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

@dewgong: Good job getting this far.

Try the link below for downloading SW Update. I've heard that sometimes the link is busy. Keep trying in that case.

http://orcaservice.samsungmobile.com/SWUpdate.aspx

I made a mistake and forgot to advise you to make a backup of your System Software before the install, which would have included SW Update. It is all stored on the Recovery Partition (at least that was true on previous models). When you run SW Update, install Samsung Recovery Solution as well, and look for backup of System Software in there. After you've made those backups you can uninstall SRS.

Regarding the unallocated space on the harddrive: If you haven't yet created your Data partition, then this is where it goes (although 500GB seems to little for your size of drive). If you DID already create your Data Partition, but made it too small, you can right-click the partition in Disk Manager select Extend. Or you can simple delete that Data partition and create it again -- assuming you haven't already restored your data.

Why don't you post a screendump of your Disk Manager here, just to make sure we're talking about the same thing

 

Here's what I did: I tried to back up all my data to a separate partition (Z). Because I didn't know what shrinking meant so I put about 60GB the first time I shrink when I did it on my C drive. So then I realized that I needed more space if I were to transfer my files over to the shrunk area. So I did about 4xxGB or something. Then I had about half and half in C and Z totaling 1TB. I moved my stuff over to Z and then reinstalled Windows 8 and deleted C. It moved all my Z stuff to the D drive and now C has about 60GB and D has about 4xx GB.

Also, is it better to install programs onto C or D now that I have D as a data drive?

I'm actually heading out right now so I'll run the SW update when I come back.

I noticed a yellow exclamation point next to my AMD GPU on the device manager, hopefully SW update will fix things up.

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

OK, I understand now. The problem is that the unallocated space is to the LEFT of your Data partition, and while Disk Manager can Extend a partition into unallocated space, I believe it can only extend to the RIGHT. I am not sure, though, and you should try it: Right-click that partition (with the green box around it) and select Extend.

You may have to simply create a new partition in that unallocated space, copy the data over, delete the current partition, then Extend the new partition into the unallocated space (now on the RIGHT).

And yes, SW Update will take care of AMD and all the other drivers. Click its big blue One-Click Install button, then uncheck all the bloatware from the list that shows up. Check this post for bloat that came with my Sammy (older model, Win7).

Specifically, I would let it install the following:

Chipset
Intel Rapid Storage
Graphics (Intel/AMD/Nvidia)
Sound
LAN
Touchpad
Airplane Mode
Color Profile
Settings

I would specifically skip the following:

- Intel PROSet Wireless: Download and install the latest Driver Only package from Intel Download Center instead.

- Intel High-Speed Bluetooth: Windows has basic Bluetooth built-in, although the Samsung driver does add some features (and bloat). It also supports enabling/disabling Bluetooth in Settings.

- Intel Management Engine: The basic driver for this device should be included with Win8 (and provided in Windows Update in Win7). The Samsung package includes other bloat which you will never need.

- ExpressCache: I would install this (by running SW Update again) only after installing everything else and setting up Windows. As long as you are still installing and setting up, it will only slow down the disk and wear your iSSD with unnecessary writing.

Let us know how it goes

Update: I forgot: Install programs on C (your Windows partition).

 

Okay, so I installed everything and now HWinfo doesn't show activity when I'm playing videos in my browser or in VLC. I have enabled the settings for maximize performance and added them to the list. Maybe I should install all of the Windows 8 updates first?

Oh and the partition thing, I don't think I can extend it. I'll just migrate everything to a new partition when I have time.

Bad news, windows update is broken... it won't download anything.

I don't mean to waste all of your help, I'm about 90% given up on Windows 8. If I system restore it back to factory settings I won't be able to keep my data even if it is on another partition right?

 

Unless things have changed recently, the system restore in Samsung's Recovery Solution should only over-write the main Windows (C: ) partition so user data in another partition won't be lost.

John

 

@dewgong: As John says. Just be careful in Recovery not to choose the Complete Restore option since that WILL re-partition your drive and lose everything.

But I am little concerned whether Recovery will recognize your current partition layout if you do a "Windows only" restore. That's why I really wanted you to backup your data to an external drive, so that you CAN use the Complete Restore feature.

I would use this opportunity to try the clean install one last time using the steps I described. You'll never get a better time than now to try it -- before your PC is fully installed and running and full of apps and data.

But either way, don't worry about wasting advice: You learned some things and it's there for others to see who may be in the same situation.

 

Well, I restored it back to the factory settings. Things work again. League of Legends played at 60 FPS with the GPU. I was able to keep the data partition and I bought an external hard drive as a backup.

I do have a little problem though. Chrome now displays websites without the formatting, like this page is mostly words without the formatting and the background colors. Do you know what I'm saying?

Like this:



I know that happens sometimes and it usually works after I refresh, but it won't go away no matter how many times I refresh it. It happened to some other websites as well. In the second picture, all of those words are supposed to be in a drop down menu across the top, now the formatting are gone. I'm not sure I'm wording it correctly.

 

Thanks for the update, dewgong. Sounds like you got it working well now (mostly anyway). Too bad you couldn't get it working right with Win8, but at least you have the license now.

As for the Chrome issue, check this post and this post for possible solutions.

 

I have a chronos series 7 with i7 and nvidia card win 7

i dont know where to ask, and im new to the site so here goes

speakers work fine but recently when watching a video from youtube the computer start making loud sounds with high trebble which bothers my ears and doesnt let me hear the video, so i have to close the tab and open youtube again

another way this happens is by connecting the laptop to an external monitor hdmi plasma, while watching a dvd movie the computer starts making this sound and i have to get up from my bed, pause the dvd and then push play again ...it gets so anoying that i finished the movie disconecting the hdmi and the problem stops

my laptop uses realtek and the sound started while the computer was running on battery

 

I wonder if the microphone is enabled and creating a feedback loop. Right-click on the speaker icon and select Recording Devices then disable the microphone.

John

 

Hi Dannemand!

I have a 700Z3C that came with Windows 8, but the F4 button does not work (neither the Samsung Recovery in W8, I choose to recover, and it just restarts the computer).

I have tried using the above guide with Grub, but I can't get to boot it correctly (I tried hd0 to hd2, tried several partition, it was always saying "no such partition", except for hd0,1 that said "can't mount partition")


I booted Hiren's Boot CD with PE Windows XP, and got you an image of my partition scheme (default, as it came with the computer).


(click for bigger image).

Thanks !

 

@Miguel86: That's a nice machine Sorry to hear about your problems.

Yeah, this can happen if you restore an image backup of the Recovery Partition(s) or the entire disk. The imaging program only restores the actual partitions, not the F4 link.

Once the F4 link is gone (even with the Recovery Partition(s) still there) I only know two ways to restore it:

1) Sometimes, installing and running Samsung Recovery Solution in Windows will see the Recovery Partition and restore the link. In your case, where SRS tries to reboot into Recovery, but fails, this would appear to not have worked.

2) Alternatively, re-creating the Recovery Partition from scratch using USB Admin Tool -- which will create a working F4 link. You then have to restore the contents of the original Recovery Partition. Because you have the intact contents of your Recovery Partitions (on an image or the original ones) you actually have a chance of doing this -- many only realize this after they've lost their Recovery Partitions.

As you already know, the problem is you need to boot your Recovery in order to create that pesky USB Admin Tool. I have had success using Grub4Dos to do this (as you already tried) and I continue to think that is our best option.

One thing is different here: Your Sammy is Win8-delivered, with a GPT partitioned HDD and (I presume) with UEFI and SecureBoot enabled. This adds a layer of complexity and unknowns. You cannot disable UEFI (even if it might simplify things) as it is needed to read your GPT disk. And you cannot convert to MBR as your Recovery almost certainly is based on GPT.

If you disabled UEFI in your BIOS that could explain why you get that "no such partition" error: It is running in MBR mode and sees the simplified Protective MBR in the GPT header, which makes the entire disk look like a single big unknown partition type. See the MSDN article linked below for background.

Windows and GPT FAQ

It is also possible (maybe even likely) that Grub4Dos doesn't understand GPT disks, even if you have kept UEFI enabled. The result would be the same: It would see the entire disk as one big unknown partition type.

As I briefly mentioned in my PM I am terribly busy this weekend, but will try to find some time Sunday to work on this. In the meantime, keep trying with Grub4Dos and your BIOS UEFI Settings. Find out if it supports GPT; if it doesn't, look for other boot managers. It's possibly we could even use Win7's own boot manager and add a BCD entry to boot the Recovery Partition.

Just be careful... you probably read the sticky thread linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/706510-samsung-laptops-bricked-using-uefi.html

 

I have the UEFI setting in dual mode (UEFI plus other mode that is for OS's older than W8).

I can now understand the problem, we have to make Grub see the GPT partitions.

Like I said in the PM, I have time (the PC works) !

 

Sorry to break the flow of what you guys are discussing but could a mod put the year of this model in the title of the thread. I see this and keep confusing it with the 2013 version.

 

Dannemand, I may be able to get acess to a Samsung NP530 that also came with W8 (but it has different HD size, and SSD cache size).

Can I use the USB Admin Tool created in that PC, on my PC, since they are both Samsung with W8?

Thanks

 

Yes, yes, that's great; absolutely do that!

Just make sure they have the same version of Samsung Recovery Solution. It's almost certain to be SRS6 on both; but even if there is a subversion difference (your NP700Z3C is SRS6.x and the NP530 is SRS6.y) that might still be OK: Remember, all we want is to make a USB Admin Tool that can be used to re-create Recovery and F4.

The USB Admin Tool actually contains the Recovery software itself -- which it places on the new Recovery Partition when you create it. And it would be the wrong version if they are not exactly the same. But you are going to copy the full file and folder contents of your original Recovery Partition onto the new one anyway, replacing whatever files the USB Admin Tool put there.

Please be aware that this is still a rather involved process, and your entire disk may be wiped. So make some serious backups first. USB Admin Tool does have an option to create JUST the Recovery -- and you should try that first -- but sometimes you can only get F4 working by letting it do a full re-partitioning of my disk.

I'll be very interested to hear how it goes for you

 

Is there any way of seeing if they are different (even if their version is the same in Windows) ?

I just hope the password ( secclx ) is the same (my guess is, that it will be different, since it is a different version).

What can I do if the password is not accepted?

Thanks

 

We have confirmation from other members that the password should be the same.

The only way I can see to compare versions is by running SRS in Windows. But again, as long as both are SRS6, I think it should work (for the reasons I described).

 

Tomorrow night (GMT time) I will probably have news.

Till then, good weekend to all .

 

Does anyone's monitor come up as a generic monitor? I'm not sure if there is a driver for it.

 

Mine shows that too. I don't think Samsung has a driver for it as such -- but you can adjust the Display Color profile in [Easy] Settings.

 

So I created the USB Admin Tool flash drive.

I created the recovery partition, re-writiting the old recovery partition, now I have recovery, windows does not boot, and the recovery does not find the image partition .

I am now restoring the disk with the disk image I have (that has all the partitions intact, but the recovery does not boot), and will try again (this time, I will only try the "MBR Fix" option).

Below are the available options that Admin Tool gives.



edit: MBR Fix did not resolve, now Windows does not boot.

Any sugestions ?

 

Thank you for the update. I was wondering how you were doing and actually looking for it this pm while my friend and wife were out. Of course now they're back, so this will have to be a fast one. Again

Good job getting hold of that USB Admin Tool and using it. What you're describing sounds as I would expect.

You cannot restore that disk/partition image, it will break the Recovery and F4 that you just made with the USB Admin Tool. You have to make a backup of the file and folder contents from the original Recovery Partitions (both the small one at the beginning of the drive and the large one at the end) then restore those file and folder contents to the new partitions created with USB Admin Tool.

There are several ways to copy files and folders from and to those hidden partitions, all described in the post you linked originally.

A) You can unhide a Recovery Partition using DISKPART from an Admin Command Prompt (SET ID=07 OVERRIDE) then add a drive letter (in DISKPART or Windows Disk Management). Make sure you show hidden and system files before you copy. Change back to hidden Recovery with SET ID=27 OVERRIDE.

(B) You can boot Windows Setup and open a Command Prompt there (Shift-F10) where the Recovery Partitions are readily visible. Then copy their contents with XCOPY /E /H (to make sure it copies subfolders and hidden files).

Keep track of which files you backup from which Recovery Partition (the small and the big). Also take note of the size of those Recovery Partitions. Now use USB Admin Tool to re-partition with new Recovery Partitions of the same size. Then restore the file and folder contents using the same procedure you used to backup (but in reverse of course).

Dinner is waiting... I'll check back tomorrow. I hope this gets you a little further. You've come a long way

 

Thanks. I was afraid that it was missing a driver causing me to lose power.

My model is a NP700Z5B-S01UB, (15.6 900p i7 8GB, 1TB with 8GB SDD).
I think mine may be drawing too much power. When I got it and all the bloatware was installed it reported that it could go to 7hrs or so. Now that I did a clean boot and installed the new BIOS, it gets around 5 hours. Is there something I can do? My power draw is usually around 20W, which I'm not sure if its high.
If anyone cares to find their own draw, you can use HWiNFO64 Download
or BatteryBar Pro: Windows Battery Life Tracker

I tried it on a Windows 8 partition and it shows the same, so I assume it might be a BIOS problem or bad reporting?

 

@Nausicaaa: You can also watch power consumption on the Power Management tab in [Easy] Settings.

At lowest LCD brightness my NP700Z3A idles around 9.3-10.5W and oscillates between 12-16W while writing this post with LCD turned up a few notches. That's Win8.

Disabling Flash can save quite a bit of power. Also, stick to the default Samsung Optimized power profile (but tweak its Wireless Adapter Settings and Max processor state)

Use Task Manager (sorted by CPU) to get an idea of which tasks are keeping the CPU busy. If your CPU is running harder without you having installed new software, it's possible a virus or other malware is churning in the background. Just a thought...

 

Thank you. I didn't think to look at that. What do you mean by disabling flash? The SSD?
I use the Samsung Optimized but I thought I could somehow get it lower.

I'd like to disable the ATI, but I don't think I can besides setting the GPU settings it always save power....

 

Dannemand, if you have the time, could you do a step by step of what you wanted me to do (including step by step of what to do when using the Admin flash drive, with the help the images I posted above) ?

I am asking this because I have spent hours trying to make this work, and now even when restoring the disk image, Windows does not even boot.
I used the Admin flash drive, I select "Install Recovery Area", and when I restart, it does not also boot (I even used Parted Magic to see the content of the hidden partitions) !

I don't understand how before it worked, and now it doesn't.
I did the same steps as before!
I tried installing recovery, does not work, tried after that, fixing MBR , it still does not work.
It does not make sense.

I had both things (restoring the disk image, making Windows work again, and installing the Recovery) working seperatly, and I don't know what I am doing wrong, for nothing to be working now.
Maybe I am just tired .
I know it would be easy just to format it, but I want this to be like it came when it was new!

This were the steps I did.

1-Restoring disk image
2- Copying the content of Windows tools, Windows, Recover , and Recover_2 partitions. ( I don't know how many partitions the W7 installations had, but W8 has 6 partitions)


3-Installing the Admin partition
4-Pasting the content of step 2 (except the partion where the recovery was written).

Thanks !

edit: I tried selecting "instal recovery"+ "install windows" to see if it would install recovery and windows...In the end, it installed windows, but no recovery again

 

Yes, I'll write some steps for you. Let me get breakfast and run a fast errand, then I'll get to it. Might take a while to write up.

Sit tight, we'll get it working

Update: That screen from Admin Tool you posted, is that the main opening screen? If there are any more screens, could you post them for me? I ask because it is very different from my SRS5 Admin Tool, and it will help me post the right steps for you.

Update2: Reading your last post again; it is very likely that the only problem is Step 4 where you avoid pasting (restoring) the contents of your recovery. That is exactly the one you SHOULD restore. We want to overwrite the contents of the Recovery Partitions created by the Admin Tool with the contents from your backed up Recovery Partitions.

Update3: While you're at it, could you also post pictures of your BIOS screen with the UEFI settings? Sorry about all these requests, but I want to make sure I understand what is going on.

 

No problem, I will do that .

I will try, but to be honest, I lost hope.

I still cannot understand how before restoring the disk image would boot windows, and now it doesn't, and how how the recovery was installed properly the first time, and now it does not boot.

One strange thing is, that the recovery is installed, because yesterday when I was getting to install W8 using the DVD, it booted 2 times to the recovery, one interesting thing, was that it still had the flash drive with Admin tool plugged in..

One time I still did not have the REC2 files, so I put the files there.
The second (and last time I was able to boot it), I had the files in there (I did an integrity test in SRS6), it said the install space was too small (I think, it only saw 40GB...).

Other strange thing is that I tried to install the windows programm, and it does not install, because it says that the recovery partition, has a newer version that the one I am trying to install, but both are version 6.0.6.5 .

Give me 30min max, and I will take the pictures .

Again, thanks for trying to help

edit:

Here is the UEFI option

And here is the SRS menu, now with the HD selected (the rest is the same as above).
And yes, I only have that windows (and those options).

 

@Miguel86: I think the MBR Fix you did caused the problem. Your disk doesn't use MBR, but the newer GPT partition layout. I realize one of my old posts mention it, but it was targeting SRS5 and Win7-delivered PCs. I should have warned you about that.

Also, you just reminded me of a trick with the USB Admin Tool which I had forgotten: If you have an intact Recovery Partition, booting USB Admin Tool from a USB3 port (blue) will actually cause it to boot the Recovery itself (at least on SRS5). Then from there, you can choose the Complete Restore function (what it's called in SRS5) to re-create your Windows partition and restore the Windows Factory image. HOWEVER, this will not solve the problem of missing F4.

In order to use USB Admin Tool you must boot it from a USB2 port (black).

I don't know how much damage MBR Fix may have caused (if any). We'll find out as we proceed.

Note: I assume you are fully prepared that whatever data and programs you have on the disk will be lost by what we are doing here. I also assume that you still have that original disk image where you backed up all partitions on the disk, so that we can restore that.

Does your imaging software allow you to copy individual files and folders from the backed up image, or can you only restore entire partitions (or even entire disks)?

Edit: Saw your images, very useful, thank you. Give me a little time to think and I'll post a suggested procedure.

Oh, and I am sure we'll get this working -- though I understand it's getting tiring for you. Hang in there

 

That is strange, I always boot from USB3 (the USB2 has the mouse).

I tried copying individual files on my PC, but it always fails, so I can only recover partitions or the disk (that is way till morning trying to resolve this ,because it takes 1H to restore the disk).

Btw , the software I use is Paragon Backup & Recovery Free (I have a norton Ghost disk here, if I knew, I should have used that).

I also tried without fixing MBR.
Yesteday I restored the disk, maybe 4 or 5 times (because every time I tried USB Admin Tool , it would delete everything), because I was trying all the options.

There is no problem in deleting all, I already backed everything important last week .

edit:

And yesterday I got the content of recovery (and windows tools, not in the image)

 

OK, here is my suggested procedure.

I cannot give 100% specifics on every detail because I rely on your eyes to tell me what happens on the screen. But try and follow it without any experimenting. If something unforeseen happens along the way, stop there and send me a PM before you continue (PMs will notify me by email).

1) Make sure you have backups of the ORIGINAL files and folders from the following partitions: Windows RE tools, SAMSUNG_REC2 (the big Recovery Data partition) and SAMSUNG_REC (the Recovery Boot partition). Make sure you include hidden and system files. Keep the backups in separate folders on an external drive.

If the imaging software you used originally to backup the entire drive allows you to extract files and folders (as opposed to merely restoring entire partitions), then that is the preferred way. I want to make sure we have THE ORIGINAL contents of those partitions, not whatever mix is there now after several restore attempts.

If your imaging software only allows you to restore entire partitions, then do a complete restore of that image back to the Samsung HDD. After that use Parted Magic to make copies of the files and folders from those three partitions and save them on an external drive.

I like Parted Magic myself, but because of the horror stories about Linux and UEFI I wouldn't normally recommend using it on recent Samsung models. However, you said you already used it successfully, so I guess it's OK.

Parted Magic (or similar Live-CD) really is the easiest way to make these file and folder copies because the Recovery Partitions are readily accessible and you can simply select everything in the root of a partition and drag it to a backup folder on an external drive.

You don't have to make backups of the other partitions. If my assumptions are correct, they should be created later by the Admin Tool and by the Recovery itself.

2) Boot USB Admin Tool from a USB2 port (black). If your PC only has USB3 ports (blue) I guess that must work as well. But on mine with SRS5, booting Admin Tool from USB3 simply boots the Recovery itself instead of the Admin Tool.

3) In Admin Tool, select the following and nothing else:

Select Disk: Disk 0
Disk Partitioning (Boot): Check
Size of Recovery Boot Partition: 1.0GB
Position: Last
Disk Partitioning (Data): Check - Select Disk 0
Size of Recovery Data Partition: 25.2GB
Install Recovery Area: Check
MBR Fix: UN-check
Copy init image: UN-check
Install Windows: UN-check (I think)
Fix init date: UN-check

Some of these options I am fully familiar with from SRS5; others are new to me, but I can easily deduct what they mean; a few I am uncertain of.

It is important that we set the correct size for the Recovery Boot and Recovery Data partitions to match your original SAMSUNG_REC and SAMSUNG_REC2 partitions, respectively. The default 10GB for the Recovery Data Partition (SAMSUNG_REC2) is too small (I think you stumbled there once).

Also, we select Position=Last for the Recovery Boot Partition because we want Windows RE tools to be the first partition on the drive and SAMSUNG_REC to be the last, and everything else in between.

Copy init image is a great function that can be used in conjunction with the Backup Factory Image function in Recovery. This is actually the preferred way to backup and re-create Recovery Partitions -- but only when you have an Admin Tool created with your own Recovery. Yours was created on another PC and could be a slightly different version.

Install Windows actually installs Windows 8, requiring you to have the Windows 8 DVD inserted. In this particular case, we only want to create the Recovery partitions (we'll restore Windows from Recovery later). Thus I suggest you UN-check this option. (Thank you, Miguel, for sending me this info.)

Fix init date is used to change the Purchase Date you may have noticed in BIOS.

In short, enter and check/UN-check the options I suggest here, then click Run.

PLEASE snap some pictures for me as it does its thing

Once it is finished, you should (hopefully) have a re-partitioned disk with working F4 and working Recovery Partitions -- but possibly containing the wrong version of the Recovery software -- and containing no Factory Image and no actual Windows.

Close down Admin Tool when it is finished, turn off the PC and put aside the Admin Tool USB stick. I guess you could try F4, but I would rather you wait.

4) Boot Parted Magic again and verify that your partition list looks similar to your original (the one you posted for me). Maybe the Windows partitions are there yet, maybe not. Please post the results for me

5) Still in Parted Magic, copy back the file and folder contents you backed up in step (1) to partitions Windows RE tools, SAMSUNG_REC2 and SAMSUNG_REC.

After it has finished, close down Parted Magic and turn off the PC.

6) Now the magic moment: Try and F4 boot the Recovery: Similar to when you enter BIOS with F2, hit F4 2-3 times/sec starting almost immediately after Power On. If you miss, Power Off and try again. If F4 still doesn't work, there is another procedure we can try (more work )

7) If you manage to boot Recovery, choose the Complete Restore (or whatever it is called in SRS6). Basically we want the most extensive Restore function available in there: Remember, we're now running the PROPER Recovery version for your PC model with all the original Recovery data; so we want it to re-build and overwrite as much as possible from that Admin Tool (which may have been a slightly different version).

After this, see if you cannot boot Windows. You may have to re-enable SecureBoot in BIOS (please report back if you do).

I know this looks massive because of all the detail I write; but the actual steps you have to take really are quite few. And it sounds like you've done them all before. We're just trying to get the right order and options this time.

Look forward to hearing your results. Send me a PM so I'll get notified by email.

 

@Miguel: I got a Plan B procedure for you here. This is a really good one, if I may say so

(Context for others reading this: The procedure posted above did NOT restore the F4 link of Miguel's Recovery, most likely due to the fact that his USB Admin Tool had been created with a different a Samsung PC model, possibly having a different version).

Instead of focusing on creating a new Recovery in order to establish a working F4, I found a way to add Samsung Recovery to the Win7 boot menu. Presumably you have fully intact Recovery Partitions, you just don't have working F4 (which is what happens when restoring image backups of Recovery Partitions). This way you can at least boot your Recovery and use the Complete Restore function to get the original Samsung Windows installation back.

1) Do a complete restore of your Paragon disk image, in order to get your Recovery Partitions back to original state.

(I know from your PM that you already did this step, and your Windows boots alright -- but of course F4 doesn't work. I merely include it here for completeness).

2) Download NeoSmart EasyBCD (that was a link). There is a free, non-commercial version. I use version 2.2, which I believe is the latest. Install it, but don't run it yet.

3) Use DISKPART to assign a drive letter to your Recovery Boot Partition (SAMSUNG_REC). These are the steps to assign drive letter R:

3a) Use Start Menu - Run and enter DISKPART. Click Yes when User Account Control prompts you (because DISKPART can make changes to your disk).

3b) Enter LIST VOLUME to show all your volumes. Notice which one is SAMSUNG_REC. On mine it's Volume 4 but it is probably Volume 6 on yours.

3c) Enter SELECT VOLUME 6 (assuming 6 was the number of your SAMSUNG_REC volume).

3d) Enter DETAIL PARTITION just to verify that you have the correct volume selected. It should have an asterisk ( * ) in front.

3e) Enter ASSIGN LETTER=R (assuming you want drive letter R).

3f) Enter EXIT to close DISKPART.

This is what it looks like on mine (note on my PC SAMSUNG_REC is Volume 4):



Your Recovery Boot Partition should now have drive letter R. Open Computer (Explorer) to verify.

4) With that Explorer window still open, go to the R:\sources folder and verify that it has a file called boot.wim.

5) Assuming you found that R:\sources\boot.wim file, open EasyBCD (in the NeoSmart Start Menu group). On the Add New Entry tab, enter a new boot entry with the following settings:

Portable/External Media: WinPE
Type: WIM Image (Ramdisk)
Name: Samsung Recovery
Path: R:\sources\boot.wim

Click Add Entry.

Go to the Edit Boot Menu and make sure there is a Count down of at least three seconds to make a selection when booting.

Click Save Settings.

You can now close EasyBCD. This is what it looks like (except I have both Win7 and Win8):




6) Restart Windows. You should get a Boot menu where you can select Samsung Recovery. Hopefully your Recovery is now booting -- finally!

7) Create a USB Admin Tool (like you've done before): [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[F10] to enter Management Mode, password secclx (SECCLX). This will now be a PROPER Admin Tool for your PC.

7a) Still in Recovery, Backup Factory Image to an external drive (you'll have to back out from Management Mode).

Having Admin Tool AND a backed up Factory Image (also called Initial Image) should make it much easier to re-create Recovery with working F4: You simply run Admin Tool as described in my last post, and check Copy init image before you click Run. That way you don't have to copy file and folder contents back and forth.

In SRS5 the Initial Image had to be on a USB stick (it wouldn't take a USB hard drive). Hopefully they have improved that in SRS6.

8) Otherwise, still in Recovery, use Complete Restore (or whatever it is called in SRS6) to get back to the original Samsung delivered Windows installation.

Of course I have only tried this with my own SRS5 (again ) but I feel quite confident it should work on SRS6 as well.

Note that the drive letter you assigned to your SAMSUNG_REC partition may disappear next time you boot Windows. But the Samsung Recovery entry in the boot menu should still work. Of course if you restore Windows to factory state, that menu boot and EasyBCD will will go away.

I look forward to your results. Bedtime for me now!

Update: Added step (7a) and a better way to re-partition/re-create Recovery with Admin Tool using a Factory Image Backup. I must have been very tired last night to forget that.

 

I am very sorry I missed your post yesterday. It must have seemed rude to you, seeing how I was busily responding to Miguel. But I simply didn't notice it till now.

By "disabling Flash" I meant Adobe Flash. Any website that has animated Flash ads running will increase power consumption (in other words, you pay to receive those ads )

I personally do NOT have Adobe Flash installed. I use Chrome which has a built-in Flash renderer (called PepperFlash). But I keep it disabled except when I actually need it (hardly ever). I have a bookmark to about : plugins on the Bookmarks Bar.

There are also utilities that will automatically keep Flash disabled. Amazing how much effort the world is spending to keep this monster at bay!

I really don't think you have to disable ATI/AMD as long as no apps are configured to use it. HwInfo's Summary screen will show you its status, and mine is completely dead when it isn't actually used.



But I guess you could try and disable the AMD under Display adapters in Device Manager. I never tried that, so no guarantees...

 

Its not problem, thanks for replying!

Under GPU mine shows the same. I disabled it in Device Manager before, and it caused it to run a generic display, so I didn't have full resolution. I thought it was running the ATI one since I only disabled the ATI, but I think both the drivers are linke

 

It should be possible it get down below 10W under light usage with a dim display. Light usage means a CPU utilisation (see Task Manager > Processes) of less than 5%. The Processes tab will also show you what is using the CPU. Use the Samsung Optimized or Power Saver power plan. Anything plugged into USB will use power and WiFi / Bluetooth also add to the power drain (with a weak signal needing more power).

I use Firefox with FlashBlock and AdBlockPlus.

John

 

Just to give an update.

Could not get Recovery to work using the Windows program or the F4 button.

Also, the computer stopped restarting, it just shuts down, even in the Bios,saving the settings OR pressing ctrl+alt+del makes the computer shutdown instead of rebooting, and even when doing this, it shows a black screen for some seconds before shutting down.

I don't know what caused this (Samsung update, did a bios update a few days ago), but I called Samsung to send to warranty, just to make sure.

Thanks Dannemand for your stupendous help

 

Stupendous or stupid -- I think the jury is still out on that one, since we didn't manage to get your Recovery fixed or get F4 working again

Thank you for that update, Miguel. I think getting the PC to Samsung Service was the right decisions at this point. With your latest reports (we exchanged some PMs) there was increasing evidence that other things were wrong beyond just the lost F4 link.

Suspects are (1) a corrupt or failed BIOS update -- or just a BIOS fault; as demonstrated in several threads here, some BIOS updates on Ivy Bridge models (starting last fall) have been tricky. Or (2) your Paragon full image backup either isn't as "full" as it claims to be -- or doesn't restore correctly; how else could the PC behave so differently each time you restored the image?

I have had great success myself with image backups using my 10 year old Terabyte software, and never experienced a failed image. EXCEPT when I used it to backup and restore the Recovery on my Samsung last summer and F4 failed. At least everything else worked. But it still took me a long time to figure out how to get that Recovery going again.

So there is a clear lesson for all here to leave Recovery Partitions alone -- unless you're 1000% sure you'll NEVER mess up your PC and will NEVER need warranty service and will NEVER want to sell the PC. Or you know exactly how to backup and re-create that partition.

Thanks again for working so patiently on this

A side note to other tech savvy owners with GPT/SRS6 (and working Recoveries):

I would love to get confirmation that adding Recovery to the Windows boot menu (as described in this post) works and boots SRS6 Recovery.

I know it works for SRS5 -- and it's actually a great fallback if F4 goes poof. Much cleaner than the old Grub4Dos trick -- and it should work with GPT disks as well.

Thank you in advance for any feedback on that.

 

I do not believe that presence of the Recovery Partition is a requirement for warranty service. For people who have backup media for re-installation and other ways to backup their computer then functioning SRS and Recovery Partition is not needed and, if one only has a low capacity SSD, then the Recovery Partition probably has to go after making the alternative arrangements.

John

 

OK, admittedly I may have overstated that argument a bit

What I meant was that Samsung Support may ask you to restore to factory in order in order to diagnose any problems. But you're right, I don't know that it is required for warranty service. And yes, on a 128GB SSD it's a lot of space to leave the Recovery there.

I still think, though, that many people wipe their Recoveries too quickly -- without making necessary backups first -- who maybe should have left it alone. We're all used to doing that on new PC because we perform clean installs anyway. And Samsung doesn't include a warning saying Recovery cannot be backed up and restored using common imaging tools. But particular in these Win8/UEFI/GPT days, things are more complicated than they used to be, and it is easier to mess a PC up.

Fortunately, SRS6 now has features that make Factory Image Backup much easier, and (as I understand) which allow restoring or cloning the factory installation onto an external drive. That's a huge step forward.

 

Why Samsung don't have a piece of nagware that keeps reminding users to make a backup (after which the nagware is switched off) is one of those mysteries. Other manufacturers do it.

John

 

Hello Dannemand i'm new in this forum I have been doing a lot of research and your approach to this problem is the best so far but I have a question. I have a Samsung 7 series np700z5c s02ub and I had a lot of problems with Windows 8 so I went and downgrade it with an original copy of Windows 7 but I wipe all the partitions and after a lot of hours I managed to make everything work properly except the recovery partition because the backup I have is the Windows 8 backup. So finally the question is... How can I recreate the partition again if I can and if I can not recreate it tell why you would say this thank you very much.

 

Hello eavillacis, welcome to the forum. Nice laptop you have there

If you deleted the Recovery Partition prior to installing Win7 it is a lot of work to get it back. It MAY be possible, but the question is whether it is worth the effort -- at least until the day comes when you need it.

Basically you need a so-called USB Admin Tool which had to be created on a USB stick while you still had your Recovery working. With that USB Admin Tool in hand, it is possible to start over on the disk and create new Recovery Partitions (Win8-delivered Sammies have their Recovery spread across two partitions). You then restore the contents of the original Recovery Partitions -- assuming you made full backups before you wiped them.

I just gave member skor78 a similar answer the other day in this post.

In his case it is impossible because he had NEITHER USB Admin Tool NOR a Recovery Backup. You would have a better chance because you have a backup (if I understood you correctly) but it is still a lot of work because you don't have that USB Admin Tool. And there is still no guarantee that it will work.

What I also told skor78 is not to worry too much about missing the Recovery. Although I DO recommend that users keep (or backup) the Recoveries, it really is very easy to clean install on these Sammies.

If you're sure you want to pursue this, I can pull together a list of relevant posts. I'll help you the best I can, but it's best if you can wait till next week in that case as I won't be here much the next few days.

 

I have the NP700Z5A-S09US and have been unable to find a concrete answer as to what the "small display port" on my laptop is.

I've purchased multiple (cheap, so not a huge deal) cords from amazon that I though would convert it to HDMI out after thinking I had found what it was actually called - but they do not fit.

After chatting with Samsung I've been told that it is purely a VGA port - basically alluding that it is not some type of digital display port, but rather a tiny analog port and only works with that samsung vga cord.

I figured this couldn't be the case, but have been unable to get a concrete answer. Any help is appreciated.

 

If it's the port with the screen icon, yes that is a small VGA port to be used with the samsung VGA dongle (was included with my laptop at least). This is analogue signal and can't be directly converted to HDMI/displayport.

 

Someone uses the Leshcat’s drivers? I have an Samsung 700z5a-s01pt and unfortunately Samsung did not release more updates of video drivers for Windows 8. The Leshcat drivers are reliable and efficient?

 

You may want to take a look at the thread linked below:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...ows-8-my-series-7-chronos-np700z5a-s04us.html

The OP of that thread was unable to get Samsung's official AMD Win8 drivers (9.2.0.0) to install on his NP700Z5A. For my part, the same drivers have worked flawlessly on my NP700Z3A. I will be very interested to hear if that AMD driver works for you.

Do note that your PC is officially supported by Samsung for Win8, but you will not find Win8 drivers on the Samsung web site anymore (nor updated Win7 drivers). You have to use SW Update to get them.

 

I already have version 9.2.0.0 (27/09/2012) installed. I installed it through the SWUpdate. But some features do not work, for example: AMD Switchable Graphics (I click the right mouse button, select Configure Switchable Graphics but the application doesn't open). So for i could use the AMD graphics card, I had to go to AMD Catalyst Control Center > Energy > Global Configurations for Switchable Graphics and set maximum performance.

 

Got it, thank you for that update. This is actually similar to what member phoenixfight reported in the thread I linked. But after trying with a Win7 driver instead, he became unable to make the Win8 driver install at all.

 

The problem is that I can not install this update because the functionality 'amd switchable graphics' stops working!