TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Well it would help if the vendor released a changelog / releasenote with both their BIOS and EC. So that we know what they changed and fixed in it. Usually on a PC it is worth updating the BIOS / firmware overall.

There are a couple of primary reasons, but your mileage may vary:

* Newer intel microcodes. This is useful for example when intel fixes bugs in their ISA layer leading to greater system stability and fewer hangs or other problems. Well whatever. Maybe you dont care about that stuff. Or you dont care about the security updates for the spectre meltdown... which is fine too. Not everybody actually cares about those things. Nor does it impact them.

However there is also:

* When the manufacturer updates their BIOS with new memory profiles. For RAM kits that they did not have the time or access to test with initially. But as time goes on, they either get around to it. Or they finally obtain such ram kits which they simply did not have on their site before.

Then they can improve the timings and ram compatibility with those other kits. Which might or might not affect you yourself. Depending which RAM you put inside your machines.

Well the reason why you might just want to update anyhow, is to save yourself the 'trouble' of having to check specifically if your chosen ram kit is already supported. If you always update your firmware to the latest, then at least you know that if there is a RAM issue, you can just straight away contact the mfr to tell them 'well i have already your latest firmware, and this ram still doesnt work in your machine. Can you add it for me please?'

The other reason is sometimes the mfr will go back over an already supported kit. But improve the support even further. Which you might not be aware of if you already saw that support was previously added on that specific kit. And sometimes the ram compatibility optimizations in newer BIOSes are more broad than being specific to only 1 individual kit. So there is that too.

Of course there are other reasons for wanting to update. But those above reasons ^^ are that universal ones, which are nearly always true for modern Intel architecture machines.

Then other manufacturer specific reasons might be, well because your specific mfr is not doing something right. I.e. persistently screwing up in 1 area. That they are continuing to tune or improve upon during a period of several updates. Until they finally get it nailed. But that is not always the case.

Other times, the mfr just is not bothering to make any big updates whatsoever. And then the version increment might be almost meaningless. Except for a few very incidental features here or there.

So why not update the firmware then?

Well.... some manufacturers simply can't be trusted and persistently have a history of duffing these things up. A modern machine that comes to mind is: The Dell XPS 15. On that machine, if you were 'too keen' to update, then you could have ended up (very easily it seems), with a situation whereby one of the updates bricks the machine. And I mean: really bricks it. In ways that most cannot fathom why they made it so hard to unbick. Defying all logic or common sense. Including but not limited to: needing to de-solder BGA from the mainboard. Which is not as straightforward as it should be.

As you can imagine, that really upset quite a lot of XPS 15 owners. Who were pretty furious about it.

By comparison - this laptop is pretty sensible. It is easy to work on and fix such problems should they arise. The manufacturer is also being relatively conservative with firmware updates. And the hardware design is conventional and strightforward. It does not employ any special DRM or security mechanisms, or special un-necessary chips. So even if you do brick it, not so hard to fix.

 

If you do a clean install, are these all of the drivers you will need to get on the internet?
https://www.opowered.com/support.html

What is the difference in the Op1,OP2, OP3 files?

 

Nah he claims he's relatively tech savvy. Others were in agreement cause he obviously overestimated his skills. Dunning-kruger.

Let me break it down. On a scale of 0-10 tech savvy you'd imagined to be above 5. So what is 0, someone who doesn't know what a computer is and 10 being the ones who built technologies powering the internet. 1 would be someone who's heard of a computer, 2 being a user, 3 being someone who built one, 4 Jr SA, 5 SA, 6 Senior, 7 Staff, 8 principal, 9 unicorns, 10 Jeff Dean.

Your average Joe is a 2. Being a 3 doesn't qualify you as tech savvy just like popping car hoods doesn't qualify me as a mechanic. Heck I've fixed GPS car units, tail lights, head lights, oil, tires, and still don't consider myself savvy.

 

In my bios there is an option to set the button to turbo fan or swap between profiles. So restart that puppy hit f2 before boot splash and look through the setting should be easy to find. Hope that helps

 

Anyone know if there's any way to change some of the core aspects of the Gaming Center software?

Also, I'm going to make a reskin of the Gaming Center. I know you can change almost all of the images, but does anyone know if/how I can change the following:

 

should be everything.

OP1 is the 1050 version
OP2 is the 1060 version
OP3 is the 17 inch.

 

in my case I was getting some power limit throttling during gaming that I was trying to solve. I was getting some odd performance. Flashing the BIOS didn't help, but when I finally got the EC to flash it fixed my issues.

 

I'll sell it...PM me an decent offer and I'll get you my PayPal info.

 

Which version are you using? I do not have the LED light bar settings on mine.

 

1.2.2.8: https://www.opowered.com/drivers/GamingCenter_1.2.2.8_ESI.zip

The light bar settings are a little buggy though. It looks like they have it set up so you can adjust settings depending on if it's plugged in or not, but it keeps the same settings for both.

 

delete - double post

 

I am missing that and my light bar is not working....

 

Is there a bios option or other setting needed to enable it? As you can see from the screenshot it is missing and I have the same version.

 

I would be a fan of a reskin. Can’t help you on the design aspect though, sorry! I suppose the community needs to come to a general consensus on the best version to use also. Assuming it’s just the latest? As I posted in the 17” thread though, I’m using MyAPP which was designed for an older Tongfang model and I like it better than Command/Gaming Center (because of better keyboard lighting controls).

 

Well I feel dumb. I downloaded all three of those.

 

Does this guide show how to update the BIOS and EC of the Overpowered 15+ laptop? If I followed this guide it should work for my laptop?

 

Anyone know if BOAT has a video that shows how to update the Bios on these?

 

As far as I know, that is a negative unfortunately. The youtube video did mention the Tongang GK5C6Z. This unit seem to be very similar to the Overpowered laptops that we just bought.

 

It is not "very similar", it is the same laptop. It has been explained numerous times in this thread. TongFang is a manufacturer that numerous companies (such as Esports Arena) buy chassis (complete with Motherboard, dGPU, Screen, etc already installed) from and then they rebrand it and stick in memory, storage, and "modify" an existing control center software.

 

Yes, this video works also for the Overpowered 15+. (I'm the author of the video)

 

Nah, don't feel dumb. That's why you ask the questions. You don't know what you don't know.

People here are helpful. If someone's not helpful, just ignore them.

 

It looks like it probably ca

Yeah, I can do the design, just not sure how/if I can change various aspects of it, particularly those few mentioned in the screenshot, since you can't change those with images. Can you PM me some pics of MyApp? And yeah my pic was just the latest (1.2.2.8) version of Gaming Center.

 

Hey everyone,
I am new to these forums and purchased this laptop(OP 15+ (1060)) recently. But turns out I might have an issue, I was already cynical whilst purchasing this, so I just wanted a second opinion in case I am overthinking this. I am not tech savvy, but I believe my chassis is misaligned. I had the laptop shipped to Walmart itself (to save like $10), but I think that that might have been a bad idea as they might have been rough with the box, as the shipping box was a bit dented on the ends and such, but the laptop box inside seemed perfectly okay. I am not certain about much of it though. Anyway I will try to attach pictures here of the chassis, please let me know what you all think. I took quite a lot of pictures, but I will only attach some here for now, because I do not want to have an extra long post.


So I noticed the Charging port, USB C and one of the display ports were skewed. But whilst taking the pictures I noticed the Mic and headphone ports being off and felt that it was excessively skewed. I apologize if the pictures made this post is too long, as I mentioned I am new to these forums, and just wanna get a second opinion. I haven't started the laptop yet, or opened it up (I plan to upgrade the RAM and add another SSD). I really don't wanna have to deal with OP support for a replacement, I haven't had the best experience over the phone with them. And I don't even know if they do replacements or not. I don't know if Walmart would do a replacement of this instead of them, or I will have to refund and then re-order (that'll take quite a while again I think). It all seems worth it for the money and the specs though, hence the effort. Again, thank you for all the help. I look forward to you guys'/gals' insight.

P.S: I have had to edit this post twice now, the pictures copy over and then I reload the pictures 10 minutes later and they are gone.

 

Yeah I still don't see the pics.

 

It seems that physically (and some even electrically), many batteries would fit, but I cannot find this 13 wire battery connector (or wiring schematic) on any other battery to be able to adapt it to this. So until those Getac 4 cells come back in stock, we are stuck with this very poor stock battery.

I was being a bit ambitious and bought a 15.2V 76Wh Alienware battery from Dell (TDW5P) just to test out and it looks like it would fit just fine (obviously screws would not line up, but can just use adhesive to glue it to the chassis), but it uses a 10 wire mini connector vs. what's on the OP. So that's a no go. I was looking for mating adapters to perhaps convert it to this one, but not even knowing what it's called, I didn't have much luck.

Does anyone know how the current battery is wired or where I could find that info? Anyone know what the connector is called on it?

 

So I can't seem to edit my post anymore, hopefully this imgur album works: https://imgur.com/a/yw1rsA1

 

I am trying to post the pictures via imgur now. But can't seem to edit my post anymore for anything, says it is spam-like or something along those lines. Mentions that I need to contact an administrator. Hopefully something pans out and I can show you guys the problem I am having. But putting that aside for now, do all of your ports sit flush with the chassis or are they a bit out of place?

 

When I open up my laptop tomorrow I can buzz out the battery and figure out what the pinout is.

 

My ports look like yours for the most part, hard to tell if it's the angle of the pic or not... but do you mean how the ports are recessed? Your pics seem to indicate they're at least lined up.

I don't see anything in your pics that would cause me worry.

 

Those are machine checks and indicate a hardware problem. First thing I would test is the memory. Run memtest86+ on your system for 24 hours.

 

I'm selling the Goldkey 16GB DIMM from my 15+ (upgrading to a 2x16GB set). If anyone is interested please PM me. $110 including USPS 1st class shipping and Paypal fees. Memory was tested overnight with memtest86+. My eBay profile is available on request to see my online feedback.

Also selling the 256GB M.2 SATA drive (already upgraded to a 1GB NVMe). $45 including USPS 1st class shipping and Paypal fees.

 

How do you get the ram out? Want to make sure I don’t break anything.


Edit. Got it, little clips push out

 

That RAM price is too expensive also it's not a NVMe drive it's sata. It's a m.2 sata drive.

 

So I installed my 2x8 sticks but it’s only saying I have 8GB of Ram. Anything else I need to do? I loaded optimized defaults in the bios

 

Why is the RAM too expensive? Where can you buy a 16GB DDR4 2666 SODIMM for less than $110, not to mention a specific, rare SKU needed to pair with an existing stick for dual-channel use? I'm only looking to break even on my cost for half of a 2x16GB pair, plus I'm taking on the interoperability risk of using a different SODIMM SKU.

Thanks for the note on the drive. I updated my post to reflect it's a SATA M.2 rather than NVMe.

 

It's mostly due to it being a no-name brand and no warranty. Plus if you are ditching the RAM stick you are kissing your warranty goodbye just an FYI. You can get a 2400 (cl15 so you could clock it higher if you wanted to at higher cas latency though the performance between CAS15 2400 and cas19 2666 is pretty much 0) viper stick for $107 with warranty and the option to return it.

 

If you do a fresh iso install, should you update the bios before or after?

 

It shouldn't matter when you do the update.

 

Yet it's a no-name brand others are seeking to complete their dual-channel kits. And my system's warranty will remain intact - computer vendors can't disavow warranties for user-replaceable parts. And why would I wanted a slower DIMM, which I can't overclock on the OP+ since the XMP can't be overridden?

 

Seems like there are a few methods to update the bios. I remember my Dad's Asus laptop could be done with an application.

Does anyone know of an update bios method with these laptops that does not require a flash drive?

Edit:I found a user on slick deals that said this:

"It's easier to update the BIOS now. Just download the OP-LP2 bios and drivers from opowered.com and then click on the F.BAT file. That's it. Worked perfect for me last night..."

I have not tried it yet. I'm downloading a windows install ISO now. I can't wait to get this thing ship shape!

 

What the hell are you talking about? I got $130 for mine in 15 minutes on ebay bruh.

 

interesting. can't imagine there's a real issue. maybe it's loose. I'll try the memtest but also check it when I open it up.

 

yeah I paid $112 on ebay all in. If you're patient as a buyer those prices will come down. You got $130 because you were first.

 

I took care of the finger print magnet....

 

Very nice, fingerprints are bugging the hell out of me too ... can you post which carbon fiber vinyl you went with and any tip/tricks for putting it on?

 

Exactly, why wait around. The early bird gets the worm! I paid $138 for The Kingston Hyper X dual channel 16gb kit how can I complain?

 

I'd have covered up the logo myself.

 

well it's actually quite simple. You open up a post box and type out a complaint. it's easy.

 

I did originally but you could see it through the wrap. It looked bad, the problem was I couldn't see it good enough to just cut out the letters.

 

Huh???