Samsung Q35 - Sleep issue

I normally put my machine to sleep when I'm finished, but a couple of times, I've come back to find that it's somehow had an error, and rebooted. I've swithed to using hibernate ATM, but I prefer sleep, as I canget the machine back up in a fraction of the time.

Has anyone else had this kind of problem?

All input appreciated
Neil

 

I have not encountered this problem with either Vista or XP (which OS are you using?). It is often caused by a device driver not handling the sleep state properly. However, I prefer to use hibernation because of similar problems I have had with various computers over many years.

Have you updated to the latest BIOS (25SD)?

The Samsung Live Update Plus should find any newer versions of software and drivers, but you might want to check here and there for anything newer than what you have.

John

 

Thanks for the reply John...I should have mentioned that I'm using Vista Home Premium

I'll go and check the BIOS, as I think I have an older version than that.

 

I've installed the new BIOS, and I'm still having problems with sleep. I came back last night to find the machine on, and when I tried to wake it from sleep half an hour ago, a blue screen flashed for a split second, then it rebooted. There are no dump files, as it says in the event log that it was unable to load the crash dump driver in time (or something).

 

Ummmm.....

A work-around is to set the notebook to go straight into the full hibernation (save to HDD), this avoiding the sleep stage.

Otherwise we have to pin down what is causing the problem. Have you got anything plugged into the USB ports? Are you using wireless or Bluetooth? Have you looked for and installed the latest Vista drivers from the manufacturer's websites. Start with the Intel graphics driver and INF update.

Are you running any programs which don't have 100% Vista compatibility?

John

 

Thanks for your input on this John. It may seem drastic, but I've restored the machine back to it's initial backup with Samsung Restore. I didn't have much on it, and all of my Documents reside on D anyway.

Boot times had started to get very long, and I'd had a few bluescreens with the error 8E. I ran the memory diagnostic, and that was clear.

Anyway, I'm going to add apps slowly this time, as and when I need them rather than all at once. I may steer clear of Office 2003, as that was causing problems when running the Outlook component. Think I'll give 2007 a trial

I'll be using Radix Reload this time too to take regular snapshots. I used to have the hardware based Radix Protector for my XP machine, and it was great.

I'll keep you posted.

Regards
Neil

 

Hello ventmore,

I never had problem with either standby or hibernate.
Wireless always on.

 

Thanks for the feedback twoace

As I said, I've gone back to a clean install, and I'm slowly adding apps. It seems to be working great so far, but I'll reserve judgement until I've had it running without problems for a week or so.

 

Just to add, I once had a problem with waking up from hibernation once on my Q35.

The Intel WLAN driver produced a blue screen when waking up Vista Business from hibernation.

Since then I rarely use hibernation or sleep modes.

Driver version is Intel 11.1.1.11, date 30.04.2007.

 

I had that happen to me. Vista directed me to the updated driver (The one you're using) at the Intel website. I installed it, and never experienced the problem again.

I am now using the original driver again, and I'll stick with it 'til it causes a problem.

BTW...I have been experiencing a lot of disk thrashing, and sometimes the machine is unresponsive. I installed an app today, and afterwards, I tried to open IE. It didn't open, so I pressed it again a while later. Another couple of presses, and still nothing. About 2 minutes later, 4 instances of IE open up. The machine also seemed to be taking way too long to be useable when booting.

Anyway...I have applied the registry hacks detailed here, and it seems to have made a huge difference. I'll post back if I have any problems after the hacks.

Cheers
Neil

 

I'd be very careful with the old Intel WLAN driver for Vista, apparently people had a lot of problems with it, have a look on Google.

There seems to be something seriously wrong with your machine, good luck with finding the cause.

BTW I also disabled SuperFetch (you can do it by just disabling the SuperFetch service or by the registry hack you were referring to), because IMHO Superfetch is not a good idea for laptops or UMPCs.

Also have a look at the scheduled tasks, some of them might cause the disk activity you experience.

For example at each start a system restore point is created by default, I think this is not necessary. Also defragmentation is scheduled too often I think. Just have a look at the scheduled tasks and see what they do and how often they do it.


Good luck, Ernie.

 

Cheers Ernie...I'll have a look at them.

Disabling superfetch didn't seem to make much difference, but the disablepagingexecutive hack certainly seems to have. I could really do with a little more memory though I think......I'm still running with 1Gb

Cheers
Neil

 

Hmm from what I read on your linked sites disablepagingexecutive does what the name suggests, i.e. parts of the kernel are now always kept in RAM.

So that leaves less RAM for your applications, don't know if this really is a good idea.

1 GB probably is the lower limit for Vista, but after disabling most eye-candy it seemed to be enough for simple tasks like surfing with Firefox.

But putting in more memory is certainly not a bad idea with Vista.

 

Oh and regarding the problem, that IE took ages to start up:

Did you do that just after system boot?

Give the machine a while after system boot until all network connections are up and running. Programs which access the net at startup would behave like you have described before that point in time.

That was the case even under XP.

 

I woke the machine from sleep, then installed MS Money from CD. Before the Money installation had finished, I tried to open IE. It wouldn't open, so I tried again. After the installation had finished, I tried to launch IE another two times from the quick launch bar. After a while...all 4 instances of IE opened, but the machine was unresponsive at the time...even failing to fully open and explorer window for Computer. It was as though I'd confused it in some way.

Being a Core 2 Duo, I wouldn't expect launching IE whilst installing an app to cause a problem...the only thing I can think of is that the HDD and DVD are on the same channel, so there may be some slowdown there.

I doubt there are any hardware issues with the machine, though I will be keeping my eye on it

Cheers
Neil

 

I've just had the machine slow right down on me again.

I was reading the Samsung User Guide, which seems to run the CPU at 50% on my machine, and when I closed it, I immediately tried to open IE. Nothing happened, so I clicked IE again...still nothing. I tried to open Task Manager to see if anything was hogging cycles, but that wouldn't open either. 10 seconds or so later, both instances of IE opened followed by task manager.

Not sure if I'm just expecting too much

Cheers
Neil

 

The HDD and ODD shared the same IDE channel on the Q35. It is easy to check - look in Device Manager at what is on the IDE channels.

However, I think Vista takes time to bed in. For the first week or so it is trying to index the system, watch your habits and whatever else it wants to do. My Q35 is running Vista quite smoothly on 1.25 GB of RAM but I to have the visual effect set to best performance (except for smoothing the edges of screen fonts).

One thought: If you have used Fn+F8 to go into silent mode then the CPU may be sitting at minimum speed. This has caught me out more than once. You might want to use RMClock for monitoring CPU speed. It has a nice animated tray icon to show the speed. At the moment RMClock (2.25) hasn't been tweaked to allow for the 800MHz mode on the latest CPUs so it isn't so good for undervolting.

John

PS: Check the HDD and the ODD are running in the right transfer modes (UDMA 5 and UDMA 2 respectively)

 

Thanks John...I'll give that a look a little later.

I think I'll bite the bullet and upgrade to that transcend module you mentioned before......I may even knock some of the eye candy off......I'm running with everything on ATM. I could probably get rid of sidebar too

 

The Transcend 2GB module has gone up in price. This Crucial 2GB from Crucial is a better deal and the price includes delivery. Even cheaper is this 800MHz OCZ module at MicroDirect. I can't see why it wouldn't work (it should downclock itself to 667MHz) but there could be some unexpected incompatibility.

John

 

Thanks for that John...I'll probably go with the crucial module.

I checked over device manager, and the HDD and ODD are definitely on the same channel. They are both operating on the correct UDMA settings as you suggested too.

I have got rid of all of the Vista eye candy and the sidebar, and I'll see how it runs from here on in.

Cheers
Neil

 

I've had to reverse the disablepagingexecutive hack, as I had zero physical RAM left on a clean boot.

I think RAM is definitely my problem as far as the system slowdowns, as running just one app leaves me with no physical memory, and paging on a slow notebook drive isn' ideal.

As far as the sleep issue is concerned, I've had no unexpeted wake ups so far, so it must be down to something I had installed last time. If I find the culprit, I'll post back.

Cheers
Neil

 

A while ago you said that you tried to disable SuperFetch by means of a registry setting.

Maybe you should try and disable SuperFetch in Services, I don't know if your registry hack would turn off SuperFetch altogether.

When SuperFetch is active it is using all available RAM by preloading applications, not a good idea on a notebook IMHO.

 

I think it's just that Vista is hogging it all TBH mate. The hack I used has been proven to turn off superfetch, so I don't think that's the problem, though I will give it a look in the light of day before I dismiss it altogether

1Gb is really the bare minimum for Vista, so it's not suprising that it's going slow really. I have 2Gb winging it's way from Crucial as we speak though, so I'm guessing it'll all be better on Tuesday

Cheers
Neil

 

I will be interested to see how Vista performs with 3GB. Stats for 1,2 & 3GB would be great.

 

2.5Gb is the maximum mate...512Mb onboard, and 2Gb in the slot

 

Mmm, yes you are correct. I was getting confused with the Q45 which has 2 SODIMM slots.
I assume 2>2.5GB makes little difference...

 

I think most people are running with 1.5Gb, and are perfectly happy, but I thought I may as well max it out

 

Well with Vista eyecandy, indexing and SuperFetch off I was able to get it down to about 450 MB, so that leaves some headroom when your machine has 1 GB.

 

I like the indexing feature, so it's still on

 

I think you could be right John. I put the 2Gb module in yesterday, and was initially underwhelmed by the performance. I re-enabled superfetch, and reversed the registry hacks so that the system is as it should be, then ran it for a while, and it now seems very smooth. I'm still running without Aero, and I'm not really missing it......or the sidebar for that matter

And on the subject of Vista needing to bed in, I found this blog post interesting.

Cheers
Neil

 

Glad to hear that the RAM upgrade went OK.

That's an interesting blog. I've seen the HDD on my new Zepto spinning furiously when I thought the computer should be ide.

John

 

I'm pretty sure that's SuperFetch making your HD spin, trying to make good use of all that RAM.

Maybe a good idea on a desktop or notebook on the mains but using my notebook on battery mostly I prefer Vista to use the HD only when necessary so I turned SuperFetch off.

 

Well...after 5 days with the extra memory, I have to say that the Q35 is like a different machine. Apps open instantly, and perform superbly. I do still find that it likes to be left alone for 5 minutes or so after a restart, but I can live with that, as I mostly use sleep, and it recovers instantly from that