Advanced LG Gram 2021 tweaking

Yes - the cooling is different - as the fan must spin much faster - seeing the volume it produces, maybe also larger. Would be nice if A-Data can produce that package also at 16 or 17" - and put a bigger battery - then there would be a good competition. Sounds like speakers and keyboard are worse, power consumption very similar - but the battery simply is smaller. Then performance is definitely higher and cooling better.

The display glossy, but with some layer - so maybe maybe maybe LG can do the same on the next models... Anyhow with the new generation of big.LITTLE it will get much more interesting regarding battery life.

 

Does anyone have the download file for lg control center? I’m unable to find it on their site.

 

It's on LG laptop manuals and downloads website. For example here: https://www.lg.com/us/support/product/lg-17Z90P-K.ADC9U1

 

I must be blind because I don’t see a download for control center. Am I supposed to install the update center and will that install the control center?

 

Sorry, yes. That's the only way. I can select what you want to install and disable automatic updates, but the only way to get any software for laptop, control center, BIOS update, etc is through LG Update.

 

btw - to add it here too. With the newest throttlestop beta you can remove the 25w limit (or on your gram the 20w limit). It's the MMIO value that was not shown/usable before. You still have to set PL1/PL2 in advanced bios to high enough values though - as they are locked (or I think I remember there was some way around without bios too).

 

@slavisv
Can anyone create a program/app to switch off the screen? My old laptop had a "Screen off" button which is missing in the Gram and also none of the older programs floating on the internet work properly with Windows 10, they just put the laptop to sleep.

The screen off functionality is still available in Windows 10, we can observe this when the power option "Do nothing when i close the lid" is selected and the screen just turns off when we close the lid without putting the laptop to sleep.

So, Hopefully we can get an app and then select a shortcut button like Fn+F1 to turn off the screen whenever needed.

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/doff/

 

This is putting my Gram 16 2021 to sleep just like all other such apps. is it working for you? Any special configurations settings or just double clicking the app works for you?

@extremecarver Can you test this in your Gram 2021? Why are all such apps putting the laptop to sleep instead of just turning off the screen?

 

I only tried it on my desktop, it seemed like it just turned off the monitor as it didn't ask me to login when I hit space.. but maybe I'm wrong!

You would think since it's possible in the power options you can have just the display go into power saving that it would be possible to just force that scenario manually, but I guess not.

Perhaps make sure you have the power options set to NEVER put the device to sleep, only put the display into power saving, it might just be forcing whatever the current plan is set to?

 

My power options are set to "Never" put the device to sleep but none of the "screen off" apps work, all of them put the laptop to sleep instead of just turning off the screen. Hopefully someone tests the apps on the new Gram 2021 and finds a way to make these apps functional again.

 

I'm getting the impression it's more a windows function than anything specific to Gram, I can try it on my older Gram 17 at some point

 

Would you recommend the 2021 Gram 16"?

coming from 7th gen 1080p Samsung.

I see little else that fits. Thanks

 

Yes, looks like it is the same with all Windows 10/11 laptops, check it once and post here so we can narrow down the cause.

@extremecarver @skipper63 @slavisv Can you test this in your Gram 2021? Why are all such apps putting the laptop to sleep instead of just turning off the screen?
https://sourceforge.net/projects/doff/

 

Please try and report back, i was hoping some solution can be found but nobody is replying on this thread.

 

normally i use nircmd and autohotkey for this.
nircmd monitor off
https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/nircmd
but yeah doesnt seem to work on gram... maybe their multimonitor exe?
https://community.chocolatey.org/packages/multimonitortool
edit: nope. and all the command line stuff ive found also seems to sleep it... maybe something else from:
https://superuser.com/questions/321342/turn-off-display-in-windows-on-command

 

I have tried everything, all the apps and programs for "Screen off" function and nothing works without putting the laptop to sleep. These apps still work fine on the old laptops and Windows 7. I just close the laptop lid 70% so that the screen is switched off, not ideal but there is no other option.

 

Just a visitor here with RBS 2020 13" gaming laptop, C10 reporting sometimes doesn't work (after resume from standby often) but discharge, estimated battery remaining and temperatures indicate that C10 actually still works even if it is no longer reported. (CPU package wattage is bugged in this state as well, showing double wattage numbers)

Seems like a bug that is affecting a multitude (if not all) of laptops which support C10.

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/doff/ turns off screen without putting laptop to sleep. It seems some kind of hybrid off. If I press any button, I see login picture but don't need to re-enter my password.

I do use legacy standby (for example https://borncity.com/win/2020/11/26/windows-10-v2004-cant-deactivate-modern-standby/). Modern standby on laptop imho sucks and defeats the purpose, as it continues to drain battery quite actively.

Perhaps that's why for me doff works as expected.

 

Try this:
https://twinkletray.com/
I downloaded it to change easily the brightness at each monitor at my multi monitor setup and there is an option to put all monitors at sleep and works fine.
I never needed just to put the laptop screen in sleep, windows does it automatically for me with the power options

 

These programs are putting the laptop to sleep just like all other "screen off" apps. I think you are right, it is modern standby which is messing things up, will think about disabling it. Which method did you use for Gram 2021? i am guessing this one from the above article "Windows 10 20H2: Disable Modern Standby"

 

I don't remember, I think just using registry to disable the modern standby.

 

Thank you everyone for trying to solve this "screen off" apps not working problem. Found the culprit and as expected in the last few posts it was modern standby which was messing things up. Enabled Legacy S3 Standby and ALL the "screen off" apps are working fine now.

It requires sign-in when you wake the screen, this can be disabled by going into Windows 10 sign-in settings. After disabling modern standby, We also gain additional power options in control panel like press power button to turn off the screen.

Thanks to @slavisv for sharing this article on how to get back legacy standby and sleep function, just remember to restart the laptop after doing registry editing:
https://borncity.com/win/2020/11/26/windows-10-v2004-cant-deactivate-modern-standby/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/h0r56s/getting_back_s3_sleep_and_disabling_modern/

 

Another positive side effect of disabling "modern standby" is the ultra fast wifi auto-connect, earlier the wifi used to take 5-6 seconds to auto-connect while switching on after shut down.

 

Is anyone successfully undervolting?

I just tried XTU but it says the processor isn't supported and dumps out. Throttlestop opens but the last time I used this was on an Core Gen 5 so I'm not as familiar with this. I also don't want to damage anything.

I'm not really looking for a performance boost, just really want as much battery as I can squeeze.

I've heard there's an 80% battery capacity option in the advanced BIOS. Does this scale the battery capacity in Windows so that 80% shows as 100%? I used the LG Control Center to set the battery to 80% but this means Windows never reports more than 80% capacity. This seems to screw with the remaining system run time in Windows. At 50% battery capacity it'll say I've only got 2 hours left even though it'll continue running for another 6-8 hours without any issues.

 

On physical/hardware tweaking, I'm looking for a way to highlight the function keys so I know where the volume and brightness keys are when I'm using the laptop in the dark. I don't like using the keyboard backlight because of the glare, but I switch between 3 different systems throughout the day and the volume/brightness and extra function keys are in different positions on all 3 systems. This is really annoying when trying to change brightness or volume at night and constantly hitting Reader Mode, Safety Mode, etc instead.

The simplest solution would be to put some colored tape on the keys or directly above them, but it's not particularly elegant or that permanent. I'm thinking instead of using model paint to put a splash of color in the thin bezel between the F keys and the Number keys, or removing the Function key caps and using some bright colors on the edges of the keys so they're visible in low light. If I leave the top of the keys untouched the backlight should still work.

The painting options seems like the best one to me, so the question becomes which colors to use: neon or glow in the dark so that they're really visible during the day and night, or something like a metallic silver, gold, and red which I think will also be bright enough during the day. The latter seems like it would look nicer but maybe less obvious at night, while the former should be very obvious though look a bit garish.

 

The battery option only works outside windows. Undervolting is not supported by hardware. I modified the bios to enable it plus reduced voltages in the bios itself, but it doesn't do anything (I have reduced by 300mv so it should not have booted).
You can slightly reduce the memory voltage or overcoock the memory if you modify the bios. I lowered the memory voltage a bit but its not noticeable on day to day for battery life.

Basically the bios has every option you can possibly have if you modify it, but there is no actual use case now with throttle stop fixed for pl2. Before it was possible to actually change the real pl1 and pl2 with modified bios. Unlocked hidden options not enough.

 

Ah ok. Thanks for that!

So are the limitations due to the actual hardware or is it BIOS related? I've seen comments about undervolting and Throttlestop on the Gram, but they didn't specify which year, model, or hardware it applied to. Was that only possible on previous versions, and not on Tiger Lake?