Series 7 Chronos All Models: Push for SAMSUNG to implement "FIXED MODE" in BIOS

Yes, precisely.

 

Not being able to use the GPU correctly is a big issue. Even with Leshcat's drivers, the AMD GPU still does not kick in correctly for several games. The big issue here would be support for future releases. What if for several games to come in the future the GPU does not kick in correctly?

Having used the ENVY 15 with 7690M which is a rehashed 6750M, the gaming experience on the ENVY 15 is better since the smaller chassis made the Series 7 throttle the processor. The selectable fixed graphics is the best for AMD.

 

yknyong1, I appreciate all your help on this forum.
I recently bought the Samsung Series 7 Chronos 15.6 inch a week ago and I have to say that I have been very disappointed with it.
I find the mousepad to be very jumpy and have poor control - I installed the new driver for it and I removed drag and drop completely but I am still having issues with it.
I also found that this laptop doesn't get my 5g wifi connection and on my 2.4G wifi connection it get's much less reception than my old computer.
Finally, my biggest issue is viewing videos online. When I see videos online, say on youtube or espn, they get hazy and then they go green and then my computer dies with a bluescreen death. Samsung support said to download their latest AMD driver from their website. Unfortunately, I did this and when I try to click setup, my computer won't run it (it freezes), and in the rare occurrence that it does run it, it freezes during installation.

Samsung support said to download the latest adobe flash player which I have done.

Any advice? Should I try to get a refund like you? Are there any fixes? Overall what do you think?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

Fixes wise, none to date for the graphics switching.
If you feel that mousepad is jumpy, give it a few days and see if you can tolerate it.
Wifi wise the range is significantly shorter when compared to other laptops such as HP ENVY 14 and 15.
Viewing videos there is a workaround for youtube in the video scaling thread, but for certain websites and embedded videos it may not use the jw player.
The video issue is serious, and combined with the switching, means Samsung's implementation of the AMD 6750M GPU is really flawed.

It is your call on whether you want to keep it. With Ivy Bridge availability from Q2 2012, some say April 8, and NVIDIA and AMD coming out with 28nm mobile GPUs, if you have an existing backup you can use meanwhile, you may want to consider a refund.

Of course, Luterin would like me to say that he and some other users absolutely do not have any problems.

 

Good luck finding one, they don't make it any more. I'm waiting for its successor to be released this month, as I am also going to buy one

 

Thanks very much for your response.
I thought it over and I'm returning it.
Problems are too significant and doesn't look like a solution is on the horizon.

This experience is making me think about buying the overprice Mac Book Pro and I am a 20 year PC user.

Do you all have any other suggestions for PC's that have recently come out and are nice?

 

HP ENVY 15 with i7-2670QM and HD7690M ( a rehashed 6750M) - same spec with IPS 1080p screen.
Sony VAIO SE 15" with i7-2640M and 6630M - slightly weaker specs with IPS 1080p screen but lightweight 15" at 1.9KG.
HP DV6 with 1080p screen upgrade - specs can be configured to be better with 6770M.

Check them out before anything and see which is to your liking.

 

BlakeRoss, where did you hear that Samsung has stopped making these? I currently have an order placed, but it is listed as a back order. After reading this thread, I am almost hoping that you are correct or they are fixing the problem before producing more. I am a student and was drawn to the 700z5s-s03 because of the quick boot up speeds with the express cache and its incredible specs. Like most students, I use youtube, photoshop, play games and am constantly using my laptop to watch tv and movies.

Does anyone have any further info about Samsung possibly discontinuing this model? Or when they are planning on producing its successor? I have seen Amazon offer a new model 700z5a-S0A but it has the same graphics card which will contain the same issues.

Thanks in advance for any helpful info!

 

Thanks so much yknyong1. I really value your opinion. I trust you guys more than CNET!

Given your three options and other notebooks you have had experience with, what would you recommend if my primary objectives are:

-Microsoft Office Use - Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint
-Web Browsing
-Email
-Occasional Netflix movie viewing, music listening
-Not needed for gaming

And I value laptop speed, a nice screen - 15 inch preferably, good build quality and durability, and good battery life.

Price doesn't matter as much. I am willing to spend what it takes to get the best machine.

 

All those things (and more) can be done just fine with the Series 7. You had som e trackpad issues, but I suggest you play around some more with settings, since most users think it works very well after som tweaking. Also the video player has been a non issue for me since I switched to JW Player for flash videos like YouTube.

If all that remains is the wifi issue and it really is an issue, I suggest either getting a new wifi gateway with better hardware, or as a last resort switch the wifi in the S7.

But if you already made up your mind and dont want your S7 anymore, then you can always buy a HP Envy 15 or simillar, which then ofcourse have other issues.

Sadly there is no "perfect" laptop, and for me the S7 is as close as it gets and I am very happy with mine, which I mainly for work, but also for relaxation and gaming...

 

Lutherin,
What do you suggest is the best way to use the trackpad. I disabled almost everything. I feel as if the light touch (instead of full click) works poorly. I also feel as if the drag and drop will not work. I also have trouble with the right and left click not having independent buttons.

Last quick thing, how did you switch to the JW player?

Do you think getting a mac book pro would solve these issues?

Thank you all.

 

Run C:\Program Files\Elantech\ETDAniConf.exe and try lowering the touchpad sensitivity on the "Additional" tab.

 

One other thing, did any of you have trouble with the build quality? My computer has lots of very sharp edges that are not flush and hurt my wrists.

Anyways, YKNYONG1 if you have any suggestions on laptop recs given what I'm looking to do as I mentioned on the last posting page I would really appreciate it.

 

Yes, I noticed that the plastic casing is uneven with the palm-rest area. At some points the casing is flush with the plam-rest (which is good) but at most points the plastic is higher than the palm rest and is uncomfortable.

 

One last thing, when I put my samsung next to my old vaio, the screen seems very dull on the samsung, almost like a burnt out fluorescent lighting look. Not nearly as bright or as vibrant. Any of you have these problems?

 

Personally I disabled the zoom since it gave me some problems with scroll-detection and I set the drag-drop on immediately stop when lifting your finger from the trackpad.
Also I enabled scrolling (as I said) and assigned a 3 finger tap to the middlemouse button so I can quickly open links in a new tab.
I disabled 2 finger tap, since I don't want to deal with the confusion of a short scroll and 2 finger tap.

Drag and drop works as follows: tap two times and hold the second tap; then you can drag.

I do not use the hard-click very often. Mostly just tapped click and works fine here .
The rightclick button is at the bottom right of your trackpad.

The guide for installing JW Player is here How to fix YouTube pixelated Fullscreen - YouTube

Well the macbook has (one of) the best trackpads on the market AND(*very important) the software to go with it. if OSx is fine for you, you could decide to get the macbook for the trackpad. In Windows I suppose the trackpads are about even + you won't get the dedicated rightclick button; you will have to rightclick by two finger tapping.

Though for the same money you will loose on resolution (big drop!), SSD (if you've got the express cache option in your 700z5a), GPU and I believe also speakers.
You will also gain on some things; especially OSx is said to be a pleasure, but if you mainly want to use Windows; I would say the 700z5a is a way better bet, although the trackpad is not perfect.

 

Thanks discy, I did the JW player and greasemonkey add on and it still looks pixelated.

I checked my firefox addons and it says it is running greasemokey and jw player 2.2

 

Also are we talking about the same issue?
I understand the pixelation problem which is annoying.
But the main video problem I'm having is I'm watching a video on ESPN or youtube and it is streaming. Then all of a sudden it freezes, it gets fuzzy then green then the whole computer freezes and I go into blue screen death.


Macbook pro for 1800 looks to have worse or equal software to this machine which was 1300 but all the problems I'm having with this machine make it very frustrating.

 

Luterin, would you mind explaining what you mean by " a new wifi gateway with better hardware?" I am a complete novice when it comes to computers and really want to make this laptop work for me. Like I stated before, I am a college student and constantly in different places with different wifi access points. Is there a way to make this work better without replacing the internal broadcom wifi? or is it simple to replace without sacrificing performance or causing compatibility issues with the laptop?

 

I agree completely.

1. I use a mouse most of the time, and found the trackpad to be acceptable after adjusting the settings to my liking.
2. I have the Intel wifi card, which was unstable with the out-of-the-box driver, but has been perfect (and with decent range) since upating to the latest driver from Intel.
3. I have no problem with viewing Flash videos. I use Chrome set to "Power Saving" (i.e. Intel HD).
4. Graphics switching is a non-issue for me as I don't use Open GL in games or applications, and all of the Steam games I've tested use the AMD card (even when they claim to only detect the Intel).
5. I don't have any of the build quality issues noted by others - space bar works fine from any angle, no sharp edges, no significant flex.

In short - I'm delighted with my S7 after a month, apart from the slightly ropey trackpad and the sub-par display (viewing angles and black levels). The tradeoff is worth it at this price point.

 

Try setting your browser to "low power" in the graphics switching options, disabling hardware acceleration (right-click on the video). Failing that, for Youtube, enroll in the HTML5 trial, instead of Flash.

 

elephant can you please explain what you did to sort out the wifi issues?
i am also a tech novice and don't really understand what you did

If you could explain how to go to power saving mode on chrome that owuld be great too.

 

As far as I know (from reading other topics on this site), the S7 ships with either a Broadcomm Wifi card or an Intel one. I got the Intel one with mine. If you got the Broadcomm, your best option is probably to replace the card with an Intel, or buy a separate USB wifi adapter (but that would mean having it permanently attached and losing a USB port).

To change Chrome (or any other program - Firefox, etc.) to run on the Intel card, open the Catalyst Control Centre and go to Graphics Switching. Then, search for the exe file in question and assign it to "low power" rather than "high performance".

Another option is to get the Internet Explorer extension for Chrome from the Chrome store and then open any Flash videos in an IE tab through that.

 

Sorry to be a dummy elephant but how do I even know what WIFI card I have?

 

Control panel > device manager under network adapter.

 

If you do have the Broadcomm, I would ask Samsung to exchange it for the Intel one free-of-charge. It doesn't function as intended from what I've read.

 

Crap, got the Broadcomm. If I ask them to install the Intel, then this laptop is definitely no longer returnable I would assume.

 

Sooooo, I just called Samsung and asked them if they are working on the AMD card issue b/c I was planning on purchasing the S7 chronos. The rep sent me an email stating:

"Customers have been reporting an issue with the Series 7 models that have AMD/ATI switching graphics. Applications using DirectX will switch to the dedicated card, but anything rending in OpenGL will not switch from the integrated Intel card. This is a result of the Series 7 being launched when AMD's PowerXpress, which is the technology underlying AMD/ATI's graphics switching, was at version 4.0. PowerXpress 4.0 was not designed to support OpenGL rendering on the dedicated card. As such, this issue is not fixable without a redesign of the motherboard to include the newer version of PowerXpress. This is not an issue that can be resolved with a BIOS option or driver upgrade."

He sent me here to read about it further:
AMD Dynamic Switchable Graphics Technology

He said they are working on redesigning the motherboard, but he didn't have any further information as to a release date or anything. He wouldn't really comment on whether the current S7s will be fixed.

Pretty bummed about this news since I was going to go buy the laptop this weekend. Not sure whether I want to hold out for the updated version or look into a different laptop :-/

 

To fix the crashing do the following: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...deo-scaling-video-crashing-4.html#post8276432

These and more tips and fixes can be found in the http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...nos-np700z4-np700z5-series-owners-lounge.html

 

All three are more than adequate for your needs. In fact if you don't game at all, you do not even need a discrete graphics.

The edges are present on mine too. It is a design issue.
You can buy almost any sandy bridge laptop, with just the HD3000. It will do fine for your movies and office work.

The Samsung screen is not a good screen. Low contrast, vibrancy is also inadequate.

 

In Singapore the Series 7 is just starting to sell at most shops. However, may not be the case in US.

 

Quite the same reply from Samsung. However, with the news of replacement.

 

offtopic:
----
Originally Posted by beebella89:
He sent me here to read about it further.
----

For those who are interested: a pretty decent article about switchable graphics can be found here

 

I'm afraid I have bad news.

I contacted the repair service yesterday and they said that not only my hard drive has failed but there is also problem with my motherboard and the cooling system and they will replace them. They ordered the parts and now I need to wait.
Maybe the faulty cooler (or radiator or whatever they mean by cooling system) was the reason other components failed so soon, who knows. Either way, major f**k-up in the Quality Control department. I'm getting sick of this.

Anyway, since no one else reported this, I'm afraid this "irregular noise" might be the same issue (since they've mentioned cooling system) so please stay vigilant. Backup your data in case anything goes wrong. Pozdro

 

Where things get interesting is that there are no muxes in AMD’s dynamic switchable graphics implementations, but there is still an option to fall back to manual switching. For this mode, AMD is able to use the display output ports of the Intel IGP, so their GPU doesn’t need separate output ports (e.g. with muxes).

I tell you Samsung's implementation is seriously non-standard, which is why using the AMD GPU is a nightmare. Watching videos with BSODs tell you a lot. This is also why they have to redesign the entire mainboard for the purpose of fixed switching.

 

Hey all,
I am returning my Samsung and getting a Vaio SE.
The Vaio will have its issues I'm sure and is more expensive and battery life is worse but there are a bunch of things I can't deal with with this laptop - trackpad, screen quality, video problems, and especially poor WIFI - as well as the poor build quality and sharp edges on the wrists.

Quick question, I noticed the Vaio SE has an AMD graphics card as well. Will I have the same problem with videos that I have with the Samsung?

 

Thanks again yknyong1 for your answers. I think this laptop was a perfect example of you get what you pay for. There is just too much good hardware for too good a price and you pay for it with all these issues...

Also feel as if Samsung is trying to make a PC version of the MacBook Pro and all these qualities - like the trackpad - remind me of why I want a PC and not a Mac.

 

One last question for you guys, the Sony, like the samsung has an internal battery.
What do you do when that battery runs dry - my experience is this happens in a few months with sony batteries? Is the only option buying a battery sheet?

I liked the old detachable batteries because I could buy a new one from a bargain basement site and replace it.

 

Well it's same like Macbook. If you know the battery model you can open up the back and replace it with a new battery pack. Of course that's if your comfortable of actually doing that.

 

It is not hard to disassemble and replace the battery. That is, of course if you can find a compatible battery.

 

Hello,

I just read all pages of this thread and the general conclusion seems to be that OpenGL rendering does not work with AMD graphic card at all, which means the Intel HD graphics is always used when rendering OpenGL.

Yet some thread contributor have reported that they managed to get OpenGL to run on the AMD card for some games and even for Photoshop. Are they mistaken or is it possible in some cases to use OpenGL on AMD hardware?

If it works in some cases, it should be possible to make driver updates such that it works in all cases, and that is why I am a little skeptical. On my machine I have not been able to run any OpenGL application on the AMD card.

As for the Leshcat driver, it allows use of the newest AMD driver, which is great, but in my case they don't solve any of the switchable graphics problem that still exist with the newest AMD driver.

Please enlighten me!

/Anders

 

I just bought a Series 7 Chronos notebook and was very disappointed to see that it wasn't possible for OpenGL applications (in my case Blender) to use the discrete Radeon GPU. After following this thread and some others, all resulting in some kind of "won't be fixed" mood, I was about to return the computer.

This morning I checked the Samsung software update utility and discovered a new VGA driver ( version 8.940.0.0 ) which isn't even released for generic AMD cards yet. Long story short: It lets you set the discrete GPU for all OpenGL applications, no option for "fixed mode" but it worked for everything I tested so far ( Blender, Java OpenGL applications using LWJGL, Quake 3 Arena, Brink ).

 

I guess it's a start. Better then nothing working at all.

 

Wow, that's a 731MB driver package. So, as I wait for it to download, I'm curious - does it just have a toggle that says "Use discrete GPU for OpenGL", or does it now just allow you to choose the AMD processor for OpenGL programs (like it supposedly did for others)?

 

Wait...so OpenGL applications/games now work fine on the Radeon card as a result of a simple driver update?!

 

Tell us about it. I just returned it, so cannot verify.

 

I don't have any OpenGL software loaded on the machine right now, but I can say that Firefox sure runs a lot faster. (It was nearly crippled before - I had to switch to Chrome just to surf the web.)

 

Downloading it now. I'll report back when this thing finishes. 731 megs with no download speed is frustrating, but for openGL i'm willing to wait.

 

Its not showing on the uk version of the 700z5a that i have in the easy software manager. anywhere I can download it from?

 

Everything works the same as before except that it now actually uses the Radeon GPU if you set an OpenGL application to high performance.

I can't find the driver anywhere on the support pages of Samsung so I'll upload it to my dropbox, will take some time though as it's a ~380MB zip.