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

I would but windows 10 gives me a bunch of warnings and it's not in english when I install it which makes me wary about installing it....

 

Did you open the panel multiple times??
I didn;t do a fix rather got replacement as it was from start. One fix I read was to open panel and place electrical fabric tape around the creaky place

 

I opened the laptop 2 times

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

Hey guys, 1660ti Aftershock owner here built in July-
Is anyone else having problems with their computer not going into sleep/hibernation? It seems every time the computer tries to enter state S3 (I believe), the computer wakes itself up and remains awake until 3 hours (the default time for the computer to sleep due to idle) passes and then tries again, to the same result. With powercfg -lastwake I receive ACPI Wake Alarm and no other information.
This is just killing my battery.
Updated to BIOS 0056, control center .17 and running NVIDIA driver 436
Thanks

Edit: even when switching to closing the lid to go into hibernation instead of sleep, it still seems to happen. Will edit & post what I see in event viewer once I'm home.

 

Yes, I have this problem as well.

Today, for example, my laptop sat in my bag for most of the day and was warm whenever I got it out. The battery drained from 100% to the mid 80's. The cause is 'ACPI wake-up alarm' also, which triggers every three hours and knocks off 1-2% of the battery every time. I have switched off 'wake for alarms' in the advanced power settings menu.

I was just about to email aftershock.

 

I've tried dealing with Aftershock and it seems like they've lied to me several times, saying that I'm not able to use other supplier's BIOS's and control centers... They also took my laptop in for a day and said the problem was fixed.. which it isnt... Good luck with it though, do let me know how you get on with it. Also, out of curiosity, what's everyone's battery life like? sitting here with one chrome tab open on balanced mode & half brightness 93% battery, estimated time remaining is 3h13mins.... after checking again whilst typing this comment it's changed to 92% 2h47min remaining...

Also, when watching youtube videos, every so often I get a freeze frame and a sound almost like when you're watching a dvd that's scratched (buzzing?)... Anyone else getting this?

Edit: checking 5mins after posting this its showing 6h28min 90% remaining, despite not changing one thing apart from opening another chrome tab. I'll take it windows' estimations are just really inaccurate sometimes?

 

Should be able to get >500 mins. Check with hwinfo. If not, refer to my previous thread and try the method (Intel Graphics Command Center)

 

Fusion 15 1660ti ordered today! Hopefully, it will only take one week, because I need it for my studies.

 

Hello everybody !

How to know the version of the control center ?
Thxn a lot !

 

Hi all,

I have a proposal, that everyone - whether posting positives or negatives, include as a kind of header or footer (or at least somewhere clearly demarcated in their post) info about their machine, so that everybody can maybe start seeing any patterns easier? Like,

-------------------------
GPU variant:
BIOS version:
Control Centre version:
Manufacturing date:
XTU running/version:
Hwinfo running/version:
-------------------------


(what else is important?)

(I was gonna do "driver versions" but that could make this very long and discouraging... but then it IS kind of relevant?)

 

Could you link me to your previous thread.
I am having the same issue with the above posters with the Aftershock Vapor

 

Try going into bios and reset to default, then save and boot.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-15-vapor-15-pro.830272/page-90#post-10966969
Note that this method might not solve your problem - I don't have 100% guarantee on this

 

If you do this, don't forget to turn on the fast boot option again as it defaults to off.

 

Mag 15 1660ti.

I have similar issue. One minute the estimated battery would be ~3 hours, then when I recheck 5 min later it’s bumped up to 6 hours despite not changing anything.

Also, my battery would drain 10-20% overnight on sleep mode with lid closed. I send Eluktronics a message about this issue, but no response. I’ve read that turning off fast boot can decrease battery drain? Anyone tried this?

Lastly, I have my unit undervolted -125. It’s stable when plugged even when playing AAA titles. However, I get frequent bluescreen on battery mode. Anyone else experienced this?

 

I have not experienced any of this but to be fair I did an entire re install of windows 10. Machine has no battery drain issues, no studdering and everything works as expected.

Only thing that concerns me are these blasted fans, they are louder than I'd like vs my m15...

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

anyone had any luck setting the panel to 120hz rather than 144?

 

Vapor 1660ti

Turned off wake API and turned intel control centre to maximum battery, and this morning when I turned the computer on it had lost 25% of its battery and was warm to touch, was clearly awake.

Not sure what I have done/am doing wrong.

@XMG any thoughts on this Tom? This laptop is close to perfect for me, but the battery drain in sleep does worry me a great deal.

To be specific, it doesn't seem to drain in sleep, it seems to wake up randomly for periods of time and drain battery

 

You can try Custom Resolution Utility although I don't know why you want to reduce to 120 hz. You can cap the fps with riva statistics tuner to 120 fps across the board. The battery savings aren't as much as you would hope (you'd save maybe 20 minutes)

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

"
I found out that the laptop wakes up exactly 3 hours after I put it to sleep, so I googled again using this new piece of data.

Paradoxically, my laptop (and probably many other laptops) wakes up in order to hibernate, but for some reason the hibernation fails - resulting with the laptop "staying awake".

Solution
Right-click on the Start button and select "Power Options".

"Change when the computer sleeps" > "Change advanced power settings"

"Sleep" > "Hibernate after"

• On battery: Never
• Plugged in: Never"

Found this on the internet, try this yet?

 

I will try this and report back, but I think it actually does fix things.
Thank you.

 

We are not able to build the laptop without the XMG logo. Our logo is printed via UV printing already in the factory and cannot be removed.

Thank you!

My contact at dbrand says that they hope to bring the "no logo" option back soon. They will reach out to me if and when it is available.

Click on the little cogwheel in the top right corner.

This is how it works:

• Fans go to 30%C when CPU is at 50°C or higher
• CPU temp needs to be below 48°C for a consecutive 3 minutes before the fans go 'off'

If your system is currently at 48°C CPU Temp, the fans won't turn off by design.
If you have generally elevated CPU usage, you might have certain background tasks running (File Indexing, Security Software or something like this)
Other contributing factors: system monitoring software (preventing sleep states, keeping power consumption high) and elevated room temps.

Exactly.

There are currently no official plans for manual fan control. The idea to (optionally) keep the fan running at lowest RPM has been submitted to Intel but so far with no feedback.
30% fan speed is the lowest speed that the manufacturer of the fan guarantees. If you design a manual fan curve with lower fan duty, the fan might not turn on or it might make strange noises.

First time I heard about this.
I wouldn't suspect drivers. After all, you are probably running the same drivers as everyone else. I suspect 3rd party software, performance tuning or undervolting. Please try to remove every non-essential software, reset your undervolt and try again. If this does not help, try a clean Windows re-install.

We do not have access to these blueprints. But we do have spare parts in stock.

I can confirm: Intel and their partners have reproduced the issue and they have applied with NVIDIA for a solution.
I don't know how long this will take but I will post updates in my Reddit thread when I have news.

Interesting.



Under normal circumstances, 7-10W Idle power consumption is normal.
The fact that you had 25~35W in Idle seems to be caused by an external factor. This could be one of the known issues or maybe a 3rd party system monitoring tool running in the background.
But the fact that you were able to fix this via Intel Graphics Command Center might point Intel in the right direction. I will share this with Intel.

Thank you everyone for these reports.
Random Wake-up issues were supposed to be fixed in BIOS 0056. Since updating that BIOS, I didn't encounter any wake-up issues on my sample anymore.
I will report your cases to Intel and see what they have to say.

Kind Regards,
XMG|Tom

 

We have now created a survey where you can fill in your configuration data and select the issues that still affect you in your current configuration.

Click here:
Technical Issues on Intel QC71 / https://forms.gle/rTrrG4kWZAYSnr34A

This form aims to collect as much technical details as feasible on remaining issues. If you fill out this form, please fill it out accurately to the best of your knowledge. Do not ommit any tweaks and do not over-report issues.

This form is supposed to reflect your _current_ state. If you have had issues in the past and those issues have now been fixed by certain updates or tweaks, please don't report them in this form. Instead, you can submit this form multiple times to reflect different configuration states and issue results.

Exception: the "Control Center Freezing" issue can still be reported in this form if it occured on your current configuration, even if you uninstalled Control Center since then.

The data is collected anonymously. Optionally, you can include your forum/reddit nickname or e-mail address if you wish to reference your submission in your contact with us. Collecting your system Serial Number is optional, but we ask you to fill it out because it could help Intel to pinpoint certain issues to certain production batches. It would also give a bit more weight to the reports if your S/N is included.

If you have any suggestions for common 3rd Party Tools and Tweaks we should include in the survey, please let me know!

Cheers,
XMG

 

Did all of the above and my discharge rate is -12-15 at idle - lower power, battery mode etc, at its lowest...interesting that despite turning everything down it is still idling higher than 7-10.

I wonder what is different...

I have to say again Tom, thank you so much for your involvement on this forum/reddit...the Aftershock team and yourself were one of the reasons I pulled the trigger on this laptop and don't regret it.

 

My TB3 port doesn't seem to be detecting any device that is plugged in. But it shows up in device manager and TB control center as without error. Anyone with ideas to fix this?

 

This is -12~15 Watt discharge rate, right? With which tool are you reading this?

The tool itself might increase the power consumption. My 7~10W info comes from a wall socket power monitor with charger attached. I'm not using any 3rd party software to take those readings.
Apart from uninstalling system monitoring tools, you can lower the LCD brightness and enter flight mode to achieve the 7~10W Idle Consumption at the wall socket.

Specifically, which USB-C devices have you tried to plug-in so far?

Two more remarks around this issue:

1/
Intel has a Thunderbolt firmware update in the pipeline (supposedly almost ready for release) that is able to fix previously known issues around Thunderbolt Power Delivery, maybe it fixes your issue too

2/
USB-C is also partially managed by the NVIDIA Graphics driver. We have already seen a correlation between the accidental Wakeup issue after 3 hours (180min) due to Device ACPI000E = Nvidia USB Type-C Port Policy Controller.
I wonder what other surprises NVIDIA is holding in the bag for Intel. Can you do something crazy for me and uninstall your NVIDIA driver (via Apps & Features) and install the older NVIDIA 436.48 WHQL DCH for me? Thank you!

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

 

You can completely disable hibernation by opening an admin CMD and typing "powercfg /h off" this will also free up some drive space about equal to your total ram capacity by removing the hiberfile.

 

If you are running hwinfo, you should be able to see the discharge rate without any increase in the discharge.

On my old alienware M15, I was able to get 7-7.5W discharge at idle. This was at the lowest brightness setting, keyboard lighting off, battery saver mode on from windows (which didn't have any significant impact anyways).

 

Has anyone thought of a way to physically reduce the fan noise? Alternative heatsink perhaps? Or maybe same heatsink but with different fans? I feel like if this laptop had heat pipes (hollow pipes with vacuum sealed drops of water) it would really help with getting rid of heat and mitigate that big hot spot in the middle where the chips reside.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

This laptop has 4 heat pipes with two fans and 4 heatsinks.

 

I was told that the heat pipes aren't the hollow kind (vacuum sealed with water inside). Can @XMG or @Eluktronics confirm this? As for the fans, is there any way to install quieter fans? I noticed the mech 17 has a slightly bigger fans with the same pin connector/manufacturer and might produce less whiney noise (assuming the fans fit and I think the screw holes are the same).

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

As far as I know all heatpipes are hollow but if these are not vapor filled then that would be silly as that's the best for this application.

 

I read about this somewhere but can't find it now.

When plugging in an external display, my dGPU turns on immediately, running at 300MHz when doing nothing on the laptop.
Is there a way to use iGPU for the external display? Fans come on quite often with dGPU @ 300MHz.
I am using the USB-C port to connect to the display.
Thanks!

 

Very interesting, and good find!

Question - does hibernate outright work for you, i.e. when you specifically tell the machine to hibernate, does it work or is there some kind of problem preventing it also?

 

USB C port is directly connected to dGPU so you cannot use integrated GPU. This was one of the only ways this laptop could get gsync since HDMI does not support gsync. I doubt it's JUST the dGPU causing the fans to spin up, I've had the dGPU on battery saver on and the fans didn't kick on unless the temps rose above 50C

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

@XMG @Eluktronics would you possibly have any idea how I can get my hands on the spec sheet of the fans installed on this chassis? I want to see if I can find quieter fans to modify an existing heatsink or 3D print some new fans that aren't as obnoxiously loud. Alienware m15 r1 on max fans are quieter than this machine @ 80% with better GPU and CPU temps and I'm very curious to find out why.

So far I have found out the following:
Fans model [Mag 15]
Sunon EG50060S1-C380-S9A (DC 5V 2.25 w, 50mm, 4-wire 4-pin connector bare fan)

Fan model [mech 17 I think]
Sunon EG75070S1-C460-S99 (DC 5V 2.25 w, 50mm, 4-wire 4-pin connector bare fan)

Looks like the connector is the same between the 2 but I think the 2nd model has more blades and might be slightly bigger. I'm honestly willing to try anything to reduce the noise on these fans on an otherwise close to perfect machine.

 

If you disable Hibernate, then "Fast Boot" will not work anymore, making your Cold Boot time longer - just FYI.
Hibernate is actually a very cool feature; I use it all the time. I always skip Sleep/Standby and go straight to Hibernate. Have done this since it got stable around Windows XP, Service Pack 2. #oldschoolcool

As others have said: both USB-C and HDMI are directly connected to dGPU. On top of the extra 300MHz idle activity, the activated dGPU also keeps more PCI-Express lanes on the PCH busy, preventing it from C8 sleep states. A slightly higher Idle temperature is to be expected.
This might be compounded by 3rd party system monitoring tools, if you run any.
Many of the open tickets we have with Intel right now revolve around these Idle power consumption and 3rd party tool issues, so who knows? Maybe a future update will improve your experience further.

I can try to get the spec sheets for you. We might also be able to sell you spare fans from other models (like MECH-17) if you're in the EU.
The original fan in QC71 is pretty much this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32993066249.html
Two pieces, with the 2nd one assembled upside-down.

So far I have only 2 (two) responses on this form. This form is open to any owner of Intel QC71, no matter if it's purchased from XMG, Eluktronics, AftershockPC, MainGear or any other brand.

If you have been affected by issues discussed in this thread, please take 5 minutes to fill out the form. Thank you!

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

 

Let me know if you find it. I'm really interested in digging around and seeing if I can get any compatible fans that could work with this chassis. From what I can tell the mech 17's fans are at least 5 DBa quieter on max which is a lot coming from someone who enjoys 49 DB noise. Trying to see if I can find it on amazon or ebay as I live in the US.... Also get me the specs for how much air the fan blows, how many blades and any more info you can give. Thank you for all the help!

 

So, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Vapor 15 by Aftershock. I have yet to tinker with it when I get back to my home country (flew to SG coz it was cheaper for me to fly than have it shipped), but my experience with their staff in person was very underwhelming. I had so many questions regarding everything I read on this thread, but the once who knew what they were talking about all seemed too busy to in their backroom to entertain a single guest for a long period. Their online CS is a different story though, much better. I guess my expectations of their service was too high given how well they treated me online. Now I have no idea where to begin with this when I get home. (Not a tech savvy and have been using a Macbook for a very long time.)

 

Just install your productive software and use the machine. You don't have to tinker at all.

// Tom

 

Any word on the RGB integration with the aurora project? I see there are a bunch of registry edits under the control center install folder, I'd imagine you could in theory make a profile and then dynamically change and apply the rgb values through registry edits possibly.

 

1) Hopefully

2) Tried connecting my phone via a C to C cable, Dell - Thunderbolt Dock, USB - C dongle. All do not work. Before and after the driver reinstall to NVIDIA 436.48 WHQL DCH. Each of those devices work with my Razer Blade Stealth.

 

Since plugging in the external monitor through USB-C, my dGPU doesn't want to switch back to iGPU even after unplugging the monitor and cable, restart doesn't help either. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Nvidia driver, CC to version 15, but didn't help. So my fans are on again, almost all the time, plugged in or unplugged, battery life reduced again to 2-3 hours... This laptop has it's own will. Is this a driver issue or what else could it be?

 

Have you done into Nvidia control panel and enabled the little tray icon to show if the gpu has a program running on it? Perhaps something is still running on the Nvidia gpu? If not, I think you could also try disabling the Nvidia gpu in device manager then enabling it to see if it stops the behavior.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for the tip. I tried this, and there were a few programs running on the dGPU (some background programs, I don't know why), which I closed, but the issue persists. dGPU doesn't turn off based on HWiNFO, or Control Center or the fans being constantly on and battery discharge above 20W, or the heat it produces. However hovering over the Nvidia icon on the tray it says GPU inactive, and Task Manager shows GPU @ 0%. Very curious.

EDIT: Uninstalling Control Center seems to have solved the issue - dGPU turns off when not needed. I'll keep it uninstalled for a few days to see what happens.

 

Hey everyone, and particularly @Eluktronics and @XMG

i'm gonna be using my MAG 15 in Europe a lot and will obviously need to plug it in to charge it.

Since the power plugs are different, what kind of adapter will I need ? Can I just buy anything like that ( https://www.amazon.fr/Skross-1-500211-Adaptateur-voyage-universel/dp/B005P21MNW/ref=sr_1_5?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=3DHQKUMUCUSQZ&keywords=adaptateur+prise+usa+vers+france&qid=1574381982&sprefix=adaptateur+prise+,aps,188&sr=8-5&th=1) or does it need to have specific specs ? Do i simply need an adapter, or a voltage converter ?

Alternatively, can I buy an european power unit from @XMG and just plug it into the mag 15 ?

Thanks in advance.

 

I still do not have access to the control panel source so that I can reverse engineer the commands sent to the keyboard over USB HID.

You just need to adapt the socket the power brick is universal voltage. You can also opt to buy a different AC power cable if you wish. But a general socket adapter should be fine.

 

Hi,

I checked your adapter website https://i-tec.cz/de/produkt/c31dp60hzp-3 and from their FAQ question 4, the adapter can only support maximum 60 Hz? My external monitor is 2560×1440 @144Hz but when I go to https://www.testufo.com/refreshrate it can only get about 70Hz+

Thanks.

 

Just an adapter like;

 

Look on page 83 and the post from XMG...

I mentioned a similar issue through HDMI and using an external monitor. Maybe this applies to you too.