G74Sx AES-NI not available

[CypherDragon]

Hello all,

I've tried getting an answer on this from Asus' "support," but they are being their normal idiotic selves (answer: contact service center and do an RMA...) so I turn to you guys. I am running the latest G74 BIOS (203), but there does not seem to be a provision to enable the Intel AES-NI instruction set for hardware encryption acceleration. I routinely encrypt my laptop drives (since they do have personal information on them), and not having this feature causes a bottleneck on disk I/O due to the encryption. I have verified that I am not using an engineering sample processor thru CPU-Z, and verified on Intel's site that the i7-2670QM does support AES-NI.

Anyone in the know heard if this feature will be enabled with the next BIOS update (not holding my breath...Asus' support has been very underwhelming to be extremely nice), or know of a way to enable this feature? For reference, I am using TrueCrypt as the encryption software, and hardware acceleration is not detected/available in TrueCrypt and does not show as on CPU-Z's "Instruction" list.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

[fostert]

*IF* there is ever another BIOS update for the G74 then I would suspect that it would be AES enabled, if only because my other ASUS laptop (the N53SN) literally just had a new BIOS released not 3 weeks ago (the previous one came out about the time 203 did for the G74) and it is newly AES-capable. But no, I haven't heard any more.

[fuzon1337]

fostert wrote:
*IF* there is ever another BIOS update for the G74 then I would suspect that it would be AES enabled, if only because my other ASUS laptop (the N53SN) literally just had a new BIOS released not 3 weeks ago (the previous one came out about the time 203 did for the G74) and it is newly AES-capable. But no, I haven't heard any more.

[little off topic]
Didn't @ColonelS talking about him pushing on the ASUS people to fix the throttling issue with a new BIOS version?
Or am I or am I completely on the field here ? lol

[CypherDragon]

Quite disappointing. Seriously, with all the problems I've had with this laptop and the incompetent support I've received, I'm left with the question if Asus is actually a global player worthy of the high dollar of their products. I would expect this kind of treatment from a no-name brand that's just starting out, not a big name. I for one probably won't be buying any Asus products in the future due to all the frustration I've had since buying this laptop...and that's coming from someone that's used Asus mainboards for at least the last 8 years. I wish I would have refunded this problem-laden laptop when I could have and gone with a better company instead. [/rant]

[StefanLundmark]

Hi guys,

I've done some research on this and since AES-NI was so important for me (I use TrueCrypt myself) I sent an angry email to ASUS support but figured I wouldn't get any replies.

Here's what they said:

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.


Fortunately AES-NI will be enabled in the next BIOS version, but unfortunately we do not have any estimated time on when the BIOS will be updated.

That's good news for you, but you'll have to wait until they do release it.
I decided to patch BIOS myself as I couldn't wait. I also had to get rid of C1E (and all C-states) or TrueCrypt would freeze for 20-40 seconds every few hours.

I would upload an attachment if I could, though you can fetch the patch yourself from the very helpful fella's over at this thread:
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?3322-Sandybridge-Throttle-Issue-and-Workaround/page9

Good luck!