NEW Aero 14 w/ GTX1060

You might be right, I have a skylake and ran minergate on cpu/GPU and I could only push Temps up to the low 80s on cpu.

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Any good tips for Intel XTU?

I have Core Voltage Offset at -0.125V.
I have Turbo Boost Short Power Max Enable set to Disabled
But Intel Turbo Boost Technology, I cannot disable, it is greyed out.

 

Thanks, will ask GentechPC next time I'm in the US.

 

I just got my AERO 14 and I love the look and feel of the laptop, but for some reason I am only getting 2-3 hours while using MSVS on this thing. The CPU temps also hover around 40-50c at idle. Mine was from HIDEvolution and I paid for CL thermal paste on top of the order, so it seems a little high.

Did you guys have to do anything to get the 8-9 hour battery life? I've been searching through the thread but have yet to find any evidence of tweaking.

 

Just kill and make sure emptyproject11 isn't running

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Kill the EmptyProject11.exe task and don't start any Smart stuff and see what the battery life is. Right now I am in Word have some PDFs open, Chrome, Twitter and I have 37% left and estimating 4 hours of battery.

 

Like others have said, that emptyproject process is a killer.

I'd also get throttlestop and disable the CPU turbo on battery. You can also undervolt the CPU, cache, and igpu by -125mv pretty easy. This should lower your temps.

Turn on battery saver. Go into advanced settings and make sure min CPU setting is 5% on battery.

These should get you to 6+ hours.

 

Thanks guys. I've been killing emptyproject11.exe any time it comes out, but I'm still sitting at roughly 50c idle most of the time, and hotter if the charger is in.

I've disabled the GIGABYTE_SM service so hopefully that makes a big change, I'll report back once I get to use the laptop for a bit.

I'll try out the throttlestop thing ASAP. Is the battery saver and advanced settings bits also to be found in throttlestop?

 

Were you able to figure out the turbo boost bit? Also, is it possible that this only applies when the laptop is unplugged (i.e switches back to normal automatically after plugging in)?

I can't find the last set of options you mentioned (I assume this is for Windows' battery saver).

 

You need to kill EmptyProject11 outright, rather than ending it when you see it. I replaced the executable itself, so it never runs unless I start it manually. I also enabled the NVIDIA GPU activity tray icon, which will light up whenever EmptyProject11 is running. And it depends on the environment, but I don't see anything wrong with the 50C temps you're getting (especially if you have the 1060 running sometimes due to EmptyProject11). I usually leave the silent fan profile active and have seen temps creep up as "high" as 55C or so with normal use.

As for battery life, I haven't touched voltages, throttlestop, etc, and still get really long run times. EmptyProject11 is probably the majority of your problem, then regular windows optimization after that (always run in Battery Saver mode and set cooling to Passive, check wireless power settings, and so on). It's difficult to get the high numbers during "normal" use though, because something as simple as a YouTube video will really eat into your battery life, no matter what GPU you use. I realistically get around 5-6 hours with how I typically use my laptop.

 

Alright, I just ran my computer for a bit with 30% brightness, emptyproject removed and the SmartManager service disabled, and am still coming up with about 2 and a half hours (the whole time the only program open was Visual Studio).

I suppose the next stop is to mess with throttlestop.

 

That sounds really bad unless VS was pegging your CPU a ton. If I kill emptyproject11 alone I go from about 6 to 9.5 hours of usable time using gapps and vmware remote administration.

Undervolting by 125 bumped me up another hour.

I use the nirsoft tool to see what my battery draw is at any given time as well to see just how many watts each chance is making. Undervolting saves just under a watt here in power consumption. I haven't tried disabling turbo very much but I don't want the system to get too slow ️

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Something isn't right. Check the Battery Usage by App under Settings ("See which apps are affecting your battery life" if you look under Start). I have a few things downloading, Steam running, and two browsers open, and this is what my estimated battery looks like. If I play a 1080p YouTube video in the background, it'll drop to 3.5-4 hours, but never as low as 2.5.

 

Anyone able to recommend a decent well-fitting sleeve for the Aero 14Wv7, preferably in neoprene envelope style with a zip? I had a nice neoprene one I used on my old Sager NP7338 but unfortunately it's just a tiny bit too small for the Aero, and it appears most 14" sleeves I look at are intended for super-thin notebooks and won't quite handle the Aero's dimensions. The next step up are 15+" sleeves that the Aero will likely be swimming in. Appreciate any guidance.

 

Back when I had a 14" I used a 15" sleeve, and cut out a piece of foam to hold some small accessories and a flash drive. Not even a 17" is enough space for the AC adapter in a sleeve unfortunately.

 

How are the temps on this model? Unless clevo is coming out with a 14" this is what I've been looking for.

 

They're good.

I mean you could look at past posts in this thread. People have talked that to death

 

Not overly hot, most games will run in the 70s C. I don't think even GTA 5 made it break 80 in our testing.

 

I tried all the sleeves at Best Buy and Target when I got my laptop. PN: Case Logic VLS-114 in the 14.1 size fits perfect.

 

I booted up the laptop at 62% battery and 20% brightness. Left it with literally nothing on except NZXT CAM. Battery saver is on.

An hour later, I am at 31% battery with 48 minutes remaining. According to 'battery usage by app' in the last 6 hours, I have CAM at 36%, Windows Explorer at 36% and Chrome at 19%.

FWIW my temps have also been sitting at 56c for both GPU and CPU despite almost nothing running.

I really am puzzled, am going to e-mail HIDEvolution and ask them if they have an idea of what might be wrong.

 

Anything in task manager or resource monitor eating up your CPU?

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For those who want a good touchpad experience on this tiny power machine.

You may try to turn off the function " Scroll inactive windows when I hover on them" on system mouse settings.

In my case, after I turn it off, the touchpad is more responsive even the tiny move on it.

Hope this will help someone. ^_^

 

Nope, not as far as I can see. 0% on everything except memory, which sat solid at 24%.

 

I'm using batteryinfoview from nirsoft to see that my power draw is, give it a shot to see if your power draw is crazy, or maybe your battery isn't quite right.



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I have a feeling that your dgpu is not properly turning off via Optimus, and hence your high idle temps and bad battery performance. Try downloading NvOptimusTestViewer64.exe and seeing what state the dgpu is in. It should be "OFF" and not "IDLE" or "ON". Also be sure to set in the NVIDIA control panel to prefer the integrated graphics.

 

First, open the NVIDIA control panel. From the top menu bar, go under "Desktop" and check "Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area". If the icon is black and white, your GPU is off. If it's a rainbow color and outlined in green, it's on and that's your problem.

Next, open a command prompt and run the command "powercfg /batteryreport". This will create a file called battery-report.html that will tell you how much your battery is being charged, discharged, and what your estimated battery life is. Near the top of the report, check that the Full Charge Capacity and Design Capacity are the same. If the Full Charge Capacity is lower already, your battery may be defective. And if you're not sure what to look for, please post the report and I can take a look for you.

The 1060 is always running if you don't disable EmptyProject11.exe. And disabling it means replacing or otherwise hiding the exe entirely, otherwise it will be launched by other software on the laptop (ex. SmartManager). Killing it as a startup object isn't enough.

 

@indifferent mentioned that they had removed the emptyproject11.exe already in a previous post. Also even without emptyproject11.exe running, upon waking the laptop from sleep I've noticed that the dgpu still sometimes gets stuck in the idle state. The fix for that is to rerun emptyproject11.exe and then kill it for Optimus to properly turn the dgpu off.

 

I have this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CD8AFFW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's the Amazon basics 14 inch sleeve. Pretty much an exact fit. Putting it in front first the back corners stick out but you can zip over them. Not strain to zip but just an exact fit type zip.

 

It's too bad gigabyte doesn't sell the sleeve they were giving away with the 965m version of this machine.

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It seems you've hit the nail on the head. Despite having emptyproject11 removed, my GPU was running idle all the time. Funnily enough, NZXT CAM - the thing I used to monitor my temps - forces the GPU to come alive even when it is set to prefer Integrated Graphics in the Nvidia Control Panel.

As for @spike109u's suggestion, I did as you instructed and it seems the battery itself is fine. I was a little skeptical myself but no problems there.

Anywho, after putting the Nvidia icon on my taskbar and making sure the dGPU was off, I left my AERO on for a day now and at 30% brightness and nothing running, it lasted about 6 hours from 100% to 0% averaging 45% CPU temps. Not as amazing as the 8-9 hours everyone else is reporting, but a massive improvement over what I had previously, so thanks guys!

 

I've found that sometimes I need to make a manual profile for certain apps even though the preferred gpu is the integrated gpu for it to use the right one.

Still strange that you are getting only 6 hours though. Mine lasts a bit over 10 hours just sitting idle on battery saver at about 40% brightness, but that is with a -160mv undervolt on my Skylake chip. Are you sure the dgpu is off? The system tray icon may show that the dgpu is inactive but I've found using NvOptimusTestViewer64.exe that the gpu is sometimes actually still in the idle state.

 

Thanks for the replies. Before I saw either of your replies I had almost grabbed that Amazon one, but went for another one based on the advertised inner dimensions; Inatech 14-14.1 sleeve, which fits snugly, sounds much like the Amazon one. For future reference, it seems all 3 of these fit:

Inateck 14-14.1 Inch Laptop Sleeve

AmazonBasics 14-Inch Laptop Sleeve

Case Logic VLS-114 14-Inch Laptop Sleeve

 

dang seems sold out everywhere now!

 

XoticPC still have it apparently. [ link]

 

Also in-stock at New Egg. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...34725040&cm_re=aero_14-_-34-725-040-_-Product

 

While the aero 14 v6 is still good, I saw GentechPC carrying the kabylake version right now. It would probably be better to go with the better cpu since there is no cost difference.

 

Does anyone else have the issue of not being able to play fullscreen videos when the laptop is connected to an external monitor via HDMI? When I attempt to go fullscreen on the external monitor, I see only a blank screen and it will only show the screen if I exit fullscreen. When I attempt to go fullscreen on the internal monitor (while an external monitor is connected), the entire driver crashes and the computer will no longer recognize the external monitor until a restart. I have the latest Nvidia driver (as opposed to the Gigabyte driver, although I think it was still having the same issue with the Gigabyte driver). I'm just wondering if I'm having an isolated problem.

BTW, I repasted with Kryonaut and temperatures went down by about 5 degrees, and the 10 C core differential disappeared, but framerates also went down because I didn't know they put viscous thermal paste on the vram, so I had to dab on a bunch of Kryonaut for that, too, which probably won't transfer heat very well. I will repaste again soon with K5 Pro for the vram.

 

Did you make pictures of the old paste job and yours? Would be great to see the steps you took.
Were the paste unevenly distributed causing the large differential?

 

I will post pictures of GentechPC's old paste job along with all the other pictures when I finish with my final repaste and benchmarks. It did seem as if the paste was a bit unevenly distributed.
I am not going to post pictures of the disassembly process because it wouldn't really show anything. After you take off the back cover, all you have to do is unplug the two fan cables and unscrew the heatsink - voila, you can now repaste.
I highly recommend that you use a screwdriver with a magnetic tip, though. I can see how assembly can be frustrating without one.

 

No issues for me with an external monitor, although do note that when using an external monitor it seems that the 1060 is doing the rendering. Maybe try watching the 1060 voltages before and after plugging in the external monitor to see if it drops?

 

Great! How did you clean up the old paste?

Does anybody use the default MacroHub app or has some keybinds on the G-G5 keys? I want to get some use out of them, but haven't found a good way to do it.
How can I assign the Fn key to G5?

 

I bound one the the slack quick change command.

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I used 99% rubbing alcohol to clean up the old paste.

I'm not sure if AutoHotkey works with the macro keys, but you could give it a shot.

 

would you say GenTechPC repasting job was not properly done? I ordered this laptop with the free coollaboratory upgrade. But if the repasting job they did with you was not too good, I might consider canceling.

 

I am by no means an expert about thermal paste and temperatures, but I think GentechPC did not do a good job. My temperatures on GentechPC's paste job were pretty high, as I described in a previous post, and there were 8 C to 10 C max core differentials. I unfortunately did not save screenshots of temperatures on GentechPC's paste. However, I did take pictures of their paste job. I apologize for the poor lighting:
The CPU's heatsink

Spoiler

The GPU's heatsink. Notice what appear to be scorch marks.

Spoiler

Holistic view of the heatsink. Notice the gradient of viscous thermal paste, which suggests uneven heatsink pressure

Spoiler

View of the CPU and GPU die. The paste job on the CPU is especially non-uniform.

Spoiler

 

This laptop is pretty great. Awesome size. My battery is great. Been Aying Torchlight 2 on battery at 1440p and temps are low and battery is great. I know it's an old game but looks great.

 

Thanks for posting these! Did you made pics of your paste job as well?

I've got a couple of short questions:

Is it better to use a different thermal paste for the vram? I guess it doesn't get as hot as the CPU/GPU.
Do you remember the temperature distribution of the cores? Was it like one 'high' 3 'low' temp?
Where do you see the uneven distribution on the CPU? The GPU looks worse, especially how did scorch marks appear there? Did somebody loose a hair while pasting?

Was the heat sink easy to remove? Looks like there's some sticky tape around.
How did you ensure even heatsink pressure? On my old machine I counted the turns for each screw .

 

Did you get yours back yet? If so, how long was it gone? Were you pleased with the RMA process?

 

Yeah, normal paste like Kryonaut is low-viscosity and so only makes good contact if there is heatsink pressure. If I've interpreted iunlock correctly, vram usually doesn't manage to make physical contact with the heatsink - usually there's a small gap of between 0.1mm to 1mm. Thus, we need high-viscosity thermal paste or thermal pads to improve contact.
The temperature distribution was two high, two low.
The CPU heatsink looks fine, but the CPU die looks bad because there is a large amount of paste concentrated in the bottom right. The top left part of the CPU die has much less paste.

The heatsink was easy to remove. The sticky tape you see are not sticky, but actually thermal pads, designed to transfer heat across distances of 0.1mm to 1mm (depending on the thermal pad thickness). When I repaste tonight, I will measure the thermal pad thicknesses so that others can replace them with the proper sizes. I'm going to replace them with the same K5 Pro paste I'm using for the vram, though, because thermal pads are expensive.

I agree that the most likely scenario explaining the scorch marks is someone lost a hair while repasting. The thermal pads have quite a few small hairs, as well.

For even heatsink pressure, I just tried to remember how much resistance I felt in each screw before I stopped screwing in. I will take a quick picture of how much paste I use later tonight.

 

Did anyone create a recovery USB for out of the box set up? What size USB is required (16/32 GB)?