STRIX SCAR 17 unpredictable restart/CPU temp question

[nathanmnm]

Hi, I have been experiencing system restarts under load (but not predictable, mostly after an hour of two of gaming and only about once per week) and there is no info in the event viewer post restart.  I did some digging, found a few forum posts (including here) and think it could well be hardware, either BIOS related or something similar (critical shutdown temp exceeded so system turns off).  I logged a service request with ASUS who were helpful and asked me to do some things like update drivers etc which I am working through. 

During my digging I have been monitoring the system temps and am concerned, I am unsure if the following is normal.

• Laptop boots, CPU hits about 85 degrees and cools a bit but stays on about 70 even with nothing running (this seems hot, fan is on ish 10%)
• Under low load, e.g. browser viewing a page with medium adds this can increase to over 80 degrees and fan goes up but not by a lot.
• Running a game results in high temps at or on 100 degrees, irrespective of CPU load,
  • Games which use only 30% CPU give 99 degrees (e.g. Guild wars 2 set to high settings)
  • Games which use 99% CPU give 99 degrees (e.g. Helldivers 2 set to ultra, or 8 instances of low res Guild wars 2)

I get that the CPU is essentially clocked higher if only a couple of cores are in use, but the GPU is stable at under 80 degrees even under 100% load.  I am confused that the CPU, which "should" be using less watts, is 20 degrees hotter despite having what I think is similar cooling.

I have ramped the fans up for now (hitting 100% at 80 degrees) and that has reduced the peak temps down from high 90's to high 80's but the laptop is now very loud all the time 😞

Is this normal for this type of CPU (Ryzen 7945hx)?

[nathanmnm]

Appologies, Helldivers does not use 99% CPU, it uses less than 50% but it does use 100% GPU while GW2 on high uses less than 50% for both CPU and GPU.  The 8 low res GW2 instances did make the CPU to up to almost 100% (peaked at 100, stable at about 70%) but resulted in the same CPU temp. The reason for mentioning both games is that I was able to stress the CPU and GPU to differing amounts.

[nathanmnm]

Screenshot of armoury crate showing 22 degree hotter CPU than GPU despite higher CPU fan speed and lower CPU TDP

[Anbby_ROG · Accepted solution]

Hi @nathanmnm ,

The temperatures you mentioned during startup seem unusual. I would like to confirm with you how the temperatures perform when the Armoury Crate fan setting is set to Turbo mode.
Just for routine checks, have you updated your BIOS to the latest version 329 and tested with the ASUS-validated AMD graphics card driver version V31.0.14038.8002 and Nvidia graphics card driver version V31.0.15.4624? Thank you.
 

[nathanmnm]

Bios is updated, I will with turbo mode later today and feed back. Thanks for replying, the help is appreciated.

[nathanmnm]

Tested turbo mode

On boot CPU hit 84 degrees and settled to 60
Running helldivers resulted in 98 degrees see photo.
System restarted after about 30 mins, approx 10 mins into a large map. I cant be sure but I think the CPU temp reported closer to 90 than 100 degrees at this point.

At no point did the CPU temp go above 100, but it did hit, and stay, on 98 for ages.

GPU is fine at about 75 degrees max, fans are roughly equal for CPU/GPU. Wierd that the CPU draws more power at 100% use than the CPU but is similar fan speed and 25 degrees c cooler.

I dont think I can live with restarts every 30 mins 😞

Advice?turbo mode test, helldivers 2 running

[Anbby_ROG]

Hi @nathanmnm ,

Thank you for your feedback. Based on your description, we recommend taking the laptop to the local service center for further hardware diagnostics to determine if the reboot issue is related to overheating. Please consider this information, and let us know if you need any further assistance. Thank you.

[nathanmnm]

Hi, even though the drivers were correct I overwrote the NVIDIA driver with the one you linked and have had no restarts since despite playing high stress games for many many hours over the past couple of days.  I guess something went wrong when I installed the driver from the NVIDIA website rather than from the asus link.  

[nathanmnm]

Update, its still restarting, not often, maybe once every few days, doesnt seem to be heat related as it has done it when CPU is only at 80 degrees and GPU at 75 😞 

This massively spoils games, particularly online games, you get an hour into something and the laptop decides to restart.  I regret buying from ASUS.

[Anbby_ROG]

Hi @nathanmnm ,

I'm sorry to hear that you are still experiencing the rebooting issue. 
I just wanted to confirm if you are currently using the AMD graphics driver version V31.0.14038.8002? 

Many users have reported that updating to this version has resolved random rebooting issues. Please try testing it out and see if it helps. Thank you.