Display Backlight Flickering: TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Hi all, this has been a recurring problem for me. But on the Tongfang GK5 computers (mine is an Eluktronics Mech-15 G2, i7-8750H, GTX 2070 Max-Q) the display backlight fails. Meaning the laptop display works at around 10-30% brightness, but above that appears dim and flickery.

I just got off the phone with Eluktronics, and they pointed the blame to the chipset used with the i7-8750H CPUs. They said replacing these motherboards with i7-9750H boards will fix the issue. That implies that if you have one of these Tongfang laptops (i.e. Eluktronics, Overpowered, etc) with the 8750H CPU, you will eventually have this issue.

If I were you, I'd try to get this replaced under warranty with a 9750H CPU board. I'll post an update once I get the replacement laptop in to see if it's resolved.

 

Any update? I just started getting this problem and i read through like 50+ pages of posts and tried all those tricks to make it worth without success. I just emailed them the other day to see if i can start the RMA process. Just wondering if you had any success?

 

Still waiting on my laptop to get back from Eluktronics. They still believe this is an issue with all the Mech-15s with 8750H boards.

 

Hello. I have the same exact problem. I bought an eluktronics mech 15g2 8750h gtx1060 in June 2018 and in September 2020 my backlight started flickering and staying dim for no reason.

I use the laptop conventionally as I am a lover of the clicky you keyboard, I was typing up something and all of a sudden flickering and dimness. When i turned the brightness down to 8 or lower the flickering stopped. Then after a while it kept flickering and staying dim no matter what I do. This is my machine I use for work. I write and I also do remote administration, I'm so distraught.

Goning to have a very long talk with eluktronics tomorrow as my device is out of warranty and this is still their problem. As I used the machine the way it's intended to be used and here it is the machine has a fundamental flaw yet was sold to me as something perpetually functional.

I'm following this thread and will give updates.

 

Hey thanks for replying and reminding me to give an update. It's been a few months since Eluktronics swapped the i7-8750H board for an i7-9750H board. It's still a bit too early to tell if this will be a permanent fix, but so far I have not had any additional issues. The 9750H works great.

Definitely not a display or display cable issue, it's on the chipset. No easy fix but to get rid of the boards that came with the i7-8750Hs

 

This is so strange. I don't understand why it is a company that is trying to make a name for themselves, will sell/ship out products with INHERENT flaws in its design that WILL inevitably show up and hinder the user even with conventional use and stay mum about it to their customers until the problem manifests itself.

I saw a reddit post that is 1 year old with someone using an overpower pc with same cpu, same exact problem. This doesn't look good for eluktronics at all.

Spoke to them today. Spoke to technical support and they said they will fix it and it will take up to a month from the day they receive it. So a month from now i will reply back. With how it all goes.

 

well remember that Eluktronics and Overpowered and everyone are just resellers. Obviously this is a fundamental flaw in certain configurations that Tongfeng shipped out. And since it only manifests after a few months of use, it wouldn't have shown up in the basic testing. I would hope that Eluktronics and everyone has some sort of arrangement with Tongfeng to return the defective boards, but who knows. Maybe they're not issuing a general recall because replacing all the defective boards at once would bankrupt them or something.

Either way this is a pretty massive problem that's Tongfeng missed, and it's going to hit the resellers pretty hard. But who knows, maybe new i7-9750H motherboards from Tongfeng aren't that expensive.

 

They said they will fix the problem and are charging me 75 dollars since the laptop is well out of warranty (bought it in June 2019 not 2018 like I said before, my mistake). I asked them what they will do specifically and they said they will change the chipset. The cpu and gpu will remain untouched. If what you were told is true, this means I'm probably going to have the same bloody problem later on since they're only changing the chipset. They specifically said it's the chipset and not the cpu that's the problem, I referred them to this thread saying such and they said no its the chipset.

So now I am uneasy as I will have to pay 75 dollars and not know wether or not i will get the same problem. Man I like this laptop mostly for its keyboard but I'm starting to think it's going to be a sunk cost...

 

Well ok that's not wrong. Yes, it is the chipset that is faulty from what I heard as well, but at the time I got mine replaced all of the i7-8750H motherboards had the faulty chipset. The chipset of course is integral to the motherboard. It's entirely possible that Tongfeng made new motherboards with an updated chipset with the older i7-8750H CPUs.

If they say they're going to replace the chipset I would believe them. I think you can verify this via device manager once it is replaced as well.