Intel-TongFang QC7 (Element/Fusion 15/MAG-15/Vapor 15 Pro)

Those who are having the fan issues.
Check if you are on the windows insider program coz some of their buggy updates usually cause cpu utilisation to spike and confirm with other which version of Windows you're running

 

New video with game benchmarks for vapor 15



I don't know if it uses anything like electroboost on this chassis however...

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Hi owners,

I have an issue with my XMG Fusion 15. I have installed HWInfo, MSI Afterburner and Throttlestop. I have undervolted the CPU to -100mV. The laptop becomes laggy after rebooting, whenever I launch any of these applications. Even Control Center becomes very laggy, and the hardware power profile switch lags also or just doesn't even switch over to the next profile. HWInfo sometimes loads, sometimes doesn't, or it takes a few minutes until it starts. I use Afterburner for OSD stats during gameplay only (although I am mostly trying to get this laptop running well and am not gaming these days).
I had this issue when I only had MSI Afterburner installed. Uninstalling it helped for some time. Then the lag came back. I did a clean install of the Nvidia driver which helped. Then Installing Throttlestop to undervolt the CPU started the lag again. I tried Eluctronics Control Center also, but I get the same lag as with XMG Control Center. I have my fans on most of the time. Temps around 47-50something, doing just web browsing.
What could be the issue? Bad CPU paste or some software issue. What else can I try? Thanks a lot!

 

Not yet, but at some point in time in the next 3 to 36 months you will be able to buy heatsinks and fans from us via e-mail.

Same hardware, same BIOS. Intel does not do any BIOS modifications for different vendors. Everyone has the same ROM. Therefor, there is no mixing and matching. You can install whatever Control Center you want - the difference is only in UI (logos, colors) and setup.ini (performance mode presets).

Depends on room temp. Poor battery won't be caused by fans (they don't take that much power) but probably because you're running some background activity that keeps CPU load on a higher average.

Can confirm: this is not intented beheviour. Every performance profile can set the LCD brightness individually. Update your BIOS and Control Center.

Not a thermal/paste/hardware issue. It seems to be a miscommunication between EC/BIOS and Control Center, probably caused by too many interfering 3rd party background programs. Afterburner, HWiNFO, Throttlestop - they are all accessing the same EC/BIOS calls and this seems to be causing a general lockup situation. We have reported this to Intel today, since we've been getting a few similar reports over the last few days but haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what software configuration is causing this, therefor haven't duplicated it yet.

Please send to [email protected]
- HWiNFO64 report including installed software
- Event Viewer logs (System and Application) of the last 24 hours
- Windows Version that you're running
- BIOS version
- Control Center version
- Does the problem remain when you reset the Undervolt?

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

P.S.: Any Minecraft players here? Reddit needs your help.

 

Do a clean install of windows, i had the same issue. Just remember to have all the drivers on a flash drive if this is your only computer before hand. Also know until you install the proper drivers you wont have use of the mouse with a clean install. So youll have to use keyboard shortcuts to navigate.

 

Do you know why different companies seem to have different versions available as their latest version? Are they just not getting the most up to date version themselves or are they given different versions at different times for some reason?

 

The explanation given by XMG seems right. I faced the same but I was using Intel XTU. same lag in these applications and control center. Since I have uninstalled intel XTU, these lags disappeared, my laptop is staying cooler and the fans come up way lesser just like everyone else. Also battery life now is as per advertised. Don't know what fixed it but one thing for sure that these seems to be software issues and not hardware so a clean install will make it disappear most likely.

 

Thanks, Tom. I think I read somewhere that different vendors change the bios. Maybe logos or something else. Is that the case?

 

Did you undervolt your CPU after the clean Windows install or you run it stock?

 

Hey do you keep HWmonitor running in background? I noticed when I am using HW Monitor my idle temps get higher than 50c and if i dont run it, its way cooler doing same tasks and fans never kick in silent mode. This caused a big diff in my system

 

I have the creaking noise also, see my Reddit post about it for a crude fix. I put electrical tape on the bottom case tabs which helped to eliminate about 90% of creaks... for now.

 

Undervolt and running msi afterburner while gaming

 

@XMG Any luck with the aurora project and the RGB integration?

 

Just about to do the clean Windows install. It's a damn shame that I've spent many hours setting the laptop up. Fingers crossed it will do the trick. I'll report back.

 

When you say clean install, do you mean select the option to do recovery or something?

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No, i tried that. It did not fix anything and was a waste of time. I think the issue is some software problem with the install process.

Instead go to microsofts website and download the latest windows 10 onto a usb. This will help avoid updates if you have an older one laying around. You will need to go to the eluktronics website before hand and download every single driver onto a different usb stick. Make sure they are already extracted. Plug the windows usb into the laptop, restart it and it will boot to the windows install screen. Wipe every single partion on the ssd and install windows. Then when you finally make it to the desktop install all the drivers.

 

Can I ask, is the battery life on this laptop roughly equal to the gigabyte aero 15? I.e. close to 10 hours for work that doesn't use the nvidia gpu?

 

I am not sure you actually get that kind of time with the aero. You will get 6-7 hours with this. Less if you use the max brightness on the screen. This screen is pretty bright. In most rooms you will not need it higher then halfway.

 

I am actually a contributor to project Aurora and am working with Maingear on implementing the Element. Since its the same chassis with the same keyboards when I finish it will work with all models. Right now I am trying to get control center source code so I can reverse engineer the RGB HID protocols for per key lighting on this system. Once that is finished it will be trivial to integrate into Aurora.

 

You sir have just made my night very excited to see the integration (what good is a per key rgb keyboard if you can't program it? Am I right?) Thanks for the update!

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I have the Element myself so I feel you there. If @XMG has access to their control center source and would like to send it to me that would be super helpful. My contacts at Maingear are still trying to get it but I noticed that XMG seems to get access to things faster and easier.

 

@XMG @Eluktronics can you help him out possibly?

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This is the 3rd time I'm asking this but I'll ask one more time in hopes somebody has an idea...

Really loving my Mag-15 but there are a couple niggles I didn't get with my old old laptop that seem to happen with this one. I like to connect my laptop to a television to watch/stream certain things from my NAS. When connecting through HDMI to a television some funny things happen.

When I throw the desktop over to "second screen only" the FPS drop below 60 and I have to reboot the machine to get it to run smoothly on the TV. I imagine this is some sort of issue because the laptop display is 144hz and the TV is 60hz? Not sure what is causing this but it's annoying. All the settings indicate the TV is at 60hz but if I run UFO test it is clearly not. I don't have this problem with my desktop computer, and my monitor is running at 165hz and the TV is at 60hz. I never have this issue switching between displays where I have to reboot to get the 60hz panel to run at a smooth 60fps.

The second issue, which I'm not even sure is an issue but I know it didn't occur with my old laptop is when I throw the display to the TV and close the lid everything is fine, but if I open the lid to use the keyboard the display is thrown back over to the laptop monitor. This is really annoying. Is there any way to keep this from happening? My old laptop would just stay on the 2nd display and I could open the laptop and use the keyboard as normal, close it and open it etc...

I realize my use case here is probably not everyone else's but surely this is abnormal behavior, right?

 

Also, I installed the latest Control Center from Eluktronics (2.1.0.17) and after installation its freezing up my computer. I am back to ControlCenter_2.1.0.15 and the issues have gone away. Just a heads up.

 

I actually can get around 9-10 hours of batt life from my GTX 1060 aero 15. Its actually quite great. I run it on mediumbrightness normally. Was hoping this can match if I switch

 

The current 12 thread CPUs from Intel will happily pull well past 100w at 4ghz. Probably closer to 120w under P95 (please don’t stress with that on a laptop...boom)

Any desktop users here know exactly what I mean. Look at the TDP rating of the desktop equivalent and also realize there’s no difference as an actual CPU, current mobile vs desktop. It’s mainly the power limits, and some will argue that mobile chips are the runts of the litter too.

Your temps are as expected and what I too revealed.

 

After a clean Windows install (what a headache, the past 10 years I have mostly used MacOS ) I can report that everything seems normal! Fans are still periodically turning on and off when idling, or during light browsing, but I can live with that. Most importantly the lag is gone, even with Afterburner, HWiNFO, ThrottleStop and Control Center running! Hope it stays like that.
Just for info: mine originally came with Windows pre-installed from XMG.

 

What build of windows 10 are you currently running? Might be tied to windows build

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Glad to hear. I actually had this same issue with my last msi, but that was mostly because of bloatware. Normally I always just do a clean install but was hoping wouldn't have to with the mag since it didn't have any bloat. Oh well, works great after the install.

As for windows I have version 1903; 10.0.18362 build 18362

 

So not the latest 1903 build... interesting

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No I haven't done the optional Oct update because I don't trust Microsoft to do anything right when they just release a new version.

 

My windows key has stopped working today(received the laptop on 2nd Nov). The backlight works on the key and the windows key of On screen keyboard works which indicate no issue with the mapping or anything.

FALSE ALARM!!

Control center has a setting to disable windows key which accidently got enabled.

 

Have not heard of this before but does the same FPS drop occur if you plug in to your 165Hz monitor? Have you tried disabling V-Sync?

Did you install the latest BIOS on the support page as well? The Control Center and BIOS updates are designed to go hand-in-hand.

 

First off, thank you so much for responding.

I have not plugged into my 165hz monitor, I can try that. V-sync is not enabled, it is set to "let application decide", which is the same way I have my desktop GPU set up, which is a 1080ti. All the graphical settings are the same except as my desktop GPU except where I can select "performance" over "quality" I have chosen "performance".

I am on the latest BIOS, yes.

 

NVM, electroboost shows up after a command center update

 

I just got my computer today and tried installing the soundblaster connect. In one of the installation instructions it said to check if it registered volume control. I'm a bit unclear what this means. I assumed that when I changed the computer volume the vplume in the application would change, but it didn't. Did something go wrong in the installation?

 

I'm semi disappointed with the performance vs the m15. M15 is way quieter with thermals that aren't too different after tuning... Will post mini review later

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Mag 15 can possibly match the Alienware m15 on Max fan acoustics IF you set it to standard fan but even then the fans have a little more whiney noise vs m15's woosh on max...

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So I pulled the trigger on the laptop and received it today. And I’m already having an issue after just installing some programs. I’ve made no serious change to the machine itself outside of installing another NVME drive.

the pc is now in a black screen boot loop. I can see the black light on the keyboard lighting up but the screen remains off. Eventually the pc turns off and restarts all over again

Anyone run into this one yet?

 

No but several people just downloaded the drivers and bios from eluktronics on a usb and then did a clean install of windows 10 and most of the issues went away

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I’ll end up doing that but even with my windows boot drive, the screen won’t turn on at all and Still stuck in reboot loop.

very very disappointing. Haven’t even owned the thing for an hr

 

So do you even see a POST screen after power on?

 

Nope, not even that.

 

Ok, so I tinkered around with this for quite a while this evening and here's what I have been able to determine to the best of my ability. This happens when connecting to a 1920x1080p 60hz HDTV and my 165hz 2560x1440p Dell S2417DG monitor. The PC monitor has both Display Port and HDMI but I'm using HDMI and the monitor only has a HDMI 1.4 input @60hz. I have no idea if this behavior happens with Thunderboldt --> Display Port as I don't have that adapter.

If the laptop is on and a HDMI cable is plugged into an external monitor it will auto switch to that monitor and the FPS will drop and I cannot pass the UFO test... https://www.testufo.com/#
I end up with: Frame Rate - 42fps / Refresh Rate - not displayed / Pixels Per Frame - ~22 / Pixels Per Sec - 960

If I'm connected to the external display but only displaying the laptop monitor and I restart the laptop with the laptop open, it will restart and end up on the external display with the same results as above.

I've only noticed two ways to get the results I want. From a cold boot I have to connect the external display and start up the laptop or if the laptop is running I connect to the display and then restart the laptop while on that external display to get a smooth 60fps. This is extremely annoying. I can't just have the laptop on and connect to a display and enjoy. This seems to happen on both GPU's. All of my drivers are up to date as well.

Part 2 of this is while connected to that external display with the lid closed. If I open the lid to use the keyboard it will revert back over to the laptop display until I close it again, then it will pop back over to the external display.

Not sure what the deal is but I installed a 4th time and now it "seems" to be running normal when switching between Performance, Gaming, and Batter Saver. Before everything was freezing and the computer became unresponsive. So, so far so good I think.

 

Also, I noticed with the new sound blaster software (although now the speakers ARE louder) it is only SELECTIVELY loud (at least on my unit) where if I play a song on youtube like "Legends never die" somewhere in the beginning of the video the sound loudness just DROPS to some semi quiet levels. I think it has to do with the soundblaster Smart Vol option when set to loud. Anyone have any optimal settings they'd like to share?

So far after doing a FRESH windows 10 install the system is MUCH quieter on idle and the CPU isn't turbo 100% of the time which is great! Bios post still feels like it takes a little longer than it should.... The keyboard DOES take some time to get used to it. For some reason it feels "cheap" vs the alienware m15 r2 and r1 keyboard and after a while of breaking it in, it seems to feel a little better. I like the fact the keys are closer together and I have noticed that I have been making less typing mistakes as a result which makes me happy and I am eagerly waiting the RGB sdk support coming out.

@XMG any word on when linux compatibility will be coming out? Just installed windows 10 on my samsung 970 evo plus and I'll be using the intel SSD for my linux. Also is there any way to get some key caps that have the fn functions clear so the light shines through it? I noticed the fn functions are not backlit.

Changing to the Samsung SSD did yield a very small increase to responsiveness of the system btw. This gaming laptop is one of the few that I know that can ACTUALLY be used on your lap without being too heavy or burning your lap when you use gaming (not electroboost...that gets hot fast).

@Perma you sure this thing unlocks up to that 115 w for the GPU? or is it specific to your beta bios? Looking forward to the bios, not sure if your beta bios will add any new features or anything.

 

I'm no expert here, but this is starting to sound like a HDMI limitation. HDMI 1.4 itself is around ten years old? The QC7 has HDMI2.0 IIRC.

Actually, it's not just about HDMI support on the port on the computer and the monitor - HDMI cables can also have limitations in terms of what they support, and I think every thing in the HDMI chain (including the cable) matters. Do you know what HDMI revision your cable is specced for? Maybe you can check if anyone you know has a known-good cable to test with (for all we know, your cable might not even support 1.4 properly? And just because it says "HDMI 1.4" on it might not mean all that much!).

Ok I just googled and HDMI 1.4 is supposed to support 1920x1080@120Hz, what do you mean "the monitor only has a HDMI 1.4 input @60hz" ?

Also I think some pages back XMG posted something about a displayport adapter they are including in every machine they ship, maybe you could look up the specs for that and see if anyone you know has got one you could borrow for a test?

Some pages back XMG also said that their keycaps DO have the Fn key functions cut-out to allow backlighting: when I look at my Vapor the Fn keys really don't seem to me to be backlit either, I don't know how different the XMG keycaps are

 

Ok. Well, this sounds like what I have happen to me with a Dell Precision M6600 several years ago I had for work.

I had the dock assembly on my desk at the office. Came in one morning after a weekend of light useage on a job site. Plug in my laptop and powered it up. Nothing on the screen. No POST, nothing.

Turned out the display driver chip had died for some reason. Nothing I had done. It just chose that moment to go bad. I had only had the system like two weeks. My boss wasn't impressed, he was a HP fan, and it took some talking to get him to buy Dell.

With no POST display at boot, yet drives are blinking, it is either a bad or detached cable, or video driver board failed. It sucks having it happen on a brand new system, but such is the risks with mass produced devices.

 

Does anyone have a solution for the fast battery drain on this machine? I am using Win 10 1903. All drivers, bios and control centre are up to date. See the battery report below. I have spent a lot of time installing programmes and would really like to avoid reinstalling windows if anyone has come across an alternate solution.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmV6rB4bB079iqFShKfaNaEv9i0dJg?e=zkftrd

 

For the volume dropping problem, in the soundblaster connect program to the left there are multiple profiles like Game or Video etc. I needed to change the smart volumes and settings on all of them. Now it's great and no problem.

With the reboot time have you enabled quick boot in the bios since the update? Otherwise the reboot feels long but only because it doesn't stick a loading screen in. Timewise it's fine with quickboot enabled

 

That doesn't sound right. So the QC7 is a loud laptop.

 

Thank you for trying to help me but I'm pretty sure this is not HDMI limitation. I am using High Speed HDMI cables from Monoprice. I've never seen a cable that says 1.4 or 2.0, pretty sure they never have what revision they are on the cable itself.

When I said HDMI 1.4 @ 60hz I speaking specifically about my PC monitor I use for my desktop. Eluktronics asked me to test if this behavior happens on my PC monitor. The limitation of the HDMI port on the PC monitor is that it will only run at 60hz, and not higher like with the DP input, which will run at 165hz. But this is irrelevant anyway as I never use my Dell monitor to connect to the laptop, that was just for the test.

I've tested on two TV's and my PC monitor with two different cables and I get the same behavior. My 7 or 8 year old Toshiba never did this through the HDMI port on the same TV's with the same cables. In any case, I know the laptop is spec'd for HDMI 2.0 but should be backwards compatible with older HDMI revisions, like 1.4.

My GTX 1080ti is HDMI 2.0 I believe and is connected to my Dell monitor above and one of the TV's I tested on and doesn't have these issues when swapping between displays, specifically from my high refresh rate PC monitor @ 165hhz to my TV @ 60hz. I'm basically doing the same thing but with the laptop which is HDMI 2.0 from the internal display @ 144hz to the TV @ 60hz.

At the very least I can work around the issue but something is not right.

Honestly, right now I'm more annoyed with the fact I can't use the keyboard on the external display if the lid is closed all the way and I open it to type something. I basically have to leave the lid cracked open otherwise it will be triggered back over to the internal display.