CLEVO Drivers Update Utility by OBSIDIAN-PC

@John@OBSIDIAN-PC

Hello, does your program updater support my laptop model P670RS-G?

 

Yes it does.

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Don't know about the dim stuff, since I don't care that much about it, but the apply on boot needs fixing if possible. It really is annoying

 

I'm getting this too, Device manager says ME 0.0.0.1 even though it says ME 1831.12.0.1156 in programs & features. After I ran the updater, it keeps saysing new driver available even though I just installed it. Is this ok?

 

Since last Intel Chipset udpate Fan Control is no longer working (ver. 2.0.2), plus the previous issue stated by Lighning where Updater says Intel ME is not updated

 

Working on it.

Intel chipset does not have any relation to fan control... when you say fan control is not working what do you mean? Does it start? Does it show temperature values?

 

It does start, but it doesn't work no matter what option I choose.



After a few seconds this popup appears:



I try to relaunch it but keeps unresponsive.

 

Service is not working...
Did you install using the full package installer?

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

Hi John I'm on the latest 8th gen PA70HS-G
Keyboard LED doesn't seem to work tried everything possible. Only clevo center works
Now I'm on the default blue color for around 2 months because clevo center some how throttles the GPU (gtx 1070)

 

Yeah, i see, that´s because there is now an optional "Per-Key" keyboard mode.
It uses a specific EC (i think) and i have not even started to grasp how it works.


Today Updates:
- So today i started releasing a series of updates to try to solve all reported problems.
- Fan Control and Updater will display the change log
* Please report remaining problems *

Control Station news - One requested feature:


PS. The brightness " External LCD" tab is a feature i added mostly because i need it myself.
It allows to control External LCDs brightness (only LCDs with brightness support). To use that you need to drag Control Station window to the monitor you want to adjust and then use the fader.

 

Hi John,

Not sure what the cause is but i updated to the new fan control and now my laptop automatically shuts down within approx 5 minutes of startup all the time.
Was working fine with the old 1.2.6 (off top of my head) version.

There were a bunch of warnings when i used the installer for the new version of fan control which i had to select 'ignore' on.

What could be the issue ?

Kind regards

Chris (UK)



Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

This guy is a legend! Thanks a lot for the hard work!

 

Is fan control working?
Set it to max fans to test it out.
If it´s not just use the full installer:
https://www.obsidian-pc.com/files/LaptopToolsInstall.zip -> if any error shows up during install just select "Ignore".
Also our software is not compatible with Clevo Control Center.

 

Hi John.

Yes Fan control is fully working. Just annoyingly the laptop suddenly does a self shutdown after i power laptop on.

Actually i've just manually shutdown laptop myself powered backup and it has been up and running again for 20 mins now and seems ok.

I have also gone into task manager and notice a background process running called 'ClevoService.exe (32 bit)' is this a problem ?

Kind regards

Chris (UK)

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

ClevoService is the new service that we made for our apps.
Fan Control and keyboard LED use it to talk to EC.
Without it nothing works

 

problem solved with the update, you rock!

 

So no solution for the Keyboard LED to work?

 

Hi there.
First of all, thank you for your ongoing hard effort in developing this great piece of software. I really appreciate your work and support. So far I've been enjoying the new fan control. I like revamped key led app as well. Yet I'd like to share some feedback concerning the issue I've been having with the 2.0 fan control compared to 1.2.6 version. I have completely removed the whole previous tools and used the new laptoptools2 installer. I have set exactly the same curve for cpu and gpu fan - I did the math and made sure to use the precisely same values taking into account the wider range of up to 255. Yet somehow my cpu temp when bench stressing are up to 8-9 degrees higher. I used to get 75-76 degrees with 1.2.6 version as opposed to 84 degrees with the latest build (on i7 7700k). That when fan is set to 60% max.

I have restored my Clevo 751dm2 laptop to previous state with ghost image twice to test previous build and the temps with the same cpu stress benchmark reach max 76 degrees while in the same conditions 2.0 version peaks at 84. However strange it may seem ramping up cpu fan with this build to 100% only gets the temps down to 81 degrees at maximum cpu stress. I have repeated tests several times. What's even more odd is that gpu temps between the two builds of fan control stay more or less the same. There's nothing else that has been changed in terms of software. I didn't even update the intel chipset and new nvidia driver as suggested by the updater to make sure that might have impact on cpu stress temps, which leads me to believe that it may have something to do with the latest version of fan control.

Other than that I like the new features like the ability to create backup of settings and the fact it loads almost instantaneously at boot of Windows 10.

 

If indeed you have a PER-KEY model then it will not be supported until i get a unit myself (not even sure if anyone is selling it in Europe).
Also, i currently have no support from any other reseller, although i did make all this thinking about licensing and already added branding options.
Without support from other re-sellers all of these apps are just being developed by a single person with limited resources and limited access to models that OBSIDIAN-PC is not selling or never sold.

So ill keep doing my best based on everyone feedback and requests, but there are indeed limits to what i can do, this is all just a single developer work at the moment. Sorry if sometimes i cant add the features you guys want or if i take too long to make it compatible with your specific model.

At the moment my plans for next updates are the following:
- Add DISCRETE / MSHYBRID switch to Control Station
- Finish the Brightness controls for MSHYBRID units
- Add P870 LCD cover LED support

Those are the only 3 things i really want to finish, everything else will just be Optimization and Bug fixes. I want to make it all the most stable possible and bug free, otherwise we are replacing CCC with yet another buggy solution.

 

A) Is that CPU temperature being read by Fan Control or by another software? If you are basing your comment on the Fan Control readings then maybe the new version is getting more precise values.

B) You cant do the math, impossible. There is no way for you to calculate which FAN percentage (in the old version) matches the 0-255 value from the new version, and that's because in the old version i used to have a small offset. So the Range from 0-100 was not linear. Also it's impossible to match the old refresh rate cycles, the code is so different that it might be approximate but the ramping is now TOTALLY different.
I'm kinda astonished with all the work you had just to try to match your old settings.
My advice is don't over-think it, it's actually very easy to tune each profile to your desired behavior:

 

Hey john, more a suggestion than anything else, but doesn't it make more sense to have fan control from 0% to 100%? Im guessing its 0-255 for some binary reason. I might be alone on this one but I think its more intuitive for the end user if you make 255=100% and 0=0%.
Just a suggestion, love your work.

 

That must be the new code... I tried to reproduce my old curve as after lots of trial and error it struck the right valance between thermal performance and noise levels. Anyway I'm rather satisfied with what I ended up right now. Maybe I'll tweaked it further to get better performance - those temps are after all still very acceptable for a i7 7700k... As I already said I like the latest build although 0-255 range was rather confusing at first.

 

Hey I dont want to keep pestering as I know you're just one man, not an octopus, but the random screen brightness zeroing is somewhat frustrating. Any thoughts on something I can do at my end to fix?
Also, should I trust the max temp readings from FC? the are so much lower than core temps max reading.

 

Can you explain the random screen brightness thing?

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

I just find that at random, (or seemingly random moments) the screen goes dark, to minimum brightness settings. It could be when I click on certain things, or type a key, but it doesnt seem to be the same key or click, if you know what I mean...other times it just happens...

I dont believe its anything else. Ive disabled adaptive brightness, but it doesnt stop it. I seem to get it repeatedly at certain times, and then not at all for long periods...

Im trying to narrow it down but nothing else springs to mind...

Vague?

 

apparently the keyboard LED is now completely broken. It doesn't do anything anymore :/

 

I had to do a full reinstall yesterday as my fancontrol licence stopped working as soon as it updated to 2.0.2 and noticed that too.

 

Did your Keyboard LED update? Latest is 0.2.2
Is Fan Control working for you?
If Fan Control is working but Keyboard LED is not then it must be a TCP problem, im adding new code to make connections between server (service) and apps (fan control and keyboard led) more flexible.
At the moment i just setup a localhost and a specific port for each app. I just remembered that sometimes another app can ask for exclusive address, and if that app registers before keyboard led it will not allow keyboard led to work.

So in your case i would recommend you to first just reinstall the full package to make sure you have everything updated:
https://www.obsidian-pc.com/files/LaptopToolsInstall.zip

And later today i should send out updates to prevent port problems.

 

Fan control seems to be working fine, Keyboard LED is the newest 0.2.2.

Ill try the zip file

EDIT: still no luck :/

 

hi John can you help me with the keyboard LED if i mail you the latest bios update by AFTERSHOCK (SG)

 

@ John@OBSIDIAN-PC

So after restarting the keyboard LED works for around 10 seconds, then suddenly stops working. I think your dim function is messin with it.

 

Works great here, are you sure you are not overwriting the Keyboard LED in the Control Station Power Modes?
Also i just released an update that should take care of any TCP Problem (if that was the case).

 

Well Bennyq has the same issue so I guess it's nost just me. Downloaded the latest version, still same issue

 

@John@OBSIDIAN-PC

Yo john, some weird behavior report here:
1) keyboard led is still not applying the setting to the left zone leds when using the "3 zones fixed" settings (old one was working right, new one is not even with latest update and the led do work property since I see everything correct when using effects)
2) keyboard led button interaction is weird, switching from 3 zones fixed to stripe and enabling effects doesn't always apply settings and clicking effects from the 3 zones fixed tab never applies effects
3) fan control speed resolution is strange: CPU is at 45°C and fan is set a 74/255 when between 39-50°C but fan duty is showing 45% speed which is not actually 74/255 (and it was even showing over 55% few minutes ago, in fact i could hear fans, even though i was still at CPU temp lower than 50°C).

 

Do you by any chance have Clevo Control Center installed?

 

A bug with Fan Control 2 - setting the "manual mode" profile using the tray icon rightclick ends up with all the fan bars being set to 0! Pretty dangerous as the fans will never run. I reset "manual mode" from the main UI and the correct speeds were loaded.

 

Just a FYI: KB LED and CC are working fine here.

 

There is absolutely no difference if you select from System tray or by manually clicking the mode.
both methods just call the setManualMode() function.
What did happen is that you probably had a empty "manual" table. Which should not happen but still its easy to solve by resetting tables to overwrite whatever your manual user table is.
Testing a fresh windows install and selecting each mode will show you that all tables should have pre-inserted values.

Yeah i know it is, i currently have 6 laptops with 3 types of keyboards for testing.
I usually test it by updating with the apps updater and in a fresh windows install.

My concern is why some users are reporting Keyboard LED not working.

Usually that means the CLEVOMOF.dll (WMI class) is not working. Usually the only thing that damages that is installing CCC.
In the past CCC reinstall would even render itself and everything that uses the dll broken, so i been adding code to cover all ALL SCENARIOS where the mof is broken or remains of CC are still present after uninstall:
- KB filters / Mouse filters - the biggest fiasco in Clevo history, we actually had to accept returns because of this BSOD, it did cost us a lot of MONEY
- re-register MOF dll
- broken wmi repository
etc etc

To be honest 80% of everything i do is to solve problems caused by CC or by poor implementation from CLEVO... i really just want to shoot myself at this point.

I spent two weeks re-coding fan control with a neat direct EC com and a service just to use a different approach then stacking the ACPI like CCC does.
Remember kids, ANYTHING your CCC does, ANY click you make to change ANYTHING or any value it reads from the EC it´s 1000+ DPC spike!
At this point i would rather not have a CLEVO laptop then having one with CCC.

If CLEVO would just make a direct EC communication driver with proper API documentation and let brands code the apps that would be great... wasting time hacking stuff is wasting me too much time.

So i´ll take a break for today since im pissed as F*
Sorry for the venting out.

 

um...yes it does seem like Clevo is a penis from this end, if its any consolation.

just thought Id mention my FC thinks the CPU hit 117deg just now...sorry. Core temp says 80.
Still, FC did a great job of keeping that CPU cool...

Did I mention the brightness issue I had seems to have gone? ...*tiptoes out

 

Hi John, anyway we can just download the latest drivers and install manually? Like that Intel chipset driver, I'd like to install it before I connect to the internet (on a clean install). but I can't find that chipset when i google it.

 

Okay wow, I missed a lot this last week. @John@OBSIDIAN-PC I don't know how to tell you this, but the current fan control software has a lot of lost functionality with the tables gone for the knobs.

Because the P870DM3 has the cooling shared, I was able to keep all 3 fans running based on the combination of CPU and GPU temperature, so that if my CPU load was high, my GPU fans could spin up to help cool it, and it would be still quiet. Example of the fan tables I had here:


In this new software because it's all knob-based and each knob only activates based on the temperature of the part it is checking the temperature of, it is completely impossible, and the best I can do is force 100% fanspeed at low values like 60c. I understand it's a bit different for something like a P870TM1 which doesn't link the CPU and GPU heatsinks for the fans to spin up on their own, but for connected units like the PA71ES or P650HS units the addition of the table is definitely a huge benefit.

If possible do you think you can add it in as like an advanced option? Maybe import advanced backup tables from the older software? If you can't import backup tables as advanced I would go through and put them in myself again, I don't mind, since I have screenshots. But for now I'm gonna have to use the old fan control.

Is it even possible to cross-use the new keyboard LED and control station while using the old fan control from the same folder?

Edit: It appears it 100% is possible to run the old fan control with the new keyboard LED and control station if I simply replace the .exe, so that's nice. I'm all for the new fan control, it looks and sounds nice, I just really need those tables haha.

Edit 2: Seems the original gets stuck once the fans change at all. Instantly reads my CPU as 93c and freezes. I guess I have to use the entire older folder, which I am glad I backed up hehe

 

You don't want to cross use trust me.
Based on your report what you want is the fans to start sipinning up based on Load right?
I have two planned features:
- Offset based on Load
- Duty transfer on shared cooling

Those should be the solution for your problem and those are the correct approach.

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

No no. I want fans to spin up according to a combination of CPU and GPU temperature. For example, look here:



My CPU is above 40c below 45c but my GPUs are between 35c and 40c. So my system is running 20% CPU, 15% GPU 1 and 15% GPU 2 fans. If I use a CPU-based load, like say... a 4K 60fps youtube video, or my commonly-used Android Emulator where my GPUs are unladen but my CPU is heating up, my system can cool pretty well while keeping relatively quiet:



With Fan Control 2, the only option to spin up my fans here would be to ramp up the CPU fan, which leaves the cooling power of my GPU fans doing nothing (though they are connected to the CPU's heatsink) and the system much louder to keep the same temperature.

 

That's exactly what the shared cooling transfer duty does.
For each X CPU duty add X GPUs offset.
That puts GPU fans to work cooling CPU down and keeping all fans at low.

You will have settings for Load Based Offset and Settings for Shared cooler systems.

That is way more intuitive then the tables and the math/ramping/control will be better and lower resource.

I'll post the GUI later so you can see it.

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

That sounds good. As long as the final functionality ends up being as tuned as the original tables it's great. I did manually do all those values for a reason hehe.

I hope it turns out just as well! Because I do a lot of CPU-heavy, GPU-light and some GPU-heavy, CPU-light tasks it worked out perfectly to have the system run the way I have it now. Most of the time my primary GPU is under 60c in games even at max loads, and my CPU never really gets to 75c with the current setup. Look at this beauty, full CPU and overclocked GPU load, no slave GPU load, low temps and not even maxed fans:

 

I'm sure it will... And that's actually simple code.
There was a feature that I was planning which is way more wacky.
AI based on noise levels around the user.
Example: if the user is in a quiet environment then use minimal duties, while if the user is in a noisy environment we can ramp it up more!
I even have a sound treated room for this.

Sent from my MI Note 2 using Tapatalk

 

haha I think that would be.. very interesting to see in practice if you ever do get it running! But I'm not sure how well you could input the surrounding noise data.

I would love a sound-treated room. Would make my life much easier.

Anyway I'm looking forward to the new! Until then I'm sadly sticking with the old as it's the best cooling solution I have, but when it's up let me know, I'll be ready to give it a whirl.

Also, I confirmed that no older control station is no memory leak or typing slowdown, it's been 13 days without a reboot and all typing functions perfectly in all programs. So looking forward to that being cleaned up too =D

 

Here´s a cool trick for you.
Have you noticed how Updater asks for Admin rights before installing any driver?

Ok then try this:
- First update the Updater since a new version just came out
- After updating it will be launched as Admin so just exit (update it and then exit it when it gets relaunched)
-Now manually open it from C:\Program Files\LaptopTools\Updater.exe
- Now it will open without admin rights again...
- Try installing any driver it will ask for admin rights correct? Have you tried clicking "NO", because if you dont allow the Admin escalation it will open up the drivers folder for you to manually install it, it´s a cool feature that should do what you want.

If you want to keep a backup of all drivers so that you can, for example, copy them to a USB pen to use on a clean Windows install you should use that method and also go to the settings tab and select the "Keep local drivers copy: Yes"

 

I don't know why it's happening then but I can reproduce it every time, even after resetting tables.

You can even do it with the Fan Control window open.

Screenshot before:


1. Right click the notification icon, select "Max speed". All fans go to max as expected:


2. Right click icon, select "Manual mode", all fans stop. Look at CPU/GPU tab, fans slowly stop spinning until they are completely off, and all the bars are set at zero also with the wrong temperature ranges for each bar:




And the fans stay off no matter what the temps reach.

If I click "Manual Mode" radio button within the GUI, the actual manual values are loaded in correctly.

Even after resetting tables, the above steps reproduce the problem every time.

 

Woot, then indeed that must be a bug :O
I´m on it RIGHT AWAY...
Still... there is an ABSOLUTE rule with Fan Control service, no matter what happens, no matter what values you select, the Security Values will always kick in even with empty tables or whatever!