Gigabyte Aero 15 - Windows 10 Setup and Tweeks Guide

So I recently got my Aero 15, and I'm going to be honest the out of the box experience was pretty average. Within the first 3 hours I encountered 3 BSOD's from what looked like driver errors and after some research this appeared to be pretty common. I also really disliked the touch pad, the accuracy and lack of windows 10 gesture support was a big down side.


Which brings me to this post, I thought I would share this setup guide with new and old owners of the Aero 15. In hopes that you can go from that average out of the box laptop to a solid gaming and workstation laptop.


(Note: This guide is catered for all, and has some pretty standard advice.)


1. Reimage

As the title suggests the best thing you can do with you new Aero 15 or pretty much any windows laptop is reinstall the OS. This will remove all of the bloatware that the laptop comes with, along with the rest of your data. SO BACKUP ANYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR! (Note: Your Windows 10 License Key is registered to you machines hardware, so once Windows 10 is installed it will activate automatically)

What you will need:
- USB Drive or DVD (At least 8GB)


1.1 Download the official Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to create a bootable USB:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows10

1.2 Once you have created a bootable device, you will need to reboot the device while spamming F9 to enter the BIOS from there you will need to disable "Secure Boot" from the "Security" tab

1.3 Reboot and install Windows 10 (Guide for complete re-installation process: https://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/)​

2. Driver and Software Installation:

The generic drives windows will install for you a mostly trash, so I would suggest downloading the latest drivers from Gigabytes website: http://www.gigabyte.us/Laptop/AERO-15#support-dl

To have the best experience you will want to download the following drivers:

• Bluetooth
• Card Reader
• Chipset
• LAN
• Thunderbolt
• TouchPad (More on the touchpad in the next section.
• USB 3.0
• Utility (Some of the utilities are bloatware IMO, so you can ignore some of them)
  • Smart Manager
  • Smart Update
  • Gigabyte Fusion
  • Airplane
• VGA
• WLAN

You can update the BIOS is you would like however I don’t feel it necessary.

(Note: Lan Optimizer is garbage, I would highly recommend not installing it. https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2dn56v/do_you_have_a_gigabyte_motherboard/)​

3. Touchpad with windows Precision drivers

Credit to Dave Lee for this tip:

This will greatly improve the precision of the trackpad along with adding gestures.

3.1 Figure out which type of trackpad you have in Device Manager
3.2 Download this driver: https://support.lenovo.com/au/en/downloads/ds120858
3.3 Run the downloaded file to extract the contents to - C:/Drivers
3.4 In Device Manager - Right click Elan Touchpad
3.5 Click on Update Driver - Browse my computer - Let me pick - Have Disk
3.6 Choose ETD.inf
3.7 Reboot​

That should be it you should be ready to rock with you shiny new laptop.

Let me know if you have questions, additions or corrections.

 

I will definitely try ur method. Thank you!

 

Hi guys did you remove the pre-installed recovery media partition? Or back it up?

 

I just simply clean install the windows 10 - even removed recovery partition as well. I really don't care about the recovery partition for Aero 15W, since it includes so many bloatware.

 

Yer I agree there isn't really any need for the default recovery partition I believe that windows will create its own one too.

 

Hi and thanks to @TitaniumO for the write-up!! I had BSOD regarding nvlddmkm.sys after uninstalling bloatware on a new Aero 15 and thought this would be the quickest and easiest solution. So far so good. Windows up and running, now for updating drivers....

I noticed you left out the Audio driver from your recommendation list. Was that intentional?

Also, I'm no techie: does it make a difference if I run the setup application in the driver download folder, or if I go to device manager and hit the update driver button?

(I've tagged TitaniumO, but of course if anyone's got an answer, please feel free! Thanks.)
Hope everyone's having a great Easter break if you get one.

 

So me again, I got down the list of drivers, (skipped audio one for now) in order of the list down to Thunderbolt, and CRASH! Happened again. BSOD referencing PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and Nvlddmkm.sys

On a fresh Windows 10 install! Anyone have a suggestion for me?

 

Install the VGA Drivers before thunderbolt.

 

My suggestion is that do install Smart Update, Smart Manager, GIGABYTE Fusion:
1. Smart Update - to get your calibrated .icc profile back
2. Smart Manager - to have more fan policy
3. GIGABYTE Fusion - it's the only software to control the backlit of keyboard

 

Hopefully this topic is still active

I am currently looking into buying the new Aero 14 with the 8750H processor.

As I am planning to install Windows 10 Pro, I will first completely wipe all software, data and partitions before doing a clean installation.

Just to make sure everything goes well and I do not lose the excellent color calibration;
is there a specific order I need to follow to install the official drivers after my clean installation and, if I reinstall " Smart Manager" and " Smart Update", will it automatically recover the perfect color calibration this laptop is known for?
The calibration, in combination with the processor and size, is by far the main reason I am looking at this laptop.

I also noticed 2 VGA drivers on the official support page (4 in total, but the other 2 seem to be older versions, https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/AERO-14--i7-8750H#support-dl-driver-vga )


NVIDIA GeForce Driver For AORUS GTX series Gaming Box
Intel UHD Graphic For Windows 10 1803 compatibility require

Could someone tell me if I will need to install both and what the first driver is for? Shouldn't I install the latest Nvidia driver from the official website like I always do with my Desktop? Or will this ruin certain settings incl. the color profile?

Thanks a million in advance for any input!

@ g85222456

 

You can upgrade to Windows 10 Pro by just inserting the new serial number if you don't want the hassle of a clean install.

No specific order and yes for the last question about how to retrieve the color profile.

You need only the latest one, not both. You should download the drivers off NVIDIA site anyway, just like your desktop.

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback!
I would still prefer a clean install to also remove the bloatware and guarantee optimal conditions.

So if I understand it right, the Smart Update would "recover"/download the calibration which was used for my laptop. As every Aero 14 laptop is different, does it download the calibration settings based on my Aero's serial or something else? And will it be auto installed or do I need to place the file somewhere?

In regards to the BIOS, I noticed I can download BIOS FB08 & EC F004.
I am used to keep my BIOS drivers up to date for my desktop PC, but I was wondering how to install this file. Is it an .exe which you start from Windows or a Flash file which you copy to a USB and start from the BIOS itself? And are there anywhere patch notes do I can see what will be improved/fixed?

Thanks again!

 

You just run the exe file and everything will be taken care of (no need for USB).
Unfortunately patch notes aren't posted.

 

Awesome! Thanks!

That only leaves my question regarding the calibration profile:

"So if I understand it right, the Smart Update would "recover"/download the calibration which was used for my laptop. As every Aero 14 laptop is different, does it download the calibration settings based on my Aero's serial or something else? And will it be auto installed or do I need to place the file somewhere?"

 

Not sure how they do it but as I said you don't need to do anything except install Smart Manager and apply your profile from there.

 

Smart Update is right the one which could help you get calibrated profile back, not Smart Manager

 

Please help. I did clean install and began to update drivers. Does anyone know which driver puts the sleep and hibernate option back into the power button. Also how do I enable the blue tint option in the display? Currently its greyed out and I cannot use it. Last I cant control most things with my keyboard such as volume buttons, airplane, wifi etc.

 

You need to install the smart manager for the function keys.
The sleep and hibernate are in the power options in the control panel, or whatever it is called now. But I think you need smart manager first.

 

Nowhere in the smartmanager does it have function keys. in the gigabyte fusion app in the key action tab doesnt allow me to adjust it there either. also the sleep hibernte in the power options is just greyed out and i cannot change it. i saw online it was somethinf to do with the drivers. do you know which driver controls that?

 

After the smart manager installed, the function keys should work automatically. If not a good old restart to see if it will fix it.

 

@tcharette Read this

 

you could go to the control center > power option and check if the sleep or hibernate mode is activated:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/307...nate-option-to-the-windows-10-start-menu.html

 

Exactly the function key will work after the installation of Smart Manger

 

I downloaded the precision drivers as instructed but it does not include palm rejection, so when I type, the aero 15's bad trackpad placement gets in the way. How can I fix this? I tried downloading an app called touchpad blocker but that blocks my mouse as well, which means I cant game.

 

Wait, so there is at least 1 benefit for having the ELAN drivers and that is "palm rejection" ? I cannot seem to find any settings under WIndows Precision touchpad to adjust/turn on/off palm rejection.

 

I too have looked for this as the mouse not responding on small movements is very annoying but I don't think it exists

 

I really hate the palm rejection for the elan driver because it introduces a lot of delay before I can use my mouse. Precision driver's DO have a sort of palm rejection, but it's a pain to change the settings and it works differently. A naive rejection approach turns off the pad when the keys are being pressed, and then enables them after a time has expired. Like the elan driver, this lowers the responsiveness of the touchpad and may hinder the user experience. Instead, Microsoft creates a "curtain," regions of high sensitivity and low sensitivity for when you are using the keyboard. These regions ARE user adjustable, but apparently only in the registry.

To adjust these settings, check out the Microsoft page here. You want to look under "non-curtain region sizing."

I'm going to guess these settings aren't exposed to a user because it's assumed the laptop maker set them for their machine. Since we are downloading the driver's from other OEMs, that could be part of the issue.

TL;DR rejection exists, the settings are in the registy

 

Tried the default values but still no sign of rejecting the palm. I have another laptop that comes pre-installed with the precision driver and the palm rejection is excellent. If you slide your palm over the trackpad, the mouse won't move a bit.

 

Unfortunately I spilled a drop of coffee on my keyboard earlier today and it seems the Fn key on my keyboard is registered as constantly being pressed down even though it isn't. Thusly, I'm unable to use the space bar or the normal F keys.

Is there a workaround to this?

Any other further guidance would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Sorry, meant to create a new thread.