Sleep mode problem identified but not fixed

Hi All,

I think I've found the issue (or at least a way to recreate the problem) for why some Samsung laptops freeze after coming out of sleep mode:

Basically, everything works if I hit f4 on boot to go into samsung recovery mode, then press the "System Software" button, which boots into windows. Then, sleep mode works fantastically. If I just let the computer boot into windows on its own, the computer will freeze and not come out of sleep mode.

Also, if boot do not boot into windows through the samsung recovery method 1) the wifi fn toggle key will now work 2) the samsung software like SW Update will not start and 3) as said above, the laptop will freeze coming out of sleep. I assume all these issues are related somehow, but I have no idea how.

Does anyone have any idea whats going on or what could be causing this? Samsung support has been less then helpful...but they say tier 2 support will call me eventually.

Im on a samsung series 7 NP770z7e, but based on the googling ive been doing during the 30 hours ive spent on this problem I think it may be affecting a few other models.

 

Are you running a standard out-of-box Windows 8 installation with UEFI enabled?

Did you use recovery to reload the original Windows setup?

Are you running the latest BIOS and graphics drivers as recommended by SW Update?

John

 

Yes - I've refreshed and reloaded multiple times while trying to fix this. All drivers and bios are fully updated according to SW update.

 

More info: Bio version PO3ABZ
Secure boot disabled
Boot mode set to UEFI and CSM OS. It says it will use UEFI if supported by the OS, so I assume its using UEFI.

I have tried restoring with samsung recovery, problem doesn't go away.

 

If you aren't sure that it is the latest BIOS then run the stand-alone BIOS updater program which you can find on a link in the first post in this thread. The AMD graphics driver might be the other culprit but I'll have to leave it for others to advise on this aspect.

Resume from sleep issues were common a few years back but have been largely fixed. However, switchable graphics adds extra complications.

John

 

Yep, its the latest BIOS version. I wonder what boots differently when you go through samsung recovery?

 

I found with windows 7 and the system gamer that if the boot order is wrong it will cause similar issues. May not be your issue but something to check............

 

Well, in BIOS (with secure boot disabled) there are no boot options. I guess Ill try and work on fixing that and see if going down that thread helps. I am really not liking windows 8 and uefi. I should have just gotten a win 7 pc.

Also, is there a way to reflash BIOS? I have the bios update tool, but it wont let me reflash because it says its already the latest version.

 

For future googlers: I managed to fix this. Im not quite sure exactly how but here is what I know: I fiddled around with these BIOS settings: Adding and removing a password, enabled fast boot, reset secureboot to manufacturer settings. I also played around with booting without malware protection and driver signature. I also did a few BIOS reset using the power disconnect hole. At some point something changed, so that when I booted into recovery, it detected that something in BIOS was corrupt and reflashed it. After that everything worked. I had also been trying to reflash BIOS using the steps in the BIOS rollback thread, but did not have any success so I dont think that did anything. Does anyone know what exactly the Samsung recovery boot corruption thing did?

I have to vent about Samsung for a bit: They were incredibly unhelpful. First, this is probably their fault due to their not following UEFI specifications. Second, I ended up sending the laptop back for service, but they wouldn't fix it because the plastic around the USB port was slightly bent. Finally, the very least they could do is make it easy to diagnose and fix issues, I don't see why they block re-flashing the same BIOS version unless samsung recovery manages to detect a corruption.