Some Tips for Series 9 + Windows 8.1 (including Touchpad)

For some reason, I thought that an upgrade to Windows 8.1 would go smoothly on my NP900X3C. It didn't. I had to look a lot of things up but I believe that I have fixed a lot of the problems I was having. Here are my impressions so far:

USING SW UPDATE
As has been mentioned in other threads, SW Update will not recognize the NP900X3C under W8.1, unless you happen to have a variant where drivers have been entered into Samsung's download database. While some suggest running SW Update with the Compatibility Troubleshooter to have it run in WIndows 8 mode, I wouldn't recommend it.. Samsung may be updating its database, and not all the drivers, etc. for Windows 8 work well on Windows 8.1. Here's a tip: open SW Update and type in the base model number for your machine without the stuff after the hyphen. Then, scroll all the way to the right to find the newest variants. I had success for my NP900X3C-A01US by using Windows 8.1 software for NP900X3C-A0AHK. However, I previously tried Windows 8.1 drivers for NP940X3G-K06US, which is an even newer model. If you use the latter, you will find additional software, such as "Windows 8.1 Common Patch(es)." Regardless, I would recommend installing the graphics driver from a model with the same generation CPU (this may not be necessary as the size and version numbers are the same, but the readme file in the NP940X3G version explicitly specifies the 4th generation Intel processor, while NP900X3C is 3rd generation).

I'd also like to note that SW Update can be flaky when installing downloaded updates, and you may need to manually relaunch the SW Update installer after each reboot-- it does not always relaunch on its own, until you get a "Success" dialog that things installed.

DOWNLOADING 3rd PARTY DRIVERS
I have had better performance/reliability using the generic Intel wireless-only drivers (not the Pro/Set software package) rather than the Wireless Driver from Samsung. Regarding the Bluetooth driver, it may be beneficial to actually use the SW Update software rather than downloading from Intel, as the Samsung installer seems to do some extra stuff. Regardless, you will need to reinstall bluetooth software after upgrading to Windows 8.1

Additionally, you can download software for Intel Rapid Start and (before that) more full-featured software for Intel Rapid Storage Technology (I had previously installed 12.​8.​0.​1016 and haven't updated, but there is a newer version available). (See more below on using Intel RST to improve disk performance.)

Sound card and ethernet adapter drivers are available for download from Realtek. The Samsung ones might be fine, but I've been using the generic ones since before upgrading, and I've been happy with them.

TOUCHPAD TROUBLESHOOTING
Update below:
Old info, settings do not stick:
I had the most difficulty with the Touchpad, which did not work well despite Registry tweaks, as suggested here. Elantech does not make generic drivers available for download, but a newly published version by the OEM Sager has been working very well: Download Sager NP4650 Elantech Touchpad Driver 11.10.11.2 for Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 64 bit. Please note that you must click to accept an unsigned driver warning to install the driver on a Samsung laptop. Also, there is no dumbed-down "Touchpad" control panel to make adjustments. Instead, after installation, use the notification area icon or the Elan tab of the Mouse control panel to configure tapping, etc. Additionally, if I remember correctly, I also had to use the Update Driver function in Device Manager and manually select the driver for it to install.
Update: The best bet for a working touchpad may be to uninstall any version you may have currently installed, reboot, and install the Windows 8 version from SW Update: Elan_TP_Win8_SMBus 11.7.4.3._WHQL.

The biggest issues I had post-upgrade were with poor disk performance. Disable Prefetch and Superfetch (they are re-enabled after the W8.1 upgrade). Intel Rapid Start can replace the built-in Hibernate function, so disable Hibernate using powercfg. Additionally, the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software can replace Windows disk cache buffer flushing with its own faster version. Follow instructions in Intel RST help or search online for how to turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing. Finally, use the Intel RST software to disable link state power management.

Intel Rapid Start works great but you might have to open it a few times and change/save settings if you get an error dialog.

MISC
I installed a new version of Settings from SW Update, and it's working well except that I can no longer configure the feature to charge the battery to only 80%. This feature is still available in the BIOS, and can be enabled/disabled there.
Intel's automatic driver update utility has not worked properly since upgrading, so new software must be located by other means.

 

Very nice, thank you for sharing!

 

Another update: the disk may need optimization using the "Optimize Drives" control panel after all the upgrade activity, etc. I wouldn't be concerned if your SYSTEM partition "needs optimization" but that the tool cannot optimize it when you click the button; it appears to be a bug of Windows 8.1 RTM. The C drive can still be optimized.

 

with the newest driver for touchpad still is problem with 2 fingers like right click of mouse.