John Ratsey

What does BatteryInfoView report as the battery statistics and power drain when idle or light usage?

It's a mystery to my why hibernate isn't enabled by default on laptops but have you tried the steps here Shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC - Microsoft Support ? Also, unless you are needing the maximum hours on battery, enable the battery saver mode which limits the maximum charge to 80%.

This UK seller https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/356279468163 used the following classification for battery health. I haven't any idea whether that's industry standard, nor what testing is done to confirm the health. Very Good - Grade A - has 90% or greater of its original design capacity remaining. Good - Grade B - between 75% and 89% of its original design capacity remaining. Fair - Grade C - between 50% and 74% of its original design capacity remaining It's interesting that the new model has a completely different voltage. Li-ion and LiPo batteries have a nominal voltage of 3.6 to 3.7V, so two of those in series gives a voltage around 7.4V. The fully charged voltage will be up to 4.3V according to https://www.ufinebattery.com/blog/type-of-lithium-battery-voltage/. Perhaps the new Gram 17 battery uses four cells in series and quotes the maximum voltage on the label. I wonder why LG have made the change?

The best way to test the battery is to fully charge the battery, use the computer on battery until it stops, then fully recharge. I have a very dim recollection of there being software which would record time, state of charge and power usage into a file which could then be examined to see if there anomalies in the discharge behaviour. A calibration problem, for example, could result in a very drop from, say, 20% charge to empty. UK ebay listings suggest that the battery is the same across several models. It's likely that the 80Whr part is interchangeable with the 77Whr part and has slightly improved chemistry. I would be happy to get a Grade A battery from computer recycling specialists if they can confirm the battery compatibility (the key requirements are the same voltage and same physical dimensions and holes for fixing screws). My 2022 Gram 17 claims that the battery is still 100% healthy but it's had an easy life sitting on a desk with the charge capped at 80%. A full charge / discharge cycle might reveal that it's not quite so healthy.

I have similar problems with a 2022 Gram 17 running Windows 11. After some initial fiddling with various settings I concluded that the underlying problem is with Modern Standby https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/power-efficient-settings-in-windows-11-0d6a2b6b-2e87-4611-9980-ac9ea2175734, https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-enable-s3-sleep-state-and-disable-modern/507c85fb-977d-4891-b5b1-d302c918ee0e. Effectively there's less sleep, more keeping aware of what's going on (checking emails, etc) and has become a security feature to turn off the screen and lock the computer while the user is away from their desk. I'm also old enough to remember that Windows sleep could never be trusted with people publishing photos of melted parts of computers where they had been put in bags while sleeping. Consequently, I've always used hibernation. SSD speeds means that this is a much faster process than with mechanical hard discs.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Processor-Touchscreen-NP940XGK-KG1US-Moonstone/dp/B0CQ3RRS23/ also suggests that the 14" Samsung is 2880 x 1800. There's also a 14" version of the LG Gram https://www.amazon.com/s?k=14"+LG+Gram with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200.

I'm now up to 4TB (2 + 2) in my 2022 Gram 17. That's the benefit in having two SSD slots (although, if you have a dGPU then the 2nd SSD has fewer lanes in it's bus and is slower). This Gram 17 has 32GB RAM as I felt that 16GB was hindering performance at times and I stumbled on the 32GB version in Amazon Warehouse with pricing appropriate to the 16GB version so I grabbed it. At the moment I see no need to replace it with something newer.

Somewhere in that string of characters will be something to designate the country/region parts as well as the other hardware differences. eg the computers sold in UK will have a UK keyboard. This Amazon UK listing covers four different specs, all starting 16Z90R-K https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-ultra-lightweight-i7-1360P-Windows-Obsidian/dp/B0C1HCCVS7/ 16GB RAM + 1TB SSD = AA78A1 16GB RAM + 2TB SSD = AD7AA1 32GB RAM + 1TB SSD = AD78A1 32GB RAM + 2TB SSD = AA7BA1 The same last 6 characters are also used for the equivalent specs in the 17" version https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-ultra-lightweight-i7-1360P-Windows-Obsidian/dp/B0C1HCBFYN.

Induction hobs somehow sense that there's enough suitable metal sitting on a ring before it will apply power. However, I'm not planning to try cooking a computer to find out what happens.

Thank you for the guide. I'm not convinced that the metal cover over the SSD is for heat dispersion as a thermal pad would probably be better. As noted previously, I wonder if it's shielding against 4G/5G radiation as the version of the notebook without 4G/5G support doesn't have any cover over the SSD. Only Samsung knows the reason. I hope that your Windows has settled down. I don't recall having any issues.

I use Macrium Reflect https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.

I suspect that it will be much easier to find a compatible charger. The parameters that matter are voltage, amps or watts, plug size and plug polarity (almost always centre positive). The information, except for plug size, is usually on a label on the bottom of the computer. The only plug adaptors I have come across, some years ago, were for Dell which had changed from a big plus to a smaller one. Businesses had large stocks of the old PSUs and wanted them to fit the new computers they had just bought.

I share your confusion. Your board will only take a 2230 SSD (same as my Galaxy Book 13.3 purchased in January 2022) but this notebookcheck review dated June 2021 of a Galaxy Book Pro 360 13 shows a 2280 SSD. Both notebooks are 13.3" and have the same generation Intel CPU (mine is the i5 1130G7 and the review notebook has the i5 1135G7). The possible explanation is that the version in the notebookcheck review appears to not have the SIM card slot whereas your notebook and mine both have it. It's therefore possible that in order to make space for this on the mainboard Samsung had to rearrange the mainboard and use a smaller form factor SSD. Radiation from the 4G/5G antennae might also explain the metal cover over the 2230 SSD. The conclusion is that don't buy a replacement part before looking inside to confirm that it will be suitable (I've probably learnt the same lesson at some stage in the past). If you can't return the 2280 SSD then find a slim USB-C enclosure for it to create some fast external storage. I'm surprised that you call this notebook crappy. Mine is excellent.

The card reader doesn't show up in device manager as a storage drive unless a card is inserted and recognised (the same applies to the USB ports). I suspect that the problem is a bad/dirty contact which prevents the card from being recognised. You could try cleaning the contacts with a suitably sized piece of thin cardboard soaked in isopropyl alcohol pushed in and out of the slot. I admire your bravery in changing the keyboard. At least it was replaceable. I recall that some years the Samsung keyboards were bonded to the back of the palmrest and not built for replacement. Both SSDs (WD) in my 17Z90Q show up as 4x in HWiNFO. Samsung make a Galaxy Book 3 Pro with 16" screen. It might be worth investigating when you LG suffers too much from the hard working life you have given it. My Gram 17 has an easy life in comparison and rarely moves from my desk.

The RTX version is the Gram Pro which has an Nvidia RTX GPU and dual fans to provide better cooling. I would like the latter even though there's a small weight penalty but so far this version of the Gram 17 hasn't been on sale in the UK.

I've just tested my Gram 17 and the microSD card reader shows up as a storage drive but only after I've inserted a card. Consequently, a dirty contact which stops a card from being recognised would prevent the reader from showing up as a storage drive. This is much more plausible than a hardware failure. Contacts are always one of the troublespots in electronics. How to clean it? I would start by trying to blast the slot with some canned air. The next step would be to make a small piece of good quality cardboard with a thickness to suit the slot and cut to a suitable width cut but longer than a micro SD card. I would then wet the bottom side of this card with some Isopropyl alcohol and jiggle it in and out of the slot to try to wipe off any dirt. IIRC the ports on the right side of the computer are on a daughter board connected to the mainboard by a ribbon cable so disconnecting / reconnecting that cable is another troubleshooting option.

I've just treated my Gram 17 to a storage upgrade. It already had 2 x 2TB SSDs but photos and videos gobble space. The slower of these SSDs (WD SN770) has now been replaced by a 4TB Crucial P3+. It's not the fastest 4TB SSD but fine for bulk storage and is very reasonably priced. 4TB was slightly less expensive than 2TB 15 month ago.

I would add that if the computer's power management offers a mode to limit the maximum charge level to less than 100% then use it to reduce battery wear. 80% is a good compromise.

Yes, model codes ending with R indicate the current (2023) versions. The glossy screen is OK until you've seen the non-glare version. Personally, the improvement which would have me reaching for my credit card is a better cooling system but there's no sign of a UK version. I hope LG will sweep aside the sub-3lb weight target in future and give all the 17" models better cooling hardware.

Apologies for the slow response - I've been away from my desk. Cooling may be part of the reason for additional weight: The 14" Galaxy Book Pro 3 has two fans and I would expect the bigger version to be similarly equipped. Intel notebook hardware will only sustain the rated output for a few seconds unless supported by a good cooling system and this seems to get more noticeable with each generation which leaves the notebook manufacturers with the dilemma of either providing more fans or let them run fast and noisy. Samsung may have opted for less noise - one drawback of my Gram 17 is that it gets noisy under load as it only has one small fan (although there's room for another one). The slightly bigger display sizes are the result of the welcome shift from 16:9 to 16:10 aspect ratio. Chassis rigidity is much less of an issue than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Modern LCDs seem to be tolerant to significant flexing while mainboards are much more compact (and hence less vulnerable to chassis flexing) with ribbon cables connecting to subsidiary boards. Materials might also be a factor if it lowers the production cost.

I've been using Total Commander as my file manager for over 20 years. Highly recommended. That said, as the photo folder on my phone fills up, it becomes slower and slower to list the files so that I can copy the recent photos. I would be interested in software that can avoid this problem provided it doesn't mess up the files or their metadata.

It's currently being tested as I'm on holiday and seems to be running fine. I was wanting more storage space. Higher speed is a bonus.

That could be useful. At the moment I connect my phone and computer via a USB-C cable to copy any photos I've taken. More details are available here.

I've treated the little Galaxy Book Pro to another upgrade. I found a 2TB M.2 2230 SSD on sale in the UK at a lower price than the 1TB 2230 cost in January 2022. The WD SN740 gives a decent performance despite its diminutive size. That's roughly twice as fast as the 1TB Kioxia SSD (which was faster than the original SSD). It took Macrium Reflect over an hour to clone the old SSD onto the new one (temporarily housed in a USB enclosure), then less than half an hour to do the physical swap after which I used Minitool Partition Wizard to adjust the partitions to use the new space.

That's an interesting point about the 2nd SSD being slower by design. You are probably correct in assuming that it's due to the dGPU needing some bandwidth on the bus. I'm sure that I cloned the SSD which came with the computer as that saves having to look for and separately install the LG-specific software.