MEDION Major X20 not usable for gaming anymore because of freezes

[Toea]

Dear Medion community,

I am the (formerly happy) owner of a MEDION Major X20, but since few months, I got a lot of freezes when I am playing video games that makes my gaming experience awful. I firth thought it was a network issue because I was then only playing an online game (Heroes of the Storm), but I discovered that 1) the problem was not existing on other (and older) computers, and 2) the problem was also present with offline game (Baldurs Gate 3). I also tried to find a nasty process that could create this, even if HotS could probably run smoothly on a smart fridge and thus should run even with a tiny fraction of the ressources of this laptop. I updated all the drivers I could, stopped everything to be launched at started, but my gaming experience is still way better on my 10 years old laptop. I downloaded the drv_Major_X20_w11.zip file available on the Medion website but was not able to use any of what is provided here.

I have noticed that the freezes are correlated with huge synchronized drops in both the processor and graphic card performances, like if my computer had regular unexplained brain freezes...

Here is my config according to the Intel website (in French, but I think it is obvious):

MEDION Major X20

BIOS:

  Version: N.1.07MED02

  Date: 20/02/2023

Cartes mères:

  Fabricant: MEDION

  Modèle: GM6PXxX

  Version: 1.0

Système d'exploitation:

  Édition: Microsoft Windows 11 Famille (64 bits)

  Version (« Build»): 23H2 (10.0.22631)

What the hell can I do? Do I need to send it to the Medion customers services? (it is sill under warranty)? Or there is something I can do myself?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Major_ToM · Accepted solution]

Hi @Toea ,

we had a similar discussion in our german forum, where we linked to the current version BIOS 1.09MED06 .
Moreover user valleron2009 posted an excellent flash guide here

Hope that helps.

Major ToM

[Toea]

Thank you very much! I will read that and let you know if it solved my problems.

[Toea]

It worked! But it was not easy... Clearly not a work that you are supposed to do as a lambda laptop user. Some feedback if it can help some dummy users like me:

• For the BIOS update, you have to go into one of the four /BIOS/FlashUtil/Afu* subdirs and run the exec file named something like GMxPX7xN109MED06.EXE. How to decide which of the four subdirs to use? No idea, I choose the win one without the _CAP at the end because Windows is my OS and I don't know what this _CAP is for... if someone can tell us, it could help futur users having the same problem.

• For the EC update, you have to follow Valleron's guide to the letter. I used this EFI shell and followed the instructions we can find on the page (mainly put the file in /efi/boot/ on the USB stick near the /BIOS and /EC dirs and rename it as explained). I was not able to chose my boot device using F7, so I went into the BIOS settings (F2) and changed the boot order in the boot section. To be able to do something when the EFI shell is available after booting on the USB stick, you need to switch to a file system. For me it was fs0 (the first item of the list provided on screen before the shell or returned by the map -r command), so I typed FS0: and was then able to navigate using ls and cd commands until I reached the F.nsh file that I ran (by just typing its name).

To get access back to your Windows partition, you will have to enter your Bitlocker key that you can find on your Microsoft account. I think that you can also save this key before starting the update process by saving it on a USB key or even printing it from your Windows settings, there is some tutorial on line. If you don't know what is your Microsoft account credentials (eg. because you did not install windows yourself or you don't remember what you did), I think doing that before starting the whole update process is a good idea, this key cannot be recovered elsewhere and at this stage, you have no access to your Windows anymore to check what mail address you use to create your Microsoft account. Yes, this is help for dummies like me 😄

Now, I can play Heroes of the Storm without any freeze and can only blame myself for my defeats!

[Paimjoo]

Hello,

i recently bought the same laptop  and have exactly the same problem.

my system information says the following: BIOS VERSION/-DATE: American Megatrends International, LLC. N.1.09MED06, 09/26/2023

Is there already an update or another solution to solve the problem? unfortunately I have not been able to find anything that has helped so far.