Q70 Graphics Card Change/Error?

according to this review ( http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3806)

"the nVidia control panel reports the GPU as the 8400M G with 128MB of dedicated memory and not the 8400M GS as suggested by some sources."

Well thats a bit odd because according to Samsung's website ( http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/mobilecomputing/qseries/np_q70av02suk.asp?page=Specifications)
it is indeed a GS, and I even called them to check.

Has Samsung changed the card since this review, or is the reviewer mistaken? Anybody know? Its quite significant really, not just in terms of possible errors but because the two cards are of a very different quality.

 

I think it is more likely that Samsung UK have got their specs wrong but there is a small possibility that the GPU has been upgraded without spreading the word. Samsung Germany think the Q70 still has the 8400M G.

You could buy one to find out what is inside. If it isn't the GS then you send it back.

I'm also going to move this thread to the Samsung forum where it is more likely to be noticed by someone who can clarify.

John

 

It wouldn't be the first time a manufacturer has got their own specs wrong, but really its a bit unnacceptable if this is the case. Somebody sue them over trades descriptions!

Hopefully someone can clarify this, as you say considering their official information is variable, the only way to know is to buy one.

 

I think my Q70 review contains a hint of uncertainty about what would be in the box. It took several weeks to find out what type the missing wireless card should have been.

Late last year we who bought the X60 plus discovered that it contained the X1700 and not the X1600. It took Samsung UK several weeks to agree that this change. However, they never agreed that the HDD was 120GB and not the advertised 100GB. Hindsight says that we would have been better of with the X1600.

So past experience suggests that Samsung UK can get the specs wrong. However, they are normally behind everyone else. It is possible that the Q70 specs have changed (perhaps Nvidia have stopped producing the 8400M G) and this time Samsung UK is one step ahead.

John

 

I've made a couple of checks and it seems that the Q70s which people have recently got have the 8400M G. However, the possibility that Samsung have upgraded the GPU without telling the retailers cannot be discounted. This would be a rare occasion when the specs on the website are more up-to-date than the product currently shipping.

John

 

Doesn't look to hopeful though does it? If they are known for getting things wrong, this just may well be another case of the same.

Even if you were able to confirm that the card was not as advertised after purchase, how would you get them to admit that? Or do anything about it?

This is lame because I was banking on the Q70 being the next best alternative to the M1330 which I can't wait so long for...

 

You are entitled to return purchases under the distance selling legislation if you are not satisfied. You may find that the Q70 is good enough for your needs. The other possible contender in this slot is the Rizeon S37S or Z37S which is an Asus barebones. However, that notebook has also got the 8400M G. You would need to check with Rizeon about the eta. There have been delays.

Or you can wait for the M1330. The official delay on the Dell website is now 3 weeks and the backlog seems to have largely been cleared.

John

 

I recently bought a Samsung Q70 with UK specs. I can confirm it does indeed have the NVIDIA 8400M G graphics card in it, and not the NVIDIA 8400M GS, as previously advertised and published in the specs both on Laptop Direct's site and on Samsung UK's site. (Samsung have updated their site to show the correct specs; Laptops Direct were STILL showing the wrong information on 20/10/07 - Virago)

On reading John Ratsey's review of the Q70 I realised that I had the M card in my Q70. I contacted Samsung Tech support about this, having first tried to email Laptops Direct, with no response.

Samsung Tech Support were very helpful throughout. They initially suggested updating the driver for the NVidia 8400M GPU to the latest version which has just appeared on the SamsungPC.com site, and also updating the Bios to the latest version. I did this and it still reported as the G card.

Samsung UK then confirmed that my Q70 did have the wrong GPU in it, and they would treat it as DOA. Samsung said if Laptops Direct contacted them, they would provide the DOA number to them.

I then attempted to telephone Laptops Direct Customer Support at about 4.50 pm, and got a recorded message saying they were too busy to take any more calls that day, and the message hung up. On the Laptops Direct website it says that Customer Support is open until 5.30 pm - in fact, it had effectively closed before 5.00 pm.

I telephoned LD Customer Support again first thing the following morning, and eventually got through to someone who said I should have got a number from Samsung. I wasn't allowed to give any more details to LD Support on the phone - the girl said she would send me an email with a link, which would take me to a 'Returns Form' page, which I should complete. I did this, submitted it, but heard nothing from Laptops Direct for another 2 days, not even an automatic acknowledgement email.

In fact, the Q70 runs perfectly well for my purposes with the basic G card - I don't game much at present, but wanted to be able to use it for Second Life - it is fine for this, in fact better than my desktop Dell 4550.

The G possibly has some advantages over the GS in that it may run cooler and help the battery to last a bit longer, but the reduced functionality means it is not as fast as the GS (it has 8 streaming processors, rather than 16).

I have also read that the G and GS are in fact identical cards, but the G had 8 of the streaming processors switched off.

When are Laptops Direct going to change the information on their website, if all the UK Q70's (System Model: NP-Q70AV02/SUK) do come with the G card and not the GS card?

I really didn't want all the hassle of sending back the Q70 to Laptops Direct, so I decided to keep it. They got the Q70 to me pretty fast, but their aftercare customer support leaves a lot to be desired.

 

Whilst Laptops Direct may have supplied the computer in good faith, they should fully cooperate in taking back the computer because it is not compliant with the published specifications. I believe this cooperation should include arranging collection and then promptly giving a full refund.

I would allow them another day to respond including giving details of the collection arrangements (at their expense). Otherwise you may wish to pass the correspondence to watchdog 'at' pcpro.co.uk who is always on the lookout for customer service problems.

As already discussed in this thread, I suspect that Samsung UK have been giving out the wrong information about the GPU. It is disappointing that they have not taken prompt action to correct this information.

John

 

Laptops Direct have now agreed (04/10/07) to collect my Q70, but there are a long list of conditions, including: 'Software or warranties must not have been registered...'

I bought Microsoft Office Basic and Samsung Fastguard Extended (extra 2 year) warranty from Laptops Direct, and I have used and registered both of them. I am waiting to see what Laptops Direct's response is about these. If I return the Q70 and don't buy another Samsung, the warranty will not be of any use to me. The OEM software I'm not sure about - can I re-use the Product Key for this on my next new laptop, or will there be problems with Microsoft when I try to use it again?

Virago

 

Thanks for the update. So far, both Samsung and Laptops Direct still show the 8400M GS on their websites.

I'm sure you can re-use the Microsoft Office. If there's an authentication problem then you may need to phone them to explain what happened.

The Samsung extended warranty may be more difficult. You would need to get Samsung to un-register the extension, in which case it could then be reused by someone else. They would need to confirm in writing /email to you / Laptops Direct that this has been done so that the warranty extension could be resold.

John

 

If you do have any trouble with Laptops Direct it might be worth having a go at Samsung directly, since surely this is ultimately their fault.

What we need is to write into one of those newspaper 'consumer help' columns, that always scares them into corecting faults promptly.

 

Samsung's UK website now shows the Q70 with the following graphics card:
'nVidia GeForce 8400M G 9128MB Dedicated'
http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/mobilecomputing/qseries/np_q70av02suk.asp?page=Specifications

They have the card correct now - nVidia GeForce 8400M G - and not GS - but what on earth does '9128MB Dedicated' mean? Surely this should be 128MB ? (This has now been corrected by Samsung.)

I am going to stop while I am ahead and keep my Q70, because even with the nVidia GeForce 8400M G graphics card rather than the GS, it works fine and the other specs on the Q70 are very good - for example compare with the X65, which is nearly £300 or so dearer, and yes, it has a better graphics card (8600M) and a 15.4" screen, but then it weighs in at 3 kg rather than 2 kg, and as far as I can make out, at least from Laptop Direct's specs. for the X65, ( http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_X65_Notebook_NP-X65T000-SUK/version.asp), it has 2MB L2 Cache with the Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 chip, whereas the Q70 has 4MB L2 Cache. Also The X65 appears to have 2048MB DDR2-533MHz, whereas the Q70 has DDR II SDRAM - 667 MHz.

Incidentally, Laptops Direct are STILL showing the Q70 with the GS graphics, card ( http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Samsung_Q70_NP-Q70AV02-SUK/version.asp )although I have advised them repeatedly in several emails over the last few day that this is wrong - the Q70 they are supplying has the G card.

I am giving up on Laptops Direct. It is very difficult to get through to their Customer Services Dept by telephone, and they just don't seem capable of responding intelligently to emails. They have agreed to collect it, but ignore my emails about the Samsung Extended Warranty I also purchased from them, which is obviously no good to me if I return the Q70 for a refund and don't buy another Samsung. I was considering the X65, until I compared the specs (see above), and I think it's too big and heavy for me - one of the pleasures of the Q70 is it has high specs, in a comparatively small and light chassis.

The Q70 does it for me, and the G card is quite powerful enough for my purposes - slightly better than the Geforce 7400, which is still being offered by some manufacturers in machines which are a lot more expensive. The Q70 is very good value and a fine notebook computer as it stands - the only thing to compare with it is the Dell XPS 1330:
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/xpsnb_m1330?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

 

In the circumstances, I think you have made the best decision and I hope that new these teething troubles are over then you will have a long and happy relationship with your Q70.

It's good that Samsung have now corrected the website. Someone must have done it today. Never mind that spurious "9" in front of the 128MB - I think we know that is a mistake. Don't read too much into the different components where there are alternatives. The choices usually reflect what is available to order from the factory rather than any intention to supply but the specs show that the Q70 is designed to run with a T7700 CPU should that configuration get ordered from the factory.

The next Samsung model up the range from the Q70 would be the X22 and I think the ATI X2400 is slightly faster than the 8400M GS. However, the standard battery in the X22 is a 4 cell with ~ 2 hrs running time. There is, however, a version which has two batteries. If that also had a 1440 x 900 display (listed as an option on the Samsung UK website) I would get interested.

John

 

Thanks for that, John.

The X22 seems almost as light as the Q70 at 2.18 kg, but with a 14.1" screen
- that must be the 4 cell battery - which I guess would be worse than the Q70's 6 cell?

The Radeon HD 2400 XT is listed 46th, with the NVidia GeForce 8400M GS 47th and the NVidia GeForce 8400M G 48th on the Notebookcheck overall benchmark ratings, so there's not much to choose between them, I guess.

'The base X22 looks to be about £35 - £45 dearer than the Q70, but yes it would certainly be worth looking at in the two battery version - but then it'll be that much heavier.

I'm happy with the Q70, so on the principle 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', I'm sticking with it, though I haven't told Laptops Direct yet - be interesting to see how long they take to get back to me on the extended warranty issue. They never actually said whether they were offering a refund or a replacement, although I asked them several times. Ho hum.

On a different matter, where is the best place to buy accessories for Samsung notebook PC's? I'm thinking about a videocam as the Q70 doesn't come with one, and maybe wireless headphones. Would digiuk.com be a good source?

Virago

 

I ordered my x22 from digiuk and was impressed by the service ordered at 4pm had the laptop next day. however nothing went wrong with my order so can't comment on aftersales service.

 

Hi Scobbie,

The difference in price between Digiuk and Laptops Direct on ordering the Q70 and Samsung FastGuard Additional 2 Year Warranty is about £33 - but it could be worth paying a bit more to Digiuk (or another company) if they offer better information and after sales service. Digiuk had the correct information on their website about the version of the Nvidia 8400M in the Q70, whereas Laptops Direct still haven't corrected the specs they are publishing, even though a discussion thread has been running about this for some days now, and I have both referred them to this and emailed them about it several times.

Digiuk don't however appear to offer the Office Basic 2007 OEM with Word, Outlook and Excel which I also bought from Laptops Direct, but I guess it's easy enough to get this elsewhere (eg. from eBay).

Laptops Direct's market offering seems to be very keen prices but not much effort put into after sales service, although they do provide some technical/software support which is handled by a separate business. Laptop Direct's own Customer Services personnel seemed to me neither very polite nor helpful, even if you can get through to them by telephone, which is very difficult.

So I guess you have to decide whether price or service is most important to you - it would be great to find a company which offers both!

Regards,

Virago

 

The 4 cell battery is one factor in the X22's light weight (~0.1kg weight saving relative to 6 cell) and battery life with the 4 cell is reported as just over 2 hours. I'm waiting for a manufacturer to come up with a sub-2kg 14.1" model with a decent spec and battery. Samsung made an attempt with the X1.

DigiUK prices are usually slightly higher than Laptops Direct but this can be offset by the free delivery option. More than once I have paid for the next day delivery from Laptops Direct to then have the goods not being despatched until the next day after order.

My general impression is that DigiUK put more effort into customer service. Their sales people are very responsive to enquiries. However, there are sometimes occasions when they either don't stock a certain model or there is a very big price difference.

As for where to buy accessories, shop around. Amazon is a good place to start. Delivery can become a significant part of the cost so the DigiUK free delivery option can be attractive. There's also play.com where all costs include delivery.

John

 

Hi John,

Further to the on-going issue with Laptops Direct about the extended warranty, had the reply (below) from them this morning (Monday 08/10/07).

Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? It's a good thing I'm keeping my Q70 and not sending it back, as if I really wanted to return it and get a refund, you can see how much sense I'd get out of Laptops Direct!

Regards,

Virago

>>Hi

I apologise for any delay in a reply.

We can only accept the warranty back as long as this has now been registered and the seal is unbroken.

Regards

Nicola Smith
Laptops Direct
Trident Business Park, Leeds Road, Huddersfield HD2 1UA
Telephone : 0871 750 2970
Fax : 0870 167 0801
E-mail : [email protected] <<

 

or should that now be a not? Your typo or theirs?

However, unless Samsung could cancel that registration and confirm that it had been cancelled, then that registration would be unsellable and whoever got the Q70 might discover they had got a free 2 year extended warranty.

It reminds me of a Dell Latitude I bought from Dell outlet about 4 years ago. It came with 3 years on site maintenance (which was used a couple of times) but the price clearly did not allow for that bonus.

I guess one of the recommendations arising from this saga is don't register any extended warranty in a hurry. Wait until you are satisfied with the product. With Samsung you can register the extension any time within the first year of ownership.

John

 

Their typo! You would think (Nicola) might have read her reply before she sent it. I still have no idea whether they were offering a refund or a replacement for the Q70, but as you said previously John, I think (hope) I've made the best decision to keep it.

I agree, it's obviously best not to register an extended warranty until you are sure you are keeping the unit. You learn from experience, I guess. This is the first Samsung I have bought - have had 3 Dells previously, and before that an Evesham or two.

I thought I'd try Samsung this time, although I was also considering the Dell XPS 1330.

In spite of the debacle over the G versus GS version 8400M graphics card, I haven't been put off Samsung, because unlike Laptops Direct, their Customer Support is easy to contact by telephone; they have dealt with all my calls with great courtesy and have tried to be helpful (well done, Pedro, if you read this!), so I feel confident that if I did have any problems or faults with the Q70, I could make use of the extended warranty and they would deal with it professionally - though I hope never to have to put that to the test.

Judging by the accents, Samsung Support seem to be based in Scotland (that's probably of no interest to anyone).

Regards,

Virago

 

Here's one of them but he's been keeping quite a low profile. There's a few more members whom I suspect are Samsung support but they haven't admitted it.

John

 

That's really interesting - I don't think Samsung tech ppl are supposed to get involved in thread discussions, so if he's really Samsung tech support he might get in hot water. Oh dear!

Virago

 

Personally, I think it would be good if some Samsung support people were openly involved in this forum, but that particular person hasn't been active in the Samsung forum for some months.

John

 

I agree.

I used Samsung's formmail to send an email, and it's a bit of a palaver.

They don't even list the Q70 yet on the drop-down 'Model' menu. Samsung's website ppl could do better.

If a Samsung tech support person participated in a discussion thread, it would make it much easier for Samsung to take the measure of what is going on at grass roots with customers and respond more quickly.

I can't have been put off Samsung, as I have just bought two Samsung mobile phones! (One for myself and one for my son).

I have also told Laptops Direct that I am hanging on to my Q70, so in the words of Fred Astaire, 'Let's call the whole thing off' as regards sending it back.

Hopefully that is the end of the graphics card issue, and I will live happily ever after with my Q70. I gather Samsung are going to contact all the retailers to ensure that they change the specs to the G version of the 8400M, so maybe even Laptops Direct will get the message.

Virago