NEW Aero 14 w/ GTX1060

Speaking of Quirks in my last comment:

Anyone have issues with secondary display? I am not able to connect to a samsung smart tv that I can connect to fine with other laptops. The screen flickers like crazy for a few seconds and eventually I get a 'display driver failed to start' message and it switches to intel drivers and won't register the second screen.

I have reinstalled graphics drivers, tried different graphics settings, display settings.

What could I be missing?

Thanks

 

I have a skylake unit and have no issues with my Samsung smart TV over HDMI

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Installed the creators update today and am pleased to announce that the freezes caused by Optimus appear to be gone!

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Since you all have had these for a while, care to give me a rundown of your opinions? I am torn between this and the GS63VR (next model with 1070.) I have read a lot of this forum, but there seems to be few reviews.

 

agree. the microstutters are no longer there. in addition, they've fixed some weird DPI bugs that was rather frustrating.

 

Coming from a Mac I am really satisfied with the build quality. Haven't had any major complains, mostly stemming from Windows rather then the computer itself. I have managed to set up similar mouse swipes as the Mac, and it's battery life is pretty good, as long as the Nvidia chip isn't being used. The Creators Update fixed most of the DPI issues I've had with the screen.

 

PSA: They have updated Smart Manager, Smart Update, USB C & and Touchpad drivers

 

Try using DDU: http://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=776 then downloading the Nvidia driver from the website again?

If not, it could be the HDMI cable.

 

I do notice a stutter once right after startup with the battery indicator, but after that one time I can't reproduce it until the next restart.

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Overall I'm liking the new update. All the quirks I had before are fixed. The new game mode also seems to be working, though some of my games had unbearable issues when using it. Quick file check and some tweaking fixed that.

 

I'm planning on returning my aero 14 to amazon, do I need to factory reset or will amazon do it for me? how can I factory reset it?

 

Restore it from the recovery image, when you boot up it shows an option key you can press to do recovery

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I'm sorry, It's not showing any option key when I'm booting up. What's the option key?

 

I agree its a great laptop. Love mine. My nit is the keyboard still takes some getting used to for me.

 

At the bottom of my screen 3 options pop up briefly, I think it's F2 to enter setup or something like that. I may have enabled them in the bios, they could have been hidden by default. One of them is to go to recovery if I recall correctly.

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Page 12 of the user manual has a walk through. You press/hold f9 when powering up to start the process.

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Has anyone tried putting a docking station on either USB 3.0 or 3.1 ports with an external screen attached. I'm getting errors when any of the USB 3.0 drives are connected, and when in the USB 3.1 (using the latest Gigabyte USB 3.1 update) the drive identifies the docking station but when I plug in the screen, the image goes on and off continuously. Using a Targus Dock110. I did the Dell update, however couldn't get the external screen to work properly.


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Just wondering what the creators update is? Does this stop the EmptyProject11 file? Should I still be running the script mentioned at https://www.reddit.com/r/gigabytegaming/comments/5uqu1o/aero_14_v7_battery_life/. I'm a bit confused :/ What I understand the EmptyProject11 keeps the gfx ready which drains battery. The script stops this? The creators update (whatever it is) stops the micro stuttors caused by stopping the EmptyProject11. Do I have everything right?

 

The creators update is the new patch to Windows 10 which should be hitting everyone today.

And yes, it appears to fix the issues that are introduced when killing/removing emptyproject11.

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Also, funny that you linked to a reddit that linked back to my post on this thread ️

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Still slightly unsure. Should we run the script after the new update or is the issue resolved?

 

Microstuttering and latency issues are mostly caused by Optimus. The new update is said to be more Optimus-friendly, meaning the GPU switching back and forth will no longer cause microstutters as massive as it used to be in the previous Win10 version. EmptyProject basically kept the dGPU awake all the time, rendering Optimus switching void, but affected the battery life by a big margin. Right now, Optimus microstutter is still there, but is rarely present. You can still run EmptyProject and totally eliminate it, but I'd rather have a better battery life with minimal stutter, than a 100% snappy system with few less hours.

 

If anyone is interested, here is a review (in korean but Google's your friend) with high res shots of the interior, including the heatsink assembly!

 

I'm about to pull the trigger on ordering an Aero 14, and on GenTech's site I am trying to decide between the IC Diamond on CPU/GPU or Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra on CPU/GPU. Any insights on which is better and why? The second Coollaboratry option is more expensive, and I was hoping someone could share some feedback/understanding on what makes it a better solution.

Thanks for all the shared information and experience on here. I've been researching options for ages and feel confident on picking one of these up.

 

I had to make the same decision. Decided to go w ic diamond. In the future it will be easier to clean off. And as I understand it should last longer.

With that said ic doesn't cool quite as well. It's still good though.

Lu is corrosive and conductive. So there is more risk. Plus some people claim it hardens.

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Did someone install Linux on their 7700hq version laptop? Is it possible to partition the boot drive without reinstalling Windows?
Is graphics driver stuff working, like screen brightness, bumblebee/optimus?

I recently installed Ubuntu on an Alienware laptop, and I had to change some things in the bios to make it recognize the internal drive, and to disable secure boot. I wonder if I have to do similar things with this laptop.

 

I am midway through a clean install. What oe apps should I reinstall? Cheers


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Hey @Philosobyte did you ever get around to measuring the thermal pad thickness?

 

Smart Update, then Smart Manager and Macro Hub. Of course all the driver/windows updates.

 

Double check driver versions before you install the gigabyte ones. In mont cases the windows update drivers seem to be newer versions.

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I actually woundup rebuilding it with gigabytes boot drive. For some reason the computer was somewhat unstable when running vanilla.

 

someone PM'd me about the emptyproject script I put together awhile ago and it needed some tweaks with the creators update so I'm posting back the changes here in case someone still wants to use it. The script basically suppresses emptyproject11.exe while on battery, and does nothing when on power. I tried to get the script to launch emptyproject11 when power was restored but for some reason it would always consume 30+% cpu when run that way and since smart manager will launch it again at some point I'm not bothered to track down why.

The script runs in task scheduler if you kick it off manually, but if you try to schedule it to start on login for a user account, it says it's running in the background but it doesn't actually take any action, the workaround I found was to make a shortcut that goes in the startup folder to kick off the schduled task using "schtasks.exe /run /TN "SchedulerJobName"

For my windows scheduled task I have set the following options on the general tab:
- "when running the task, use the following user account" = me
- run only when logged on = true
- run with highest privileges = true

Triggers tab: blank

Actions tab:
Action = start a program
program/script = C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
add argument = -noexit -windowstyle hidden -file d:\scripts\scripfilename.ps1

Conditions tab:
Make sure all check boxes are blank, if they are greyed out they are still enabled, you mush check the parent, uncheck the child, and uncheck the parent again. I learned this the hard way by leaving "stop if the computer switches to battery power" checked but greyed out.

Settings tab:
only 2 options here, allow manual run, and force stop.


Contents of the updated script file:


if (.PowerOnLine){
write-host "started up on battery, looking for EmptyProject11"
if ((get-process "EmptyProject11" -ea SilentlyContinue).Id -ne $Null){
stop-process -Force -Id (get-process "EmptyProject11").Id
write-host "EmptyProject11 was found and killed"
}
else{
write-host "EmptyProject11 was not running"
}
}
else{
write-host "Device started up on power, do nothing"
}

Register-WMIEvent -query "Select * From Win32_PowerManagementEvent" `
-sourceIdentifier "Power" `
-action {
if ([BOOL](Get-WmiObject -Class BatteryStatus -Namespace root\wmi).PowerOnLine ){
write-host "Device is plugged in now, checking if EmptyProject11 is running"
if ((get-process "EmptyProject11" -ea SilentlyContinue).Id -eq $Null){
write-host "EmptyProject11 not running, skipping start because cpu utilization issues"
#start-process -FilePath "C:\Program Files\SmartManagerV3\EmptyProject11.exe"
}
else{
write-host "EmptyProject11 was running"
}
}
else{
write-host "Device has been unplugged, killing EmptyProject11"
if ((get-process "EmptyProject11" -ea SilentlyContinue).Id -ne $Null){
stop-process -Force -Id (get-process "EmptyProject11").Id
}
else{
write-host "EmptyProject11 was not running"
}
}
}

$QRY = "Select * from win32_ProcessStartTrace where processname = 'EmptyProject11.exe'"
Register-CimIndicationEvent -Query $QRY -SourceIdentifier Q -Action {
if (.PowerOnLine){
Stop-Process $event.SourceEventArgs.newevent.processID
}
}

 

Is there a reason to keep emptyproject running when on power? Games and applications that need the dGPU will turn it on anyway, wouldn't they?

 

That is true, but there are brief hangs in Windows when it irises to draw certain things like the start menu and battery status pop up.

It's almost like Windows can't figure out which to use, so it turns on the nvidia briefly, and then uses the intel to draw it anyway.

Creators update seems to at least cache the card it used last time to draw that object so the freezes are way less frequent now.

I personally have emptyproject11 disabled and just live with the issue and keep mentioning it in the feedback hub

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Anyone else care to post benchmarks.

No software optimization. no overclocks.

32GB ram, and IC Diamond TIM.

Time Spy: 3606
Fire Strike Ultra: 2505
Fire Strike Extreme: 5072
Fire Strike: 9562

 

I installed KDE Neon on mine fancy Ubuntu. I had to ask for help in this thread to disable secure boot. Basically you set it to "Windows 7/8 mode" in the bios. Windows 10 will still work. I wanted Antergos which appeared to work great on a live USB but the installer kept crashing (more to do with Antergos than this laptop). It just worked with the "so easy an idiot can do it" installer. Just drag the slider to adjust the size of the partition. I actually had to delete the Linux partition so I resized Windows back to the full hard drive size with a live USB, installed Neon again with the installer, and everything still worked. As for bumblebee, just installing it booted to a black screen (which is why I had to reinstall). I think Nouveau has to be uninstalled before Bumblebee can be installed. I removed Nouveau thinking it would force it to use just Intel graphics and went no further with bumblebee cause the only good guide I could find was for Antergos. So I get about 4 hours of battery on Linux. Powertop claims my WiFi card uses 16 watts of power. No idea what the deal is, I think installing Bumblebee should fix it but I don't feel like it

At least two other people in this thread have guides on getting Arch Linux working on this laptop and getting 8 hours of battery

 

Weird, I have gotten 4 BSOD tonight, all Driver Power State Failures.

I am going to reformat again tomorrow morning with vanilla, and see if that resolves the issue.

I went ahead and did the FB04 bios. I am attempting to update the NVidia drivers again, which ironically is why I reinstalled the gigabyte drivers. I could not get NVidia to install, or update.

What I have noticed is that Windows installs and updates are PAINFULLY slow, as in hours. Even installing vanilla took me forever, I believe it was 2-3 hours to simply install it.

Driver updates are taking me 30 minutes or so. I am wondering if I am having a hardware issue, that hasn't been readily obvious yet. Perhaps my SSD is acting up?

Have any of you had any issues like this?

 

This is mine.
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/11487725
Geforce Experience installed. No changes to hardware.

around 692 on Cinebench r15 (attached below)
Edit: other than NVidia gpu at driver from March 28th and windows automatic updates, I did not use SmartUpdater. So, all my drivers are from the support page. BIOS still at FB02

 

Can anyone think of a way to use Macro Hub to assign the macro keys to increase/decrease screen brightness?

 

Also, interesting news: I just updated SmartManager to 6.7.8 via Smart Update and it no longer starts the emptyproject11.exe process so I guess we're done with that.

 

I just noticed that also chris.

As per screen brightness I imagine you can. Map it for keystrokes. Select function key and the f# key that correlates to the screen.


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Nice. No more errors.
I just noticed this but do you guys know how to turn on the SST? It looks like it is off by default for me and I can't find a setting for it in the BIOS.

 

What is an SST?

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Is there a way to swap Fn+F keys default setting. For instance to mute press F7 and not Fn+F7 and if I needed the actual F7 key use Fn+F7.

 

Unfortunately it looks like Macro Hub can't recognize an fn key press.

 

Intel Speed Shift Technology

 

Hey, I'm also getting these driver power state failures. Did the reformat fixed your issue?

 

So there is a new bios out: FB07/F004 out and after some testing, the C state is still locked to C7 (it was C10 in FB02). However, the have reduced the PROCHOT from 97C (in FB04) to 90C.

@20 sec, Prime95 small FTTs 8T, Fan mode Customize @100%:

FB04: Limit Reasons - PL2 (56W) and EDP Other. 97c, TDP Throttle active, 3.4Ghz, C0%:100%. PROCHOT ON

FB07: Limit Reasons - Thermal and EDP Other. 90c Thermal Throttle active, Clock fluctuating, C0% 98%-100% PROCHOT ON


@ 5 min, Prime95 small FTTs 8T, Fan mode Customize @100%:

FB04: Limit Reasons - PL1 (52W) and EDP Other. 88c, TDP Throttle active, 3.24Ghz, C0%:100%. PROCHOT OFF

FB07: Limit Reasons - PL1 (52W) and EDP Other. 88-90c, TDP Throttle active, 3.26Ghz, C0%:100%. PROCHOT ON

 

Double post

 

No software optimization. no overclocks.

16GB ram, and stock TIM. BIOS FB07

Time Spy: 3595
Fire Strike Ultra: No $$
Fire Strike Extreme: No $$
Fire Strike: 9721


UPDATE:
16GB ram, and stock TIM. BIOS FB02

Time Spy: 3606
Fire Strike Ultra: No $$
Fire Strike Extreme: No $$
Fire Strike: 9697