Samsung Q45 (12.1" widescreen)

The chipset driver is very important since, if that isn't installed, a lot of related hardware won't be detected properly.

According to Intel you can extract the files using:

Good luck with nLite. Tell us whether the installation went smoothly. You will still need to follow up with the various Samsung software packages. Note that there are various useful things on the System software CD which aren't on the website. For example, PowerDVD. You actually need to install the whole suite then uninstall the bits you don't want. In fact it may be easiest to run the System Software disk (do a manual selection of the bits you do / do not want) then only update any utilities where they are newer.

John

 

Thanks, John.

Just one last thing before I "press the button":

How can I back up Vista so that I can reinstall it if I change my mind or something goes wrong. Will I be deleting the "invisible partition" when I install XP?

I saved an image to my data partition D: using the Samsung software (12 gigs worth). Would this be useful to restore Vista?

Thanks again. I appreciate your support.

 

Whatever is in the hidden partition is safe and, if you have saved an image of C: into D:, then that should be recoverable. You should also have your Samsung Vista recovery disc.

If you have plenty of HDD space then you could shrink one of the existing partitions in Disc Management and create a new partition for XP and set up a dual boot configuration. You would then need to repair the Vista boot setup because Vista has some slightly different boot files. It's doable - I did it last year but can't remember the details but Google will help.

Otherwise you should do a quick format of C: and install XP there.

John

 

Hi there,

just reporting back after installing XP.

Everything seems to be working fine (will have more updates tomorrow), except for the fact that FN keys have stopped working. I have installed MAGIC KEYBOARD software (from Samsung website) that has revived the VOL UP and VOL DOWN keys. I can't switch off the wireless adapter, nor can I use the other FN keys.
Is this a Windows keyboard driver issue?

thanks.

 

Also, the System Software dvd is for Vista only.

 

Did you also install the Easy Display Manager?

John

 

Thanks, John. That was precisely the problem.
Easy Display manager installed - problem solved.

 

John

 

Hi,

I'm looking for a review of the Q45 with the nvidia 8400 video card.
Just wondering if the battery still lasts 4-5 hours on this configuration ? (8100 CPU).
Also if the laptop keeps running cool.

Thanks !

 

The 8400M GPU will reduce the battery life. Last year I reviewed the Samsung Q70 (link below to review) and it could manage only 3 hours. The hardware is the same except for the bigger display (which will need more backlight power for equivalent brightness).

Notebook.de shows the Q45 with the 8400M G as having up to 4 hours on battery which I would see as the upper limit, with 3 hours being more realistic. The same page shows the Q45 with the X3100 as up to 6 hours, with users confirming that 5 hours is achievable.

It is likely that the Penryn CPU (T8100) will use a little less power than the older CPUs but the real problem is the power leakage from the dedicated GPU. You can't have long battery time and a dedicated GPU unless you buy the Sony SZ series which can be switched between integrated and dedicated graphics.

John

 

Hi all,

here is another update after downgrading from Vista to XP.

Fortunately, everything went very smoothly. I have no problems whatsoever to report (fingers crossed it will stay that way).

So, if anyone is thinking of getting rid of Vista, I can only say that my experience has been very positive.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to get in touch.

 

I still haven't had any luck with waking up from standby in XP - do you have that working?

Cheers

 

Did you upgrade the XP to SP3? You can get the full download here.

There have been various relevant hotfixes issued since SP2 that should have been included in SP3.

John

 

Dear John

I`am planing to get q45 320 GB Hard Disk Drive - 3072 MB RAM
http://www.shoplaptop.co.uk/pp/Sams...Series/Samsung_Q45_Laptop_NP-Q45A00D/SUK.html

it says 6 hours battery.I have now x20 battery life is not good as it shown.I like speck on q45 longer battery life and specs.the other issue is 12inch screen.I will use this laptop for IT Support mainly for remote connections.Is it crystal clear any compains about 12inch screen recently?

Many thanks

 

No, that doesn't solve it (wake-up from standby) - I assumed it would need a BIOS fix. Anyway, I'm living without fairly happily.

 

Hello,

I have a Samsung Q45 Red (T5450) that I purchased in January. Lately the optical drive has started to randomly eject for no reason. I thought it was possibly a software issue but I have tried fresh installations of both XP and Vista and still get the same issue.

I'm starting to think the drive itself is at fault. Does anybody know where I could purchase a replacement? I know the machine is still in warranty but I shouldn't think a new drive would cost too much. It is listed in device manager as a TSST-CORP TS-L632N.

Many thanks in advance

Oliver Plante
Tresco
Isles of Scilly
UK

 

It's within the one year warranty so you should get Samsung to provide a replacement. I had a problem with burning some media using the original optical drive provided with my X60. I contacted Samsung through the send email form on their FAQ pages and had some correspondence with someone in their optical drive support department who then arranged for a replacement to be sent by their optical drive distributors in the UK (and pre-paid return for the old one). I did the swap myself. It's very easy - see this thread.

Otherwise, you need a standard slimline optical drive such as one of these. I would tend to get the Liteon which has an easy Region Free fix. However, your TS-L632N may have LightScribe and it may be hard to find a bare drive with this feature (if you want it).

John

 

That's great. Thanks for your help.

I'll email samsung now. If I don't get any luck with Samsung and end up buying a new drive, am I right in thinking the bezels are interchangable? The one on the Q45 seems an odd shape.

Thanks again
Oliver

 

Yes, the bezels are interchangeable. See this thread for a photo of how they are clipped on.

John

 

Hi I've just "downgraded" (should probably read upgraded) to XP pro.
But when I try and load the vimicro camera drivers, it tells me that the camera isn't installed ???????? Any thoughts please
TO'T

 

hi,

does anyone know if this universal adapter would be any good for the q45

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Universal-Pow...ryZ64471QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Does Device Manager show any unconfigured devices?

On paper it should be OK since it claims to include a Samsung plug and has a 19V output option. However, it is quite thick and heavy. At that price it is worth a try if you don't plan to carry it around.

John

 

thanks will give it a shot and let everyone know if it works!

 

My daughter has managed to spill some juice over my keyboard and now I have some keys that are sticking.

Can somebody tell me how easy the keys are to get off to be cleaned. Is there a good technique for removing the keys ?

 

Does anyone know where to download a old bios version?

 

I believe the keys just pull off. Try with a key that you rarely use in order to practise the technique. If the juice damage is more widespread then I would take out the whole keyboard and give it a good bath and scrub, rinse with clean water and allow to dry. Detailed keyboard removal instructions are in the manual for the P210 / Q210 (see separate thread).

Edit: The keys do pull off - see posts #450 - #452 in this thread. Watch out for the rubber cones under the keys.

You have a good selection of BIOSes at SamsungPC.com. However, there is a technique for forcing the BIOS to downgrade to an older version. It is somewhere in this thread.

John

 

thank you John! (I've only looked at global download center)

Edit: I downloaded the 9ST but i can't install it (i have installed the 15ST)

 

Quote from post #428 of this thread (which was copied from a previous post):

So burn the CD version, boot from the CD and type

09ST.exe /s /x /c /nomodel_partcheck

John

 

WAU, this is much too read. a very hudge thread

i now own this nice think to. feel free to help with my notes. if somebody like to share notes

Linux on Q45 Aura

thx for all the usefull links and help!

 

Thanks for answering my question a month or two back on partitioning John.

Is anyone using the lightscribe feature on these? I have a drive with it on, but no software for it on the laptop. Is it on the system CD or do i just use the advanced labeller on the lightscribe webiste?

I have had my Q45 for two months now. I have kept the software as it was originally on the laptop - i did go to upgrade some drivers via the samsung utility but it wanted to download a camera driver that my system said had a virus on it so i left it alone. Other than that, everything is great, im very impressed although the battery has a habit of running down fast when i use any video site like youtube or streaming TV.

 

I use LightScribe occasionally. Get the labelling software from the LightScribe website. It may also be in the Samsung installation somewhere, but likely to be an older version.

I think it's a false alarm about the virus in the camera driver. This can happen if legitimate software has a section of code similar to a known virus. I came across a similar problem a while back and reported it to the AV software support. I tried again a few days later and the virus report disappeared.

John

 

today i thought i have time to downgrade the BIOS but now the samsungpc.com site is down. so i don't have the iso file

does anyone know since when the site is down?

 

I agree that it's down at the moment. Possibly for maintenance or maybe it died during the weekend. Try again tomorrow in case it is a Saturday night maintenance exercise (statistically, Saturday nights are popular for site maintenance since most potential users are otherwise occupied). If the site is not up by Monday I suggest you send a message to Samsung support.

John

PS: Rule No. 1 for anything related for the internet: Get it now in case what you want disappears, for whatever reason.

 

Hello, my Q45-Aura T8300 Dardono runs ok. But i look for the bios version 09.

The suspend2disk und darklight probs are ugly can some please send a link or the iso per mail?

thx

 

There's a good selection of Q45 BIOSes at SamsungPC.com. 09ST and older.

John

 

But no ISO for the 09ST

 

Ah! Dead link!

In that case it is time to either trust the Windows version of the updater (which has worked OK for me on other Samsung notebooks) or do some DIY: Get the DOS version of the BIOS updater and build a bootable CD.

John

 

I installed 08 from ISO, followed by 09 windows update, when I needed to downgrade. Worked fine.

 

Hi Q45ies, unfortunately I didn't find info about the quality of the VGA-signal in your large (great!) thread. The VGA-signal of the Nvidia-featured versions of the Q45 shall be better than average - according to a testing of German IT magazine "c't". As I'd prefer to buy the Intel-featured version "Q45 Aura T5550 Tisla" for battery reasons, it would be greatly appreciated if anyone could tell me if a connected DFP or video projector shows a fair output.

It's a pitty that the Q45 isn't featured with a HDMI-port to drive digital screens. Does anybody know when the Q45 will be replaced by the successor series and if it will provide a HDMI-port?

Thanks in advance!

 

The successor to the Q45 is the Q210. The specifications in the user guide indicate that it will have an HDMI port.

Technically, there's no obvious reason to stop the Q210 from arriving in the next month - there's already a set of drivers and software on the Samsung download site. However, the marketing people might want to clear the existing inventory of Q45s first.

John

 

Thanks, John. It's worth to wait for the Q210.

 

I tried reading through this post but couldn't find an answer to this question.

Has anyone successfully instally Vista x64 on the samsung q45?

I was able to install vista business 64 on my machine but completely failed to install half the drivers from the supplied drivers cd. I guessing this is because the drivers are not x64 compatible. Because of the failure for the drivers to install, I was unable to get the correct screen resolution or connect to the internet.

Has anyone successfully installed Vista 64 AND samsung drivers for the q45? if so, where did they get the drivers from cause the ones on the cd don't work.

cheers.

 

Why use 09ST bios instead of the new version (15ST) ?

 

I love my new q45 but boy do i keep pressing the wrong keys. It is SOOOO annoying you wouldn't believe it. Why did Samsung have to change the keys arounnd? Instead of CTRL C I always do FN C and instead of ? I do |. Argh!

Well I had an idea. The ? key and | key are the same size and I read in here you can remove the keys so can't we just swap the two keys around and then use a keymapper software to reconfigure those two keys? Also the Windows key is on the right instead of the left but it is the same size as the ` key so we could switch those two around aswell. If only I could switch the function key and ctrl key too but they are different sizes.

So would this idea work? Switching keys around and remapping them? Is this possible?

 

Some people have suffered loss of Fn key functionality for brightness control with the BIOS versions newer than 09ST. Try 15ST at your own risk. If you hit problems with 15ST then you can downgrade by using the ISO version of 08ST to do a manual override (instructions higher up this thread).

Unfortunately, the Fn key is hard-wired so you can't remap it. You can remap the other keys.

The keyboards on the new Samsung notebooks have the Ctrl key in the bottom left corner, which will please many people.

John

 

Well I succeeded in remapping the windows key and the ` key using a program called SharpKeys. I also removed those 2 keys by pulling them off and switching them over and snapping them back into place. Now my windows key is right next to my spacebar on the left.

 

Trusted Reviews have looked at another version of the Q45.

John

 

hi,

i installed the latest intel video driver the other day but it broke the back light adjustment in vista, (i had the same problem with a bios update a while back), i had to revert back to the older driver on the samsung pc site, rather then the new one on the intel site

 

Sharpkeys is very useful - I always use it to map AltGr to Alt.

 

Hi

I'm looking at getting this laptop to replace my HP NC4010 notebook, but also my desktop. I'll be retaining my widescreen TFT to use with the laptop when necessary.

Is this a good choice to replace both?