Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C with AMD Radeon HD 7970M/Geforce GTX 675M

I agree 100%. The touchpad on my NP700Z3A is the best I've had on any laptop. Some members have had issues with theirs, and I think Samsung had QA issues on some models which affected the touchpad. But mostly, these are great touchpads.

 

Do you guys have a green cloud(on the right side at the middle of the screen) when the computer boots up and the screen is black? It disappears and cannot be seen when you normally use the laptop but I'm just wondering what is it?

(and sorry for my terrible english)

 

Hello all! Hoping someone might be able to help.

So I bought my Series 7 Gamer laptop about 7 months ago via a refurbishing site. Up until this week I would say I was very satisfied. I had noticed two weeks ago that my fans seemed relatively quiet, but put it down to the fact that I wasn't doing anything to strenuous on my hardware. All of a sudden this week I started to get a strange "stutter" situation while using the laptop - it would essentially freeze/lock-up for anywhere from 5 seconds to 1 minute, after which time it would resume working. My nVidia card drivers would also sometimes crash and recover during the longer spans, but not always.

Putting two and two together, I became concerned that it could be a heat build up problem. Since then I have been tracking it using SpeedFan and all my devices seem to be hovering in the 40C - 55C range with occasional spikes into the 60s. Cleaning the vents seems to have helped lower the temps, but either only one of the fans is working or they're all failing to kick into high speed. There is only a minimal venting of heat exhaust coming from the back vents. Unfortunately I can't get any information on my fans' speeds, as it seems my BIOS doesn't support it. I also can't gain physical access because I can't find a guide to removing the entire back cover, rather than just the portion allowing access to the HDDs and memory slots.

I've also tried scanning for software errors or viruses, updated the BIOS to the latest version, and rolled back my Gfx card driver to a previous version. No changes.

Can anyone help me out? As I bought the laptop refurbished, I don't have a warranty and I'm reluctant to drop money at a repair shop if there's a way to handle this myself. I have plenty of experience building/repairing desktop PCs if someone thinks cracking open the case might provide insight. I just don't have access to a guide for the proper way to do so!

 

Hi WolfEye, welcome to NBR.

Yes, it definitely sounds like this could be a fan problem. Cleaning those from the inside, and possibly re-pasting the CPU and GPU are probably your best next steps. I am not an expert in either, but we have many knowledgeable owners of the G7C here.

I would recommend we move your question to the G7C Owners Lounge thread where I think you will have a much better chance of getting an answer. There may also be disassembly discussions somewhere in that thread, but you'll have to search for it.

We do have a Series 7 Disassembly Guide but I am now sure how well it matches your G7C.

Finally, you could purchase the downloadable G7C Service Manual from SamsungParts.com. I believe they're $12.

Just let me know if you want to move this post to the Owners Lounge. Or if you wait at least 24 hours, you can re-post your question there and leave this one open for now.

 

Thanks for the advice and welcome, Dannemand! Absolutely feel free to move the thread Still learning the forum structure.

I probably will purchase the Service Manual just as an investment for the future, but look forward to further thoughts and opinions about the issue...

 

And it's moved

 

If you are only seeing spikes into the 60's then it should not be thermal throttling. I would have to ask, what were you doing when the stutter situation hit?

 

Did Samsung abandon the Series 7 Gamer line, why no next-gen version?

 

Certainly appears that way

 

That's what it looks like. Though they could be waiting on the GPU updates before throwing a new laptop out.

I for one though won't be buying a refresh. I've had enough go wrong with mine to make it worth not buying another Samsung, I understand that things can go wrong, but when I've owned Asus and Dell Gaming laptops (yeah I had a Dell XPS) that lasted longer before needing a repair (if it ever needed one in all the Asus laptops I've owned) having to spend another $100+ on shipping the laptop twice not once, but twice within a year of ownership has soured my thought on another Samsung. Now, I WILL run my Samsung until it quits, or someone trades me a good gaming desktop (I still have my Asus for portable gaming after all.) But I won't be buying a refresh or anything laptop wise from Samsung again. Don't get me wrong, it's a really good computer, but when I have to send it in twice in less than a year is when I draw the line.

 

I do not think this is the average experience. Mine had the USB port issue but I think this was from when the vendor upgraded the CPU but forgot to plug the port back in. I fixed it myself so all is good now. Again though I am not a gamer and no where near stress the system.

 

Yeah, I don't really fully stress mine, don't overclock it nothing. I know it's capable of far more than what I do to mine. Honestly, I just got it because it was an upgrade over my Asus that had a GTX 460M 1.5GB Gpu and an i7-2630M and 12GB Ram. (yeah I know, I probably didn't really need to buy the Samsung) I always want the newer stuff though it's the techie in me. It was just a bad score for me. Samsung themselves I am not really trashing, I have owned quite of few over devices from them and have had great luck with them. (Knocks on wood) But the laptop has just been a sour experience for me. It also doesn't help I was one of the early adopters and bought it pretty much when it came out. Hardly had many reviews online other than maybe store reviews. Anyhow, I'm still gonna run it until it dies, unless I trade it for a desktop.

 

Machine wise I was set, I had a fully upgraded P79xx from gateway. The hardware, for me, would have been good for another 2-4 years but then the travesty of Windows 8 was lurking at the door. I was forced to purchase a new system before Windows 8 was a requirement. In looking the Samsung was the best non MXM class machine out there at the time, IMHO.

I really resisted as I was also one of the 1920x1200 holdouts as well but the 120hz screen lured me away. I still have the old machine and side by side there is a huge difference in the display. Color and vibrance of the Samsung is just so much better. I do still miss the desktop real estate but not as badly as I first thought.

Hardware wise I am hoping this will push me to at least Windows 9 if not Windows 10. Once they can push this amount of power into a convertible, and get 8+ hours of battery life, maybe then I will convert.................

 

Will now I think it's time to try an "OS Refresh" All the sudden my USB 3.0 ports aren't working, neither of them. It's been over 2 months since I've re-installed windows (I usually do it once a month to keep it fresh and virus free, just been so busy lately.) I've tried uninstalling the drivers and re-installing them and all kinds of different 3.0 and 2.0 drives (flash and HDD) and nothing happens, but all the drives work on my Asus laptop and on my friend's Gaming laptop. Has anyone else had this problem? If so what did YOU do to fix it?

 

Mine are fine so far, finding piece of wood to knock on . In the driver area are there any yellowed out?

 

They weren't yellowed out or anything, that was the weird part. But I re-installed Windows and all is working perfectly fine now. It's weird. Anyhow, it's good to know that it wasn't hardware related. My warranty is up in October and I've already sent it in twice for repair. So I guess sometimes a full re-install is all that the doctor ordered. lol

 

Will I found out the warranty is up. No surprise there. Also I had to do ANOTHER restore as something went wrong with my Windows install. Caused the graphics drivers to keep crashing even after un-installing, re-installing and changing to older drivers. Seems to be working now, but I've already had the graphics card replaced once under warranty, I hope that it lasts me. If not I don't know what I will do as I've been doing ALOT of video/ Audio work (which is why I got the i7 cpu), The little Asus will work as a backup, but I will need to get another i7 laptop as soon as possible. I'm just gonna keep my fingers crossed that is was indeed a bad Windows install. As I know those can happen.

 

Just a heads up. I went to my bios update and it twice loaded up an "07RBV" available for update. Since I was and am on 08AAB I rebooted and now it comes up with 08AAB as the available update. Since the prior bios was 07AAB I would be very leery about updating to the RBV variant. I just want to put a shout out incase anyone else sees this too....................

 

Guys! I have just finished formatting my laptop and I have a couple of problems.

First of all I get the errors you see on the picture at startup.


Secondly, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS "SW UPDATE" ! I have never ever seen such a stupid program in my entire life! Some of the available-to-download software in the previous "Easy Software Manager" are simply lost in the SW Update. Similarly, the newer version of the "Easy Settings" is stupid as hell as well! I wonder what was the reason behind removing the option for changing between "Sleep" and "Shut down" button in the start menu?! Is it because I'm still on Windows 7 that Samsung has forsaken me? I do not like Windows 8 and want to keep going with my Windows 7! Does this mean I won't be getting any proper software support in the future?! Shame on you Samsung!

 

Smart Setting unfortunately also controls some of the FN key shortcuts so you do need this. SmartMovie I am not familiar with. I think we are talking you have downgraded a Windows 8 machine to Windows 7, correct?

The problem is, for current machines, they are mostly Windows 8 machines and not Windows 7. With this not just Samsung offers Windows 8 support only. Your one advantage is these machines were originally windows 7 machines at release time so the windows 7 variants of the software are still out there. Just be sure to get it from Samsung's site and the Windows 7 variants then let software update do its job of getting you updated................

 

Thanks for your reply! No, my device is NP700G7C-S01UK which came with Windows 7 Home Premium originally. I took the chance to buy Windows 8 upgrade but I just can't stand the new Start menu. I formatted it with the recovery disk that came with it (Win 7). Apart from the errors that show up at the startup, the device just freezes for 1-2 minutes, yes THE WHOLE DEVICE, for at least 2-3 times a day. I thought it was because of the software that I installed previously so I formatted it a few days ago. After I applied the updates through SW Update and Windows Update Center, these errors started to come up as well as the random freezings! It's like they are doing it on purpose to force you to use Windows 8! That's just wrong! All I want is having my device work properly, as it was BEFORE!

 

Something must have gone wrong with that Win7 install, since Win7 worked originally, and is still supported on your machine.

You can try a new install, using the Win7 install guide in this post (NOT the ones on the first page of that thread, but the one I linked). It was written specifically for Samsung laptops, and takes into account the different features of different models.

You want to let SW Update download and install drivers, since Samsung stopped updating them on their web site about a year ago. There are a few, though, which you are better off installing manually. It's all covered in that guide.

Of course, if you still have your Recovery partition (if you only formatted the Windows partition and otherwise left the disk intact), you can just F4 boot Recovery and do a factory restore; you'll be up and running in no time.

 

Also for hangup and latencies there is another thread to address here. This too is part of Samsung's software too...............

 

Yeah, that latencies thread has become a bit long in the tooth since I never updated it (much) for Win8. But it's included at the end of the Win7 install guide for those who want to super-trim their installation.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/688064-how-reduce-latencies-samsung-laptops.html

 

I mention it as he is talking about a freeze at boot up. This is the software from Samsung. I again had to modify early versions of easy settings loading originally but I think the NEW easy settings does not have the hang up issue with it.

 

Yes, you're right. I'll say, though, even at their worst, I haven't seen the Samsung bloat pieces (let alone Easy Settings by itself) cause 1-2 minute freezes. That's extreme latencies, there is some conflict for that to happen.

And you are absolutely right, the new Easy Settings 2.x is much better behaved - but doesn't let you sideload just the Fn-keys like 1.x did.

 

Thank you very much guys! :thumbsup:

 

Glad we could help out.................

 

Okay so I am running Windows 8.1 evaluation copy. I am trying to update all the drivers. Namely Modeshift and Settings.
Whenever I use SW update I first have to manually search for the device. But when I go to the thing where it says I can Export (which is to download the latest versions) it says, for example, Modeshift 2.0.0.
But even after installing that, when I go to the control panel and look at the program list there it says Version 1.0.0.
How can I get the absolute latest versions of all these drivers, software, and even SW update program itself?
Plz help!

 

Will I got a new computer, the reliability on my Samsung has gone kaput. She is still working, but with the bad luck I had in the past (two warranty repairs in the first year of ownership) plus she seems more temperamental than a Koala Bear ( Koala Bears: The Cutest, Cuddliest Animal in the World (That Will Rip Your Face Off)) lol.

My Samsung is now out of warranty and acting funny. (Sometimes the drivers for graphics crash after an hour, sometimes not for a day or 2, even 3. I'm gonna try to wipe it and re-install Windows a 3rd time now to see, but I just can't afford another downed laptop. (cost or time wise, since I am in school and do a lot of research online as will as a little website designing for my gf's dad online) So I went out and bought an Alienware. (It was clearanced out so I didn't really pay full price, though it was still cheaper than the $1900 I was charged for the Samsung) anyhow I now understand why Alienware is so good and somewhat more expensive. Without further de-railing the thread I'll just say if your curious and open minded shoot me a pm and I'll give you the details.) Otherwise the specs are in my sig. Anyhow I had the money now and finally found what I believe to be a good replacement.

I do plan on writing a review sometime soon, so I'll probably link it for those who are curious.

I will continue to check in from time to time to see how everyone is doing. The Samsung has done me well other than reliability, but I firmly believe I got a lemon. I still recommend it, but also with all the newer tech coming out I can't. As it seems according to Amazon, it's price is roughly the same as the Alienware I have now, and the Alienware I feel is a much better machine overall. Build quality, specs, and everything. Heck all the Samsung's are priced higher now. Heck the lowest end model is priced at what I think I paid for mine! Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C-T01US is priced at $1865 USED! Only downfall is my version of the Alienware only has a 60Hz, display. But oh well. I couldn't really tell the difference.

Anyhow, off to finish installing everything to my new laptop, then with time permitting, I will attempt a 3rd restore on the Samsung to see if I can just squeeze a little more life out of her.


Oh yeah, and if your wondering, no I wasn't going to send it for repair at my own expense, as I was quoted anywhere from $600- over $1000 + shipping charges to and from which still would have been cheaper than a new machine, but with the past reliability issues I've had, I just decided it wasn't worth the risks. How do I know another 6 months down the road it won't crap out on me again? Anyhow, best of luck to everyone and I hope you DO have better luck than I did.

~Cheers!

 

Good luck with the AW. Looks like this thread is going to almost be dead now.

 

Will be a lot slower for sure.....................

 

Will I wanted to post saying that, I did restore Windows and all drivers yesterday to the Sammy, and then ran it. Played some Minecraft, Simcity 5, Command and Conquer Kane's Wrath, Prison Architect, and will went all over the board yesterday evening and night. Expecting it to crash or something. Probably about 7 hours of gaming. (I got home stuff and school work done a lot sooner than I thought I would.) The Sammy pushed through it all and without any crashes! But to me it doesn't mean anything really. I've gotten both my Sammy and Alienware setup with my dropbox account and have been saving anything I can to there so it'll sync to the cloud and then sync to the other laptop. I am still going to keep the Alienware as a prime and will run the Sammy at regular intervals just to see what happens. With the reliability of my Sammy though my biggest fears is it does go kaput for good and I don't have anything. Now I'm covered. I may just start using the Sammy as a test bed of sorts until it dies for good. I just don't think I could sell it in good conscience knowing that it could die at any time. So I won't be gone for good yet, lol. Your not getting rid of me that easy! hehehe. Later everyone.

 

The 770M is definitely a faster gpu, don't blame you for switching to the AW.

 

Yes faster GPU and if I were a gamer I'd be looking elsewhere as Samsung seems to have abandoned us for gaming system updates. My only one issue would be not wanting Windows 8 so I would probably have to go with a custom built anyway rather than a Sammy................

 

Windows 8 is fantastic. There's too many under the hood improvements to abandon it. One click puts you in the desktop, and you can stay there until a hard reboot. Windows+Q to search for apps to run is infinitely more efficient than the start menu ever was. Not sure why everyone bashes it.

 

I didn't have too much of a problem with 8, even liked it, it was just some of my most used programs didn't like 8. This is also what a good selling point on the AW was it came with Windows 7. Which meant Windows 7 drivers! lol. There is a difference in specs obviously, but the AW also feels much better built, and has full access to it's guts for the most part, except for the mSATA slot and Ram Slots 3 and 4. But the Owner's manual tells all in how to get into the AW. I am planning on using the Sammy as a test bed for different OS's such as Linux, Ubuntu and such. But I'll probably swipe out the 120GB SSD in it for a traditional drive since I'll be doing a lot of writing to the drive. As of right now, the Sammy is just downloading a few large files for use later on (hopefully, if my internet doesn't crap out on me.)

Anyhow, if anyone wants me to write a review on comparing build quality, my impressions and such, just let me know and I set something up for all to see.

 

Because there are so many other issues, like breaking DWM and aero glass or pulling of the desktop gadgets and especially in the manner they did, like it was not already known there could be unsafe gadgets. There are others as well and so you know I have yet to see anyone bash Windows 8 for what is under the hood.

 

Aww man, did I miss the gadgets when I tried Win 8 out. I use the turbo boost monitor and a clock gadget so I would know what time it was where a friend lives overseas. While I won't argue that Win 8 is all bad, there is just too much that doesn't work for me in Win 8 to make it worth the upgrade to 8. In my eyes, Windows 7 isn't broke, so why should I fix it? Maybe 8.1 will bring back all I missed and then maybe I'll consider 8 more. This is how Win 7 vs. Win 8 is right now: User opinion, functionality (if software works), and some have fear (fear of no drivers or just fear of change) and then there is money/ cost to upgrade to 8. I'm pretty sure I may have left some reason/s out, so fill it in if you want. Me? I'm more in the functionality area, Win 8 doesn't have gadgets, and some of my games and software doesn't like 8. I've been reading some horror stories about Sims 3 and Win 8, and though I hadn't tried it myself, my friend has 8 and Sims 3 installed a-ok. But it seems to be on a machine basis, as I was speaking to someone else who has the same machine my friend has and Sims 3 wouldn't launch for him. Sims 3 is one of the games I love to play and unfortunately, is a pain in the butt to install since I have so many of the expansions. (I mainly play it to build houses, it's an awesome house building tool! lol) Windows 7 works fine so I don't want to chance it. (I guess this one could be labeled both functionality and fear since I am afraid Sims 3 won't run right on 8.) But it's not the only reason. Another reason is I bought the Win 8 pro upgrade for like $40 way back and installed it to my Sammy, will when the Sammy went for repair and came back with 7 back on it. I went to upgrade and got all kinds of issues when activating. Finally said screw it and put 7 back on the Sammy. So I guess I also don't want to deal with 8's DRM crap as well.

The point would be everyone has their reason for not upgrading and there are times I agree and there are times I don't agree. But I am not an H8ter, as I am open to it. I just don't want it right now. The next laptop I get will probably have 8 on it and I'll just have to live with it and move on. But by then there may be a chance it'll have Windows 9 on it as I hope my AW will last me a long time.

 

Start menu was the quickest way to open folders/initiate programs and now its gone. I dont want to waste my time and switch to metro ui just to search a specific folder. I want everything ready to launch and while doing that i dont want to lose the connection that i am doing on screen.

All in all W8 is terrible, metro ui is for tablets and phones not for pc's. I regret the day i switched to W8 from W7. I cant even see any upside.

 

Eventually there will be Windows 9! Windows 8.1 GA release supposedly has some DWM fixes so this MAY be good news too. There are plenty of other threads for this though. The question is if you regret the upgrade on your Win7 machine why not just go back?

 

I guess we'll agree to disagree as I find searching and hitting enter more efficient since I never have to take my hands off the keyboard.. I'm a hotkey junkie. Not like windows 7 didn't do it but differently, I mostly weaned myself off the start menu long before win 8 launched so it wasn't a shock really.

 

I Downloaded 8.1 I had stupid issues like all theme, windows and even the cursor going back to 98 style but i fixed them all and now it's fine. We have Start button back. YAY! but wait it switches to the metro.....what is this? Is MS trolling with us? There was totally no need for that. We could switch to metro by moving cursor to bottom-left anyway. It just looks a bit better thats all and being able to switch to desktop as soon as i boot up is good but thats all about 8.1

Why dont i switch? I am not sure i can do that and i dont want to waste my time on it. Plus i bought it i want to make a use of my money. I can get used to it even if i hate it. Did you try W8?

 

You said it yourself. You need to Windows + Q in W8 whereas in W7 you only press Windows button and just start searching and you had everything in the start menu. Quickest way to initiate anything and everything. It was a bliss. Horrible its gone

 

I'm sorry but this doesn't make any sense. Pressing the windows button, and then the extra clicks for either looking for the program or going into the search system CAN'T be quicker than pressing windows+q and immediatly typing the name of whatever you're looking for that, additionaly, shows up as you type it.

 

if you hit the windows key on the keyboard and start typing it searches for you as well. You could inversely use the mouse with the windows button. IE in windows 7 hit the windows key on the keyboard and type in, with out the quotes, "msconfig" and hit enter and it launches as such.

Vasareve; I guess you have the S02 and it came with windows 8, I thought you meant you had an S01 and upgraded it.

 

My english is not good but when you press the windows button you can immediately search by typing without extra clicks.

Plus the Expresscache which used to work perfectly fine on W7 and now doesnt work properly on W8

@TANWare No I have S01 and yes I "upgraded" to W8

 

Ok, sorry, I tried W8 as well for a while but it was a no go for me. I could have upgraded for the $15 but so glad, at least so far, that I haven't.

 

Any news on the replacement for the series 7 gamer? From what i can find they are no longer manufacturing them after first part of October. I have looked around and can not find anything.

Thanks

 

We have to assume that Samsung are still trying to sort out Windows 8.1 issues (and shift Ivy Bridge inventory).

However, a few people in various countries have been told by their Samsung marketing people that new models will be announced soon. Whether a replacement for the G7C will feature remains to be seen.

John