Recoil II - some niggles

M

microt

New member
I am pleased with my recent purchase of a Recoil II outfit (see spec below). But I have three minor problems which I would welcome comments about, please.

No 1 – concerns the comms board which does occasionally drop the internet connection. My workaround for this is as follows: Firstly, I have permanently disabled Bluetooth (which I don’t really need) and this has improved the drop-out rate; secondly, when the connection still freezes I click the internet-connection icon in the tray to disconnect the router and then connect it again.

No 2 – concerns the RGB back-lighting of the keyboard keys. I have a user-defined profile for the keyboard backlighting, but it is not entirely stable. Occasionally, some keys lose their illumination (often a complete row at a time), and this occurs on a random basis. My workaround for this is to fire-up Game Center and then click the brightness slider for the profile concerned. This instantly refreshes the lighting of all the keys and thus the profile is re-established.

Each of these workarounds takes only a few seconds, but I would welcome complete solutions to what are, in fact, bugs.

No 3 – again concerns the keyboard. I find that the keys are too close together and it is easy for me to depress two keys at the same time. The only possible workaround for this situation is me to slow down my typing and try to hit each key in its centre! Has anyone else experienced this problem?

My Recoil II system has the following spec:

Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 8750H (2.2GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo)
32GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2500MB/W)
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
1 x 150W AC Adaptor
Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3
GIGABIT LAN & Wireless INTEL AC-9560 M.2 (1.73 bps, 802.11AC)+ BLUETOOTH
5.0
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM

Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Microsoft® Edge
 
moosEh

moosEh

Administrator
Staff member
Moderator
microt said:
I am pleased with my recent purchase of a Recoil II outfit (see spec below). But I have three minor problems which I would welcome comments about, please.

No 1 – concerns the comms board which does occasionally drop the internet connection. My workaround for this is as follows: Firstly, I have permanently disabled Bluetooth (which I don’t really need) and this has improved the drop-out rate; secondly, when the connection still freezes I click the internet-connection icon in the tray to disconnect the router and then connect it again.

No 2 – concerns the RGB back-lighting of the keyboard keys. I have a user-defined profile for the keyboard backlighting, but it is not entirely stable. Occasionally, some keys lose their illumination (often a complete row at a time), and this occurs on a random basis. My workaround for this is to fire-up Game Center and then click the brightness slider for the profile concerned. This instantly refreshes the lighting of all the keys and thus the profile is re-established.

Each of these workarounds takes only a few seconds, but I would welcome complete solutions to what are, in fact, bugs.

No 3 – again concerns the keyboard. I find that the keys are too close together and it is easy for me to depress two keys at the same time. The only possible workaround for this situation is me to slow down my typing and try to hit each key in its centre! Has anyone else experienced this problem?

My Recoil II system has the following spec:

Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 60Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 8750H (2.2GHz, 4.1GHz Turbo)
32GB Corsair 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti - 4.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 2500MB/W)
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
1 x 150W AC Adaptor
Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 3
GIGABIT LAN & Wireless INTEL AC-9560 M.2 (1.73 bps, 802.11AC)+ BLUETOOTH
5.0
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM

Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Microsoft® Edge
Click to expand...

Heyo,

Sorry to hear about your issues.

1. By the comms board I guess you are referring to the wifi card and not the Ethernet + I/o Board?

2. Have you tried completely re-installing the control centre for your Fn keys and back light? If you have then I will raise this internally and see if we have had any more instances of this.

3. Not a great deal I can do to assist with this one :( I am afraid, although its not been raised as a problem (as far as I am aware).
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
microt said:
No 1 – concerns the comms board which does occasionally drop the internet connection. My workaround for this is as follows: Firstly, I have permanently disabled Bluetooth (which I don’t really need) and this has improved the drop-out rate; secondly, when the connection still freezes I click the internet-connection icon in the tray to disconnect the router and then connect it again.
Click to expand...

The classic cause of this issue, and the first thing to check, is that the 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' item in not checked. You'll find it on the Power Management tab of the Properties dialog of your wifi card in Device Manager.

No 2 – concerns the RGB back-lighting of the keyboard keys. I have a user-defined profile for the keyboard backlighting, but it is not entirely stable. Occasionally, some keys lose their illumination (often a complete row at a time), and this occurs on a random basis. My workaround for this is to fire-up Game Center and then click the brightness slider for the profile concerned. This instantly refreshes the lighting of all the keys and thus the profile is re-established.

Each of these workarounds takes only a few seconds, but I would welcome complete solutions to what are, in fact, bugs.
Click to expand...

Have you checked that your 'control centre' drivers are up to date? I don't know what chassis the Recoil uses but if it's a Clevo chassis there will be a Control Centre driver that handles all that kind of stuff. Other manufacturers almost certainly have something similar.

No 3 – again concerns the keyboard. I find that the keys are too close together and it is easy for me to depress two keys at the same time. The only possible workaround for this situation is me to slow down my typing and try to hit each key in its centre! Has anyone else experienced this problem?
Click to expand...

That's unfortunate. It's useful information for others considering a Recoil though. Hopefully your 'muscle memory' will eventually get used to the keys location, I've found from experience that we're pretty good as as species at learning exactly where our fingers are and where they should be. :)
 
T

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
In terms of the keys, I feel for you - I swap between about a half a dozen different keyboards almost daily and some are far easier to get used to than others, but occasionally they are really quite difficult to adopt to quickly.

All I can say is that you will in all likelihood get used to the layout. Until then, it will likely be quite frustrating, for sure, but given it's a physical device, beyond using an external USB keyboard there's nothing anyone else can really do to help.
 
M

microt

New member
Many thanks for the very helpful comments.

I have now unchecked 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'. I will re-install the 'Game Center' driver when I have a) identified the manufacturer, and b) found a source for the driver. Since these are intermittent faults it may be a while before I notice any differences.


Incidentally, my experience of the Recoil II keys and their backlighting is borne out by the following review which I have just stumbled across:
https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/laptops/pc-specialist-recoil-ii-review/1/
 
Last edited:
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Is the Game Centre not available in the downloads section of your account on the main PCS website?

I believe the chassis is a Tongfang GK5CN6Z (5Z for the 1050 ti variant iirc)
 
K

K4k

Member
hello,

how long does the battery last for you?
i received my Recioil II 3 days ago but i'm disappointed with the battery since it lasts barely one hour and half with battery saver mode on, low brightness, low keyboard backlight and using it only for reading and surfing the web.
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
K

K4k

Member
Oussebon said:
YMMV but 90 mins seems a little lower than you'd expect, even for a thin-ish gaming laptop:
https://bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/laptops/pc-specialist-recoil-ii-review/4/
https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/m...-recoil-ii-i7-8750h-gtx-1060-laptop-review/3/

Have you checked CPU and GPU frequencies to see if they're appropriately downclocked?

I've seen Nvidia driver issues in the past where the GPU didn't downclock itself properly and this upped power consumption and thermals.
Click to expand...

How can i check if GPU and CPU are downcloacked?

i attached below the cpu frequency
 

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Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Don't trust task manager for CPU frequencies, it has a tendency to get it not quite right.

Check with something like HWinfo.

Or GPU-Z for just the GPU
 
K

K4k

Member
Oussebon said:
Don't trust task manager for CPU frequencies, it has a tendency to get it not quite right.

Check with something like HWinfo.

Or GPU-Z for just the GPU
Click to expand...

here are the results
 

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ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
K4k said:
hello,

how long does the battery last for you?
i received my Recioil II 3 days ago but i'm disappointed with the battery since it lasts barely one hour and half with battery saver mode on, low brightness, low keyboard backlight and using it only for reading and surfing the web.
Click to expand...

In your position I would phone PCS and discuss this with them. That sounds to me as though you might have a battery issue, 1.5 hours doesn't sound good to me for any laptop.
 
T

Tony1044

Prolific Poster
ubuysa said:
In your position I would phone PCS and discuss this with them. That sounds to me as though you might have a battery issue, 1.5 hours doesn't sound good to me for any laptop.
Click to expand...

I have to agree there - I get that out of my old Defiance II when gaming - so that'd be driving things quite hard AND it's about 3 1/2 years old now...

Contrast that to my company Lenovo - on a balanced power plan, I can actually get a full 7 hours of use out of it! That is actual use as well - writing docs, spreadsheets etc.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
If you download speccy and HWMonitor, one of them has a battery meter that will tell you the wear of the battery, may be worth checking that to see if it's a dud
 
K

K4k

Member
ubuysa said:
In your position I would phone PCS and discuss this with them. That sounds to me as though you might have a battery issue, 1.5 hours doesn't sound good to me for any laptop.
Click to expand...

I phoned PCS(Italy) and they said that 1 hour and half is normal for the recoil ii and that during gaming the battery lasts 40 minutes.
I read on PCS website that the typical battery life is up to 4 hours and also online other people did tests that show that the average battery life of the recoil ii during light works is about 3 hours and during gaming is about 1 hour and half
what do i have to do now?
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Check the Sensors tab of GPU-Z and HWinfo (HWinfo might call it something different) but those pages you screenshotted only give the basic specs, not the current speeds I think.

I'm by no means 100% sure this is the issue, it is just the first things I would check - i.e. whether the GPU and CPU are running at higher frequencies than they have to at idle and therefore eating more battery.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
K4k said:
I phoned PCS(Italy) and they said that 1 hour and half is normal for the recoil ii and that during gaming the battery lasts 40 minutes.
I read on PCS website that the typical battery life is up to 4 hours and also online other people did tests that show that the average battery life of the recoil ii during light works is about 3 hours and during gaming is about 1 hour and half
what do i have to do now?
Click to expand...

I would say that's nonsense, I would send an email and point to other threads in the forum. That's just inaccurate information.
 
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