Samsung 9 Series laptop (ZX310 / 900X3A) unveiled

@pvandam

Good first post!

And you picked on the 8th digit for identifying the build month -- I'm impressed that you read so far back...

I hope that we can get this WiFi issue sorted out... Sounds like you do need to pick up a USB wireless adapter that you can use when you need it though.

 

nope - not me. To build a decent mold, one that i could expect to see 25-50 decent castings from (ie Fiberglass case back copies) would take 18-25 hours, and each casting would take 2-4 hours. Not worth it

i've thought about hooking up with a friend in the plastics industry that did some injection molding for us some time back to see what the mold cost would be. A proper injection mold would give 450,000 case backs

now that i've studied the tear down shots of on that zdnet site, for my personal purposes, it'd be cheaper and easier to secure a replacement metal caseback, cut an opening 3-4" X the width of the case back (or as close to the edges as possible) and then replace that cutout with FB "patch" - could be done so it looked factory.

 

just occurred to me, don't know why i was so focus'd on fiberglass. If there's a polymer stiff enough and can be sourced in panels 1/8" or less, maybe .090" thick, it would actually be easier to simply machine pcs to fit the opening i described above, with some overlap and bond them into the case bottom.

Has anyone tried buying a replacement case bottom? - be curious to know what sammy is quoting for cost

if a few could be had at something resembling a reasonable price, they could then be used as rotating stock for sammy owners to send in their case back to swap for one already modified

 

@Ralph

I've never seen mention of anyone buying any major parts for the Series 9.

The only Series 9 parts/accessories that I've found, most are are SamsungParts.com, have been power supply and adapter, VGA dongle, LAN dongle and 128GB SSD. I don't know if people have been able to match the RAM exactly.

I did submit a request to SamsungParts.com to see if they could get this part and, if so, how much it would cost.

 

Next time you're in contact with tech support at sammy, see if they have a phone number for their parts dept -

if you've got it handy, and will post the tech support number you've been calling, i'll call and see if i can chase down some casebacks

 

@ Ralph

The tech support is 1-800-SAMSUNG (1-800-726-2864). Prompts "1", "5", "3". They keep your info based on your phone number so you want to use the same phone # for all cases. Also ask for a case # if you don't get one.

Samsung does not sell the parts themselves. The authorized Samsung USA parts distributor is J&J International in NJ. Full details here www.samsungparts.com I've never tried to contact them by phone but email responses usually take about 4 to 5 days

 

has anyone been able to play sc2 on these bad boys?? Does it run well at least in low settings?

 

tks - i did some googling and found some other samsung laptop parts suppliers - i'll try and see if i can get a quote from one

 

Well, got thru to Samsung support, filed a service report or ticket on the WiFi issue for the record, and they forwarded me to "intelsol" in texas for the lower case shell. (Tel:817-230-5230)

They apparently do samsung's repair work, but they don't have it, but did give me the parts number (BA75-02845A) and referred me to samsungparts.com, where it pulls up as available, ships in one day and price is $117.54

Part #: BA75-02845A
Product: Computer
Stock: Ships within 1 business day
Price: $117.54


Description:
UNIT-HOUSING_BOTTOM

Specification:
AMOR-13,SEC,MG,T0.8,


and iirc, kalahari, you asked about a svc manual for the series 9 - found this at samsungparts.com

SM-NP900X3AA03US
MANUAL

$28.00

that's for the A03 model - they seem to have them for the "A" models, but nothing showing for the "B" models

In-Stock Specification
NP900X3AA03US
SERVICE MANUAL

 

@ Ralph

Good job on finding out about InteliSol (intelisol.com). Hadn't heard of them before and Samsung Tech had never mentioned them. I wonder where the Samsung Tech support people actually are -- about 50% of my landline-based calls to them have bad connections.

Please let us know if you do something about the lower case shell. I still want Samsung to do something about and I couldn't do a neat job of it myself, so not considering purchasing & modding one now.

The lower case shell is not that expensive if Samsung took it upon them to modify and replace existing shells. Their internal cost would obviously be a lot lower.

Wondered if you'd tried asking if there was another Samsung laptop that had the same size & shape lower case shell (but maybe not in Duralumin)?

 

My orig thinking on the modded shell was someone could do a few, and folks could send in their shells as a "core" and the cost of the modded shell would be in the $50-60 range. But it occurred to me, the negative for someone doing it that way is they make it real obvious to sammy they've voided the warranty.

I'm waiting for my 2nd mem board to arrive, to open my laptop up. will take a look at the internal layout and make a decision.

i might order that service manual, just for the procedure to access the display's bezel or the keyboard - think your idea about locating the antenna up there is probably the best, most direct & cost effective approach, and one that can be reversed if there's a warranty issue that needs samsung's attention.

sammy's cost on those shells is probably south of $20 (stamping & finishing) but if they were to remanufacture and retrofit them, cost per laptop would probably approach $100 per (tech time, shipping costs, etc). That will never happen. If locating the antenna behind the display bezel is viable, that's the one sammy might do, but
even that i find doubtful (that they'll offer to do it). The tech i spoke with wasn't even aware of the wifi issue so at this stage, it may well be 5% (or less) of the owners are even aware of it - last thing sammy will do would be to acknowledge a problem openly, with their flagship notebook and diminish sales - again, i refer back to the galaxy S GPS example.

PS - ordered the service manual - went back to order, and only after you clik the "purchase" button, does it show you a 2nd choice of the manual on CD for $18,
total with shipping $28.25

 

whoever had the links to the wifi wire leads on ebay - any chance you can repost? or what did you use for search terms? (i'm an idiot of computer electronics - tks in advance

 

@ The Original Ralph

At least two kinds of antenna that you can buy.
1. The rubber coated strip. "Isolated Internal UFL Antenna (WAEISO3-S0)" from Oxfordtec.com [See attached picture. They're less than 10" long.]
2. The Internal Antenna like this on eBay

 

tks - got my 2nd memory board in today so i'll be pulling the cover off tonite - will still need the svc manual to see what's entailed to accessing the underside of the keyboard or the display bezel

 

I like the way this discussion is going. Count me in re. plastic bottom mold. Not sure how to get an antenna into the screen bezel - that might be out of my scope, which is very limited.

Something else: I connected the S9 via HDMI cable to my 1080p LCD TV and played NETFLIX. Black and white movies were fine, but everything in color has occasionally these sparkles. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

nagyg,

I've actually found the micro-HDMI cable to my (old) 42" plasma works perfectly. So does the VGA dongle.

Is your connector plugged in properly? Do you have another HDMI source that is working perfectly? What resolution are you running your TV at? 1024x768 might work just as well as higher resolution -- I say that because that I used for VGA and it looked as good as my HDMI connection!

 

Deleted - requested information found

 

It's called "Easy Display Manager". Here's the link: http://org.downloadcenter.samsung.c...610161704809/Easy_Display_Manager_3.2.6.9.ZIP

Hitting Fn+F1 doesn't bring up Intel control center, it brings Samsung Easy Display Manager. Intel's available after right-clicking the desktop or through Start menu/Control panel.

 

I disagree. It might be ok on your plasma, but it is always recommended to run LCD TV with it's native resolution, which is usually 1080p (1920x1080) or 720p (1280x720). All other resolutions will degrade the image quality. S9 works perfectly at 1920x1080 with my 55" over Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

 

It's a known bug with no solution from Samsung so far. Try to disable UAC/elevate rights for other users if you want them to use Samsung software.

It's actually a Windows 7 feature, not Samsung. They just created a new name to a known technology - Hybrid Sleep. What is grayed out on your system?

It doesn't. It asks you for a reboot. You can click "No" and continue your work.

 

Don't feel like getting into this...

 

Agree. I run my Plasma TV at its native resolution when I have micro-HDMI connected.
I was suggesting an option to try to see if the picture would work -- it was not a permanent solution.

 

Thanks Phil for your comments.

Related to the Samsung tools needing admin rights to run:

When reporting this to Samsung, they also said this was the only workaround, but they also STRONGLY advised against disabling UAC.
Personally I believe the whole point of UAC is added security, the same as not having users run as admins. So hoping Samsung will see this as a bug too at some point.
The Samsung services are all started through the Task Schedular (not registry "run" command, or even run them as a service). Running them as a proper service would probably allow them to overcome the problem and would not make running these user logon dependant.


Related to Fast Start function:

Standby is a Standard Windows feature: System sleeps and wakes quickly and memory is not stored, so on powerloss, system will restart
Hibernate is also a Standard Windows Feature where sleep and wake is done from complete power off (not standby) preserving the current memory state. A characteristic of Hibernate is that is is slow (as it has to completely load te memory from disk
Samsung Fast Start is a smart combination of the 2, where sleep and wake is to and from complete power-off, but it is as fast as Windows Standby (you don't see the Windows "Resuming" when you power on.
So apart from creating a new name, they also do something very specific.

Greyed out Windows items:
Go to Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings (the page where you can control the behaviour of the power buttons)
These are all greyed out for me and when I press "Change settings that are currently unavailable" I get an error: "your power plan information isn't available. Access Denied"
I believe this greyed out and access denied to be a result of Fast Start (to avoid mixing the 2) I have not gone and remove the Samsung tools to see if that restores the access to these settings. Might be something to test.

Related to the Fast Start weekly reboot question.

Correct of course, it is not required, but from an end user point of view it is a rather useless dialog. Yet I can imagine that the reboot keeps the Fast Start restart speed optimal, hence my comment to not bother the user with it, but schedule it at next reboot. This would probably require a software update.

Btw, I did submit a formal request for the WiFi issue with Samsung.
I submitted it as a hardware issue, so they are waiting for me to send it in. I hope they come with a response at least.

 

The only other source I have use with that TV with HDMI is a DVD player, which does not display sparkles. But I guess it is not 1080p. The HDMI cable I am using came with my wife's Motorola Atrix. Could the cable be the cause of the sparkles? It works fine when I play back videos from the Atrix, which is 720.

 

Whats dumbfounding me: I am sitting here in exactely the same chair with the S9 in exactely the same spot on the table as yesterday. Speed is around 9 MBPS. Yesterday afternoon it was only around 2-3, while my iPhone displayed above 9.

Why would it fluctuate so much??

 

Unfortunately, the weak WiFi in the S9 manifests itself in (at least) two ways:
1. WiFi signal drops off quickly when not close to a router
2. WiFi signal fluctuates when one is not close to a router. For example, my Speedtest.net results vary from 1.x Mbps to 7.x Mbps when I'm not near my router. (I should be getting 11.x Mbps -- like my Dell laptop does consistently).

You will also see fluctuations if you do testing of transferring of large files on your network.

These results support mine, and some others, theories that the problem is the Duralumin case -- it's nothing to do with the internal components.

 

I don't know enough about HDMI but pretty sure that you want HDMI 1.4 cable (which is the new HDMI spec).

 

Sure, the cable might be a problem. I bought this: Amazon.com: Mediabridge - High Speed Micro-HDMI to HDMI Cable with Ethernet - 6ft - Motorola Droid X - HTC EVO: Electronics Works perfectly!

 

I've mentioned the name of the technology in my previous post. It's called Hybrid sleep and built-in in Windows since Vista. Hybrid sleep is a combination of sleep and hibernate—it puts any open documents and programs in memory and on your hard disk, and then puts your computer into a low-power state so that you can quickly resume your work. That way, if a power failure occurs, Windows can restore your work from your hard disk. When hybrid sleep is turned on, putting your computer into sleep automatically puts your computer into hybrid sleep.
I tried to disable "Fast Start", then enabled "Hybrid Sleep" in Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings\Advanced power settings\Sleep\Allow Hybrid sleep. The behavior of the laptop looks the same with both options except the power lamp which blinks with Windows Hybrid sleep and turns off with Samsung Fast start. I think it's a trick - if you would be able to remove a battery from the laptop I don't think Samsung restore from that state so quickly as it should (if restore at all). We can try to put a laptop into "Fast start sleep" with less then 10% of juice and leave it for a night.

Yep, the same. I forgot where I saw it and now (thanks to you) found it again. I guess Samsung is trying to restrict all actions to a simple "Sleep" in order to make Fast Start work (another proof that it doesn't put computer into a powerless mode). If you disable "Fast Start" in Easy Display Manager, all options will be available again.

 

this is unrelated to the current question posed by nagyg, but this might help some on another issue - using the samsung support search engine - has to be the buggiest search engine i've been subjected to.

been looking at Samsung SSDs on ebay, and found the ones that don't have a digit for the 3rd character in the model name (ie MP5), are usually OEM specific drives, whether dell, lenova etc and finding firmware updates is apparently impossible

okay - figured i'd see how sammy was on firmware updates for it's own drives and there is a tool i finally found, by accident on sammy's site

if you go to sammy, on their search box (not the product model box), simply do a search for "SSD Firmware"

it will pull up a page with some boxes at the top where you can define the type of firmware you're looking for (product type, product subtype & model) - ignore those - they'll take you to the ssd model page, but only show the manuals available for those drives (owner's & installation manuals)

down at the bottom, go to page 8 and you'll see the following links

If I Add New Firmware On My SSD Will The Old Firmware Erase?

Yes when you add new firmware on your SSD the previous firmware is removed.

Support FAQs
How do I update the firmware on my SSD?

The only way to update the firmware on your SSD is to use the SSD Magical Tool. Click here to download the SSD Magic Tool. This software only is Windows compatible and is not supported by Linux or Macintosh.

Support FAQs
How can I find out the latest firmware on my SSD?

Download the SSD Magical Tool by clicking here, and then follow the step by step instructions after running the Magical Tool to see the firmware your SSD has installed. This software only is Windows compatible and is not supported by Linux or Macintosh.



when you go to the links in those FAQ support pages, there'll be links to the "Magician firmware tool" sammy provides for confirming firmware - the link actually takes you to a SSD specific model page, and under "software" you'll find the Magician utility as well as an SSD installation guide and user manual. Under the "Firmware" tab you'll find the latest firmware for that model SSD.

not sure why sammy felt the need to hide the info at the end of an alice in wonderland labryninth but...

PS - just loaded and tried the magician utility on my series 9 - it indicates the disk is not a samsung product, but then identifies the actual model number
there are some interesting performance test utilities on it, but while they correctly identify my 128 GB samsung drive, they will not run

suspect the magician tool is specific to the drives samsung sells directly to the market, ie not pre-installed in a notebook.
still the installation manual has some good tips (for the idiots like me) on CMOS and Boot settings when installing a SSD in a laptop or desktop

it might save some some time

 

I had the same problem with the lose power jack. Finally, it became so lose, I had to send it in to get repaired.

When I got it back, the jack did not push in all the way, so still lose. Now, a week 2 weeks later, I have a difficult time pushing it in enough to keep power. This is very sad. I love this notebook. The jack is very flawed. I have to send it in again - a SECOND time. It takes them at least a week to turn it around. FYI, it looks like they replaced the wifi components the first time, too, without asking

 

@gcaus

It sounds like a silly question but can you confirm that you pushing the power jack ALL the way in? It needs a decent push and an earlier poster, who initially said he had a problem, had not been doing that.

Assuming that's what you were/are doing, did it ever seat properly before you sent it for repair? Just wondering if it worked for only say 50 times before it failed.

I've had three Series 9's but haven't moved them off my desk much so haven't done a lot of inserts/removals of the power supply.

 

thx all who helped on the power options issue, the solution was reinstalling Samsung's Display Manager

wow 244 pages and counting, we need some kind of sticky in this thread do you guys think we could start another thread with only answers? then if somebody asks an old question we could point them right into the appropriate answer?

 

That's exactely what happened to me when I first got it ...

 

This sounds EXACTLY like what happened with mine. I also had to send the laptop in twice to get the issue repaired. The first time, the rep I gave it to (this was in Singapore) apparently only wrote "will not charge" on the repair slip, after I had informed them that the connection had become so loose that it would not even charge.

They returned it with a new charger (now also defective, but that's another issue), but apparently never bothered to carefully check the connection, because it was still very loose. After an angry phone call, Samsung picked up and repaired the unit promptly... when the courier returned it to my place, he told me the technician had indicated the laptop connector had been displaced because I had "pushed it in too hard".

This was complete nonsense, since it never had a solid connection from the first time I used it. And trust me, even if I had pounded the jack in with a hammer, it would not have "snapped" into place.

After the (second) repair, the jack did snap solidly into place, although as others have said, it does take a firm push initially, loosening a bit over time. In fact, I now hear an obvious "clicking" noise when I plug it in.

So, while some others that thought they had this issue were "doing it wrong", my unit was absolutely defective right from the box, and perhaps you have the same problem.

FWIW, I was informed it is an adjustment issue, they didn't replace any parts, so you may be able to fix it yourself by opening up the laptop case and adjusting connector placement with a screwdriver. I have never opened my own S9, so perhaps someone here that has opened their unit for other (most likely wifi) issues can comment on whether this might be possible.

[As an aside, one other downside from having the S9 opened twice by Samsung is an obviously stripped screw on the bottom, as well as lost rubber screw covers...so, the technicians were not very gentle, and opening the case a third time could be problematic]

 

Yes indeed Hibrid sleep is Standard OS functionality and indeed this is standby by default, also doing hibernate as a backup in case of standby wake up failure, it then resumes from hibernate (taking longer).
The characteristic in Windows from Standby is the blinking powerled.
Since Fast Start doesn't blink the powerled in its sleep mode, I assumed it to be completely different. So your "trick" theory is an interesting one.
Another proof of that is, normally when you bring your laptop from a complete powerless mode, it goes by the BIOS/Samsung startup screen.
Fast Start seems to be able to skip that.
It does make me wonder why they would need a weekly reboot to keep this working optimally?

The ultimate proof to find out if Fast Start is the same as Hibrid Sleep (with turning off the blinking standby led... ) is indeed to find out if it uses power in Fast Start Sleep. It makes me wonder what Power State Fast Start Sleep is, S3 or S4? Maybe we can do some testing with Wake on Lan, to see what powerstates we can wake it from.

Why is this all important? Well, if Fast Start is indeed a fake, I will just disable it and use the OS default.

 

Confirmed, this is good to know and alows me to play a bit more with the different settings.
I will run with Fast Start disabled for a bit and monitor the default power drain in standby overnight as a starting poit.

 

Hydrogenalpha,

A few months have gone by since your post here. I presume your 900x is still not fixed and there is no further news on this?

I want a new laptop, and for me it's down to the macbook m965b/a or this Samsung 9. I would prefer a PC, but I cannot (won't) bring myself to buy it if this problem isn't fixed.

Dave.

 

hello, how can I disable the automatic screen brightness adjustment in my 9 series?
thanks

 

I had purchased a B01 model, and the g wireless signal seemed to match the speed and consistency of my other laptops at all distances. The problem came when I enabled "N mode" for the Intel card. At that point, it either wouldn't connect, or when it did, it would take 5 minutes to load a page. It was the same situation with 2 N routers I tested. Is this consistent with everybody else's experience with the models that have the Intel wireless card?

I loved the laptop, but I returned it because I couldn't justify the cost with an issue like that. I am now second guessing myself, given that g would be more than sufficient given that my broadband connection at home is 20 Mb/s and that I could just get a cheap external wifi adapter if I needed it.

 

fn+f1 and see menu


btw. VERY HAPPY with my new s9 lappy!

 

Hey guys, thinking about getting a series 9 just have a few questions (easier to post than reading 245 pages haha)
- Are there any major problems excluding the wifi (get a intel adapter)?
- Is it possible to get AT&T 3g (with a sim card) by installing something?
- How does this compare to the new Z series? (other than the price range)
Thanks

 

thanks champ5 and hello to xfrostx, i have the old z in my house and the new series, so if you have some questions ask me

 

Runcore T50 SF-2281 120GB SSD reviewed and would be the best SSD for this machine!

 

Wow! That Runcore SATA 3 is so fast. I hope that Runcore, or other vendor, comes out with 256GB (or larger) though. It would be tough to go back to 120GB (as one pretty much needs to eliminate the recovery partition).

I thought it was interesting, after looking at prices for these Runcore SATA 3 drives, at how they only cost a little more than the current Runcore SATA 2 drives. That was a pleasant surprise.

 

Hey, which one do u think is worth getting more?

I am thinking about getting the i5 256gb ssd one, should i just go ahead and get a intel 6300 with that as well? Also do you know if there is anyway to use AT&T sim card in this laptop like the z series has ?

 

Intel 6300 will offer a small WiFi improvement so up to you if you want to do now. I'm waiting to see if Samung fixes that problem.

No, the USA models don't have SIM card option yet. As posted earlier, the Korean models do so they might come here. We actually have not seen new models from Samsung in more than two months -- so not sure what they're doing with Series 9 line...

 

Hmm, is it weak even with the third antenna?

 

I recently discovered that my samsung 9 has very poor wifi signal, why it happens.
if i change wifi card can solve this?

 

I, and others, have posted many times on this. There is no solution (yet) that will make it equivalent to, let alone better, than other laptops. Installing an Intel 6300 adapter improves it slightly (because of the 3rd antenna).

I, and some others, say the problem is the Duralumin casing.