Video Proof: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECPSC_1
Hopefully this post helps you prevent future crashes / sleep issues.
Attached is a picture of location of magnetic item that causes laptop to sleep.
Customer service contact details:
Support number: 1-877-435-7955
Support email: support@MEwarrantyservices.com
I called and sent email and the information does not exist.
The correct phone number for support is (800) 379-3820. Hours are 7 am-4 pm Pacific Time. They are closed on the weekends.
Update: Just called customer service on Jan 10th. The above number (even though it announces as Overpowered customer service) is valid for Motile laptops and the rep confirmed that the warranty for M142 is valid for 1 year and you just call this number for any issues. .
Warranty Information:
Excerpts from Motile Limited Warranty booklet included in box:
"This MOTILE purchased and delivered new in the original packaging to the original purchaser is warranted for personal non-commercial use by MOTILE against manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship for a limited Warranty period of Ninety (90) days for labor and One (1) year for Hardware from the original date of purchase."
"However, the warranty on this Product is limited to Ninety (90) day hardware and labor limited warranty when purchased or used for commercial purposes."
"Product freight must be prepaid by the original purchaser and shipped in its original packaging or packaging affording an equal degree of protection."
## USER MANUAL ATTACHED AT BOTTOM ##
Bios, Software and Driver Update:
http://www.motilecusto
Additional driver files saved by a user from device manager: https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=
This seems to have additional stuffs that is not included on Motile site
To enter the BIOS, keep pressing the DELETE key during the boot up
Bios update hints: (Be careful. Don't attempt unless you REALLY know what you are doing)
*Also note that some issues are appearing with the BIOS/EC update*:
https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=
BIOS update guide:
https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=
https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=
If you brick the laptop while updating BIOS, follow Darkshade214 to reflash it, he puts it in amazing details right here:
https://slickdeals.net/f/13709582-motile-14-performance-laptop-fhd-amd-ryzen-5-with-radeon-vega-8-graphics-thx-spatial-audio-tuned-by-thx-display-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-hdmi-front-720p-hd-ir-camera-299?p=134509370
If you prefer to do manual bios update only or just want to stay on original bios and not having the laptop forcing a bios update, one way is to uninstall the THX thing under control panel, program and feature immediately after the initial windows setup. A lot of people report that the THX thing seems to force update of bios which a lot of time doesn't go all the way through the process. I did the uninstall the first thing after i boot up the laptop from windows setup and it never forces any bios update ever on me. I am not having any problem with the original 1.03 bios so that's why i am staying with it and since the new bios doesn't report to add anything new i don't bother with it. I do lose that THX but then again that thing only works over headphone or HDMI and i think it's somewhat of a gimmick anyway. THX screen profile still remain even if you do the THX uninstall.
If having problem with the laptop hanging while restart and not completing the restart sequence (especially after a clean window installation),
turn off fast restart in control panel/power option/system settings
Indepth outside review: https://www.notebookche
Currently the laptop has no support for waking up from sleep by lid opening. You have to press a key to wake it up. Closing the lid will put it to sleep though.
The HDMI port on the laptop has been verified by multiple people as HDMI 2.0 good for 4K 60hz.
USB Type C port on this Motile has been tested and only has data transfer function. NO power delivery (PD) for charging over usb C port.
NO DP function for video output via the usb C.
Display: IPS
Chassis: aluminum/magnesium
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U
SINGLE dimm slot with 8GB 2666 (speed limited by laptop to 2400) DDR4 sodimm installed. 2GB of the ram is used by Vega iGPU (amount of ram dedicated to iGPU cannot be changed). If you insert a 4GB sodimm, then only 512MB will be used by the iGPU. Anything bigger than 4GB sodimm will result in 2GB being used by iGPU. The Motile has been tested to work with 32GB sodimm.
Two M2 SSD slots: first slot comes occupied with Biwin 256GB M2 SATA SSD and can use both M2 SATA and NVME.
Second unoccupied M2 slot recognizes only NVME ssd. The first slot appears to be pcie x4 while the second slot appears to be x2. It's not clear what will happen speedwise if both are occupied by nvme ssd
Fn+ F5 changes between Basic mode and Silent mode fan speed.
This does have a small difference on multicore cpu benchmarks.
Maybe also battery life when on battery?
Also you can tell which mode you are in by looking at the LED light on the power button: solid is basic mode, slow dimming /brightening is silent mode.
After a clean windows install if you don't have the onscreen status display driver installed for this, you won't see it onscreen but the fn F5 would still work and the status is displayed by the LED on the power button.
What does Fn+F2 do? It disables/reenables the winkey that's inbetween the Fn and Alt key. Stupid i know....
See below in the attachment section for getting the OSD on screen display of FnF2 and FnF5 to work as well as having OEM info inside the about windows property as well as original motile wallpaper for those that do a clean windows install
https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=
FIX FOR LOW SOUND OUTPUT FROM SPEAKERS:
1) Be sure the Sound Blaster Connect application is running.
### The Sound Blaster Connect Software can be downloaded from the Windows Store, as well as other places. #### https://www.microsoft.c
2) Select a sound profile (Game/Music/Movie, etc)
3) and make sure the EQ is turned on.
Makes a night and day difference
Currently the bios has no support for reverse or persistent function key, meaning there is no support for being able to use the function keys without also holding down Fn key and pressing a function key. You can try the software remapping below:
FUNCTION KEY REMAPPING:
To reverse FN keys to skip having to hold down FN + FKey:
https://keytweak.en.sof
My Mapping:
Key #120 remapped to 'Volume Down' - Default to 'F9'
Key #121 remapped to 'Volume Up' - Default to 'F10'
Key #119 remapped to 'Mute' - Default to 'F8'
Key #129 remapped to 'F10' - Default to 'Volume Up'
Key #131 remapped to 'F9' - Default to 'Volume Down'
Key #133 remapped to 'F8' - Default to 'Mute'
There is also no bios support currently for keeping the backlit keyboard on constantly without it turning off when no key is pressed for a while
GAME TESTING:
on battery power:
Diablo 3 ROS (1920x1080, high settings for all): 45+ FPS
WoW Classic in intense battle like Alterac Valley, low settings, FPS fluctuates between 40-80
LINUX DISTROS TESTED:
Ubuntu 19.10 - everything works
Zorin OS 15 - Needed to apt update/upgrade to get latest kernel to support Ryzen 5 3500U graphics.
(Installs with support only for 800x600, update fixed everything)
Linux Mint 19.2 - Everything works. Updated to latest Kernel to support Ryzen 5 3500U graphics
THX Color Profile:
Here are all the color profile files off my Motile M142 R5
https://drive.google.co
or
https://www.4shared.com/zip/GWMDk...files.h
Restart laptop after placing files in C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color
then right click on desktop -> Display settings -> Color Profile drop down and select Tuned by THX
INCREASE DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS:
To increase the display's max brightness download Radeon Software [amd.com], open the new software, navigate to Settings > Display and disable Vari-Bright. The display will now be ~50% brighter.(Many owners report no difference).
VIDEO ON RAM, SSD, WIFI UPGRADE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iITc_8I
Several members have reported success in using USB C PD to barrel adapters to charge. There are a number to choose from on Amazon, Aliexpress, and eBay.
USB-C power adapters
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...CFDA&
https://slickdeals.net/f/13814333-29-59-zerolemon-4-ports-usb-c-pd-charger-with-60w-and-18w-power-delivery-on-amazon?v=1 (seems to work fine even when at peak power. Reportedly will supply over 60W on the usb C for momentarily if needed)
Here are adapters reported working (size: 5.5*2.5mm with yellow inside color)
https://www.aliexpress.
https://www.amazon.com/Cablecc-Ad...07SJ4CB27/
Video on using the M2 slot to do eGPU (not very practical but it's good to know something like this works):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su3WUNy
Other Resources:
https://www.reddit.com/r/motile/
Leave a Comment
Your comment cannot be blank.
Share information with community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!
Top Comments
Seems to be 2 M.2 slots and 1 DDR4.
1,764 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I noticed something that slightly annoyed me- the max volume seemed pretty low and the max brightness seemed low too. I was happy to see some potential solutions for this on the 1st page. Will try them out!
I was hesitant to initially purchase since I vowed to never use a laptop with a screen size less than 15". For now, pretty happy with it since I intend on using it for non-gaming activities. LOVE that it's lightweight as well.
Any thing special needed to swap the wifi chip? I've got the replacement one, but I've never swapped one out before. the NVMe and 16 GB memory were easy to add.
Just need to get a case so it can last longer. It survived a rough and tumble sea voyage, but I still have concerns about it long term survivability.
The warranty booklet I read mentions a 1 year hardware warranty, and only 90 days for labor.
What is everyone's thoughts or plans to hedge risk given that? I mean, I want this laptop to last awhile. Certainly, more than 90 days!
My card benefit will extend the warranty, but only mirrors the existing warranty. I'll only get an extra year of hardware and only an extra 90 days of labor making for a total of 6 months for labor. This seems below average on the labor side as far as laptop brand support goes.
Sure, if something basic fails, shouldn't be a big deal to replace ourselves, but the labor costs may be expensive when that runs out in a very short 6 months if it's something more.
I'd love to see Walmart invest in this lineup so we see in the future dual channel and next gen Ryzen in this quality and form factor and so on. I don't want this to be a one off laptop line! The weight... the specs... the build quality... It's just such an exciting "hidden gem" we've found here.
Any thing special needed to swap the wifi chip? I've got the replacement one, but I've never swapped one out before. the NVMe and 16 GB memory were easy to add.
Just need to get a case so it can last longer. It survived a rough and tumble sea voyage, but I still have concerns about it long term survivability.
There is a piece of tape over the antenna wires when you first open the back of the case. Be careful to preserve the tape and put it back once you are done installing the new card.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
The warranty booklet I read mentions a 1 year hardware warranty, and only 90 days for labor.
What is everyone's thoughts or plans to hedge risk given that? I mean, I want this laptop to last awhile. Certainly, more than 90 days!
My card benefit will extend the warranty, but only mirrors the existing warranty. I'll only get an extra year of hardware and only an extra 90 days of labor making for a total of 6 months for labor. This seems below average on the labor side as far as laptop brand support goes.
Sure, if something basic fails, shouldn't be a big deal to replace ourselves, but the labor costs may be expensive when that runs out in a very short 6 months if it's something more.
I'd love to see Walmart invest in this lineup so we see in the future dual channel and next gen Ryzen in this quality and form factor and so on. I don't want this to be a one off laptop line! The weight... the specs... the build quality... It's just such an exciting "hidden gem" we've found here.
After taking this laptop apart, and upgrading various parts of it, It certainly appears to be very well put together. I wouldn't worry too much if you don't experience any real serious problems in the first 90 days, you will likely get a long service life out of it.
Tongfang makes a lot of well liked laptops and is growing a good reputation so far. Where they lack is end user support, as that is left up to the companies putting their name on the resulting product.
The warranty booklet I read mentions a 1 year hardware warranty, and only 90 days for labor.
What is everyone's thoughts or plans to hedge risk given that? I mean, I want this laptop to last awhile. Certainly, more than 90 days!
My card benefit will extend the warranty, but only mirrors the existing warranty. I'll only get an extra year of hardware and only an extra 90 days of labor making for a total of 6 months for labor. This seems below average on the labor side as far as laptop brand support goes.
Sure, if something basic fails, shouldn't be a big deal to replace ourselves, but the labor costs may be expensive when that runs out in a very short 6 months if it's something more.
I'd love to see Walmart invest in this lineup so we see in the future dual channel and next gen Ryzen in this quality and form factor and so on. I don't want this to be a one off laptop line! The weight... the specs... the build quality... It's just such an exciting "hidden gem" we've found here.
Walmart offers their own protection plan through SquareTrade - 2 years for $48 and 3 years for $69. It does seem to cover accidental damage, which makes the price a little more palatable...but you're probably better off not getting a plan, rolling the dice, and if there's an expensive non-covered repair in the future, to get a new laptop (and by then there will probably be a dual channel laptop, maybe with the next gen Ryzen). I'm personally still on the fence... i mean, if you add the $70 to the price of the laptop, $370 is still pretty cheap for this laptop with a 3 year warranty with accidental damage coverage.
To add the plan, go to https://www.walmart.com/protection and sign in.
I've gone thr three M142 now. They all seem to have some issues with hdmi. The first one keeps intermittently blanking out for no reason... even with just having the standard windows background only with no apps running.
second one did better but still having the same issues. just less frequent
third one i am on now seems to have issues only when i play a video on the 2nd screen connected via the hdmi using chrome. playing with firefox seems ok.
these things only seem to happen on the hdmi screen. the laptop screen itself never have anu blanking out problem. I am thinking this is somehow related to the vega igpu.
Was hoping more people would maybe check out and see if they have this issue but seems like no one else cares or really use their hdmi frequently.
After taking this laptop apart, and upgrading various parts of it, It certainly appears to be very well put together. I wouldn't worry too much if you don't experience any real serious problems in the first 90 days, you will likely get a long service life out of it.
Tongfang makes a lot of well liked laptops and is growing a good reputation so far. Where they lack is end user support, as that is left up to the companies putting their name on the resulting product.
Walmart offers their own protection plan through SquareTrade - 2 years for $48 and 3 years for $69. It does seem to cover accidental damage, which makes the price a little more palatable...but you're probably better off not getting a plan, rolling the dice, and if there's an expensive non-covered repair in the future, to get a new laptop (and by then there will probably be a dual channel laptop, maybe with the next gen Ryzen). I'm personally still on the fence... i mean, if you add the $70 to the price of the laptop, $370 is still pretty cheap for this laptop with a 3 year warranty with accidental damage coverage.
To add the plan, go to https://www.walmart.com/protection and sign in.
However, the laptop as you say is already very cheap, even with the added cost of buying a protection plan with the accidental (as you pointed out accidental might make it easier to justify), but I've always heard you shouldn't get them generally.
I probably wouldn't feel so tossed up if it wasn't feeling this risky with some of the issues I saw in the thread (granted, good news is they seem to show up very early so far... but who knows nobody has owned this long enough yet). I wouldn't even feel this way if I got 1 year labor and then my card extended into 2.
After this Motile, I can't go back to any other laptop. That's literally how I feel having used this now. I need this chassis/build quality going forward at this value. If they continue this lineup in dual channel + next gen Ryzen... wow I'm a Motile & Walmart customer for life. I still feel every time using this laptop, wow, this is too good to be true somehow... what's the catch?
I've gone thr three M142 now. They all seem to have some issues with hdmi. The first one keeps intermittently blanking out for no reason... even with just having the standard windows background only with no apps running.
second one did better but still having the same issues. just less frequent
third one i am on now seems to have issues only when i play a video on the 2nd screen connected via the hdmi using chrome. playing with firefox seems ok.
these things only seem to happen on the hdmi screen. the laptop screen itself never have anu blanking out problem. I am thinking this is somehow related to the vega igpu.
Was hoping more people would maybe check out and see if they have this issue but seems like no one else cares or really use their hdmi frequently.
I tested the HDMI on mine (I've got a checklist I made to test every component of the laptop to make sure every aspect is working), and HDMI had no issues. I haven't used it extensively yet, I simply played some YouTube videos on Chrome hooked up to the TV, and also some basic mirroring of desktop. Sound and video quality were smooth, and I've used the HDMI cable and TV before with no issues. How long does it take for your issue to show or how frequent does it occur so I can look for this issue?
firefox seems to do ok.
do you output to a 1080p or 4K tv? I outpput at 4K 60hz. thr the hdmi.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
However, the laptop as you say is already very cheap, even with the added cost of buying a protection plan with the accidental (as you pointed out accidental might make it easier to justify), but I've always heard you shouldn't get them generally.
I probably wouldn't feel so tossed up if it wasn't feeling this risky with some of the issues I saw in the thread (granted, good news is they seem to show up very early so far... but who knows nobody has owned this long enough yet). I wouldn't even feel this way if I got 1 year labor and then my card extended into 2.
After this Motile, I can't go back to any other laptop. That's literally how I feel having used this now. I need this chassis/build quality going forward at this value. If they continue this lineup in dual channel + next gen Ryzen... wow I'm a Motile & Walmart customer for life. I still feel every time using this laptop, wow, this is too good to be true somehow... what's the catch?
I'm still on the fence -- accidental damage coverage is a plus, and the odds of being able to find parts for this in the future are probably not great. For example, I'm not having much luck finding parts for Walmart's Overpowered brand on eBay, nor much under "Tong Fang", and I expect similar availability for Motile.
As an aside, some credit cards will also extend the warranty after a purchased extended warranty -- Amex seems to be one. So for example, if I get the 3 year plan, I'd have 3 years parts + labor through the Walmart protection plan, then Amex's extended warranty benefit will add duplicate the manufacturer's warranty (so another 90 days labor + 1 year parts), for total of 4 years of parts and 3 years and 3 months of labor.
firefox seems to do ok.
do you output to a 1080p or 4K tv? I outpput at 4K 60hz. thr the hdmi.
Leave a Comment
Your comment cannot be blank.
Share information with community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!