NEW Aero 14 w/ GTX1060

Hello everyone. I got a Kaby Lake Aero 14 six months ago after a long battle against Aero 15 - Msi gs43 and so far happy with it. Except a few tiny stuff and running low on ssd space Question is, should I update bios and other drivers? If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it; or so they say. I haven’t updated anything except a few utilities and usual windows patches. Some people reported bugs even here after updates. Since this one is my only pc and I also use it for work sometimes, especially traveling, I am a bit concerned. On the other hand, there might be some improvements regarding thermals, performance, battery time, and so on. So what do you suggest? Is it worth updating or I would be ok without doing anything?

 

Hello KML,
You would want to look at the latest BIOS update for the Aero 14 (i7-7700), Gigabyte lists it as “CPU microcode update”. If you update via Smart Update make sure you are not running any other background programs and that your laptop is connected to the internet and plugged in.
Also you may want to update the ME Firmware via Smart Update and latest Chipset driver (via Smart Update).
The latest updates for iGPU, Wifi, Bluetooth, dGPU will be useful for compatibility.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

@bberry110 thanks for the answer. I usually don’t use smart update, though. It runs very slow and downloads slow, too. I don’t know why. Tried a few times already but looks like it will go on updating till the end of the world. Anyway, I guess I’ll do it manually, whatever that means unless there is an easier or safer way to do so.

 

I feel I should chime in here, as I'm getting rid of my Aero 14

My model

So I bought the Skylake/GTX-1060 version before they, fairly quickly, took that version off the market. It's been just under 2 years and I've used it not stop since. So here is my long term review for anybody interested. . .

How I use it.

I'm a 3D animator/ digital artist and more than casual gamer. . .Like the opposite of casual . . .So I've put this machine through its paces with intensive render sessions (sometimes up to 12+ hours straight), lots of gaming (Overwatch, Tera, FF14, Fallout 4, PUBG have the most hours on this machine), and hundreds of hours in Photoshop and After Effects.

I have it connected to a 27" 2k 144hz G-sync, a 27" 60hz 1080p, with the lid open. For a total of 2 2k moniters and 1 1080p.

Some maybe obvious facts

1.It handles all of these things great. . .If it's plugged into the Ac adapter.
2.It has always ran super hot, in excess of 100c in a well ventilated room.
3.It gets loud, as it should, but never enough to bother anybody at a coffee shop or library.
4.The 94wHr battery is legit. Remove nearly all of the gigabyte bloatware, including the service which auto-starts EmptyProject, to get 10 or so hours out of it. A fresh install of windows will do just fine.
5.The rubber grommets will come off. I highly recommend removing them and re-adhering them with a good two-mix epoxy.
6.If you carry it in a backpack with a few books, the screen will flex just enough to to make wear around the inner edges of the screen bezel. I've got wear in about 4 different spots. It a small eyesore.
7.The keyboard will loosen up after a while. keystrokes were obnoxiously tight after the first few months, but they get spongy after you break them in. It goes from being a really unpleasant typing experience to a fairly decent one.
8.The trackpad drivers suck. Dave2D has instructions to install Windows precision drivers. Use that.

Some failures . . .

The motherboard died after about 6 months. I RMA'd it and got it back nearly a month later. They updated the BIOS and sent the fixed unit back to me with a SEVERELY underclocked GPU and CPU. The 1060 was barely faster than a 1050ti. Needless to say I was pissed, and asked them why they did this. They told me it was to keep within the thermal limitations of the cooling solution. . .Which means they shipped a product knowing it's thermal solution wasn't adequate. (funny how we got Aero 14s with 1050ti's now =P ). My CPU also couldn't turbo past 3.4. The upside was, the laptop ran cooler. I was hitting 84-86c on max loads for extended periods. This was way better than the 100c I was hitting before.

I wasn't all that convinced the thermal solution was a total failure though. So, I disassembled it to find a terrible thermal pasting job by the Gigabyte techs. I cleaned it, and applied liquid metal and now my 7700HQ boosts to 3.8 as it should, while hitting 76-78c. My GTX1060 can boost a bit higher, but now it feels more like a 1060 Max-Q. This reaches about 80c.

Lastly, my wireless card failed a year in. Replaced that with a Killer 1550.

The things I've come to hate

Needing to plug in the AC adapter to use the dedicated GPU - Its not truly portable if you must do this. If I don't need access to my GPU when I'm mobile, then I likely don't need a 94wHr battery either. I understand the need for a balance here, but let me waste battery life at my discretion, I don't need the machine to do that for me. The XPS15 does it, generally all CAD workstations do it. . .the Aero 14 doesn't. As a creative professional, you'll basically need it all the time. If you leave it at home, you basically have a 4.5 lb ultrabook. Don't expect to do anything graphically intensive without it.

Quality Control is god awful - The issue with the thermal solution shouldn't have seen the light of day. I'm assuming they knew about it and let the consumer be their test bench for it. It didn't work, so now they only offer Aero's with a 1050ti. How they pasted the heatsink gives me the impression their' technicians are 100% inept on the simple practice of proper TIM application. The wear on the screen bezel makes me wonder how the Aero 15 screen will look after a few months. If there isn't a bezel to get worn, then it will makes it way to the matt screen won't it?

The lack of Thunderbolt 3 until the most recent model. - Like.....it should of had one, lets be honest.

The things I've come to love

The keyboard....its pretty awesome now. I've tested it next to another Aero and the keystrokes have definitely become considerably easier.

The size and battery. granted I'm not always in applications which warrant the GPU. So if I'm just writing reports or browsing the web, its incredible how long it lasts. Just remember to ditch all the gigabyte software. Yes...even SmartManager. The computer will adjust its fanspeed accordingly. It doesn't need some ****ty OS GUI to do that for it.

SD card reader speeds - Its fast. . .and amazing. Lightroom appreciates it.

Verdict

As a creative professional, I don't recommend this machine for its slew of reliability issues and poor quality control. With A LOT of work on your part, it can be a great machine. But at the cost of voiding your warranty to mange thermals, I don't feel its worth the hefty price tag.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the post, how can you verify if the CPU/GPU comes back underclocked?

My Aero14 is currently being RMA'd by them for videocard issues.

Thanks.

 

I thought I would give them a shot. I will NEVER ever buy anything from Gigabyte again.

I've owned my Aero 14 for a little over a year now and found some hardware defects showing up. I sent my Aero 14 laptop for RMA because my fan was faulty (very prevalent issue with Aero 14 and 15) along with keyboard backlighting issues. Oh and all the rubber feet fell off within a year. I double wrapped it in bubble wrap, put lots of kraft paper and shipped it in a sturdy new box that wasn't too big or too small via 2-day shipping.

After they received it, I see online that their RMA team says "No trouble found after tests with multiple configurations". I asked them to retest and now they tell me it has physical damage and want me to pay $270 for repairs. To make it even better, and they want me to EMAIL my credit card information to them.

 

I've had a battery issue for a while now. Sorry if this issue has already been solved but there's so many pages here I can't look through all of them. Basically on a good day, my battery will deplete at <10 watts per hour, but occasionally (pretty frequent these days), the battery gets weird and starts depleting at around 40 watts per hour. The thing is whenever this happens, I'm never doing anything different from when it's depleting at 10 watts, so I can't figure out what the cause is. Even after closing all my programs and restarting my laptop the issue persists. I've tried for almost a year to find the cause, mostly by looking at task manager and ending anything that seems suspicious, but nothing has worked. I know about the emptyproject thing, which I got rid of when I first got the laptop.

 

Run the Task Manager Performance Monitor and watch CPU and Disk IO, sort by highest usage CPU and Read/Write, and watch for background processes.

Windows 10 has monitoring, telemetry logging, report making on a schedule, and uploading to god knows where all of your activity.

Then there's the indexing of the contents of all of your files - for search purposes.

Then there's the Windows Updates to add more background data collection and telemetry.

Then there's the frequent "security updates".

Then there's the background processes for all of the applications doing all of the above for their masters...

It's a busy world on an idle computer with Windows 10.

 

We're sorry for the inconvenience occurred and we will check internally to see what's going on

 

A little late here.
Has anyone had any luck installing the Smart Manager of newer models into this laptop?
Also, is it worth it, or should I stick with the latest one for this model?

Thanks

 

I know sometimes that the Smart Manager will interfere with Trackball and Logitech software for peripherals like mice. If have any peripheral mice software running to configure extra buttons, see if disabling it gets the Smart Manager to start.

 

it's not really worth it to have the latest version of the smart manager. Just keep it for controlling fan speed, and keyboard backlighting. It doesn't really have any more functionalities than that. I have audio driver from other version of aero and it seems to work. I have not tried other drivers as 1. windows gives its own stuff 2. wrong driver can cause problems. As for your question. You can use gigabyte utilities from other versions.

 

Has anyone upgraded the ram to 32GB on here?

I'm not sure if I should purchase another 16GB stick in addition to the stock one or buy 2x of the same stick.

Any suggestions and ideas on which ram works fine with the stock one?

 

Hey guys, Aero 14 w 965m owner here. I had a fresh windows installed since I bought used, and I'm wondering what i should update? In particular the drivers for the nvidia card, however device manager says i have 2017 drivers while nvidia says latest is 2015 on their site.

So far I'm mixed on the laptop - the hard pressing on the keys is very annoying. The GPU power weight is great, but i am afraid to put my work stuff on it thinking it's not as solid as a macbook. If I go to europe for months, will i be able to fix it, assuming I don't have warranty? (i have no idea if i do since I bought used)

 

Hi Sahil04,
I have the Aero 14 v7 (i7-7700HQ) and have had no issues with 32GB RAM.
At some point I added one Kingston 16GB DDR4 2400.
Both RAM sticks run on dual channel (they are of the same manufacturer, MHz speed and CL timings).
Did not have to buy a separate 32GB pair.
Perhaps use CPUZ first to identify what your current RAM stick is.
All the best

 

Thanks, can you send me the link to the ram you purchased? The model number that I get with CPUZ is one that seems like it is OEM and not available for purchase.

 

Hello,
I bought it off eBay, the module reference was:
Kingston Technology
MPN
KCP424SD8/16

 

Hi all, I'm getting constant BSODs on my Aero 14 under Windows 10.
Seems related to the nvidia GPU. BSOD failures include: video_dxgkrnl_fatal_error, video_tdr_failure, and others.

I already have done a clean reinstall of the latest nvidia drivers.
When I disable the GTX1060 in dev. manager, the BSODs stop.

Any ideas how I could fix this issue? Hardware issue? Any way I can diagnose it properly?

 

Anyone having charging issues?
I recently did a factory reset on a clean Windows 10 installation in preparation for selling. Left for a long weekend with it unplugged and it actually sold while I was gone. Came back to get it cleaned up and ready to go and it wouldn't power on. The lights just flashed. After about 2 hours of it plugged in, I was able to get it to power on. It had 17% battery left. But over the evening it was discharging while plugged in. Windows even said "Plugged in, Discharging". So I shut it down overnight to see if it would charge powered off. No dice, I woke up to it had lost 4% and was now around 6%. I have had it plugged in all morning and its now at 1% and I assume it will completely die soon. What is going on here? I tried to call Gigabyte support but it seems they are out for the holidays. My 2 year warranty runs out on 1/19/19 so I think I can get it in for at least one RMA. Has anyone had this issue, or any experience with USA Gigabyte support? I ended up cancelling the sale which was a bummer, I hope its an easy fix though.

 

My Wi-Fi disconnects even if I move my laptop one feet. The wifi network i am connected to disconnects and the wifi device re-initializes. I inspected the wifi card and it is securely in the slot, and the antennas are securely attached to the wifi card. None of my other wireless devices are experiencing this issue, and this occurs in all situations, including in public wifi areas, along with wifi networks in my home. I am using the official driver from smart-update - 19.70.0.5. I also tried using intel's latest driver on their website- v20 but the same symptom occurs. Any solutions?

 

So, for my 7700hq aero, I got a new shiny portable ssd for external use and found out that it did not perform as it should when connected to usb 3.1 gen 2 port (400-430 mb/s sequential read and write, normally reaches 540 and other benchmarks are much worse). If connected to one of the usb 3 ports, it is working somewhat faster - 440 mb/s read and write. Windows says the ssd is a usb mass storage drive on usb 3.1, not usb attached scsi mass storage drive as should’ve been seen. I checked the issue and saw that 3.1 gen 2 port does not support uasp while on the other hand normal usb 3 port does! Enclosure can’t be the cause because it has proper chipset to support uasp and works as expected on usb 3 with trim and smart functioning. Well, tbh when on usb 3.1, according to crystal disk info it also supports trim and smart but not uasp.

What do you guys think about this issue? Hope that I’m not the only one who think this is ridiculous. It is probably driver related but I couldn’t find a new driver and reinstall didn’t help. I don’t know which controller is used for usb 3.1 port. It is asmedia but I don’t know which asmedia chip. Anyone can help please? As it is, I lose almost 20 percent performance I paid for.

 

I purchased another wifi card- an Intel 9260 and it works perfectly. The Intel 8260 that came w/ the machine is defective. I still have a few months left and contemplating doing an RMA on the laptop. How long do RMA's usually take? Is it even worth it for a $25 wifi card?

 

I just did an RMA on mine, got in right before the warranty was out. Charging was not working properly and they replaced the motherboard. I had a good experience (although it will be back on Monday so I can't say its fixed 100% just yet). But the experience itself was fine. I called to get the RMA and they literally walked me through the online form, so if you did an RMA just fill that out. But you have to pay to ship it out to them which UPS ground was around $25 for me. My advice would be to not switch out the wifi card and just use a USB wifi dongle, they aren't too expensive and you can find some small ones. That way if something big happens your warranty wouldn't come into question by replacing the card yourself. Once you are out of warranty I would just replace the card yourself, if its a $25 card its not really worth it to pay to ship it in.

 

I had issues on my Skylake aero 14 and swapped out the WiFi card, has been great since.

 

Anyone dual booting with Linux? Wanted to try a Ubuntu-based distro, so has anyone dual booted with Ubuntu and are there any gotchas?

 

If you try to search this thread I'm pretty sure I remember someone posting their progress ages ago but there were some issues with battery life (due to Optimus) that had to be worked around.

 

I saw some talk of Arch but I will poke around to see if anyone installed a Ubuntu distro. I am fine with just the intel GPU for Linux.

 

Hi Aero owners, I have just got my Aero 14 with i7-7700HQ and wondering that in the Smart Manager the "Battery Charging Policy" option is missing. This way, I don't have any possibility to do some battery management. Do you have any idea, how could I stop charging the battery at a certain point? It bothers me, that I don't have any influence on that (being an ex-lenovo user )... I am wondering also, if the versions equipped with the 8th gen i7-8750H have this "Battery Charging Policy" option in the Smart Manager yet? Thanks a lot!

 

For info, i had WIFI pb like some of you, opening the back panel and found a bad connection. after reinserting, pb solved.

 

I once wanted this laptop in the green color. I never was able to find one in stock so I bought something else.

 

Anyone have the specs of the AC adapter? I seem to have misplaced mine and I need to get a replacement. I know when I had my battery serviced they actually sent me back a 180w adapter, so if someone is using a 180w adapter I would like to know the specs of that also.

 

Hello, I think I will be able to send a picture of the original adapter in a week. Let me know if that helps.

 

I ended up finding it. Thanks!

 

anyone know where i can buy a OEM replacement battery and the AC charging adaptor? i would like a extra one.