Samsung NP300E5C UEFI Bug (Replacement?)

[Zertop]

Hi All,

So - it seems my laptop has fallen victim to this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/706510-samsung-laptops-bricked-using-uefi.html

Basically, I tried to reinstall Ubuntu using UEFI, and now it seems that my laptop refuses to boot anything UEFI related :/

The bug is replicated when attempting to boot UEFI OS's other than Windows while the secure boot option is enabled. This then corrupts the Laptop Firmware, which in turn stops the PC from processing UEFI boot commands. All EFI OS's work just fine, just UEFI mode fails to boot from USB, HDD, CDD or FDD

This post serves two purposes:

#1) Be aware of this bug Samsung Owners!
#2) Any clue of the factory warranty provided by Samsung in South Africa?

Thanks peeps!
Z

 

[Zertop]

So I tired explaining the situation to the Samsung Outlet - and they informed me that "changing Operating Systems voids the manufacture warranty on the laptop", and therefore I would have to pay for a replacement motherboard.

Now if someone could explain to me the point in time in which using a different operating system became a warrenty-voider, then I would love to hear it - as thats the first I've ever heard of it! :/ Talk about making a deal with windows why don't you.

So I guess I'm stuck with my Ubuntu Lappy now (which actually, has been the most portable and power-efficient thing ever! I can easily get 4:30 of battery now)

Z

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

So I tired explaining the situation to the Samsung Outlet - and they informed me that "changing Operating Systems voids the manufacture warranty on the laptop", and therefore I would have to pay for a replacement motherboard.

Now if someone could explain to me the point in time in which using a different operating system became a warrenty-voider, then I would love to hear it - as thats the first I've ever heard of it! :/ Talk about making a deal with windows why don't you.

So I guess I'm stuck with my Ubuntu Lappy now (which actually, has been the most portable and power-efficient thing ever! I can easily get 4:30 of battery now)

Z

im actually fightiung myself with samsung right now about this as well, I got a similar one to yours NP300E5C-a0dza
and as I cant with win 8 I changed HDD and loaded win 7 ,

same exact problem as yours, warrentee is void if you change HDD,

gonna mess with them today, found my original HDD, samsung one, gonna get them to change my board,

as I was standing in the que, another women in the que, same samsung laptop same exact issue.
seems like a common issue, I guess thats what I get for buying cheap!

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

quite a few people in the net with this issue, seems to affect the NP300E5C laptops a lot,

anybody here got a similar one with any issues?

 

[Zertop]

quite a few people in the net with this issue, seems to affect the NP300E5C laptops a lot,

anybody here got a similar one with any issues?

Yup. I don't know if we are having the same issue - but you could try switching your laptop out of secure boot in the bios to boot it!

Z

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Yup. I don't know if we are having the same issue - but you could try switching your laptop out of secure boot in the bios to boot it!

Z

no its exactly the same issue, wont boot at all now,
blank screen no options, but lights on and power button but nothing otherwise.

funny thing is it started slowly on mine, turn it on in the morning, no boot options, reboot, works fine,
another time shows no HDD attached, reboot, shows up works fine.

at this stage its completly borked, was at sasmung woodmead over the weekend,

told me HDD is causing this, tested HDD in external cradle, works perfectly,
to be fair I updated BIOS on this laptop, but originall samsung one, to suport 7200 RPM HDD
ok so now changed HDD to original samsung one, still same exact issue,

reading up on the net a lot of linux guys having the same issue,
definetly a bug, now going to go boxing with samsung.

cant tell me BS when there is definetly a issue with their hardware,

and WTF about OS replacement and HDD replacement voiding the warrentee? never saw that anywere?
there is a slot for it and it is marked so whats this new BS I keep hearing.

 

[Zertop]

There is an update about this problem. Apparently the problem is related to the amount of information stored in the the memory for UEFI variables. If you fill up this memory by more than fifty per cent on some Samsung notebooks, they will no longer boot and may require repair. Samsung was supposed to release a firmware update months ago... but uhm. No.

Z

Edit: Doing some more research. The actual cause of this is “Writing a crash dump to the NVRAM [non-volatile random access memory],”. There have been reported cases of windows causing this too - upon BSOD.

"The machines affected, we're told, are the 300E5C, NP700Z5C, NP700Z7C and 530U3C models. ®".

I've found a firmware patch - but it can only be applied from windows. So well... seeing that I cannot boot windows. I can't get this to work :/ I'll continue looking.