Steerpike

I appreciate the interest, but - it may be a month before I need to have fast (wired) ethernet access again! I normally make do with my sub-par wireless access and sit in the comfort of my living room. It's only when I'm about to copy an entire folder structure that I bother to hook up to the 'wired' connection in my bedroom. But I'll keep an eye on it!

When I connect to the USB hub, I attach the power supply to the one USB-C port on the hub, and then connect the hub to the laptop. So power is coming 'through' the hub. And I think that's the way they intend it to be used. But just now, I've tried connecting the power supply directly to the laptop, and then connecting the hub to the second USB-C port on the laptop. So in this mode, the hub is getting its power through the laptop. Seems to be working, so I'll see if it is any more reliable. Ultimately, as much as I love the concept of the USB-C port being so flexible (HDMI, Ethernet, Power, storage, peripherals, etc) it's also a very vulnerable element. There's only two USB-C ports on my laptop, and if one were to break, that could spell disaster. You 'must' use one of them for power, so there's only one left for 'everything else'. For that reason, I've adopted the use of the 'USB-C magsafe' connectors, discussed elsewhere in this forum (Amazon.com: DuHeSin USB C Magnetic Adapter, (2 Pack) Magnetic USB C Adapter, 24Pins USB3.1 10Gbps Data Transfer 4K 60Hz Video PD 100w Charge Compatible with MacBook Pro/Air USB-C Laptop : Electronics), but they aren't the perfect panacea I was looking for.

I have an LG Gram 17, 2021 (11th gen CPU) with 2 USB-C ports (plus two USB-A ports, and an HDMI port). In order to get RJ45 ethernet connectivity, and for general-purpose port expansion, I bought the BaseUS 8-in-1 Type C 'hub', which offers 3 USB-A ports, one USB-C port, an HDMI port, and an RJ45 port. Amazon.com: Baseus 8-in-1 USB C Hub Docking Station, USB C Adapter with 4K HDMI, 3 USB 3.0, TF/SD Reader, Ethernet, 100W Power Delivery Compatible with MacBook, Surface, iPad, Steam Deck or Other Type C Devices : Electronics I use the laptop 99% of the time away from the docking station, but when I need to do some serious file transfers or downloads/uploads, I hook to the docking station so I can get wired ethernet. The other day, I plugged in the docking station and noticed ethernet was not working (and the green/amber lights on the RJ45 were not lit). I unplugged/replugged a few times, and magically ethernet returned. A few days later, similar experience. I paid attention to device manager, and noticed that, when RJ45 lights not lit, the device 'Gigabit Ethernet Adapter' was not present in device manager. BUT - other peripherals connected to the docking station (eg, mouse) were working - so it was not the whole docking station that wasn't working, just the RJ45 ethernet port. I then tried hooking the docking station to the other USB-C port on my laptop, and the RJ45 port was there / working. I then moved it back to the first USB-C port, and it disappeared again. This is very confusing and worrying to me - why would the device work/not work depending on which USB-C port I was connected to? I then unplugged/replugged a few times, and the RJ45 port showed up on the previously-non-working USB-C port. To confirm - not all the docking station ports disappear, just the RJ45 port (I'm not using most of the other ports, so I can't say definitively which ports are / are not working). Can anyone think of why this might be happening?

Can you tell us the exact model number of your LG Gram? Apologies if it's somewere in the post - just read the whole thing and didn't see it.

Good summary. I have the 17Z95P-K.AAE8U1, so that's 17", 'mid year', 2021. The '95' part is probably the least 'satisfying' in your analysis, as it may also be used to indicate deviations from the base spec? Or, could it reflect finger print reader? Mine does have an FP apparently (don't use it). And it has backlit keyboard. The 'K.AAE8U1' part of my model number is presumably there to cover CPU (i5, i7, etc), memory size (16G, 32G, etc), storage size (512G, 1T, etc), windows version (Home, Pro).

Ah ... the icon isn't 'activating' as such, but - there is a 'tool tip' type pop-up (not sure of the current terminology) and it does prevent access to the item below it (the 'x'). I had to linger on it for quite a while, though, before it 'popped up' so it doesn't just pop up instantly and block the 'x', for me. I can easily move the mouse right over it without the popup occurring. Interesting that it does block the function below it! Are you on a 'touch screen', perhaps? Update - when I 'hover over' similar objects in, say, Chrome, or Excel, the tool tip pops up in an area that does NOT cover the 'x'. Here we see what happens in excel: Looks like you've hit on a minor bug there! But I'd just move the mouse fast enough and it will zoom right past it. Update - looks like Snipping Tool itself has the same issue! I was going to suggest, to cure your 'snipping tool' problem, try running snipping tool from the start menu; you might need to do a 'first run' on it to clear some message or similar.

@John Ratsey - sorry to bother you but would you have any observations in this area, as an owner of the Book and Book2 lines? This seems to be an entirely new direction for their Book3 release ... I loved my Galaxy Book pro (original release, circa 2021, 11th gen processor) but I ended up selling it to my friend who really needed it so now I want to replace it, and I'm not sure I want to stick with the Galaxy Book line due to the increase in weight. I've searched for articles that talk about it but haven't found anything so far.

Not sure I understand; this is what I see at the top right corner of notepad: Are you saying, in your case, that the 'settings' option (gear icon) is 'blocking' the 'x'? They seem well separated to me. I honestly can't say I noticed that settings icon before but it's certainly never gotten in the way!

I haven't seen any mention of this on the forum, but this was such an issue for so many. Looks like displaying seconds is back for the clock on the taskbar! How to show seconds in Taskbar clock on Windows 11 - Pureinfotech I just tried it, and it worked. Then I turned it off because I have no use for it 🙂

I'm looking for a new laptop for a friend, and since I love my "Samsung Galaxy Book Pro" NP950XDB (11th Gen Intel processor), I was checking out the latest from Samsung. Seems like the latest line is 13th gen (Intel), generally referred to as 'Book3', with models Book3, Book3 Pro, and Book3 Ultra. This page has the details (have to scroll way down to the 'Compare / Specs' section to get anything significant) - Buy Galaxy Book3 360 | Book3 Pro | Book3 Pro 360 | Price & Deals | Samsung US To my dismay, it looks like they've all become heavier! Plus, they've slightly increased the size of the displays on the 'pro' line (only); what was 15.6" is now 16" for the 'pro' line (the 'non-pro' line still has the 15.6"). But the weight is the biggest change. My 15.6" 'Book Pro' weighs only 2.31 lbs (1.05kg); the new 14" 'Book3 Pro' is 2.58lbs (1.17kg), and the new 16" 'Book 3 Pro' weighs 3.44lbs (1.56kg) (that's an increase of 50% from my 15.6" 'Book Pro'!). The 'non-360' versions still don't have touch screens (so no weight increase there), and their batteries don't seem to be much larger; the 14" 'Book 3 Pro' has a 63 Wh battery, while the 16" 'Book 3 Pro' has a 76 Wh battery - my 15.6" 'Book Pro' has a 67 Wh battery. So I wonder if they found the original 'Galaxy Book' line to be too flimsy? I guess I need to go hunt down some online reviews!

FWIW, I don't think this is an issue with Total Commander; in my case, File Manager takes forever and a day to 'enumerate' the source folder. It always defaults to icon view, which makes matters worse, but I switch it to 'details' view as quickly as I can, but even then it is very slow to populate.

I've tried and abandoned just about every 'photo sync' 'tool' ever offered (over the past 20+ years!) because they all seem hell-bent on modifying some aspect of metadata on the photos - like changing the file date, or they force you to save photos in the 'user' space, amongst other things. I still use a USB cable, then use two 'file manager' (windows explorer) sessions to copy and paste images from one to the other. I am now additionally using Google Photos, which makes photos taken on my android phone immediately available for viewing on my laptop. But once a month I still plug the old sucker in and do a manual copy!

Has this resulted in any observable improvements in usability?

A follow-up / word of caution about those magnetic connectors. I bought 6 of them, and love them, and use them every day multiple times (I have to run on battery for much of the day, so rather than use the built-in battery, I use external batteries (40,000 mAh / 148 Wh type) so I'm constantly attaching / detaching batteries to the laptop and then to the chargers. They are quite delicate, and two of them have broken already. The central 'column' of the pin array is not very substantial, and has collapsed in two of them. I must admit, when I first started using them I was quite cavalier about disconnecting them (pulling them off without a thought) but now, I very carefully pull them off cleanly and attach them cleanly. I also had an issue where a paperclip was drawn to the magnet, and may have applied force to the pin-area. Anyway - I still have 4 and will be very careful with those, and we'll see how they fare. Here's the two that have failed so far:

Well that was interesting ... I disabled battery saver, and did a couple of charge / discharge cycles, and now ... my battery capacity has dropped further! I'm now at only 71,250 mWh 89%), compared to 73,740 mWh 92.2%) a few days ago! 2 cycles have been added to my count, so I'm now at 72. Maybe I'll do a couple more cycles and see what happens ... ETA - I took a peek at my Samsung NP950XDB, it is showing a capacity of 67,936 mWh, representing 101.4% capacity! It has only 13 cycles. I also took a look at old logs from BIV on the LG; looks like I was seeing 78,000 mWh when it was brand new in April 2022, and 78,920 mWh in June 2022, 76,500 mWh in July 2022, 78,250 mWh late July, 74,930 mWh in August ... 77,670 mWh later in August, then some 79,020 mWh readings in late August! I implemented the battery saver feature in September 2022, so that makes it harder to track max capacity. I'll run with battery saver off for a while, give it a few 'full cycles', then review the logs again.

@John RatseyHow's the battery on your 2021 LG gram? I run mine 95% of the time plugged in, so the internal battery doesn't get much use / many cycles. I am using the 'battery saver' mode that doesn't charge it above 80%. I happened to notice in Nirsoft's BatteryInfoView is showing that the 'Full Charged Capacity' is only 73,740 mWh, while the 'Designed Capacity' is 80,000 mWh (92.2% 'health'). Charge cycles - 70. Unlike my old Samsung NP930, this machine doesn't seem to have a 'battery conditioning' setting - which simply ran the battery all the way down to zero, as I recall. Do you think it would do any good to try a full discharge cycle, or two? Turn off sleep / hibernate settings, and just let it run down ... ?

You got me researching. Your (2022) LG Gram came with the PM9A1 SSD family, which is PCIe 4.0 x4, while my (2021) LG Gram came with the PM981a SSD family, which is PCIe 3.0 x4. It seems Samsung releases these 'OEM' SSD's with the same basic components as their 'consumer' models. However, they don't allow/support use of their 'Magician' software with these OEM versions. I now realize that my just-added 2TB WD is much faster than the 1TB pre-installed device. I presume you decided to clone/replace the pre-installed device rather than add the 2TB to take advantage of the extra speed, at the expense of 'wasting' 1 TB of storage? I might just do the same! What did you use to clone the drive? Did you clone all the partitions, and were you able to verify that all partitions were usable after the clone? I've just started using Macrium Reflect as a replacement for Acronis. By the way - my local Costco is now selling the 2022 LG Gram 17 (512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM) for $999! I presume they are making way for the 2023 model ... Online, they have the 1TB / 32 GB version for $1,499.

I added the pads last night (applied to the original Samsung SSD AND the WD SSD for good measure). I can still hear the weird sound, but I think it's been muted to the point where I can't hear it at normal distance from the keyboard; I have to put my ear closer to the keyboard to hear it now. I've never encountered a material like this before! I can't believe it works as a heatsink! I only did some rudimentary tests BEFORE installation, but I saw that the 'idle' temp of my WD SSD was about 39C, and when I did an intense search of the drive, I got it up to 50C. After installing the pad, idle seemed to drop to 34C, and the hottest I could get it afterwards was 41C - a whopping 9C less! I wonder if the foam is actually touching the laptop case, and is transferring heat to the metal cover? Anyway - thanks again for the tip! Hopefully I'm done opening up the case for a while. It did occur to me that you could drill a hole through the center of the foot pads so as to give access to the screws without having to remove the feet all the time. The hole wouldn't even have to be big enough for the screw to pass through; just big enough to squeeze a screwdriver through. But drilling through rubber may or may not result in a clean hole. But I'm done for now ... Regarding the 'original' (disk 0) SSD that is delivered with the laptop; on mine, it's a Samsung MZVLB512HBJQ. I installed Samsung Magician (v 7.3.0) and it 'sees' the drive, but shows a bunch of 'NA' messages, as if it weren't a Samsung model. That model number - MZVLB512HBJQ - certainly doesn't match any of the 'supported' drives from Samsung in the 'Magician' description, but I would have thought they would support it nonetheless. It's not a big deal but since I installed the WD program, I was curious to see what I could read about the Samsung SSD (I was looking specifically for temperatures). Seems like lots of people encounter this issue but no clear remedy; installing a Samsung driver seems to be one solution, but since this is my boot drive I'm not too keen on that.

Another nice discovery - the command prompt now supports OpenSSH - so I can simply ssh to my linux box without having to install Putty. I see that this was also introduced to W10 at some point, so another one of those 'retrofit' features I guess. I also installed the 'terminal' app in my W10 box - thanks for the tip!

SSD Thermal pads - something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-pad，-70x20x1-5mm-Pcie-Heatsinks/dp/B07QMWB4W6/ref=sr_1_11 Intuitively you'd think a 'foam'-like product would insulate rather than radiate, but - obviously not! a pad like that would appear to be just the right thing! Did you apply to both sides? The SSD I bought was single sided, so I would assume there's space on both sides for padding. Unsure whether the pre-installed SSD is two sided or not.

@John Ratsey I seem to recall, you are hyper-sensitive to fan noise, as am I. Or more accurately, you are hyper-sensitive to slight changes in noise, such that a steady faint 'hum' of a fan is much better than a stop/start fan? OK, So - after I installed the second SSD in my LG Gram, I noticed a strange, high-pitched, random sound that I find hard to describe. Basically, it's high-pitched 'electrical' noise, the type of noise a circuit gives off when there's some high-frequency processing going on. Also similar to what is heard from battery chargers, where they are doing lots of voltage switching (though this tends to be more steady/predictable). Actually, best description may be - the sound you USED to hear from a hard drive, when the head was 'seeking' - very random, high pitched. I thought at first it was the fan - perhaps I introduced some debris into the case, but that wasn't the case. Upon closer inspection, I can hear it most clearly if I put my ear right above the ASDF keys (which sits right above CPU / SSD area) OR - if I turn the unit upside down and place my ear over the 'vent' area (note that only a small portion of the long row of vent-holes is actually vented - most of it is closed off). The 'open' (unobstructed) vent holes sit directly above the CPU. So - my current theory is, this is new noise from the newly installed SSD; or, could it be simply noise from the CPU or RAM (which also sit in that vicinity) that I didn't notice before? I'm loath to removing the SSD just to test ... but that will be my next step if I can't figure out where it's coming from! Anyway - just wondered if you have noticed this noise on your LG Gram. Note that this is VERY faint ... but I happen to sit in a very quiet room, and don't have any TV/music playing during the day, and can literally hear a pin drop! Plus, I have the most sensitive hearing ... more of a burden these days 🙂 . PS I also found a nice way to remove the base of the laptop - you can insert your thumbnail between the removable lid and the surrounding frame at the very front/center, and push inwards towards the center of the laptop, while ever-so-slightly lifting with your nail. The inward force slightly buckles the lid such that it causes the latches to disengage, thus allowing you to lift up the lid. Once you have the first latch detached, the rest is relatively easy. Hopefully this shows the idea - just forcing the thumbnail in there is enough to cause the latches to disengage and let the lid rise. UPDATE: Oh boy, I'm not imagining things: Check this out - Do SSD Make Noise? (Explained and Solved!) – UltimatelyTech.com " Given the presence of this component (i.e. an inductor), a phenomenon called ‘electromagnetically induced acoustic noise’ occurs. This sound is what is getting termed as high pitch noise. This noise is also known as coil whining. On its own, an SSD can produce this type of sound which is so quiet, it’s only just audible when it occurs." And a video, with sound ... SSDs are NOT SILENT! SSD M.2 making high pitch noise or crackling/whirring - YouTube Many, many more links online to this phenomenon! So - the next question is, was this introduced by the WD SSD, or was it there before with the primary SSD, and/or, the RAM / CPU circuitry? Or maybe the new SSD is ADDING to the existing noise, making it more noticeable to me? Maybe I need to wear earplugs 🙂

I finally installed the new WD SN770 2 TB NVMe SSD in slot 2 last night! It wasn't that hard to open the case, but it wasn't a pleasant experience either! I found that pushing inwards on the big feet, causing the circle to deform, was the best way to detach the glued-on feet. Once it starts to deform slightly, you can hear the glue detaching, then it's easy to lift off. The little screw cover caps were weird; I attacked those with a very narrow flat-head screwdriver, and they just 'popped' right off. Removing the screws was effortless. Removing the base was the usual nerve-wracking experience, wondering if you are going to break something! Following your notes above, I started at the front but there was no easy way to get that first clip to 'pop', but I somehow managed it using the very narrow flat-head screwdriver (should have used a 'spudger' but couldn't find it). There are a total of 18 miniature 'prongs' on the panel that clip to recesses in the frame (6 front; 4 left, 4 right, 4 rear), and you just never know if you are going to break one or not. I took a lot of pictures, and may create a dedicated thread just about the case stuff. Good news is, there's still 9 screws holding the panel to the frame, so even if several clips failed, it wouldn't really matter. Note - saw a great online video (after the fact) where they used a suction cup on the base to remove it (this video, at about 6:10 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fTL4lzH4Bs - not our exact model but close enough! ). As for the SSD itself - I downloaded and installed "Western Digital Dashboard"; seemed pretty basic, but did confirm I have the latest firmware. Just about the only setting I saw was for 'gaming mode', which I left off. I also confirmed that I had "Link State Power Management under PCI Express settings is set to Maximum Power Savings." Thanks for the guidance!

I've been doing some measurements and calculations on my two 'modern' laptops (S0 capable) - LG Gram 17, 2021 edition (model 17Z95P), and Samsung NP950XDB. The LG Gram is currently set for Classic Sleep (S3) and the Samsung is set for 'modern sleep' (S0, aka 'low power idle'). I'm doing this mainly in support of some battery pack evaluations that I'm documenting in this thread, but these observations are more relevant to this post. LG Gram, Classic Sleep. Last night my laptop entered S3 (classic standby) at 2:25:49 am, with the battery at charge level 79%. This morning I 'woke it' from sleep at 10:02:19 and the charge level was 76%. This info is taken from 'Sleep Study Report' (cmd /k powercfg /sleepstudy /output c:\myfiles\SleepStudyReport.html /duration 28). This info is corroborated by BatteryInfoView: As can be seen, the duration of S3 sleep was 7:36:30, and during that time, 3.4% of battery capacity was consumed. 7:36:30 = 7.608 hrs. If 7.608 hrs of sleep consumes 3.4%, then 100% should be 223.77 hrs (about 9 days). Looking for other 'standby' states in the 28 day log, I found one that was much longer (and should therefore yield more accurate numbers) - Over 37 hours of standby, and 14% of battery. Calculations for this session are - 37:33:28 = 37.56 hrs. If 37.56 hrs of sleep consumes 14%, then 100% would be 268.27 hrs (about 11 days). So I would conclude from this that 'classic sleep' will last about 9-11 days on a full battery. Looking at my other 'modern' laptop (Samsung NP950XDB), which is configured for 'Modern Standby' (S0), I don't have any long Sleep sessions (as I've always used hibernate). So I will let it go into S0 sleep today and monitor it after about 8 hours and update this post. UPDATE 20-MAR-23) - I let my Samsung sleep for almost 24 hours, in S0 sleep. 23:22:21 is 23.37 hrs. If 10% battery is consumed in 23.37 hours, that suggests 100% will be consumed in 233.7 hours (about 10 days). This is not much less than classic sleep (though I am comparing different machines here; my Samsung has a lower capacity battery (67 Wh) compared to the LG (80 Wh), so the 'percentage of battery' values are not directly comparable). But for rough purposes, I think I can conclude here that S0 and S3 are not appreciably different. The bigger issue here is probably that S0 allows for a variety of activities to occur (downloads of updates, emails, etc) and those activities could, on any given day, be substantial. What I really need to do is change my LG from S3 to S0 and do a more direct comparison but I'm not willing to do that right now. (end of update 20-MAR-23). Also a bit concerning is that even hibernate is consuming measurable power on this LG Gram; I have a log of a 10 hour hibernate session that consumed 1.9% of battery capacity. Not a lot, but more than I think is appropriate for hibernate. I need to do some longer hibernates while on battery to get some better measurements. I would have expected a 10 hour hibernate session to consume much less than 1% by a long way. (exact calculation is - 9:56:26 duration, 1.9% consumption, suggesting 100% would be about 21.8 days - not nearly long enough for hibernate, IMO). (I'll update this thread with some S0 measurements from my S0 laptop and also some better hibernate measurements).

I just googled for hidden key combinations to get access to 'hidden' menus, but nothing works so far! Some tips suggest Fn+Tab, three times, then rebooting back into BIOS; others suggest alt+F1; etc. nothing worked for me. Of course, even if you find the correct sequence, knowing exactly when and how to enter that sequence is another challenge - do you have to be at a particular menu to start with, do you need to navigate a certain way after the keys are entered, etc. With the LG Gram, I found (you told me?) that you have to enter first ctrl, then alt, then shift, then F7 as a combination, and that worked. But doing the ctrl+alt+shift at once didn't work. So guessing is pretty hard!

AMI BIOS, with Aptio Setup - snap. The page you reference, sounds like there are BIOS mods to gain access to more advanced features, but nothing 'official'. I did search the site for my model and nothing came up. This is the sparse 'main' page for my NP950XDB: and the ridiculously sparse 'Advanced' (!) menu: