Samsung Q45 (12.1" widescreen)

If you Google for AA-PL0UC8B/E then you get pages such as this or this, which say that it is an external battery for the Q1.

Normally Samsung.de is a good website but I think they got it wrong on this occasion.

John

 

Yes, I already saw this websites, but I did not find any review or closer look on this battery in the internet. Just advertisment or vague descriptions in online shops.

Couldn't it be possible that, because this is an external battery, the power connector for the Q1 and the Q45 are identical, so that this battery can be used for both ?

 

I wouldn't think so. John recently linked me to a website that deals in replacement batteries. I grabbed a quick snip of the web page where the two batteries can be seen together and they do look substantially different.

View attachment 12532

It is disappointing that there doesn't appear to be anything above the 6 cell offered for the Q35 / Q45. The website is here.

 

The Q1 is a hand-held machine with 7" display so it is completely different to the Q45. Also, batteries usually come in multiples of either 3 cells or 4 cells and a different capacity battery would need to use the same multiple to use the same connector .The Q35 / Q35 uses a 3 cell multiple so there can be a 3 cell (doesn't stick out), 6 cell ( the standard) and a possible 9 cell (it would need to stick out more or hang down like on the Dell M1330). However, the possible 9 cell doesn't seem to exist.

John

 

I'm not sure you're all on the same page with this one. I believe the power pack is an external battery that plugs into the AC connector on the machine to supplement the existing battery. I would think it's entirely possible that the Q1 and the Q45 use the same size AC adapter which is what I think Zbig is talking about.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong
Neil

 

1. I doubt if something as small as the Q1 uses the same voltage power connector as a normal notebook. Maybe I'm wrong.

2. Using an external battery through the power port doesn't trigger any of the battery saving because the computer still thinks it is on mains power.

John

 

The additional battery pack can be seen here. The shape doesn't look all that friendly for use with a Q45 and at the size and price, you'd be better off with a second battery.

 

I wasn't really supporting the idea...just trying to clarify what was being discussed.

The power saving is a good point, but Re: voltage connectors, my Q35 and my Tabletkiosk i7210 UMPC both use the same size voltage connector, and the same voltage setting on my car lighter adapter.

Regards
Neil

 

Laptops Direct currently list a red Q45 (T5450 + 1GB + 160GB) for £600.

John

 

I have the same Samsung Q45. I have not got the same problem. My webcam software is working properly.
My laptop is installed Vista Home premium. But, I want to chage it to Window XP. I checked my driver DVD supplied by company that it is not working in XP. So, anyone know where I can download all the driver for Samsung Q45 for WindowXP, please show me!!!!!!
Thanks a lot!

 

The Samsung Q45 downloads are here.

John

 

Now under £700 + delivery, or here.

This price for the spec can't be right...

 

Well it isn't in stock. The price is without VAT and plausible, although I agree it is pretty unbelievable.

Edit: The same unit is 680 quid at Micro Anvika without VAT so that price definitely looks real.

 

That is a real bargain for £715 then, 2.2ghz C2D (4mb L2 cache), 2Gb ram, 200gb HDD in the niec Q45 shell.

Just got to wonder what the battery life is like.

 

The CPU shouldn't affect the battery life on the minimum performance setting. Read this review and this thread.

John

 

I was thinking more about the double L2 cache that I've heard uses extra battery, as well as the larger hard drive (more to search through, more time spinning, more battery used), or are these presumptions wrong?

 

In my experience under the current Intel hardware these factors should not affect battery life by more than 5-10%. Even that is stretching it. This hardware is truly built for mobility. Also, high performance drives such as the Hitachi 7K200 barely use more juice than their 5400RPM counterparts.

 

It's my theory that the extra cache uses more power although, in theory, the CPU will turn off unused cache when running on battery (that Intel provided that facility does suggest that the cache uses power). It would be very interesting to compare the same notebook with the T7250 and the T7300 since the only difference is 2MB cache.

There is substantial difference between makes / model of HDDs and size is not necessarily a factor. See the Tom's Hardware 2.5" HDD charts.

John

 

do you know more about the last 3 bios updates? (i wonder why samung don't put any releaseinfo online)

 

Occasionally Samsung do post a comment about what has changed in a BIOS revision, but often they don't. I agree it would be useful. One constraint may be that the BIOS development team may not be very proficient at English.

Anyway, I see there is now a Q45 BIOS 10ST dated 04 Jan 08. It also applies to Q70. This might be for Penryn compatibility and/or it may contain some other useful fixes.

John

 

I keep hoping that one of these is going to fix the problem of not waking up from standby in XP, but no luck yet. Has anyone had any luck with standby in XP?

 

Hi everybody!

My Q45 T7100 Damali has the problem that I sometimes can't adjust the screen brightness after I resume from Standby... The FN+UP/DOWN doesn't work and the brightness slider is missing in the Windows Mobility Center...
I mailed Samsung about this two month ago but they haven't answered yet.
Hoping that a new firmware/BIOS may fix the problem, I updated to 08ST, 09ST and now 10ST - none has fixed the issue.
Now I'm experiencing a new problem: the fan is always running at full speed - even switching to "Silent Mode" doesn't slow it down.
This happened right after flashing to version 10ST.
Has anyone experienced the same problem?

Cheers

 

I have a brand new Q45 Danyal which I bought here in Germany. The drive is partitioned into 2 100GB partitions. Is there anyway to merged these partitions?

I was actually thinking of erasing the whole drive with a DOS disk and then using the rescue system disk. But will that make the partitions again? Does anyone know?

 

Hello!
I've got a Q45 T7250 Devesh and also updated to BIOS revision 10ST. Unfortunately I also observed problems with the Fan. It's always running at unnecessary high speed. CPU temperature (Core Temp) is now 43°C (109°F) compared to 54°C (129°F) before updating.
However, on my notebook fan is running slightly slower in "Silent Mode" than in "Normal Mode". AC adapter was plugged in, battery operation behaviour not tested yet.

Does anyone know how to "downgrade" the BIOS back to 09ST?

 

My Q45 Damali hat a 200GB disk and came with two separate partitions on it. I installed Vista using the provided DVD, erased both partiotions during the setup process and created a new partition (using the whole disk).

I just checked the "Silent-Mode" again and the fan is running slower comapared to "Normal-Mode".

Unfortunately I don't know how to flash version 09ST again. I only have version 08ST and if I try to flash it the program quits with a message saying that the installed version is newer than the one I'm trying to install.
Maybe the is some hidden switch like /force or /noversioncheck.

 

But you really installed Vista again or used the restore CD? I don't have a "real" copy of Vista.

Also does anyone know if it is possible to change the language of the Vista installation? Currently it is German. But I guess that I can't change that. :-(

 

My DVD is labeled "Systemwiederherstellungsmedium".
Afaik it is only possible to change the language with Vista Ultimate.

 

It is possible to load on older BIOS. The instructions near the end of this thread are:

You will need to change the 22sd whatever is the name of your BIOS file.

@JManHH:

You could delete the second partition in Disk Management (after first copying any files to the first partition), then expand the first partition.

However, I am a strong believe in not keeping my files in the same partition as the operating system. If you need to restore the original OS installation it may wipe and replace C:, but anything in D: will not be affected.

John

 

True, but isn't a 100GB split a little much. I shouldn't need that much room for system files should I? I could get away with 50GB or even smaller right? What are other people's suggestions?

 

Oh I didn't know you also hada German Q45. That is the same disk that I have so I guess that I CAN change the partitions sizes that way, and also get rid of all that annoying software that came installed on the Q45 *hehe*.

 

As for resizing partitions, Vista's management includes a "shrink volume" option. However, I have never tried it. Personally, I use the Acronis Disk Director. This may be worth looking at in case the trial version is limited by time not function.

John

 

Hello!
BIOS revision 11ST has just been released and can be downloaded from

http://www.samsung.com/download/index.aspx?agreement=y

- havn't tried yet but may be that it resolves the fan problems.

 

That is very quick to get another BIOS out so we can hope it is a bug fix (the Q70 also has this update).

John

 

I haven't noticed fan problems with XP, but I did lose the ability to change screen brightness with function keys after installing previous BIOS. Unfortunately 11 does not fix it - looks like I'll be downgrading

 

I've just installed version 11ST and it fixed the fan issue.
Thanks for your advice...

Do you know any way to downgrade the BIOS? I'm just curious...

 

Go up a few posts to my post of 7th January which links to another thread.

Will force a downgrade (make sure you have the right BIOS ).

John

 

@JoeW

Same here, FN+-Brightness and FN Wireless doesn't work with 10ST and 11ST.
However, using FN+-Brightness in BIOS works, but not with Linux and Windows XP. Linux throws just an "...atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed..."

Whenever I downgrade to 09ST everything is OK.

I sent Samsung a bugreport for 10ST. The only one they answered was "...Bios ? no warranty and try to reinstall Windows." :-/

So try out 09ST
Bye

 

I'm not getting this BIOS downgrade procedure. Where do I find the "CD version of the BIOS updater"? I only seem to have a restore CD, and can't find a download. Running the exe with those parameters gives an unknown parameter error. ??
Cheers

 

You can get an ISO file for creating a bootable CD at SamsungPC.com.

The latest version there is 08ST. You should be able to force that version to run using the command and then do a separate Windows upgrade to 09ST.

John

 

Thanks very much John, didn't look hard enough. Works fine, cheers.

 

I bought Samsung Q45 A004 last year. I have a problem of my Web camera.
I can't find it when I use Skype. The other software have the same problem.
Last month I found if I used MSN then use Skype, the problem appears.
Skype then MSN is the same. After restar the problem disappeared.
But it happened for a wile.
Now I can't use the camera all the time.
I have reinstalled the device for several times. But nothing changed.

System: Vista

Thanks

 

same problem with the FN keys, very annoying. Hope samsung fix it soon

 

Hi,
great to read through the report and reviews of the Q45. Just invested in one yesterday;

https://www.saveonsamsung.com/product/id/406181/NP-Q45A00A/SUK

Seemed a half decent deal? Looks decent spec, but I'm not that hot on the internal etc. so would welcome any thoughts from the people on here.

Quick question; anyone know a car charger that would work on the Q45 please? I'm going to be travelling around for a while and won't have access to power, so would be great to be able to boost the power via the car. Any ideas/links would be great please.

Thanks a lot.

Steffan.

 

Congratulations and welcome. That's a very reasonable price for the Q45.

An inverter is probably the cheapest solution to power you Q45 on the move and it will power any 230V equipment within its power rating. 75W rating will just be enough for the Q45's 60W PSU, or you might prefer something a little more powerful if smallest size is not a priority.

Finding a dedicated 12V input PSU with a plug to fit the Samsung notebooks will be more difficult and more expensive (Samsung don't use one of the more common sizes of power plug). Google for the iGo Juice.

If you are needing help on maximising battery time, read Luke Alexander's power savings thread.

John

 

Fantastic! thanks a lot for the reply John, and to be honest I wasn't expecting such a prompt reply. I had a look around, and found the Q45 to fit my needs the best, whilst still being a resonable price.

Thanks once again for the tips, much appreciated.

Have a great weekend.

Steffan.

 

Here's a cheap auto / air PSU kit but I'm 90% sure that none of the power tips will fit the Samsung power socket (I've got a couple of universal PSUs at home and neither would fit the Samsung notebooks).

John

 

Thanks a lot For that John, much appreciated. To be honest that little car adapter that you directed me at will be just the ticket, and will save me a lot of bother because its generic capability will allow me to run other chargers off it too! Superb, thanks mate.

Got my Samsung, and well chuffed with it thus far - Vista is annoying me already though. e.g. logged in as admin, tried to install photoshop, but told me that I didn't have sufficient usage rights or some nonsense to run the programme! had to right click and run as admin on the programme, worked fine then.

First thing I've noticed it how quiet the Q45 is! Really looking forward to having a good play with it now.

Best wishes,

Steff.

 

Hi, All!

Sorry if I'll double someone's question but there are 45 pages in this post now and I'm already tired reading..

Well.. The questions are:
1) My girlfriend owns Q35 and everything's ok with build quality except the fact that CD/DVD isn't mounted well or it's really weak and feels like can be easely broken. Did anyone met the same problem with his/her Q45?
2) On the Korean site it is stated (may be because of poor Google translation) that Q45 has CD/DVD removable and then it weight's about 1,7 kg. Would be nice to hear if someone checked the possibility to unmount the drive.

 

If the optical drive on the Q35 feels loose then check the two screws on the bottom of the computer just forward of the Windows licence sticker (see my Q35 review). In fact, it is good practice to go round all the screws on the bottom of any notebook from time to time making sure they are tight. It is possible that your girlfriend means that the slide-out tray is loose. That is normal (but they are relatively fragile).

A bare optical drive weighs about 0.2kg so a Q45 without optical drive would be about 0.2kg lighter. You can slide out the optical drive once you have removed the one or two fixing screws. However, notebook manufacturers who intend the optical drive to be removed to save weight also provide a plastic filler for the hole in order to keep out unwanted objects.

John

 

Bad news with my Q45!

I was cleaning my keyboard and took the spacebar off but when I put it back it was f*cked... As you may know there are little rubber cones which cause the spring in the keyboard, but when I took mine off I **think** there was only one, despite there being 3 spaces for them on the 3 scissor mechanisms.

I searched high and low for the missing cones (if any) but could not find them so I borrowed them from Alt Gr & Ctrl R but that makes the space key incredibly stiff and impossible to use too!

Does some person know whether it is indeed 3 cones under the spacebar or indeed LOOK at their own keyboard to see?