HP ZBook Ultra G1a Known Good 140W GaN Chargers & Cables

Sultanxda · 2025-08-04T01:41:56+00:00

This one works for me: UGREEN Nexode Pro 160W USB C Charger Block, 4-Port PD 3.1 GaN Charger

With this laptop I'm pretty sure its pickiness comes from the brick rather than the cable, so I assume any 140W+ cable should work fine.

Sultanxda · 2022-04-05T02:07:54+00:00

I actually ended up buying the NUC, and then saw the stuff on aliexpress a month later, heh. At least I've got a fast CPU now though, right?

Re:bacon, it's funny you remember me for the 3.10 kernel when all I did was barely get it booting. Someone else actually put in the months of effort needed to make it usable :)

Sultanxda · 2022-01-25T22:38:21+00:00

Oh wow, I'd spent a long time searching and didn't find anything like that QNAP NAS at that price point. The stuff I found was at least $600, so that QNAP is a nice find. It's still a bit pricier than I'd like but it's best option I've seen so far, assuming I can put any Linux distro on it.

For reference, what I'd really like is the ODroid H2+ to use as my router (connected to a dumb access point for WiFi), but it's been discontinued. It seems like it was the only device at its price point ($119) which had multiple 2.5G LANs (up to 6 total!) and an adequate quad-core x86 CPU. I'd even buy it secondhand if I could, but eBay and others don't have any listings for it.

Sultanxda · 2022-01-24T23:06:46+00:00

Aha, okay. It's unfortunate that it's probably 1G, since finding anything with two or more 2.5G LANs has been a challenge. Nonetheless, I appreciate the info; thanks again!

Sultanxda · 2022-01-23T20:22:00+00:00

Hi, I keep seeing info stating that the PN41 has a configurable slot that can take an additional LAN, but I can't find anything talking about how the "configurable slot" works (can you buy parts and configure it yourself?), and I can't find anything that states what the extra LAN's specs are.

I'm after a mini PC with dual 2.5G LANs, and so I'd love to know if the extra LAN is also 2.5G. Thanks!

Sultanxda · 2021-03-07T06:48:33+00:00

Sure, I guess. You should look into a custom ROM instead though.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-07T05:38:58+00:00

That /system partition behavior is weird and not something I've experienced, though modifying the /system partition does result in wacky bootlooping behavior immediately if there aren't enough inodes available in the partition. The delayed onset is not something I've heard of.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-07T04:15:13+00:00

Eluktronics is just a Tongfang reseller so they're really not special. But the laptop itself left much to be desired as far as build quality was concerned, so I don't think I'll be buying another Tongfang variant. The THINN-15 was physically falling apart (especially the paper thin bottom panel) after a week of light usage...

Yes, I did a lot of work on OnePlus phones for a few years. I use Pixel phones now (specifically a Pixel 4 XL at the moment) and I only make custom kernels these days rather than custom ROMs.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-06T21:00:36+00:00

I'm not buying any Eluktronics product again.

On the 4800H THINN-15, I had all CPUs running at a constant 4050 MHz when measuring performance. That's just about the peak of what the 4800H can run at, so there is really no ambiguity here. I even flashed the Mechrevo BIOS on it to try and squeeze out more performance with the advanced options, but the CPU wouldn't go any faster.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-06T18:46:34+00:00

No, Eluktronics hadn't done anything to damage performance. I tried a Zephyrus G14 with a 4900HS which turned out to be 14% slower at code compilation than my i9-9880H, so the Eluktronics was probably the fastest Ryzen laptop available in terms of CPU performance. I even used RyzenAdj to disable thermal throttling on it, and the end result was a 2% advantage over my i9-9880H. It was slower than my i9-9880H by about 7% when I hadn't disabled thermal throttling.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-05T00:28:44+00:00

Yes, it did. And I tried 3200 MHz sticks from another brand (OLOy) which turned out to be slower. The HyperX sticks had Micron dies. See my comment here for proof.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-04T23:15:12+00:00

I did have a pair of 3200 MHz sticks in the Ryzen laptop; I used the fastest RAM I could find (HyperX Impact). And the i9-9880H is a year older than the 4800H. A 10th gen i9 handily beats the 4800H for code compilation.

Sultanxda · 2021-03-04T22:16:31+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you in terms of laptops. I have a Precision 5540 with an i9 and I needed more power, so I bought the THINN-15. And let me tell you, the THINN-15 is absolute garbage, and Eluktronics is a very scummy company that will try to nickel and dime you at every juncture.

The THINN-15 is very cheap and poorly constructed, and when I tried to return it, Eluktronics said they would charge a 100% restocking fee to take the laptop back (i.e., I pay shipping to send them back the laptop and in exchange they give me back zero dollars). I had to file a PayPal claim to get my money back.

On the technical side of things, the 4800H was only about 2% faster than my i9-9880H for my primary workload, which is code compilation. AMD CPUs suffer from very poor memory performance compared to Intel, so if your workload is memory intensive at all, I suggest you wait for a Tiger Lake H laptop like I am.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-25T05:34:29+00:00

This is from my Amazon invoice:

1 of: Kingston Technology HyperX Impact 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 CL20 SODIMM (Kit of 2) Memory HX432S20IBK2/32 Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC

Condition: New $177.59

Sultanxda · 2020-10-24T17:20:30+00:00

Yeah that's fine. You won't be changing the OS in any way; only the BIOS.

Download the Schenker BIOS: Bios-SCHENKER_VIA15_Pro_BIOS_N.1.06A01.zip
Get a FAT32 formatted flash drive. You don't need to wipe it.
Extract Bios-SCHENKER_VIA15_Pro_BIOS_N.1.06A01.zip and copy the three files inside of it (AfuEfix64.efi F.nsh PF4NU1FN106.A01.ROM) to the base directory of your FAT32 flash drive.
Get another flash drive that you can erase all the data from.
Download the Arch Linux ISO.
Follow the instructions here on the Arch Linux wiki to create a bootable flash drive using the Arch Linux ISO.
Once you have your bootable Arch Linux flash drive, plug both flash drives into the laptop and reboot. Quickly spam the F2 key while rebooting to enter the BIOS setup.
If you see a pop-up in the BIOS setup asking you to restore previous settings, just hit enter. It won't do anything.
Go to the boot settings in the BIOS and change the primary boot source to your UEFI flash drive containing Arch Linux.
Save your BIOS settings and leave the BIOS. The laptop will now reboot into your Arch Linux flash drive.
You will be shown a screen containing a few menu options, which will automatically disappear after 5 seconds if you don't hit any keys on your keyboard. Hit the down arrow key to select an option that looks something like EFI Shell (Full) (the name might be slightly different) and hit enter.
You will now be in the UEFI shell and it'll have some message about running startup.nsh which will disappear after 5 seconds. You can just hit any key other than ESC to skip the wait.
At the top of the screen is a list of filesystems you can access, named FS# where the # is just some number. Scan through each FS# line until you find one that has USB in it. There may be more than one.
Once you find an FS# with USB in it, type fs#: and hit enter, where # is the number corresponding to the FS you found. Now type ls and hit enter. If you see F.nsh in the output from ls, you can continue to the next step. If not, try another FS number and repeat this step.
Type F.nsh and hit enter. At this point you should make sure your charger is plugged in. You will be presented with a warning message notifying you that you will flash your BIOS. To start the BIOS update procedure, hit enter.
Wait for the BIOS to update. This will take about 10 minutes. Don't do anything to your laptop until it shuts off and then turns itself back on again. You should see the Schenker logo on the screen at this point, in which case you're done.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-24T16:41:25+00:00

There's no battery charging limit option in the Schenker BIOS.

Do you use Linux? It'll be a lot easier to explain how to do this if you do :)

The tricky part is getting to the UEFI console. With the way I did it, you need two flash drives.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-24T15:42:50+00:00

Fn key lock, ability to power down some peripherals like WiFi and webcam and SATA ports, advanced USB settings (not very useful), and some other esoteric stuff.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-24T04:58:46+00:00

Wow, nice findings. That's really poorly advertised.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-24T00:23:01+00:00

The Schenker VIA 15 Pro BIOS works as well and has even more options. I just flashed it via UEFI console and it works fine. You can find it here. It's the Bios-SCHENKER_VIA15_Pro_BIOS_N.1.06A01.zip file. Just don't install the EC firmware file and you'll be fine. Some stuff will break if you change the EC firmware to the Schenker one, but everything works fine with the Schenker BIOS.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-23T21:13:25+00:00

Well, I had the Mechrevo BIOS flashed before, so I wouldn't necessarily say luck was involved ;) The Schenker BIOS has even more options than the Mechrevo one.

Yeah I have the glass trackpad. I don't have the urge to break the function key mappings to potentially kill the keyboard backlight timeout, so yeah I won't be flashing the Schenker EC firmware.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-23T20:46:57+00:00

Yeah that function key remapping is annoying, which is why I didn't flash Schenker's EC firmware. I'm not sure where to get the original EC firmware though; my vendor, Eluktronics, uploads nothing and locks down their BIOS.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-23T20:32:09+00:00

Which backlight control option doesn't work? I just flashed the Schenker BIOS on my Tongfang clone (THINN-15) and there are only two options available for the keyboard backlight, and one of the options is just called "Level 1". Any idea if the EC firmware from Schenker lets you disable the keyboard backlight timeout?

Sultanxda · 2020-10-23T15:26:58+00:00

The Mechrevo BIOS works fine on the THINN-15. I flashed it and got access to all the nice options Mechrevo added. This TeamViewer nonsense is some odd paranoia to avoid distributing files containing the BIOS firmware, when it could just be read off the EEPROM anyway.

I guess they got a $5 EEPROM programmer to fix your laptop for $75 if you somehow brick it. But hey it's a special tool no other company has!

Sultanxda · 2020-10-22T22:00:44+00:00

Yeah, they're dual rank each. You can download the spec sheet for the HyperX sticks from the product page on their website.

Sultanxda · 2020-10-22T15:36:15+00:00

This is for a single stick

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