Series 3 11.6" with i3 - np300u1a - anyone else have one?

mine was also advertised as a 7800mah, in hwinfo64, i got

Code:

Unique ID:                                       SAMSUNG Electronics
Chemistry:                                       Lithium Ion
Designed Capacity:                           45510 mWh
Full Charged Capacity:                       43660 mWh

in batterymon, i got

Code:

Design Capacity 45510mWh (5570mAh)
Full Charge Capacity 43660mWh (5344mAh)
Current Capacity 41040mWh (5023mAh)

looks like i didn't get my 7800mAh worth either!!!

 

bump for an answer? Is the webcam HD or not, is all I really want to know. Thanks. All I see is that it's 1.3mp quality. Every other samsung series 3 laptop has a HD webcam...did they skip out on this modeL?

 

I can tell you that the camera model is "scb-1100n".

 

and max capture resolution is 1280x1024, so it does 720p HD, which is pretty good. Not sure that is 1.3mpix though...

 

wow... just got an email from seller... should i believe??

Code:

HI:

Samsung bios will only detect the highest battery made by Samsung, which is around 5500mah

This is a 3rd part battery it is 7800mah.

This is the highest capacity available in the market for this model

If you are not happy with it.

please send the unit back within 7 days with the copy of packing slip and I will have it tested and replaced

 

Hmmmm, anyone got a genuine Samsung 66Wh battery in their NP300 to see if the BIOS bit is true?

Richard

 

I think it is highly unlikely that Samsung would go to the effort of coding such a limitation into the BIOS. It is also unlikely that the BIOS would change the battery info when it is interrogated by a program such as HWiNFO.

John

 

I ran the battery calibration tool from the bios as suggested and it bumped up to 5804 mAh. I also received the same email as jkkw.

 

Frys is selling the Corsair 8GB stick for only $69, I may pick it up myself. FRYS.com | Corsair

 

My Intel drive had no such sticker.

720p is 1366x768 or 1280x720 depending on how you count it. Most web cams have a higher still image resolution versus video resolution.

 

I would say he is talking crap! - lets assume his theory about capacity limitation is true, Samsung sell an 8800mah battery themselves so that is the highest capacity it should detect. Beyond that though, i would suggest the capacity calibration tool would be able to detect a higher capacity battery if it truly was that high.

My 6600mah pack just arrived and both HWmonitor and the windows 7 gadget read it as 48.85Wh.

Hope that helps,
Demon

 

I talked to a live tech support person on samsung and he indicated this model has an HD cam. Nice bonus. Since all netbooks have 0.3mp or 1.3 vga quality cams that look rather bad.

 

What voltage? Watts = amps x volts.

John

 

its a 6 cell pack (2 in series) so 7.4V - Whats more, i just ran the battery calibrator tool and the capacity actually increased to 51.06Wh (or 6900mAh) that will roughly equate to 5 - 7 hours of surfing / general use. Can post up a screenshot if it is of interest to anyone.


Take care all,
Demon.


P.S - i would STRONGLY recommend getting rid of about 80% of the crap-ware that comes pre-installed on the lappy. it just clogs up valuable system resources, slows everything down and burns up more battery power...

 

DemonBG,

Where did you get your battery from?

Thanks!

 

Picked mine up from the bay for about $32 USD shipped - took about 3 weeks to arrive but worth it for the price! Will post a link if you'd like.

Cheers,
Demon

 

Scratch that - link on page 17.

Enjoy,
Demon

 

I'm only seeing 5 pages in this thread.

 

I see 22 pages

 

i am starting to see the serious limitations of this model. I like to keep virtual memory off and 4gb just don't do it. Only one RAM slot is a real flaw. Aside from the standard battery the trackpad is useless. I just updated the driver and it's worse than before. Can someone point me to a better driver?

Even though this model is meant for portability I dont think I would bring it with me on a long travel or rely too much on it for my on the go machine.

 

You can put an 8GB module in that slot (I did), and the price of those modules has dropped considerably. An SSD would make things even better. That is next on my list.

What problems are you having with the trackpad? I usually use a wireless mouse, but just now noticed that the trackpad was not responding to taps. Uninstalled the driver, rebooted, and let the Samsung System Restore reinstall the trackpad driver. Seems to be working fine now.

 

I had posted earlier in this topic about this. Nobody seems to be too worried about it, but yes, Elantech sucks at making trackpads. The very fact that the software allows you to turn the palm tracking to a minimum, BUT NOT TURN IT COMPLETELY OFF, is a gaping hole in the software design, and would surprise any programmer. I mean, come on, how did they miss this? I too would love to figure out how to get the Synaptics driver to work with it -- lots more options.

The temporary solution I've found is to turn the Palm Tracking feature to the minimum setting, and the sensitivity to one less than high. That seems to minimize the delay.

Alternatively the latest version of Fedora (linux) handles the trackpad pretty well. No irritating palm tracking problem. Plus, the two finger scrolling actually works.

 

You have to push the charger in until it clicks. Once it clicks, it is firm and no longer loose.

 

greg and michael,
the problem i am having is that when i browse to a page and then i move to the left on the trackpad is goes to the previous page and i even turned off that option.

 

I got this laptop for sale if anyone is looking for a 2 day old laptop. Selling it for $400 shipped. It's a great little laptop but I would like a bigger screen.

 

I have the impression that some browsers have their own gesture support (but I wonder if this is only for touchscreens). Which are you using, and do you have the same issue with other browsers?

 

Sounds like so far DemonBG's ~50Wh battery at ~$32 is the best and closest to advertised. I'm still hoping for a 66Wh like the genuine AA-PL0TC6A that skydesigner got with his AMD-based unit.

There was a link a while back to a Hong Kong seller who claimed to have those for $73 - but I'm always a little leery of those folks! Anyone been able to find a source for the genuine Samsung AA-PL0TC6L (appears the L postfix means black) for a more reasonable price and/or from a trusted seller?

TIA,
Richard

 

Looks like I might just keep my laptop... What SSD do people recommend that will fit into this thing?

 

Well, the Intel Series 710 SSD is 7mm thick, so fits beautifully. Costs more than the laptop though.

Richard

 

Insn't the 710 a server-grade unit? The Intel 320 SSD is enough for most users.

John

 

Agreed, but most of those I see are the 9.5mm versions - the poster asked about what would fit, and I happened to have stumbled across the 710 series which appears to come in 7mm normally. Doesn't meet his "reasonable" price though

Richard

 

So I just purchased the crucial m4 ssd for this lappy. Guess I'll have to mod it when it gets here. For anyone that's interested, this guy's selling it for 89.99 shipped on ebay.

 

Where can I get a good deal on an extended battery? The one that comes with it only lasts me a good 2 solid hours.

 

It's a 1 minute job to remove the spacer off the Intel 320 and refix the cover with some shorter (2M x 3) screws.

Too late for you but search and you will find that a 7mm version of the M4 is now available.

The Samsung 820 SSD is another 7mm thick option.

John

 

I'm looking for an additional AC adapter/charger for the NP300U1a. The genuine Samsung charger is either pricey or hard to find. Has anyone tried the charger that comes with the ASUS EEE 1005HA. The 19V, 2.1A specs are identical. Tip size of 2.3mmx1.0mm looks like it should fit.

 

I recently purchased this battery:

https://www.richbattery.com/New-Lap...NP300U1A-NP300U1A-A01US-7800Mah_p_123579.html


when i test it (even after recalibrating) it reports mwh in the 45000 range (more like 6600mah). Anyone have any ideas about how to get full usage out of the battery?

 

Looks to be a common theme with the aftermarket batteries I broke down and ordered one of the allegedly "genuine" 66Wh batteries and will report back in a month or so when it arrives from Hong Kong.

Richard

 

Just to let you guys know, i have now had about 10 cycles through my battery and it now reads 53280Wh... 7200mAh for a battery that was advertised as 6600mAh...for $32

Would genuinely strongly recommend getting it from that seller!

Take care,
Demon

 

Agreed, that's so far the *clear* price/performance leader. Pretty hard to pay more than double to add about 25% (from 53Wh to 66Wh). Personally I'm trying to match the near 8hrs of my T115-S1100, so I'm really pushing to get absolutely as much capacity as I can fit - but that's not a terribly sensible plan.

Richard

 

Ok guys some help would be greatly appreciated - Im trying to get the powered USB to work properly on my NP300U1A - I have it active in the BIOS and also in the utility manager but even so, every time the laptop goes to sleep it cuts power/charge to my Iphone!

Do any of you wonderful souls have any suggestions?

Kind regards,
Demon

EDIT: Found a solution, Apparently the chargeable USB (left side port with thunderbolt) doesn't work with Iphones (Though it does provide power) the solution was to just use one of the other two USB ports (on the right hand side) for some reason they provide power and allow whatever driver it is to stay active while in sleep mode!

Hope this helps someone!

 

So this is what you bought?

Did the capacity go up after a few cycles? What is your actual runtime (actually using system such as web browsing)?

Thanks!

 

That is the one and the capacity according to both HWmonitor and the batterymeter gadget has gone up!

One thing i have noticed is that the prediction for battery life fluctuated allot based on use - It can be anywhere from 4 hours to 7 - 8 hours depending on how hard i push it... I usually get a good 6 hours of general use out of it though. That's mostly web browsing, emails and some CAD work.

Hope that helps,
Demon

 

Yep, with the stock ~30Wh battery (but with an SSD installed) I've seen 5 hours predicted when web surfing with a nearly full battery.

Richard

 

So... is it safe to say that it roughly doubles battery life?

Hmmm, might be worth it.

 

Yea i think 6 -7 hours is about right. Having said that, i did get a good 3 - 4 hours out of the stock battery as well. The key thing is to keep the laptop running clean - About 80% of the crap that Samsung install from stock is completely useless to 90% of us and beyond taking up space on the hard drive and running away in the background (Thereby using up valuable resources and hence battery) they do very little!!

So, by all means get an upgraded battery - But there is much more you can tweak without spending your hard earned cash which will also serve you well!


Hope that helps!
Demon

 

What would you delete from the samsung install?

 

In all honesty, anything that you don't think you will use, just get rid of it - about the only Samsung branded software that i kept is the control center and the update manager!


One thing i have noticed though is that the system does do some pretty strange stuff when it comes to power consumption - occasionally at idle it consumes about 13wh and sometimes its closer to about 8! i have no idea what is causing this difference at all as both are done when the system is "Idle" - I.e. no programs running. my guess would be background applications using up system resources but i have no idea what they could be...


What i may do over the weekend is try and do a complete fresh install if W7 and see if i can find out what is causing the random changes.


Will keep you posted.
Demon

 

Delete anything that you think you don't use, but only after downloading the same software package so you can reinstall it should you discover that a feature disappears. [A few years back the Easy Display Manager was the package that managed the Samsung-specific Fn key commands).

Yes, it's probably caused by occasional bursts of activity by various background tasks. You may be able to see these on Task Manager's Processes tab. Also, if you have Bluetooth enabled then it may be periodically searching for devices (and WiFi may do the same).

John

 

The good news is that my battery arrived yesterday, so a tad under 2 weeks from Hong Kong to central USA.

The bad news is the seller sent a BLUE battery instead of a BLACK battery, and the WORSE news is that even after calibration via BIOS it reports only 60 Wh capacity Interestingly it reports a designed capacity of 66Wh but almost 10% of life used so a current max capacity of 60Wh - almost like it's a used not new battery.



I've sent an e-mail off asking the seller to send the correct battery and one that's new not used. Unfortunately it's Chinese New Year and eBay reports the seller away until the 31st of January, so I don't expect timely resolution.

Assuming nothing changes here, I'd still say DemonBG's supplier with the 50-53Wh battery is a far better choice.

Richard "Pioneers are the guys out front with all the arrows stuck in them"

 

Don't be too disheartened bud - A new battery wont have 100% of its rated capacity until about 5 - 10 cycles - Mine only had about 48Wh when it first arrived and now its closer to 53!

I reckon that after a few cycles it will build up to 66Wh... as for the colour... Not much you can do there

Good luck,
Demon.