Everything greyed out on MSI GT62VR 6RE (2016)

[gflash999]

Hello,

my model is not on the list of tested models. I installed the application according to the instructions, and after reboot the symbol showed up in the tray. However, everything but cooler boost is greyed out, and cooler boost does not work.

"Info" Page shows nothing, which might mean my device is not supported? I was able to confirm by lsmod that ec_sys is active, however I don't know how to check if write is enabled.

Any help is appreciated, I would really like to get fan control to work. lmsensors does not detect my fans, unfortunately.

Distribution: Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon
Kernel: 5.15

[dmitry-s93]

Hello,

run the following command in terminal and send the result
sudo hexdump -C /sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io

I'll see when I have some time.

[gflash999]

Hello,

gflash@Valinor:~$ LC_ALL=C sudo hexdump -C /sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io
[sudo] password for gflash:
hexdump: /sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io: Operation not permitted
hexdump: all input file arguments failed

The specified device/file /sys/kernel/debug/ec/ec0/io exists.

[gflash999]

I disabled secure boot, and things changed a lot!
Now I can see data in the info tab.
EC Version: 16L2EMS1.107
EC Build: 02/21/2017 15:51:28

What works

• CPU and GPU temperatures
• Actual Fan speeds.
• Cooler boost
• Manual fan control
• Camera toggle

What doesnt work:

• Power modes (greyed out)
• Battery (greyed out; however in windows also no battery options were available)
• Keyboard backlight (greyed out, was available on windows)
• USB Power share (greyed out, but I'm not sure if this is available on my device at all)

Not sure:
FN - Super (not sure what it does and how to test)

Regarding the power modes, what do they actually do compared to the intel pstate driver?

I can test more if you want.

Hexdump:
00000000 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 c0 06 49 0b |..............I.|
00000030 03 01 00 05 50 0a 05 00 50 14 40 38 08 02 80 40 |....P...P.@8...@|
00000040 2c 00 63 00 94 13 00 00 36 13 85 3d a1 0b a0 41 |,.c.....6..=...A|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2a 00 34 40 4b 53 5a 61 |........*.4@KSZa|
00000070 64 12 12 1a 22 27 2b 2f 36 63 03 03 03 02 03 03 |d..."'+/6c......|
00000080 29 00 3a 41 48 50 58 5f 61 12 12 27 2b 2f 36 3e |).:AHPX_a..'+/6>|
00000090 64 00 03 03 03 03 03 03 06 05 7d 02 64 7d 00 00 |d.........}.d}..|
000000a0 31 36 4c 32 45 4d 53 31 2e 31 30 37 30 32 32 31 |16L2EMS1.1070221|
000000b0 32 30 31 37 31 35 3a 35 31 3a 32 38 94 13 00 00 |201715:51:28....|
000000c0 00 06 22 00 00 00 00 00 00 36 01 b3 01 ba 14 00 |.."......6......|
000000d0 00 00 02 00 7f 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01 00 00 00 |................|
000000e0 e2 02 00 00 10 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 8b 00 00 |................|
000000f0 00 00 80 00 8d 00 05 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |................|

[gflash999]

Regarding the fan speeds, I don't think it gets the max fan speeds right. My CPU temperature is around 42°C, and fan 1 speed is set to 18% if below 52°C, running with 2500rpm. I don't think my fan can run with 13888rpm(=100% if 18%=2500rpm)?! And the slider even goes above 100%!

Actually I don't want to risk damaging it, so I won't try.

In cooler boost mode, the displayed fan speed is 3500rpm, I would believe that's the maximum.

[gflash999]

I tested a bit, and I'm honestly not sure if I can trust the displayed fan speeds. If I set the speed manually to a percentage that should match what was shown when cooler boost is active (25%), the speed went up to around 7000rpm, where I stopped it. The fan noise sounded completely different than cooler boost, I cannot say if faster or slower, I can't remember the fans sounding like this in windows. Cooler boost sounded very much the same as on windows.

Also, if I uncheck the "Activate extended fan control" checkbox, the system doesnt go back to default behaviour but keeps the current manual fan profile active.

[gflash999]

Observing the rpm figures on fan 1 and fan 2, they jump around a lot, even show numbers like 94000rpm from time to time, which is in no way reflected in the actual fan behaviour.

[gflash999]

My main concern is: Can I damage the fans by playing with the sliders?

[Jiogo18]

My main concern is: Can I damage the fans by playing with the sliders?

Short answer: I don't think so, but less than 100% is enough.

If I am not mistaken, it is possible to set it higher than 100% in MSI Center in windows.

CPU:
100% is about 5800 RPM
150% is 8000-8100 RPM (470000/0x3a or 470000/0x3b as a big difference)
cooler boost is 8100 RPM

GPU:
100% is about 5800 RPM
150% is the same
cooler boost is about 5900 RPM

In general, I stay under 100%, it's enough. And above 100% is loud and power consuming for a small gain.
Sometimes I go above 100% (e.g. 110% with heavy tasks...), but it's not common.

Observing the rpm figures on fan 1 and fan 2, they jump around a lot, even show numbers like 94000rpm from time to time, which is in no way reflected in the actual fan behaviour.

Same issue, #175 can fix this

[gflash999]

Thanks!

I'm new to this, how do I implement the fix into my system? I don't need a detailed guide, if you could give me a rough outline of the neccessary steps I can figure it out.

Do you have any idea why the power mode tab is still greyed out on my system? Do you know what the power modes actually do, function wise? If they just replicate what intel_pstate does, I don't need them.

[Jiogo18]

Shift mode and fan mode can be at address 0xD2 or 0xF2 and at 0xD4 or 0xF4.
According to the dump you sent, they seem to be at 0xF2 and 0xF4 (values 80 and 8d).
Shift mode values should be C0, C1..., but I am in that case too where it is Cx on Windows but 8x on Linux.

Shift mode at 0xF2 is not detected by MControlCenter currently, I am using #183 (requires msi-ec with a custom conf).

If you want to fix without msi-ec, you can edit these lines to use address 0xF2 with the values 8x instead (not tested, so be careful!).

MControlCenter/src/operate.cpp

Lines 74 to 78 in e452791

	// Modes
	const int shiftModeAddress = 0xD2;
	const int shiftMode0 = 0xC0;
	const int shiftMode1 = 0xC1;
	const int shiftMode2 = 0xC2;

Do you know what the power modes actually do, function wise? If they just replicate what intel_pstate does, I don't need them.

Power mode tab is comparable to MSI Center's "User Mode"
It is a mix of shift and fan mode (e.g. Balanced and Silent have the same shift mode but a different fan mode).
I don't exactly know what shift mode does to the computer, msi magic I guess.

[gflash999]

Thanks for the information, but I won't tinker with the shift mode without knowing exactly what it does as long as this laptop is my main machine.

Actually with automatic fan mode and in idle, the laptop runs quieter than in windows, but also about 10°C warmer. That's a good tradeoff for me.