TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Yes, everything works beautifully except the Gtx1060. Here's the EFI files: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CKDKafwRkKc4UFJ5Di72upjpLCt0RMB2

I saw some people in this post are working on modifying the bios. If there's an option in the bios that could disable the internal graphics, uhd630, then gtx1060 will be able to be driven. And this laptop would be the ultimate hackintosh laptop. It runs faster than the i9 MacBook Pro in cinebench, after removing the power throttle, with better graphics, expandable storage at a much much cheaper price.

 

Thanks for this. My code kept telling me it was invalid and I emailed support and they never responded.

When I entered it the first time, I got an offer to enter some type of program for access to another site with more games. So it seems to work as mentioned. Weird that Walmart's email takes you to the wrong address.

 

I was quite content with the latest from OP. Everything was working per my expectations.

 

We should use virtual smc instead fakesmc. And I will config again to match well

 

Hello Bob, thanks for everything you've done so far spreading the message in regards to this piece of equipment.

I'd love to try out flashing to 1.05, but OP only provided the AFU flash tool, which, to my basic understanding, seems to be a riskier tool than running it via UEFI. Is there any option to update to N.1.05 besides running the flashing tool mentioned beforehand?

I noticed it also turn to that color when regular boot sequence is interrupted (i.e. getting into BIOS), so I'm guessing it must related to some sort of default setting, but I might be wrong.

 

I also experienced this issue. Try checking your startup programs (ctrl+alt+del) and see if multiple instances of lighting control software are launching on startup. Look for programs named “OEM ______” and try disabling all but one, then reboot and try the next one. For me, I actually stopped launching Control Center (also called Gaming Center) on startup and am running an older Mechrevo software instead. I am on the 17” version of this chassis, but it’s very similar.

Another thought would be to check your keyboard lighting options in the BIOS and make sure they aren’t conflicting with your software preferences.

Regarding Nvidia control panel: you may want to try downloading and installing GeForce Experience to install the latest video drivers. My system does have a control panel, but the options are very limited. For instance, I don’t have an option to set a custom resolution (screenshot below).

 

Let us know how that works out. If better, please share your EFI. Thanks.

 

I know many have tried setting power adapter in OEMsev to 180w, which is the option 2. Any one tried the option 1, which is labeled ?w in the first post in this thread?

I know the adapter that came with the op15+ is 180w. But setting to option 2 only relaxes the cpu power limit to 65w. I would like to increase it further, without XTU. If anyone tried the option 1, please let us know can you go beyond 65w when benchmarking cpu, e.g. cinebench.

 

Looking at the Geekbench score for overpowered 15+ and 17+, overpowered 17+ scores slightly better and the reason seems to be the ram bandwidth is higher than 15+'s: 32gb/s vs 28gb/s. Wonder if this difference is caused by hardware difference or firmware difference.

 

Just got an email from Julie @ battery-store, HIGHER CAPACITY BATTERY NOW IN STOCK! Place your orders.

It's a bit pricey but I think it's because of the high demand / low supply of this (sole supplier it seems).

Email below:
---
Good news!

We got new stock of this battery (Getac GK5CN-00-13-4S1P-0) yet, This battery can fit TONGFANG GK5CN5Z and GK5CN6Z

please place your order at below link

https://www.battery-store.eu/laptopcomputer/1005072.htm
Thanks for your support.
Kind regards,
Julie
---

 

How the battery life on the hackintosh?

 

For a 4100mAh 4S battery it's really not too high, maybe $10-20USD over market value but when you have a captive market I'm sure it's worth while. In B4 someone snatches up all the battery packs and lists them for $120-150 on Ebay LOL!

 

West are the whr on these

 

I'm not really sure what market value is on these, they can charge whatever they want since no one else sells it and people will still buy them ... but there are 6/9 cell batteries all over ebay for like $50-$60. The brand new Alienware TDW5P I got was higher capacity than this and $55 shipped, just didn't have the correct connector. Yes resellers will grab them and start charging a boatload, that's why I posted here first.

 

Didn't test. Though, I remember saw an estimate of 1.5hr. But immediately before look at the estimate I was doing cinebench, so this might be an underestimate.

 

Well I was saying more for LiPo packs. You have to remember that 18650 packs will be cheaper as the cells are way more common and way easier to fake. If this laptop used 18650 cells it would be a bit thicker and heavier to compensate.

 

Giddyup!!

 

My OP 15+ laptop works flawlessly, that is, until the battery hits below 40%. Then the CPU clock goes down to 798 Mhz and stays there till the battery bleeds to 0%, leaving the computer all stuttery and unusable. I tried to change power plans to full performance and even set minimum CPU usage on battery to 100%, but no dice. It's on Bios 1.04 and this problem has me considering returning the laptop. Any one have a clue as to what might be causing this?

 

The bigger battery should fix this issue, due to it having a higher nominal voltage at lower % charge. You might also want to upgrade the bios to see if that fixes it.

 

I tried to update the bios using the utility provided in the OP support website, but when I load the rom and click "flash", the utility just exits and doesn't flash it. Do you know of another way I can flash it? I'd also rather not upgrade the battery since I want to keep the drive bay.

It's pretty ridiculous that it throttles so hard at just under 40%.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I just ran a whole bunch of additional tests trying to pinpoint exactly where the problem lies. Tried what you suggested, disabling and enabling the 3 processes related to the Gaming Center, to no avail. also tried matching both startup and backlit configurations and matched and mixed bios settings with the software setting, again with no positive result, but still, was able to draw some interesting conclusions: 1) If I turned the startup option off at the BIOS, the BLUE RGB configuration didn't pop up, but I lost all keyboard backlighting capabilities until Gaming Center boots up, at which time my custom configuration takes effect; and 2) In order for the keyboard RGBs to work after boot up, you must run Gaming Center.

This all makes me think it it could all be BIOS related, but not much else. Still, worth throwing it out there in case anyone else wants to contribute to the discussion.

In regards to the nVidia control center, I did update drivers via GeForce Experience, but the control center didn't install with the update. I have also tried diverse RealTek HD Audio drivers to try and squeeze a bit more volume out off the speakers (some have produced better results than others, but nothing remarkable)

 

The Mech G2 would behave this way sometimes too. I tried so hard to capture it for the review on that laptop many months ago. No luck. Just wanted you to know that I too have experienced this as well.

 

Thanks for the vid, ordered replacement battery already!

 

Did the Mech G2 show the inability to flash or the throttling? I have a feeling that the throttling is related to the current bios version and would be fixed through an updated one.

It looks like OP support finally made a ticket for me so I'll try to resolve this through them now.

 

I couldn't FLASH a review unit and Eluktronics is smart and sent their in dual channel.

Throttling is not BIOS related based on my EXTENSIVE testing on several BIOS and EC flashes already.

 

Ok I just did a simple test in my iPhone XR and confirmed the 17+ screen has pwm flicker. Set iPhone camera slow motion video capture to 240fps mode and point iPhone camera to the 17+ screen, you don’t have to start capture a video, just looking at iPhone screen it’ll show the flickering at any brightness other than 100%. And it appears the lower the brightness the more obvious the flickering showing through iPhone screen.

As a comparison. I didn’t see any flickering on the 15+ screen even at lowest brightness

 

I had the same issue as you so I downloaded the updated BIOS from page 1 of this thread for the OP15+ auto.bat file and ran that and it updated ok. I didn’t touch the EC though.

 

What do you mean by your #3 point?

 

Hey, I already included (as of 27th of december, see page 207) links to OP support page and BIOS/EC (1.05 / 1.35.09), 1.2.2.8 gaming center, the dual channel RAM issue/fix, and a link to your channel @B0B and these info have been updated on page 1 by @sicily428.
Maybe seperate BIOS/EC download links for each models are not clear enough right now but I dont have time to make custom .zip with needed files from the huge archives from OP support. But if anyone is okay to do it for me I can update. I did a free Mega account dedicated to GK5CN related stuff so I can upload things on it as well.

About a general guide for getting started with GK5CN laptops: cases are a bit different from a resseler to another, and its the same from a problem to another, regarding BIOS/EC/Windows/GamingCenter versions and settings. AND things are moving so fast for this laptop that what is considered as the way to go at D day may become obsolete at D+7.
I dont want to spend more time on this topic than I already do so if anyone wants to write a proper guide for guetting started or troubleshooting, he/she's welcome
By the way the "PERFORMANCE" chapter on the mega post might be a good starting point !

Anyway if you see further information/link/downloads I forgot to include in the big post (for example a linkI cannot find to a guide for hackintoshing GK5CN), point it out to me !

 

Look for "OEMsev" into this post. Download link, explanations and instructions included.

 

Just tried this on mine. Same thing except it happened closer to 50% than 40.

 

I forgot to add that, in regards to the second conclusion, it is only necessary to run Gaming Center to get RGBs if you have it installed. If you don't, the keys will be simply backlit in BLUE. This makes me be fairly certain that there most be some sort of stock controller for the RGBs that must be kicking in before the Control Center launches, thus the presence of said BLUE keylight color inbetween the "Startup profile" and the "Backlit profile"

 

I've found something strange about RAM frequency in respect to various BIOS versions.
I have a 2x8GB Kingston HyperX Impact 2400MHz installed on my laptop and from what I know from Kingston's site this RAM should be able to automatically overclock if the system support an higher frequency. In fact when I originally installed the RAM when I received the laptop the task manager was showing a 2667MHz Ram using the preinstalled BIOS (an old version from PCS). Then I updated the BIOS with a new one given by my vendor (the one showed in the picture below) and from the task manager the ram still looks like a 2667MHz one. Few months ago I switched to XMG 1.03 and then Mechrevo 1.16 BIOS and never took attention to the RAM frequency untill yesterday when I noticed that the showed frequency is only 2400MHZ. I switched back to the older BIOS and the RAM looks again like a 2667MHz one.

A conclusion could be that newer versions of BIOS or maybe XMG and MECHREVO vendors don't permit RAM overclock through XMP.

Another thing I noticed is that both CPU-Z and HWInfo show the RAM frequency as the stock one while task manager shows the overclocked one so I'm not sure if my RAM is running at 2667 or 2400MHz.

Anyway this BIOS has very good performances in terms of power, I reached 1275 points on Cinebench in respect to the maximum of 1265/1267 I was able to reach with XMG and MECHREVO's ones. Battery seems the same.

 

I have the same issue. I googled it a bunch and didn’t find much, so it must be related to this model. It’s pretty frustrating when the CPU is stuck at 800MHz when the battery is low even after plugging in the adapter. I think I remember a reboot fixing this though (once plugged in). I didn’t want to mess with BIOS/EC update, but it might be worth it to fix this. I am on BIOS V.1.01 (17”).

@ZaiArgylle Well sorry to lead you on a pointless rabbit trail. It seems like most others aren’t having this problem on the 15”. I don’t remember exactly how I fixed it except that now I no longer run Control Center/Gaming Center on startup and instead use the dedicated keyboard lighting software called MyApp.

Download here. [WARNING, DOES NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY WITH CUSTOM USER LIGHTING, but everything else works fine] You will still have to set the front lightbar color in the other software, but the color should stick through reboot even when Gaming Center is not launched on startup.

 

Is this a good replacement for the Patriot stick? Seems to be OOS on Amazon. I've never had problems mixing ram kits in the past on laptops, so think I am going to go this route.

 

Interesting ! So MyApp is a tool made by Eluktronics especially for setting dedicated keyboard lighting, and that's all ?
I would be happy to NOT use any Gaming Center anymore, but I still want to control fan's behaviour sometimes. How do you deal with it ?
The LED bar is not a problem to me as I find it ugly and I will just unplug it next time I'll open my laptop.

 

Yes it was designed for an older TongFang chassis. It actually has a lightbar toggle switch but it doesn't work for me, since my lightbar settings seem to be controlled by Gaming Center only. There are also fan speed controls, but let me warn you the Gaming Center is required to be running in order for the dedicated fan button to work (next to power button). I am doing further testing now to see how both programs interact with each other.

 

What kind of upgrades are folks doing with your hard drive? I heard someone that if you use an nvme M.2 drive then you can't use both ports. Is that true? Can you use a second M.2 SSD?

 

Both slots can be used at the same time. I'm currently using 2 x 1tb adata nvme drives as well as the stock 2.5" 1tb sata drive in my overpowered 15. Can't do nvme raid though, as far as I know. I didn't try.

 

I'm currently using 2 NVMe SSDs as well as a SATA SSD, intel RAID works if you can find the 17.0.x driver on win-raid to install windows 10. You will not be able to use 2 SATA m.2 SSDs as there is only a SATA link on the first M.2 slot. Due to the 2nd. M.2 Slot only being 2x or maybe due to the nature of RAID 1 I was only able to reach 2.4GB/s Reads and 1.4GB/s Writes on WD Black 500GB SSDs.

Since I'm getting a larger batter I will need to see about removing the 2TB SATA SSD I have and possibly relocating it somewhere in the chassis (though this may be a pipe dream)

Edit:

You can, NVMe RAID works no problem at all (other than finding working intel raid drivers for windows 10 install) with the latest 1.05 BIOS

 

So if we kept the included 256 gb ssd and wanted to add an M.2 SSD then it would need to NVME right? Because isn't the included one SATA M.2?

 

That is correct just keep in mind that you can cheap out with a 2x lane NVMe disk since that free slot is only 2x.

 

Thanks. Are both M.2 slots 2x? If I were to stick with the Samsung brand, are the EVO 970 and 960 compatible?

 

That's an interesting idea ... the only room I see in the chassis though is underneath the two M2s. There's no way a 2.5" would fit in there (maybe, but it would be very very tight), but perhaps a tiny SATA to M2 SATA adapter of some kind to mate to another M2 and obviously enough padding to keep the boards separated from shorting out (against each other and/or the chassis) and enough room for heat dissipation. Perhaps @B0B has some ideas.

It would be pretty epic to be able to run 3 drives in here along with a bigger battery.

 

Both of those drives should be compatible. The SATA+NVMe slot is running at 4x, the NVMe only slot is running at 2x

 

I’ve messaged Overpowered in terms of Tech. Support for the laptop if any situations arise in the future.

I recall someone on here mentioning Overpowered is trying to work out with Walmart for a tech support team that could repair any issues that the products may face.


My question to OP:

By high levels, this also includes fixing/repairing any hardware or software issues that may arise in the future? We send them to Walmart or OP?

I was told that OP is currently working with Walmart to set up a team to help with the technical support side, in terms of repairing/fixing laptops/pc. Is this true? Has it already been done?

Would like some clarity on this issue.



Their response:

Hello _____,

Yes, that's correct. Overpowered is taking care of all high levels issues
that arise this includes the repair/exchange process.

Thank you
Opowered Support

 

I am currently running that crucial stick with the Gold Key ram that came with the system - no issues running in dual channel at 2666. The OP laptops do not seem to be picky about ram like others - Aero 15x (cough cough...)

 

Aha-ha! But if we remove a regular ssd from its 2.5 inch casing, then very often we find inside a tiny pcb with only a couple of chips on it. That occupies only a fraction of the available space. This is true sometimes even for some of the larger capacity ssds. If they are new enough

We need to look into this further guys!

 

I'm thinking something like this may work: https://www.ebay.com/itm/NGFF-M-2-SSD-Solid-State-Drive-to-2-5Inch-SATA-Interface-Adapter-Converter/292374804663?_trkparms=aid=555018&algo=PL.SIM&ao=1&asc=20131003132420&meid=58ade8ef129a42048f25d1a59a16db14&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=12&sd=202541186248&itm=292374804663&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 (apologies for the nasty link). This one only supports half height M2, but it's the tiniest one that may fit somewhere. I'll give it a shot.

 

Then if you could please try jury-rigging an 80mm drive into that, with tape and/or thin plastic to insulate it from touching other nearby components. Allongside the existing onboard m.2 sata - would make my day. Assuming that it might fit / stands some chances of fitting in there. Though maybe it doesn't.