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

You can verify the MOD by looking at other Chassis’s that feature Eluktroboost such as the 2019 Mech G2. Many sell that chassis but not all have the boost mod.

That thread and community dwarfs this one and if the mod wasn’t a mod then we would have known about it long ago. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/tongfang-gk5cn5z-gk5cn6z-gk5cq7z-gk5cp0z.815943/

If it was a bios flash or a text change on those it would be everywhere

 

I am only speaking about the QC7 in this instance. I have not seen anyone compare the PCB's of the Mag 15 to any of the other systems. Do you have any high quality images of the PCB for the Mag 15?

 

Hey B0B so I get my unit in tomorrow. What are the first things I should do when setting it up for the first time? Wanted to get some tips on the best things to prep out of the box. I plan to swap out the 512GB SSD with a 2GB NVME that I own and upgrade the ram from 16gb to 32gb.

 

I think this answers it. Eluktronics doesn't mod anything themselves for this system.

 

Can you link a link in Amazon to make sure i get the right tape?

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Eluktroboost = marketing. There is no possible way eluktronics has the technical capabilities to do hardware mods.

 

I used a tape similar to this. But I guess any kind of fabric/cloth tape should do.

 

I edited and clarified my original post now and added some info about factory option and firmware flash:

• It is not an Eluktronics-exclusive feature.
  
• It's a hardware modification in so much as that it's part of the mainboard layout from the original ODM, TongFang, who have implemented this in numerous laptops since the beginning of 2019.
• Therefor, every branded reseller of this ODM can have feature included, but they need to explicitly order it from the factory. If they do, they usually get a bigger power supply (230W instead of 180W on some models) and it gets unlocked with a non-public firmware writing procedure which is not overwritten by flashing the BIOS, no matter from where you take your BIOS ROM
  
• On QC71 to my knowledge, the feature is always included - Intel so far has not allowed any non-cosmetic customizations or leaving out any factory options
  
• It can carry different labels, depending on the brand. We initially call it "Overboost"
• You might need the Control Center to trigger the BIOS into switching into the performance mode that unlocks this feature.

Meanwhile: I had a call with Intel in Portland on Wednesday and yesterday I met their team in Taipei. I can confirm that the following software/firmware issues have been confirmed and reproduced and Intel is working on solutions:

• Periodical Wakeup from Standby
• Control Center Freeze, related to various root causes including NVIDIA and Intel Graphics driver
• Issues with Idle Power Consumption and Battery Life (dGPU always "ON" amongst others)
• Stuttering on external screen when internal screen is disconnected (lid closed)
• Various DPC Latency spikes

They might even try to slightly increase the Gaming Performance in Battery Mode, but I wouldn't cound on it yet. For some of the mentioned issues, I might expect a new Control Center and BIOS Update some time next week. So, stay tuned!

Btw - has anyone done the Thunderbolt Update? // Tom

 

Oh man that gets me excited can't wait to see the updates they will try to do. I think the 2070 Max q with electroboost/overboost is better than the 2070 super Max q coming next year with 80w tdp. If that's even real of course.

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UPDATE: Haven't been experiencing freezing or battery issues since downgrading to NVIDIA Graphics Driver 436.48. I was able to use my laptop for more than 6 hours of regular use (Google Chrome + Skype messaging) without needing to charge, but I think the Battery Display is still quite sporadic. Another thing, I sometimes feel like performance on Power saver mode is a bit too underwhelming at times? I experience a bit of lag when too many tabs are open in Google Chrome, but when switching to Balanced mode everything seems fine. Unless this is normal?

• BIOS 0056
• Intel Graphics Driver 26.20.100.7463
• Aftershock Control Center 2.1.0.15
• NVIDIA Graphics Driver 436.48

 

One screw on my laptop is completely damaged, so now I can't open the laptop anymore to put an SSD in.
Edit: Finally was able to get it out, but screw is damaged to much to put it back in.

 

Just noticed Microcenter started to sell the Maingear Element..

https://www.microcenter.com/product/613308/maingear-element-el3-156-gaming-laptop-computer---black

 

Edit:

Called bestware/xmg and they will ship out a new set of screws for laptop

 

Has anybody bought a smaller power supply? From my understanding there are 3 version:
-Official one with 230w
-230w from XMG neo that should be still -100% compatible and it’s (a little) smaller
180w somewhat compatible one from XMG Core that should be even smaller

anybody got a photo of one of these smaller power supplies?

 

So mixed feelings till now .

Laptop arrives with damaged screw. The laptop also scratches so fast, I already got scratch on top, so I immediately ordered those d-brand skins.

Battery however is surpassing the alienware m15.



The CPU however sometimes draws way to much power. Sometimes can burst up to 12w CPU package power.

 

Why do you even need to swap out the SSD? This has two M.2 NVME slots

Ahhh, you might want to dig through the earlier pages, Eluktronics offers a smaller 230W power supply and posted a link and a picture of it

 

Well change of plans and snagged the Maingear from Microcenter. Now just need to see how to get the updated bios from Maingear for my laptop.

 

@Eluktronics @XMG where can I buy the screws for the bottom plate? I feel like every time I open it I'm stripping the screws

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Is there an ETA on when I can update to the latest nvidia driver without having freezing issues? I just purchased an amazing LG OLED TV on Black Friday that supports G-Sync, and it requires a more updated nvidia driver for this function to work. So currently the QC7 is the only device on the market that is incompatible since you can't update the drivers......

 

@XMG Quick question, is overboost/electroboost tied to the G1 power profile for the GPU? Or does it HAVE to be the first option in command center in order for the overboost/electroboost to engage? Also do you know where I can buy the screw for this chassis on ebay or amazon here in the US @Eluktronics?

 

My laptop keeps waking up every 3h:01m:34 or 35s. Reason: Device - ACPI Wake alarm. This is strange because in power settings sleep timers are off and hibernate should happen after 3h. So it looks like its waking up from standby to go in hibernate, but then fails to do this.

I have seen on reddit that multiple laptops suffer from this issue.. Ok so a possible solution is to set hibernate after 30 min instead of 3h.

@XMG in Control Center .17 the application seems to be running on the graphics card after a reboot or hibernate. If i kill the application in task manager, it doesn't do it anymore after restarting control center.

 

Can someone with the Aftershock Vapor 15 confirm if the laptop has an Eluktroboost equivalent in their Performance Mode?

 

I'm wondering if this is some kind of Windows bug... have you tried manually disabling "wake timers" in the advanced power settings?

 

On battery it was already disabled, which didn't have any effect.

Could everyone please type this in CMD in administrative mode: powercfg -energy. And tell me if you get any errors.

My errors:
Realtek USB 3.0 Card reader can't go in proper idle state
Platform Power Management Capabilities: PCI Express active-state power management (ASPM) disabled. Due hardware incompatibility.

People with same problem, but they all have different brands laptop. https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/bjlok7/laptop_wakes_from_sleep_to_go_into_hibernate_but/

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=320611.0

 

If you live in the EU, please write to [email protected] and tell us how many screws you need. With our first spare part shipment, we have 400pcs of spare screws in stock.

If I remember correctly, it's tied to G1, no matter which system profile you're running.

I cannot reproduce this. Do you have an external screen connected? Feel free to make a quick video with your phone and put it on streamable.com

I was told by Intel to expect a major update to fix this issue this week. Finger's crossed!
But are you sure you need an NVIDIA driver update to your LG OLED TV? The "G-SYNC compatible" update has already rolled out with NVIDIA 417.71 in January 2019. Source

According to the latest info from Intel's ODM, this is a Windows issue that has been introduced with Windows 10 Version 1903 (aka RS6). I was given this workaround last week and I tested it over the weekend with all other settings at default. For me, this has completely fixed the issue. My system has entered Sleep and later transitioned to Hibernate. According to Event Viewer, it has not woken up a single time for 3 days now.

Permanent workaround for periodical Sleep Wake-up issue

Features:

• Fixes the periodical wake-up issue from Standby and Hibernate
  
• Still allows you to automatically doze to Hibernate after 180min to save battery life
• Will stay persistent until next clean Windows installation or system roll-back

Method #1: via Local Group Policy Editor (GUI)

• Open the "Local Group Policy Editor" by search for "Edit group policy" in Start Menu
• Navigate to the key below in the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor:
• Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Maintenance Scheduler
• Double click "Automatic Maintenance to Wake Up Computer", select "Disabled" and finish with "OK" or "Apply"
• Screenshot (with annotations)

Method #2: It might also be possible to apply this fix via Registry Key "Activation Boundary" in "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Task Scheduler\Maintenance" but I haven't quite figured out yet how this works. Source

Please let me know if this workaround via Local Group Policy Editor works for you!

I have asked Intel to keep investigating with Microsoft to provide a clean solution with Driver, Firmware or Windows Update which may not require a manual Local Group Policy change in the future.

This workaround can also be discussed here on Reddit.

Cheers,
XMG|Tom

 

Yes (if setup correctly)

 

That's good to know its a known issue. I have tried method 1, I'll report back if it succeeds going in to hibernate.


Also the control center bug happens occasionally. I'll try to capture it when it happens. I have my GPU setup in a way that they only use the intergrated gpu and not the nvidia gpu.

 

What does that mean? How can I check if my laptop is "set up correctly"?

 

@XMG Sadly your method didn't work.

Eventviewer should give the following results when it succeeds to go from S3 to S4:

Source: kernel power (reason: Hibernate from Sleep - Fixed Timeout)
Source: Power - troubleshooter (wake source: S4 Doze to hibernate)

When it fails it does this:
Source: Power - troubleshooter (wake source: Device - ACPI Wake alarm.


Very annoying bug.

PS
Did anyone find a good sleeve yet? All the sleeves are too big or too tight.

 

100% sure this requires an updated driver, as this is a different implementation than other g-sync compatible displays, requiring HDMI instead of Displayport. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/g-sync-compatible-2019-lg-tv-available-now/

Separately, I'm wondering if anyone else is encountering thermal/ring throttling when well below the thermal limit. I'm seeing thermal throttling in HWinfo happening at 80 degrees and even less sometimes. Any clue as to why this would be happening?

 

Your LG OLED Tv will work with the drivers available, you will not be able to get 4k 120hz as nvidia does not support HDMI 2.1 so you will be stuck at 4k 60hz on PC until new cards come out with HDMI 2.1 or a firmware update on 20 and 16 series cards.

 

So I need help answering this riddle

Originally I had 1 m.2 slot in slot #2 with stock install, everything boots up and we are happy.

Then I installed a 1 TB nvme SSD in m.2 slot #1 and installed Windows 10 on it. When I boot windows asks me which ssd I should boot from so I always chose my #1. We good.

Now I installed another 1 TB m.2 and replaced my original installed m.2 500 GB Intel nvme SSD in slot #2. Now the laptop doesn't show me any options to boot from anything and in the bios I can see both m.2 slots populated.

Any suggestions on what I'd have to do to get back into my windows 10 in my #1 m.2?

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Windows boot loader is on your original drive, when you installed windows onto the second drive windows ignored the bootloader partition on the new drive, when you removed the original drive you removed the bootloader.

 

Any idea how to install it on the new drive without compromising the data or wiping windows?

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Not off the top of my head, sorry.

 

Hey,

Does anybody know how much of the configuration is stored in the hardware itself? For instance, keyboard backlight and performance mode button - if I set everything up and uninstall Control Center, would they still work properly?

The reason I'm asking is because I have two Razer keyboards and they only restore backlight configuration once Windows boots up, which makes it very inconvenient when I need to type in BitLocker pin late night... It would also be nice to have less bloatware running.

Thanks!

 

Correct versions of BIOS+Command center. Run Unigine Heaven and check GPU core clock via hwinfo/afterburner/any monitoring software

 

Typing on this keyboard is so nice. One of the best laptop keyboards.

 

Which are BIOS 0056 and CC .17?

 

@XMG any word on when update for Nvidia freeze coming out? Something tells me it's tomorrow and not today lol

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@eddi3x3x3 Just a matter of days now. Intel has a lengthy validation process for every update they release.

By the way, for those EU customers who have not pulled the trigger yet, check out our sales this week.

// Tom

 

@XMG do you guys ship to US? I need a custom keyboard layout and Eluktronics don't do that... I understand warranty concerns and all that, but honestly getting 3k laptop that is not configured to my liking - I'd rather risk shipping overseas...

 

Thanks so much, Tom. So this is valid until end of the week, correct? 100 Euro off is a different story

 

Damn! 7 idle? Mine is idling at 16-17 with everything like discord, steam, edge etc closed.

 

Could you post some screenshots of hwinfo. Like all off them

 

@XMG Hello. Bestware can ship to Russia? And what will be with VAT?

 

There is the official list of shipping territories: https://bestware.com/service/shipping/

If your country is not on that list, we can only set up a manual order if you order as a business with full registration. We have done so for the US, not sure about Russia though. If you want to order on behalf of a legitimate business, please write to [email protected]

Similar cases are currently under investigation. If you have such issues, please fill out this form to help us collect more data. // Tom

 

This didn't work for me either. The laptop fails to hibernate every 3 hours during sleep. I get an average battery drain of 1.1%/hour during sleep.

 

Intel has recently found out that installing all Windows Updates fixed the issue for them on some units, but not on all of them. Still investigating. // Tom

 

Can they mention if it's 1903 or 1909? Build version?

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