Gigabyte Aero 15 X Gaming Notebook With GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q Graphics

[RyzenJunkie]

Any ideas on this? Just done a fresh wipe and if I install the smart manager so I can control the fans etc, the latency is out of control (see pic). If I wipe it and don't install smart manager it's fine. Trying to do music production on this and it's totally unusable with the Gigabyte smart manager installed.

 

[RyzenJunkie]

And retested. Now twice as bad

 

[LindsayD19]

Hi @LindsayD19 - could you please post a screenshot of the Error Message dialogue box?

Regards,

Atom80

Sorry for the delay, I had to find a third party hosting platform as it seems the forum setup doesn't allow for upload directly from my hard drive.

Attached are both the XTU watchdog warning message and my new rather simplified BIOS interface (I have absolutely no idea how that has happened but I am desperate to get back my original, fully featured Gigabyte bios screen. All I've done is delete and reinstall GCC and XTU, and update chipset drivers).

Incidentally I sent a support message to Gigabyte a week or so back, about the XTU issue (with screenshot), but never received a response.

 

[LindsayD19]

I've now received a brief reply from Gigabyte support regarding the problem I started having with XTU's watchdog service after updating Control Center and re-installing XTU:

"Please kindly note from the Intel XTU site, the utility is not valid for the laptop CPU. (You may refer the Intel's site here) In addition, the setting in Intel XTU will force to change certain settings in the Control Center that we do not suggest you use the utility on the laptop."

I don't understand a word of it - everybody seems to believe that under-volting is recommended for laptops of this type. I had the same CPU in my Lenovo X1 Extreme and XTU worked very well. And what are the 'certain settings' in Control Center that get altered? Also, this reply seems counter to the response offered via Atom-08 earlier when no mention of unsuitability was made. I am thoroughly confused now - XTU appears to come bundled with Control Center.

If I can't under-volt this laptop then it's not much use to me - and of course I am now several days out of my return period.

 

[RyzenJunkie]

I had lots of issues with mine. Seems support has gone quiet.

 

[Bubo]

I used the app ThrottleStop for undervolting on an Asus GL703GS. Some guides say you had to stop the XTU service, which apparently is part of the OS, regardless of whether you install the actual XTU program itself, but I didn't bother and it appears to run fine. To be clear I never installed the XTU program itself. It doesn't throttle down in games with ThrotleStop I've found.

 

[LindsayD19]

I used the app ThrottleStop for undervolting on an Asus GL703GS. Some guides say you had to stop the XTU service, which apparently is part of the OS, regardless of whether you install the actual XTU program itself, but I didn't bother and it appears to run fine. To be clear I never installed the XTU program itself. It doesn't throttle down in games with ThrotleStop I've found.

I did try Throttlestop. I set my XTU values back to zero then I uninstalled XTU, and installed Throttlestop. This worked OK, but from that point onwards I could no longer open Gigabyte Control Center. To see if TS was the culprit, I de-installed TS and reinstalled CC - and CC then opened fine (this is the point at which I also noticed XTU being included in the CC installation package). Because I use and need CC I realised my only undervolting option would be XTU, so I reinstalled it - that is when I got the watchdog error and my loss of normal BIOS interface.

The only other changes I made at the time was to update my chipset drivers, intel management package, and update CC.

 

[Atom80]

I've now received a brief reply from Gigabyte support regarding the problem I started having with XTU's watchdog service after updating Control Center and re-installing XTU:

"Please kindly note from the Intel XTU site, the utility is not valid for the laptop CPU. (You may refer the Intel's site here) In addition, the setting in Intel XTU will force to change certain settings in the Control Center that we do not suggest you use the utility on the laptop."

I don't understand a word of it - everybody seems to believe that under-volting is recommended for laptops of this type. I had the same CPU in my Lenovo X1 Extreme and XTU worked very well. And what are the 'certain settings' in Control Center that get altered? Also, this reply seems counter to the response offered via Atom-08 earlier when no mention of unsuitability was made. I am thoroughly confused now - XTU appears to come bundled with Control Center.

If I can't under-volt this laptop then it's not much use to me - and of course I am now several days out of my return period.

@LindsayD19 - sorry for delay, you screenshots have been forwarded to R&D. Will come back you

Regards,

Gigabyte UK NB Team

 

[Scorpuk]

Hi @Atom80.

Finally home from Kazakhstan. Was a loooong 6 weeks.

The power supply arrived, but I have a question on it.


The original one supplied with the laptop had a maximum output of 215W. (G-Style; G200W-U5V2A-A)
The replacement model has a maximum output of 180W. (Chicony; A17-180P4A)


Am I going to run into issues with less power available from the power supply?


Cheers,

John.

 

[LindsayD19]

After being told by Gigabyte e-support that XTU is not supported on the Aero (even though it comes bundled in the GCC app) I asked them for clarification. I also asked them if I should de-install XTU or simply set it back to zero. This is the reply I got back complete with a graphic:

"If you would like to tune the laptop, we suggest you use Control Center instead as below.

As mentioned, our CPU is not in the support of the XTU (the utility) you download. If you force the laptop to run the utility which might have conflicts to our Control Center and cause the system error. Please be aware."


I have no idea what they mean - I don't know what the bars do on the graphic they're pointing at, and I can't find details anywhere. Moreover - I don't even have those bars (that is irrespective of whatever power settings I'm running. Below is a screenshot of what my GCC interface looks like. Can somebody please elaborate.

 

[MiSJAH]

EDIT: Plug in your AERO, reboot, and run CC see if the blocks appear. They may not be avialable when running on battery.

If not:

Uninstall both xtu (if a standalone version is still installed) and Command Centre.

Reboot.

Reinstall Command Centre.

The 5 blocks in the image Gigabyte sent you are performance/overclocking levels for the CPU, 0 being lowest and 4 being the highest.

On re-install you should have these clickable options.

 

[RyzenJunkie]

I've sold mine. Constantly running like garbage. Totally unusable for music production, despite being advertised as amazing for creators. After a lengthy conversation via email, offering some of my thoughts, it seems like support has dried up. Spent £1900 on this and sold it at a loss. Not too chuffed about that. Apple Mac's get slated for their pricing, and I'm the first to to slate them for their underhand practices but if Gigabyte want to take custom away from them (talking to gigabyte over email states that), they seriously need to work on their support but most of all their product. No matter what I did, I got huge latency. Plugged in, not plugged in, optimised for music, not optimised for music, windows 1903, windows 1809, latest drivers, gigabytes drivers etc

With high end gear I was getting crackling audio at even 512 samples. Now, I'm on a MacBook Pro 15", 2017 edition and running at 32 samples and doesn't miss a beat. That's 4x the amount of stress on the CPU. And it's a slower CPU.

Unacceptable.

 

[LindsayD19]

EDIT: Plug in your AERO, reboot, and run CC see if the blocks appear. They may not be avialable when running on battery.

If not:

Uninstall both xtu (if a standalone version is still installed) and Command Centre.

Reboot.

Reinstall Command Centre.

The 5 blocks in the image Gigabyte sent you are performance/overclocking levels for the CPU, 0 being lowest and 4 being the highest.

On re-install you should have these clickable options.

Thank you very much indeed for the reply. I've deinstalled XTU and Control Center, then re-installed Control Center. I can confirm I have the blocks (only when the machine is plugged in).

 

[MiSJAH]

Clicking the individual 'blocks' will increase/decrease the overclock of the CPU. One block lit is the lowest and all lit is the highest performance.

Check using HWiNFO64.

And report back.

 

[LindsayD19]

Clicking the individual 'blocks' will increase/decrease the overclock of the CPU. One block lit is the lowest and all lit is the highest performance.

Check using HWiNFO64.

And report back.

Thank you. I tend to use my Aero on the go and almost entirely on battery, so manipulating the blocks probably isn't something I'll use much (I've left it where it seems to default to, which is three orange blocks). But I played around with the blocks last night (can only access them when plugged in) and it didn't seem to make a noticeable difference to temperatures.

It's a shame I can't undervolt this machine (as I've done with other i7 8750 models). As mentioned earlier, for no reason one day I lost the XTU 'watchdog' service - and using Throttlestop means I lose access to Control Center (I still haven't worked out why).

 

[MiSJAH]

Thank you. I tend to use my Aero on the go and almost entirely on battery, so manipulating the blocks probably isn't something I'll use much (I've left it where it seems to default to, which is three orange blocks). But I played around with the blocks last night (can only access them when plugged in) and it didn't seem to make a noticeable difference to temperatures.

It's a shame I can't undervolt this machine (as I've done with other i7 8750 models). As mentioned earlier, for no reason one day I lost the XTU 'watchdog' service - and using Throttlestop means I lose access to Control Center (I still haven't worked out why).

This is just a random thought.

Make sure you only have control centre installed, no additional versions of XTU.

Close control centre. and open XTU (the version installed in CC), try and undervolt from that version.

 

[LindsayD19]

This is just a random thought.

Make sure you only have control centre installed, no additional versions of XTU.

Close control centre. and open XTU (the version installed in CC), try and undervolt from that version.

Unfortunately I tried that a couple of weeks ago but the result was the same - I got the Watchdog warning message shown in the picture a few posts up. Gigabyte support insists that XTU doesn't support the i7-8750.

 

[MiSJAH]

Unfortunately I tried that a couple of weeks ago but the result was the same - I got the Watchdog warning message shown in the picture a few posts up. Gigabyte support insists that XTU doesn't support the i7-8750.

Support is accurate, I7-8750 is not supported by XTU.

I can't find your post about throttlestop although I remember you mentioning it. How did that go?

 

[LindsayD19]

True, the i7-8750 isn't on the official XTU list. But it's widely used to undervolt that very processor just as I have in the past (and on my Aero in the first few months), no issues with the watchdog feature. I lost the watchdog feature after some routine upgrades (chipset drivers and routine windows update - and an update to control center itself).

When I tried Throttlestop it worked fine but whilst it was installed I couldn't open Gigabyte's Control Centre (I didn't have XTU and Throttlestop installed at the same time). I use the control center app to set my fans and update my drivers, so I can't do without it. Once I'd deinstalled Throttlestop I was able to get control center back. Weird.

 

[RyzenJunkie]

Wow support has really dried up on Gigabyte Laptops. Was the right move to sell up. Lost money but don't think Gigabyte realise how damaging lack of support is. For example, just bought the parts for 2x custom mid/high end pcs for my boys and spent best part of 3.5k. Didn't even look at a gigabyte parts due to the issues I had. Maybe they aren't bothered?