It is official... NP700Z7C-S01US is a lemon

Brian, your laptop not being fixed doesn't sound very assuring to me. I thought they would just replace the bios chip. Now as I am re-reading your earlier post (#35), they need another same exact laptop to copy the NVRAM values from to clone to yours? On they e-bay site, they will do a full refund if they cannot fix it? Did you ask them about this? The shipping back to you is also free if you should chose to get back the laptop?

 

Brian, please do update me on the status of your laptop. As I am also considering sending mine in to the same people in NYC to fix mine.

 

Because the machine is useless in the state it is in, I opted for them to hang on to it in the event they got lucky and found another machine to clone. Will that happen? Probably not because it seems like the issue is pandemic on all these machines to a certain point. Possibly you might get lucky.

I would say send it in and see if they can fix it. You have nothing to lose.

 

I sent my laptop in yesterday (Thursday) vie UPS. They should received it by Tuesday next week. Crossing my fingers. Hopefully they can get both our laptops fixed.

 

Thanks for the update joot. Fingers are crossed that you get yours fixed.

 

Joot, any luck? Have you heard back from them? I pray your machine is not in the same state as mine (other than New York). I think after we see what they do with yours, I may have them send mine back to me. List it on eBay for parts. Dang, Samsung (in this regard) blows big chunks.

 

They received it on Tuesday, May 5. I called them on Friday, May 8. A Jimmy (Asian) dude answered and told me they are still doing diagnostic testing. I called again on Tuesday, May 12. Told me the computer now boots into bios but it takes ~15 seconds for bios screen to show up. He also mentioned if my ssd hd is connected to the computer, computer shuts down immediately. If they connect their hd to it, it boots up into bios (after 15 sec.). He mentioned that they fixed something on the motherboard, wouldn't tell me exactly what the fix was. I then told him to send back my laptop. He did and I will be receiving it on Wednesday. Will update you on what I found. The symptom of my laptop is very much like yours. Cannot get into bios at all. It immediately restarts, a boot loop. Bios is corrupted I think.

 

I googled L2 Computers and reviews were mixed. Not too good for strangers like us who sends it in. Those who drops it off in person fared better.

 

Thanks joot. I will give them a call later this week.

 

If they can "fixed" mine, they should be able to "fixed" yours also...

 

OK update for you Brian:

Received my computer yesterday afternoon. L2 computers would not tell me what exactly they did to "fixed" it. Good news, it does boot into bios now. Before it would boot loop, over and over. Bad news, it takes ~15 seconds for "Samsung" logo to appear and then you can press F2, F4 to go into bios screen. A little annoying but at least it boots again. I will disable UEFI, fast boot going forward. I will try to install Windows 8.1 on it and update again later. My unprofessional guess on what they did is this: they probably replaced a power capacitor on the mobo. The boot delay is indicative of a power cycle issue I think. Anybody have any guess as for the boot delay or what L2 computers did?

 

Did they in some way disable the 8GB cache SSD? That's probably what I would try to do if I were desperate.

 

Congrats joot. I have still yet to call them and tell them to return my machine.

 

namaiki, no they did not disabled the 8GB cache SSD. They somehow were able to "fixed" the bios to boot again. In the process, something happened and the boot sequence is delayed (~15 seconds). Prior to sending it back, I called and talk to a Jimmy. He did told me this info. I told him, they had it long enough, just send it back as long as it boots again into bios. That's all I care about.

 

I was able to get the function keys to work -- without reflashing the BIOS, unplugging the hard drive, purging CMOS memory / removing battery, or using a CD for installation:

Short version: used an external keyboard.

CONFIGURATION AND CHANGES:

Samsung NP700Z7C-S01US
BIOS - Phoenix P06
Windows 7 - w/GPT disk

Couldn't upgrade to Windows 10 - so converted disk back to MBR - keeping that same data.

Upgraded to Windows 10.

Converted BACK to GPT - Which broke windows boot, (Expected this)

Switched from Legacy -> UEFI.
Installed Archlinux, and multiple UEFI boot loaders, (r-EFI-nd, systemd, grub-efi, etc, etc).

Booted from Windows 10 Flash -- tried to repair startup ...

BSOD: BOOT LOOP CRASH - SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION:

ALL alternative UEFI loaders were gone, and the WIndows 10 startup repair couldn't fix the startup issues with a SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
Windows 10 advanced boot options has a hidden escape / f10 mode to edit boot options, but couldn't find an option to open an efi-shell, nor an option to boot from Windows 10 USB installation.

No boot option for installation from a Windows 10 USB didn't work, (partitioned MBR / fat32).
No boot option for installation from a Windows 10 USB GPT disk, (fat 32), didn't work.
No boot option for my Archlinux USB, (mbr).

Obviously, none of the BIOS F2, F4 keys worked to go back to legacy BIOS.


RESOLUTION:

Then --- attached an external keyboard
Both the Archlinux USB and Windows USB were still plugged in.

Not sure which buttons I mashed -- but I was going for f10 and/or f11.

To be sure to catch the right timing ....

One hand was typing on the laptop keyboard... AND the other on the external keyboard.

Getting Windows 10 Reinstalled -- on GPT

The archlinux USB EFI loader popped up. ... I selected EFI-Shell 2.

I browsed the disks listed by the shell, and located my Windows 10 GPT USB disk, (FS1).

From the shell, I typed:

• shell>fs1:
• shell>cd EFI/BOOT
• shell>BOOTX64.EFI

That launched the Windows 10 USB installation.

Obviously, from here ... you should probably reflash the bios, with whatever tool... or perhaps there is an efi-shell command to reset the bios... No clue -- haven't gotten that far -- but that is definitely a different issue.

Hope this helps!