*** OFFICIAL GIGABYTE AERO 15 OWNERS LOUNGE ***

Ahhh, and too thick keeps the laptop screen from closing... that's why I like the little Dot or Smile stickers, nice and thin and their glue isn't damaging to the plastic.

Seems overkill, and I don't need to use the cheap laptop camera in any event, so putting a nice sticker over it is best.

Webcam Cover for Laptops/Pad Devices
https://www.amazon.com/Webcam-Cover-Laptops-Pad-Devices/dp/B004Z0XSY6


Not a great first Amazon comment:
"This does the job, however, it screwed up my Macbook Air's trackpad. Because of this thing's thickness, when the Air's lid is closed, this thing presses a bit against the trackpad. Over time, my Air thought the trackpad button was constantly being pressed, and so whenever I moved my mouse it would annoyingly highlight text or drag things around. No good!"

 

Just got my laptop (Orange) from Gentech PC yesterday!

I work in Unreal Engine and do technical sound design. This laptop pretty much covered everything I needed: expandable RAM, dual drives, enough I/O for my many accessories and extra bonus to turn fans to quiet mode if I need to record stuff. Still have more testing to do (Try out some games and see how VR handles)

Out of the box: Looked like someone opened it before me. Kinda lame. I just assumed GentechPC would just do the free heatsync upgrade without opening up the box. They probably had to open the laptop too! *shudders*

Actually, GentechPC was pretty awesome. They answered my emails fast. I did not recieve the free game codes that was offered at checkout, but they responded to an email a few hours later with the codes.

I updated all the drivers that gigabyte update tool suggested. Once I updated the fusion keyboard software, CTR + SHIFT + bottom row keys starting working just fine.

My only cons: Little bit of light bleeding around the bottom screen. Think due to the screen trim be a little tight. I pulled a bit with my fingernail on the bottem edge trim and it actually made it better. While I'll accept the quality it's at now, I still find it little bit disapointing for a laptop this pricey has this issue. Unless folks are reporting no bleeding whatsoever and maybe I should return, I'll be fine.

The laptop hendge is not really lose, but I'd say the lid is a little heavy and this makes it easy for it to fall backwards/open all the way up if using on lap. Mine does remain closed though, unlike some other folks who've posted about a gap opening.

I'll update more later. I've been lerking on these forums and really enjoy the knowledge thats shared.

 

Mines the same so think that's standard when it comes to this laptops build quality. How are you finding the keyboard? Any odd travelling keys etc? I've also just applied the gigabyte fix for F9 recovery for those on creators update and it works perfectly for those who haven't updated yet.

 

Can confirm light bleeding as well. Mine is kinda bad, I basically got a vignette on my screen. Other thing is that it runs very hot, after playing Civilization 6 for a couple of hours CPU temps get up to 93 degrees Celsius and GPU at around 83. Oh and not to mention super tight usb ports, have to literally hold the laptop and use a fair amount of force to pull out the cable. Otherwise seems like a well oiled machine, coming from XPS 15 it's heaven on earth, apart from the build quality of course.

 

Good to know!

I really have been liking the keyboard overall. It's not a macbook pro typing experience, but still WAY better than the new macbook keyboard. They feel stiffer than most laptops and solid. I just got a mechanical keyboard and this feels like there's a kind of a bump feel. I could see maybe someone looking at this laptop just for gaming maybe wanting something more smooth with less of a bump feel.

The track pad is okay, I kinda wish I could change to One finger = left click and 2 fingers = right click vs Right click when you click on the bottom right side. Anyone have any luck changing this? Otherwise, the track pad is okay for a Windows laptop. Nothing I've used ever come close to Apple's sadly.

 

Actually, just found the setting for the track pad and changed the settings to right click only when using two fingers. This makes more sense one an one click trackpad imo

 

What kind of graphics scores are most Aero 15 owners seeing for Firestrike? Looking at reviews it looks like it should be around the 11.5k mark for a typical unit? As in, right in line with most thin GTX 1060 notebooks.

 

Just got mine. I love everything about it except for Ctrl + Shift + Alt + F does not work (fullscreen for VNC). Ctrl + Shift + Space also does not work. All the other rows work with just Ctrl + Shift... so at least that is fixed.

You hear it in all the reviews, but this keyboard is really stiff. I mean 9/10 stiffest I will go.

I immediately looked for the most recent Elan Touchpad drivers that use Microsoft's Precision API. I ended up downloading these:
http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds120858

You will want to extract them to a folder. Then open "Device Manager", Right Click the Elan Touchpad, Update Driver, Browse My Computer, Let Me Pick, Have Disk, Browse to where you extracted the driver, use "ETD.inf"

When you are done, it will say: "Elan Input Device for WDF"

Its way better than the original touchpad drivers. Also you get to use all the gestures in Windows 10 now too.

My biggest gripes with the touchpad are two things: 1) sometimes it will stop scrolling (like you are not press hard enough), when you scroll too fast. 2) If you move your mouse over something, and try to right click with 2 fingers (don't lift your first finger up), it will left click instead. Coming from a Mac, this behavior is the most annoying thing ever.

If mac was a 10/10 on the mousepad, this would be like 7/10. Right next to the XPS 13.

 

I got around 9.6k with the latest driver 382.53

 

Is that just graphics score or overall score? Because 9.6k is around spot on for overall score, but graphics score should be higher than that, I think.

How did you extract the exe? Edit: Oh, I see. You "installed" them to a temp file.

 

Downloaded the *.exe and ran it. It automatically extracted the driver files to a folder. I unchecked the "install" checkbox at the end. Then I followed your instructions to install the driver via "ETD.inf".

The result is ambivalent.

positive: The touchpad seems to follow my finger's movements more precisely. Additionally I can finally click&hold with one finger and drag with a second finger (I'm used to this operation mode coming from MacBook Pro). With the original driver this behaviour was only available when clicking in the lower left corner.

negative: I loose almost all other functionality, i.e., no more tapping, no right click / menu, no gestures (scrolling, ...) , all configuration options gone (ELAN configuration not available any more, no new options Windows Settings > Devices > Mouse & Touchpad that would compensate this loss of configuration).

Typing disables the touchpad. I found that pressing Shift resuscitates the touchpad.

So sad this driver seems not to work on the Aero. :-(

UPDATE
This driver made the touchpad feel a lot more responsive so I did not want to give up on it. I assumed that to properly install this driver including all components, one has to run "Setup.exe". However, out of the box "Setup.exe" refuses to start on the Aero 15. I had to set "CheckHWID=0" in "Setup.ini" to make it run and install the driver. Now Windows Settings reports that I have an "precision touchpad" (see screenshot) and offers a lot of configuration options. C00l. Goodbye to the antiquated-looking and stale Elan configuration tool. I'm well chuffed. Now we have to convince Gigabyte to officially provide the "precision" driver, too.

 

Just put my Aero 15 to the running BattleTech Beta.... ambient temp today is 29C .... idling at 48-50C .... on load hit 78C for CPU ... GPU hit 70C

 

Hello Everyone... I've been having some trouble with both the Aero 14 (2017) and Aero 15 and wanted to see if the problems were widespread. I have so far sent back two Aero 15's for excessive backlight bleed and I'm about to send back an Aero 14 for the left fan rattling and some minor backlight bleed. Is this typical of the Aero's ?

I'm getting ready to give up and pick up the New Lenovo Legion with 4k display.

 

Would you guys think this is too much light bleed? Looks like I might be retracting my previous statement.

 

I've never even seen that before - WTF ?

Normally it's like one maybe two corners.

 

So I think I'm going to send mine back for sure- The reason I didn't notice this bad of backlight is due to an issue with my screen as a whole I think. When I move the laptop lid up and down (normally) it shifts the screen bleed. Sometimes it's actually goes away, but now there's another issue - Randomly when moving the screen, the laptop will go into sleep mode (But not even close to closing the lid).

Hoping maybe a 2nd one, I'll be lucky?

 

Yeah afraid to say there seems to be a hardware fault with yours. You'll get light bleed on any screen regardless but it's how much you can notice. Surprised you have visible bleed on white. You'd generally only see it on a full black background but what you said about the movement of the lid causing it to sleep I'd definitely send it back for a replacement.

 

Do you now have full functionality with the touchpad now? Does it turn off when typing etc?

EDIT: I tired this and gave it a go and it seems it just worked! I made the CheckHWID=0 adjustment first before going into device manager and installing via EDF.ini file and it worked straight away. Only thing I'm noticing right now is I'll have to adjust palm rejection again because its become super sensitive where as before I didn't have any pointer issues.

I've communicated the trackpad findings with Gigabyte UK and it's been forwarded to Taiwan HQ so hopefully the next update might be official support for precision drivers on the trackpad!

 

A bit disgusting how much more performance you get out of the 960 EVO compared to the LiteON

CrystalMark Gigabyte by Meetloaf13 posted Jun 19, 2017 at 11:23 AM

 

Yeah the AS SSD benchmark I posted of mine vs. the OEM Transcend were not even close. Granted, I doubt the difference impacts things like gaming FPS much, if at all, but certainly helps with loading times and such.

 

Yeah, in a production envinroment running quickbooks files and the like, there's a definite difference.

 

Speeding up a Windows index rebuild would be worth every penny if it helps.

 

Man, I'm starting to doubt ordering this laptop from GentechPC. I've sent pics of the issue and their response has been "Thats normal" and about it randomly going to sleep when moving the display while still at a 90 degree angle "Laptop go to sleep". Like, no duh.

They are having me do an RMA with gigabyte. How has this process been for folks? I'm wondering if I end up just asking to return the laptop for my money back if they'll charge a high fee.

EDIT: Yep, they have a 10% restocking fee. Should've read the fine print. On a laptop with known issues. Looks like I only have 7 days after the RMA to return the laptop.

Next time, I'm ordering from Amazon, the tax would've been worth the hassle.

 

How long have you owned the laptop? Your light bleed issues are NOT normal.

 

I've had it for 4 days. Not long at all!

 

If you've only owned the laptop for 4 days, that is well within any reasonable return and/or exchange period. You shouldn't have to RMA it to Gigabyte because who knows how long that will take.

There should be no restocking fee for a laptop that arrived in damaged or defect condition!

 

It's a faulty laptop they shouldn't be charging you a restocking fee. That being said unfortunately I had to return/exchange two laptops before I got a working one. First one had dust under the screen and poor finish on the lid (black model) then the replacement came with a dead keyboard out of the box. Finally my third one *touchwood* is alright. Gigabyte support are very helpful. My exchange was supported by Gigabyte UK and was straight forward they picked it up and arranged redelivery. Don't settle for them saying it's normal that's not. RE: The lid it will put machine to sleep or hibernate if its less than 45 degrees to approaching the keyboard but shouldn't as you described when it's open properly. Out of interest is it the black model you're using?

 

I'm hoping maybe the 2nd one is the charm. At least thats reassuring that gigabyte has been cool to deal with. I'm using the orange model.

 

Try changing the backlight level up and down. Mine does that sometimes when I close the lid and open it back up, but just chaining the backlight level fixes it. It is like some of the LEDs forget to come on, but then you change the level up and they do, and back down and it looks right.

 

This is good thing to try/know. Probably why I didn't notice it until the 2nd day and it's been inconstant. Though the screen still wacks out when moving it up or down.

GentechPC is not answering their support line and taking their sweet time to answer my email. At this point, I wish I could just not deal with them. I'm sketched out that I just spent $1900 and having a bad experience.

 

Nice work! Its weird I didn't need to do this. Also, if Windows Update installs the other driver, I would "Roll Back" rather than uninstall the driver Windows gives you, as it seems to stop automatically updating the driver after that.

Thank you to whom ever asked Gigabyte to change their driver over to this. It is definitely way better than the default driver (even if its not perfect).

 

That's unfortunate. Their pre-sales help was excellent for me. Hopefully they will get back to you soon. If they don't, you could tag them here or message them here if you haven't already.

Custom PC retailers often do have restock fees. They are smaller companies and presumably can't absorb returns like an Amazon or Newegg can. If you are buying a stock machine and don't care about freebies and such, Newegg at least doesn't charge tax in many states.

Hopefully between GentechPC and Gigabyte they can resolve this to your satisfaction. Please keep us up to date with how it goes, especially with Gigabyte warranty service if you do have to make a claim through them.

 

If a laptop is defective on arrival, there should not be a restocking fee. Are they going to restock a defective laptop?

@willofsound You said that you have only owned the laptop for 4 days, and presumably you contacted GenTech with your issues before even day 4, which is well within any 7-day return period. They should be doing an exchange for you, rather than telling you to go try your luck with Gigabyte RMA.

 

Hi Guys,
Just got mine and i am over excited even though i have not turned it on yet. I have two questions:
1. i plugged it in and there is no led turning on (the led on the charger is on and the usb has power). Does it mean it is not charging?
2. I tried the battery check button though i am not sure how it works? do you press the trackpad? or directly on the icon?

Please let me know asap as i am dying to turn it on and would not want to do it without it being actually on external supply possibly affecting the calibration.

i will keep refreshing the page like mad hoping someone gets to end my agony

thanks a lot!!

 

@lemegetin
What do you mean the LED is not turning on? When my Aero 15 is off, and the charger is plugged in, there are no LEDs on the actual laptop that light up. Once I turn the laptop on, the notification LED's on the bottom right will light up. I believe this is normal for all laptops.

If you are worried about the battery, try pressing the right mouse button quite hard with the laptop off. As you asked above, you have to actually press the right mouse click in the corner as close to the body as possible. The key has to depress.

This should light up the notification LEDs, which when the laptop is off function as a battery indicator. Please note that the indicator LEDs aren't visible from the top, you have to look at them from the side.

Another way you can see if your computer is charging or not is to simply turn it on and set up windows. There, you can see if the battery is charging on the battery icon.

 

Thanks for the info mate!

Indeed none of the front LEDs are on when it is connected to the charger. I was expecting that the power LED would light up showing that it is charging (that is what my samsung used to do)

I managed to get the battery click to work, having all 5 LEDs turn on.

So i am going ahead to turn it on!

thanks a lot for the fast answer!

 

A quick update.. the PC turned on and it is initializing.. the power LED though (number 4 out of 5) is not lit..but the windows icon shows that it is plugged and charging.. so i guess it would turn on when the battery loses some charge?

 

I'm glad you got your PC running! I hope you enjoy it

The fourth icon is the charging icon. I would assume it only lights up when the battery is charging, or as you said, has lost some charge and is then plugged in.

While I am not 100% certain this is the behavior (I never bothered to look!), tonight I'll let the battery discharge a little and @ you to let you know my own results.

 

Updated the keyboard firmware from 1.1.5 to 1.1.8...

Now it turns off randomly (like once an hour) and back on. If the backlight is on, it will turn off. The keyboard does not send any input to the computer when it turns off. Its not related to the backlight if you are wondering, just that its easier to see it happen when the backlight is on. You can also hear the sound Windows makes when a device (such as a USB mouse) is disconnected. About 15 seconds later, it gets reconnected.

Also, its not as consistent, but sometimes (like 1 out of 3 times) when logging into windows, the keyboard will not get registered for a good 60 seconds. Ugh, this is extremely annoying. It started happening nearly immediately after updating to 1.1.8.

 

What do you all do with the kensinglock on the side?

What would be the best use for it if i'm going to be using my laptop frequently at cafe/home?

 

The lock is mostly used in shops or shows where laptops have to stay in place for customers to "test".
For personal use, you might need it when you must keep the laptop on in a public place and leave for some time... I guess? (Never used the lock in my laptop)

Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk

 

Update:
So after spending all morning yesterday trying to call GentechPC (They don't have an answer machine??), I finally got talking to the same rep I was working with. He repeated everything and said that this laptop was just too new and said the screen works the way it does. He did mention if I send it back and it was just fine, I could pick a different laptop. I have yet to touch this laptop since the day of issue. 5 hours after the call, I got my RMA instructions. Which was a shipping address. UPS was closed sadly by that time.

So I figured before I ship it back and pay for it, I'd record some video footage to make sure I can document showing it. And this is where my luck might have ran out: I placed the laptop down and a metal bottle nearby fell on it and left a tiny dent in the case (a thin fingernail width dent). I'm afraid this might void whatever return I do, though a minor thing.

The screen issue I've not yet been able to replicate (And posted earlier, could have been just the LED not waking up right) and while the laptop does go to sleep far from being closed, the rep told me that their test PC does the same thing - Can you folks confirm this, an iphone sized gap? But I'm wondering if my issues of move the screen back and force will show up again after it's been running/hot?

I'm going to just hold off a few days and get some good documented testing. I'm still afraid my nick will cost me this laptop and I don't want to waste money/time. If these issues were just me being scared and overreacting and I live with a small nick, I wouldn't mind not having to trust GentechPC

 

I too can confirm on my Aero 15 (bought on Amazon) that closing the lid to around 5in or so from a complete close will put the computer to sleep. The lid is loose enough (probably by design) that closing it to around that distance will result in it closing itself over the course of a few seconds if you don't assist it. Coming from an Alienware M18x R2 with a rock solid hinge it's frustrating, however the weight reduction is soooo nice.

My much bigger issue has been with Driver Power State Failure Bluescreens - I made the mistake of upgrading early to the Creator's Update, and in addition to breaking the F9 recovery option (which Gigabyte's patch didn't fix for me) also introduced Bluescreens sometimes 3 or 4 a day...

Most of the time they occurred coming out of sleep, however, I had them occur on the desktop with nothing else going on either too. I've since used a USB backup drive (created with Gigabyte's utility) to start fresh... Since then the computer has been stable and I haven't experienced any BSOD's. Has anyone else experienced these? I'm not sure if it was the latest NVIDIA drivers (now I'm using the older 376.67 ones out of fear of upgrading) or the Creator's Update, however, having these occur on such a new machine (with so little on it and NO undervolting / overclocking / etc) was very frustrating

My SSD is the standard SATA one can comes with it, and I haven't touched the RAM yet either

 

So. After working with the Laptop for about 2,5 weeks, I have to say that I am almost satisfied. Seems to be quite lucky.

-The keyboard is monster stiff compared to my Thinkpad W520. I had quite a lot missed keys and still have to get used to be more a drummer than a typer.
-it hang twice booting on a dual screen setup via HDMI. Didn't left the Gigabyte screen
-the USB ports are super tight. Kind of fight to plug things in.

Other than that it was working reliable 14-16h a day.

Now I turned to another working place. Around 30 - 35 degrees temprature and a lot of humidity (it's a olympic swimming stadion)

Well so far no issues in first days.
Yesterday I thought my power supply was gone while charging my camera battery same time and getting super hot. But that was a general power off )

Reading about all the issues guys have, I am still a bit concerned. I am not expexting the Aero to work 6 years like the Think Pad.

On the other hand it is quick and let me do everything in reasonable time.

I still plan to replace the transcend ssd, when I have time. The difference between German AERO 15 specs (slow Transcend, win home) is a bit annoying compared to the price we habe to pay. It's 2100€ for this spec which is about 2350$.

The extra 16GB Kingston Ram (just chose what Kingston website offered me, it's not the same serial number installed) seems to play good and After Effects is eating it like crazy.

 

FWIW, I switched over to a Mechanical Keyboard a couple years ago. I actually enjoy the stiffness as is feels more like the mechanical I'm used to ( I tend to 'bottom out' when I type). You do have to make sure the keys travel more, and I can see how it would take some getting used to with other laptop keyboards that are very light.

I'm loving my Aero 15. There have been some quirks I've had to work through, but generally by updating firmware and drivers I have resolved all issues.

Another week or two of production use and I'll get my Sager on the market.

 

Has anyone been able to get the USB-C port to work? I have a NEXUS 6P and it won't recognize the phone when plugged in via USB-C even to transfer files (NEXUS 6P is USB-C to USB-C)

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

I'll try with my Pixel XP tonight and see what I get. I need to upgrade to the latest Pure ROM =]

 

Thanks! I am still in the stock OS on my Nexus...

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

The USB slots are definitely tight. I've found the lower one on the right side to be the least tight, so that's where I plug in my wireless mouse receiver.

 

The USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 plug seems OK in that regard. It's more that when I plug it in nothing happens. I don't have anything that works with TB3 so I can't test that but I can tell you that when I plug in a USB-C device it's not recognized...