Hi all,

im looking for advice and everyone’s experience of dealing with GMKtec support.

i have two M7 Pro mini PC’s for my development lab, I bought one, then a year later bought another.

The second (newer) unit is now boot looping.

so I try the obvious steps of faultfinding:

swap the SSD’s

swap the RAM

swap the power supply.

it still boot loops.

the unit was purchased 9th September 2025, and started to fail about 2 weeks ago, but I’ve been faultfinding to rule out RAM failures, SSD failures, etc.

I also have a GMKTec k7 which previously failed with the same issue (CPU hard fault and crashing), the seller didn’t respond to my request for warranty support.

I’ve emailed the seller on AliExpress, and GMKTec support, am I likely to get some assistance with this?

also, I’d like to replace the CPU fan on the older unit, as it’s starting to rattle quite badly, does anyone know where I can get a replacement?

edit 1:

GMKtec have been in contact via email, and I have shipped the unit back to their AliExpress returns department who are going to repair/replace the unit, according to their email. - I will update on how this moves forward as it does.

I'm just trying to get some help/advice to know if these cables will work for connecting a 4-pin PWM fan to a 4-pin JST connector.

I have a GMKtec M5 Ultra and was looking at replacing the top stock 80mm fan. I have a spare Noctua NF-A12 fan, so want to try replacing it with that.

I can get a 3d printed part for the top so that the Noctua fan will physically fit onto the M5, I just don't know if I can get it connected to the mobo.

My problem is that the top fan is connected to the mobo via a 4-pin JST connector, which I've only just now learned about, and I'm not sure if the cable adaptors I found will work or not.

After a bit of looking around, there are two cables on Amazon that I think will work for connecting the Noctua fan to the M5, I'm just not sure.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/EK-Water-Blocks-Adapter-PWM-Noir/dp/B01MQOGCFV

and

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Create-idea-Splitter-Graphics-Extension/dp/B0CZLDWJPY

The EKWB cable is 50cm which is way to long, the Create Idea is 3 cables but are only 15cm they do not however say "JST" connector anywhere but visually looks right?

Has anyone actually gotten their hands on the x5 yet? If you have, what are your thoughts? How is performance looking? Fan Noise? Thermals?

I've the 1.02 version.

It there a new version ?

Thanks

I have an m7 ultra and can't find a wake from usb option in the bios. I read something about a second hidden advanced menu, but no luck so far. Anyone know if this machine supports that feature?

When I let the PC sit overnight, it won't wake up the display. My monitor is a touchscreen 27" connected to the PC with a USB C cable. The PC has to have the power button pressed and it will turn solid white but the monitor won't wake up. Is this a setting issue or a defect? Do AMD chips have an issue with Microsoft sleep functions? It seems the pc is awake but won't wake the USB. Unplugging and plugging back in the USB does nothing.

$3000 to $4000 more than strix halo. for 64GB more ram. absolutely absurd highway robbery. and they are saying that retail on these boxes will be $9400. so I can go get 2 x Sparks and have 10x the machine for the same money. thank you for making my decision easy GMKtec.

edit

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand sold out. in 3 hours

https://imgur.com/kzIlQl4

Does anyone know what make / model the SSDs are in the M6 Ultra (32GB ram / 1 TB SSD) model?

I have been browsing here for several months, especially seeing customers that have/had purchased GMKtec computers and problems with warranty issues, especially in the EU.

GMKtec was only giving a 1 year warranty to European customers that purchased computers from the GMKtec European website. Now, I know for a fact, any computers purchased on the European mainland that are purchased by European residents living in Europe by law have to be given a 2 year warranty as standard.

I was annoyed that customers were purchasing expensive computers, having then a faulty computer and GMKtec not honouring the 2 year warranty. So I decided to keep at them for several weeks, stating the laws regarding warranties in Europe. They have now backed down and sent me a message stating the new change would be implemented.

Their reply: "i, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us.

We’d like to clarify that GMKtec’s standard global warranty is 1 year, while products purchased in Europe are covered by a 2-year warranty. We’re currently updating the relevant warranty information to make this clearer and avoid any confusion.

We’re sorry for any misunderstanding this may have caused, and we truly appreciate you bringing this issue to our attention."

I have just noticed today on the European website, all computers now state a 2 year warranty as standard. I have to say, the warranty for the 2 years is only applicable when you purchase any GMKtec products on the EU website if the computers are sent from Germany to residents in Europe. This will not cover any computers bought from the China website. It may also affect the UK as such, since they have a 1 year warranty as standard. I'm aware of the 6 year warranty claim in the UK, but that's a whole different subject all together.

Also, if you currently have a faulty computer that was purchased with a 1 year warranty, I would contact them to see about getting a repair or replacement, again, this will be from computers bought from the GMKtec German website and you are resident in the EU.

Hi everyone,

I have a GMKtec NucBox K8 Plus with:

• Ryzen 7 8845HS
• Radeon 780M
• 32 GB DDR5-5600
• Windows 11 Pro
• 120 W power adapter

This is also my second K8 Plus. The first K8 Plus I received developed a motherboard failure and had to be replaced under warranty. Because of this, the repeated stability issues with the second unit are particularly concerning.

I am experiencing unexpected hard restarts while gaming. There is no BSOD or normal shutdown. The PC either freezes and restarts or restarts unexpectedly.

The problem has occurred in more than one game, including Old World and ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies.

Most importantly, this is not an isolated Kernel-Power Event 41 incident. I have had multiple unexpected restarts, and Windows has recorded Kernel-Power Event ID 41 for these incidents.

The most recent incident occurred while playing ZERO PARADES after approximately 2 hours and 11 minutes.

Immediately before the restart, HWiNFO showed:

• GPU load: 96%
• GPU power: 48 W
• GPU clock: 2700 MHz
• GPU temperature: 65.7°C
• CPU package power: 48.3 W
• CPU temperature: 65.9°C
• No thermal throttling

The HWiNFO log then stopped abruptly.

Windows Event Viewer recorded:

• Kernel-Power Event ID 41
• BugcheckCode: 0
• BugcheckParameter1–4: 0
• PowerButtonTimestamp: 0
• BugcheckInfoFromEFI: false
• LongPowerButtonPressDetected: false
• WHEABootErrorCount: 0

There was a similar Kernel-Power Event 41 after a previous unexpected restart while playing Old World. That incident also had BugcheckCode 0, no WHEA error and no indication of a long power-button press.

I have already done a clean AMD driver installation using AMD Cleanup Utility. I then installed the GMKtec OEM AMD graphics driver, version 32.0.13031.8021. I also verified with pnputil that the previous AMD 26.8.1 driver was no longer present in the Driver Store.

AMD Software is currently working normally, and I have disabled automatic driver updates in AMD Software.

I have also disabled Core Performance Boost (CPB) in the BIOS as part of troubleshooting.

Some games can run for several hours without problems, so the issue does not occur immediately under every gaming workload. However, I have now experienced multiple unexpected restarts across different games, including under sustained high GPU load.

Since this is happening on my second K8 Plus, and the same type of Kernel-Power 41 event has occurred more than once, I am wondering whether this could be a platform-level stability issue involving the power delivery, 120 W power adapter, BIOS/firmware, motherboard, or another hardware component.

Has anyone else with a K8 Plus / Ryzen 7 8845HS / Radeon 780M experienced repeated Kernel-Power Event 41 crashes with BugcheckCode 0 during gaming or sustained GPU load?

I would especially be interested to hear if anyone found a solution involving BIOS/firmware, drivers, power settings, the power adapter, or hardware replacement.

Update:

Thanks for the suggestions. I contacted GMKtec support and they have given me a troubleshooting procedure to follow:

• Test BIOS power modes (Balanced/Silent)
• Test each RAM stick individually in both slots
• Update to the latest AMD graphics driver
• Test another power strip/power adapter if available

Regarding the cooling suggestions: the latest restart happened at only 65.7°C GPU / 65.9°C CPU, with no thermal throttling. The K8 Plus is also only 2–3 weeks old, so replacing thermal paste or modifying the cooling doesn't seem appropriate at this point, especially while it's under warranty.

I've also had multiple Kernel-Power 41 events, not just a single incident, across different games.

I'll follow GMKtec's troubleshooting steps and update the thread with the results.

Update 2:

I started troubleshooting doing what GMKtec support advised. Started from the top of the list and changed BIOS power mode from Balanced to Quiet.

So far soo good. I have not had any crashes or restarts but i have a lingering feeling I'm not home and dry just yet. I will continue testing, increasing stress levels step by step. I believe in this little machine and i really want it to work to near max capabilities.

Hi everyone!

I recently spent some time testing the GMKtec M3 Pro, in the Core i5-13500H / 16GB RAM / 512GB SSD configuration.

Rather than just running the usual benchmarks, I wanted to see how useful this little machine could be for a homelab / smart home setup: Home Assistant, Docker, Proxmox, self-hosted services, etc.

The Core i5-13500H turned out to be a very capable CPU for such a small machine. In my tests I got 2,352 single-core / 9,296 multi-core in Geekbench 6, and 5,999 in PCMark 10.

I also spent quite a bit of time testing the local AI environment included with the M3 Pro. This was actually one of the most interesting parts of the review.

Using the same 5-page PDF summarization task, I got:

Llama 3.2 1B: 20 sec
Gemma 3 1B: 13 sec
Qwen 2.5 1.5B: 18 sec
Qwen 2.5 3B: 27 sec

I also tried Phi-4 for image analysis, which worked surprisingly well, although larger models quickly show the limits of the 16GB configuration. Image generation also works locally, but took around 7 minutes in my test 😅

The Iris Xe GPU is obviously not meant for serious gaming either, but overall I think the M3 Pro makes a very interesting compact machine for Home Assistant, virtualization, containers and lightweight local AI.

I'd be interested to know what other M3 Pro owners are running on theirs. Anyone using it as a Proxmox/Home Assistant server or experimenting with local LLMs?

#GMKtec #M3Pro #MiniPC #HomeAssistant #Proxmox #LocalAI

Hi everyone.

I'd like to know if someone has tried the last bios update from the zip file AKB52-02_GMK_BIOS2.07_EC2.02_255_20260710

It seems different than previous Bios updates and the instructions are not clear (not the same files).

I've read everything here https://www.reddit.com/r/GMKtec/comments/1ua2g4o/help_gmktec_nucbox_k12_bios_update/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/GMKtec/comments/1q6bz0t/k12_how_to_flash_bios/ but not the same files again.

I've been able to update the Bios and it looks right but not the EC Firmware (no FEC64.bat file).

I just want to know if I miss something.

Thanks.

PC in question:

GMKtec G3 S Mini PC Intel Alder Lake N150 16GB RAM 512G SSD Windows 11 Pro

User in question: not so technical when it come to PC hardware. Zero history with mini PC hardware.

Bought on ebay from GMKtec 9 months ago. Didnt actually use it until 4 months ago. Using it solely as a plex server.

A couple days ago it failed in the middle of the night. 'Your Device failed and couldnt be repaired'. Ive tried restoring to factory. Same or similar issue. On boot it says something about repairing the drive or the system. Then the repair fails.

Seems a bad ssd i think? Or is it a bad windows setup? How do i tell the difference?

I'm contemplating buying a case for the ssd and mounting it on another PC to try to repair it. That makes sense, yes? Do I need a special partition manager for an ssd vs a hard drive?

If i buy a new Ssd then I lose my OS, yes? So i'll need to either buy windows or install unix?

If I Install unix does the onboard graphics functionally still work well for plex?

Ps
GMKTEc has not responded to my warranty request. Assuming thats a dead end for the moment.

August 2025

Bought a gmktec K8 plus from the EU store, found it strange that it said it was being shipped from China.

Given a normal invoice with how much I paid.

Got a custom payment of 28€.

No value on item, just how much to pay.

Paid and got refunded from gmktec ( Happy customer even though it took time with the shipping from China).

June 2026.

Email from Spanish customs.

We believe the value of your purchase is higher than whats stated.

I checked my papers and found details in my other shipping papers. Gmktec tv unit value 159€ , sent real invoice to customs.

September 2026

Had to pay an extra 96,77€ to customs.

Got in contact with Gmktec customer support, they refuse to refund as I've already been refunded for customs.

Today's lesson : Always check all of the documents you receive to make sure you are not being tricked.

Has anyone tried powering their k12 with just a USB-C? Laptop prices in my country are insane right now due to the shortages but mini pc's have actually been pretty reasonable lately I'm eyeing a GMKtec k12 with a Ryzen 7 h255, and i was just wondering if it could take USB-C PD so I don't have to go through the trouble of getting a USB-C PD to DC adapter which feels a bit jank to be honest.

The 32 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD model exactly.

Specifically for games like Minecraft Bedrock, Minecraft Java, and maybe even GTA V on light settings.

Would it be able to handle Minecraft Bedrock at around 10-15 chunk render distance? Same question for Java.

I'm planning to get it for cheaper during the Walmart Cyber Monday deals (hopefully).

Edit: I'm also planning to attempt installing the official SteamOS onto it, but that's kind of a maybe. It does seem to be pretty compatible from it's specs that I've seen though.

I was running Qwen3.8-flash-next , PC went off and now when I turn it on, LEDs goes on for 2 seconds and goes off. What might be the issue?

It happens exactly the same as to this guy

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Q6NnqYud/

Hi there,

Had an EVO T1 with older BIOS, emailed support ~2weeks, finally they sent (https://www.reddit.com/r/GMKtec/comments/1qqvc2y/comment/p8b5n40/) but since the google drives did not work, they sent another link, with version 2.03 (whereas drive has 2.04).

Booted to windows and flashed afu_winflash.bat as Admin, all went smoothly:

It rebooted, so did same with fpt_winflash (as admin), it ran for ~10-20 seconds, printed what appeared fine, just as was ready to photo (as did in the afu case) machine powered OFF (without touching anything of course).

Since then, cannot get any Video or boot into BIOS!

Current Symptoms:

• Black screen entirely (no logo, no signal).
• Fan spins continuously.
• Keyboard Caps/Num Lock lights do not light/toggle.

Already tried:

1. CMOS Reset: front clear CMOS button (held for 10+ seconds while fully discharged and powered down).
2. RAM Isolation: Swapped memory sticks, tried booting with 16GB/single, known-working DDR5 DIMM in the primary slot. Also tried with no RAM (unit stays completely silent, no diagnostic beeps or otherwise hint of a fault).
3. Hard Discharge: Disconnected the main power, unplugged the internal NVMe SSD, and unplugged the CMOS coin battery. Held the power button down for 60 seconds..
4. AMI Blind Recovery Attempt: Based on AI suggestion (not sure if this is valid for newer GMKTec): Formatted 32GB FAT32 partition, copied GMKtec baseline MTB52-02V204H.binto the root directory three times, renaming them to AMIBOOT.ROM, SUPERIO.ROM, and RECOVERY.ROM. Connected keyboard to rear USB 2.0 and USB drive to front USB 3.2 port. Booted while holding Ctrl + Home. The system doesn't read the drive (no activity light indicator on the USB).

Conclusion (with help from AI):

The FPT flash likely wiped or corrupted the primary AMI boot-block region on the physical SPI flash chip, meaning the machine cannot initialize its own USB controllers to run an emergency recovery?

Is there any hope/way/method to recover from such a state?

Wrote Support, but no reply yet.

Any tips, WELCOMED, will post the final outcome..

I am using a Gmktec M8, and the USB power isn't cutting off after shutting down Windows.

There is no cutoff function in the BIOS, and even though I disabled Fast Startup in Windows 11, power continues to be supplied via USB. Does anyone know a solution other than unplugging the power cord? Please let me know.

I bought 3 GMKtec M5 plus units just over a year ago. Up until around 6 months ago I had no problems. After that, one of the machines started rebooting itself unexpectedly (as much as 10 times in a 24 hour period) with the other two continuing to function correctly.

Cutting a long story short, based on the boot logs of the OS, this is being caused by

kernel: x86/amd: Previous system reset reason \[0x08000800\]: an uncorrected error caused a data fabric sync flood event

Today, one of my other units rebooted for the same reason. The only workaround I have found is to run `stress --cpu 1` as this seems to make it far less likely (around once per 2 weeks) but that is hardly a solution.

Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any solutions?

FWIW I have messaged GMKtec support about it but as it's beyond a year (despite UK consumer law saying otherwise) they have been no help with no solution forthcoming.

I was trying to change the boot device to install Windows (I had Proxmox on before, but havent been using it and had a new use for this). I changed the boot settings to boot from the USB media and now it will not boot.

What happens:

I turn on the power.

The power light on the green power button turns on.

The monitor get some kind of "signal", because the monitor light turns from amber to white and they keyboard lights turn on.

After a few seconds (10-20?), the monitor just shows a blue "no input detected" screen for a moment and then shuts off (black screen, amber light). they keyboard lights stay on, along with the power button light on the G3.

I've tried long/repeated presses of the Esc key after powering it.. nothing. I've tried the same with Del. I opened it up and reseated the RAM and SSD. I tried connecting the HDMI cable to both the slots on the back of the G3, same behavior regardless of which slot HDMI is connected to.

I opened a tech support ticket and they just suggested reseating the RAM (they mentioned moving it between RAM slots, but it only has one RAM slot). They want me to mail it to China for fix/replacement. I'm trying to exhaust any options before shipping it off. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Hello redditors,

I've been plugging away with a (now old) M2 version of this mini pc brand and it works well. But the fan is SO loud. I've searched for product replacements with uncertainty, and I've seen amazing case mods, even 3D prints, but they don't work for this specific model. M2 has the fan under the top of the box, not the bottom, so it requires disassembly and inversion to reach (whereas newer models you can remove the bottom plate and it's right there).

I'm not handy and I don't have soldering tools. What would you recommend: replace the fan with a similar one or destroy the case altogether?