CLEVO Drivers Update Utility by OBSIDIAN-PC

My laptop model is Clevo N850EP6 and i have Control Center installed

Keyboard hotkeys still work
Not scaled
Volume for headphones works, though it does not make the chime sound when you change the volume level.
Yes, headphones work without control center.
Control center update worked well.
All settings/options buttons opened the correct locations.

I love the simplistic look. I hate getting blasted with the techno colors everytime i have to use CCC.
really looking forward to the big beautiful buttons doing something!

 

Can we customize the taskbar icon as well?

I changed tray icon image, but the taskbar icon stays the same xD

 

At the moment only the system tray... the icon you mean is the actual .exe icon, what i can do is make a .ico available for you to change, then you can convert any png to ico and change it too.
Im adding that in the Todo List

 

This is me waiting for the fan-control test-phase:

 

You mean you want to see the full software family coming together? Like This:

 

Could you please start with a fan speed/ RPM monitor? That will allow partial EC interface testing without breaking anything.

 

Wow. I can't wait for fan controls either. Great stuff so far

 

I actually have no reason to add RPM monitor, why would i want that?
If the software allows you to manually set the fan percentage you are in control of the fan rotation, why would someone want to know that "My fan is rotating at X rpm" rather then "My fan is rotating at X percentage of it´s full capacity"... i would rather see the voltage that we are sending to the fan then it´s actually rotation.
Unless you want to diagnose a beeping laptop, just to be sure it´s not beeping because the EC is not getting a fan rotation signal (which means a broken fan)....

Hum... ok i just wrote a full thought process which went from it´s pointless to there´s actually a point... ok sure i will add that info... when i find time for it... i´m working on 4 different apps at the same time

 

Thanks. I get your initial thought too, but I want to see the input to the EC, i.e. what rotational info the fan is sending to the EC - whether you format it as a percentage of full speed, or RPM, or even raw register data is totally up to you. The performance of fans does degrade somewhat over time (eg, bearings or bushings wearing out), so this could also help decide when it is time to replace the fans.

 

Isnt constant fan-RMP hook-monitoring (if updated say 5-10 times per sec) a waste of CPUtime in itself making the OC more like the bloatware the Clevo CC allready is?

Less monitoring = less cputime = less bloatware (imho). Bloatware is bad, bad, lets all circle up, hold hands and say it together now: "bloatware and waste of cputime is bad" (NB: spooning afterwards is OPTIONAL and solely up to one another individually)

 

Reported this, porn is not allowed on these forums, especially not if its that clean, mean and hot.

 

BTW, will the graphics used (like the icons on the OC) be file-based like on the current testversion, in short: easily open for personal skinning / pimping?)

 

It all depends on how you do it...
Iḿ ok with going up to 0.5% CPU on all monitoring for such a critical piece of software.
The way you do the calls is the most important thing, Windows does have a high performance method for WMI calls for instance, the problem is how freaking Alien it is for C++.

To this moment i already did classes (which might still need cleanup and optimization) using the high performance API for the following:

- Monitoring Audio Jacks (might do a full Audio panel for the Control Station) with this, since Audio stuff is actually my specialty and CLEVO audio software is CRAP.
- Class to GET values from CLEVO WMI in a fast and high performance method even at 0.2secs cycles
- Class to PUT values in the CLEVO WMI in a fast and high performance method even at 0.2secs cycles
- Class to get AC State (easiest of the bunch)
- Class for brightness (get and put)

And trust me there is a HUGE difference in using just some easy powershell / script thing or using a high performance method where you can even register for changes and your app receives only hardware changes when they happen.... its just that it takes a lot of work and time, compared to Android for instance, C++ and Windows methods is a MESS!!
In Windows the way you use a method for something can be TOTALLY different for something else, it shows the amount of crap code that has been implemented over years. While in Android as soon as you start picking the logic you notice all methods are similar to implement.

PS. NON needed monitoring will be user activated ( you will be able to choose with ON/OFF to monitor it or not)

 

yes, i hope i can sell this software packages to other brands/re-sellers like OBSIDIAN. They will be able to change all texts, colors, branding info, etc.
If i manage to make this profitable it will only mean the software will become better EVERY DAY! It will allow me to allocate more resources into the development.

 

Isn't the Realtek driver already doing that?

 

Yeah but I find both windows and Realtek audio controls a real mess. It's messy on either outputs / inputs, device selection, routing, equalization, everything...

Maybe when this is over I might make my ideas into another project, an independent app for that.

Clevo models are messy when it comes to Realtek drivers, sometimes you install the latest Realtek and puff no Audio or no volume control or no headphones. If I have time I will try to at least solve that in the control station app.

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

I hear you, and you could also open up for donations, that could also make development more motivational.

 

mhm.. I gave up on c++ a couple if years ago in regards to hooking into WMI and/or dlls > WMI, I use ahk (autohotkey) which is fairly "a ok" as a c++ wrapper library/compiler for WMI tasks.

When you say monitoring will be optional ON/OFF switch, will it actually not pull values from WMI when turned off or will it just be a "dont show it i the GUI" kind of OFF?

Sorry for asking all the stupid questions, I was unluckily assigned that task by birth, which makes me wonder: why does a completaly harmless tiny cigarett/match-burn hurt like hell for 24 hours, while chopping of a hand - a severaly deadly injury - is painless due to adrenaline and a bunch of other painkiller chemicals in our body? It makes no sense at all in terms of warning the individual about the degree of danger, its plain stupid.

 

Absolutely.
I tend to thread and isolate repetitive value fetching. By enabling or disabling a monitoring value I will just start or stop the thread worker, no processing at all when disabled.

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Looking forward to this as well. If, while you're at it, you could do something to bring down the latency, that would be a real value addition.

 

The latency of audio is hardware and windows core related, there's nothing anyone can do about that other than switching to another audio-core-layer like ASIO.

 

My laptop model is PA71EP6-G" and i have Control Center installed
AC power widget works fine
resorces(must be 'resources', not fixed on your latest screenshot) draws on top of the control station and disappears when i press minimize but not when i press close, it comes back when i open the window

1440p at 125% scaling
https://imgur.com/2uInbvt
https://imgur.com/PDlL3hB

 

Im not sure he was talking only about latency in Audio.
No one who cares about audio latency uses the built in audio device, usually people who are audio latency aware will use external audio devices (musicians, producers, etc).
I think he was referring to overall input latency, something, that just like Audio (no matter what interface you use) can be a problem caused by high DPC values.
Even if you have a top of the line RME interface, your system is only as good as your DPC spikes... trust me, i spent countless hours testing and tweaking systems to rid them of DPC spikes... and guess what i noticed? Those DPC spikes not only will mess up your Audio but will also mess up your games.
I noticed that the moment i got a spike i could notice it in the game also, it cause like a frame skip, also the highest the DPC value the more sluggish the inputs feel (mouse and general fluidity of the graphics).
A system with low dpc will usually be good not only for Audio but for every real-time task.

Disabling unneeded hardware to reduce the calls from drivers to hardware will reduce DPC, network interfaces, wifi, everything you dont need, i even disable ACPI stuff (you loose battery info but everything will work fine).

Maybe i can add a "GAMING MODE" in control station which will allow you to select which hardware you want to disable and minimize monitoring tasks to only strictly necessary.

There have been huge debates in the past about DPC, i waited YEARS for it to happen, for years i was saying "Why the hell gamers dont care about DPC, look NVIDIA drivers are causing dpc spikes probably due to power management stuff. NVIDIA needs to solve this." Finally gamers are aware and nvidia got huge backlash in the forums.

Same goes for manufacturers, CLEVO is not the best at this... most manufacturers stopped caring since no one is aware or cares about this. Low DPC was a mandatory feature of professional grade laptops, it is not the case anymore... You will see ACPI spiking like crazy even on Professional models.
I remember back in the day where you could choose in BIOS if ACPI would be OS or BIOS managed (i dont really know how to explain what was going but i think it was like battery stuff was not exposed to OS) and it was amazing, always bellow 200ms dpc and no spikes...

 

We use external devices because we have to, not by choice. If we could use the onboard audio, we would. If you have several external devices hooked up to your laptop, things aren't very compact and portable any more. Sad that even a high end laptop isn't up to the task.

YES, please, to the GAMING MODE. As I mentioned a few pages back in this thread, Razer does have something like this. Probably has a lot to do with why gamers seem to like their laptops.

 

Love the widgets. If we could have them always on top and include temperatures ... wouldn't need to use anything else for showing that stuff.

 

It's high grade audio for internal audio, but there are limits to what you can do in the space provided, high grade solutions will have more power hungry processors and filtering galore with nice big electrolytics.

 

Oh I trust you 100% on DCP, I know that much by now that you know ecaxtly what youre talking about.

Back in the xp/win7 days manufacturers and even Microsoft themselves actually cared about DCP and isolated driver efficiency.

This is a good tool though to see if one has DCP issues, would be a good idea for those concerned to test out:

There are a few programs that can be helpful in diagnosing DPC latency. If you are running Windows 7 or higher, the best utility to use is LatencyMon by Resplendence. This program will not only tell you if there is a DPC issue, but it will also tell you which driver is causing the latency.

LatencyMon download

 

Been using LatencyMon for years. For older versions of Windows there is DPCLAT. Not sure whether LatencyMon is telling you which driver is causing the most latency or which is experiencing the most latency. What we are concerned about is the latency as seen by a particular driver, e.g. the audio driver, or process, e.g. the DAW's audio engine. Unless something is so bad it is maxing out your CPU or other resources, there is enough computing power available in a Clevo to ensure everything gets done. I would be looking at running the desired process with a higher priority so that it's tasks get done ASAP while other processes get a bit delayed.

That was a very impressive post by John@OBSIDIAN-PC - he certainly does seem to know a lot about these issues. Looking forward to seeing what he can come up with.

 

Just chiming in here, looking forward to using the fan controls. Aweomse UI

 

LaptopTools updated
You can use the built updater!
New: Minor ui and labels fixes
New: Now includes Updater (the new OBSIDIAN TOOLS), you can click the big Updater icon on the top
Updater uses the same licenses as the OBSIDIAN TOOLS used too...

For those who want to download the full package:
Please make sure you have latest MSV Runtimes: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

Download:
http://obsidian-pc.com/LaptopTools.zip

VERY IMPORTANT
LaptopTools folder NEEDS to be moved to C:\Program Files\
So from now on everything will be inside C:\Program Files\LaptopTools\




What´s new?
The famous OBSIDIAN TOOLS software, now known as "Updater", can be tuned for any brand. Select highlight color and title text!
Brands can now sell it or offer it to it´s clients.
New Package included in LaptopTools can be downloaded as a stand alone from here: http://obsidian-pc.com/Updater.zip - contents need to be placed in C:\Program Files\LaptopTools\
To purchase a license you can use the same old URL: https://code.obsidian-pc.com/product/obsidian-tools/ - Will update website when i have the time!

Choices choices choices....
So with all this i noticed it no longer makes sense to sell Advanced or Ultimate licenses of the OBSIDIAN TOOLS (now updater), since the advanced features are basically moving to CONTROL STATION for free! (this alone is a huge reduction in the profits of our software).
BUT there is a catch, you tell me what you think about it... Control Station will be where all new stuff will be added, features like optimizations which have been discussed before, widgets, support for other projects like ThrottleStop integration, etc, and it will be free, just like Keyboard LED will also be free. I´m ok with this to be honest, BUT, in exchange i would like to end the free Updater/OBSIDIAN TOOLS license.
I´m ok with offering offline stuff, even though they will require huge amounts of time to code, but the free Updater license is doing us harm, its hard to keep up with all the server load, and the leaching is reducing the service quality.
So, you tell me, would you rather have a free Control Station / Keyboard LED or a free Updater license?

 

I would vote for the free control station and would be happy to pay for a license for the updater. you guys definitely deserve that for all the work you have done!
Also, I'm wondering if you will go back to adding laptops to the update list? Need my N850EP6 added still.

I also found a small error on the updater, at least on my machine. The check/re-check button overlaps the model selector button. Other than that, looks great!

Thanks!!

 

I'd be happy just to be alerted that a newer driver is available - quite willing to download it on my own from Clevo or the device manufacturer's website. I would, however, like it if there were more models in the list. My laptop is detected as a Q5, but the drop down list doesn't have the Clevo base number P957HR.

May I suggest that you keep everything free except the ability to download and install updates? That way only the driver list will be downloaded from your servers by those who haven't paid. In other words, let everything work except the UPDATE button on the right of each driver in the list, as well as the UPDATE ALL button, of course.

EDIT: I have the same overlap error. Display res 1080p. Scale 125%.

 

Yeah... dealing with windows scaling... IS A MESS!
That´s on my to-do list for the next update.

If you resize the window can you make it look good?

 

Hello John@OBSIDIAN-PC

Ia am interested in buying this tool and was wondering if it would also allow me use the obsidian bios for a clevo N870HK1?
The laptop is re-branded by novatech but i checked and it is pretty much a standard clevo N870HK1.

Does the Obsidian Bios contain options for overclocking memory ?

 

Yes. Resizing works. Yay!

 

I concur. Resizing does work.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

I'm happy to pay for anything and everything, to be honest. I'd much rather pay than end up with abandonware after a short while because the lights could not be kept on. Whatever needs to be done to ensure the project remains healthy and viable is fine with me.

 

Second

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

In the end of the day the deciding factor will be deals with other resellers.
End users alone are hard to reach and hardly aware of the benefits, but if other brands want to resell or offer this for their clients we can make special prices and then it will probably make some profit. To this day there was not a single month where the income from this was enough even to pay a single wage.
The better, or the more, deals we make with brands, the best the software will be. I´m really doing my best to prove to the rest of our company staff that we can make our software development department a profitable area.

This being said, if any reseller wants to make the Updater available to their clients, please contact [email protected] - I know in the past some did contact us and it did not go through because the product was not ready for it yet... well... it is now!

 

in a nutshell, you are saying that people with a Basic License will get the app unlocked, and will this license also allow for the fan controls?

 

The OBSIDIAN TOOLS / Updater license is FOR the OBSIDIAN TOOLS / Updater ONLY.
The FanControl License will be FOR FanControl.
(Those will be the 2 licenses for purchase, both Control Station and Keyboard LED will be free).

The only difference now is that before there was 3 license types for the TOOLS software, which is now no longer the case, the Advanced/Ultimate versions of the license are no longer available, since we moved all those extra features to the Control Station software (which is a free software)

 

Quick question about purchasing the license. Do I have to have the laptop system UUID? If so, how do I find it?
Thanks

 

Thanks for the update.

I just purchased the Basic edition.

As at the moment, what functionality is available, as we speak?
Fan control? Keyboard backlight control?
At the moment, they appear to be 'place holders'.

 

Click the UPDATER icon - one of the three large circles on top. That will open a new window. You'll see your UUID there.

What does the UUID depend on? Will it stay the same if I do a clean install of Windows? Change the HDD?

 

Yes.

Launch the app. Then click the update button (in green). Before it runs, you'll see the prompts (in the update tab) with the respective UUID needed to purchase. When done with the purchase, you'll then enter the order number as instructed and the toolkit will activate.

 

That's an important question, considering that some OEMs (Eurocom, for starters) do not include a serial label in the system's DMI data.

 

Here is more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universally_unique_identifier

Note:
On some cases when you RMA your laptop, the reseller might change your motherboard, and this will means a new UUID, which will make the app stop working. At the moment the app does not include a way to change the registered UUID so you have to manually write us an email to [email protected] with your order number and new UUID.
We will soon create a way for you to update it in a easy way.

Updater was just updated to 2.0.1:
- N8xxEP6 now supported
- Some minor UI adjustments for better scaled fitting

YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THE AUTOMATIC UPDATE UNTIL YOU REPLACE /updates/Update.exe
You can download the full package and overwrite your files: http://obsidian-pc.com/LaptopTools.zip
This will be the last time you will have to do this for any app, does not matter if Beta/Alpha/Final, the update worker for all apps is finished (its the file inside LaptopTools/updates/Update.exe), for all automatic updates to work you can just replace that file too and it will work

 

Yeah for me!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

Update broke the widgets. All the text is now jumbled together.
(I deleted the old folder and replaced it with the new one.)


Also, the widgets don't start with Windows like they used to; have to double click the tray icon to bring up the main window, and then the widgets appear.

 

Hummm... that´s just your settings file that got replaced.
Increase / Decrease widgets font size