Samsung Q45 (12.1" widescreen)

Vista's Experience Index sometimes provides baffling results. I recall that the 8400M G in the Q70 didn't score as well as the X3100. Intel have been tweaking the X3100 driver so I would expect the latest version to give the best performance.

The latest Q45 BIOS is 14ST on the global download site. For some unknown reason the SamsungPC site only goes up to 09ST. There have been some issues with the newer BIOS versions - read back up this thread a few pages. I would leave the graphics RAM allocation on Auto. DXDIAG's display page might give a fair indication of the graphics ram in use.

John

 

Hey, i havent updated the bios, however the FN-Up & Down keys dont seem to do anything any more - i recon this may have been since updating the GPU drivers?

Any ideas? should i update the bios from 08st to 09st (seems to be the highest rates) and if so, how safe is it?

Also, is there a way to change that samsung media button to something more useful? e.g. launch mozilla thunderbird?

Cheers

 

To fix Fn+ up/down to control brightness try (re)installing the latest version of the Easy Display Manager.

I don't have first hand knowledge of the Q45 to be able to recommend that you only go to 09ST or try the 14ST.

John

 

my problem is also the brightness. i've updated last summer so the brightness unter windows xp works fine but the battery runs low...i recognized that the running time with vista is 3,5 hours...and xp can't reach that.
so after another update to version 14 a week ago, the brightness contol doesn't work with vista. i don't know if it was the bios update or the installation of the chipset driver...reinstalling the display manager also doesn't makes it work. if someone has an idea i would try it...otherwise i open a call at samsung and hope it will help thx

edit: i've own a q45 duke with a x3000 graphics card

 

The other software which might interact with the display brightness is the Easy Battery Manager. Also check in the BIOS for any display brightness settings - sometimes the default can be changed when a BIOS is updated. If that doesn't fix the problem then you'll need to contact Samsung support.

As for battery time, you should be able to manage more than 5 hours with either Vista (with eye candy disabled) or XP, CPU at minimum speed, display at fairly low brightness and wireless + Bluetooth switched off. The challenge is to get the battery power drain down to around 10W (you can use MobileMeter with XP to give a nice graph or the battery info page of RMClock for XP or Vista).

John

 

Tanks for fast answer!
reinstalling the easy battery manager doesn't help. what's really confusing to me is that the system holds the settings from startup. if ac is pluggen in on startup brightness is full if i unplag the ac it remains in full power. only if ac is unplugged on startup, so the brightness is very low. i've no chance to change it under vista. i've already tried the 2 options "auto" and "user configure" in the bios settigns. i'm waiting for an answer of samsung...
battery time depends on my usage...i really like the eye candy...but wireless connections are off wenn i'm in mobile use...cpu is normally by 30% and the brightness was depending on the sunshine...now its every time dark :-(

 

It looks as if there is a bug in the recent Q45 BIOS.

Maybe this is why SamsungPC don't list anything newer than 09ST. Let us know what advise you get from Samsung support.

John

 

Hey, i tried re-installing both easy display & easy battery manager. However i still can't turn my brightness up or down - the image comes on screen to show 'how' much brightness i've got (although it doesn't seem to have any relation to the actual brightness) but pressing up or down has no affect to brightness - only the image changes (e.g. from 4 bars to 7)

Any ideas?
Also how safe is the bios update procedure?
Cheers, James

***Update***
i rolled back the driver to the latest one samsung provide (7.4 rather than 7.5) and the fn+up/down keys now work.

Is there anyway to get an updated version of the intel graphics driver which supports the backlight adjustment?

I tried playing around with the files and comparing the config files of both 7.4 and 7.5 but can't see the brightness control files.

Any ideas/experts-willing to give it a go?

Cheers

 

Thanks for the update. Maybe a default power setting is different between the driver packages.

Right click on the desktop and select Graphics Properties. Then Select Display Settings in the list on the left of the window and press the Power Settings button. What do you see?

John

 

(With the drivers off the samsung site) all power options are greyed-out. IIRC they were also greyed using the latest intel drivers.

 

OK. Thanks. Are there any GPU power options in the BIOS? There will be graphics power options in the BIOS but they may be hidden from sight and could change between BIOS versions. I've seen such options on my Zepto where they are available but undocumented.

There may be a way to get the newer graphics driver to work correctly. You could try comparing the .inf files for the two versions, or maybe the difference is hard-coded into the main driver.

John

 

To anybody having problems with the speakers staying on while the headphones are plugged in it is NOT A SWITCH ISSUE, it is a driver issue.

In XP, roll back to the realtek alc262 7.01 (7.something anyway) drivers, not sure about a fix for vista as i haven't experienced this problem with that os.


As for everything else, this is simply a spuerb laptop, the only problem i have is with the placement of the FN key and the \ key.

I have the Q45 version and think its the proverbial dog's danglies. The only thing that it needs is a RAM upgrade, i'm now runnig 2.5G of RAM on my model and it eats everything that i throw at it.

I bought it from ebuyer in the UK and they were very good, although the next day delivery turned out to be next, next day deivery but this was a citylink problem, not ebuyers.

I also now run it with vista with the UAC turned off and with a dual boot into XP, XP runs bertter on it than my 2.4GHz desktop with x1250 ATI graphics and expensive motherboard (except for games of course)

Another tip i would give to anybody with this latop is to use only the needed drivers and software from samsung as some of it is complete bloatware.

In XP, you only really need the device drivers and the easy screen software thingy so you can use the FN keys.

I can't stress how much i love this lappie; quiet, long life battery, good screen, solid build, draft-n wireless. Sweet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

heaphones speakers problem samsung q45 drivers realtek alc262 simultaneous staying on - i'm including this for people googleing their sound problems, not just because i'm mental.

 

Welcome and thanks for your comments.

The first software to be shown the door, in my experience, is the Symantec anti-virus since it is very resource hungry. Also the Office 2007 trial, if it is still being included.

There is a reasonable CD burning package in the Cyberlink suite, but unless that has recently changed, it is necessary to install the whole suite from the drivers CD and then uninstall all the parts that aren't wanted.

John

 

I was a bit 'half baked' when i wrote that post, deary me, all the spelling errors!

I think the best thing to do if you are decently competent with computers is use a fresh vista/xp image and install the drivers from the website as needed. Better yet, you can use N-lite and streamline the install with everything you need. Of course you must use a legit copy of the distro, not some heap of junk you downladed from a bittorrent site *AHEM*

I meant i have the q45 RED version, with the lower specs not the piano black one.

For all the software that comes with this lappie, you can pretty much find decent freeware alternatives which are a lot less bloated (openoffice etc), although i'm using office 2007 now and i must say its a huge improvement over previous versions, the 'ribbon', for example, is really handy.

I use AVAST for antivirus and it works pretty well without hogging things too much (also you MUST turn off the sound alerts), although i hear kapersky (sp?) is very good. I've installed sp3 in xp now too (was wary with installing service packs as they usually cause more problems than they solve) but its not caused me any problems so far.

One other thing i've found redundant in this laptop is the AV button thing, with vista premium you get media centre and it does a much better job of AV tasks.

 

I guess that Office 2007 is OK when you have got used to it but I find it frustrating trying to find commands on other people's computers.

As for that AV button, t his remapping thread might be of interest.

John

 

Hi all,

first of all, congratulations on the excellent discussion. Must confess my decision to purchase the Q45 also stemmed form the fantastic content (and happy reviews) on this forum.

I took delivery of my brand new Q45 a couple of days ago! I'm really happy with it.

I am a first-time Vista user (all my other pc's run XP).

Here's my first question (I fear many others will follow, so thanks for bearing with me):

- I 've got the operating system running and 1 web page open (on Firefox) showing my gmail page.
Memory resources in use: 849 megabytes!!!

How is that possible and what can I do to reduce this huge amount of RAM being used?

Thanks

 

Start with the Vista tweaks guide. I don't know if it will reduce memory usage, but performance will be smoother if you change the Visual Settings to best performance + smooth screen fonts.

You can look in MSConfig (Start > run > MSCONFIG) and try disabling some startup processes. However, Vista loves RAM so you will benefit from more RAM. 2GB into the slot in the bottom would be a good investment. Perhaps this from play.com (wrong picture but right spec) or this from 7dayshop.

John

 

I found an interesting website the other day which talks about what windows services can be disabled:

www.blackviper.com

I haven't used any of the ideas there myself but it's worth looking at.

 

I have 2x1 gb already. would you recommend an upgrade to 3 gb?

Thanks, John.

 

Unless you multi-task with some really memory-hungry programs then 2GB will be enough to run Vista + your programs, so you don't need 2GB just for the programs.

However, Vista's SuperFetch uses any spare RAM for pre-loading files it thinks you might need. This definitely gives smoother operation once Vista has figured out your habits because that extra 1GB is effectively a big cache with instant access.

There's a flurry of disk activity after you start while Vista goes round and fills its cache. This can be avoided if you hibernate / resume. However, because Vista has filled the whole RAM, it has to dump the full contents onto the HDD so hibernating takes longer than with less RAM (in my experience Resume seems to be fast because it's ready for work once it has got enough off the HDD to let you start work).

John

 

Thanks for the info, John. You really are the resident Q45 expert!

I have tweaked my VISTA and now total RAM in use is approximately 750 megabytes.

This morning I went to one of my local computer shops and lo and behold they had a Q45 on display (running XP). Total processes: 27 Total RAM in use 250 megabytes. According to the shop manager, the machine is seen to be much faster.

So here comes my question:
as an expert, why stick with Vista? Just to make the PC "future-proof"? What features would justify keeping Vista? I have been using Vista for a few days now and it seems terribly convoluted.

I am in the process of downloading the drivers form the samsung website. But it's still not too late...


Thanks for your wisdom.

 

For me, probably the most useful feature of Vista is SuperFetch, which speeds up the loading of frequently used programs into the spare RAM. XP seems a bit laggy at times in comparison. UAC got locked in its kennel long ago and the eye candy made me giddy.

John

 

I was wondering if it's possible to upgrade the video card if I have an integrated one? There must be a spare port for it if they are also producing models with dedicated cards, right?

 

I think they have two slightly different motherboards for integrated and discrete graphics. There are some economies of scale because the Q45 and Q70 boards are the same.

You will have to be content with the couple of extra hours of battery time you get with the integrated graphics.

John

 

Has anyone installed VISTA service pack 1 for the Q45 A003? Microsoft mention some incompatibility issue with audio drivers Realtek AC'97 Alcxwdm.sys - version 6.0.1.6242.

Are Q45 owners at all affected by this?

 

Hi all, New Q45 owner here. I just had an initial question for John and others. I read that on turning on for the first time it will ask how to partition the HD. I have the 250gb drive. How would u suggest arranging the partitions? I was thinking c) 100gb for the operating system, office, and any essential programs, and d) 150gb for any other programs, my word files, any music/video etc. Does that sound about right or am i being too generous with space on the c drive and it should be smaller. I don't really use a lot of different programs and games so i was thinking 150gb is a lot for me to work with on the other partition anyway.

I intend to do the initial backup image with Samsung Recovery, but not the user one done 3 days later as i don't need a day to day backup, just the main system image. Also do people suggest updating the bios, drivers, vista service packs etc or just leave it alone as standard, are there any significant improvements to be had?

Thanks, it looks a great system - i chose it over the Dell M1330 as it looked more compact and smarter then when i saw the Dell in store which didn't look very well built and a bit awkward to use. Also the DICOTA case and warranty i got included was a great deal, case matches perfectly.

 

I saw that deal on the Q45. It is very good value.

I completely agree that the HDD should be partitioned since the restore will replace the C: partition.

Your proposed HDD split looks OK to me subject to the minor detail that you won't have 250GB to play with. Firstly because all the HDD manufacturers use k=1000, not 1024. Cube that difference and it becomes significant and the 250GB becomes about 232.8GB. Then the recovery partition takes a few more GB so you have actually got a bit less than 230GB to play with. Even 80GB is generous for Vista and programs and you may want to shrink further.

There is some advantage in installing programs on D: because you won't lose any user settings or customisations, provided they are kept in the program's folder and not buried somewhere in C: You would still need to reinstall the program if you do a clean restore on C: but it should then pick up your old settings.

I would strongly recommend installing SP1 for Vista since it fixes a lot of bugs. I haven't yet tried the final SP1 but I installed the beta about 5 months back and it didn't break anything but it did sort out a few annoyances. There is some uncertainty about SP1 and the Realtek audio (see previous post) and I don't know whether that is a real issue or not. Suck it and see.

John

 

Hey, regarding SP1 - I installed it about 3 weeks ago - no problems what so ever!

Would recommend as i've seen performance benchmarks, SP1 makes vista more appealing! It also speeds up data transfer etc.

James

 

Hello folks,

can somebody try to explain the huge difference in price between these 2 Q45 models :

NP-Q45A002/SUK

Intel® C2D T5550 Processor, 12.1" Screen, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, 3GB RAM, 320GB SATA HDD, DVD Rewriter, Integrated Graphics, NP-Q45A00D/SUK

£559.59 INC VAT

and

NP-Q45H000/SUK

Samsung Q45 Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2 GHz - 12.1" TFT -
# Processor - Intel 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500
# Memory - 2GB DDR II SDRAM
# Hard Drive - 200GB
Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Business

£944.97 inc. VAT

As far as I can tell the more expensive one has only slightly better processor and Vista business, but at the same time it has considerably smaller hard disk and RAM. It really beats me
This surely can't warrant such a great price difference?

cheers
GD

 

NP-Q45H000/SUK includes HSDPA Mobile Broadband 3.6Mbps (with Support to 7.2). Note: There is now the NP-Q45H001/SUK which has the T8300 CPU and 250GB HDD. The HSDPA module isn't cheap (maybe ~£100) but Samsung is clearly aiming this top model at people for who cost isn't the primary consideration.

Unless you need the faster CPU (in which case NP-Q45A00C/SUK is another option) get the cheaper Q45. There's also NP-Q45A00D/SUK.

John

 

Thanks John,

How big is the difference between say 1.8 Ghz and 2.2 Ghz speed of these processors? Is it really noticable?

Also, is 2Gigs RAM adequate or is it just about on the border of enough, Samsung seems to be going for 3Gig with newer models, is that for a reason or just a gimmick to keep them more attractive. I read here that Vista is RAM hungry but cant remember how much RAM hungry.

With regards to HSDPA, how useful is that, I am not really familiar with it and its good and bad points.

So, if the processor speed difference isn't that noticable and HSDPA isn't all that important, than it is a no brainer - more RAM and hard disk will have to be the way to go.

Many thanks

Cheers

 

On paper, 2.2GHz is 22% faster than 1.8GHz. That sort of difference should be noticeable if you run CPU-intensive tasks that run for several minutes. However, 4 minutes instead of 5 is still enough for a tea break. That speed difference is less likely to be noticeable in everyday use. Loading Word in 2.5 seconds instead of 3 seconds, for example.

Vista thrives on RAM because the SuperFetch feature uses any spare RAM to cache files which you are likely to need. This can result in Word starting in 1 second since it doesn't need to wait for the HDD. However, DIY upgrade of RAM is easy (and explained in the Samsung User Guide) so you can do you own upgrade for around £20 by replacing the 1GB module with a 2GB module.

HSPDA is nice for providing connectivity while on the move (providing you are somewhere where there is coverage and can afford the running costs). However, you can achieve the same thing using a plug-in USB device (I don't know if integrated HSPDA would benefit from having a better antenna built into the computer).

John

 

Thanks John, much obliged!

Cheers
GD

 

First of all, thanks for the feedback on Vista SP1.

One more question (please bear in mind I am new to Vista):

if there is a compatibility issue with the Realtek audio drivers after I install SP1, how can I "roll back"? I believe Vista allows you to do that.

Thanks again.

 

I don't know what the possible problem with SP1 and Realtek audio is, but we have a report (a few posts higher up) of SP1 + Q45 = no problem. You can install the whole of SP1. I would also be expecting any problem to be fixed by Realtek. Their newest driver is on only a few days old. However, this may lack any Samsung customisations. Samsung's driver also has a very new date. However, Samsung has a habit of going round and putting new dates on old files.

My recommendation would be to install SP1. If you find any problem then tell us what it is.

John

 

John: what exactly does this setting do

powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0

When I did it, it caused my system to shut-down.

 

Hi Luke. I haven't seen you for a while.

Was that an orderly shutdown or did the computer just go off?

If my memory is correct, Vista, by default, does not have a 'do nothing' option for the critical battery action. That command creates a do nothing option. I have used it in the past without any problem. If the battery seems to be getting out of calibration then a full discharge or two may help. I used this approach on my X60 plus when the calibration in the BIOS increased the battery wear.

Did you install SP1 for Vista? I wonder whether SP1 has changed these defaults and then the command causes a conflict.

John

 

Hi there, i like the look of the Crumpler Gimp series of sleeves - i was wondering if someone with a Q45 can tell me if this sleeve will take a Q45?

thanks

 

Yeah, I've been real busy with University lately - though I've been checking the forums fairly often!

It seemed like a very long hibernate, but the problem hasn't reappeared.

Correct, I ran the command again and it did indeed enable such an option - though it didn't work!

Yeah, I installed SP1 a few days after it was released. It seems a random error so I don't think it is a conflict.


Onto the actual result - the computer decided to hibernate itself at 4% battery

 

Thanks for the clarification.

Have a look in the power properties and see if you now can set the threshold for critical battery down to 0% and have Do Nothing as an option. I don't think the command sets the Do Nothing option, but it makes it available.

John

 

Heyup, i've got another query:

Anyone managed to use Nero 8 Lightscribe labeller with this? Whenever i press 'preview' or 'print to disc' it gives me 'internal error'.

I'm not sure if its a nero problem or the drive, however i have been able to use Lightscribe Basic Labeller.

Cheers, James

 

Bios 15ST is available.

 

What is the model number of the optical drive? Does the Nero InfoTool show that LightScribe is enabled?

It is possible that Samsung have a standard Q45 software installation but some Q45 versions have LightScribe and some don't.

John

 

Even when I set critical battery at 0percent and "do nothing" it persists in shutting down at 4percent.

 

Is UAC enabled or disabled? Do you have full administrator rights? I have 4% and "Do Nothing" and I can run the battery to empty (my Zepto runs for about 8 minutes on 0% charge ), but UAC is locked in its kennel and I have full control over my computer.

John

 

UAC has been off since I bought it, running in administrator account
I am reformatting the thing soon anyway, so I will try again then!

 

Hi,
there are no solutions for the backlight bug ?

P.S.: this post is wonderfull

 

Hi all,

I've been using Vista for a couple of weeks now, but have now decided to downgrade to XP. So here are a few more questions for the resident experts:

1) which XP should I go for: Home Edition or Pro?

2) I have downloaded all drivers form the Samsung site. Will I need any additinal drivers for hard disk recognition? If I am not mistaken the Q45 has a SATA HD which requires some kind of special driver under XP (and apparently you would have to resort to a floppy drive, which the Q45 hasn't got!) . I'm a bit confused on this one...

3) I understand I need to uninstall Vista and format the partition before installing XP. Can anyone point me to a tutorial or (briefly) walk me through the process?

4) Any other special precautions?

Thanks again. I'd be lost without you

 

The main difference between XP Home and XP Pro is that the latter has some business-orientated features (eg can log onto a server) that you are unlikely to need.

I think SATA support is built into XP SP2a or newer. However, I would recommend that you build a custom XP installation disk using nLite. This can merge the Samsung drvers (make sure this includes the chipset driver) and XP SP3 into your XP installation CD. This should give a complete and up-to-date XP once you have run the installer.

John

 

Thanks for the tip about using nLite. Great piece of software.

I'm now putting together the custom XP installation CD, in which nLite is asking me to integrate my machine's drivers.

I have unzipped all drivers, which are .inf files. The only one I cannot integrate into the custon CD is the chipset driver (infinst_autol.exe), which is a self-extracting .exe. Is it a problem if I leave it out and then install it when XP has finished setup? Is there any way I can put it on the installation disk?

thanks again.