ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (2023) freezes on startup

[DomenicoDentice]

Help please.

I have just purchased the ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 (2023) and after a week or so started to freeze on Windows startup and a couple of times on shout down. All drivers were updated and also ran hardware checks as well as a memory diagnostic check. No problem here. The notebook works fine when it gets through the initial startup and can work on it for hours with  no problems.

Has anybody an idea on what it could be?

Many thanks!!!

[zdravcGB]

I'm glad to hear that, and please let me know if it does 🙏

[Involver]

I've just had the time to try this suggestion. I ran Windows into safe mode, than ran DDU and removed all drivers without reboot in between. Then reboot Windows but back into safemode again and installed all 3 driver packages as mentioned in the Fabulous-Ad-4929 post. Then reboot into Windows (normal mode) and have the drivers recognized. Reboot again and now I have these drivers AMD, but without the Geforce drivers so I installed that package again. Let's see what happens in the coming days... Ususally reproducing the freeze doesn't take too long...

If this works than many thanks for the tip - and let's make sure that ASUS fixes their driver crap - or AMD or NVidia - idk because all these brands are prominently visible on the laptop 😉

[Niyazigo]

Without new AMD drivers, everything is fine. But this time without them screen flickering. As a premium customer who paid 4400$ for 4090 model, I am not happy.

When i say this to customer service they only suggested me to my machine to repair center.

Do you think we are just a group that has a hardware problem on it laptop and needs to be fixed, or do all models have the same problem? Should we send our machines to repair center or are we experiencing some driver/firmware problems ?

[Jonnyrad]

I personally did not do anything with my AMD drivers as I felt the issue was related to the Nvidia driver. Completely uninstalling the Nvidia driver and installing the older one from the Asus website and also uninstalling Nvidia GE Force experience worked for me yesterday although I write this with my fingers crossed. I haven’t encountered any screen flickering issues at all. The freezing issue is definitely software related but I do not know about the screen flickering. Sorry I cannot advise you further on this my friend.

[Anbby_ROG]

Hi @Jonnyrad ,

Thank you for notifying me, as the methods used in the discussion and the issues encountered may vary.
I would like to confirm with you if your solution involves completely uninstalling the Nvidia driver and then downloading and installing the validated driver version from the official website, which resolves the freezing issue at the login screen.
Regarding the drivers, the ones provided on the official website are based on the drivers provided by the graphics card manufacturer. They undergo multiple compatibility tests and verifications before being released to ensure the best user experience. If you encounter issues with the latest driver from the graphics card manufacturer, it is recommended to install the drivers from the ASUS website first to ensure compatibility and stability.

Additionally, I've noticed that each person has encountered different issues and used different solutions.
We would like to clarify whether we are dealing with two distinct problems in our current discussion to avoid further confirmation in the wrong direction.
Could everyone please provide more details about the freezing scenario and the actual solutions you have tried?

(1) Freezing scenario:
Does the freezing occur at the login screen or after entering the system? Do the mouse and keyboard work after the freezing occurs?
(2) Removal of which driver to fix:
Did you remove the AMD-related drivers or the Nvidia driver to resolve the issue? (If possible, please provide the driver version that solved your problem.)

Thank you.

[Niyazigo]

Hello, first of all thank you for your interest in us.

I've been running some tests nonstop on my own machine for a few days. Here I also had the opportunity to try solutions suggested by others. While some of them seem to fix the problem, I ran into repetitive re-opening freezing issues.

As I said before, it is the easiest to uninstall AMD drivers with DDU and have the drivers in them active and continue with them. I downloaded the new version 531.41 from Nvidia's site, because diablo4 does not accept old drivers. (But now I will delete it with DDU and download the recommended version for my laptop from Asus rog site and test it. If there is a difference, I will write it, please continue reading.)

Everything seems to be fine without AMD and their software. This is the only way I've never encountered freezing. But this time the screen flickers every 15-20 seconds.

Most of all these freezing problems occur after the first 10 seconds of login. I've only seen it freeze 1-2 times before login. So it's not happening at all.

I got bored of the flicks yesterday and reinstalled the AMD drivers just to be sure of the test. Everything seemed fine until I restarted it, but when I restarted it started to freeze again. I tried to catch a moment where it didn't freeze until yesterday morning and delete the AMD drivers again. And when it was deleted, everything went back to normal.

By the way, it sometimes happened when I first took the keyboard work into my hands. I never encountered such a problem when I deleted and reinstalled windows. Already, when I pressed color change with the armory crate, the color change was happening after 15 seconds. I was not satisfied.

I should point out that all these tests were tested without Armory Crate installed. (I've removed that thing)

If you are authorized in these matters, please let us know asus' views on the subject. Are our laptops broken in hardware or is it just a firmware glitch waiting to be fixed soon? Because the technical support department asked me to give the directomat for repair, but I did not accept it. Do you think I should have it repaired? Does this change anything?

Thank you.

[nietonchique]

1) yes, freezing occur at the login screen or after entering the system. Mouse and keyboard doesnt work until hard reboot

2) yes, it solve my problem, drivers removed by DDU, after i install drivers from reddit:

NVIDIA-Grafiktreiber - https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/GamingNB/Image/Driver/Graphics/33377/Graphic_DCH_ROG_NVIDIA_Z_V31...

displayHDR - https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/GamingNB/Image/Driver/Graphics/30597/displayHDR_ASUS_Z_V1.0.0.9_3...

AMD-Grafiktreiber- https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/GamingNB/Image/Driver/Graphics/33166/AMD_Graphic_DriverOnly_ROG_A...

---

[Involver]

I have only encounterd the first issue (freezing scenario). This happens at boot, sometimes after login and sometime even before the login screen appears - and sometimes after shutdown/reboot the system wil hang at the 'shutting down' or 'rebooting' prompt. The system simply hangs, KB and mouse unresponsive and hard shutdown is the only way out.

So far I have removed both the AMD and NVIDIA drivers using DDU (in safemode), then reinstalled the drivers as suggested in the reddit post 'https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUSROG/comments/12tvn7n/comment/jh9vp9u/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x...' as suggested by zdravcGB. And I didn't reinstall the Geforce Experience, just the three files in that post:

Graphic_DCH_ROG_NVIDIA_Z_V31.0.15.2866_33377

displayHDR_ASUS_Z_V1.0.0.9_30597

AMD_Graphic_DriverOnly_ROG_AMD_Z_V31.0.14001.46001_33166

Yesterday I did like 20 or more reboots, shutdown/restart or standby/wakeup and hibernate/wakeup and all without issues. No freezes whatsover. As I didn't turn off Windows updates, today I was greeted by a Windows update - NVIDIA and AMD drivers where updated and I had to reboot. Which I did and up until now, after about 10 reboots/standby etc. it still didn't freeze. The updates installed by the OS are:

NVIDIA - Display - 31.0.15.2901

AMD - System - 22.40.0.1

... but still no Geforce Experience installed

[Involver]

Also, as mentioned I raised a support case through email. Initial response was the usual 'have you tried... or otherwise file for RMA' but today I got another response in which they tell me the case has been passed through to 'the HQ' (wherever and whatever that me be). I also have a case number from support for reference

[Jonnyrad]

For me the freezing scenario happens after logging in. I go through the Windows Hello process, the main Windows screen pops up, the screen pad plus sets up and then before it starts to open my gaming apps such as Steam, Battlenet etc it freezes. I cannot move the cursor with the mouse or do anything. Everything is completely locked up. The only solution is to hold the power button for a few seconds to turn it off. If I then turn it back on it may work or it may lock up/freeze in the same way again. On Saturday I could not get it to work all day because it froze like this approximately 20 times throughout the day and I just gave up in the end.

With regards to a fix, nothing has worked for me yet. I have completely uninstalled the Nvidia driver and downloaded the older driver from the Asus website. (528.66) This didn’t work. I have tried this multiple times. I have also uninstalled the driver and installed the three suggested drivers but these haven’t worked either. 
I believe this may be related to the issue that is also affecting Strix Scar 16 users as going back to driver 528.66 seems to have helped them and has been helpful for some of us but as I say, this didn’t work for me sadly.