New LG Gram 17

My eGPU works practically any which way I connect or disconnect it. I will admit it's plugged in nearly all the time though.

 

The problem has not gone away for me but it seems to be unpredictable. I now have all the Win10 updates and LG updates installed. Most days everything is fine running with power adapter in all times and battery refill limit set to 80%.

Then yesterday whilst using two external screens (HDMI & Thunderbolt port) with the laptop power adapter plugged in the battery level slowly depleted from 80% to 10% with a warning to recharge as it kept going down with charger in. The only fix seemed to be a reboot, remove the charger plug and re insert it, then the battery starts to recharge slowly back to 80%.

Today with same set up, no issues, battery remains in the 79-80% range all day.

 

I wonder if for some reason it thinks it should be charging using thunderbolt/USB PD but it isn't and is completely ignoring the power adapter. Does the monitor hooked up to the thunderbolt port supply PD?

 

I'm not sure. I wrote to LG support and they replied within a day which was good although the answer wasn't very useful in fixing the issue as far as I can tell.

LG said " There's a possibility that an aberrant program may be utilizing too much CPU time, thus causing the CPU to require more power than usual thus draining the battery faster."

The above statement is likely true, as I am noticing the battery depletion only when running high intensive CPU applications, usually a Java based set of windows and graphs on the external screens and some Youtube or video graphics on the laptop or third screen. I notice the CPU running at 50% average or higher occasionally, not much lower than 50% tho until I exit the apps when the CPU drops below 5% again.

Therefore I can only assume with the LG support reply that the laptop is not designed to stay charged or even recharge if CPU processor runs at a high rate?

 

That can't be true, I game for decent stretches of time on mine with an eGPU connected and it doesn't lose batter power. The eGPU does supply up to 85W of power delivery though, of which the Gram uses far less than that, it's only a 15W CPU. Does this same battery drain scenario while connected to the stock power adapter happen without the external monitor connected to the thunderbolt port with the same work happening? I suspect it's detecting that it should be getting PD from the monitor but there isn't enough PD to keep it charged. You could try getting a thunderbolt dock that supplies PD, there's quite a few that supply 60W of PD which is well more than enough for the Gram.

 

Yes, I believe you are right. There is no loss of battery level from 80% setting when using the same CPU intensive apps on the laptop alone, with nothing connected to the Thunderbolt port.

I do not have an eGPU. They are very expensive and hard to source at my location, everyone seems to prefer a separate PC instead. Will look at the Thunderbolt dock idea like you suggest.

 

Yeah, an eGPU is overkill if all you want is an external monitor. You could also try using the LG Control Center to change the PD setting and see if it stops trying to get PD from the monitor. It could also be that the monitor DOES supply PD, but not enough. I think I've had this conversation with someone else with a Gram and they ended up getting a thunderbolt dock that supplied enough PD to the laptop and it fixed the problem.

Have you tried just using HDMI instead?

 

Yes, temporarily I am using only HDMI on the LG Gram, so solid 80% battery throughout, and using a second computer to run the second external monitor. This relieves pressure on CPU/GPU usage of the LG Gram during the busy periods. The apps that are causing me issues are running Java based internet brokerage accounts for several hours non stop.

 

Another idea I am tempted to go for is to swap out the 8GB SODIMM RAM the laptop came with for a new 32GB SODIMM. These are about 150USD where I live. I understand the extra RAM can then be utilized by the Intel integrated graphics CPU, so as it is often this that makes the CPU run at 100% sometimes on my meters, I am wondering if the extra RAM will relieve the CPU max out times and perhaps pressure on battery usage?

 

I would think not, but maybe there's something specific about your use case. This clearly just seems like a bug with how power delivery is handled when using a USBC/Thunderbolt device. Another thing you could consider is get a new monitor that can supply like 60W of PD over USBC, but that option is also brute force spending money. The laptop should just prefer the power adapter instead but it seems like it isn't.

The CPU is capped at 15W long term TDP by the BIOS, it might go over that for short bursts (20-25W) but it will not hold that for long periods unless you use throttlestop and physically modify the heat management so that you can deal with thermal throttling. The heatsink in the Gram line just isn't good enough to deal with more than 15W adequately. So ANY PD that can supply 30-35W should be plenty to keep the battery topped off under load.

I suppose there is an outside chance that the monitor is sinking power from the laptop to power some internal hub/dock. Do you have any peripherals attached to the monitor?

 

Really appreciate the feedback thanks. No other peripherals are attached. I have two monitors both Samsung, different sizes and resolutions. Both drain a little power off the battery when either is plugged in the Thunderbolt port when the CPU runs 50-100% for longer periods.

I agree about brute force spending money as a less desirable option for me, so I think I will just add some SODIMM anyway as that cannot be a bad thing anyways? I can get some in the next couple weeks and report back my findings.

I understand from Intel site the GPU currently gets assigned up to 50% of the system memory, so that's 8GB GPU which is currently getting maxed out to 100% at times as shown on Win10 Task Manager. My battery drain appears to be app related, for example today when I am not using the graphics intensive apps (Java based and streaming videos) the Task Manger values of CPU, Memory and GPU readings are always 40% or less and the battery never drops below 80% level.

 

Overall the system will use more power since it has to power additional RAM, but that marginal increase shouldn't be a problem and is not your main issue. Adding RAM shouldn't decrease GPU usage of the iGPU, but never know I suppose. I don't think it's really going to make a difference. If your main reason for adding the RAM is only to try to alleviate this issue an no other reason I think that money would be better spent towards fixing the real issue.

 

Well I replaced the 8GB SODIMM with a slightly faster 32GB one and like you say, it does nothing to solve the draining power issue when using the thunderbolt port for a screen (as I type I have 69% battery when it should stay at 80%), but it certainly helps alleviate the problem I had before with the CPU running 100% with all the apps. Now I can get more apps running smoothly without wait on the CPU which doesn't seem to go much over 50% now.

 

To All:

I've been dealing with LG's support and going around and around. Perhaps you folks can help. I have the LG Gram 17Z990-R.AAC9U1 (Costco version of 2019) and the LG monitor 27UD58P-B. The monitor is connected by HDMI to the laptop and the desktop is extended to the monitor. According to the specs, the extended desktop on the monitor should have a video rate of 3840 x 2160 x 60. However, the frame rate is half that (30). I've tried many settings with no luck. The main desktop is 2560x1600 @ 60Hz. Note that the HDMI Ultra Deep Color setting on the monitor has been enabled from the beginning. In addition, I've swapped out a few HDMI cables.

Is the internal GPU up to the task?

Please advise. Thanks in advance.

 

I believe that older Gram uses HDMI 1.4 which tops out at 4K@30Hz.

 

I have a 1st generation 17" model. The sound of the speakers has never been great but lately the speakers are resonating, even at low volume. This results in an unpleasant distorted sound.
Is anyone having a similar experience and is here any possible fix for this?
I've never opened up the laptop so I rather only do that if there is a known fix.
Thanks.

 

I have the last gen 17Z90N, speakers sound just ok. Maybe a loose screw on the speakers? Although that would require opening the laptop.. please let us know if you find a solution!

this thread is full of great info! thanks guys

Now, a while back I installed a 16GB stick of RAM in my 17Z90N - it was recognised with no issues.
Yesterday I installed a new SSD (SK Hynix P31 1TB). I also reinstalled Windows. Unfortunately now the laptop would not charge from the USB C port while it is booted in Windows. It does charge when it is turned off.. very strange.
I reset the BIOS, same behaviour. I couldn't find anything similar in this thread, any ideas on how to solve this one?

Things that I have tried so far
- Reinstalled Windows (using MS's media application to flash a USB drive)
- Using two different USB C chargers. Both worked without any issues before swapping SSDs
- Different USB C cables, still no result.
- It charges when laptop is off.

Update
Looking at the screenshots below, it looks like the battery level does not reported correctly. So how do I fix that?

Screenshot 2021-01-28 190744 by hrockh posted Jan 28, 2021 at 2:09 PM

Screenshot 2021-01-28 190717 by hrockh posted Jan 28, 2021 at 2:09 PM

 

Just got the 2020 17" version from costco. I upgraded the ram with no issue, it now has 40gb. But I installed an xpg sx8200 pro, which is a 2tb NVMe ssd. Its recognized in disk management as a 2tb drive, and will allow me to initialize, but when I right click on the drive in disk management, ALL of the option are greyed out. It wont let activate the partition, assign a drive letter, etc. How can I fix this?? Thank you for ANY information

 

I'm 99% sure that USB-C PD charging modes and advanced settings are controlled by LG COntrol Centre software. You haven't mentioned that you installed it after Windows reinstall.
I know its true for Lenovo Vantage software - it enables charging thresholds and different USB-C modes on Lenovo (Thinkpad only?) laptops.

 

2019 17 Gram here, been great. The battery running down to flat sometimes (1 in 10 times maybe) when on charger full time continues, but the fix seems to be to just pull out the charger and plug in again, then the battery climbs back up to 80% default setting.

The screen is starting to show some slightly brighter white patches in the lower right corner area. Looks like a kind of burnout, but I always have moving images so must be hardware issue. Bit disappointed in that as its just 2 year old laptop, never been moved off my table in 18 months, never seen that on my 10 year laptops. Only noticeable on bright color screens, like whites or bright colors, cannot see at all on darker or black screens. Will see how bad it gets I guess as I cannot afford another laptop.

 

Hey question for anyone that uses Linux on their Gram.

I'm still using my 17Z990-R.AAS7U1 (2017 version), and having various problems with it in Linux one of which is USB-C (USB-PD over Thunderbolt) charging. It does work, but if I'm booted and plug in a USB-C charger to the thunderbolt port, it kernel panics and locks up the whole machine (but continues playing audio, for some reason...) and I have to hard reboot it to fix it. Once I boot *with the USB-C charger already connected*, everything works fine - although again, if I then UNplug it while booted..... kernel panic.

Of course, none of that happens in Windows - I can hotplug the usb-c charger all day no problem.

I'm wondering if anyone with a more recent Gram model gets that behavior in linux? I'm on Kubuntu but it still happens in NixOS and other distros. I was thinking since LG got rid of the barrel charger in the 2021 grams, opting for solely USB-C charging, and since other laptop brands that have relied on USB-C charging only for years now run linux just fine, that it's probably not a problem with the linux kernel itself, but rather my older Gram's hardware/BIOS settings or something. I'm mainly wondering if the problem indeed goes away in the 2021 gram bc I'm planning on upgrading to one eventually but want to wait until the used prices drop more.

 

There is a thread on reddit where owners have shared their experience with Gram 2021 and Linux: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxhardware/comments/oc0do8/lg_gram_16_is_awesome/

 

This is a really inspiring discussion, and I would love to learn more from the community. Respect!!!!