Ionico Laptop - Slow to reach full sleep mode, then fails to sleep at all

[danellisuk]

I've noticed a general problem with my Ionico laptop (AMD variant running Windows 10) where it often fails to get in to a proper sleep mode (where the power LED is glowing slowly). I have been testing extensively to try determine a pattern, so here I will document the results in full. System specs are at the end.

TL;DL

Windows 10 - Suspend takes up to 2 minutes to occur. Stops working after 3 or 4 sleeps, then needs a reboot to fix.
Windows 11 - Suspend takes up to 2 minutes to occur, but does not seem to break after multiple sleeps as with Windows 10.
Ubuntu 22.04.1 - Suspend works reliably and quickly. Full sleep reached within 5 seconds.

Full testing details
These tests are with fresh operating system installations on a new NVME drive (same Samsung 970 EVO Plus, but a 2TB drive, rather than the 1TB it came with). I have been testing with a power meter which measures the power draw from the plug. All tests here are with the battery at 100% state of charge. Here are the different power draws that I typically see:

Scenario	Power Draw (Watts)
Off, plugged in	1.1
Sleep (with the LED slowly flashing)	2.3
Fail to reach proper sleep (LED stays on)	9
Running, screen on, CPU not in use	17
Running, CPU busy	> 50

Windows 10 (latest)
Fresh install, Windows Updates - all drivers installed direct from PCSpecialist site

Power use when sleep button pressed	Power use at end of test	Time taken to reach full sleep (min.sec)	How long waited before giving up (mins)
17	2.3	1.30
17	2.3	2.00
17	2.3	1.10
17	9	Failed	27
17	9	Failed	86
17	9	Failed	12
17	9	Failed	15
17	9	Failed	10
Rebooted
17	2.3	1.20
17	2.3	1.40
17	2.3	1.14
17	2.3	1.26
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
Rebooted
17	2.3	1.10
17	2.3	1.10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10
17	9	Failed	10

Win 10 summary - As we can see from the above tests, although sleep is slow to reach, it works a few times, then once it fails, it continues to fail until the laptop is rebooted.

Windows 11 - no additional drivers
Fresh install, Windows Updates - no additional drivers

I did 3 sleep tests, each time it did not go to full sleep, I waited 6 minutes each time.

So next I installed all the drivers from the PCSpecialist website.

Windows 11 - with drivers from PCSpecialist

Power when sleep button pressed	Power use when sleep reached (watts)	Time to reach full sleep (min.sec)
16	2.3	2.00
16	2.3	1.34
16	2.3	1.40
16	2.3	1.15
16	2.3	1.16
16	2.3	1.30
16	2.3	1.20
16	2.3	1.32
16	2.3	1.35
16	2.3	1.35

Win 11 summary - Although slow to reach sleep, it does at least reach sleep consistently, and doesn't appear to fail after a few sleeps as it does with Windows 10.

Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
I've not used Ubuntu Linux in a number of years, but I was interested to know how it handled sleep, so gave it a try:

Power when sleep button pressed	Power use when sleep reached (watts)	Time to reach full sleep (seconds)
16	1.7	6
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4
16	1.7	4

Ubuntu summary - WOW, really quick to reach full sleep, typically just 4 seconds, and it even uses slightly less power than Windows in full sleep.

System Specs

Chassis & Display
Ionico Series: 15.6" Matte QHD 165Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1440)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen™ 9 Eight Core Processor 5900HX (3.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2933MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Ionico Series Integrated 62WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language
IONICO SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

If windows isn’t properly configured then sleep won’t work.

Installing all drivers from PCS downloads will be out of date. Installing no drivers is also not configured.

At a guess it’s because windows isn’t configured.

Also I believe you need an updated version of control center for windows 11 as the windows 10 version is incompatible.

Did you order with or without windows?

 

[danellisuk]

Thanks Spyder. This laptop came with Windows 10 installed, but without a license, as I have my own retail license.

Information is very difficult to obtain for this laptop. I have previously raised a support request with PCS, but they have not been able to provide any newer drivers or bios updates, or even point me to any official documentation for the laptop or motherboard.

As for the Control Center, for the fresh Windows 11 install, I installed the Control Center from the Windows 11 section on the PCSpecialist site. That was version 3.1.39.0.

 

[Bhuna50]

When you say you have your own retail license for Win10, did you just try activating the preinstalled windows, or did you do a complete CLEAN install?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Thanks Spyder. This laptop came with Windows 10 installed, but without a license, as I have my own retail license.

Information is very difficult to obtain for this laptop. I have previously raised a support request with PCS, but they have not been able to provide any newer drivers or bios updates, or even point me to any official documentation for the laptop or motherboard.

As for the Control Center, for the fresh Windows 11 install, I installed the Control Center from the Windows 11 section on the PCSpecialist site. That was version 3.1.39.0.

As @Bhuna50 suggests, I’m guessing you just activated the test windows which means windows won’t be configured.

You need to do a clean install. The process is the same for any laptop, it’s related to configuring drivers in windows which is the same for any chassis.

 

[danellisuk]

The problem occurs on the pre-installed installation, which I activated using my Windows 10 Pro license. I have confirmed this was the original installation because the date of the Drivers folder of the C: drive is the date the laptop was tested at PCS.

I have since tested with the various clean installations on a separate new NVME drive. As stated in the first message, I have installed clean installations of Windows 10, Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04. For the Windows installations I first tested the behaviour without any additional drivers installed, and then with the drivers available from PCS.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

The problem occurs on the pre-installed installation, which I activated using my Windows 10 Pro license. I have confirmed this was the original installation because the date of the Drivers folder of the C: drive is the date the laptop was tested at PCS.

Yes, as said, that’s a test environment, not suitable for use. It’s a very basic install just so they can test components, but it’s not configured for actual usage.

 

[danellisuk]

Yes, as said, that’s a test environment, not suitable for use. It’s a very basic install just so they can test components, but it’s not configured for actual usage.

Hi Spyder, I understand, and this is why I have installed fresh installations of Windows 10, Windows 11 and Ubuntu, as I described at the start.

You have stated that in addition to drivers, the system needs to be "configured". As far as I am aware we should only need to install the drivers for the laptop. So far PCS support have not advised on any required configuration and there is no documentation for this either.

If you could advise as to what configuration might be required, that would be very useful and greatly appreciated.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

As far as I am aware we should only need to install the drivers for the laptop. So far PCS support have not advised on any required configuration and there is no documentation for this either.

This is nothing to do with PCS, it's basic windows installation. If you're ordering without windows, then it's understood that you know how to install and configure windows yourself.

Part of the cost of ordering the windows license is also continuing software support by PCS, if you order without, then you don't get any software support.