Upgrading Q310 to Vista Ultimate 64

I know this is my first post but here is my experience upgrading to Vista 64 on my new Samsung Q310-34P (US retail version).

There were a couple of things I did to prepare for the upgrade. The first was to make sure that everything worked as described in the retail package, so that meant trying out every feature in the standard set up. Once confirmed that everything worked it was time to prepare for the upgrade.

One of the first things you need to do is to download 64 bit drivers for various parts that are not supported directly or require additional support that Vista does not include. These drivers were:

• Intel WLAN
• Intel Matrix Storage Manager
• Realtek HD Audio
• Intel Series 4 Graphics
• Intel Chipset INF
• Maxell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet
• Broadcom Bluetooth
• Synaptics Touchpad

All the drivers should be placed on a USB drive each in its own directory and extracted if possible, the only driver needed during the install process will be the Matrix Storage Driver.

At this time I also took the liberty to perform a few hardware upgrades. the first was to replace the 1GB DDR2 module with a 2GB module for a total of 4GB installed. I also purchased a second Fujitsu 320GB 7200RPM HDD.

The first boot was into the BIOS to check that the memory and drive installs were recognized correctly. Then booted again into the Vista DVD to start the installation process. Make sure that the USB drive with your new drivers is also installed at boot time. After selecting a fresh install you are presented with the partitioning menu. At this time you need to load the ACHI drivers. I partitioned the drive into a 295GB primary and a 10GB partition to store the source files later on.

At this point the install failed with a BSOD because of loading the ACHI drivers. Upon rebooting the first thing I did was to enable the ACHI support then continued the Vista install ( This step may not be necessary as the default is AUTO). At the drive selection reload the Intel drivers. After this the install will continue as normal.

After the Vista install is complete you can then install the LAN, WLAN, Sound, Trackpad, Video and Chipset drivers. Reboot as necessary. Some drivers do not need updating such as webcam and flash card reader among others. Most of the drivers do not need to come from Samsung as they are available directly from the various manufacturers.

Surprisingly, some of the function keys work right out of the gate, the currently working Fn keys are:

• Volume Up
• Volume Down
• Home (runs default browser)
• Sleep [Fn+ESC]
• Euro [Fn+F3]
• Mute [Fn+F6]
• Numlock [Fn+F11]
• Scroll Lock [Fn+F12]

If Samsung ever gets around to creating system utilities that support 64 bit OS's then the rest of the Fn keys will likely be supported. Until then if there are any suggestions on how to support those Fn key combinations working I am sure all will welcome it.

This message was posted from a Samsung Q310 running Vista 64 Ultimate and Firefox.

 

Welcome. Use the 32bit app from your CD. They should work due to WoW. This is what I did for my Asus. For some reason the 64 bit ATK, ATKOSD2, was mushy. Put the 32 one and I've had no problem ever since.

 

Links to necessary drivers:

• Intel Matrix Storage Manager
• Intel Chipset INF Driver
• Intel Graphics Driver
• Intel WLAN Driver
• Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Driver
• Synaptics Touchpad Driver
• Realtek HD Audio Driver
• Broadcom Bluetooth Driver

Please note that the Intel Series 4 Graphics Driver also includes the HDMI Audio Driver. The Bluetooth driver comes from Anycom as they use the reference drivers from Broadcom without locking them to their device and Anycom is good about using the latest driver version from Broadcom. You could also find some of these drivers on the Microsoft Update Catalog located here:

• Microsoft Update Catalog

Also note that since some of Samsung's utilities require the use of drivers not all of the 32-bit applications work on Vista 64. YMMV.

 

It is obvious that you did not actually try this. Both Easy Battery Manager, which would enable the Fn+F2 key, and the Easy Display Manager, which would enable the Fn+F4 key, load drivers that fail to load in Vista 64. At this point I am not interested in testing the other Samsung 32 bit utilities.

An interesting note is that in the Windows 7 beta there is a built in display manager using the Win+P key. I was able to successfully remap the Fn+F4 to that key. It only emulated the first Win key modified P keypress but it did work. Hopefully once Windows 7 releases there will only need to be a utility or registry edits that allow the Fn keys to be remapped to corresponding Win key key presses.

 

I am about to reformat my q310, would you reccommend putting x64 on instead?
I have the 4GB version as it is and it seems a shame that x32 only addresses 3GB on that!

 

I love Vista 64 on this laptop. Ever since the post about 64 bit Samsung apps I have recovered all functionality of the Fn keys too. As far as I am concerned Vista 64 seems more stable than Vista 32 and I can use 64 bit apps like Lightroom, etc.

I guess I am recommending Vista 64.

 

I am not having good results under 64bit vista with any of the EDM versions