Windows 8.1 Update Issues and Discussion

Use the Summary Screen in HWiNFO64 (Google it), then change the GPU dropdown to show the AMD, as described in this post. It will show you the AMD's clock speed so you can see when it kicks in.

 

Thanks, is it normal to have such high temperatures? This is with Dota 2 launched at minimal settings. My fps drops to 15-20 every 30 seconds, could it be because CPU and GPU overheat?

 

I simply raise the back of the notebook up on 2 bottle caps and that cools me down to 75C while gaming, the computer starts throttling at 90C, 105C is the cutoff temp.

 

I have upgraded my Samsung NP 535U3C-A02IT to Windows 8.1.

It seems there are no problems with brightness/touchpad/fn shortcuts.

The only issues I've noticed are up to now:

- AMD Vision Engine (I think it is the Catalyst Control Center) does not start: it shows up a message saying: "impossible starting AMD VISION Engine Control Center. There are no settings to configure available at the moment with AMD VISION Engine Control Center" (translated from italian)

- confirming that maybe there is a problem with the (video) drivers: if i try to open GPU-Z, it opens up but then soon after freezes (application not responding) even if it shows the details (HD 7500G...)

- Samsung Software Update does not recognize my model. I have to search my model by myself and then a list of drivers/softwares with a button "export" appears. So how to update the drivers for 8.1 ?

 

So far, Samsung is only officially supporting notebooks on which Windows 8 was pre-installed and had an updated BIOS. Windows 7 X4Cs have a P**AAC BIOS and Windows 8 X4Cs have a P**ABK BIOS. which do you have?

So did you export the drivers / software to a folder? If not do so. Then go to the folder in Explorer. It will contain sub-folders for each driver / software. Go into these and run the installer which should be the only executable program in the driver / software sub-folder (which may also contain additional folders such as X86 and X64). You may find that the computer recognition problem is fixed by a newer version of SW Update or Settings.

John

 

I do not understand what the export button does: does it download the newest drivers?

Where can I download that?

Maybe if it there is a newer version, I may uninstall the one I currently have, and install the new one without having to do the export thing I didn't understand well.

 

Export means download onto your computer, from where you can then run the installers.

You will find the newest versions of SW Update and Settings listed under Windows 8.1 for the newest models such as the NP940X3G. They are intended to be generic programs that should work for all recent Samsung notebooks.

John

 

Sorry John, but from the notebook page that can be updated to Win 8.1 they say (a generic) 900X4C, which means that I, as a customer, pretend that my notebook is supported.

Again, as a customer, I don't care about BIOS version, if for some reason Samsung decide to cut off 2012 notebook customers (in my case a $ 1.600,00 Notebook), well...that will be a clamorous autogoal.

This is a real shame from Samsung.

P.S. I have the P**AAC BIOS

 

Then read all of this thread eek: ) searching for feedback from others with the X3C / X3D / X4C / X4D with the P**AAC BIOS. You will probably discover that there are some reports of success.

John

 

Yeah I know some issues can be fixed. Actually as I said almost everything is working fine.
I'm just lazy to spend time searching solutions by myself now and I wanted to point out the embarrassing official Samsung customers support :/

 

Hello peeps of notebookreview forums,

I really need help.
I did upgrade my Canada ATIV Book 8 to Win 8.1 and it gave me mostly a blank screen with randomly booting into Windows, after which it would freeze within 1-2 min. I got the blank screen most of the time, with the mouse cursor sometimes popping in and out from the blackness. lol

I had installed an SSD and saved the original HDD intact. Now I managed to re-clone the original HDD back onto the SSD and I am back to Windows 8. I got lucky with that.

My problem is that it still does the same thing Seems like the ATI video drivers crash it? It sometimes also boots to a black screen and it did it even off of the original HDD, which used to work perfectly when I got the computer. I don't get it.

I got it to work in 8.1 with the ATI card disabled and the ATI drivers uninstalled and it worked perfectly but I want the ATI video card obviously. The laptop worked very well until the Windows 8.1 update. Now when it does boot off the SSD with WIn8 cloned off the original HDD, if I run any games whatsoever the image freezes and I have to hard reset.

Please help; I will actually send candy. lol
p.s. The laptop is basically brand new. It worked for about 2 months, including played games, except it would never scale the game resolution to the full screen. It would run fullscreen but would have black borders at resolutions smaller than 1080p.

Merged:

Did you ever get it working with the 8870M on?

I re-cloned my SSD off of the original HDD and I'm back on WIndows 8 and it still does it.. that is really weird to me.

I find it incredibly frustrating how Samsung recovery doesn't work. Doesn't seem to be able to refresh Windows even when you select the option.

Thanks.

Someone just showed me a Sony Vaio at work with the exact same black screen issue.

He is not tech savvy so I I don't think he has any chance of fixing it other than sending it to Sony...

Microsoft really dropped the ball on this one.
I'm switching to Linux as soon as it can do gaming and drivers. lol

Does Windows 7 work well? It's getting frustrating and Windows 7 would be nice. I wouldn't have to deal with all this Windows 8 compatibility nonsense.

 

The challenge is to get the Intel and AMD graphics drivers to play together.

This should happen OK with the original factory image but if, for example, you let Windows Update give you a newer AMD driver, then you area heading towards a problem.

There is more discussion of these issues in this thread (work back from the end) and probably this one. And did you look back through this Windows 8.1 Update thread?

John

 

I just finished reading this Entire thread carefully, trying to pick up stuff.

I tried again last night. Re-cloned the original HDD to the SSD and everything was ok on windows 8, with only the amd drivers not installed.
Then I installed latest drivers from the AMD website, apparently not the best idea. The windows installer crashed, then right before it was finished the whole computer crashed as the HD8870M was detected. It crashed while making the detection sound and it kept looping it over and over loudly. Pretty dramatic... lol

I will re-clone today again and make a freaking recovery usb stick. Will pick one up today as you need a 32gb and I didn't have one on hand.

I also downloaded an ISO of Windows 8 Pro and I have Windows 7. Would just need an external DVD drive. (~$50 here)
Would Windows 7 work better? Would the drivers even work with Win7? The new tile interface with the touchscreen is decent but a bit gimmicky.

It's really taxing not having a laptop as I do web development, programming macros and CAD-ing for work, Photoshop and obviously play games.

I have a feeling the AMD video card wasn't working before either, because I could barely run COD Black Ops 2 at 720p and low settings. That sounds like the HD4000 to me but I just realized it. I guess I updated all drivers as soon as I got the laptop.

I will re-image today, strip all the drivers, then search for my model and install everything in Win 8.

Thanks for the new threads, I'll sift through them.

 

If you suspect there is a hardware defect with the AMD, I would definitely check that out first thing after your next restore to factory. If whatever problem is still there on the factory installation, you could spend countless hours without solving it through upgrades.

If you want to install Intel and AMD graphics drivers independently from the OEMs (instead of Samsung provided driver packages) you should look for LeeKM's AMD drivers, which have been modified to support switchable graphics. Member pranktank just confirmed in the Ativ Book 8 Owners' Lounge (the thread linked by John) that LeeKM's latest drivers work.

 

Hi gents!

What news do we have on Windows 8.1 upgrade in Ativ 8 (np8805ze)?
Each time I want to download some apps in windows shop, it recommends to upgrade 8.1.

Some users allready upgraded and have no concerns and problems?

PS Sorry if my question is stupid.

 

Its a shame that we still dont have updated ATI drivers. Getting dual video card laptops is always problematic with drivers. Same issue last time with my Sony Vaio Z. Any series 8 users laptop that came with Win 8.1 where we can extract the Ati drivers from?

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 3

 

Is it safe to update to 8.1 already? After a reinstallation of windows 8, my touchpad works just fine again. No missing settings or missing customization. Is the 8.1 touchpad driver already updated?

 

Make sure you have a full backup of your Windows 8 installation before you proceed at your own risk. People's experiences are varied. You might be lucky and 8.1 works nicely or you may discover that it's a step or two backwards. One reported side-effect of 8.1 is reduced battery run time and the cause of this is unclear.

John

 

Is anyone else having issues following the recent selection of Windows Updates for 8.1 last weekend?
My 770z5e has been working wonderfully well with 8.1 since Samsung updated their SW a little while back, but following the latest windows "updates" my laptop has a huge number of problems:

-all of the FN keys with the exception of the volume buttons don't work. The touchpad inhibit light comes on of you press it but the touchpad is still active. The WiFi toggle is permanently on.
-the wifi works for ~2 minutes after a restart from cold then dies for 5 minutes, then continues working. It's 100% repeatable.
-the AMD 8800M display adapter showed a yellow "!" - I have now been fixed by re-installing the drivers from the samsung SW update that I downloaded a week or two back
-SW Update no longer automatically shows updates for my device, but forces me to search for my model. I've seen suggestions of running this in compatibility mode but I can't because there's no compatibility tab in the properties dialog
-clicking the Settings program fails to load (it used to bring up the same dialogue as pressing FN+F1)
-the system dialogue (on "This PC", right click -> properties) shows "Not Available" for both Processor and Installed RAM
-worst of all, the system inaccurately reports battery level. Three I've had it turn off with no warning, plugging the charger in shows that battery level as 0%. By chance, the third time it did I checked the battery level about 2 minutes before it died and the level was at 24% with well over an hour of life left.

To top it all off, I've tried doing a system restore to just before the updates but that fails before it does anything useful too. I've also tried reinstalling drivers and programs I'd downloaded from SW update before all this and I'm still having no joy.

I can't believe I'm the only one out there with these new problems. But if you haven't done the updates yet, I'd recommend thinking twice about doing them and definitely backing up - don't rely on system restore.

Chris

 

Hey, as I posted in the the thread about wifi remedies for samsung laptops I've ran into serious trouble with limited connection/disconnects (to the point where I cant even use SW update because the connectivity issues/drops happens to frequently to finish downloading updates) and as such I cant even test for myself if updating would solve some of the issues Ive ran into after updating to win8.1.

Issues:
-Catalyst Control Center crashes a few minutes after every boot.
-Unable to control screen brightness (and its overly sensitive to changes in the surrounding light so just tilting my head can cause the brightness to change)
- "Limited connection" issues with wifi

Would these issues be solved by installing all the updates from SW update? (Currently theres 6 important and 10 optional updates waiting for me..). If not - should I try reverting back to Win8 for the time being, as none of the above issues were occuring untill after I updated to 8.1?

 

After carefully waiting patiently for the dust to settle, I decided to upgrade my NP900X4C-A07US

Multiple backups, verified, ...

Smooth (but slow) upgrade, and only 2 upgrades suggested by Software Upgrade - graphics and brightness patch.
Graphics installed manually (so as not to downgrade audio)'

Three things not working -
1) my reverse scrolling doesn't stick. (I believe i was first to note ETDAniConf.exe in another thread, so don't point me to that). I change it and it doesn't stick across reboot

2) Brightness keys - I can change it in display settings, but not with the keys. I have turned off adaptive brightness everywhere I can find (except UEFI), and there are multiple registry entries called Feature whatever..
I have settings, but can't reinstall it - it doesn't appear in sw upgrades program (I have the latest)

3) Airplane mode key (even tried reinstalling airplane mode)

I think there are some problems with sleep too - but I can't pin them down.

Any suggestions please?

EDIT - I found a newer settings, and installed it. I also reinstalled the touchpad and now the ETDAniConf.exe settings stick. I am left with the brightness keys problem. N.B. WHen I run the new settings I get an error igfxext.exe IGFEXT module has stopped working, and then settings starts.

 

Bad idea - I just lost my Samsung power plan -

Help - how can I get the power plan back?
Any more ideas for the Brightness keys?

 

The Scansoft Paperport 12 quit - and the published registry fix didn't work - so I restored back to Win 8,0

I think the advanced features are just not well supported by Windows and the Samsung drivers are primitive and break easily.

 

I also lost the Airline mode functionality in my fully patched Win 8.1 installation on my 900x3d. Any ideas?

 

Wow, I wish I had stumbled upon this thread earlier.
my story:
Bought ativ book 8 NP870Z5E (Switzerland) a week ago. Pre-installed with Windows 8 Pro, everything was running nicely, I was extremely happy. Checked the samsung update to Windows 8.1 page, saw my model listed as compatible, and updated according to their instructions.
And that's where things went downhill. I was lucky not to boot into an infinite Blackscreen too often (maybe 1-2 times). However, I kept having a blackscreen upon booting for like 1-2 minutes, and only then i would be able to actually sign in. Upon signing in, again, it took a long time to see the start screen. First i just saw the background colour, then the tiles and colours, but without any tile-icons. Those only appeared a little later.
Hugely disappointed, i found this thread and realized I'm not alone. Only smart decision: roll back to Win8, right?
Well, not so trivial. Managed to "Refresh" my computer using the built-in refresh-tool. Sadly, this only made matters worse. samsung "Settings" also stopped working properly (I can open it and change stuff alright, but it seems to crash in the background somehow as the keyboard backlighting just randomly goes on and off). Also, the long blackscreens after booting persisted.
I am now doing a full reset, as the samsung recovery also completely failed, despite me following their instructions to the letter in creating a USB bootable factory image...
Hugely disappointed by Samsung, I will most likely return my device and stick with my 3+ years old HP which is missing half of it's drivers, and still performing better.

 

If, apart from Windows 8.1, you are happy then I would ask them to re-image the SSD with the factory Windows 8. If I knew how to disable the Windows 8.1 update prompt then I would. Unfortunately, the only two options are do it now and tell me later.

Samsung are aware of a lot of residual issues with 8.1 but haven't rolled out enough updates quickly enough. I wonder if efforts got redirected onto the new models that are finally in sight.

John

 

FWIW I upgrade a 3 series yesterday to 8.1 and all is swell. this is a NP365E5C [amd a6 unit]. the only bang I had was for the card reader but finally got to the right vendor page and resolved that.

the unit was 'fresh' on a redo of original 8.0 from factory image, apparently, so the registry was not terribly cluttered. I don't know if that helped or not.
life's ok...

 

I must say I feel that us Samsung users are entitled to feel seriously aggrieved. I have a NP740U3E-S04UK and 2.5 months after Windows 8.1 I still cant work out if it is safe to upgrade.

If Samsung are too busy directing their efforts towards new models do you think Samsung will EVER provide an upgrade path for Win8.0 for my laptop?

Either way Samsung are surely doing serious long term damage to their brand. Do you think they are not throwing enough resource at these problems or do they have deeper problems?

I did a *vast* amount of research before buying my Samsung laptop. Fwiw, I also had a Samsung Galaxy Note which became unusable when I upgraded the operating system when it arrived (already very late). All this makes it effectively impossible to maintain trust in the Samsung brand.

J

 

Hi all
I have a NP550P7C S02UK it came with win 7 on with a free update to win 8 when it came out. Can't remember any problems when i installed it, every thing worked.
win 8.1 on the hand was a pain to download and install and sw update did not work so downloaded drivers direct for the things not working properlyand at the moment everything works except sw update.

 

Samsung is not officially supporting 8.1 on models that originally shipped with Windows 7. I think they consider the underlying changes between 8 and 8.1 to be more than cosmetic. They have had enough problems getting 8.1 to work properly on notebooks that shipped with Windows 8. You have done well to get all the necessary things working OK (but how is the battery life?).

John

 

my model is in the samsung list that could be updated to win 8.
battery life down to 5 hrs used to last 6hrs.
just received an update for intel Intel Corporation - Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.3 - Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
via windows update
no problems so far

 

Indeed, your model, even though it shipped with Win7, is on Samsung's update list for Win8.1 (not just Win8).

As John posted, most Win7 models are NOT on that list (including my NP700Z3A). I think they're largely precluding Sandy Bridge models and including Ivy Bridge ones.

 

FWIW, my NP900x3c-a04us shipped with Windows 7, and I was told by Samsung that I could upgrade to 8.1, which I did about a month ago without any issues (other than the fact that the SW Upgrade program doesn't seem to work now).

bert

 

8.1 Pro is also working fine on my gamer 7.

 

my samsung NP550PC5 shiped with win 7, I'll installed a ssd drive (intel 520/240gb has main drive, hdd caddy in BR bay with samsung HDD 1tb), windows 8.1 rtm from scratch, I use a guide from this website to install drivers and reduce latency, most of the drivers are for win 8 (manual downloaded via SW update), nvidia video drivers downloaded from nvidia site. Intel drivers downloaded via windows update. Zero problems, Zero lags, Zero crashes!!, run applications like adobe suite CC, 3dsmax, corel x6, all updated without problems.
Simply wonderful (the ssd drive really makes the laptop flyyyyyyyy!)
the only thing I have is not the full support of the function keys (mainly, performance control F11), the other, without visually show activation / deactivation, function anyway.

 

Good job there. Thank you for sharing.

It sounds like you are using the trimmed down installation of just the Fn-keys described in the latencies thread. That hack is really just for WIn7 -- and will not give you Fn-F11 (Silent Mode).

I would definitely recommend you uninstall Easy Settings (if that is what you have now) and install Settings 2.2.0.5 instead, which you can find in SW Update under model NP940X3G. On models like yours (with ExpressCache and BLE) I prefer Settings 2.0.0.55, but unfortunately it is not compatible with Win 8.1. See the Settings thread for details.

 

This is why I'm always hesitant to upgrade to anything new soon after its launch (whether it's the new consoles, new desktop hardware upgrades, new operating systems, browser updates (firefox's addon compatibility), new games, etc.). They're bound to be full of bugs and glitches, and the new customers are guaranteed to become guinea pigs, running into the problems and complaining about them on the forum of the particular upgrade.

I stopped installing Windows Updates a few years back after hearing about certain updates causing problems with WiFi or Windows Product Key Validations. And up until running into this thread I assumed Windows Service Packs were an exception: they were simply just stability updates to the operating system. I should have known after hearing lots of complaints regarding WiFi connection problems from Windows XP's 3rd Service Pack in the past that Service Packs were no exception. And for notebooks and pre-built desktops systems it's much worse.

I may be running Windows 8.1 on my custom desktop with no issues, but I will have to add Windows "Service Pack" updates to the wait-list for all my future notebooks and tablets.

 

So guys just making sure, if the laptop is on the list on samsung's website is it "safe" to update? I tried it when the update came out and my laptop went retard mode (most because of the graphical driver) but now on SWUpdate if i check my model (350V5C) and set the windows version to 8.1 it appears to have a bluetooth and a amd graphic update, which were the ones that gave me trouble on the update. Just try to making sure before making something stupid again xD

 

My general response to those who ask if it's now safe to do the 8.1 update would be this:

Lots of owners of different models have successfully managed to complete the update at this point. Some with more work and pain than others. Some are working perfectly, others have only minor issues, yet others have enough issues to wish they hadn't updated or decided to roll back to Win8. A few have been disastrous.

Generally, owners of models with AMD switchable graphics seem to have had a harder time (particularly models with AMD Enduro, such as 2013 Series 7, Ativ Book 6, 7, 8) while owners of models with only integrated Intel graphics (such as Series 9, Ativ Book 9) have had an easier time.

Many have reported that Win 8.1 broke their Samsung Recovery Solution (both the older SRS5 and the newer SRS6, though in different ways). It seems that 8.1 clean install, in particular, causes this.

Personally I was able to update to Win 8.1 on my older NP700Z3A (2012 Series 7 with AMD PowerXpress) with everything working, including switchable graphics using LeeKM's modified AMD driver and Win8's built-in Intel graphics driver (as described in this post). This model (like other Sandy Bridge Models) is NOT officially supported for Win 8.1 by Samsung, even though it IS supported for Win8. But the path and combination of drivers is different for each model.

Note that you need Samsung Settings 2.2.0.5 (or newer) which can be downloaded in SW Update by using Find Model to look up NP940X3G. Newer versions may be on their way now with recently announced Samsung models. Pre-2.1 versions of settings have various incompatibilities with 8.1.

I personally prefer Settings 2.0.0.55, which is the latest version to still support Battery Life Extender and ExpressCache (for models which have those features) but this version does not work on 8.1.

In any case, and as described in the opening post of this thread, are full backups highly advisable before attempting the update: Data backups as well as image (or Recovery) backups of your current Windows installation.

For those running the update from Windows Store, System Restore (the Windows feature, not Samsung recovery) has generally been reported as unable to roll back to Restore Points before 8.1, and the Samsung Recovery Windows app also seems not to work under 8.1. F4 Recovery seems to work for most (though not all).

For owners of models delivered with Win8, I am a strong proponent of creating a Bootable Factory Image backup on a USB stick, as described in the first two steps of this post. Such a backup will allow you to completely re-image the drive no matter how messed up it becomes, and re-create all partitions, including working Recovery.

Of course experienced users (who understand UEFI and GPT) can always clean install if things get messy -- assuming they have access to Windows Install media.

In addition to the ongoing updates from Samsung (which we all agree have been late in coming) I personally expect a large update from Microsoft at some point, to address the backwards compatibility broken in 8.1 Unless the current 8.1 contains some must-have feature for you, I would recommend users to remain patient until 8.11 or 8.2 (or whatever) comes out. But that's just me...

 

Thank you very much, Dannemand!

I have an Ativ 8 np88075e, I will wait as you recommend. ))
I often read this thread, so plz share ifnormation in future regarding this question! ))

 

Hi guys,

Long time lurker first time poster. I was just letting you know my experience on 8.1. I have a series 7 Np700z5a-s09 and it is a fantastic little laptop. So as you know mine came with windows 7. Thanks to this thread I was able to make an admin tool and have the windows 7 backup for the restore tool. Though I wonder is that really needed since mine came with media.

So I had upgraded to windows 8 with no problem switchable graphics and all. Then this windows 8.1 debate happened. I had first upgraded to 8.1 and found it to be unstable and slow. That and switchable graphics didn't work. Though now that I think , it probably was that express cache was still using the windows 8 data. So after that I couldn't make up my mind on what OS to use I bounced from 7 to 8. ( I was able to do this since all my data was on an external.) So one week was 7 the other was 8 just trying to figure out what I wanted. I eventually got fed up and said let me try 8.1 ( after seeing posts about how it worked and just switchable graphics gave troubles.) So I restored it back to windows 8 and did the update to 8.1. but it was no where like what it was when I first did the update. It was fast quick and stable. MY recovery still worked and so forth but as said switching graphics didn't work. I saw Dannemand recommend LEE KM's drivers and said I should give that a try. So I downloaded the drivers and saw his recommendation to force windows to revert to its windows 8.1 default drivers and that he used HWinfo 64 to verify it was working. SO upon restart I noticed that windows 8.1 had loaded its default drivers and that catalyst control was there.

So I booted up hwinfo 64 it showed me both cards. The amd card was there and selectable but greyed out such as GPU and memory. So I started a game and checked it back and I was surprised to see the gpu part now shows values and so forth. I quit the game it greys out again. Now it wasn't a demanding game it was age of empires 3. So I turned everything up to max and it was butter smooth. I then told catalyst to go to powersaving and tried the game it played but it was stuttering (prob. spelled that wrong. lol) and catalyst stayed greyed out in hwinfo. I would like to clarify I am using HWinfo right cause it seems to be switching fine? I checked the driver date for the amd and it said it was from December.

Battery life well according to settings im using about 9watts. 3 more than when I was on windows 8. So battery life is a little shorter but at the same not really much different.

So that's my experience so far with this laptop under 8.1. Ive been using it for like 2 weeks now.

 

I read this thread every day myself, but I don't often post updates like this. Obviously, what I post is really just my opinion and impression based on a combination of my own experience and what I have read from others. An attempt at summarizing, if you will.

 

Hi endlesslegend, welcome to NBR.

Sounds like great work you did there getting it all working. Thank you for sharing your experience.

I like how you are managing your data on a separate drive, and the flexibility that gives. I have two different OS partitions and can boot freely between them, both using the same data on a separate data partition. I used to have Win7 and Win8 on those two different partitions, but now I have Win8 (my daily driver) and 8.1 (for test). It's just really easy to swap partition backup images in and out this way to test different things, without affecting the data.

Regarding HwInfo not displaying the AMD GPU on its Summary Screen. Several users have reported that -- in fact I am wondering if mine is an exception, since I have always been able to switch between the Intel and AMD (even when the AMD is dormant) and see activity as it kicks in (see below).

 

Hi Dannemand,

Thanks for the warm welcome.

But you misinterpreted what I said about my switching graphics. Let me try and rephrase. I did the upgrade to 8 and got everything to work with no real problems switchable graphics and all. Then the recent 8.1 (the one I did 2 weeks ago) came with the graphics error many people were having. with the switchable not turning on.

I remember seeing a post of yours recommending to use LEE KMS drivers. And it recommended I uninstalled the catalyst controller and graphics driver provided by Samsung for windows 8. So I did that and restarted. Windows 8.1 kicked in its own built in drivers and catalyst controller. So before I installed lee kms. I decided to try and see what would happen. And to my surprise age of empires 3 ran so smooth. But I had to verify using HWinfo 64 and I saw the amd card was there and running. As you showed me (thanks for that pic it helped me verify that I was using the software correctly.)

So long story short my switchable graphics works with the default 8.1 setup. The driver version is 13.251.0.0 and it says its date is 12/6/2013. So im not sure if Microsoft did some modifications to the original 8.1 download but that's a good difference from the original release date (windows 8.1) to this driver publish date.

And just for the other card the hd 3000 graphics card is 9.17.10.2932 and its date is 12/12/2012.

As for everything else it just worked with no problems. I did have to reinstall the windows 8 intel rapid storage (cant quite remember the reason why.)

 

HI Guys,

New to this thread.
Currently have np550p7c-s02uk model and love it, except one really annoying issue in 8.1 that I didn't get in 7.

Is anyone experiencing massive FPS reductions while playing games? The FPS is fine until a good 15 mins with a solid 40fps on med settings on the new assassins creed, then suddenly drops to ~5fps for around 30 secs, then jumps back up again.
Even stranger.....this only happens when the power supply is plugged in.....it runs perfectly on battery; albeit not for long.

The GPU seems to be throttling but I have no idea why...possibly temperature?
Although I'm getting around 75-80 degrees C which is completely normal and should not cause this throttling.
I've tried underclocking the GPU, changing the max CPU load percentage....but nothing seems to work.
I have the latest nvidia driver and GPU-Z monitoring.

All I can think of is somewhere in this OS mess that is 8.1....there is a throttling threshold that is completly wrong.

Any ideas?

 

Hi I have a series 5 and after updating to 8.1 my microphone no longer works for Skype etc. I updated all the drivers several months ago and it worked fine for a while. I have read somewhere that I need to remove and re-install the sound driver but I have no idea how to do this. Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks.

 

Oh I see, thank you for clarifying. Yes, I did indeed assume those test results were after installing the LeeKM driver, not using Win 8.1's built-in driver.

I am surprised you had switchable graphics working out of the box (without AMD/Samsung/LeeKM drivers). That's the first time I hear that -- and different from what I found when I tested it on my NP700Z3A, which also has HD3000 and AMD PowerXpress (different from the 2013 models which have AMD Enduro). I'll have to check that out when I revisit 8.1.

All in all, great work getting it working. Thanks again for sharing the details.

 

On my 2012 Series 7, I had to uninstall audio drivers (in the Programs and Features control panel) so that Win 8.1's own drivers would take over (and worked correctly). That was to address an error message, though, not microphone issues.

Sometimes you can end up having two different audio input devices, and when Skype updates to a newer version, it likes to automatically detect these and use the wrong one. Make sure to check Skype's Audio settings (Tools-Options-Audio).

 

I have an NP880Z5E and have read most of this thread. Currently can only run on my W8.1 notebook in single-screen mode with AMD driver disabled and Intel driver marked as "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)". Of course I can't change the brightness, microphone doesn't appear to work and my USB 30 docking station is useless. The shame is that I did have 8.1 working with only the brightness problem, but in the process of reverting to W8 to try and get everything squared away my 8.1 configuration degraded. I'm never going back to 8 since I don't want to reload Office, Visio, ..... My takeaway for all the discussion is that I live with what I've got until Samsung comes out with new drivers. I'm open to trying something that doesn't involve refreshing back to W8, but I've run out of things to try

 

I have found a solution for getting switchable graphics to work on my ATIV BOOK 8 (NP880z5e-X02UK).

To get switchable graphics you have to have CCC (Catalyst control centre).

Assuming you have fixed the black screen glitch thing caused by the Intel HD graphics driver and the unable to change brightness problem:

STEP 1: Uninstall all AMD drivers in 'Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Uninstall a program'. You have to uninstall 'AMD Catalyst Install Manager'.

STEP 2: Delete all ATI folders in C:\programs files and C:\programs files (x86) as well as the temp ati folder usually located at c:\ati

I left the folder ATI Technologies undeleted, but I think you can delete this is you want (untested)

STEP 3: I didn't restart my computer at this point but I think it's better if you did. Step 3 is open 'SW Update', at the bottom left corner click on 'Find Model' and locate your model and select your operating system that you currently have (I selected windows 8.1 after upgrading to it). Uncheck all drivers except the Chipset driver (Uncheck this if you have already have the latest version) and Graphics Driver. Then export to a destination (I picked my Desktop).

STEP 4: After downloading drivers install the Chipset driver first if you have it, then install the AMD Graphics driver. Then you should have CCC.
You can see it that you have CCC from the right click context menu.

This also solved my battery life issue which I had after installing windows 8.1. The switchable graphics really does help with optimising battery life!

I hope this helps, I may not be able to reply to replies since I don't have notifications turned on.

God bless you my Brothers.

TurtleMonkey