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

There still are issues even with the 8.940 drivers. If you go back a couple of pages you will see my posts on an issue with Civilization 5 and someone else had the same problem with Crysis.

The problem (Civ 5 would not run on the AMD card even if set to high performance) was fixed by uninstalling any graphics drivers on the notebook, cleaning everything with driver sweeper, installing Leshcat's drivers, running the program/game in question (which would now work on the AMD, but the fan of the AMD would be running constantly even outside of the program/games), uninstalling Leshcat's drivers (using the YUC tool he includes) and then reinstalling 8.940. Only then does Civ 5 run on the AMD card for me without the AMD fan running all the time.

I am absolutely sure Samsung's support would not recommend this solution to anyone complaining about the issue (especially because it would include installing Leshcat's drivers and is simply ridiculous), so maybe this could be used to get a refund/exchange?

 

Yes, I'm the person that had the issue with Crysis. However, I'm not convinced installing Leshkat's driver was required in the process you described above. I suspect that simply fully uninstalling 8.940, cleaning with driversweeper, and then reinstalling might have produced the same result, but I can't be bothered trying to find out, nor arguing the point with Samsung. Most users found that OpenGL rendering was fixed by 8.940, and did not encounter the issues we did with Civ and Crysis. That's good enough for me, given that Samsung are officially supporting the 8.940 driver as a solution when challenged on the issue.

 

Unless someone can come up with some specific programs that never work as they should with 8.940 most likely OpenGL ones, then we might aswell give up on getting a refund based on the GPU issues.

If someone finds something, then the process can be restarted with Samsung and we'll see.

 

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure installing Leshcat's drivers was in fact part of the solution. I had already tried simply uninstalling and reinstalling 8.940 before and that didn't change anything. My speculation: Using Leshcat's drivers, the AMD card is constantly activated. Civ (and Crysis, it seems) then recognize the AMD card and use it, while with the 8.940 drivers they simply don't see the AMD card is even there. When moving back to the 8.940 drivers, Civ (and Crysis) remember the AMD card and "find" the AMD card and use it. But I'm not going to test it either...

 

Hi

I still have a problem with 700z5a-soaus model, lets say that 8.940 not resolved all of my "opengl" problems.

I can not save "high performance" options in "Switchable graphics" menu at Catalyst Control Center. When i change option to "High Preformance" and than press Apply button all aplications are become a "Not Assigned" ;(

Is there any way to fix it ? My z700a5 is running on Windows 7 Pro

 

Please try this first to to test whether Leshkat's driver is an integral part of the solution:

Fully uninstall 8.940
Clean with driversweeper and then reboot
Reinstall 8.940 and reboot again.
Test your programs.

If that works, we know Leshkat's driver isn't required at all. If it doesn't work, then try:

Fully uninstall 8.940
Clean with driversweeper and then reboot
Install Leshkat 12.3 driver and then reboot.
Test your programs and you will probably find they run on the Radeon, but you will notice the GPU fan stays on constantly (which is why we didn't keep using Leshkat).
Fully uninstall Leshkat 12.3
Clean with driversweeper driver and then reboot
Reinstall 8.940 and reboot again.

Please report your results to options 1 and 2 above back here.

Cheers and good luck.

 

Ok, thank you for your comment. I will try and let you know results.

 

Bad message - not success at all. Laptop was returned to Compusa store. Sorry Samsung, another 1200 USD was gone with wind, no profit...

 

I don't think the problems with Civ 5 and Crysis were in any way related to OpenGL issues - I think they are a completely different problem! So thank you bladypl for testing this, but in the end I don't think this test could have even answered the question if Leshcat's drivers are part of the solution for the problem Elephant and I experienced...

 

Wow - that's surprising. It sounded like a software problem that I think I have seen others report on this thread somewhere. But maybe your Radeon actually did have a hardware fault.

 

The problems we experienced may not be identical the OpenGL issue, specifically, but they do relate to GPU switching not working correctly (which is the cause of the OpenGL issue). I agree with you that this was not the best test-case to prove whether Leshkat's driver plays a role in the solution though.

 

Knowing myself, I will probably do a clean install of Windows sometime in the coming months... When I do, I will do the whole testing thing and post back!

 

Hm, hopefully someone can help me out with my issue. A couple of days ago I installed a new version of Easy Software Manager and it seems to have thrown my system into hell. At first my FPS dropped so I did the usual, I re-installed the drivers and a new issue turned up. Now, whenever I use a graphically intense program, the fan in always on, it just wont stop. The temperature for the Intel adapter has also risen to about 80C when on demand while the ATI is around 65-70C. Ive reinstalled the drivers many times, ive tried different drivers to no avail. Has anyone come across this problem before?

Edit.
It seems that my Intel adapter hovers around 58-64C so that when I run a test it reaches the threshhold for when the fan turns on. On the other hand the ATI adapter hovers at around 50C so it would seem that the fan problem is with the Intel, either the fan or some other heat distribution system.

 

Weird Problem. Try a restore point to before you updated Easy Software Manager.

 

First thing I did. Im not really sure what could have caused it since it was working fine before a software change which makes me think that it cant be hardware related, its gotta be a coincidence. I may have to reinstall the system and take it from there.

 

Hello yknyong1, can I know what you wrote for the refund letter and to which address you sent to? Thanks!

I would like to have a refund too..

 

Here you go, Samsung Singapore
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sam...paying-beta-testers-thread-4.html#post8242555

 

Thanks for the fast respond! I will be sending an email to Samsung Singapore soon.

It's really frustrating that I couldn't play FIFA 12 and Diablo 3. The ATI Radeon card is definitely not kicking as these games lag like hell. I have a another laptop with lower specs than this 700z5a but I can run smoothly.

UPDATE: Okay I saw a post(update to 8.940) that might fix the lag but it didn't. The openGL did worked after updating but it still seems that the intel driver is doing all the work. The result from GPU-Z while running Diablo 3 on lowest settings:

Intel(R) HD Graphics:
GPU Core clock 650.0 MHz
GPU Memory clock 666.7 MHz
GPU temp 56
GPU load 1%
Memory usage(dedicated) 137MB
Memory usage(dynamic) 214MB

AMD Radeon HD 6750M:
GPU Core clock 100 MHz
GPU Memory clock 40.5 MHz
GPU temp 66 degree
Fan speed 30%
Fan speed(RPM) --RPM
GPU load 0%
GPU temp. #1 66.5 degree

 

Diablo 3 works just fine on high settings with 30-40 FPS using the official 8.940 drivers.

You most likely have some conflicting driver issue or simillar, so uninstall the graphics drivers, run a drivercleaner, then install the 8.940 ones and you will hopefully be set.

 

Hmmmm it lags for me even with everything on low and off settings...

I am not quite sure about the steps to unistall, drivercleaner, would you mind writing down the steps? Thank you so much in advance.

 

These are the steps he referred to. Please try option 1 first because we haven't determined whether the 2nd option is needed yet:

OPTION 1:
Fully uninstall 8.940
Clean with driversweeper and then reboot
Reinstall 8.940 and reboot again.
Test your programs.

If it doesn't work, then try:

OPTION 2
Fully uninstall 8.940
Clean with driversweeper and then reboot
Install Leshkat 12.3 driver and then reboot (google to find the download link).
Test your programs and you will probably find they run on the Radeon, but you will notice the GPU fan stays on constantly (which is why we didn't keep using Leshkat).
Fully uninstall Leshkat 12.3
Clean with driversweeper driver and then reboot
Reinstall 8.940 and reboot again.

Please report your results to options 1 and 2 above back here.

 

How bad is the situation with this driver/bios issue? I've got a good deal on a S7 but I'm a bit worried about this. I only game with Team Fortress 2, and occasionally Minecraft. Should I buy this or stick with the Dv6?

 

The situation has been resolved. All apps / games now run well on the Radeon card since the 8.940 driver was released (see page 1 of this thread). Occasionally, the driver doesn't install correctly, in which case you need to reinstall as per the above instructions.

The only issue with this laptop is the finicky touchpad - it's pretty annoying at times, especially with the latest driver. Some people also say the screen quality isn't the best, but it's fine for my needs.

 

So no trick needed to get the card work properly?

 

No "tricks" needed. Installation of the 8.940 driver resolves graphics switching for most users. A few (myself included) had to perform OPTION 2 described above to get it working 100% with a few games (Crysis, Civ 5, etc.).

If I were you though, I'd prob get the Ivy Bridge Series 7 with Nvidia Optimus. Depends on the price gap, I suppose.

 

I like the new one as well, but its not in my price range.

 

Alright people, will update the result soon; currently don't have the time. Anyway, how do I fully unistall 8.940? If it's from programs and features, there is only 'AMD catalyst install manager' which is related to AMD. Do I need to delete folders or something else?

 

Okay guys, I did option one. Result on playing diablo 3 still the same, LAGS LIKE HELL. View with GPU-Z my GPU clock is 100mhz memory 41mhz and default clock are the same. Tried with MSI Afterburner, setting core clock, memory clock and fan speed to the maximum of 600mhz, 800mhz and 100% respectively but GPU-Z still shows 100mhz and 41mhz and Diablo 3 still lags....... any solution?

 

Your GPU is dead. I had this exact problem and the tech at Toh Guan Service Centre said the GPU isn't activated properly with Samsung's testing.

 

What am I going to do next? Try option 2? Email/call them?

 

Bring back to Samsung for repair or as you deem fit.

 

Does it work in ANY game/program? Or is it just a Diablo 3 related issue?

 

Diablo 3 and Fifa 12 lags, I didn't try other games though. I tried goggle chrome with high performance in CCC and played a video in YouTube. After 10secs, my machine shuts down by itself.

 

Any BSOD? 0x116?

 

Hi,

I have 2 issues:
Pixelation on HD streams from bbc iplayer both through chrome and using the stand alone player.

Function keys and trackpad extra functions (right click, multi touch) not functioning until a couple of minutes after boot up.

any ideas

 

Hey guys - thanks for the idea. After installing the new driver - everything works and the ATI card is going in use (GPU - Z shows this). Civ5 also works flawlessly with all parameters at max.

Still, I have a question bout Diablo 3 - I get about 30-40 FPS going to 10-20 in the lower peaks. It does not feel that laggy...but what is your experience? I left with the impression that I Should expect 60 fps or so

 

Catalyst 12.6 (12.7 beta also) is out
I hope it comes soon for our laptops

 

Hey guys, I just stumbled about this problem while I was trying to figure out why my emulators (ps2 & Wii/game[]) were lagging with the specs of my samsung chronos series 7 laptop. I tried to above steps but I can't seem to find Leshkat 12.3 but his site is down or something, could any one upload or point me to a link, and GPU-z says the card has loaded after installing 8.940 drivers but CPU-z doesn't? not sure how to confirm successful results. Thanks for your help

 

Does GPU-Z show load on the card when you run both it and your emulators in windows? Make sure the emulator window is selected when doing that though. If it does show load, you don't have any problem. The Dolphin Wii emulator takes serious hardware to run smoothly maxed out, so it may not be the GPU-switching that is the problem here.

 

An update

In response to my quotation above. I figured out that when I updated the Easy Settings software it had reset the profile settings. As a result, when I wasnt getting the fps that I had before the update I freaked out and blamed the issue on the update messing with the driver somehow. Unfortunately I spent most of that day re-installing drivers. The combinations that I tried were various and tedious. My train of thought on this whole issue was that I wanted to bring the system back to its original state to see whether something inside the computer was damaged resulting in high heat output. I wanted to checkout the hardware and the software. Below is the summation of my software testing (all system states were tested with Furmark for applied load while the resultant temperature readings were obtained through GPU-z).

Methods included:
Uninstalling 8.940 -> drivesweeper -> leshcat drivers (12.3) = Really high temps and constant fan running.
Uninstalling leshcat 12.3 -> drivesweeper -> re-installing 8.940 = High temps
Uninstalling 8.940 -> drivesweeper -> installing 8.930 = High temps (trying to bring it back to the original state where my temperatures were acceptable eg when I first received the laptop)
Uninstalling 8.30 -> drivesweeper -> leschcat 12.3 = High temps
Uninstalling leshcat 12.3 -> drivesweeper -> re-installing 8.940 = High temps

And so on.......

The issue that I faced was that when I was running GPU-z my Intel HD temps were in the order of 60C idling. To me that is not acceptable or normal.

The next step was the one that I dreaded and looked forward to at the same time. I went out and bought Arctic Silver 5 and cleaning agents. I took the back cover off the laptop and applied the new thermal paste. This resulted in no significant difference in my temperatures so the next logical step was to completely revert the system back to its original state. I reinstalled the system with the disk provided. This had the desired effect! I think what happened was that my power management profile became unstable, corrupt or messed up in some other way causing my system to run high when it didnt need to. The Samsung Easy Software Manager is amazing and made the reinstallation process so much easier. It installed the 8.940 drivers automatically. The touchpad also feels much better now.

Before install idle temps = 60C
After install and application of thermal paste = 45-50C

I stressed the system to see how it handles under heavy load
Skyrim (high setting - no lag) (power cable plugged in) (2hrs of play):
CPU temperature = 86C
GPU temperature = 90C

Skyrim (high setting - no lag) (on battery power) (2hrs of play):
CPU temperature = 64C
GPU temperature = 72C

Considering that the safe operating range for a GPU includes:
0-40 = cold
40-70 = normal load
70-90 = heavy load
90 - 95 = high temperatures, potentially dangerous
95 + = stop

In relation to the CPU, anything above 75C is high and should be addressed. This can be done by either rising the laptop, laptop coolers etc.

As far as Im concerned, after reinstalling the system and using the software manager, my computer runs flawlessly, smoothly and obeys all of my commands.

Unfortunately playing Skyrim for 2 hrs pretty much drains the battery from 100% to 0%, the good news is that it re-chargers fairly quickly.

 

Sweet it works! haha, thanks for the advice, and thanks to OP for posting this topic and the files. I'm actually running a game 768p right now I'm surprised. full fps. I certainly wouldnt have bought this if it didnt have the ATI radeon, I can't believe they shipped this thing unknowingly, or without caring.

 

I am successfully running the 12.7 BETA drivers on my Chronos. Also using the 12.7 CAP1. =]

 

Do you think it is possible for me to return my series 7 chronos by mentioning all the various issues with the laptop, such as the wifi (i get 2mbps speeds on my 50mbps fibre optic line when i am in my room which is one wall away from router) , gpu switching (causes various issues with opengl), trackpad issues (needed to change regedit and use a older version to make it work as i wanted to) and bad temperatures ( 95 degrees c on all cores ad gpu at 85+)? I mean Samsung should fix this as this many issues is not acceptable... Was anyone successful with their return?

p.s: forgot to mention spacebar issue

 

Wifi: update the device driver, change the power settings to maximum performance on the wifi adapter, and if that fails, try a different router to see if your speeds improve. My connection is maxed-out 25 ft and 3 walls away from my router.

GPU switching: there aren't any OpenGL issues on the 8.940 driver, and that is what Samsung told me to use when I asked for a refund on the basis of this issue. If you still experience issues on 8.940, please post details here.

Trackpad: this is down to personal preference/taste (as you said, "to make it work as i wanted to"), rather than faulty design. Most people find it acceptable with the appropriate driver and settings. I use the latest driver now, with no tweaks and find it works well enough (but a bit over-sensitive on touch-click/drag).

Bad Temps: Those temps are very high and could indicate a problem with your cooling system, so this could be cause for a refund. However, if you only see temps like this when the system is heavily stressed (e.g. running a modern game for a long period of time in a warm room), rather than idle, that might be a tough case to make as this is not a gaming laptop.

Space bar issue: not sure about this. They could argue that technically the space bar works as intended, just not from the particular angle you strike the key.

Given all of these issues, you might be successful in getting a refund, but I don't really think you are entitled to one because everything actually works, just not quite as well as might be desired. It's worth a try though.

 

Thank you for the reply, what driver version are you using for your wifi? I had already installed all the latest drivers in the easysoftware manager and changed all power plans to max performance.

The elan drivers were just being a pain, because the latest one wouldnt let me disable the palmrest option, so i had to roll back to earlier drivers, which at the moment do not allow me to use the middle mouse button with 2 finger touch, instead I have to use 3 finger touch.

About the temps, yeah i get them during games such as crysis, bf3 and skyrim etc. I understand that they are supposed to be high, but 90+ is very bad! it should be about 85 degrees c max.

Tbh, the only thing that pisses me off is the wifi issues, I have tried 2 wireless n and 1 wireless bg router and with all of them it performs worse than my 7 year old sony vaio, both in terms of range and speed (i mean even moving to my garden which is 10m away from the router makes the chronos not be able to see it, which is funny since my galaxy s3 which also uses broadcom recognises my network 20 metres away from my house on the street!).

I am considering switching to intel 6230 but it seems miss and go for every other user, so if someone could give me some advice about it :S

I like the laptop it is just the wifi issues make it so hard especially given the high price point for this laptop. Btw i remember you tried to get a refund right? how did that go? Sorry for the long reply, and thanks for helping me

 

My model came with the Intel Advanced-N 6230. I've been using driver 15.0.0 for ages now and it only occasionally drops connection, but the signal itself is fine otherwise. I just found out there's a new version 15.1.1.1, so I'll try that now.

 

I registered here today not only because i now am a proud owner of a 700z5b-s01 samsung laptop with the radeon 6490m gpu, but i am coming into a interesting occurance, in which i cannot get by and need some input. Like many others on this forum thread, i have installed GPU-Z to actively watch my gpu(s) as i place it under a load, no load, etc, etc, etc. my results came to a shock to me and I am unsure what exactly i am looking at.

under no load, my GPU(s) sit at these specs respectively, the only programs active being gpu-z.
Mobile Intel HD graphics:
GPU core clock 650.0MHz
GPU Memory clock 666.7MHz
GPU temp 48.0 C (this fluctuates between 45 and 52)
GPU load 0%

AMD Radeon HD 6490M:
GPU core clock 0.0MHz
GPU Memory clock 27.0 MHz
GPU temp 0 C
GPU load 0%

under minecraft, loaded to be in High Performance mode within "Easy Settings" (the program in which is to allow you to switch between the switchable graphics and H.P. mode being that in which the Radeon is supposed to take over), These are the specs, again, only active programs are: Minecraft (lowest possible settings) and GPU-Z

in Minecraft, i am only receiving between 8 and 12 fps. keep that in mind.
Mobile Intel HD graphics:
GPU core clock 650.0MHz
GPU Memory clock 666.7MHz
GPU temp 58.0 C (this fluctuates between 56 and 59)
GPU load 16%

AMD Radeon HD 6490M:
GPU core clock 0.0MHz
GPU Memory clock 27.0 MHz
GPU temp 0 C
GPU load 0%

one last thing i noticed is GPU-Z cannot see any BIOS for the radeon, but sees "2098-26 Nike Series FRC EDID support" for the intel.

So, Any Ideas?
(screen shots have been aquired in both instances)

::EDIT::
I added the photos for those who wanted to see.


intel not loaded down:



radeon not loaded down:



Intel loaded down:



radeon loaded down:

 

Right click on the desktop and select the menu point which is called "switchable graphics", add "javaw.exe" from the java instalation dir. Select high performance. Now it should be around 100 fps.

 

That was the first thing I had done. and i referred to having done that when i said: "under minecraft, loaded to be in High Performance mode within "Easy Settings" (the program in which is to allow you to switch between the switchable graphics and H.P. mode being that in which the Radeon is supposed to take over), These are the specs, again, only active programs are: Minecraft (lowest possible settings) and GPU-Z"

both x86 javaw.exe and the 64bit version of javaw.exe have been switched over to the high performance. the post above are the result.

 

What version of the graphics driver are you running?