The Samsung QX410 Thread

It's quite likely that Samsung will reveal something. How quickly the new models will be available is another matter. Sandybridge will bring faster Intel graphics because the GPU is part of the CPU die. However, USB 3.0 requires a separate chip (and from what I've read, is currently only a few times faster than USB 2.0) while manufacturers seem to think that consumers want glossy 1366x 768 displays, even at 15.6" size.

John

 

I agree.

BTW Samsung support site was updated and now shows a more organized driver list with dates. So much more helpful since now we don't have to guess if they were updated.

 

Well, I have a USB 3.0 card installed in my desktop PC. I can tell you from experience that it is MUCH faster than USB 2.0. I have a 2 TB Western Digital My Book Essential that I use to back up all my files and I cannot imagine dealing with USB 2.0 ever again for file transfers. I am too spoiled. It is like night and day. Even more interesting, I can attach USB 2.0 hard drives to the 3.0 ports and they will transfer at least 4x faster than when connected through my 2.0 motherboard ports.

Yeah, this 1366x768 nonsense is just crazy considering that most laptops sold three years ago (before the widescreen take over) had 1440x900. If not 1080p, where is the 1600x900? Perfect ratio, right?

 

My comment on USB 3.0 performance is based on this thread regarding USB 3.0 in a Dell Precision workstation. However, even twice as fast as USB 2.0 is a worthwhile improvement (personally, I prefer eSATA for external storage).

Regarding displays, the most common resolution before 2010 was 1280 x 800 (16:10 aspect ratio). However, almost everything has moved to the wider 16:9 which is better for watching movies but worse for almost every other application. While the wider screens have equal or bigger diagonals (so people think they are bigger), the actual area (and manufacturing cost) is less. The photo here shows where the manufacturers are trying to lead us.

John

 

I'm on my second QX410 in less than a week and experiencing the same problem on this one as the one I returned yesterday.

Everything works fine and I have no complaints about the overall system, however after a certain point, the wireless adapter drops my network and stops working. I use the "troubleshoot" link and it comes back up, but within a few minutes starts dropping it again.

What will work is if I reboot the computer, I get a decent amount (30 minutes or so) of connectivity, but then it starts to fade out and goes away completely.

I have a home wireless network, and the signal is fine - my other computer next to this one has no access issues and I'm 10 feet from the router.

I'm suspicious about the setup, there's a preloaded "WiMax G4" wireless access app preloaded (for Clear wireless), and although I disabled it, I suspect it may somehow affect my adapter/wireless connection software.

Has anyone had problems like this? I'm going to take this computer back and buy another brand/model if this keeps up.

TIA

 

1. What brand of wireless adaptor? Intel, Broadcom and Atheros are all listed in the driver downloads. Make sure you have the latest driver. The Samsung Update program isn't very good at finding the updates.

2. One of the Samsung QX410 downloads is the Samsung Easy Network Manager. Do you have it installed? If so, try uninstalling it. If not installed then give it a try.

3. Have a look at the power management settings for the wireless adaptor. Perhaps it it being too aggressive in reducing power.

John

 

Ok, time to join the discussion.

For those that are having issues with accidentally touching the track pad while typing there is a solution. You can download a google app called "touchfreeze" that will freeze the track pad while typing then after typing you can move use the trackpad.

I am almost ready to pull the trigger on this laptop and took a cruise over to Best Buy to take a closer look. I have been researching this laptop for days and was ready to see it first hand.

It was the first laptop that I saw on the end table. Looks impressive in that aluminum case....however it looks like a 15.6 laptop even though it is suppose to be 14". There is a nice glass edge to edge with a 1" bevel at the bottom.

Can someone touch on this....when using the trackpad it does not seem as fluent as other pads. There is slight hesitation and delay. Maybe this the way MacBook Pro's work. You have to a very light touch. The right and left click buttons are stiff and you have to click in the bottom corners.

I switched between the Intel HD and NVIDIA displays to see if I could notice a difference but I did not. I am not sure if the colors were optimized but they seemed dull but that could be the BB app they run.

Is there a door on the bottom for memory and HD? I forgot to look at that.

What does the power options have to be set on to make the 3 sec powerless app to work correctly? When the top was shut the laptop went to sleep then opened the lid and the laptop was off.

So far I am not 100% convinced that this laptop is worth $825.

Thanks for all your input. Can some also shed some light on how this compares to other 14" brands.

Thanks!

 

I had the same issues. Go to Samsung's website and reinstall the drivers for the Intel Wifi card. As soon as I did that I've had no more issues. Also, I have a Netgear N router (the squareish one that stands up). Defintiely update the drivers, you'll be fine.

 

My above post is for "GEEKWITCH", I should have mentioned that.

 

Download and study the User Guide. Pages 84/ 85 show that the HDD and RAM are under a cover on the bottom. The User Guide may also answer some of your other questions.

John

 

I had the video flickering problem as well. I contacted Samsung live chat and they told me to re-install the driver. I also re-downloaded the 64 bit only NVIDIA driver, installed it, and it cured the problem for now.

 

Is this the official owners thread for the Samsung QX410?

 

Just picked up this notebook and so far so good. The only problem with it is pretty much the same as everyone else. I dont like the thick bezel around the screen, wish it was thinner. Also would of been happier if they made it a 15" instead of 14, and the picture quality could use some improvement. Also wish the resolution was a bit higher like 1440x900 or 1600x900...


Other than that, i think its an awesome laptop.

Are we able to update using the nvidia drivers directly from them or must we still get them from Samsung? Has Samsung updated the video card drivers since release yet?

 

It is, by default.

Samsung are selling the QX510 in some parts of the world. I haven't compared the dimensions.

You might loose a Samsung-specific feature such as the display brightness control if you use a driver direct from Nvidia. I would give the Nvidia driver a try and see if there are any adverse side-effects.

John

 

You can do that? Nvidias site says it doesnt support dual graphic cards though like Nvidia Optimus. How do you get it to install?

 

I had forgotten that this camera has switchable graphics. If Nvidia doesn't directly support the hardware then you will have to wait for Samsung.

John

 

Hey everyone

Bought this laptop about a month ago now, solid design, very pleased with my purchase. I'm in Canada and yes we do get the bluetooth with our release, but also the bilingual keyboard. My chats have never had so many \\\\\s before

My SD card reader doesn't seem to be working though, I put in an SDHC card, and the Futureshop specs says it can read SDHC, although I haven't double checked with the Samsung website. I'm about to check out the drivers on their main page now. Any other suggestions appreciated. I've never had a laptop with an SD card reader, I assume it is plug and play

Thanks and yes I'd recommend this laptop to anybody.

 

Page 48 of the QX410 manual says that the slot supports SDHC (and SDXC). After inserting a card check if Device Manager shows the card reader (it may be under disk drives). Also, the controller should be listed (possibly under IDE / ATAPI devices) even if the card is not inserted. Windows 7 should have installed the device driver. If there is no trace of the hardware in Device Manager then check the BIOS to see if there is an option to disable the card reader in order to save a little power.

John

 

I also have the Canadian qx410 ,the SDHC is working as a plug in play for me. Under control panel/system/devicemanager it is shown as (Portable Device)....Under Computer It shows as Removable device,I also am Happy with my Purchase..

 

Thanks for the help.

I tried a different SD card and the computer recognized it immediately. Looks like my Lexar SDHC card (8 gb) doesn't work on this laptop, unless there's a physical locking mechanism on the SD card I can't find.

Strangely though I couldn't see the device in the Devices, nor the controller, only saw the harddrive for those. Also checked the BIOS and although there is an option to change overall battery saver, no option in the BIOS to disable or enable the card reader hardware (as I couldn't find the card reader as hardware in there).

But, whatever, got it working with a different card, makes me happy.

 

Hi all,

I bought one of these great machines early in January (I'm in Canada so I bought the Canadian model) and was eagerly looking forward to using it.

I brought it to a tech guy who is usually great to set it up for me (I wanted it with Windows 7 Pro 32-bit as I have some old applications and I use Pro at work).

He gave it to a colleague to work on from the "wade in and start blasting" school and the long and short of it is:

- He wiped it before saving anything-I have no recovery discs if I ever needed to return it to factory specs

- the hotkeys don't work except for F1 and I couldn't find anything keyboard related on the support site

- the webcam which shows as installed, doesn't seem to work either and I didn't find anything on the support site that might help

- I have none of the Samsung apps (Fast Start, Update Plus, Battery Life Extender, etc.) Are these worth having? I know I can get them from the website.

Other than that it seems to be working really well. The hotkeys are a real pain that I need to solve, and the webcam and recovery discs would be nice to have and I'll install the samsung apps if folks here recommend them.

Anyone able to help me with any of these issues? I would be very greatful for any assistance.

 

I did the same thing, wiped it completely. You won't be able to get the recovery partition back. Why did you get a 32-bit version of Windows 7? All 32-bit applications should work with the 64-bit version. And with the 32-bit OS you're only using 3.5 gb of your 4 gb of ram.

You can get the hotkeys working again by downloading the Easy Display Manager ( Extra Slim, Extra Fast, Extra Mobility. - NP-QX410 - Performance - mobile computing | SAMSUNG ). I dunno if the other bloatware is worth downloading.

As for the webcam, I downloaded the only driver that's there, which is supposedly for Windows XP. It comes with no software (which I like), but it works. Just try using it, see if it works.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks aztec321,

The 32-bit is mostly to keep it in line with what I have a work-we have a couple of apps that don't work with the 64-bit OS and I know about the RAM hit. I'll upgrade to 64 bit once they resolve the app issue.

I wouldn't have thought to look for hotkeys software as a "Display Manager" (sounded like pure bloatware to me).

I'll install it (I'm going to give the battery manager a try as well) and the camera driver and I'll be back to let folks know how it went or to ask for more help.

Thanks again.

 

Hey everyone I just bought my Qx410 a month ago and about a week later, I started getting BSOD after shutting the case ie laptop sleeping. Since I use my laptop for school this is really a huge inconvenience. I suspect this has something to do with the nvidia optimus video card?

Can anyone verify this or have had similar issues?

 

was wondering what brand of ssd did u guys use with this laptop

 

I haven't had this issue but have you tried updating everything to the latest driver? Make sure to update to the latest video card drivers and bios.

Samsung

I hope we get even more driver updates.

 

I use this one currently

Amazon.com: Intel 2.5-Inch 160 GB X25-M Mainstream SATA II MLC Solid-State Drive - Retail Package SSDSA2MH160G2R5: Electronics

Although I got it for $300 on ebay a few months ago.

 

I'm considering this laptop as a replacement for my wife's 3 yr old Toshiba Satellite (with Vista...grrr)

Her application is primarily still photo editing with Photoshop and also viewing and minor editing small video (avi/mov) files.

When home it's likely she will plug in a larger external monitor.

1. Can anyone comment on whether this machine will handle the Photoshop/video editing and,

2. Would the screen flicker I've read about exist on an external monitor (is it from the laptop display or the graphics chip)

3. With the Multi Gesture touch pad (pinch to zoom and enlarge) will it work in any photo application (ie Adobe)?
Thanks in advance for any comments.....

 

I'm a graphic design major and I use it with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Indesign. So far it has worked great for me with pretty large scale projects. I have it connected to an external display through HDMI and everything is great.

The colors might need some adjustments but overall its been great for me. I think driver/firmware updates in the future will make it even better.

 

Thanks for your informative reply. Are you able to confirm the multi touch gesturing on the touch pad issue...if it works with Photoshop etc?

Any info on this screen flicker issue, perhaps if you've experienced it?

 

Everything is up to date most likely its a windows 7 issue but we'll see. I've also had some problems when using Visual studio with the nvidia 310 setting. I hope they come up with an update soon.

 

Sorry don't have a fix for you, but I wanted to say that this sleep function on this laptop, along with the battery life, are the best features on this thing. Uses very little battery in the sleep mode and on when you lift the lid. I couldn't be happier

FYI I've been using it with all the stock programs (combed of course).

 

I haven't noticed any screen flickering issue at all with the laptop.

I just tried loading Photoshop/Illustrator to do the pinch-zoom and flick scrolling. It recognizes my gestures as zoom and rotate when I twist my fingers on the trackpad. However, It doesnt result in anything happening to the canvas/image. It's strange that it recognizes the gestures and shows the icons of what is occuring but nothing happens.

Maybe it only supports Mac for now, I'm not sure.

 

Hey everyone I found out why my Qx410 was BSOD,
I want to warn everyone not to install hotspot shield it installs a driver on your laptop, which was the cause of my intermittent BSOD.

Second thing does anyone know how much memory our motherboards support? I checked on crucial's site and it gave me 8GB as the max, I'm not sure if the motherboard is the limiting factor since windows 7 64-bit home premium has 16gb limit. I'm just curious for future I don't want to have to buy a new lappy for a while so will prob, update.

 

8GB is quite likely. Check the specification for the Intel chipset. Also, while 8GB modules remain unaffordable for most people, 2 x 4GB modules remains the limit for most people.

John

 

So I bought the laptop on black friday in 2010, got a great deal on it for 699 down from 849, keep in mind the laptop was maybe a month old at this point.

I feel compfertable writing a small review for those thinking about purchasing. Also keep in mind I bought this to be my daily driver replacement machine, seeing as my 4 year old laptop was just getting too slow.

First I will list the cons and funny things I have run into.
#1. The mousepad, in software terms, would be in the ALPHA stage of development in comparison to other laptops with no independent mouse buttons and multi touch. I have completely had to change the way I track, most notably dragging and dropping has actually become a annoying task and before you say HEY change the settings! I have, you simply cannot rest your thumb on the left selector while trying to carefully select small buttons. It jump around and is a known issue.

2. If you're like me and you use and abuse your isp bandwith by hosting servers or running sharing android and ubuntu distros over bittorent then chances are you leave your computer running over night, well for me I like it to run while the lid is shut. (basic settings in the control panel) but the setting was disabled due to samsung power saving software. (the problem was fixed when I removed the software) I also like it to run while shut and plugged in to put as many hours on it as possible, if the thing dies in the next 3 years bestbuy will replace it.

3. Flash player flickers when watching youtube. Its not really a problem as much as annoying to watch the selector at the bottom of the video flicker. Also known problem, there are updated drivers but they wont install untill samsung officially releases it.

4. Installed Momentus XT Hybrid SSD/HD to improve performance. The drive runs hot natively so now the computer is tricked into thinking its hot when its really not and keeps the fans on medium even when the cpu is at 1%, in effect it has made it loud and the constant fans have cut the battery life in half. not the fault of samsung, but wish there was a way to manually control the fans seeing as I know the machine isn't overheating.

5. If you upgraded to windows ultimate to use bitlocker, you can forget it. The computer doesnt have a TPM so unless you want to plug in a flashdrive every time you want to login or boot, the feature is completely useless.

The good.
1. Amazing Design
2. Battery Life
3. keyboard and supporting buttons fantasitc
4. Extremely Fast
5. Dedicated hybrid graphics.

 

I was very interested in this model. But dropped because of 0.3mp webcam. I use video chat a lot. At bestbuy I felt the picture quality is inferior to laptops that cost less than 500. All other aspects are very good.

Can you guys please tell me how is video quality while actual chatting.

 

core2avs....I recently spent some time trying out the QX410 at BB. I noticed a few things right away. The screen was lack luster compared to other laptops on display. $800 was alot to pay for an inferior screen. My Samsung netbook had a better display. Maybe BB did not have the display set correctly or not using the Nvidia graphics. the problem is that I had a MAC nut that knew more about MAC's than tweaking the PC's. I love how he was trying to steer me toward the MAC then trying to answer my questions. That was very disappointing. Also I liked that it was 14" however because of the high bevel at the base of the screen it made it more like a 15.6" laptop when it was closed. To me that defeats the purpose of having a 14" laptop.

 

These were the exact same impressions I had when I looked at this laptop last weekend. It's quite nice... except for the screen. And that just kills it for me.

 

Thanks a lot test123!
Even though I did not feel the quality of LCD, The webcam capture window I have seen is not at all acceptable for the price. May be LCD quality is also contributing to this.
I also noticed it is big for 14", but not an issue for me as it looks nice and not weight much.
It is very bad, Even the premium laptops like this one also miss some things. I have returned toshiba E205 for very low quality audio and low volume.

Still searching....

 

Dell E6410 from Dell Outlet? Business quality hardware at an affordable price (US$600 upwards if you can find a discount coupon).

John

 

Yeah I agree here. Make sure you're on the latest mousepad drivers. But I still get the issue too when dragging objects. Hopefully they improve on this in the software area.

I get this too when the hardware acceleration is enabled in flash. What you can do is just right click a youtube video that's playing, go to the flash settings, and disable hardware acceleration. I'm sure you can enable it once we get new drivers that support it.

All in all, I have the same gripes as you but love the laptop despite that.

 

i think it was mentioned in this thread, but if you reinstall the nvidia driver the flickering this stops.

 

Thanks John Ratsey,

I am also looking at DELL latitudes. with 20% coupon it is very cheap and reliable. I am looking at E6410 to replace my D620, for which I can wait for some more time. Right now I am looking for a good looking laptop.

 

Good call on the hardware acceleration fix. That relieved one of my biggest peeves. Now only to fix this touchpad! I'm a firm believer in if you can't do something right the first time don't do it at all. The whole laptop is a almost a carbon copy of a 13" MBP down to the track pad, but they should have kept the buttons, I like them.

 

Unamused... Any luck resolving the heat issue on your laptop w/ this drive? I was thinking of installing the same drive.. the specs on it are amazing and it seems its a match made in heaven w/ this laptop -until the heat issues you found. Thanks in advance for replying. I'm curious how this turned out for you.
PhilB

 

I just bought this laptop and I was thinking how cool the 'glass' layer over the screen is and then I touched it and realized its just plastic... does anyone actually have glass on their's?

 

you're not referring to the plastic protective film that you peel off after purchase are you?

 

I'm also curious about this, that would be awesome to resolve the bottle neck which is huge.

kormendi plastic ..

 

Hi!
I have a question about the touchpad, don't know if anybody else has this. If I click in the center part of the touchpad, so pressing down on it until it CLICKS (not just touching), it doesn't register as a mouse click for me in windows, nothing happens. It only registers as a mouse click if I press and click in the bottom part, where the lines border the two touchpad buttons. Is this intentional, is it like this for everyone? On a mac you can press and click anywhere with the touchpad, I thought this was supposed to work the same.

Also, I reinstalled windows 7 fresh, and am having trouble finding the correct wireless driver to use. I tried all 3 from the samsung download site (intel, broadcom and atheros), but with all 3 different drivers, I had the same exclamation point beside "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250" in device manager. My laptop is the US version, so the solution for the canadian version laptop mentioned before doesn't work for me. Which driver should I install to have no exclamation point beside the device?
If you have the original system setup, can you check what driver is installed for the wireless / wimax device?

Thanks
Z