New LG Gram 17

1. It's linked in this thread recently by someone else I don't recall. 17 ultra something I think. Take a look backwards.

2. More than the existing one since it requires a sheet of glass, the capacitive electrode layer and a protective cover. It's would be somewhat significant on the LG Gram 17, they'd definitely need to redesign the hinge at least as I don't see it being strong enough to stop it from wobbling wildly.

3. No idea I have no interest in it, some others in here have done it.

 

I won't buy a laptop without a dedicated numeric keypad on it. But, it's the one weak point on the Gram. The keys are not in the traditional places--which makes it frustrating to use. I don't know why they repositioned the keys. The positioning of the keys on the numeric keypad is really the only thing that keeps the 17 inch Gram from being the perfect laptop for me.

 

If it's your daily driver you might end up getting muscle memory for it eventually. But if you're like me and use two keyboards a lot it's hard to get that groove going.

 

Excuse my newb question, but what specifically about the keys are not traditional? Is the numpad too much to the left? Too much to the right? Too small of a numpad? Are the other keys too much too the left?

I have not tried one yet, I'm still hoping there will be a demo one at a computer store near me.

 

the numpad keys are smaller than the regular keys and the operators (+/-/*//) are all on top while there would be a lot of space left to the right. Just check some images. The reason for this is that this is the same keyboard LG uses on the gram 15.

 

Hi everyone..
first of all thank you so much for this thread, it is the only place over the internet where i could find usefull information about my new LG gram 17. (I recieve it today)
As you can notice, english its not my native language. so please bear with me

Im a mix of Graphic Designer/Comunity Manager/Producer so generaly i move arround all the time with the laptop on my backpack running mostly Photoshop/Illustrator/Premiere/Excel/and a LOT of tabbing on google chrome. (Painfully a lot)

The gram fits perfect for me Light, big screen, numpad and (kinda) Powerfull.
Last year when i started shopping for something like this in the market it doesnt exist.
Last January whe i heard bout LG17 i was so pumped about it!
But could not accept the fact it was almost 1700dls. Definitely far away from my budget and still.. if i had that much you can get much much powerfull laptop/ultrabooks for that kind of money. so i passed on it.... still i was obssesed with that 17" screen.

Months go by and i found an Open box Cotsco (256gb) unit..
Ended up paying just 1050dls for it. so.. happy new owner right now!

Im an amateur on technical details so tbh i understand half of the things of you guys talk in this thread :/
but im eager to learn..

Got a couple of questions:

1) i already bought a Samsung 970 evo 500gb - NVMe PCle m.2 2280
i planning to install that one on the 4x slot and move the original sata ssd to the 2x slot
I will run the OS and programs on the sata (2x slot) and all my files on the NVMe ssd.

1.1) Do you think im going to have any problem runing this configuration of different SSDs (size, brand, speeds)

1.2) its this configuration the right one for my kind of usage? i want to optimize mostly for when i use Adobe Premiere. i want to be the more agile with the edits (i usually create short content for web aplications so 1080p max)
I read about the thermal issues and not having a dGPU. so i want to maximize this particulary scenario.

2) Wich others modifications or updates can i do for improve the performance/thermlas. What Bios Version i should update? Should i tired undervoltage?

3) Do you guys think i could beneffit for more Ram? 24? 40? I thought about it, but i think its an overkill for the kind of work with it.


Thats it! Thanks for your advice

 

1) I'd recommend installing the OS to the fastest drive. That will give you faster booting and better overall system response. I also use two ssds, but both are NVMe. The large/cheap/slow one is in my x2 slot and used as a data dump. Everything I access a lot is on my primary samsung drive.
1.1) No, the problem that has been reported probably was one faulty unit. I mixed brands and sizes and haven't seen issues. Maybe some exotic brands are not compatible with the gram. but it that case you could likely return a SSD.
1.2) Should be fine, maybe you'll run out of space at some point with video?
2) most importantly, make sure air can enter/leave the machine. The vents are at the hinge. Maybe use a laptop stand or some kind of risers. You really should try undervolting as it helps a lot for this machine with its limited thermal headroom. The recently discovered extended BIOS options using the secret keystroke I currently forgot (look a few pages back), maybe allows to tweak the fan curve, so the fan kicks in a bit earlier - I can't check it as my machine has modded fan control now. I use the latest BIOS and curiously got it through Windows Device Manager and it's "update driver" functionality.
3) 16GB should be enough, but I don't really know how much memory Adobe Premier uses. I recommend running you typical usage scenario and then looking at how much RAM gets used for real. For best performance I like apps to not use more than half of the total amount, so there is room for the OS and other running processes.

 

I cannot wait to try out this device. 16:10 and a giant screen. I'm going to move the start bar to the right of the screen to get even more vertical real estate. Think of all that physical and # pixels vertical space. For coding (can see more lines of code). For website browsing. For typing word docs. Big and easy on the eyes so you can make the text smaller # font to fit more stuff. Easy on the back and legs when carrying it. Pretty much the perfect excel spreadsheet creating machine.

I honestly think that it might be the best option for students who are non-stylus notetaking, who aren't invested in the apple ecosystem, and don't game. Alot of people don't know this device exists and then they go with a heavier and smaller dual core macbook or dual core windows machine that doesn't have a GPU anyway.

Though I guess at least half of the college students game, and then you take the other things like notetaking/apple preference into account and there's not as much of the market left. Maybe if external GPUs were cheap and more known about.

Out of the box, did the device feel fast to you?

 

It feels quite snappy in general use. The biggest things you can do are undervolt slightly to get maybe a little better boost and replace the SATA drives. You might not even notice these things depending on your usage pattern though.

 

A trick on PROCHOT
The PROCHOT limit 90C is too conservative. In advanced BIOS mode(Ctrl+Alt+F7),Advanced\Intel Advanced Menu\CPU Thermal Configuration,the TCC Activation Offset default 10, can't be modified. Tried in vain Active Thermal Trip Point(90C..\DPTF Configuration), CFG Lock, Config TDP...
My trick is to modify the TCC Offset Time Window(..\CPU Thermal Configuration) which max 448s. When burst load, the CPU cores temperature can go beyond 90C(limit 100C) for a while.
But after windows startup,ThrottleStop flashes AVG Thermal limit,the bigger the Time Window,the longer the flashing.After this setting time,OK. I set the Time Window=56s.
Sorry, english writing is painful for me.

 

Was looking to buy this..but i heard the screen is very reflective.

How reflective is the screen (pics would help a lot)? Main concern is summer sun lighting the drapes and reflecting into it..

Anyone know when this will be available in Europe?

 

Bought both an LG gram 17 and 15 inch from amazon.com. Fantastic lightweight machines! For the LG Gram 17 I bought also a Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series - 2TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD + Samsung 32GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM Memory Module for Laptop Computers (260 Pin SODIMM, 1.2V). The LG Gram 17 will be my main laptop for work (coding) and I will install linux on it. The LG Gram 15 came with 16 GB RAM and 2 512 GB SSD's - that one is meant for when I travel (business) and will also get linux at some point, but the plan is not to upgrade that one. I will keep the win10 on the one SSD and linux on the other.

I had read and seen many places that opening the back of the laptop should not be that hard so I set out on that task yesterday... It was easy enough to take off the pads and all the screws except one were also easy to get out. One screw though I found impossible to unscrew - anyone else had that problem? The screws are really tiny so I was also afraid to damage the head of the screw, but it seems rather stuck.

 

It's available from the Spanish amazon: https://www.amazon.es/LG-Gram-17Z99...ŽÕÑ&keywords=LG+gram+17&qid=1571659804&sr=8-3

but the text says the keyboard is Spanish (Teclado Español) even though the picture shows one with US keyboard. Not sure which is correct. Because of that I bought mine from amazon.com (US) even though I'm from Denmark.

 

Does it see 32 GB ram + 8 GB soldered ram??

It was my understanding that it takes at most 16 GB ram in a slot + the 8GB soldered ram..

 

I read elsewhere in this thread ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-lg-gram-17.827017/page-9#post-10890911) that it does see all 40 GB ram, so I hope so. I have not tried it out yet because of that darn screw.

 

Get the iFixit essential kit..for the future.

How reflective is the screen? Can it handle natural light (natural light with the drapes on)..?

 

I use mine with a west facing window behind me. It's kind of a pain when the sun is shining straight through the windows, but otherwise it's fine.

 

Yes, I'm going to get myself some better tools.

I'm not bothered by the reflective screen so far - it just looks great. But then again, I have not used it so much. The reflection is worst if you have something black on the screen which I will have in consoles when I change to linux. Right now the win10 on it is mostly white and colors.

 

Used a better screwdriver and got my LG Gram 17 upgraded with 32 GB RAM + 2TB PCIe NVMe M.2 Internal SSD. Moved the original SSD to the other slot and since the new SSD is empty it still boots to win10 on the original SSD, neat.

So just to answer the question earlier: "Does it see 32 GB ram + 8 GB soldered ram?? ": Yes, it sees all 40GB of RAM now.

Now I just need to install linux on it - then it's close to the perfect dream laptop for me!

 

Just wanted to ask..does it boot to the 2TB drive once you install windows on it? Are the 2 drives different or identical?

Thanks

 

The 2 drives are different. The original one is a 256 GB M.2 SATA (slow interface) and the new one is a Samsung 970 EVO Plus Series 2TB PCIe M.2 NVMe which is faster since it interfaces via PCI Express (4 lanes in the LG Gram 17 slot 1).

I will be installing linux (Gentoo) on the new 2 TB SSD - have not yet done so. The boot order for the drives can be changed in the BIOS, so I certainly expect to boot from the 2 TB drive once I get some linux on it. And in case I need win10 (not very likely) I can boot from the other drive (pressing F10 on startup gives you a boot menu where you can choose which drive to boot from).

 

Thanks..i asked because a previous user had trouble booting the laptop with 2 different drives, if it works please let me know, thanks.

 

2 different drives works perfectly. I am using a samsung 970 evo+ and a intel 660p without any issues. The user with issues probably had a faulty laptop.

 

I now have Gentoo running on my LG Gram 17. I was unable to boot a Gentoo install CD and also failed to boot it from a USB stick. But I could boot linux Mint from a USB stick and I used that to set up partitioning and then copy over my existing Gentoo system from a backup hard drive. And I can still boot win10 from my 2nd SDD. Just disabled secure boot in the BIOS.

There's a few things not working yet such as the touchpad and the webcam, but I guess I just need to enable the correct driver in the kernel. Also and some fn keys are not working - by the way I found this link for lg gram fn keys: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/laptops/lg-laptop.html.

I also tried scaling KDE plasma to 1.2, but then I had some gfx artifacts (parts of gfx left on screen, flickering gfx square in ctrl+alt+f1 console). None of that without scaling.

But I must agree with other posters here - thermal / cpu throttling is about the only thing about this laptop that I would like to see improved. The CPU hits 90 degrees Celsius real fast. But still super quiet even then.

Has anybody found a way to enable keyboard backlight from boot, e.g. in BIOS? I can enable it via fn+f8, but I would like it to come on automatically.

 

I use Ubuntu 19.10 without any issues.
At least in Ubuntu you can set the value for kbd_led...

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/lg-laptop.rst

 

I compared my Gentoo kernel config with a kernel config from Linux mint (where the touchpad works) and after enabling a lot of i2c related stuff my touchpad now works also under Gentoo. These i2c modules are needed:

lg_gram17 ~ # lsmod | grep i2c
i2c_designware_platform 16384 0
i2c_designware_core 20480 1 i2c_designware_platform
i2c_i801 32768 0
i2c_hid 24576 0

lg_gram17 ~ # dmesg | grep i2c
[ 16.381621] i2c_hid i2c-04CA00B1:00: i2c-04CA00B1:00 supply vdd not found, using dummy regulator
[ 16.381633] i2c_hid i2c-04CA00B1:00: Linked as a consumer to regulator.0
[ 16.381634] i2c_hid i2c-04CA00B1:00: i2c-04CA00B1:00 supply vddl not found, using dummy regulator
[ 16.406307] input: 04CA00B1:00 04CA:00B1 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/i2c_designware.0/i2c-8/i2c-04CA00B1:00/0018:04CA:00B1.0004/input/input20
[ 16.406460] input: 04CA00B1:00 04CA:00B1 Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/i2c_designware.0/i2c-8/i2c-04CA00B1:00/0018:04CA:00B1.0004/input/input21
[ 16.406512] hid-generic 0018:04CA:00B1.0004: input,hidraw3: I2C HID v1.00 Mouse [04CA00B1:00 04CA:00B1] on i2c-04CA00B1:00
[ 16.566802] input: 04CA00B1:00 04CA:00B1 Touchpad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.0/i2c_designware.0/i2c-8/i2c-04CA00B1:00/0018:04CA:00B1.0004/input/input22
[ 16.567056] hid-multitouch 0018:04CA:00B1.0004: input,hidraw3: I2C HID v1.00 Mouse [04CA00B1:00 04CA:00B1] on i2c-04CA00B1:00

And intel-lpss-pci for the PCI i2c controller:

00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 30)
Subsystem: LG Electronics, Inc. Cannon Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at 6023128000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [90] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?>
Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci

I also have the webcam working, not sure what I did there...

Regarding scaling I have set dpi to 120 (it would default to 96 which fits a 1920x1080 resolution):

/etc/sddm.conf:ServerArguments=-nolisten tcp -dpi 120

Fn keys not working: f1, f5, f7?, f9? but no major issue.

Initially I was at 6-8W when on battery (full plasma KDE with firefox and thunderbird running), but after enabling stuff for the touchpad (probably also stuff that was not needed) I am a bit higher - 7-10W (around 700 wakeups per second). What are your numbers here? What is the best kernel config to get everything working and still use as low power as possible when on battery?

 

How are you guys cleaning your screens? Coming from a laptop with a glass screen, I'm afraid I might accidentally scratch or otherwise damage the screen on the Gram.

 

I use this kit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BJNYG1G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

hello, still very happy mit Gram 17 after half a year. I had some problems with
19.10 Ubuntu and want to step back to 18.04 LTS. After a backup, I removed
the linux partition and Grub.

When I try to install 18.04 LTS (USB Stick Installation) I get only a short
error massage

Failed to open \EFI\BOOT\NULL - Not Found
Failed to load image \EFI\BOOT\NULL: Not Found
start ... image () returned Not Found

an then a black screen. I think normally my Computer should look for
"\EFI\BOOT\mmx64.efi" not Null. Does anyone know where NULL comes from?

Thank you, Best Regards Simon

 

USB-C charging?

I was thinking about asking this for a while. When my laptop is off and I plug my USB-C 61W charger sometimes the charging light goes on but most of the time I need to plug and unplug it a few times to get it started.

On the other hand when I turn the computer on it start charging right away and never experience any problems. I tried different cables and chargers but it's always the same story. So why is the thunderbolt port not waking up every time is a puzzle for me. Is there any trick behind that?

 

I've never seen that happen, but I usually always have the barrel plug charger in..

 

Thanks! Would you be willing to leave the laptop off without being plugged and see if it would start charging by the USB C port when off. In my case if I plug it right after I turn it off it starts charging but if I wait a bit it doesn't. Same like you, if it's plugged all the time it changes all the time regardless if it's on or off.

 

I had to fix this problem but I don't remember exactly how I did it. I believe I had to boot into a UEFI shell and remove the entries and then do a reinstall. I have no problems with an upgrade from 19.04 to 19.10.

 

I also see a problem with charging when the machine is totally turned off. I bought a moshi usb-c charging cable with a LED indicator which glows orange if charging is above a certain threshold (I guess 20W or so). It's a very nice add-on for the Gram17. If the laptop is completely turned off, I never get the orange light. It still charges, but I do believe it charges slower than necessary.

If the machine is turned on or sleeping, everything works perfectly fine - luckily this is the most of the time my usage case, but I'm pretty sure something with USB-C charging isn't fully working when everything is shut down.

 

According to the kernel dev thread at

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-acpi/[email protected]/#t

it looks like they've fixed the GPE flood problem on linux, and the fix will be in with linux 5.5. So those running linux can (when 5.5 is released) remove pci=nommconf from the kernel command line

 

For those who have tried to address the thermal throttling, what has been safe and effective?

Have undervolt settings been successful and stable? I frequently need to run cpu intensive computation overnight so I wouldnt want to risk system instability, but if it works well and isnt harmful I would consider it.

 

I am running -107 mV on the cpu core, -110mV on CPU cache, -110 mv on system agent, -47 mv on GPU and -47 GPU unslice using throttlestop. However I have the i5 model and anyway - each CPU is going to be different. I started out at -130 mV and -50mV, but at every crash I raised the numbers by a few millivolts and now it is stable since months.
People sometimes run prime95 for hours to test stability but in my experience problems(blue screens) mostly happen when the machine changes processor states.. going to idle or leaving idle. At max load my cpu can easily handle -130mV.. too bad the undervolting can't be load-dependent like on GPUs.

 

Hey all, recently got myself a 17, upgraded the SSD and am now having some problems finding the LG software.

I originally thought I'd just go ahead and do a clean windows 10 install on the new SSD... well, then I found out the LG Update software doesn't download things like LG Control Center/ LG OSD, diminishing the functionality of the F keys. At this point I thought, OK, no big deal, I'll just put the original SSD back in and migrate that Windows 10 install over to the new SSD. I'm not sure how or why, but during this process the original Gram SSD became totally fubar. I can still access files on it, but can't boot into Windows off of it, can't migrate it, all I can do is access it as a regular drive.

SO, my question would be, out of the LG software items that came preinstalled, which ones are necessary for getting full functionality of the laptop and all the F keys and what not? Is there anyway to download any of these? I have tried some of the files from the Korean support website to no luck. I'm now trying to download some of the older files for the Gram 14 in the hope that LG Updater will see that those are installed and then update them through that.

TL; DR is it possible to do a clean install of windows and find/ download/ install the appropriate LG software to retain all the laptop functionality.

 

That's crazy that the update center doesn't install the control center. Mine does..

 

Damn... How annoying... Can you do me a favor? Could you see what version of Update Center you're using? You have all the stuff I need right there. I'd be totally in the clear if I could just do a fresh install of windows and get a few of those programs. (/ I'll look into this, but I wonder if there's someway to pull out the install files from inside Update Center. If so, I may ask for an even bigger favor, haha.) What version of the Gram 17 do you have? It shouldn't matter, but I got the Costco 256GB one.

As an explanation of how my main drive went totally FUBAR... looks like this has happened to some other folks as well when putting in new drives and then updating windows. Not sure why or how, but it seems I'm not the only one.

 

I'm also wondering if UC will only update those programs if they're already in there/ certain versions that it's looking for.

 

No, I do not believe it matters which version you have, they are all pretty much the same.

 

Thanks, that's my guess too. I'm assuming there are some files that need to be on the drive for it to want to update some of those things/ the programs need to be installed already. I'll dig around and see what folder they put the temp install files in. I did actually update everything fully before everything went kaput, maybe the files are hidden on that disk somewhere.

 

Look what I found in the microsoft store:


I think you will also need LG OSD3. Looks like they are all now store apps..

 

My Man! Thanks! I can't say I ever really use the MS store, so that's a great! Do you think there are any other LG specific items of software that I should look to include after a clean install? My guess was the control center, the OSD software, the update center... It didn't seem like there were a lot of other things that were NEEDED. I always prefer to do a clean install and usually any extraneous programs can be replaced by something better third party.

Thanks again!

 

They are all on the Microsoft Store

 

Thanks big time, again. It worked! Not without some trial and error, though. Initially none of those programs were coming up in my MS store. I tried a few different clean installs and figured out the order you need to update to get it to work. YMMV, but here's what worked for me:

1.) During the windows install DO NOT allow it to access wifi/ internet.
2.) Go into the windows update settings and pause them.
3.) Connect to the internet, download and use LG Update Center.
4.) At this point you *should* be able to download the LG programs on the MS store.
5.) Unpause windows updates, update/ install as usual for a fresh windows build.
6.) *Again, YMMV, but for me, if I let Windows update BEFORE the LG Update Center did it's thing, all the LG programs in the MS store would say "not compatible with your device" and I couldn't download them. Even with Windows Update paused there will be a few drivers that update after you connect to the internet. This did not seem to be a problem.*

On a side note, I e-mailed LG tech support in looking for Control Center. This was part of their response:

"The [Program/Win10_64bit] LG Update Center for LG Notebook.(Ver.1.0.1810.1701) will be the answer with your inquiry. Here is the link where you can get it,

For a specific LG Control Center software or driver, our software engineering team is already working for the availability of that software on our website as of this moment. Or as another resolution, you may send the unit to our repair facility so that our technician can reinstall the LG Control Center on your laptop by setting up the unit into its default set up, like the first time you bought it."

So it seems they will probably not put it up on the website if they haven't already. That and they don't even know they have apps in the MS store to direct to.

 

Hi all,

Ive bought a LG Gram 17 and I'm quite happy with it, but I'm having a specific problem that is driving me nuts, this laptop has a separate power adapter (meaning is not charging through the USB-C connector), but when I connect my external monitor (Dell U3011) through a Usb-c to displayport cable (like this one: https://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-uni-Thunderbolt-Compatible-More-Gray/dp/B075V27G2R ) I can see that the laptop then stop charging, and it looses charge veeery slowly.... how can an external monitor drain so much power given that the laptop has a separate power adapter?

Unfortunately this external monitor only supports maximum resolution through displayport, so I cannot connect it through HDMI... (not sure if connecting the display with HDMI would have the same problem...)

 

That's odd. There must be something going on with it detecting maybe that it should be getting power delivery over the thunderbolt port. I wonder if that cable is causing it.

Just as a sanity check, do you have the laptop configured for "battery saver" mode? It will maintain an 80% instead of 100% charge if you have that on which greatly increases battery health over a long span of time (years). Keeping a battery at 100% charge is actually bad for it's long-term health. That option is in the LG control center.

EDIT: also, there are options in Control Center for USB-C charging, maybe try changing those to see if it has any effect.

 

Battery saver is off, and Ive also tested all the different USB-C charging options in the LG Control panel...