Well, this project has taken a sudden turn for the worse. I had noticed while installing and configuring Windows that the wireless networking seemed a bit finicky, I got the feeling that it was not connecting as easily as it should have, and it didn't seem to be getting the throughput that I thought it should have. I assumed it was just more Windows garbage software acting up, and carried on with my plans the system.
As I wrote in Part 2 of this series, openSuSE 12.1 loaded just fine, and wireless networking connected and seemed to perform normally. However, after installing all of the openSuSE 12.1 updates, I found that wireless networking would no longer connect. Strange... the 305U has a Broadcom 4313 WiFi adapter, which is relatively new but has been supported and working just fine in all the latest Linux distributions for some time now, and I have at least two other netbooks which have the same wireless adapter and work just fine. So this is clearly not a Linux problem... Hmmm. Quite a bit more testing and experimentation, and I found that it would connect sometimes, but not others. Eventually it dawned on me that the times when it would connect were when I was sitting at my desk, which is directly below the wireless router, and the times when it wouldn't connect were when I was elsewhere in the house, usually two floors below where the router is located.
As a rule, once I load Linux on a system I seldom, if ever, boot Windows again. Now, when I went back and tried with Windows I found exactly the same problem. When I had initially loaded both Windows and openSuSE, I had been sitting at my desk and using an extra wired network cable that I keep there for this reason, so when I first switched from wired to wireless I was still sitting right next to the router. One more thing that I noticed while doing some more thorough testing of this, the Samsung often didn't list some or all of my neighbor's wireless networks, also depending on where I was located in the house. Obviously, this system has a problem with wireless network reception, the next question was whether it was a problem with this particular laptop, or it was a general problem with this model.
After a good bit of searching on the Internet, I found a couple of posts from people who had exactly the same problem with this laptop, running Windows only. (If you can read German, here is a link to one such discussion in the Chip.de online forums) One of them researched it in considerably more detail, and contacted Samsung support about it. His conclusion was that the 305U has only one very weak antenna, causing serious limitations in reception and range. That certainly corresponds exactly with my experience with this system. UGH!
While searching for information on the wireless problem, I also came across a couple of posts from people describing another problem I had just begun to notice. If you leave the 305U idle long enough for the screen-blanking to kick in, and then touch the keyboard or touchpad so that the screen comes back on, there is a very irritating flicker in the screen, especially in any darker background colors. Sigh. It's not a very strong flicker, but it is clearly there. If you are old enough to have used CRT monitors very much, and you remember how some of them used to flicker, it looks pretty much like that. Once it starts, the only way to clear it is to power off and reboot. Bleah.
So unfortunately, this Samsung 305U is going back to the distributor. That is really too bad, because it is an extremely nice system in most ways. But the networking problem is a killer, both the range and throughput limits are unacceptable. I will have to start over again looking for an alternative.
jw 29/12/2011
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Mr Watson--
Sorry to hear the news about the Samsung 305U. This is the reason I--and I'm sure many others--always look forward to your blogs: pull-no-punches, OBJECTIVE, very informative reporting. I'm certain that this type journalism keeps both software and hardware manufacturers honest. Except, of course, those who are too big to care about the user.
You make me feel like a genius: Two years ago, I stumbled across an Acer Aspire One A0751 which Acer manufactured briefly until either Microsoft or Intel "convinced" Acer to stop. You see, it is really a netbook (Atom Z520; Windows XP) with a 1368x768 screen, and very thin. I enjoy using it, and think that the 11.6" screen format will become one of the most popular.
If you're interested, I understand that Acer has another 11.6" screen laptop out, which has a much more powerful processor. You might want to check this out, if you liked the form factor.
Warmest regards, and keep up the great work.
@zdnetukuser - You are correct about the screen size and resolution (11.6" and 1366x768) being the best selection for netbook/subnotebook systems. You are very fortunate indeed to have an AO751, it has proven to be an excellent system. It was actually Jake Rayson who first got me looking at Aspire and Aspire One systems, by the way. Yes, I have seen the newer Acer systems coming up, I have been watching both the AO722-0473 (11.6") and the slightly larger EeePC 1215B (12") for some time now. Now it is looking even more interesting, as there will apparently soon be an EeePC 1225B, with the latest generation of AMD CPU and graphic chips.
I have continued to try various other distributions on the 305U, while waiting for approval to return it, and have had no luck with the wireless on any of them. It is starting to look like it might be related to the latest AMD E450 CPU combined with the Broadcom 4313, perhaps some sort of general chip-set problem with the Linux drivers, because I have also been trying the latest HP dm1-4010ez, which has pretty much the same specifications, and while not totally non-functional the wireless networking clearly has some serious issues with connecting and range limitations.
I will post more on this when I understand more about it.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
jw
Well, I had my 305U for 2 weeks. I can list the problems I have with the unit:
- Poor wifi signal as the above blog has shown. I did a simple non-techie test. I laid my 305U next to my old Asus 1000H netbook. Everything else being equal, the 305U only achieved half of the indicated connection speed consistently (e.g. 65mbps vs 135mbps on 1000H).
- It starts in 3mins, not 3s as advertised! With similar applications loaded, it takes around double the time to start up as the 1000H with XPHP.
- Battery life is 3hrs, not 5hrs as advertised!
- When the 305U goes to sleep or hibernating, it sometimes does not wake up. It has to be re-started.
- It somehow does not work well with my desktop monitor. When resuming from sleep or hibernation, the desktop monitor produces flickering. To get rid of the flickering, the laptop has to be re-started! This may be related to the flickers Jamie is talking.
- The backing on the laptop screen must be thin, so thin that fingers holding the back of the screen produces wripple-like disturbances on the display.
- My 305U is not able to play a 4GB 720p movie file fluently with the x64 bit kmplayer - very strange!
I returned it to the shop today for a full refund, mainly citing the wifi problem as this is likely a problem with the antena, undoubtedly a hardware issue. All other problems above may be blamed on software.
In order to get a full refund, I had to call Samsung for an RMA#. Samsung customer services refused to accept that a lower indication of connection speed is a problem. They insisted that a testing to be done on speedtest.net. That was after over one-hour on the phone with Samsung and had spoken with their Customer Services manager. The phone was put on hold, and speedtest.net was connected. But nothing was straightforward! Flash player had to be downloaded first, and some tuning software had to be downloaded etc. In the process the line with Samsung went dead and when I dialed back again, it was impossible to get the original guy, and impossible to even get the Customer Services manager! No one with that name existed!!! Naturally I never got an RMA#. I bit the bullet and gave the unit back to the store, accepting 10% restocking charge for a quick resolution.
Not sure anyone reading this will be rushing out to buy a 305U! The lesson I have learned is this: don't get another Samsung product, and don't get another laptop until it is reviewed by Jamie!!!
@agy100 - I am having a similar discussion with the distributor where I bought my 305U. They are being very nice and reasonably cooperative about it, but they want me to send it for "repair" before they will discuss an outright return. I am trying to explain to them that "repair" of a faulty design is beyond the scope of the repair centers here. We'll see what happens - I suppose I will give up and go along with the "repair" game, to see how that goes.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
jw