 

I don't have any wifi issues, but I know several others have had. It's often due to bad configuration in power options thou.

As for the graphics drivers, first of all you knew what gpu it had when you bought it, so kinda hard to blame the performance on the laptop. Secondly, how do you know we will never be able to update? Samsung might very well release new ones, and if not there are always other options like Leshcat.

Build quality? I dont have any of the issues you say. All my keys are just fine and I have no signs of "wear and darkening". And I use mine a lot. It's my main work computer and use it mainly to program. Perhaps you do have these issues, but if so I think it might either be because that your machine is faulty, or that perhaps you simply need a sturdier laptop.

As for Easy settings taking a minute to pop, I call bull, or something is severly wrong with your machine. Takes around 10s on my machine, which has never been optimised or defragged. Not as fast as it could be, but that is no way near "a minute". And seriously, how often do you really need to enter it?

My guess is that you found another toy that you rather have and that is why you are trying to convince yourself that this one is really bad.

 

I have the european version that was delivered with a plastic palm rest (the official website never mentioned a difference between versions).

As a couple of people mentioned in the thread about the driver you get better fps with older nvidia cards that are supposed to be less performing, the examples they used were crysis and minecraft

As for graphics update, lets be realistic manufacturers dont really update proprietary drivers.

my wireless adapter is always set on max performance when in perf mode so that shouldn't affect it.

 

I have a plastic palmrest aswell, I also live in Europe.

But it's funny how you use hearsay as a reason to why you are annoyed by your laptop.
Minecraft works just fine with the 8.940 drivers. Think Crysis was too, haven't tried it out myself thou.

And as I said, if this were to be the case, which we don't know yet, there are alternatives that work. ( Unified Leshcat Drivers)

The Wifi seems to vary alot from machine to machine, seems you got one of the "bad" ones if you don't happend to have a bad access point or some nasty interferance. A lot of people have old gateways etc, and upgrading it might help.

 

When I first saw a sony laptop with an electrical switch to choose between integrated or dedicated GPU I thought it was a funny design. But after realizing that software auto switchable graphics is a totally broken technology I wonder the series7 had that switch. I had some progress using the Leshcat Drivers, but still not so sure that all 3D content is being rendered by the dedicated GPU because GPU-Z shows high usage in both intel and amd gfx devices when running 3D content.

No problems with wifi signal so far. Just enabling/disabling it could be a bit faster.

 

What programs are you having problems with still? And have you tried both 8.940 and Leshcats?

 

After a half-year of notebook searching, I finally decided to go with the S09US model.

Ordered from J&R...looking at the shipping dates, they have super duper snail mail

 

I just noticed that Easy Settings is gone. Was there an update that uninstalled Easy Settings? I certainly didn't remove it.

 

I noticed the same thing once, but it was when I was upgrading it. So I think it removes the old version when it is supposed to update to the new version, it just forgot to install the new one so ended up with nothing.

Was easily solved by just re-installing it via Easy Software again.

 

I'll bet that's what happened and I never even noticed until now. I've been docked to a 27" monitor and external keyboard and mouse for almost two months so I haven't used the functions keys in as long. I'm using it in a Starbucks this morning though and tried to adjust the screen brightness. That's when I first noticed that none of the function keys worked.

Does anyone know if ExpressCache is disabled without EasySettings? I just reinstalled EasySettings and I'm noticing a significant speed improvement.

 

It looks like the express cache is dependent on easy settings, among other things. I don't really like this software as it is slow to load and can be done so much quicker i.e the way lenovo implements it or just to have it managed by windows. I opened a thread asking for alternative methods or replacement for easy settings..

 

hey guys

recently purchased a 700Z5A-S07AU laptop for a fairly decent price, and am pretty happy with it so far

there's just a few issues I've faced, which are more of an annoyance rather than anything else

firstly, is it normal for the back left of the laptop to heat up significantly during use?
and for some reason, my laptop seems to have problems resuming from standby occasionally, ie, i open the lid, the fan starts, the power light is on, but all i get is a black screen, which requires me turn the laptop off completely. whats the reason for this??

thanks in advance

 

the heating up is normal - the casing of the laptop is particulary small and slim for it's size and specs - under normal operation it should be just fine.

The 2nd issue i have not encountered so can't comment on that. Have you updated the bios to the latest version as well as your other drivers? It does seem pretty serious so it could be a hardware issue - also, is your laptop plugged in to the charger when you resume? And it is in hibernation mode or sleep mode?

 

hmm that seems about right then...

ahh that reminds me of another problem haha, my bios update to 13FD fails all the time, it downloads it just fine, but just shows a "update failed" message after that -.-

and in regards to the standby issue, it seems to occur when the laptop is unplugged, i may have to check this again though...and it goes into sleep mode when i close the lid

 

I'm currently having the same issue with the Fn functions not working. I tried re-installing EasySettings but that didn't seem to help. Were you able to get it to work? The only time the Fn function works if I actually have EasySettings open, as soon as I close it though the functions stop working again. This has been very frustrating.

 

I've been using my NP700Z5A-S01 for some three months now. Occasionally I hear clicking sounds coming from hard drive. Most of the time they are not loud, but sometimes are. Reminds me to make back ups...