Samsung Q45 (12.1" widescreen)

Did you get and install both the battery manager and display manager software from here?
Also check if SamsungPC has anything else.

I don't know my way aroun games at all, but the X3100 GPU is the equivalent of last year's bottom end dedicated GPUs. There is more info about what the X3100 will run in the gaming forum.

I've tried running the Cinebench benchmark on my Zepto 6024W which also has the X3100. I get a much better result for the Open GL speedup with Vista than with XP (the hardware acceleration is actually a slowdown). It looks like a driver problem. Did you try the beta driver from the Intel site?

John

 

Just noticed BIOS version 06T is available at the download centre at www.samsung.com. As previous, no documentation that lists changes.

 

FYI, the Samsung Update Plus software does not appear to work on my Q45 and should not be relied upon to notify you of driver updates.

As an example, I currently have graphics driver v7.14.10.1244 installed and on the Samsung download centre there is a newer version sitting there: 7.14.10.1283.

Also on driver version numbering, does anyone understand why the Intel graphic drivers are currently at v15.6(beta) and Samsung are using v7.x? Is there any correlation between the two?

 

The Intel version numbering includes the OS version at the start - 7 is Vista
See here - http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-020667.htm

 

does any one know any website that i can order the Q45 T7700 from does not matter if its from .us or .eu

 

There is a description about 06ST here. The mainfix relates to hybrid HDD data loss. The notes also includes reference to the Nvidia graphics. However, the Q45 shares its mainboard and BIOS with the Q70, which has exactly the same BIOS update comments.

While the Q45 may be able to take the T7700, I doubt if Samsung will be offering it as an option (unless the T7700 prices take a big drop) becasue it would put the Q45 into a different price range.

John

 

what about the T7500

 

That is more likely. Someone needs to decide there is a market for a premium version of the Q45. It is quite possible that they may add some more choice to the range. This has happened to other models after a few months.

John

 

i tried every driver i found, everytime the same problem.

but i found out that after about 3 min. a bluescreen comes up, 0x0000008E but i didn't find a sulution .....

 

I've not had any BSODs (Zepto 6024W + X3100 + XP).

Did you try the latest BIOS (see further up this thread)? This clearly has some changes which interact with the graphics. If this isn't successful then it may be time to contact Samsung support.

I did find that there is a set of options for OpenGL settings under 3D on the X3100 control panel. You can try changing these.

The other question is whether there is anyone else who is successfully running XP on the Q45?

John

 

hey guys!
I am planning on getting a Q45, but at least the T7300 one.
Does anybody know where I can buy an english or american version, because I just found out that in Spain and probably in Russia they are selling it already(in Spain it costs 1533,thats about 1000 pounds incl. VAT),just look at the links below:

http://www.ciao.es/Samsung_Q45_CORE_2_DUO_T7300_160GB_2000_Mhz__1056988

http://www.abyss.es/w06/productos/ficha.asp?referer=ciao&c=0000162030&CODIGO=NPQ45A001&CODIGOSUP=11120114

http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:YDUWOH9PLioJ:www.apitcomp.ru/shop/part4/item48046+samsung+q45+t7300&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

 

Just for the record, I found on the official UK page of Samsung this pdf,where the T7300 and others are mentioned:

http://www.samsung.com/uk/business/b2b/pdfs/products/notebooks/ultra_mobile/q45.pdf

 

We don't know if/when Samsung UK will introduce a T7300 version of the Q45. It is a sales department decision, not a manufacturing issue. It is possible that another version of the Q45 will appear. The Q35 had several flavours (and colours) to give better market coverage.

The bigger Q70 is available with the T7300 but has a much-reduced battery run time.

John

 

Luke's Q45 review is now posted here.

John

 

I may well try and install xp on my q45 to dual boot. can i use my vista product key, or must it be another.

 

To the best of my knowledge, if you want to install another version of Windows then you will need another Windows installation disc and its own key. Note that if you install XP after Vista then you will need to rebuild Vista's boot files to get it working again. BCD Edit and VistaBoot will do this. However, unless you have some software which is totally incompatible with Vista, I wouldn't spend money on XP. Once Vista is settled in it performs wel and, as you have demonstrated, can provide good power management.

John

 

Which version of Vista are you using?

Vista Business includes the license to downgrade to XP Professional. (For Vista Ultimate I'm not sure).

If you have a home version of Vista you need another key.

 

I do have a version of XP Professional, but my Vista is Home Premium.
All things considered it seems like a lot of effort and trade-off for whatever meagre battery life increase I get.

 

Don't spend money on XP just to get better battery life. I was getting slightly better battery life on the Q35 with Vista (with display options set to best performance + smooth screen fonts) than with XP.

John

 

Once again proving yourself King of Samsung, John

 

Only that I have spent more time than most people around here trying to get my Samsung notebooks working to their optimum.

John

 

Found this when googling for stuff. Seems to have a firewire port, 200gb hard drive and .11N wireless.... and a red chassis (no proper photos, just one on the side that they seem to have nicked from John's Q35 red review).

Also Laptops direct have the normal Q45 for below £750.

There is a lower spec'd version at digi UK with 1gb of ram, XP pro and an 80gb 5.4k hard drive for £728.50. This seems to me to be the replacement for any places still stocking the Q35, but don't want to have Vista and charge more than £750 (apart from Laptops direct who've managed to get it under that price).

 

I had heard a rumour that Samsung were going to introduce some colour to the Q45 range now that the Q35 is discontinued. It looks like it has arrived. I was wondering whether they would also drop the 8400M G inside (the Q45 and Q70 mainboards areinter-changeable).

The 200GB HDD may only be 4200rpm. We are unlikely to know until someone buys one.

Thanks for recognising the photo. NBR will have to send round it's legal guys.

John

 

Laptops Direct prices change quite a lot. In the past 2 weeks, the price has been as high as £780, then "out of stock" then "discontinued".

 

Q45 NP-Q45A002/SUK is in stock at Laptops Direct at the moment for just under £745. They also still have the Q35 for a little more money. DigiUK also offers Q45 NP-Q45T000/SUK for under £730 (but are awaiting stock). This latter model has 1GB RAM / 80GB HDD and XP Pro.

There's a lot of the Samsung products which are currently awaiting stock. I don't know to what extent this is caused by the general shortage of some components or maybe it is the consequence of the annual 2 week factory holiday a few weeks ago.

John

 

I am currently having a problem with the integrated webcam... it has worked previously but not now. It won't work in any software (MSN OR Play Camera). The screen remains black, so I don't know what is going on. I can alter camera settings, and I can see it in device manager but no output.
I can't see a driver on Samsung's website either.

 

What's the Play camera software and driver at SamsungPC? Probably the same as this.

John

 

I didn't think of checking international Samsung!
I downloaded it but now it is being a *****. I will keep trying.

 

I uninstalled the software and presumably the camera, and then re-installed. The camera is no longer identified properly since the download does not appear to contain a driver. In device manager it comes up under Imaging Devices as "USB Video Device"

 

I've started to see mention in the Dell M1330 UK order thread of a Q45 with the 8400M G. Some Googling brought me to this page at Scan (not previously a Samsung notebook retailer). However, Q45A002/SUK is, according to other retailers, a model with the X3100, so maybe Scan have got their lines crossed.

Alternatively, go over to notebook.de and configure their Q45 with a UK keyboard.

John

 

I just noticed and installed a recent BIOS update which fixes the problem with the screen brightness buttons not working. I'm still not having any luck with standby though. I can see 3 Unknown Base System Devices in device manager, which may be related. Anyone out there got XP running with standby working?

 

Need help!

Hi all,

My laptop crashed and I got the "blue screen" of death. When I tried to restart it, there was an error message in the command saying that the following file was corrupt or missing:
File:\windows\system32\winload.exe Status: 0xc000000F

I then followed the instructions and inserted the (blue) Samsung System Recovery Media CD hoping that this would recover the missing file. However in the middle of the installation process I got another error message and the installion was interrupted. I tried several times with same results. The second message was:

Windows cannot install the required files. The file does not exist. Make sure all files required for installation are available and restart the installation.

Error code: 0x80070003

Can someone please help me or explain me what these errors are?

Many thanks
Louisa

 

This discussion suggests that it is something to do with the boot files. However, it also relates to dual boot Vista + XP. This page explains about Winload.

Does your Vista recovery disc have a repair option? If so, use it. If not, you can try to follow this advice from the first link above.

Hope this helps,

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks a lot for this. I am going to try. The recovery CD provided by Samsung doesn't have the repair option. All it seems to offer is a full re-installation of Windows. I was hoping that I could still recover my data (as I don't have a back-up!).

I hope this works.

Many thanks

Louisa

 

My first rule of computing is to keep all personal files in another partition. I fear that the Samsung recovery disk wipes the whole of C:.

Do you know anyone who has a proper Vista installation disc? That would probably fix the problem in 5 minutes.

Here's a relevant article and this is what you should be able to do with a proper Vista disc.

I've been looking for, but can't find, a utility which makes a bootable CD which would then fix the vista boot files. The available utilities seem to pre-date Vista.

John

 

Hi John,
Thanks again for your help. I don't know anyone who's got an installation disc and the laptop only came with the Samsung recovery CD, which does include the repair your computer option! I have followed the steps for the Bootrec, even though I'm not quite sure to understand the whole process but it didn't help either.

I just discovered the advanced boot options, but as I have home premium, there is no repair options. The "last good known configuration" didn't work either.
I may have made things worse!!

I am trying to re-install Windows again! So I can only wait and see at the moment.

I really appreciate your help. If you have any suggestions, can you please let me know.

Many thanks
Louisa

 

Hi,

The installation has failed again but at a later stage. The "copying Windows files"and "expanding files" stages went ok.

But then, when it reaches "installing updates" I get another error message, which says: "Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation.

I did restart but unfortunately the whole installation starts again and ends at the same stage.

I really don't know what to do ;-((

Louisa

 

Aaaahhhhh! I get another error: 0x8007045d in stage 2 of the installation "expanding files". I'm back to square one.

Please help!

 

I'm starting to think you have a hardware problem with either the RAM or hard disk, which is causing corruption of the files.

You can use Memtest (download a bootable ISO and burn to CD) to test the RAM while there should be a diagnostic utility on the HDD manufacturer's website.

John

 

For those interested in gaming on their Q45,there is an interesting video here:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/20/intel_updates_gma_driver/

from an Intel driver developer talking about the latest drivers that add Shader v3.0 (aka hardware T&L) support.

For what its worth I have been running the beta version of the drivers for Vista

( http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...All&OSFullName=All Operating Systems&lang=eng

At low detail levels, Call of Duty v2 is quite playable, and Oblivion seems OK.
It appears they released official XP drivers last week so the Vista ones should be out of beta soon.

sKooTr

 

Add some colour to your life with Q45 Red!
(...and 200GB HDD, but still the T7100)!
http://www.saveonsamsung.com/product/id/240723/NP-Q45A005/SUK
and here: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4N9P

(with apologies to anyone who has already spotted this)

 

£130 premium for 40GB more Hard Drive (I assume 4200rpm) and red colour..... And they say Apple have a "Black Tax"
The red and black looks better than red & silver.

 

Hi John,
Thanks for this I am not sure how to use the test. I have managed to get rid of some of the errors that I had. The installation went well until the computer needed to restart. Then I got the following error:
Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install windows, restart the computer.

The problem is that my computer now dual-boots! I have 3 versions of vista (none of them completely installed). I have googled the error and it seems that this occurs when upgrading from a previous Windows version or dual-booting.

I have no idea how to get rid of the other installations. According to what I have read, there's a registry tweak that can sort the problem out but I am not sure if it's relevant to my problem. And I don't want to make things worse than they are. I can't even turn my computer off and have to press the turn off button!

I only bought my Q45 2 months ago!

I would be very grateful if you could enlighten me with your wisdom.

Many thanks,
Louisa

 

It sounds like Windows has really got its knickers tangled and is trying to put them on in the dark.:wub: At what stage do you think you have multiple installations. Do any work in Safe Mode (press F8 just as Windows is starting to boot)?

In these circumstances probably the best solution is to wipe the HDD and start again but first you need to retrieve your files. My approach to that problem is to take the HDD out and put it into an external enclosure so that I can copy my files and wipe the HDD. However, you may not have a suitable one (2.5" with SATA connection) to hand (or this one is cheaper, but bigger).

You can try booting using a Linux live CD such as Ubuntu and then copying the files or burning them on CD. However, I can't get a live CD to run on my Zepto. It seems to be an SATA issue, but it might work on the Q45.

I am also still wondering if you do have some bad RAM or HDD. Here's the guide for using memtest.

John

 

Just for reference...I've had Sabayon linux running on my Q35 from a live CD, so no doubt other distros will also work.

On a side note, I must say, the Q35 had no problems at all running the various 3d desktop and window effects

 

I agree, the Q35 has no problems with this year's flavours of Linux because it has last year's chipset and the driver support is all in place. However, the Q45 has the Santa Rosa chipset and I don't think the driver support is fully built in and debugged. Or may it is just my Zepto which has something special on board.

John

 

Ahhh...I see......never thought of that

 

For more coloured Q45s, look here.

It's the last photo in this Inquirer report.

John

 

Hi

First Post.

Having checked out this thread and the reviews have ordered a Q45 Red.
Do a note on Vistas ReadyBoost and was going to order an SD card.

However, not sure what size I should go for and if the Q45 is SDHC compliant.
Any one know?