Genesys Logic PCIe card reader controller thoughts for Ally

[Melina]

Hi,

A few of us online have continued to investigate the wide-ranging rumours floating out there about the "sd card reader burning out.

It sounds to some of us like it's not a heat issue at all, but rather a question of the mount and sync timing of the current PCIe memory storage controller driver as defined in its latest driver.

One place this can be found is on the microsoft update catalogue:

Microsoft Update Catalog

I'm not positive which Genesys Logic card reader controller is used, is it this one?

Genesys Logic, Inc.

In any event, one theory is that the timing for the controller is too fast, especially for many UHS I cards, such as the Sandisk Extreme Pro 1TB, a very popular microSD card for Ally users. There's something like a 5ms mount time -- too fast -- and a 100ms sync time -- enough? -- set by the current driver. One theorist suggests voltage stability for the controller chip, 1.8V, is not stabilizing quickly enough to guarantee reliable reads/writes, hence corruption of data.

Another theory is that the Windows 11 hibernate/sleep activities interrupt the writes of the controller on the PCIe bus, thus corrupting the card data and making it unreadable on the Ally, even though it can be read elsewhere. This is my own current pet theory. I have made sure my microSD card is only written to prior to sleep, hibernate or shutdown with my settings. No issues so far.

In any event, I'm sure ASUS is working on this, and hope you will have more info out soon. Perhaps there is a new driver revision GenesysLogic can provide you to solve the problem.

It has also been noted that M1 Macbooks, using the same reader controller chip, also have had similar issues. Apple resolved those issues with a software fix, so I am hopeful ASUS will able to do the same.

Thanks for continuing to listen!

[Melina · Accepted solution]

Here's a link to many reporting the issue with Macbooks going all the way back to 2021:

MacBook Pro SD card bug fix on the way | Macworld

I note there are numerous devices out there which have had such problems. I hope ASUS can find a resolution for the Ally on this.

[Atomic_Flip · Accepted solution]

Thank you this information is rather excellent.  I too suspect it's a voltage issue based on the peculiar behavior of the reader and the specific issue that it seems to have with Sandisk Extreme cards in particular.

If it is a voltage issue would this indeed be correctible in software as had apparently been done on MacOS?

Also, do you mind if I repost this to Reddit?  I know a number of people would be interested to see it there as well.

[Melina · Accepted solution]

No problem at all. Just trying to help. Not much any of us can really do until ASUS figures this out; I actually posted this here in recollection of a conversation had (maybe even with you! <g>) on the ROG Ally Discord server. No desire to claim the idea as mine, just hoping to post it where someone from ASUS might see it, is all.

BTW on an additional note, no issues with mine, bought in US at Best Buy. I am very much babying the thing, though, and am a very careful, experienced Windows user from since it was launched, and have had most of my career in software development. So I’m pretty close to what works and what breaks. 🙂

Goid luck to us all! Hope ASUS can find a solid, scientific solution.

[Atomic_Flip]

Oh please no need to worry about who get's credit for an idea lol  I am glad you posted this here and if I had anything to do with helping you craft the message then I am grateful for it.  I too just want to help find a solution for this.  (similar to yourself I've spent most of my career solving technical challenges like these for a myriad of hardware and software products and services.. it comes as second nature to investigate and troubleshoot) 🙂

[ed_neisch · Accepted solution]

Based on the posts on Reddit it seems that thermal constraints cannot be the only cause of the reported SD card issues.  Too many people are posting that it happened in silent, performance and custom fan modes where the temps are not high enough to cause the issues.  I hope Asus is continuing to investigate the issue and is not stopping at thermal constraints as the cause.