Clevo L140CU/L141CU

L140CU
https://www.clevo.com.tw/clevo_prodetail.asp?id=1263&lang=en




Key Features

• 10th generation Intel® Core™ processor
• 14.0” FHD Panel
• DDR4 memory up to 24GB (depends on RAM module)
• Single-Color illuminated full size keyboard
• Two M.2 SATA SSD or One PCIe Gen 3x4 SSD
• Support Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax Wi-Fi wireless networking)
• 180º Hinge Design
• Battery life 20 Hours (73WH battery)
• Battery life 10 hours (36WH battery)
• Support MIL-STD 810G
• Support Power Delivery in
• Ultra Light Weight
• Hello Camera
• Metal Design

L141CU
https://www.clevo.com.tw/clevo_prodetail.asp?id=1264&lang=en



Key Features

• 10th generation Intel® Core™ processor
• 14.0” FHD Panel
• DDR4 memory up to 24GB (depends on RAM module)
• Single-Color illuminated full size keyboard
• Two M.2 SATA SSD or One PCIe Gen 3x4 SSD
• Support Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax Wi-Fi wireless networking)
• 180º Hinge Design
• Battery life 20 Hours (73WH battery)
• Battery life 10 hours (36WH battery)
• Support MIL-STD 810G
• Support Power Delivery in
• Ultra Light Weight
• Hello Camera
• Metal Design

 

hey @XMG
do you have more infos about this new model at the end of this video? do you have a pic of the cooling system?

 

Coming soon on retail website in Europe.

8GB is soldered and one SO-Dimm left so up to 24 GB RAM

990g ,
73WH
and 322mm x 216.8mm x 16.5mm

is really a big step forward in the right direction for Clevo !

 

Interesting with that larger battery for all day use.

 

Could be a good candidate to replace my ThinkPad T440 !
Too bad that RAM is soldered tho.

Does Clevo have a good reputation in terms of reliability ?
I had a XPS 9550 before, but it was so crappy that I ditch it for a few years old ThinkPad. Don't want to relive this story ...

 

8GB is soldered with one slot free. 16GB dual channel will likely be plenty for the intended use cases and an extra 8GB of single channel should do the rest for what the system could reasonably do.

 

Just to say I have it in hand right now , and it is really impressive !

 

Looks well loaded, what drives do you have?

 

USB-C charging?

 

Hello guys, we already have that model and sold a few, the 73Wh battery just lasts arround 9h to 12h on moderate use, 16h only if you just look at it or almost don't touch it, 20h no way...
The overall wheight is great and the magnesium case is very nice.
The fan doesn't Sound very loud when on full blow and even with the cpu at arround 90º you won't feel the case hot, although there's not a great air circulation, as you can see it ony blasts air to the rear, against the hinge cover, a repaste is a must…
It has USB-C power delivery so it's supposed to charge, we didn't tested it.
It also supports 3 screens (laptop lcd + 1 on HDMI and 1 on usb-c to HDMI adapter), and the laptop screen is really great.

 

Am I the only one to prefer the black version? I think I've only seen L141CU in stores, no love for L140CU...

The absence of RJ-45 makes me a bit sad, but that would be my office PC, so it would be docked anyway.

Does it have a screen reference we can check on panelook.com?

I see a crucial P1 and an intel 760p; two PCIe 3x4 can run at the same time?

 

The chipset will allow all the devices connected to it to run simultaneously. There is however a total 3.5GB per sec cap for the total speed at any given time.

 

Beware , Clevo seems to deliver a locked Bios on the PCIE side ( like compulsory RAID mode )

Which that you may never be able to use any PCIE M.2 Driver on linux Kernel :

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/unable-to-install-linux.66956/

We are looking for a modified Bios to correct this issue.

M.2 SATA Disk works though.

 

I tried to power it on USB-C without success , What minimum Voltage and power do we need ?

 

Usually the same as the brick.

 

Did you manage to power it through USB-C in the end?

I had a look at the specifications of th user's manual ( https://www.clevo.com.tw/en/e-services/download/USRManualOut.asp?model=L14xCU) and it seems the second M.2 slot is an option, and that is SATA only. So, should I understand that it can support 2 SATA drives, or 1 SATA and one PCIe, in which case the overall speed will be capped at 3.5GB per sec?

 

The chipset will always cap you to 3.5GB/sec yes.

 

Ok, thanks. Anyways, with a 15W CPU, I doubt such speeds are needed, especially on two drives simultaneously.

 

No end user scenarios really that are that i/o biased usually.

 

Did you find something (in the open internet)? I read your post a bit too late and now have a L141CU with restricted BIOS (does not let you choose AHCI instead of the glorious "Intel RST" stuff). It seems some manufacturers have a BIOS that works with NVMe PCIe SSDs & Linux (see Tuxedo Computers' offering of the L14xCU where you also can choose PCIe SSDs).

Another option seems to be System76's coreboot. They offer the LC14xCU as Lemur Pro and their coreboot BIOS seems to be open source: https://github.com/system76/firmware-open

 

I had the same problem with another resellers L14xCU that seemed marketed towards Windows customers. Had to buy a M.2 SATA drive in order to use the laptop. After much research, I sent another email linking to all the relevant threads, asking about a different BIOS version that has the option to change to AHCI. I thought they would come back with "sorry we only support windows", but was surprised that they came back with Windows flashing instructions and a link to the Linux compatible BIOS (that allowed changing to AHCI). I was able to flash the BIOS successfully and now have NVMe working as it should have been from the start. The BIOS version was exactly the same but had a 1 tacked onto the end.

It's great to see other resellers go Linux first and offer a similar L14xCU like the Lemur Pro, but with open source firmware. I wonder how specialised/different their hardware is, and if anyway has attempted to flash this firmware onto their own L14xCU.

Best bet is to push back to your own reseller and get them to follow up with the manufacturer for the updated BIOS.

 

@Pacmanlegs, can you please tell me where I can download this BIOS update? Can you publish a link? You would not only help me enormously, but a lot of L141CU owners.

At this moment I'm unfortunately stuck with a M.2 SATA SSD

 

Not Yet , so we only build with SATA Right now. We might go the coreboot way but it s a big time investment.


I'm sure a new Bios will be shared on the internet and this will be an old bad story.

Of course , I will share it here as soon as I find something that works.

 

The coreboot version of System76 contains logos and brands of System76.

One option is to wait until System76 pushes their coreboot to the mainstream release of Coreboot.

 

Yes I meant recompiling Coreboot with right brand https://github.com/system76/coreboot

And then the firmware https://github.com/system76/firmware-open

Info L141CU is here https://github.com/system76/firmware-open/tree/master/models/lemp9

 

Humm , we have some really weird behaviour , a lot of of RAM ( Crucial 2666 ) makes the computer unbootable , like of the BIos was stuck trying to detect it , did you encounter something similar ?

BIOS & EC 1.07.07

 

What size stick?

 

There was a public link on reddit that linked to a similar BIOS:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxhardware/comments/fvgu0h/comment/fp58az3

 

Weirdly it seems to happen with 8 GB but not really with 16GB

 

Nice ! This seems to be a Full features Bios , thanks shenker

https://download.schenker-tech.de/package/schenker-via-14-id-svi14e20/

Will test this afternoon and report

 

OK , Shencker BIOS 1.07.7 Bios & EC flashed !

Good :
- NVME Works !
- Lots of great options to disable Wifi/Cam/mic



https://drive.ekimia.fr/s/mwqpaDCnedF2eFG


BUT :

- The "silent" profile does not makes it better , I find it still too noisy
- I still have the probleme with 8 GB ram module ( crucial 2666 ) , will drop this option for now.

 

That is weird, sounds like a edge case timing issue? The 16GB will have looser timings.

 

Hi there!

I recently flashed that same BIOS to my Clevo L140CU. It worked just fine!
The problem was that, since I was annoyed by the loud fan, I decided to give it a try to undervoltage. I did it to both CPU and GPU and the laptop did not boot anymore.

It turns on, I see the lights on the keyboards, the fans eventually get activated, but that's all the feedback I'm getting from the machine.

I tried eveything I possible know I could do to reset the BIOS, with no luck:
- Pressing fn + d, during the boot;
- Pressing fn + d + power button for a long time.
- Removing the battery and small battery (so the CMOS would be reset)

I'm super frustrated right now. Why was I so picky with the fan?

The last thing I want to try is to "blindly" change the BIOS settings. I imagine it may be possible to change the BIOS settings if I have the screens of it. That way I could infer which keys to press, and eventually solve my issue.

Any way you can help me with that? By taking some pics? I would be very grateful

Thanks in advance. Cheers!

 

If someone wants a white label BIOS (no branding and stuff) for the L141CU/L140CU with the AHCI enabled fix (so you can use NVMe SSDs), PM me!

 

Nothing on HDMI or USB-C ?

 

BUT : All Fn keys are messed up !

 

Different keyboards in the machines?

 

I've PM'ed you 2 weeks ago without answer.

 

Yes as you can see here https://bestware.com/en/schenker-via-14.html on the Keyboard picture

 

Sorry about that. We've been very busy the last few days. I've sent you a reply to your e-mail

 

No problem , We are all very busy Thanks

 

I'm also interested in this white label BIOS. I currently have the Schenker BIOS installed and prefer to have brandless one (and hopefully one without the incorrect fn key mapping). I can't find a way to PM you, perhaps because I just created this account, so I'll try it this way.

 

You need 5 posts to do that.

 

Hello , I will see with the guy who compiled it if it could be publicly shared

BTW :

The key mapping is due to the EC, not the BIOS

So you can start by flashing the EC which should work with the schenker Bios you have , I shared the EC 1.07.08 here https://drive.ekimia.fr/s/ECL141CU10708

FYI I've made a small script to install Bios and EC without any USB key with Grub2 EFI on Linux https://github.com/ekimiateam/efiflash

 

Thank you! I've updated the EC and my key mappings are correct again. I also got the latest BIOS 1.07.10 from my supplier installed. Sadly, it's still the locked down BIOS without the NVMe support. So currently my NVMe drive still works, but when changing the BIOS settings, it recognizes an unsupported option and defaults to the incorrect setting. Meaning I can't save any changes in by BIOS or it will override the setting to the incompatible one.

Let me know if you've heard back from LaptopwithLinux with the brandless NVMe supported BIOS!

 

Hi Sorry for the lag , here is a full package with the white label Bios

https://drive.ekimia.fr/s/FPngz8Js9rXDjZY

 

Thank you so much! I will try it later tonight.

 

Hi Dax , did the flash worked as you wish ?

 

Hey freechelmi, sadly no, the FLASHME.nsh script uses the `fpt -f %BIOSROM% -a 0 -l 0x400000 -y` command to do something with the EKIMIA bios rom, but the fpt program is corrupted. Currently still on the schenker bios.

 

Any long-term reviews or issues with this model? Am interested in how the massive claimed battery life is performing after a year or so on the market?

https://www.metabox.com.au/store/Flo-Range/Buy