Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook and a few stability issues

Does anyone here have the same issues?

The machine is a
Samsung Serie 5 530U4C-S04DE Ultrabook (suppose the DE just stands for the
German keyboard layout).
It comes with 8 GB of RAM, 2 graphics adapters (intel's HD 4000 + nVidia
with dedicated 1GB), a combi-drive with 500 GB HDD + 24GB SSD express-cache.
Pre-installed was Windows8, i upgraded to PRO because i need things like the
remote desktop.
Certainly all drivers are up to date and i regularily not only check windows
update but also the intel, and especially the samsung tool that offers
machine-specific support.

All in all, everything works. I use the ultrabook in different situations -
mobile, but currently mostly on an external monitor + mouse/keybpard.
As many, i mainly work on the desktop and occasionally use the NUI.

The subjective problem:

There are many lag times and sometimes (felt) very very slow responses to
keyboard/mouse commands.
Especially when calling sites in InternetExplorer10 (even local sites, like
my printer or my ADSL-setup-page of my router) it sometimes takes up to 20
secs for response.
Also sometimes when calling a desktop application, it takes 20 secs for it
to come up.
Then, a minute later, when calling another application, like Office Word
2010, it comes up almost immediately.

Cannot tell if it is a win8 issue - i do not want to go through the time to
test, by for example installing Win7. Although i like Win7, i want to stay
with win8 on this ultrabook as i suppose that hardware integration is
generally better.
The expressCache seems properly enabled, the Event Viewer does not show any
problems.

Just .... general look and feel is tendentiously slow and lagging and
usability appears worse than on some older machines.

If anyone has a similiar experience with the same or similar samsung
machine, we might find out if this is a win8 issue or an issue of one
particular hardware component.

many thanks in advance.

greetings, and all the best for 2013 for everyone.

Roland Schweiger

On 12/27/2012 5:52 PM, Roland Schweiger wrote:
Does anyone here have the same issues?

The machine is a
Samsung Serie 5 530U4C-S04DE Ultrabook (suppose the DE just stands for
the German keyboard layout).
It comes with 8 GB of RAM, 2 graphics adapters (intel's HD 4000 + nVidia
with dedicated 1GB), a combi-drive with 500 GB HDD + 24GB SSD
express-cache.
Pre-installed was Windows8, i upgraded to PRO because i need things like
the remote desktop.
Certainly all drivers are up to date and i regularily not only check
windows update but also the intel, and especially the samsung tool that
offers machine-specific support.

All in all, everything works. I use the ultrabook in different
situations - mobile, but currently mostly on an external monitor +
mouse/keybpard.
As many, i mainly work on the desktop and occasionally use the NUI.

The subjective problem:

There are many lag times and sometimes (felt) very very slow responses
to keyboard/mouse commands.
Especially when calling sites in InternetExplorer10 (even local sites,
like my printer or my ADSL-setup-page of my router) it sometimes takes
up to 20 secs for response.
Also sometimes when calling a desktop application, it takes 20 secs for
it to come up.
Then, a minute later, when calling another application, like Office Word
2010, it comes up almost immediately.

Cannot tell if it is a win8 issue - i do not want to go through the time
to test, by for example installing Win7. Although i like Win7, i want to
stay with win8 on this ultrabook as i suppose that hardware integration
is generally better.
The expressCache seems properly enabled, the Event Viewer does not show
any problems.

Just .... general look and feel is tendentiously slow and lagging and
usability appears worse than on some older machines.

If anyone has a similiar experience with the same or similar samsung
machine, we might find out if this is a win8 issue or an issue of one
particular hardware component.

many thanks in advance.

greetings, and all the best for 2013 for everyone.

Roland Schweiger


I don't have A Samsung laptop, let alone a laptop close to your model.
That aside, a couple of the things to look at have to do with power
saving settings and cooling. The power saving settings can really slow
down things, and if the cooling fan(s) don't work properly, the
processor will slow down to reduce heat generation.

When I have A/C power available, I use the settings for max performance,
or turn power saving off. (Power profiles, etc.)

There is also a possibility that malware is present, or something such
as indexing is causing the delay.

Roland Schweiger wrote:
Does anyone here have the same issues?

The machine is a
Samsung Serie 5 530U4C-S04DE Ultrabook (suppose the DE just stands for
the German keyboard layout).
It comes with 8 GB of RAM, 2 graphics adapters (intel's HD 4000 + nVidia
with dedicated 1GB), a combi-drive with 500 GB HDD + 24GB SSD
express-cache.
Pre-installed was Windows8, i upgraded to PRO because i need things like
the remote desktop.
Certainly all drivers are up to date and i regularily not only check
windows update but also the intel, and especially the samsung tool that
offers machine-specific support.

All in all, everything works. I use the ultrabook in different
situations - mobile, but currently mostly on an external monitor +
mouse/keybpard.
As many, i mainly work on the desktop and occasionally use the NUI.

The subjective problem:

There are many lag times and sometimes (felt) very very slow responses
to keyboard/mouse commands.
Especially when calling sites in InternetExplorer10 (even local sites,
like my printer or my ADSL-setup-page of my router) it sometimes takes
up to 20 secs for response.
Also sometimes when calling a desktop application, it takes 20 secs for
it to come up.
Then, a minute later, when calling another application, like Office Word
2010, it comes up almost immediately.

Cannot tell if it is a win8 issue - i do not want to go through the time
to test, by for example installing Win7. Although i like Win7, i want to
stay with win8 on this ultrabook as i suppose that hardware integration
is generally better.
The expressCache seems properly enabled, the Event Viewer does not show
any problems.

Just .... general look and feel is tendentiously slow and lagging and
usability appears worse than on some older machines.

If anyone has a similiar experience with the same or similar samsung
machine, we might find out if this is a win8 issue or an issue of one
particular hardware component.

many thanks in advance.

greetings, and all the best for 2013 for everyone.

Roland Schweiger


Based on someone with an HP IQ804 having problems with dual
graphics, I'd say there is something the matter with *any*
platform using that style of dual graphics (built-in Intel
with Nvidia override for 3D gaming).

Try "optimus" as a search term...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

I like the lame answer here... Microsoft should be
able to do better than that. Even to acknowledge there
is a problem, and suggest an ETA for a solution.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...9-50f2f77ff4f9

It would be interesting to disable the NVidia entirely,
and see if the machine behaves better. You won't be
able to game, but perhaps it'll work better for the
desktop work.

Paul

"charlie"
I don't have A Samsung laptop, let alone a laptop close to your model.
That aside, a couple of the things to look at have to do with power saving
settings and cooling. The power saving settings can really slow down
things, and if the cooling fan(s) don't work properly, the processor will
slow down to reduce heat generation.

Quite right, thanks for the info! Although i did set the power plan to
"maximum performance", either some software update or a mistakenly pressed
hotkey combination or similar thing did set an "energy saving" power plan
.... i just noticed this, went back to my "max performance", went through the
details, and indeed, the felt performance is much better.
Especially in InternetExplorer, the long lag times are gone.

Also, just today, the Samsung software update tool showed me a new nVidia
driver, so it seems that there are some known issues.
However, the DXDIAG still will not let me choose which graphics card to use,
und the "nVidia GPU activity tool" always shows "0 activity" but i suppose
Windows really wants to decide which gpu to use when.

Anyhow, thanks for the idea with the powerplan.

greeting

Roland Schweiger

"Paul" schrieb im Newsbeitrag ...

Based on someone with an HP IQ804 having problems with dual
graphics, I'd say there is something the matter with *any*
platform using that style of dual graphics (built-in Intel
with Nvidia override for 3D gaming).
Try "optimus" as a search term...

Thanks. Just today, the samsung update tool offerd an nVidia update which i
immediately installed; so aparantly there are some known issues.
DXDIAG still will not let me choose a graphics card, and the
nVidia_GPU_activity_tool always shows 0 activity, however i just suppose
that windows wants to decide.

For the moment it seemy that powersaving settings caused most of the lags; i
set everything to max performance and the general look and feel is notably
better.

greetings

Roland Schweiger

Roland Schweiger wrote:
"Paul" schrieb im Newsbeitrag ...

Based on someone with an HP IQ804 having problems with dual
graphics, I'd say there is something the matter with *any*
platform using that style of dual graphics (built-in Intel
with Nvidia override for 3D gaming).
Try "optimus" as a search term...

Thanks. Just today, the samsung update tool offerd an nVidia update
which i immediately installed; so aparantly there are some known issues.
DXDIAG still will not let me choose a graphics card, and the
nVidia_GPU_activity_tool always shows 0 activity, however i just suppose
that windows wants to decide.

For the moment it seemy that powersaving settings caused most of the
lags; i set everything to max performance and the general look and feel
is notably better.

greetings

Roland Schweiger


If you want a test, try this.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2111/mirrors.php

(247,453,906 bytes)
http://us1-dl.techpowerup.com//Bench...Heaven-3.0.exe

It's a DirectX demo, that supports a windowed mode. The default is
full screen, but there's a tick box in the menu where you select
the DirectX level (DX11, DX10, DX9...) that selects a windowed
mode of operation. I selected 800x600 Windowed for example,
which allowed me to look at the desktop at the same time as
the demo was running. Using that tool, you should be able to
see the Nvidia GPU spring to life. If it doesn't work, the
Intel GPU is going to run that demo pretty slowly.

I have some other benchmarks, but they only run full-screen,
so you couldn't watch any other tools at the same time. At
least that has an option to run windowed, so it won't take
up the full screen.

I test that in Windows 8 x64, then rebooted back into
my "normal" OS.

Paul

On Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:02:53 -0700, Ken1943 wrote:

Could there be a bios setting to select what gpu is used ?

Could be, but it might be hard to find or to recognize. I forget the
words used here, but it didn't reflect the function.

I had to read the motherboard manual, but I'm going out, so I'll leave
it up to you :-)

Also, a cheap computer I have didn't work right with on-board video and
an installed video card until Dell updated the BIOS.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Ken1943 wrote:
On Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:40:08 -0500, Paul wrote:

Roland Schweiger wrote:
"Paul" schrieb im Newsbeitrag ...

Based on someone with an HP IQ804 having problems with dual
graphics, I'd say there is something the matter with *any*
platform using that style of dual graphics (built-in Intel
with Nvidia override for 3D gaming).
Try "optimus" as a search term...
Thanks. Just today, the samsung update tool offerd an nVidia update
which i immediately installed; so aparantly there are some known issues.
DXDIAG still will not let me choose a graphics card, and the
nVidia_GPU_activity_tool always shows 0 activity, however i just suppose
that windows wants to decide.

For the moment it seemy that powersaving settings caused most of the
lags; i set everything to max performance and the general look and feel
is notably better.

greetings

Roland Schweiger

If you want a test, try this.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2111/mirrors.php

(247,453,906 bytes)
http://us1-dl.techpowerup.com//Bench...Heaven-3.0.exe

It's a DirectX demo, that supports a windowed mode. The default is
full screen, but there's a tick box in the menu where you select
the DirectX level (DX11, DX10, DX9...) that selects a windowed
mode of operation. I selected 800x600 Windowed for example,
which allowed me to look at the desktop at the same time as
the demo was running. Using that tool, you should be able to
see the Nvidia GPU spring to life. If it doesn't work, the
Intel GPU is going to run that demo pretty slowly.

I have some other benchmarks, but they only run full-screen,
so you couldn't watch any other tools at the same time. At
least that has an option to run windowed, so it won't take
up the full screen.

I test that in Windows 8 x64, then rebooted back into
my "normal" OS.

Paul

Could there be a bios setting to select what gpu is used ?


KenW

On a desktop, there might be.

But laptops usually have pretty spartan BIOS screens. For example,
my laptop, has precisely one option in the BIOS. Not much to look at.
I think it adjusts for AHCI or IDE on the SATA port.
And that's it.

Paul

"Paul" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
If you want a test, try this.
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2111/mirrors.php
(247,453,906 bytes)
http://us1-dl.techpowerup.com//Bench...Heaven-3.0.exe
It's a DirectX demo, that supports a windowed mode. The default is
(...)

Hello Paul, thanks for the utility.
It did help and it does show nVidia GPU activity so at least i know the GPU
is being used.
The fan of the ultrabook comes on immediately :-) and for some reason the
demo is slightly choppy (at the beginning), although i have 8GB of RAM
installed and powersettings to "max performance" but the thing seems to
work.
The os is Win8Pro 64bit.
Once i tried a relatively old game (Midnight GT) which requires DX7 - and
there i could only select the Intel HD 4000 so somehow it seems that this
'card' will automatically select the nVidia PGU wenn wanted.
In the nVidia control panel however, i can select "preferred GPU" for
nVidia.

Anyhow, thanks for the interesting utility.

greetings

Roland Schweiger

"Ken1943" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
.. .
Could there be a bios setting to select what gpu is used ?

Not in my laptop. There is no BIOS setting what so ever to select the GPU.

greetings

Roland Schweiger

One or 2 issues unfortunately still occur.
Especially within InternetExplorer, the system occasionally stops responding
for at least 10 seconds.
Similar things occasionally occur whan opening any application (for instance
office Word) - the system will not respond for many seconds and then
everything comes to life again.
These phenomenons happen irregularily and there is no particular situation.

For me there's no way to tell if it's to do with Win8, the ExpressCache(SSD)
of the HDD, some driver, some Samsung component etc.
As it is so much work, i don't want to install Win7 to compare ...

Just would like to know if anyone can report the same things.

greetings, and Happy New Year to everyone.

Roland Schweiger

Roland Schweiger wrote:
One or 2 issues unfortunately still occur.
Especially within InternetExplorer, the system occasionally stops
responding for at least 10 seconds.
Similar things occasionally occur whan opening any application (for
instance office Word) - the system will not respond for many seconds and
then everything comes to life again.
These phenomenons happen irregularily and there is no particular situation.

For me there's no way to tell if it's to do with Win8, the
ExpressCache(SSD) of the HDD, some driver, some Samsung component etc.
As it is so much work, i don't want to install Win7 to compare ...

Just would like to know if anyone can report the same things.

greetings, and Happy New Year to everyone.

Roland Schweiger

I got one thread here, with some freezing.

http://www.forumswindows8.com/crashe...ezing-6703.htm

They found some stuff in Event Viewer, so you could look there.

You could also leave a copy of "resmon" running, watch for page faults,
and see if there's a burst of paging or not.

Paul

"Paul"
I got one thread here, with some freezing.
http://www.forumswindows8.com/crashe...ezing-6703.htm
They found some stuff in Event Viewer, so you could look there.
You could also leave a copy of "resmon" running, watch for page faults,
and see if there's a burst of paging or not.

Hello Paul,
It's really a shame, until now i find nothing what soever. Certainly all
drivers (especially the ones that are advertised by sumsung update software)
are up to date.
No yellow and red blobs in the Event Viewer, nothing unusual in RESMON.

Yet at times the system is very hard to use.
Mostly within IE10 for instance when opening some site that requires a
Login: i type the 1st few characters of the login or password and the caret
stops responding for 20 seconds and then everything's back to normal.
Similar things sometimes happen when opening an application: it takes very
very long and then when the program opens, everything works.
Or things do not show up when switching tasks with Alt+TAB - Windows that
will not come up when releasing the key combination, and half a minute
later, things go on as if nothing had ever gone wrong.

Of the 8 GB RAM, onla 2GB are mostly in use, Intel RapidStart (and
RapidStorage) is on and ok,
the EXPRESSCACHE is up and running (i carefully checked that because i
suspected the express cache) and there is absolutely nothing i nan think of
.... what could cause that.

So still not knowing if some typical Win8 issue or some hardware machinery /
driver of Samsung.
Really i am too tired to install Win7 and see if there's any difference.

Just would like to know if i am almost the only wone with such things or if
they regularily occur.

The exact name of the machine is

Samsung Serie 5 530U4C-S04 DE

greetings

Roland Schweiger

"Roland Schweiger" schrieb
Of the 8 GB RAM, onla 2GB are mostly in use, Intel RapidStart (and
RapidStorage) is on and ok,
the EXPRESSCACHE is up and running (i carefully checked that because i
suspected the express cache) and there is absolutely nothing i nan think of
... what could cause that.

update1
There's one thing that shows up in RESMON:
The process LiveComm.exe is halted. (it shows up in blue color).

greetings

Roland Schweiger

"Paul"
You could also leave a copy of "resmon" running, watch for page faults,
and see if there's a burst of paging or not.

update2

The little "oscillographic" window in resmon that shows pagefaults/s
occasionally shows i tiny peak, that goes up to about 1/3 of the amplitude
(so estimated max. 30/sec).
How would i detect a burst of paging? In the resmon i don't see any way of
really detecting this?
Are those few peaks of pagefaults/s ok?

greetings

Roland Schweiger