TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Also I am using XMG Bios. Is it better with Gaming Center 1.1.15.12 or 1.1.16.1?

 

I was going to say "everything is fine now with XMG BIOS, EC and gaming center !" But after a few reboots (I was replacing images and .ico from XMG's Control Center with the "normal" ones), my TP 1 and TP2 went back to 35W -_-
I have no idea how, knowing that I didn't installed XTU and that this version of the Gaming center doesn't run any xtu service (XTU are even not present in the installation folder).
What is the damn thing that semi-randomly resets power limits ??

Just before the 35W malediction I'm facing happened, I hit 1260 in Cinebench with a 165mV undervolt. And no thermal thottleling unlike newer BIOS and EC versions when you get rid of the 35W limitation

@lKinder_Bueno I'le try with 1.1.16.1 and tell you

 

Just got my Recoil 2 today and it really is a good laptop. The keyboard will take some time to get used to but everything else seems to be running fine except for one thing. The fan control in the Control Center just seems a bit off. It seems like it takes a minute or two to change the fan speed sometimes, mainly from the lowest possible to off. There's also the issue of the fans automatically cranking up to near max RPM even though I have set my own fan RPMs manually. This is with temperatures being just fine at around 75 on both the CPU and GPU. I guess this is the machine just trying to protect itself but it seems a bit too overprotective. Any idea on how to make the fans stay at the fixed RPM without them changing automatically?

 

Shows the two external displays are connected to the nVidia and the built-in display to the Intel. Windows 10 lets me set the middle display as my main display with the system tray showing. It's really much better than older versions of Windows.

 

After having it happen again, while it was on (and in turbo mode with dead fans) I closed the lid and flipped it over, then tried pressing on various parts around the fan housing. One spot in particular seemed to have the ability to turn on/off/glitch out the fans at will, so I took it home and opened it up, and there wasn't anything under that spot that could be moved. However, right under it is where the cord to the right side fan went onto the motherboard, and it appears that one of the bottom mounting screw points was pressing the cable into the MB (on a metal spot). When I opened it up before I didn't move around the cords at all, this time I pushed it to the side as best I could so the screw wouldn't screw it into the MB like before (!) before closing it and turning on the machine again. Pressing on the area seems to have no effect now and the fans seem to work properly, though I'm skeptical if I actually fixed the issue. I'm leaving the fans on for a while to see if they randomly shut off again or not, but hopefully I fixed it. And you were definitely right about the hardware bit lol.

 

I hope it's fixed now but both fans were off when you had the issue? Because you're talking about the screw on the right fan cord! Maybe because of the common heat pipe they are somehow wired to be dependent of each other, it seems a bit weird to me!

 

I found a program on a forum which can change the adapter type the notebook can take.
Our's is for the 150W but this program can change that to 180W, which I have, and here is the result;



PL1 55W
PL2 65W

Best CB scoore so far!

 

Hello Guys,

Because I don't have the time to read 101 pages of this thread to understand the issue, does anyone can just summarize what's the problem with power management and Game center that require a Bios flash? I run a gk5cn5z (1050Ti).

Thanks by advance.

 

For me 1.1.15.12 is the best one mainly because it doesnt set power limits to 35W (at least during a limited amount of time), while other newer version stick PL1 and PL2 to 35W straight after installation and first reboot.

Moreover the XMG version has no animated interface and no Mechrevo splashscreen (with the music) so it feels more light and easy to use to me.
However I discovered that you can tweak a little bit any Gaming center version before installing it by editing the setup.ini included with the installation file. You can:
- choose to activate or not animations (to disable: "Animation = 0x00" ; to enable: "Animation = 0x01"
- change application images/skin and icons by changing the name of image files (or you can also directly replace images into "logo" folder)
- change default langage - that can be also set after installation into the Gaming center app - (chinese : "Language = 0x01" ; english: "Language = 0x00")
- and change other default settings that can be changed in-app or through regedit (be careful)

But I found nothing about power limits

I also disabled OOBEI2CTpOnOffDetect and OSDTpDetect processes, which are installed with Gaming Center. Both seems related to the touchpad, but the only thing that seems to change when you kill/disable these processes is that there is no screen notification when you turn the touchpad on/off. But double tap on upper-left corner and Fn+F5 still works.

What is this program you're talking about ? Where can we find it ? Sound interesting, as newer Gaming center version could force PL1 and PL2 to 35W because they're set for 150W PSU ? Maybe.
About what you get in HWiNFO : My PL4 has always been 80W and not 110W (110 sounds extreme !). I get exact same PL1 and 2 (55 and 65W) when I quit or uninstall Gaming Center, and these values also remains after installing 1.1.15.12 (XMG) or 1.1.15.3 (PCS) for a limited amount of time, a few hours or reboots hard to say. After that it goes down to 35W, I don't know how or why.

 

@Blebleuh It's from Illgear, they use the same chassi:
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4577650/+400#

Link to file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-t8ECF7WREfkOLwYb4oKjl_LHZwRsyrW/view

Open up file, there is the oemserve, but you will have to extract the .exe file and then change to adapter type 2.

I'll upload mine here. Just run f.bat
Adapter type 3=150W 2=180W 4=120W you can edit f.bat and try 1 which would be 230W maybe...

 

PCS say they don't have an updated version. Did you get it from them directly or was it in your downloads?

 

Last version is 1.2.2.2: http://www.mechrevo.com/plus/search.php?keyword=MR 深海幽灵Z2(1050)&kwtype=0&searchtype=title&typeid=25&exact=1

Any one to explain the issue with power ?

 

A guy got PL1 55W and PL2 70W by using this latest 1.2.2.2 and the latest Bios 1.16 EC 1.33 by choosing gaming mode in booth tabs in gamingcenter.
Http://tieba.baidu.com/p/5900498104

 

I just checked with HWiNFO and my PL4 was 110W, I un-installed my PCS Gaming Center and re-installed it with animation turned off and now my PL4 is 80W but PL1 is 45W and PL2 is 78W previously 55W and 65W. I've found this so confusing and TS never seems to show the same values as XTU or HWiNfo. I guess I needed to press F3 to reset defaults after the uninstall.

I have the 180W adapter.

 

Sorry for my ignorance, what do you mean as a program that can change the adapter the notebook can take? Is there a software restriction?
I'm using a 180W adapter since more than a month without issues so I'm not understanding...

 

OMG THEY HAVE BROWN SWITCHES <3
It's sad we cannot get them :'-(

Thanks ! How did you get these info about changing adapter types ? Cannot find it in the forum link.

I tried your method (extract "GK5CN6Z ILL.exe", open F.bat with a text editor then change "adptype /set 3" by "adptype /set 2", then save and run F.bat) but it changed nothing
Are you still with XMG BIOS, EC and Control center, or did you switched with the ones from illegear (apparently newer bios but older ec) ?

Basically there is no global problem. Just that some BIOS perform better than other. The one from XMG (BIOS 1.03 and EC 1.29) seems to be the best in terms of perf, but the last one from Mechrevo (BIOS 1.16 and EC 1.33.09) have more options and seems more efficient in term of power economy.
I tried the last version and my processor power limits where stuck at 35W which results in bad performances (at least quite bad for this CPU model, but still good compared to average laptops). Just to let you know, normally the power boost limitation (PL1) of this CPU might be 45 or 55W, and the short power boost limitation (PL2) at 65W (sometimes we can see 78W). So it's quite a strong performance limitation when both PL1 and PL2 are stuck at 35W because of some software.

The thing is that I have the same problem (CPU power limitations stuck at 35W) with other BIOS versions but only when Gaming Center is installed. I noticed that early versions of the gaming center (1.1.15.3 from PCS or 1.1.15.12 from XMG) are causing this problem after a few hours of use and reboots, while more recent versions (last one is 1.2.2.2) set the 35W limitation immediately after the first reboot recommended after installation. I don't know if other people experienced the same issues and noticed it, but it bothers me since a few weeks and it's quite a time consuming task to try to resolve it...

So to make it short : If you are happy with your GK5CN5Z as it is, stay like this. If you experience some problems, or if you experience the 35W limitation and think it's a problem for you, consider switching to XMG BIOS and EC and use Gaming center 1.1.15.12.

i agree with you, this thread is very long and it's sometimes annoying to find the information you need. I am considering to summarize any important information / tutorial / download link / other ressource and ask to put them all in the first post.

I contacted the technical support, they contacted Tongfang, they got the 1.2.2.1 version, and the guy sent it to me through dropbox. I asked him if it was going to be available on the download page and he said something like "i imagine we will update this file soon".

 

Thanks fro these valuable informations

 

Post 402
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4577650/+400
I'm still on XMG Bios and EC, and also seeing great results with the latest gamecenter 1.2.2.2

Most resellers sold this notebook with 150W adapter, like mine. But the power requirements is more than 150W for i7 +1060 combo. So they fixed an artificial power limit in bios.
I guess with this program you program the bios to work with 180W adapter and it removes the power limit.

 

I saw this I meant where did you learn that type 3=150W, 2=180W and 4=120W ? Are you sure of this ?

 

Well i first tried 4 and it showed 120, then 3 is 150 so I tried 2 which gave 180W which I have. did not try 1 yet

 

Hey all, just an update on my upgraded bigger battery:
So I've actually purchased from this site before and they've always shipped fast. I got my battery yesterday (12 days total) to the U.S. After my purchase, Julie, the owner of the site reached out with customer care. She also mentioned they shipped to Europe, in case anyone is interested.
https://cheap-laptop-batteries.com/laptop-battery/getac-gk5cn-00-13-4s1p-0.htm

My notebook is a Eluktronics Mech 15 G2 (1060, 144hz, 8750h)
The install is straight forward, I had to sacrifice the 2.5" drive and remove the cable, but everything else stayed in place. All of the preexisting bolts lined up. I made sure to run CPU benchmarks before and after the install to ensure the battery is outputting the power it needs. No issues so far.

I'm running real world tests but it seems my battery life went from 2 hours to about 3.5-4, depending on the usage. I was hoping to get at least 6, but I can't complain.

Let me know if you have any questions. Before and after pics attached.

 

I see what you mean, I observed what commands are run by F.bat and I learned from it Typing "OemServiceWinApp.exe help" also gives good informations :

After seeing this I thought "why not give another try to most recent things, huh ?". So I (re)installed latest BIOS 1.16 and EC 1.33.09 as explained, installed last 1.2.2.2 gaming center (with my little tweak to avoid animations) and from what I see now, the key parameter is if you are in GAMING or OFFICE mode as fan setting. OFFICE mode will stick PL1 and PL2 at 35W while GAMING mode will release them up to 55 and 65W, regardless of the performance mode you use. So we have to keep in mind that OFFICE fan mode also also a kind of CPU power limiting and saving mode.

Performance modes will change minimum and/or maximum clock rate. In gaming and high performance modes you are stuck to 4000+MHz even when idle, while in power saving mode you will never exceed 2200MHz (so you should never reach PL1, which stays at 55W if you are in Gaming mode as fan setting).

Seems like my problem is now solved ! Everything seems to run fine with these lastest BIOS, EC and Gaming center. I can get a very low 0.5W PKG power when idle has well has a solid 55-65W at almost maximum clock speed without thermal throttling. Good results in Cinebench R15 between 1250 and 1260. Also the GAMING fan mode seems very reliable and well more optimized than on previous gaming center version. I guess fans are off under 40°C and seems to have a very progressive curve above, with some hysteresis.
So now I'm wondering if GAMING/OFFICE fan modes were the key of my problems since the beginning (as I almost all the time set fan mode to Office... while never thinking that it might impact CPU power). Anyway now I think I can say "victory !" and spend my time somewhere else ^^

 

I also installed the latest BIOS and EC with Gamecenter 1.2.2.2 and now I can control it much easier. Again I see 1260 in CB15 with the new BIOS.

 

You are an excellent fellow human beings, thank you very much for the service done to our planet. I am thinking about getting one as well, though the cost will be quite steep. I have to buy one extra SSD for the storage. Will wait until Christmas to get a deal on SSD.

 

Thanks, I've done all and now I'm getting same values as yours in HWiNFO and 1265 points on Cinebench. The fact that the power limit is increased is seen by the CPU Power Limit 4 (PL4) value that is increased from 80W to 110W? Thank you again.

 

haha no worries! We're all trying to look out for each other. Are you in Europe? They also have a Euro store: https://www.battery-store.eu/laptopcomputer/1005072.htm

I love the laptop but I wish the screen was brighter. Does anyone know if this uses a standard eDP 40pin?

 

What settings do you use to get 1260 in Cinebench?

During the testing of the different version of Gaming Center I got an error from XTU when rebooting. I didnt't look at the error properly but after the reboot XTU would not work claiming other monitoring software was already running. Finally I ran system restore and now XTU works again although it ran like it was the first time and now I get the following warning.

 

I sent my laptop 3 weeks ago for RMA. The laptop kept on booting to the bios. the motherboard has been replaced. I picked it up last Friday from the retailer.

I played some R6 Siege today. no problems, laptop worked as it should work. Until I came back from the gym in the evening. Wants to start up my laptop and it took 2 minutes before it finally starts up and my fan makes a strange crackin noise. I always turn off the laptop and remove the adapter before I leave. Also a row on the numpad remains blue. I can't turn it off or set it on a different color. If I turn the lightning off in the bios this row remains blue same for gaming center.

When I plug in the adapter the orange led turns on and this blue row, but after 2 seconds the whole keyboard turns on blue while the laptop is just off and charging...

I just want to play games and use it for school. And not want to have this weird issues.

Tommorow I'll go to the retailer.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk

 

Nothing special, just a basic 125 undervolt with XTU and the power limit “mod” from @steberg.
I’m doing the test in gaming mode obviously connected to the 180w power adapter. If usefull I’m using the gaming center 1.1.16.4 from Eluktronics with animations disabled.

 

Yes, I am in the UK. Thanks for posting the website, will order one during Christmas deal season.

 

New personal high score on Cinebench R15
BIOS v1.16 EC v1.33.09 Gaming Center v1.2.2.2
Using Throttlestop 8.70.6 : -162mV in Core and Cache, -40mV in iGPU. Tried to move IccMax but it doesnt seem to have any impact.

Gaming fan mode and Gaming performance mode set into gaming center. Other performance modes give a close result (between 1240 and 1260), but Office fan mode is a true bottleneck as it sets power limits to 35W.

During this run, PL2 (65W) has been hit only a few times at the beginning, and thermal throttle happened just a little bit at the end. Average PKG power was around 60W and clock rate at around 3900MHz

Recent versions of Gaming Center (from 1.1.16 I presume) use a custom version of XTU, and I also experienced weird behaviours while using full official XTU next to the Gaming center. My advice should be to not use XTU with these versions of the Gaming center, but only Throttlestop for undervolting. Power control seem anyway overridden by gaming center).
Just check inside the installation folder of the gaming cente (C:\Program files\OEM\) see if you have some files with xtu in their name. If so, I suggest you to fully uninstall XTU then gaming center, then re-installing gaming center then a clean version of Throttlestop, with a reboot between each step, and be careful to properly delete files that can stay after uninstalling (especially in the OEM folder).

Wow that is weird. Might be hardware only problem. Maybe check connections to the mobo, and see if a wire is pushed or strongly hold by a screw, as it happened to @admiralnerf for a fan problem. If you see nothing, I think you will have to send your laptop back again

 

I have a coupon to with Origin PC and they updated their EON 15 to use the TongFang platform. Just wanted to get everyone's feedback?

 

@steberg mine is 120W (i7 + 1050Ti).

Where can I buy a 180w adaptor for the gk5cn5z?
Where can I retrieve BIOS 1.16 and EC 1.33.09 for 1050Ti ?

 

I bought an ASUS 180W from AliExpress for 30€

 

@david04
Good to hear about the battery fitting in the G2, I'll probably get that battery myself since my SSD is big enough imo. You said you had to remove the HDD and its cable; was there anything else to unscrew besides the 3? 7? screws holding in the HDD or was that it?

 

This one match on Mechrevo: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Asus...108.1000016.1.43bd42bb6kQxXW&isOrigTitle=true ?

Any clue for BIOS and EC for the 1050Ti model ?

Any way to auto switch to power saving mode when running on battery ?

 

17,3" RECOIL II
just like TONGFANG GK5CN5Z but with 17,3"

Did you see that?
https://www.pcspecialist.es/notebooks/recoil-II-17/

 

Hey everybody,
I began to write a big post with any relevant information i've seen in this thread, sorted by category. I would like to upload some files (Gaming center installers, BIOS archives...). However I do not want to use a personal Drive or Dropbox account for this, I cannot upload everything here (files too big), and some external download links (from reseller for example) might disappear one day. So do you know any easy going hosting service I can use to do that ? Biggest files will around 40Mo.

Thanks for the community

 

mega.nz (file)
imgur (image)

 

I like the look of that keyboard... I wonder whether it would fit into GK5CN5Z chassis? In the photos it looks to be of similar dimensions.

 

Today the battery arrived. With my XMG setup I think I can reach around 5-6h with low power consumption settings.Linuxwise the battery gives me 3:30h up from 2h, but keep in mind I haven't set anything up that lowers the cpu. It just fires with full speed all the time, so with proper cpupower settings 4-5h might be possible. Right now while typing this Windows tells me I have 3:20h left with 56% battery power. I am quite happy withe the battery. I didn't remove the 2.5 cable, I tugged the, "plug"- dunno what the proper english expression is for that plastic thingy at the end of the cable is - under the 2nd m2. Worked for me.

 

you meant to tuck the cable?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tuck

 

Haha, yes obviously. I am not that brave as David to simply pull on a cable, which other end sticks somewhere on the dark side of the motherboard. I tucked the connector, but didn't remove the cable.
Does that makes sense to you ?

 

Lol, wow you're a magician! I couldn't find a way to tuck it. Good to know

 

Does anyone know how Gamingcenter alters/stores the profiles for the lighting? I don't much like the interface and would like to sync the light bar + keyboard color with my Rainmeter color scheme using another program (wasn't too hard to write something to edit the .ini files rainmeter uses thanks to ini4j), but I'm not sure where Gamingcenter is storing that stuff.

 

Oh, thanks! TYVM

 

So I've re-installed windows and now my CPU seems to be running a fair bit hotter than before despite the same Throttlestop settings used. Previously TS bench would stay around the 45w TDP mark and now it hits 55w, even with fans in turbo mode. I've re-installed the same version of gaming centre as previously, so am I little stumped as to why CPU seems to be using higher voltage this time around.
Thinking of using the v1.16 BIOS as blebleuh to see if that helps, could someone point me in the direction of where I can download it?

 

You can download it here. Careful, it seems to be for GK5CN6Z only !
Simple batch installation instructions translated from chinese here (original here).
Instructions describes the simple way for installation process with batch files (no EFI boot on USB drive). I'm not an expert at all on this topic but people say it's easy to brick your laptop with this method. If you do it anyway I suggest you to close all other app and window, unplug any device except AC adapter, and dont touch your laptop during the process (unless you're asked to). I did it twice and had no problem.

I don't know how to make a EFI installer archive from the provided files by Mechrevo. @lKinder_Bueno I believe you did this before with XMG BIOS. Can you give me some details ? I'll then put explanations on the mega-post I'm writing. By the way, the post is almost done with almost every file uploaded I just lack some GK5CN5Z BIOS, actually I only have one from Illegear (BIOS 1.06 EC 1.24.09). Do you know where I can got other ones ? Cannot find them

 

Hi, the mega link is without password, so i can't give a look to the bios and create the efi installer.
PS: i opened weeks ago a wiki for this laptop, but i never wrote anything because i never had time. If you want you can write there. Idk if it is better a forum thread
PPS: I created a YouTube playlist with all the video (some are mines) i found about this laptop https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeBnBfc4Yp_fOYJI8EwS_niCRR8kSmNOC