Question LG Gram 13Z990-A.AAS5U1 BIOS Settings Explanation

[rumplestilts]

I wrote "BIOS" but, as the Gram is fairly new, should I have written "EFI"? Whatever, here's my question:

I can get into the BIOS (F2 after power on) and there's even Ctrl-Alt-F7 (once I'm into the BIOS) in order to bring up a fairly complex set of options. The trouble is that most of what I see is way geekier than I am. I have been a Mac user for years and only recently switched over full-time to Windows. I can't point out any specific setting I want to change but I'd love to know what all the choices mean.

I did find the "power through USB port" settings which I enabled and now can successfully charge up my cellphone even with the Gram in hibernate or power-down mode with the Gram plugged into power. That was the immediate need (now accomplished) but all the rest of the choices make me wonder what else the unit is capable of doing (better performance? longer battery life? etc.)

I can't find a relevant document at the support page for my Gram, just the user manual which provides 20 pages on setting password security (none of which I care to do). Perhaps there's a generic document covering my motherboard? (Grasping at straws here.)

Thanks very much in advance.

Barry

 

[jojesa]

There isn't that much you could accomplished on a off the shelf laptop BIOS...they're very simple with just few entries..
You could enable legacy support if using an older OS.
On the Main tab most of the entries are not even editable.
On the Boot tab you could change Boot options (SATA, NVMe, USB, LAN, etc.) or boot priority.
But I have not seen any entry that will allow you to save power and have the ability to charge devices.

 

[rumplestilts]

I took a couple of photos and have linked them to this post. I enabled the "verbose" mode (my word, may "expert" mode would be better) which displays many more choices. There are maybe 50+ more options that may be altered but most of them are referring to stuff that's way above my current pay grade. I'd love to have a better understanding of what they are supposed to do but don't know where to turn. Perhaps there's a book about this from Intel or whoever makes the UEFI chip for LG.

One of the photos shows how I've enabled charging for the USB port. I presume that's for when the machine is off but plugged into power. I'll confirm this in another post.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPL_FnSM9HZ8cCQ3zWt2E8MDVjLm-6HiTuPy3z_
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPFzppIoYq_H1MpELJY6HDmmhe9w3zWCsn9T3wE

 

[jojesa]

Those links can only be seen by you when sign in into your Google account.
You might want share them using a service like imgur.
Most laptops (PCs in general) come with either American Megatrends (AMI), Phoenix or Award BIOS.
Laptop manufacturers might decide which features to include in the BIOS and which features could be changed by the end user. This is to avoid users from messing up (bricking) their devices.
The LG Gram appears to have an AMI BIOS, which are very easy to use and straight forward.
Other BIOS companies are not as forthcoming and will no provide any documentation of their BIOS unless you are a system builder/enterprise client.
You could just check the document library at AMI website. There are features that might be or might not be available
AMI UEFI BIOS intro
PC UEFI BIOS documentation
Beep and LED codes could also be available to troubleshoot issues after end users might mess up something.
AMI BIOS beep codes.


If you want to know more about other features not available on your UEFI laptop BIOS, I would recommend building a PC with a full feature motherboard...where most features will be available to play with.

 

[rumplestilts]

Hope these links are better. Sorry for the earlier deadends.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8VQgd2dUepsUZvgv7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hdEpxDQ9th3CAXSR9

I'll check with AMI for some documentation. I plan to build a desktop in the new year.

Thanks.

 

[jojesa]

That's is not an AMI BIOS.
Your laptop has a Phoenix (ELTAN) SecureCore BIOS.

 

[rumplestilts]

Thank you for that info. This will take a lot of reading for me to get a good understanding of all the choices (not that I actually need to modify much of it). That's what retirement is for, eh?

 

[rumplestilts]

I did enable the USB charging:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hdEpxDQ9th3CAXSR9
but it didn't actually stick. Turns out LG provides a GUI app (LG Control Center) and the configuration there seems to take precedence. As the USB charging was turned off there, it switched off the setting in the Phoenix setup. When I enabled it in the app, it seems to have stuck; but this is apparently only for the USBC port.

When I've set the Device Manager prefs for the USB3 and USB2 ports (don't power off, etc.), the power to those ports gets turned off after maybe an hour of computer sleep. I do not have hibernation enabled.

This actually isn't a big deal; I had forgotten my phone charger at home when we went away for a week and only brought my USBA-USBC cable. It's okay as I can plan for the recharging during the day.