New LG Gram 17

Can I have TWO external screens connected at same time of LG Gram 17 (2019) model? I only have been using one so far with the HDMI port? Which other port should I use and will it impact performance overall?

Sorry for the really basic question but I notice on a review at https://www.cnet.com/reviews/lg-gram-17-2020-review/ it says "it easy to connect to an external monitor or two".

... but the user manual that came with computer only mentions ONE ext screen.

I am wondering if the Thunderbolt port will work with a Displayport Monitor at same time as my HDMI monitor is running? Not for gaming just looking at graphs and stocks etc. I don't think I need an external GPU for this?

Appreciate feedback/experience guys as I have been just using one external monitor for years.

 

@palatkik ...
Your are correct.
Use the TB3 Port with the proper USBC to DP Cable and you're all set.
I personally use an Anker 8-in-1 Media hub which outputs two HDMI to HDMI plus powers the Gram.
I could potentially expand out to 3 external monitors plus the Grams monitor with this setup.
Model number of my Anker HUB is A8380 PowerExpand.

 

Great news and I like the idea of the Anker hub even more, think I will get one.

 

The following comes from the manual of my Toshiba Thunderbolt dock: "Up to three displays are supported including the computer display. Under the above triple display output mode, display on the computer screen is not supported".
I think the limitation comes primarily from the internal Intel GPU. I used to have 3 external monitors but when I needed more (also graphs and stocks) I had to add an eGPU. Now I have 4 monitors on the eGPU and 2 on the dock. The laptop stays out of sight close to eGPU. Now I can also play video games if I want
When I was at 3 monitors (1920X1200), there was no lag graphically, but it was heating pretty much and sometimes, when I had too many graphs/windows open it was hitting its thermal limits.

 

@skipper63
I'd like to hear more about your setup and maybe some pics if possible? Thanks!

 

I have the 2020 LG Gram 17 and there is a new Intel Graphics driver from Windows Updates. Should I install that? Or wait for the Intel graphics update from the LG Update software?

Currently I have 26.20.100.7212 installed.

 

These days Intel's drivers will just install, you can get it straight from them.

 

I jus noticed a very light scratch on the panel and was wondering what's the best way to clean the screen.
Here's the panel ref: LP170WQ1-SPA1 (price ranges: $135 - $300)

 

I have the 15nch Gram with Thunderbolt, an Akitio Node Pro which is the only eGPU enclosure with 2 Thunderbolt ports so that I can daisy-chain my Toshiba Thunderbolt dock. I have installed an Asus Rog Strix RTX2080, which is totally silent when I am not playing any games, but still the fan from the enclosure makes some noise, so I moved everything away from the desk and used longer DisplayPort cables.
4 Dell 24in U2415 on a monitor stand. 3 of them are connected to the RTX2080 with Displayport, the 4th with HDMI to the Thunderbolt Dock.
A 32in 4K LG UL950 in portrait mode, displayport to the RTX2080 at the left side. I pivot this monitor in landscape and use only this when I decide to play games.
And an old Samsung 24inch in portrait mode at the right side, connected to the thunderbolt dock with HDMI.
The LG Gram sits at the lower shelf, on a laptop cooling pad. (You can catch a glimpse of it at the low right of the picture). In front of it, deep in the shelf is the eGPU. The shelf is open in the back, so there is enough ventilation. When I use the laptop for intensive tasks, my trading software or games, I have to switch on the laptop pad cooling fans, which render the whole setup as noisy as a desktop, but without it the LG Gram throttles more often. Still it is pretty far from my ears. By the way, this is a standing-up desk, so I can also use my treadmill while working. When I unplug the laptop from the eGPU, all the programs move to the laptop screen and I can continue to work, but I have to shut down and restart if I connect again to the eGPU.

 

@skipper63
Very nice ergonomic setup. I can tell that you have thoroughly thought out your environment.
I'm a Coder and my best guess is that your either also a Coder or some type of Financial Analyst.
I've looked up your Enclosure and eGPU, but the Pandemic Pricing is really ridiculous.
Looks like I'll have to wait a while to acquire the goods from your setup.

 

Very impressive set up by @skipper63. I am indeed envious! I have just added a second external screen to my LG17 Gram 2019 edition - so I use the HDMI port for an external 2600x1400 monitor and have an older external 1920*1080 monitor running off the Thunderbolt port with an unpowered USBc>HDMI port adapter plugged in there.

Now for my simple question if I may as a bit of a newbie:

Whenever I use the thunderbolt port in this way (and its the first time I have ever used this port since adding the extra screen) I notice that the laptop battery power very slowly goes down and will not recharge upwards until I remove the Thunderbolt port HDMI adapter. All the power in comes from the original laptop charger brick using the power in socket. One time I left the laptop on battery only ran it down to 10% and would never charge up again until I took out the Thunderbolt port HDMI adapter.

Is this normal or are there any power settings I need to change?

 

That's odd. It seems like it THINKS it should be able to draw power from the monitor, but obviously that isn't true. You could try to leave it disconnected, boot up, change the USB-C charging profile to SOURCE, then reconnect it. That might stop the laptop from thinking it can try to sink power from USBC, but then that changes back every time you reboot I think.

Either that or buy a Thunderbolt hub that can supply power delivery and just power using that.

 

Yes, think I will try another Thunderbolt hub when I get time. This unpowered one gets hot taking power from the laptop. I tried more than one ext screen same result. Changing the settings in LG Control Center power settings makes no difference - so left that on Auto.

 

OK I replaced the hub before (which was getting hot) and replaced it with just a cable (USBc>HDMI) and the power mostly stays fully charged now - sometimes dropping 1% but mostly full.

 

mine does not power up power button and f5 flash twice thats it 5 days out of warranty

 

Hi everyone, I just got an LG Gram 17 from Costco. There are two issues about the laptop that I would like to make better and was wondering if anyone has already attempted.

1) The speakers/sound are bad

I see there is plenty of room to put a bigger speaker module in the case. I was thinking of replacing the stock speakers with a module from a laptop with known good sound such as the Lenovo Yoga https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Yog...Speaker-Set-Speakers-PK23000QXL0/193370735147

2) Better cooling

I saw the dual fan / extra heatpipes mod and that's out of my league for now to implement, but I was thinking of using liquid metal Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut as a TIM for now. Would this be worthwhile?

Appreciate any input.

 

1. No harm in trying if you can do it non-destructively. Easier option would be headphones or external speakers. I doubt it would make much difference, they are down-firing.

2. Liquid metal wouldn't be worth it IMO. It's dangerous unless you take the time to protect other components. Get some top shelf non-conductive TIM like kryonaut if you want to go that route. I used Collaboratory liquid metal pad which is safer than liquid metal, but it didn't help much over kryonaut if you can get a good even cpu die contact. The 2020 model heat sink and heat pipe mounting looks a lot better. 4 corner fastener mounting instead of 3 mounts, better to have even pressure distribution contact between CPU/GPU dies and the heat pipe. But I still think it might help a little in idle temps, but when things get loaded down I bet that new heat sink/pipe assy is going to get saturated just as much as the old one. I would advise against liquid metal unless you are willing to coat all the nearby components and dam the dies so it doesn't ever leak out.

I'm not even running throttlestop anymore, I don't really notice any difference gaming or working on things.

 

I'd like to point out liquid metal may cause corrosion of copper heat pipe over time and degrading its thermal performance. It's already a known issue that LM gives great temps in the beginning but after a year performance degrades severely.

 

It definitely corrodes aluminum. It should be pretty safe for copper, might stain it but corrosion is not a concern.

 

Ok, I finally opened up my gram 17. It was a little more difficult than expected, the lower lid was kind of stuck at the hinge area. But it eventually gave up. I removed the heat pad with alcohol on both sides, it was pretty messily applied... replaced with MX-4 paste.
Temps look better now, still goes slightly above 91 and throttles, but no more 96 degrees, thankfully. Perhaps further improvement could be gained by using liquid metal, but that stuff seems a bit scary. That heatsink is super lightweight BTW!

Just a quick check though... the trackpad only physically clicks at the bottom corners, right? At first the bottom lid was not 'clicked' completely in, so the click of the trackpad was no longer registering. Once the lid was fully 'clicked' back, it works fine again, but I just cant remember if one is able to 'click-in' the trackpad in the top corners as well. My only reference is a macbook pro which just has fake vibration clicking, so that's not much help

 

The hinge on my gram has become kind of loud. Is there any way to lubricate it, or otherwise make it quieter?

 

Maybe take the back off and see if you can carefully put a small amount of lubricant in there. I think Silicone based ones are safe for plastics, pretty sure the magnesium alloy would be resistant to it as well. At your own risk and all, maybe do some research on Google.

 

Well, I spoke too soon.... Maybe I put too much thermal compound on the cpu, but the temps of some of the cores briefly hit 100 degrees, while updating windows in the background (looking at taskman).

It was just one core for a split second, and maybe I shouldn't worry about these brief spikes, but it just makes me slightly uncomfortable to see 100 degrees on a cpu, even if it clocks down immediately after that.
It seems to me that the default temp limits are set really high... not sure why.
Is anybody else using cpu coretemp, or is hwmonitor a better way to check cpu temps? I am just used to coretemp which is why I use that.

I've checked the bios advanced settings, but the only thing I've managed to do is change the cpu core clock ratios from 35-35-38-39 to 25-25-30-35. Pretty big reduction, but at least the temps are more reasonable now, and considering the cooling solution LG used, it seems the default ratios are waaay too optimistic. Changing the maximum TDP didn't seem to do much (I only changed the nominal setting), so I set it back to the default PL1-15W / PL2-46W.

At first changing most of the bios settings did not actually change anything, but I set the "overclocking lock" and "cfg lock" settings to disabled, after which I the ratio and tdp settings were no longer ignored.
Going to try and tinker with the thermal limits next, but not expecting any improvement there.

 

You can use Throttlestop to do all of these things. The 25-26W PL is only for short bursts, it will ramp back down to 15W PL in a short period of time. I would just leave the ratios where they are and let it turbo and throttle on it's own accord. Mine settles around 2.2-2.4Ghz all-core (i7-8565U) last I checked. 100C is not going to hurt it, it'll throttle pretty quickly, max operating temp of the i7-1065G7 is 100C.

 

Thanks hfm. I guess when I see boiling temperatures my mind tends to panic

I see in your sig that you have a Sonnet egpu connected.
I've tried to connect a HP omen egpu to my gram (with RX-5700), but it keeps locking up after like 10 seconds of connecting the thing. Nothing gets detected by windows. The egpu works fine when connected to MacOS.

I found a bios setting for "discrete thunderbolt" that was disabled, but it does not seem to make any difference. Updated the drivers, but still the only thing that happens is a hard freeze. Don't want to change too much and risk breaking stuff.

Should this be just plug and play, or did you do something extra to make it work?

 

I'm using HP Omen Accelerator too combined with GTX1060 6GB and HDD. It worked out of box but you have to install gpu drivers from their website for it to work correctly. I haven't made any BIOS changes and everything else (USB 3.0 hub, Gigabit Ethernet, USB type C and storage) worked PnP. I was unable to install Omen Accelerator app though; it can't detect my egpu.
Oh, and one more thing - make sure you've approved this device under Thunderbolt Control Center.

 

It works flawlessly, I use whatever the latest nvidia official driver is. I've never changed any TB settings in the BIOS, I just use whatever the default is. I will rarely get some type of lockup when I disconnect and connect it, but it's super rare. 99% of the time it just works and I can disconnect and reconnect it at will. I also use it for power delivery, I haven't used the official power adapter in some time.

 

Was there ever an update on this attempted mod?

 

I’m curious the watts consumption of the razer vs this one! Also can’t wait to see perf difference.

good stuff!

 

I think Razer uses the 25W TDP UP config of the chips with the Stealth, which if we can cool the Gram well enough to get it consuming 20 something watts long term and the power delivery is up to the task it would be similar performance and power consumption.

EDIT: I really wish LG would do this, but I don't think we're going to see them use the 25W CPU TDP configs anytime soon for the following reasons:

• Using basically the same motherboard and heat management on the Gram 13/14/15/17 to reduce design cost and also parts cost since they can get much higher volume.
• Ratcheting to 25W would require a SLIGHTLY heavier heat management solution, they are priding themselves at it being super light at all costs.
• The heat generated by 66% more power consumption would make it less comfortable for laps and hands. I have to say mine does get slightly toasty at just 15W
• The battery life would probably decrease with the CPU able to consume 66% more power if it needs it.
• It might a tad bit louder unless they use a much larger fan that can still spin relatively slowly

I do think they are making a lot of design compromises between weight, noise, heat and performance. It's really a very small percentage of us that care about this to a large extent, the 15W PL1 limit is probably fine for 95% of the people that are buying this. I really wish they would find a way to increase to 25W while keeping it with TB3 and an iGPU only, but I am not holding my breath at all or expecting it. It looks like doing massive heat management modifications and using throttlestop is our only course of action.

If you're willing to compromise on weight and 1600p sweet spot for resolution, you can get an XPS 17 without a dGPU and get a 35-45W CPU with that.

 

BSOD on latest Win10 for my LG Gram 17 2019 ver, using latest Win10 x64 Home and Intel drivers ?

I have two LG17 work location:

1. At my office desk when I use two two external monitors (HDMI and USB C port) connected to LG17.
2. On the road as a laptop.

I am now consistently getting a BSOD whenever I return from a road trip and try and boot up with the monitors plugged back in. Never any other time. Win10 takes 2 minutes to resolve itself and back to normal again. Rinse and repeat next road trip.

Any one else have this issue?

 

Ok here's a question. Anyone know if either of the M.2 ports (used for the PCIe/SATA SSD's normally) might be able to support different types of PCIe expansion than *just* SSD's?

I'd really like to see if I could somehow mod an internal USB port into the case. I use a Logitech G602 mouse and pretty much always have the little micro-dongle receiver plugged in one of the side USB ports, but when I'm sitting all curled up on the couch, even that tiny dongle gets annoying brushing up against my leg; and sometimes when I set the laptop down for a sec, I prop it up on its side against a wall, and I have to put it on the flat side without the dongle sticking out. I'm afraid I'm gonna not notice it and accidentally break it off at some point. I barely use the other ports anyway so was thinking about even just resoldering one of them with some wires to the motherboard, and gluing the port itself to a vacant surface on the inside of the chassis.

But even better would be to keep all 3 existing ports, and somehow add another one to the motherboard. There are obviously no extra USB headers like you might get on a full-size ATX board, but I realized if I got rid of one of my SSD's (I moved the original SATA drive to the second M2 slot and put a Sabrent NVMe drive in the primary), maybe I could find some kind of M.2 USB expansion card, and perhaps do some black magic on the BIOS to recognize it as an arbitrary PCIE device rather than a SATA SSD. Now in reality, I doubt that's even possible; the 2x port is probably hardwired to a SATA controller, and even if that's the case and I had to use the 4x port which obviously does get routed as PCIe, I don't think there are any USB expansion cards that come in a M.2 form factor.

However I'd still want to know for pure curiosity's sake if something like an M.2 bluetooth card works or not in one of the slots, has anyone tried this? If I'm not too lazy I might just try ripping out my old Thinkpad's M.2-keyed bluetooth/wifi card and seeing if the Gram picks it up as anything other than an SSD. If so then at least it's possible from a software/firmware standpoint, which is kinda cool. But failing all of that, I may still look into just getting a tiny octopus-type USB 3-in-1 hub or whatever, hooking it up to take the place of one of the existing USB ports on the edge of the motherboard, and then if I'm lucky maybe I'll even be able to fit one of the hub's USB "tentacles" through the original port cutout on the case, while still successfully ending up with a couple more internal USB connections.

EDIT: well well, looks like I might've been wrong, M.2-interfaced USB hubs do exist, though this is pretty much the only one I could find so far:
https://www.amazon.com/JMT-Extension-Expansion-Converter-Connector/dp/B082HQHLHZ

 

LG17 2019 using Win10 x64 Snip&Sketch app causing screen to blank on and off when using free-form snip or trying to annotate the screen capture using a pencil or ballpoint pen option? Using latest Win10 updates and latest Intel driver from Intel site.

Cannot find any fix on Microsoft help sites.

Anyone else notice this?

 

Lol.. I have a Logitech unifying receiver for my M330 Silent mouse and an xbox wireless dongle (using it for XBox One Controller and Arctis 9X wireless headphones). That unifying receiver is TINY, I can't believe that's getting in your way. I have things in all the ports lol.. 3 USB and TB3.

If you are not averse to soldering you could solder some wires to the USB port and extend a small cable internally, though some of those USB receivers can cause some nasty interference, not sure if that would be worse with it interally.

 

Hows the LG17 case holding out for you guys? Mine unit is 17 months old now and showing the coating corroding around the edges - where I most likely might have my hands I suppose. Either black corrosion or white exposed edges in places. Doesn't rub out, only way is to get external keyboard to stop it I guess?

 

I have a slightly discolored spot where my left hand/wrist sits, which I expect from body oils, it happens to nearly every laptop. This one seems to be a little more than normal.

Otherwise it pretty much looks like the day I bought it. Bought in early March 2019, just over 19 months then..)

 

My LG17 looks a little bit like yours to the left of the left shift key - the outer gray/metal coating peels off at the sharp edge on top - probably because I often have my little finger there when typing. My LG17 is 1 year old now and I use it every day.

 

Guys i am looking at LG Gram 17 as a browsing and multimedia laptop. How does 1080p and 4k files look on that 16:10 2k screen? Do movies look weird or just the same as a 1080p screen with bigger black bars?

 

Hi guys, planning to replace the SSD in this laptop. Does it look like there is room for a 1-2mm heatsink?

 

Probably, not sure though. I have two SN750's without heat sinks and they don't seem to overheat. Unless you are constantly writing huge files I wouldn't worry too much.

 

Bars don't bother me as I'm used to watching all sorts of non 16:9 aspect videos. The display is probably the best thing about this notebook though, it's pretty good. If you think you'll have some type of OCD about 16:9 media not fitting exactly in to the aspect ratio of the screen you might want to get something else.

 

Bars are not the problem as most movies anyway have bars in usual laptops.

I need to know how do downloaded 1080p and 4k videos look on the 2k screen? Do they scale well? I do not have any experience with 2k resolution screen, so looking for advise here.

 

The draw of the 16:10 display is definitely more for browsing, coding and productivity things like that with the added vertical space.

I watch 4K youtube on it all the time and it looks great, at 1600p the pixel density is good enough that you can't see any pixelization at rational viewing distances. 1080p is fine, as long as you keep 1080p expectations in check in 2020. It's somewhat low res these days, but it doesn't bother me at all.

Maybe buy it from somewhere that will give you a no-questions-asked return ability if you are not happy with the panel.

 

As long as things look fine i am happy. I was worried that 2k screen is in between 1080p and 4k and may not display movies properly as they are either at 1080p or 1080X4= 4k. So good to hear things look nice.

I am in India so Amazon and Flipkart do not have no-questions-asked return ability specially for expensive electronic products. They will replace if faulty stuff is delivered with a new one but not refund. Here Dell XPS 17 costs double of LG Gram 17, so will be going with LG as it also comes with 3 yrs warranty as standard.

I am also tempted to wait for 2021 LG Gram 17 announcement in December. LG South Korea has early reveal and pre orders, so we get to see the specs and changes if anything.

 

I would imagine the 2021 models will be pretty good, I think the 11th Gen CPUs are finally a decent little bump in performance. I do recall that South Korea usually have the deets on the new Gram lines at least a couple months before they hit the US, I guess that same thing holds true for everyone else outside of S. Korea.

 

Yes, I have that also. I am using my LG17 in 98% humidity most days in hot tropics, so I guess to be expected. I am wary of keeping my hands off the chassis as much as possible now tho as the finish looks to be more prone to corrosive and oil markings than other shiny laptop models.

 

Anyone using Win10 20H2 release yet? Since mine got updated, the battery level that used to sit on 80% now seems to hover around 34% and never goes up or down when plugged in. What's going on I wonder?

 

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For me this seems to have resolved itself by Win10 updates. Last week I selected Win10 additional updates option and two of those listed were from LG, one of which updated my BIOS. I've never seen Windows flash the BIOS before it seemed to work OK. Now I have less issues with the battery level charging and BSOD when using external devices/monitors via the Thunderbolt port.

 

The first time I updated the BIOS, the korean site had a BIOS that was newer than the US models, I flashed that with no issues. It doesn't seem LG puts BIOS on their site any longer and relies on windows, the last time I updated it I just use the "search for new drivers" on the "LGE System Firmware" object in device manager.

 

I have many BSODs caused by eGPU setup on Windows 10 2004. Mostly DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION or PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. Reversing to 1910 fixes everything. The problem occurs almost always if you boot with dock connected. Have anyone had this issue?