Samsung Series 7 17.3" WiFi Issues, NP700Z7C-S01US

There has been discussion of this in another thread; it seems people are having trouble with this laptop dropping the WiFi signal. The thread has gotten to be almost 150 pages long, and some people might not want to read that many posts. A lot of the posts about this issue seem to be from the same people over and over; that's fine; but I'd like to bring the discussion to the front to see if there's a wider range of people having trouble with this laptop's WiFi.

 

That's the one thing that prevent me from buying this wonderful computer.

Wouldnt be easy to resolve this issue by putting a micro wificard into the usb port? It sucks having to do that for a 1500e laptop but these days you dont find anything that works properly anyway :<

 

I am on the same boat. You can get a micro wifi card and it should work ok but its kind of a negative that you need to have a usb dongle on the computer all the time that will make a built in feature work. Also with so few usb ports on the machine it's kind of shame to have to limit one to always being used up by an already built in feature.

 

I had no problems with my wifi for the first 8 weeks I had this laptop, but this past weekend I had a series of wifi signal loss incidents within a small time frame, then no issues, then repeat.

I assume some type of intermittent antennae problem? I never saw the other thread.

Edit: oops, misread the model in the title, I have the NP700G7C with

 

@MZBiologist, The whole series 7 seem to have that wifi problem :<

I've like 2000e dedicated to my next laptop, i just want it to be silent and i thought this one was going to be the one but with that wifi problem i really dont know... How come we are in 2012 and nobody can make a laptop that works properly? They really expect us to find ourselves a work around of their mistakes ffs

 

Same here, bugged with that supposed wifi issue and I'd like to see it clarified once and for all. I'm looking for a good multimedia laptop with a decent display that can occasionally handle intense gaming when I feel like it but found the various candidates all suffer from some critical flaws :

Dell XPS 15 : terrible cooling system & throttling (the latter's supposed to be fixed with an upcoming bios but given the very poor heat management it's still basically broken if I want to game), glossy screen = meh. The price tag is also very high considering such flaws machine, I basically ruled it out.

Samsung NPZ007C : supposed wifi issues, apparently pretty poor heat management, hard to replace HDD and whether this does or doesn't void warranty is unclear. I've also heard Samsung's customer support was pretty bad (it sure hasn't inspired me much confidence so far as they've never answered any of my emails so far). Great sound and matte display are a definite plus, as well as the unusual form factor (17" in a space-saving case).

Asus N56 : easy upgrades and ok design, matte display, might be an option but it really bugs me that Asus decided to be their usual cheap self and cripple the GT 650M with DDR3

MSI GE60 : easy upgrades but tacky design with cheap glossy plastic everywhere and no backlit keyboard.

Lenovo Y580 : this one is pretty thick but has nice specs and it actually seems to be one of the few current notebooks to work properly, with little throttling and acceptable thermals. Upgrades are also easy. Not sure about customer support and build quality though.

I have yet to truly test the wifi on my newly received NP700ZC. If I find it works properly and I can get a satisfactory answer to the HDD replacement & warranty issue I'll definitely keep it, if not I'm returning it and getting one of its - sadly also deeply flawed - competitors.

 

How long did it take to receive your np700zc ? Thru Amazon ?

 

Ordered it on tuesday from amazon.fr, it was marked in stock and I received it on friday. Idk if that'll help you though if you're ordering from a different place.

 

Hey botsu, im french too, waiting for my visa card to come so i can order the samsung. I've look through all the brands and even in 2012 no one seems able to make a laptop who works as advertised.

You wanna buy a 15 inch so i think its gonna be easier for you than for me... If i were i would avoid XPS and MSI (loud fan noise), maybe wait a bit for the next dell precision release (~3 weeks).

Lenovo seems good, especially the W530 and it seems there is a software to manually change the fan speed that has been designed by some hardcore fans (yeah we cant count on anyone and have to work around the bugs ourselves)

HP Envy 17 3270NR looks sick but seems to have fan always on and isnt available in france yet ;<

 

Just finished up my SSD installation last night in my 700Z7C. Everything is blazing fast now with less than a 5 second boot time.


However, the problem I'm having now is the same problem everyone else is having: the intermittent Wi-Fi issues. It's really obvious when I'm downloading games from Steam and you can see a graph of your download speed that just drops off.

It's even happening when the laptop is plugged in to the AC power and all the settings set to max performance.

 

there are some tweaks in the thread but no good solution whatsoever besides buying a micro usb wifi card

im gonna receive my laptop in a couple of hours, i'll write a review then !

 

Still waiting for that review

 

I had posted my review on the main np700Z7c thread, here it is:


Ok so after lurking this thread for 2 months, reading the full 150 pages, cursing laptop brands for not beling able to make a machine work flawlessly in 2012, i eventually purchased the NP700Z7C.

Im really glad i did so and regret i didnt do it sooners. It really is the best laptop i ever owned, by far.

I was scared about 2 things: wifi and silence (which was a priority for me)

First boot, i was a bit angry at the noise, when its not on quiet mode it is loud, too loud for me, but after installing a SSD and turning on the quiet mode, it's SILENT, NO NOISE AT ALL ! you know the sound you hear when it's so quiet around u ? i can hear that sound when the laptop is turned on. After having a dell studio 1737 and the unbearable noisy fan, i feel blessed with this laptop

Then the wifi, i was a bit scared aobut that issue and thats why i didnt buy the samsung sooner, eventually i decided to go with it and buy a usb micro wifi chip if it wouldnt work. GUESS WHAT ? After disabling bluetooth, wifi N, and other tricks mentionnde in this thread, I'm downloading at my maximum speed though keep in mind i live in france and my cap speed is 1,4M/s. I had 0 disconnections in a room at a level under my adsl box (I had wifi problem too with an old dell machine in the same room)

so to sum up:

PRO:

BEAUITFUL DESIDGN
REALLY LIKE THE SCREEN
EXCELLENT KEYBOARD
QUIET MODE
SAMSUNG PROVIDES A CD TO DO A FRESH INSTALL
GOOD BATTERY

CONS:
QUIET MODE RESETS AT EVERY RESTART
HDD REALLY SLOW AND NOISY ITS NOT USABLE EVEN AS A 2ND HDD TBH, HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO PUT A SSD
KEYBOARD KEYS ON THE LEFT ARE HOT DUE TO HEAT
TOUCHPAD IS TERRIBLE, I HAD TO DISABLE IT BECAUSE A PART OF MY THUMB TOUCH IT AND IT S THINGS UP WHEN IM TYPING (i really hate every touchpads and use a mouse though)

If you want a 17" and money isnt a issue go for it, i wish i had done it sooner

 

I should point out that the quiet mode works by reducing the CPU speed. HWiNFO will show this (compare the maximum CPU speed with quiet mode on and off).

I think the latest Intel WiFi driver also helps but most people who complain about the WiFi speed either have much faster internet connections or are trying to stream media on their home network.

John

 

Try going to the Lenovo forum if you go right now there's at least 7 or 8 with issues and today isn't a day for them + Lenovo's customer support is as bad as it gettings, I owned a Y570 and I've never seem so many ppl dissatisfied with the laptop they bought whatever model, from any vendor, my Y570 only had the graphic driver issue and I felt lucky.

 

Thanks for the review.

I can't confirm the noise problems though. I found it really quiet compared to every other notebook and pc I owned.

 

No WiFi problems for me, it is extremely good and recognises networks that even my desktop can't.

Its seems pretty quiet to me but you can hear the hard disk being accessed. Probably beause its so close to the front of the laptop.

 

Only had this laptop for a day but my wifi seems fine. I thought it had a problem when I was trying to update a driver via Easy Software Manager and it kept disconnecting from the server, according to it. However, I feel like it's the ESM because even now it's being a ****** trying to start, whereas downloading a huge game through Steam is going pretty smooth with no significant dips in the flow at all. Also, I seem to be getting constant full bars, which was not always the case with my old XPS.

 

ESM has been having problems recently as discussed here.

John

 

What wifi chip is the Series 7 17 using?

 

This one. Intel Centrino 6235.

 

Did someone tried to install a Bigfoot Killer 1102 or 1202?