TONGFANG GK5CN5Z / GK5CN6Z / GK5CQ7Z / GK5CP0Z

Has anyone got a fix for the CPU power consumption issue when running the laptop on battery?

Currently, when my laptop is on battery, the uncore seems to hover around 11.5W. I've tried various Intel graphics drivers, have the latest Nvidia drivers and have fully updated Windows.

I have the GK5CP0Z with the N1.53 BIOS.

 

So i have a ribbon cable/adapter that separated from the motherboard, I think it's gotta do with the keyboard as it no longer works LOL: https://i.imgur.com/BmVprji.jpg

This is the Walmart 15+ version... Anyway to fix this or do I have to send this in for warranty or repair?

 

If you broke just the cable you can replace it. but if you broke the port, you have to RMA it.

 

Thanks for the help. I figured it was toast as it looks like microscopic solder connections beyond my talent.

 

Damn, my connector broke and now I got other problems. The female adapter came off the mobo. So freaking fragile. Now working no keyboard.

 

That sucks, here is what I was using until I fixed mined. It worked fine and was cheap... https://www.walmart.com/ip/Anker-Bluetooth-Ultra-Slim-Keyboard-Black/117050325

 

The CPU package power on these laptops appear to go up to 11-12W whenever the NVidia GPU is awake, regardless of drivers. I’m guessing you’re monitoring your package power with HWmonitor, which wakes up the GPU. You can use HWinfo instead to monitor your package power without waking up the GPU. Keep in mind that other apps like Afterburner also keep your GPU awake, so you’ll need to close those too. Using the display outputs (HDMI, miniDP) also keeps the GPU awake because those ports are wired directly to the GPU.

I found a solution for the next generation Walmart laptop (the EVOO laptop) that I suspect would work on the OP and other Tongfang laptops too, but it requires modding the BIOS, which is inherently risky. I would only recommend doing it if you have a backup computer you can use and need this fix because you use external monitors (all the other cases where the dGPU wakes up can be worked around).

I’ve written up how to fix it on Reddit, but the TLDR is to mod your BIOS, then toggle the PEG Port ASPM feature.
https://reddit.com/r/EVOOGaming/comments/gw9gv6/yet_another_guide_for_lp5_heat_battery_and_power/

 

Does anyone have a recommendation for a stand to use with a GK5CN6Z? Preferably an ergonomic one, so that I don't have to buy and adjust to another keyboard, but also portable?

 

That's the type of fix I was searchig for a while. I already had the unlocked BIOS and I've tried a lot of settings in the last months but never found the correct one. It's working perfectly on my GK5CN6Z.

As I suspected it also fixes the CPU stuck at 800MHz when on battery under a certain percentage (around 40%). In my opinion it is caused by the TDP Limit that lowers to 10W when under 40% battery (verified using HWInfo) so having the dGPU that is already consuming 12W prevents the CPU to reach higher frequencies and consequently higher wattages.

Thank you very much for sharing this fix, I searched on many forums also of other laptops and never found something useful.

 

Nice, glad it worked for you. I actually wasn't aware of the issue where the CPU gets locked at 800MHz, but your explanation definitely makes sense.

I'm really surprised more people weren't upset and complaining about this issue everywhere - it seems like a huge problem for battery life.
I had assumed it was only an issue with the EVOO laptops since I didn't hear too many complaints on other threads, but it seems like it might apply to a lot of Tongfang laptops...

As far as I know, the only downside of the PEG Port ASPM setting is that it increases the latency when the GPU wakes up, but that seems like a pretty tiny compromise for improving CPU performance, battery life, and thermals.

 

Hi,

I have a GK5CQ7Z and it came with a precision touchpad.

Which can be disabled by double tapping the top left corner of the pad. Does anyone know how to disable this? I can't seem to find any software option for this and there is nothing in the bios either. All the web examples assume a synaptics or clickpad device which this is not -- it just shows up as a standard precision touchpad with 0 extra options

Thanks! I keep disabling the touchpad when typing and is the only real issue I have with this otherwise excellent laptop... Help

 

I'm not aware of any way to disable this functionality. I'm pretty sure it is a hardware thing, as it will function even after the laptop has blue or blackscreened.

 

Was there ever any progress made on a replacement keyboard? My OverPowered LP-2 is getting a bit long in the teeth, and I haven't been able to repair the switch myself.

 

I have the TONGFANG GK5CN6Z, purchased from pcspecialist on 10-2018, I do NOT recommend buying at this store at all, I sent it due to temperature problems, and after a month, I received it and they have not changed the refrigeration system or the screws that were worn, they also tell me that they have cleaned the dust and continue to have dust, an i still having problems of temperature, a disaster ... On top of the battery it was swollen and they did not want to change it, saying that the warranty does not cover it and wanting to pay 67 €, being illegal in the EU ... (more info about my problems in the pcspecialist forum ...)
The case is that they have changed the motherboard, and they have put the bios N 1.07 and ECC 1.38.09, does anyone know anything about this version?

 

Yesterday I faced the same issue with GK5CN6Z (i7+1060) as mentioned in below posts.

I had to force the power down with power button long press and now laptop does not power on. After power button press, a green power light flashes and laptop immediately turns off (just like on gotchapt's video below).

I tried to remove RAM/SSD/HDD/Battery/CMOS Battery and leaving laptop disconnected overnight, but nothing has changed.

When I plug in charger, the charging LED lights up, but it does not change laptop's behaviour — same one blink when trying to power on.
Also, if I hold power button for 6-7 seconds when plugged in, charging LED turns off for several seconds (4-5) and then comes back on.

Is there anything else I could try to bring laptop back to life?

 

Can anyone help me? I bought 2x8gb ddr4 2666mhz hyperx Kingston (Intel xmp certified) and I put in both sticks and my laptop LEDs and rgb keyboard only lit up but did not even show the overpowered logo but when I put one stick in the bottom slot and a different one at top the laptop comes on.. I tried both ram sticks and they work they are brand new but whenever I put one in the top ram slot the laptop doesn't come on.. I thought the slot was bad but tried a 4gb ram stick and it works.. I'm lost. Anyone got any solutions? The ram sticks are very much brand new and not damaged.

 

Hi All,

I currently have a Tong Fang GK5CP0Z laptop with 8750h and RTX 2060 and I'm wondering if anyone can confirm if the 4 cell extended battery will fit in this laptop?

Currently it has the GK5CN-00-13-3S1P-0 battery.

Thank you!

EDIT: The PEG PORT BIOS setting resolved my weird power issues! Thanks!

 

Well, when it seemed like it couldn't get any worse, I realized this morning that the touchpad was up, plus I couldn't click on it, so I figured where the problem was coming from. I have disassembled it, and indeed, the battery was even more swollen, this is a danger, in addition to the possible damages that it can cause and these pcspecialist scammers are not responsible for this ... Also, for a few days, the led bar that they supposedly changed is constantly blinking.

I had to remove the battery, because this is more than a danger, also because I could not even use the touchpad, now I have a laptop of more than € 1,200, which is everything, except laptop.

Besides adding, that pcspecialist stopped responding to the messages I was leaving, I can't imagine why.

 

That is very dangerous. Good that you removed it. I don't know anything about EU consumer protections. In the US batteries are considered a consumable part. They do not last forever and are not intended to. They wear out and have an appropriately abbreviated warranty. But, your issue looks like a defect rather than normal wear and tear. Not holding a charge after the battery wears out is just part of being a laptop jockey. It is no different than replacing a battery in your car or your TV remote. Having a swollen battery that is a safety hazard is not the same thing.

 

it's just the battery, just buy another and change it. Nothing hard.

 

Is anyone getting flicker on their light bar only (OP LP 2)? My keyboard LEDs work fine, but the light bar has developed an annoying flicker. I recently updated my Nvidia drivers - could it be related to that?

 

Thanks! that sucks. oh well.. will have to get used to it..

 

Hi, I have a tongfang GK5CN6Z (from pcspecialist) and i'm having problems with something related to the gpu. First of all, I'm having random BlueScreens from windows( Video_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR, WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (nvlddmkm.sys) are some of the errors it's showing).
In the other hand, when the pc is running with battery the gtx1060 it's not detected well and can't use it, programs keep throwing an incompatible dx gpu error, but if I connect the charger and restart gpu appears to work correctly, but I still have some random bluescreens.

Things I have tried:
- Update bios from - BIOS 1.04 - EC 1.25 - PCSpecialist - GK5CN6Z (EFI) to - BIOS 1.03 - EC 1.29.29 - XMG - GK5CN6Z (EFI) - Apparently the most power saving
- Update igpu, chipset and gpu drivers using the latest I could find in intel and nvidia web

let me know if someone has any clue on how to solve this problem

 

Thank you so much! With this i solved the problem of 40% battery like Stesteste and now also the battery lasts twice as long. I did not know that the HWMonitor and Afterburner always woke up the gpu. Really, I am very grateful to you.

I had the same problem when dropping 40% battery and with this I have also solved it.

 

If you are undervolting the GPU in an effort to keep thermals in check, then stop doing that and see if the problems go away. If they do, undervolt less. All of those errors suggest that either GPU voltage is set too low or a core overclock has been applied that is too high for the limited amount of voltage available.

Modern notebook (and to somewhat less, but still unacceptable extent, so do desktop) GPUs suffer from voltage starvation more than power limit issues. People see the power limit problem and try to fix it, but ignore the equally damning voltage limits that ruin the capacity to improve performance. One without the other really puts a damper on things. You need the ability to control both to accomplish anything worth writing home about.

 

Exactly same problem here... trackpad starts to be very hard to click, and today I opened the case and saw a swallen battery. I removed it and now I have a "non-portable" laptop.

I wrote to pcspecialists (spain in my case), waiting for a response

 

Searched for but couldnt find anyone with a similar problem(?), i bought a Eluktronics Mech 15 G2 (8750h/1060) and since it came i didnt even tested it and instantly updated the bios and EC with the BIOS 1.09 - EC 1.38.09 - XMG ones, and i dont know if its because of this or some sort of other problem but my GPU heavily throttles out once it reaches 64c and dont go past that, in some 3d programs i use to work i`ve seen it go past but 99% of the time it wont go past 64c and heavily throttles everything, frequency go to 900mhzish and i cant play anything without a powerful pad (2x 120mm at full blast) to not get throttled since the GPU can`t go past 64c.

TL;DR: My GPU wont go past 64c, is that normal?

 

I bought a new higher capacty battery but the voltage on the battery is 15.2V and on the existing battery is 11.4V. Is this the right battery? As you can see the old battery became puffy. No idea how that happened.

https://www.replacement-batteries.co.uk/getac-laptop-battery/3687.html

 

que te van a mandar a paseo, bueno por 87€ te envian una, en mi caso puse una demanda en el juzgado asi que a la espera estoy. pcspecialist son unos estafadores de cuidado, and sorry for the spanish

 

Another puffy battery! @Chika-chan and I have the same problem, it really seems a problem with the battery of this model. I have used the laptop for the last 2 years to work intensively, monitoring the temperatures and usually they do not go above 60º but still the battery was so swollen that I couldn't even use the trackpad. It is not normal

 

I took the puffy battery out and I am running on mains power. I haven't installed the new higher capacity because I didn't see anything about the higher voltage although I have found 3 images of it in the this latop.

I finally installd the battery. Does anyone who already did this know the bst way to remove the hard disk cable?

 

I installed the new battery but damaged keyboard cable in the process.

The laptop worked with the back cover removed but finally I decided to disconnect the cable and use an external keyboard.

It worked fine for the rest of the day but this morning when I pressed the power button the light briefly flashed but nothing displayed on the screen so now is doesn't boot.

I don't really want to send it back to PC Specialist and not have it for a week.

I ordered new keyboard cables from Ali Express but they will take a week.

I also replaced the thermal paste at the same time.

Any thoughts of what to try?

Sent from my RMX1992 using Tapatalk

 

Hey guys I am new here. I remember saving this page from the recommendation of Bob on YouTube when I bought the OP LP-2 (8th gen i7 + 1060) nearly 2 years ago. I have had no issues w/ this laptop until last night I got the screen flickering issue above 10% while I was playing apex legends (happened out of the blue in the middle of a game). I've read through a ton of the posts in the thread and have not seen any solution that worked for me. I tried the one posted that involved increasing and decreasing the brightness using the function keys, but no matter what I did, it flickered at anything above 10%. It happens both plugged in and on battery as well.

I am still within the warranty period, but am wondering if anyone has had any success fixing this issue in case I don't have to send it in or if anyone has had any success with using the warranty and what that entailed? I have not made any changes to the laptop except installing an extra 16gb stick of ram into the second slot and am wondering if that would void my warranty?

 

Ok well, after posting this the flickering started happening even at 10% brightness. The only way to stop the flickering is have the brightness at 0%.

 

I am using Eluktronics Matrix RP 15 laptop. Because of my curiosity I installed the Oemsevtool file of the XMG Core 15 laptop, which is the same laptop but sold by different resellers. Now I went back to stock settings by installing my laptop's own bios and ec files. However, Eluktronics Oemsev does not use the file. So I opened the Oemsev file of the XMG Core 15 laptop and wanted to see what it changed. But I didn't understand much. According to the description in the file, these settings are written on bios and do not change in bios updates.

Spoiler: OEMSev description in folder

This computer laptop has a few EEPROM memory addresses that are not overwritten
by EC / BIOS update. Instead, they are updated by what we call the "oemsevtool".
This tool is able to set certain bits and flags in the BIOS memory to specify
certain features, like keyboard backlight and total system power budget.
Each laptop model with each CPU and GPU SKU has a different oemsevtool. Please
make sure to double check that you have the correct Product ID, CPU and GPU as
specified in the filename of the tool.
If you run the wrong oemsevtool for your system, you can easily revert by
running the correct oemsevtool afterwards.
Usually, oemsevtool only needs to be run once on each single machine. This is
usually done during our system production. The bits and flags set by this tool
are not overwritten by future BIOS updates.
However, there have been single cases of units where single bits and flags had
to be set again. This is why we keep the oemsevtool publicly available in case
it is required for future troubleshooting.

These are what is written in the file. When I open the oemsevtool file, it has these settings:

Spoiler: Extracted oemsev

@echo off
OemServiceWinApp.exe SetApCtrl / clear
OemServiceWinApp.exe SetApCtrl / MK 0 / WK 1 / FB 1 / RGBKB 0 / CHINA 0 / OC 0
OemServiceWinApp.exe oemtdr / settdr 0xa
OemServiceWinApp.exe RGBKB / set 005050
OemServiceWinApp.exe SetApCtrl / RGBKB 1
OemServiceWinApp.exe SetApCtrl / CHINA 0
OemServiceWinApp.exe SetApCtrl / BL 0
OemServiceWinApp.exe AdpType / set 2
OemServiceWinApp.exe turbomode / set 1
OemServiceWinApp.exe Modelid / set 3
AMIDEWINx64.exe / OS 11 "FBM-GK5NR0O0074STG"
AMIDEWINx64.exe / OS 12 "GK5NR0O"
OemServiceWinApp.exe Nbtype / Table 35
: eof

Now my question is. Are these settings really overwritten by EPPROM? Because oemservicewinApp application comes with Control Center. If I delete Control Center-i then these settings are gone? Actually what I want is to set my laptop to its stock settings. GPU performance is weaker than that of other friends using this laptop according to GeekBench 4 tests (OpenCPL). According to 3DMart tests, it is 3 4% behind. When I tested the RDR 2, I did not observe a fps drop. I am waiting for your help right now. What is this oemsev file? What actions does it do? where does it do how to remove

 

update on my freeze/BSOD situation with my OP-LP2:

it ran relatively fine for the last few months. nonetheless, freezing issues reoccur every now and then, maybe 2-3 times a week. now as some sort of a routine, when i notice hickups, i try to immediately close the lid so the system does not get the chance to actually freeze up.

one time the laptop out of nowhere wouldnt get past the OP-Logo when booting, always hardfreezing almost immediately. even the bios froze during that state. interestingly enough pulling the SSD's out and putting them back into the same (!) slot (one NVMe Samsung EVO 970 and the stock SATA SSD into the foreseen slots) resolved the issue, and i could use the laptop again for a few weeks until eventually the BSOD CRITICAL PROCESS DIED issues started appearing again. now, what is weird, is that today for the first time the NVMe drive did not get recognized (didnt show up in explorer). eventually rebooting solved the issue but after a while the NVMe drive disappeared again, even while windows was running (eventually the good ol' reinserting the SSD's into the same slots helped again, and it seems to be 'stable' now). before the most recent incident i always thought that the stock SSD might be the issue, but now that the newest part of my system doesnt get recognized reliably i guess it actually might be a motherboard --> SSD communication issue?

what i wanted to do next, but postponed until now because freezing can occur in basically every state, is moving my OS from SATA to NVMe.

i am beyond fed up with the situation, i would pay a good price if someone could just point me in the right direction or fix my system (motherboard replacement i guess? does that even work since the CPU and GPU are soldered onto the board? does any1 know reliable places to go to for such matters?).


If you read all this, thank you very much. any guess of what is happening to my system is appreciated. quoted below you can find the prologue to this situation.

@shtooka

 

Hi all, I was wondering if someone could have a look at my throttlestop settings. Just to make sure I havent done anything that might cause harm

I was having bad temperature problems after a warranty repair (motherboard replacement) so I decided to re-paste the CPU and GPU before sending the laptop back again.

I'm very happy with the results now (before the re-paste, I was getting spikes to 100 degrees!) but wanted to make sure there is nothing in my settings that might do damage. I've never tried undervolting before.

The laptop is a PCSpecialist Recoil with a i7 9750h and RTX 2070

Thanks in advance....

 

Is anyone having random BSOD errors (Faulty Error Corrupted Page and others)? I have a stock OP-LP2 with a firmware update. It started a few months back and happens infrequently, but often hangs when creating the minidump file so it's hard to parse the error. I've done all the traditional troubleshooting. The file system is fine, drivers and Windows are updated, the SSD and HDD read normal, and I passed 8 runs of memtest. I turned off hibernate and fast boot, but still having errors. I have a number of games installed but it's relatively light in the grand scheme of things. I just updated the IMEI driver, which some claim can cause this problem. Are these any other driver issues I should be aware of? Is there a way to stress test the motherboard? If it's hardware, I'd love to know as I am still in my warranty period.

 

Try updating manually to last Intel WIFI Drivers, previous versions are known to cause BSOD as written in the release notes. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/it...-schede-di-rete-wireless-Intel-?product=59485

 

I have a problem. My laptop screen won't stop flickering when the brightness is too high. It is unusable at higher brightness. But when I lower the brightness to the lowest possible setting on battery, the flickering stops. When plugged in, I can up the brightness by one notch. The cause of all this is that while I was playing a game, suddenly, a power outage occurred in my area. Anybody know a possible fix for this?

Other details that might help: I'm currently using Throttlestop. I had it set to an "overlock" setting while playing the game. In the settings, I setup a battery profile that automatically changes it to my "low power" profile for battery mode when the laptop isn't plugged in. Is it possible that the sudden shift in throttlestop from the overclock setting to the low power mode when the outage occurred caused the flickering? My laptop was also hot while playing the game (about 75-80 C). Also, I plugged the laptop to an external monitor and it is normal on the monitor (laptop is still flickering though).

The laptop is Eluktronics Mech-17 G1R, i7-8750h, RTX 2060, 1080p 144hz, bought last March 2019.

 

My laptop, after it came from RMA, they replaced the motherboard and it came with a different BIOS.
My processor now is stuck on 2.2GHz, doesn't Turbo Boost. What do you thing can help?

 

It is a chipset problem, had the same thing. Send it to RMA.

 

just curious, but how long did it take from the time you sent it out to receive it back or a new laptop? I am also having the screen flickering issue and going to send it in for an RMA.

 

3 weeks, but depends on what country you live in.

 

I am in the US, hopefully that's the time frame for me as well. Also, did you make any changes to your laptop, like adding RAM or storage and did they transfer your data to the new one or did you just back it up and restore it yourself?

 

I did not change anything. Also, I didn't need to backup anything, as the company on my country took the drive off and sent to the "factory" without it. When it arrived to them they put the drive and then sent it to me.

 

thank you so much for the info! Should be sending mine in once I hear back from them.

 

Also just wanted to confirm since I haven't heard back from them yet, did you contact them at the email on their website: [email protected] or is there another way we are supposed to contact them for RMAs?

 

I did not use that email as they are not the distributor for my country, but I'm sure either way they will see your email and answer.

 

Does anyone in the US have a way to contact them directly either via phone number or an email address to use besides the [email protected] one that worked for them when you requested an RMA? I have sent now two emails to the support email two weeks apart and have not heard back yet and my warranty expires in December so I want to get this done ASAP.