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

Thanks for the response. I tried to hook up an external monitor to the laptop to see if there was anything popping up there. Still nothing. Guess this is a return for me...

 

Yea the mag 15 is way louder than the m15 on Max fans lol. In order for the mag 15 to match the fan sound of the m15, you have to put the fans to standard and even then the fan noise sounds a little more annoying than the m15

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

To me it also seems like electroboost doesn't do much vs balanced mode unless you use the max fan option which is a little disappointing.

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Anyone here familiar with return policy of Amazon for this laptop? Like how many days I have to return it or if there is a fee for the return?

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I should have an answer for you on tue/wed as I sent an email to eluktronics On how they would handle an amazon return

amazon site says this however:
Amazon.com Return Policy: You may return any new computer purchased from Amazon.com that is "dead on arrival," arrives in damaged condition, or is still in unopened boxes, for a full refund within 30 days of purchase. Amazon.com reserves the right to test "dead on arrival" returns and impose a customer fee equal to 15 percent of the product sales price if the customer misrepresents the condition of the product. Any returned computer that is damaged through customer misuse, is missing parts, or is in unsellable condition due to customer tampering will result in the customer being charged a higher restocking fee based on the condition of the product. Amazon.com will not accept returns of any desktop or notebook computer more than 30 days after you receive the shipment. New, used, and refurbished products purchased from Marketplace vendors are subject to the returns policy of the individual vendor

 

Let me know because I don't want to get hit with a restock fee just for opening the box, I rather then just sell it to someone else possibly.... I'm still very much in the fence on whether I want to return it or not because it does FEEL really nice and light vs the m15 but the performance that I thought I was getting with electroboost just doesn't seem to be there.

Even with Asus tweak to increase thermal limit, all that does is essentially enable the fans to ramp past standard and performance Max because according to Intel spec: "if gpu temps are past 75C, fans will ramp to Max" which defeats the purpose of setting the fan profile to standard in the control center.

Really hoping community makes fan control app soon cause this feels like a good programmer laptop.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

@XMG @Eluktronics houston we have a problem, When I connect my Moto z2 force phone to the thunderbolt 3 connection in the back it claims the device is charging but my phone actually loses charge while connected... Something is not right with the thunderbolt software as it doesn't seem to be supplying enough power to fast charge my phone. Alienware m15 successfully charges phone quickly using the same usb type C to usb type C cable.

Using latest version 58 bios from eluktronics (Public Release 11/6/2019)
Using latest thunderbolt drivers from eluktronics 1.41.648.5

Edit: I thought it was a nice touch to have the feature in control center for "Pulsate light bar when computer is asleep and plugged in" but could it be possible to have the light bar change color (from red to yellow to green) to show how much charge the battery has? Just something cool that would differentiate it.

 

sorry was no help; yes there's usually no way to tell from looking what HDMI revision a cable is, which was why I thought it could possibly be the problem in the first place (cable looks ok and physically fits but doesn't support spec). I'm at a loss for this and I think unless XMG/Eluktronics/etc. actually respond, this forum might not be the right place (not *that* many people reading this). Have you tried other places (err, Reddit?). I myself have found that the machine doesn't even support ACPI power management events for opening the lid so was surprised that it has an effect on the display! (I wanted the machine to wake from sleep just by opening the lid, but that's apparently not possible because a "lid open event" isn't generated, only a "lid close").

good luck man, reading what you posted, I can understand the frustration

EDIT: wait, come to think about it, maybe there's something about the "lid close" event that can be modified/tweaked to solve your problem?

further edit:

what I mean is - I was complaining in an earlier post, about the machine not automatically waking from sleep when I open the lid, when the system was smart enough to go to sleep when I close the lid: apparently the reason for this disparity is that the hardware is set up to allow an ACPI "power event" for closing the lid (which you can configure in the power settings what behaviour you want, whether to sleep, hibernate, ignore etc.), BUT apparently there's NO corresponding "lid open" event. It's not clear to me at this point whether the hardware functionality to allow this is NOT available, or if it's just not implemented in software/drivers (I don't know enough about this to say). Your problem is that the behaviour of your machine when your lid is open/closed is not what you want. So I'm wondering it it's possible to, I dunno, disable things in the device manager such that the lid close/open is not detected at all (if the OS doesn't see it it can't react to it?), as a kind of quick-and-dirty workaround... though as I type this it seems to me something that needs to be implemented in the BIOS, in which case it's out of the end-user hands?

 

Anyone know how easy or hard it would be to replace the fans with another set of quieter fans on this unit?

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I've been thinking about the same, because I already saw a 1660ti unit in Europe.It looks and feels great...buuuut It's obnoxiously loud. I am one of those guys who's not the most... gentle when I speak so I'll just say it outright. No way I am paying a minumum of 1600 EURO for this unit only because it looks and feels really sleek. I had the chance to actually compare it head to head with my old DELL 7577 (i7 7700hq, GTX 1060 max-q) and for me there's very little difference other than the form factor. I am a casual gamer and I don't do any design so running Windows 10 feels the same. I HAVE to play games with headphones on because of the fans and that's something I don't want to do. OK, the display looks much better, but that's it. I don't play at ultra details so in this case the 1060 max-q and the 1660 TI don't differ too much. It don't care about keyboard leds, I am fine with just one color. The huge adapter actually "kills" the mobility of this unit and that was the final flaw which made me not to purchase it. A mobile laptop (although powerful) must be easy to carry around. Idle temperatures are definitely not much lower than those of my Dell (granted, I've followed B0Bs videos regarding that exact Dell model and my CPU never goes over 89 degrees C even after 2-3 hours of gaming at high details). Please don't understand me in a wrong manner, I am not trying to say "this laptop is not worth it, it's bad, lower it to 1000 euro and I'll buy it". Not at all, it's a great little machine, but it does not fit with my personnal preferences. I know we are at the beginning of its life cycle and it's too early to speak about a 2nd generation, but improving fan accoustings (temps are fine, I no longer care about the 75C cap, seems to be very well engineered) and lowering the size of the adapter will make this laptop a killer machine and dare I say.. a Razer killer Ah... and I see ppl really want per key programming for the leds so I guess that one too

 

Hi all! I've spent the past 48 hours of struggling with my Mag 15 and am hoping someone around these parts might know what's wrong.

Problem:
The 2070MQ is not working properly. As far as I can tell the drivers on the Eluktronics site are installed correctly, but the NVIDIA control panel refuses to open. I can definitely see the 2070MQ in things like the Device Manager and hwinfo, and once upon a time (before a clean windows install) it WAS working so I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware issue. I can kill the process and try to run it again, but then I get a "You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU" message.

Stuff I've Tried
1. Clean Windows install
2. Installed all Eluktronics drivers in the order they're on the site (same as what XMG recommends), including the latest BIOS update (357.0056).
3. Uninstall/reinstall of drivers using DDU with slight variations ad nauseum (436.30 provided by Eluktronics and XMG) and the latest 441.XX directly from NVIDIA.

At this point I don't even know what to try. I originally tried a fresh Windows install because I was getting poor battery life (3-4 hours on battery saver just doing some web browsing), so it seems I traded one problem for another.

 

Back to square one. I noticed that the battery after a few days started to drain quicker. I remembered that GeForce Experience was not installed, so I installed it, and it updated the graphics driver to the newest version. And the lag started again. Same as before, HWiNFO doesn't want to launch, Control Center freezes, can't switch between performance profiles etc..
I'm desperately trying to install older versions of GPU driver to see if it fixes the problem, no luck so far. I am so disappointed. It looks like I will have to send back the laptop, hopefully for replacement.

 

Adding in my experience hoping Eluktronics/XMG will respond. Having the same experiences as dmolnar123 and garzillo.

My new 2070mq model is unusable from new, with Nvidia Control Panel, HWinfo, and the Eluktronics control panel constantly crashing. After resetting windows and installing all of the driver's from Eluktronics website in the order that they were listed, everything was fine for about a day, then back to being unusable. I can't even change the power stare of the laptop without massive lag. This is very disappointing that a $2k purchase doesn't work correctly out of the box and I am out of ideas in terms of how to fix it. Will call for tech support during a weekday, but I wish all of this could have just been avoided by shipping a WORKING and TESTED product.

 

I'm about to bite the bullet and try another fresh Windows install with all the drivers on the XMG site instead of the Eluktronics site on the off chance that those will work. This will be my third time starting fresh - otherwise I guess it's in the hands of Eluktronics' support team. I'll let you know if it works out for me.

 

I managed to fix the lag (again) by downgrading my GPU driver to version 436.48 from Nvidia website. I'll see how long it will work.
Give it a go perhaps.

 

Unfortunately my issue is that the dgpu isn't usable at all, so I'm thinking we probably have different problems (and also, I'm watching my Windows installation even as I write this so it's too late!).

 

really upsetting to hear. I’m in the process of sending mine back for replacement/refund as well and now more horror stories are popping up. Maybe I should just cut my losses and go for another machine...

 

Count me as another person having issues. I received the laptop 5 days ago and had issues out of the box. I bought the 1660ti base version on Amazon. Windows kept showing a message every few minutes about the Nvidia Control Panel not being installed, so I decided to just upgrade the video driver. That was a no go, I got a blue screen at every attempt (3 times). I noticed my battery life was also low, sub 4 hours. Nvidia Control Panel, Eluktronics Control Center, and Task Manager would freeze for 10 seconds at a time and made them almost unusable. CPU-Z and HWMonitor would also refuse to open, they would just hang when opening them. I decided to reload windows and start fresh.

I reinstalled Windows 10 Home with an ISO from Microsoft's website. Installed all the drivers in the order listed on Eluktronic's website, also updated the BIOS. The Nvidia driver installed fine, but the freezing issues persist with the software listed before. Battery life is still under 4 hours at a full charge. After spending $1,600 + tax I'm really not happy so far. I contacted support through email about this and want to know if there's a fix.

I really like the Mag-15's gaming performance, keyboard, form-factor, build quality, and reasonable fan noise during heavy use, but the software issues and low battery life are really off-putting for me and I'm regretting purchasing this laptop. Count me as another person looking to make a return.

 

Update: exact same issues persist

What I did:

1. Downloaded all XMG drivers (previously tried the Eluktronics ones) onto USB drive #1.

2. Used the Windows tool to make a bootable drive on my USB drive #2.

3. Boot into USB drive #2. Deleted all partitions. Let the installer do it's thing.

4. Complete Windows setup (the limited, no-internet version).

5. Copied drivers from USB drive #1 onto laptop.

6. Installed all drivers in order.

Notes:
- Whenever something asked to restart I did so. I also restarted manually after the ISST driver, as instructed by XMG.
- For the NVIDIA driver I installed only the driver and not NVIDIA GeForce Experience.

7. Connected to my home network.

8. A few things automatically install from the MS Store, including the NVIDIA Control Panel.

9. Launched NVIDIA Control Panel and was greeted by a licensing agreement page. I accepted. It disappears into the background.

Other notes:
- In the Device Manager I have a "Windows has stopped this device because it reported problems."
- if I kill the NVIDIA Control Panel process and try to relaunch I get a "You are not currently using a display attached to an NVIDIA GPU".

I've spent way too many hours troubleshooting this so I'm thinking it's going to have to be replaced or returned unless someone else can figure this out. It's frustrating because I excitedly waited for this for 29 days from the time I ordered and have been checking this thread every day!

 

I feel like you guys are trying to update and install too many things at one time to figure out what the issue actually is. If you refresh your system back to the stock image and have a problem you should update one item at a time not blanket update several things.

I myself have the 2070 version of this system for work and I have had none of the issues you are experiencing. Lets try a more methodical approach rather than the blank wipe and updates that you all are doing.

EDIT: Just a note that some of the control panels like nvidia control panel and intel graphics will not install right away, it will sometimes take several reboots of the system for windows to finally install the OEM software control panels.

Does device manager say the 2070 is working correctly or does it have an error? If it says its working correctly then its an Nvidia control panel issue.

The drivers on XMG, Eluktronics, Maingear are all the same there are no package differences between them. The only difference is the branding on the control center software and their power profiles.

 

Did you have any issues out the box? Mine exhibited this behavior from the beginning.

 

By the way, controlcenter.exe shows up as making the GPU active. Is there any way to disable it from using the nvidia GPU? I have gone into nvidia control panel and set it to integrated only but it still persists on using nvidia GPU even when it's minimized into the task bar.

 

The only issues I experienced were the nvidia and intel graphics control panels not automatically downloading from the store.

I will check my system later to see if this happens.

 

Three things to mention in this post:

First, I've noticed that at least in my case, the lag can be introduced manually when I cycle through power modes, specifically, if I switch to or pass "Gaming+Eluktroboost" mode using the hardware button. If I switch between battery mode and regular Gaming mode via the control panel, I'm less likely to have issues. However, the moment I engage Eluktroboost mode, the system starts to exhibit the lagging/crashing behavior and cannot be fixed without a reboot.

Second, anyone else getting odd throttling issues? I'm well below 90 degrees in a lot of cases and experiencing throttling....very strange.

Third: Is there a way to have the power mode switch automatically between Battery Saver and Gaming depending on if I'm plugged in or not? This is something I'm having to do manually and is kind of annoying since most other laptops handle this for you and is also risky because of the power mode issues I mentioned above.

 

Battery saver mode causes a lot of lag and sluggish behavior for me since it heavily limits the CPU clock but I have not seen an issue with the Eluktroboost/Redline performance mode.

When you say odd throttling what exactly do you mean?

 

I know what you mean about the lag in the battery saver mode. That is expected and different. What happens is that the Control Center app will completely lock up and go white. HWinfo will lock up. Task Manager (!) will lock up. If I try to change the keyboard brightness up and down, nothing happens. Then! All of a sudden the keyboard will brightness will rapidly go up and down 10 seconds later. This is the type of lag I'm talking about.

For the throttling, I'm not noticing it performance-wise, but it is showing up in HWinfo (see my screenshot in the previous post). It should not be showing throttling at those temperatures. AIDA64 as well indicated thermal throttling of the CPU when I kept it well under 90c. Never had this happen on similarly specced laptops (have used an Aero15 and GS65 extensively).

 

That is strange, I would contact support in both of your cases, you could have a bad CPU or BIOS flash.

I looked again and you could also have an issue with your control panel profiles, if you installed a profile from a different manufacturer you could have different CPU throttling presets mixed together. I would check your registry to make sure your profiles are correct.

 

Different vendors have different BIOS Logos and DMI Strings (System Manufacturer, System Family, System Product Name / Model, System SKU) written in the EEPROM, but those are not overwritten by Intel's BIOS updates (coming in the form of ".CAP" Capsule Updates) and they do not interfer with any logical function - purely cosmetic.

Good to hear that you're working on it and that you have a sample.
Yeah, getting source code from the Control Center will be the tricky part. Intel is currently not even able to share the EC API documentation because they claim they don't own it. I'm not sure how much Maingear can do about that. Maybe if we all keep pushing together, they might budge. Do you have a Discord or something where we can talk? E-Mail me to [email protected]

I have tried reproducing and I can confirm both issues on up-to-date software and drivers.

Scenario:

Windows 10, 1903 (OS Build 18362.418)
BIOS 0056, Control Center 2.1.0.17
Intel Graphics Driver: 26.20.100.7000
NVIDIA Graphics Driver: 436.30
Power Management: "Do nothing" when closing lid
60Hz LCD connected on HDMI.


User Requirement #1: "Show only on Screen #2"

Problem A: 60Hz LCD is sluggish. Blurbuster Test Ufo shows ~40fps, but it feels even less than that.

When closing the lid, nothing happens (as it should).

Problem B: When opening the lid, the Display settings are reverted to "Extend screen" (as it should not)


User Requirement #2: "Extend Desktop" over both screens, make Screen #2 the "Main Screen"

Both 144Hz panel (internal) and 60Hz panel (external) work fine. Test Ufo shows correct fps in sync and mouse input is smooth.

Problem B: When closing the lid, the desktop/display settings are set to a condition as if only 1 display (HDMI) is connected.
When opening the lid, the settings are reverted back to "Extend screen" as before, with Screen #2 still being the main screen.


Diagnosis and Discussion

Problem A is fixed by uninstalling the Control Center. This seems to have some influence on it. We will treat these as seperate issues. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

Problem B is still present, even Control Center is uninstalled. You could argue that this is not a bug, but a feature. When closing the lid, the internal LCD is fully disconnected from the GPU. This probably saves power and it's kind of a nice service. Imagine a user that does not want to tinker with the Display settings. Connect HDMI (or DP) monitor, close the lid: voila, all your windows will be moved over to the 2nd screen automagically. Open the lid again and the previous setup will be restored.

Of course this violates users who want to manually go the "Show only on Screen #2" route.
I can not promise that this will be treated as a bug by Intel. There might be a trade-off between power consumption or some other logic between the "open/close lid" ACPI event and the internal LCD control. But I will submit this as a case and see what happens.


Workaround

The 40fps problem kind of makes the whole "Close Lid while using 2nd screen" option impossible right now, as long as you want to keep Control Center installed.

But for Problem B, my advice is to go with User Requirement #2: "Extend Desktop" over both screens, make Screen #2 the "Main Screen". If all you content windows are already on the 2nd display (main screen), then closing/opening the lid won't have any negative effect on your user experience, except a miniscule, single pause the moment you open/close the screen when Windows is readjusting to the newly connected/disconnected screen.

This is weird. Please remove both m.2 drives, remove the RAM, re-assemble the RAM and see if you can now enter BIOS Setup (F2), with the m.2 drives still being removed. If you can enter BIOS setup, go to Exit and Load Setup Defaults.

Some laptops have a hidden hotkey called Fn+D+Power (hold this combo for 5-10 seconds when laptop is powered off) to instantly reset the BIOS, but it seems like Intel QC does not have such a hotkey. I will ask Intel if there is any other secret hotkey combo.

Regarding BIOS Post: please enable "Fast Boot" in the "Boot" category of BIOS Setup (F2).

No official timeline yet but initial reports are positive. Just go ahead and install it.

In our layout, the Fn functions are clear (you can remove a keycap and hold it against a light source to confirm). The keyboard backlight is controlled by a single LED for each keycap. This LED sits in the top middle (north of the mechanical switch), that's why elements on the bottom of the keycap are less strongly lit than on the top. But they are lit and should be clearly visible in the dark.

This is correct.

Intel has announced to partners another Thunderbolt firmware and driver update coming very soon that is supposed to fix certain Power Delivery issues. Your issue might be included, please wait for a couple of days or a few weeks until the update is released.

Nice idea. Will share with Intel for future products.

Normally the machine will wake from sleep when opening the lid. Please try to reset your BIOS by hitting "Load Setup Defaults" in the "Exit" category.

You say it WAS working, now it's not working anymore.

I'm 95% sure that you can skip all those troubleshooting steps. Getting the NVIDIA card to run is not rocket science and does not require any prerequisites. If it does not work, you might have an RMA issue on your hand here. Either the card died or there is some issue with the PCIe connection between card and CPU. Either way, please contact your vendor to get this unit replaced. As you say, it was working in the beginning, so the vendor is not at fault here. Such RMA's typically either happen very early in the lifetime of an individual device or never - this is just tough luck and warranty case.

Wow, this is getting a bit out of hand.

Interesting, this is a good lead! I'll try to reproduce these issues today by installing software and random updates on my unit like a madman. It seems to be a complex mismatch of Windows version and driver versions and perhaps 3rd party app activity, maybe even virus scanner. Might also be two seperate issues with connected or unconnected root causes. We will isolate it and get it fixed.

Kind Regards,
XMG|Tom

 

Sadly not. I have only been using drivers downloaded directly from Eluktronics' website for my Mag-15.

 

I would contact them then.

 

Tried this and still nothing and same results. black screen boot loop. Thanks for giving it a shot tho!

 

Did some more testing. If I change the power modes more than a few times it will trigger the lag, then the dGPU will then refuse to work until I reboot. Tested in Overwatch and 3dmark, framerate is significantly lowered to unplayable levels as I imagine it is running on the integrated Intel graphics. I wonder if this is an Optimus issue...

I am also inconsistently getting poor battery life. The windows battery counter at near full capacity showing under 4 hours on a full charge with the laptop sitting idle, on low brightness, battery saver, without any programs open. I'll then use some basic Chrome browsing and watch that number go down. Hoping these gremlins work themselves out.

 

I mentioned this some pages back. With the latest Control Center I am experiencing these issues, but you stated it better than I did. I thought it was sorted out when I installed the latest Control Center from Eluktronics for a 4th time but it happened to me again last night. At least I know it's not just me. I should also point out that I was switching through profiles somewhat quickly, which is not typical behavior, but still, there's something not right with this version of the Control Center.

 

I want to thank you very much for taking the time to read my posts regarding these issues, or at least one issue. At least I'm not totally crazy. I can also understand that my use case scenario is possibly somewhat rare which might be why nobody else has either confirmed or even acknowledged this problem till now.

I also want to thank you for presenting possible solutions to Problem B. It is a work around but as you stated it is not ideal for my use case case when only wanting screen 2 shown. My old laptop only had a integrated GPU. Do you really think the fact this laptop has both dedicated and integrated is the reason for this behavior?

I have been getting by without the needed fixes for Problem A but it's great to know you will submit a ticket for this issue. I really hope this will be resolved soon.

The fact I have an Eluktronics branded laptop and I'm receiving help from XMG is quite something. Props to all of you guys for trying to resolve issues customers are having no matter what brand of laptop they might have.

Thanks again!

 

@XMG also dbrand stopped offering the skin on the lid that covers the logo, any reason for that happening? Is there any alternatives? Like would we be able to use the razerblade 15 dbrand skin to cover the logo?

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

Update on Control Center, Nvidia Control Panel, and Task Manager freezing:

I uninstalled the Eluktronics Control Center and all my freezing issues are gone. Nvidia Control Panel opens and runs fine, I can run HWMonitor and CPU-Z now, they don't freeze when starting. Task Manager doesn't lock up when I switch tabs in it. I can still control the keyboard brightness and screen brightness so I'll keep the laptop as-is for now.

I'm still experiencing the low battery life issue though. I'm at 26% battery with 1 hour left of battery life.

EDIT:
I noticed that my battery drains significantly when the computer is asleep. Maybe the laptop is turning itself on, I just had it on my desk with the lid closed and heard a Windows notification sound. Thought the last BIOS update fixed that issue though.

 

Good question. I'll send them an e-mail and ask about it.

It probably wouldn't be a perfect fit.

If you have wake-up events, you will see them in Windows Event Viewer (Windows Logs: System).

This might still be related to the tools you're using. In my test, HWMonitor instantly brings up the Idle Power Consumption to 40W, where 7~10W would be more normal. I strongly advise against using such extreme diagnostic tools in daily life. They are overkill.

Important Update on Freezing issues

My test system:

QC71B with RTX 2070 Max-Q
Windows 10, 1903 (OS Build 18362.418)
Intel Graphics Driver: 26.20.100.7000
All Settings Default
No relevant software or services in automatic Startup

I reproduced two distinct issues and have reported them to Intel.

Issue #1: Conflict between NVIDIA Driver version and Control Center version



Pretty simple: CC 2.1.0.17 does not work anymore together with NVIDIA Driver 440.97 WHQL or later. That version was released on October 22. The last working NVIDIA driver is 436.48 WHQL.

Feel free to download those NVIDIA driver 436.48 WHQL DCH from this link:
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/436.48/436.48-desktop-win10-64bit-international-dch-whql.exe

Issue #2: Conflict between Control Center and various system monitoring tools

Even with the older Control Center 2.1.0.15 there are certain situations that can trigger this issue. But my testing is still a bit inconclusive at this point.



In this test, I have done a clean restart between each scenario.

Most if not all of these tools seems to be use Intel XTU as a common driver framework. This seems to be colliding with the functions that Intel is using in the Control Center to switch between different performance profiles.

This FAIL condition and related issues also seem to have an influence on the Power Consumption in Idle. I had various scenarios with 40W power consumption (on power socket) in Idle.´


What do we mean by FAIL?

When you cycle the Performance Profiles with the Mode Switch Button multiple times, the button does not react anymore – it takes at least 7-8 seconds until the action is complete
Each time you cycle the Performance Profiles with the Mode Switch Button or with the Control Center UI, the UI becomes unresponsive
Similar unresponsivity happens all around Windows, in Task Manager, Start Menu and other areas


What is the current workaround?

Either downgrade NVIDIA driver or Control Center, and remove unneccessary system tuning/monitoring apps.

A) Either downgrade Control Center
Uninstall Control Center 2.1.0.17 from Windows "Apps & Features"
Install Control Center 2.1.0.15

B) Or downgrade NVIDIA Driver
Uninstall NVIDIA Graphics Driver from Windows "Apps & Features"
Install NVIDIA 436.48 WHQL DCH

C) Remove system tuning/monitoring software
Uninstall unneccessary system tuning apps, including Intel XTU, CPUID HWMonitor, ThrottleStop and perhaps others


If you encounter any issues that might not be covered by this post, please try to provide as much relevant information as possible, either by commenting here or via PM.

We are aware that users expect to be able to use these 3rd party system tuning and monitoring tools and that they should work without major conflicts.
On the other hand, certain power management issues (dGPU "ON" or high Idle power consumption due to system monitoring) might be impossible to avoid, even in the long run. We will see about that.

Until Intel has pinpointed and and fixed the exact root causes of these software/driver conflicts, our advise is to scale back your system tuning if possible.

We advise Intel to put these tuning sliders (especially Undervolting) into the BIOS Setup (F2) in the future, just like we have done it with every other XMG and SCHENKER product with each one of our ODM's so far.

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

/edit This issue now has its own official Reddit thread: Incoming Update for Freezing Issues in Control Center of XMG FUSION 15. Feel free to contribute your feedback and reports to that thread so we can keep it all in one place. Happy cake day!

 

This is practically one of the biggest reasons I decided to ditch alienware. Although alienware has great support in it's own right because of it's massive scale, you would never see someone from alienware on forums like this helping to document fixes. I still would very much like to keep this laptop if at all possible because I know this laptop has hidden performance and potential. I do miss my numpad for sure but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make for giving this machine a fair shot. Thanks @XMG @Eluktronics for being so transparent with these issues and fixes.

 

Was looking at the MAG-15 and have a simple question.

Has anyone tried loading up a Linux distro, say either Linux Mint or Manjaro Linux and tried to see how the MAG-15 handles with them on board?

I triple boot my Dell M6700, Win10 , Linux Mint 19.2, and Manjaro 18.1 with I3 desktop.

One thing with Manjaro. When you boot it off the USB the first time, it allows you to choose whether to use the Open Source Neouvo video drivers, or the current proprietary Nvidia drivers for your discrete card. Works pretty well and the drivers are stable.

Undervolting is a bit more of a manual config and forget it option with Linux, but it is stable once tuned.

Guess I will ask Eluktronics if Electroboost works under Linux, or if that is something Windows-specific.

 

I had to install the ISST drivers first and then maybe reinstall the audio drivers. Let me know if that works. Did mine yesterday!

 

Following up on a separate question. Is there a way to have the laptop automatically switch between Battery Saver and Gaming when I plug in/unplug the laptop? Having to do this manually, unlike every other gaming laptop I've tried.

 

At the moment I don't think so, but if the community can reverse engineer a way to integrate the keyboard lights into Aurora project, enable fan control, then I don't see why we can't make a script to watch for a windows event saying "hey are we plugged in?" And then triggering the change from battery saver to gaming

On a separate note @XMG any chance they can change it such that the rotation of power profiles from the profile button is power saver -> gaming > overboost/electroboost > powersave instead of the current overboost > gaming > powersave > electroboost?

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

Once again, thank you very much for testing and confirming the issues with the latest Control Center. For now I have reverted back to 2.1.0.15, that's easier than downgrading the Nvidia drivers and setting that back up again.

Cheers!

 

So many issues... Now I’m concerned. I’ll be transitioning from Apple to Windows after 15 years, but all these concerns about drivers, control centers, etc., are making me hesitant again. These are things I never had to think about with my Macbook. All forms of update were just from 1 source and never had to look if this was compatible with that or what have you, or I should get this download from this website and that download from another website and so on. Yes, Macbook’s hardware is significantly inferior for the price, but what you get for your money is piece of mind and ease of use for the entire duration of the laptop and not having to worry about incompatibilities w/ multiple softwares.

 

Usually Windows users don't have to worry about that either, but meddling with factory specs always holds a risk. As a long term Apple user you may want to turn to Razer (they've got a designer edition that looks like a Mac) or the Aero 15 by Gigabyte.

 

I had the same problem with soundblaster connect. I just tried installing the isst drivers, which made me lose microphone and speaker functionality. Reinstalling audio drivers didn't work.

Now trying to reset to an earlier state, but any tips for my next attempt?

Edit: That didn't work, going for a full factory reset. Hopefully this will fix everything. AM I screwed if it doesn't?

 

First do the ISST driver, then the Audio ones (all three), and finally Sound Blaster. You MUST restart after the ISST driver.

 

No problem. Intel has now confirmed that they are already troubleshooting this issue together with their ODM partner. They will continue to provide me with updates as those become available.

Meanwhile, please also use our dedicated Reddit thread for this issue. This way we can more easily collect additional feedback and perhaps discover certain edge cases that might have not yet been covered by my documentation yet.

Currently not.

In Idle or minimal load, the Power Consumption between Balanced and Power Saving is almost identical. Some people would like to retain the high CPU performance potential of Balanced mode even while using the laptop on mobile.

Ideally, this should become an option in the BIOS or Control Center in the future.

A supplementary workaround which I have used for years is this one:



This setting is usually at 20% per default. I use 85% as my personal preference. You could also go up to 100% and switch to Battery Saver immediately when unplugging the charger.

This setting is not exactly the same as switching to the Battery Saver / Silent profile in Control Center, but it's not far off either. Unlike the proprietary Control Center profile, this Battery saver option even stops certain background activity alltogether. For example, it pauses OneDrive Cloud syncing until you manually resume it.

Our step-by-step program is thus:

• No prior steps (like uninstalling) neccessary
• Install Smart Sound Technology
  • Run SetupInf.exe
  • Wait and confirm 4 different success messages: "The operation completed successfully" (4 times)
  • Reboot
• Install Realtek Audio
  • Audio Driver v. 6.0.8703.1
  • Reboot
• Install EQ and Effect components
  • SPKEQ_TF_PCAPP_US_1_00_24.exe (Just run and confirm admin right. Silent installer, does not post success message)
  • CreativeAudioEffectsComponentInstaller_2.0.0.36.exe
  • Sound Blaster Connect should immediately, automatically install Windows Store after the last step
• Final Reboot (just for fun)

This should "just work".

You'll never be screwed, there is always a way.

If this continues to persist despite our clear instructions, we might open another thread and collect more data on such edge cases. We already reported the general feedback to Intel, but it seems to be complicated and they are probably lacking hard data on these edge cases. There are Windows UWP apps, Creative's licensing scheme, the integration into Realtek audio, random driver inserts from Windows Update etc.

My minimum demand from Intel would be to just supply a "one click" installer for the whole package and make sure to deploy this into Windows Update as a fallback option. So far, Intel has been silent on these suggestions, but we will get back to it in due time.

This person has tried and given a very minimalistic thumbs up, so far. Our own Linux subsidiary hasn't started working on it yet due to other pressing matters. But they have a sample on hand and will get to work on it soon.

We checked with them. They confirm that this was intentional. I'm asking them now whether they intent to bring the "no logo" option back some time in the future.

// Tom

 

Ah, just checking with the rest of you - when I boot my machine, the only logo I see is "Intel" - am I the only one? Everyone else is seeing XMG, Eluktronics etc.?

I don't have an ACPI event for "opening lid" at all, i.e. opening the lid is invisible to the OS (I do have one for closing the lid, which was what made me post/comment about it in the first place, the asymmetry was puzzling to me). It does not appear in the device manager, it is not an option in my power management control panel. Is this something introduced in a later BIOS than mine? (I'm of the "if it ain't broke don't touch it" camp so have not considered updating my BIOS so far).

I, too, am impressed. I don't live in Germany but I do visit (am certain to do so again in 1 or 2 months, maybe for the Christmas markets), so if you guys (1) will ship to a hotel, and (2) can do a VAT refund, I'd definitely look to buying something from you! (VAT ... it's just that 17% on top of what I'll have to pay my own government is just too much/uncompetitive).

 

Question - if the above process is not followed/borked in some way, would there be any indicators showing this in device manager?

I'm thinking there may be value in someone posting screenshots for "known good" installations, so that people can confirm that what they've got is "correct".

 

I'm a Mac user too - have been hanging on to my mid-2015 MBPs all this time since I decided I did not want to use the new keyboards and be stuck with USB-C only ports. One of the reasons I bought my QC7 because I got tired of waiting/hoping for Apple to change direction. I don't think you should consider Windows to be a problem specifically because of this - look at the various Catalina problems. The Apple of today really isn't identical to the Apple that I - and I suspect you - had relied on.

If you search forums etc. you'll see that Razer is also not without its own complaints about build quality, reliability etc. What I'd say is that if you're not focussed on gaming capabilities, then there are a LOT of options where everything is done for you and you don't have to deal with drivers at all (the higher end HP laptops for example). One reason why everyone here is mucking about with drivers etc. is because, well, that's the sort of thing people who seek out this category of machine does. This is not representative of the entire Windows ecosphere.

 

sorry for spamming everybody (and, err, quoting myself) but am trying (badly) to separate by topic -

I attach screenshots -



I have a power button, a sleep button, and a "lid close", but no "lid open":



Am I missing something?

 

Depends. If there are any indicators, they might not be obvious. You probably won't see any obvious errors, warning or question marks. Maybe only naming and driver version mismatch.

Some screenshots from my XMG FUSION 15 where Soundblaster is working correctly. These screenshots are from 4 weeks ago:

• Apps & Features Overview
• Apps & Features Soundblaster Connect Advanced Options
• Device Manager Overview
• Realtek Audio Device Properties
• Sound / Speakers Output Device List
• Sound Blaster Connect Settings / Version

We can ship to a hotel, yes. VAT refund is a bit more complicated and your milage may vary.

A direct refund of VAT by us is not possible. The refund is only possible via Global Blue Refund Cheque.

Apply for the required Global Blue Refund Cheque directly with your order on Bestware. The Refund Cheque is filled by our staff and will have to be stamped together with the goods at customs during your departure. You can then cash out the stamped Refund Cheque in a filing offices of Global Blue world. These collection points can be found in every major airport. You can find a list of all sales outlets here. Your invoice address on Bestware needs to be the address in your home country outside the EU. Shipping address can be your hotel in Germany.

To make sure that the refund goes smoothly, it is best if you carry an additional document, which lists the same address.
A refund is only possible if the article is unused and in its original packaging. Customs reserves the right to not stamp already used products. Without customs stamps a refund by Global Blue is not possible.
The VAT refund will not be received in its full amount. Instead, a part of the VAT is kept as a handling fee by Global Blue. The exact percentage depends on the total value of the article. To find out the exact amount that you will receive as a refund, refer to here

For more information about Global Blue Refund Cheques, see the FAQ Global Blue.

No, you are not missing anything. This is all correct. Windows does not know about the "Open Lid" action, because it's done while Windows was still sleeping. Windows only knows that it was awoken. This is handled by the EC/BIOS and not visible to Windows.
After the laptop woke up from Standby from opening the lid, the command " powercfg /lastwake" will ouput: Wake Source: Fixed Feature, Power Button

In other words: it just works. You don't have to enable it or anything.
I'm not aware that this was introduced in some BIOS, but I can't be 100% sure about it. I would advise you to upgrade to BIOS 0056 and hit the "Load Setup Defaults" in the "Exit" category, then (optionally) enable "Fast Boot", then try again.

// Tom