ASUS Rog Strix G512LW: Fans stop on screen off, eventually overheating notebook

[Fireblade_92]

Hello fellow ROG'ers. I decided to split off my discussion about an issue, which I had reported in another thread.
(https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?120543-ASUS-ROG-STRIX-SCAR-15-G532LWS-Sleep-settings-speak...)

I have a quite similar issue concerning fans not working, albeit in a slightly different scenario. Notebook model is G512LW.

My screen off/standby settings are 5/30 minutes. Inbetween the screen turning off and standby kicking in, the fans completely stop and the notebook heats up all the way until it force shutdowns.

I tried to contact ASUS support, which sent me an Armoury Crate patch. Installed the patch, which broke pretty much everything else so I had to reinstall ROG Live Service Package, AC Service, Armoury Crate app itself and eventually Windows, rinse and repeat, before I could get the patch to install without breaking things like, for example, itself..

Result of the patch:
1. The notebook now not only shuts its fans off on screen off, but standby mode doesn't even work as it should anymore (at random times, the notebook comes out of sleep mode for no reason AND with disabled fans..)
2. The patch partially broke MyASUS. (Update: Actually, the problem is with Armoury Crate Service, as a restart of the service restores functionality)

On the second support request, ASUS asked me to return the notebook. Because no new BIOS is available. I'm sorry, say that again please? Did you just tell me to return a perfectly functional computer which has a software/firmware issue?

I need that computer for my IT job. What about, try to fix what you broke a few weeks ago, ASUS? You had a scenario in which everything worked, you're a computer tech company, and I can't be one of only 3 people having this issue, right?



Follow-up 2020-10-04:

After experimenting with downgrading/upgrading BIOS for a bit, I think we can exclude the BIOS itself as being the culprit. Some strange things happened when doing so, though.

I followed the mini guide at https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/commen...eb2x&context=3. Results:

1. Downgrading the BIOS is as EZ as upgrading it.

2. "Go to control panel, go to system, go to system protection, go to hardware, click on device installation settings, and then click no." <-- After following this step, in Device Manager, the firmware was successfully set to be 309.

3. The downgrade did nothing, but caused one logged error:
"Het stuurprogramma heeft een controllerfout gevonden in \Device\Harddisk1\DR1."
(Roughly translated: "The device driver reported a controller error in \Device\Harddisk1\DR1")

4a. Because the fan sleep issue was not solved, I re-applied BIOS 310. Because of step 2 in this post, the device driver firmware was not automatically upgraded from 309 to 10.1.2.310.
4b. When restarting after step 4a, I opened Armoury Crate and saw that the CPU speed, temperature, memory speed, .. could not be retrieved, but the GPU monitoring showed up correctly. I'm not sure if this could be related to the issue?

5. When manually updating the device driver firmware to 10.1.2.310 by using Windows Update and restarting, CPU information showed up again and the HDD controller error from step 3 did not happen anymore.

6. However, the original issue (fans and RGB turn off on screen off, notebook overheats) remains the same.



Also, since the latest ASUS software updates, I had to create a script which restarts the Armoury Crate Service 1 minute after logging into the computer. I found out by accident that this solved another issue with the current software.

The reason for this, is that since the latest update, hotkeys seem to have stopped working on startup (no FN + hotkey functionality, no Energy Profile on-screen indicator). But what is curious is, that after restarting the service, the on-screen profile indicator shows up again and all hotkey functionality is restored.

I'm not sure how all ASUS components like ROG Live Service, Control Interface, Armoury Crate etc. intercommunicate with each other, but I'm pretty sure something is quite off in the way it does at this moment.

Hope some of the information is useful. Can someone from ASUS maybe help us this way instead? If a log file needs to be generated, I'll gladly provide one.

Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards

[KorosuKivy]

When i first got my G512LV the screen turning off was a major pain in the backside because once off it caused other problems. I ended up doing this:

• Go to settings Select System
  
• Power and sleep
  
• select never on options that are on that screen
  
• Select advanced options
  
• on the options that are visible go through the options to disable screen off and sleep settings
  
• After I have done that I press the keyboard shortcut to change performance plan for some bizarre reason these show as hidden plans that windows just doesn't seem to detect half the time.
  
• so I rinse and repeat for Silent/Performance/Turbo mode
  
• Afterwards no more screen turn-offs and things go back to running normally
  

Yes its a pain in the ass having to manually do this. oh and also disable quickboot and hibernation settings.

[Fireblade_92]

Thank you KorosuKivy for your feedback, which I highly appreciate. Unfortunately, this workaround will not solve the initial problem. I just want to be able to let my notebook idle with the screen turned off, and let it be when not using it without the need to shut it down, a function which every decent computer from the last 20 years is able to fulfill.

I saw ASUS released a new version of the System Control Interface (2.2.29.10) and installed it, hoping ASUS somehow figured out how to fix what the latest updates broke, unfortunately to no avail. I still hope support looks into this issue and is able to provide a working fix.

[noalero]

Just replying to say that i have the same problem on a G512LV, running any program that doesn't prevent locking the screen is going to continue running with the fans off once the screen turns off, putting this with the current Armory Crate bug where it uses 20% of CPU usage for no reason makes no good . I hope this gets resolved soon. Just in case here is the software i am running:

Armoury Crate UWP App 3.1.6.0
ROG Live Service 1.1.6.0
AURA Service (Lighting Service) 3.04.22
Armoury Crate service 3.1.5
ASUS Aac_NBDT HAL 2.4.2.0
ASUS Keyboard HAL 1.01.17
ASUS MB Peripheral Products 1.0.33
ASUS Mouse HAL 1.1.0.8
AacAudioHal 1.3.7.0
AacDispaly 1.1.26
Asus System Control Interface V2 2.2.29.10
Bios 310

[ShadowButton]

Hi there
I am also replying because of the same problem.

First I tought my brand new Asus M15 502LW had a sleep or hypernate problem. Because sometimes when I left my computer a wake for some time and returned. I noticed the system was stuck on a black screen unresponsive, with the 2 power leds active and the keyboard lights off. I had to do a hard reset every time without knowing that this was actually due to overheating!


Now finding this pots with searching sometime on Google, it's exactly the same problem like described here.

I left this morning my system for like 30 mintues alone with Unity Game Engine open in the background. When I came back I noticed the screen was black but the system was still responsive. My keyboard was untouchable from the heat. I opend armoury crate and my CPU and GPU temps where around 99 C degrees.
This happend while I would expect it would go into sleep mode (after 10 minutes idle on battery and AC) or at least leave the fans on if it is still producing heat with Unity in the background.

I bought my laptop in the EU in the Netherlands to be exact. It's the first time I am experiencing problems like this with a brand new laptop like this. I came from Alienware and Razer where the hardware is not completely dependent on the manufacturer's software like in this case.

Inside MyAsus I noticed a new update KB Firmware Update 2.4.8 I hope this would fix some of the problems. If someone else know a fix or workaround please share.

Greetz

UPDATE

Did a test with letting the laptop go to sleep when running some programs that produce heat, same problem it crashes after 10 minutes because of overheating. It's like the laptop can't go in to sleep modus but also shuts down all fans like on screen shutdown. I am going to system restore the system with a clean Windows 10 copy and non of the asus rog software and test the sleep and screen shutdown. I am thiking to return the laptop If the problem keeps going on after that.

[noalero]

Testing things i tried a linux distro, Pop_OS with nvidia drivers, and it works perfectly(expect a few things unrelated to this problem). Tried stressing the cpu to heat it up and when the screen turns off the fans keep going like they should, so this just reaffirms that something is wrong with the software or drivers on Windows say Armory Crate or Asus System Control Interface.

[ShadowButton]

noalero wrote:
Testing things i tried a linux distro, Pop_OS with nvidia drivers, and it works perfectly(expect a few things unrelated to this problem). Tried stressing the cpu to heat it up and when the screen turns off the fans keep going like they should, so this just reaffirms that something is wrong with the software or drivers on Windows say Armory Crate or Asus System Control Interface.

Maybe something with the latest windows version ? I did a complete windows 10 reinstall without armoury crate or other asus related software and my system still shuts it's fans down when the screen goes to sleep. Also sleep/hypernate mode isn't working

[noalero]

New updates from Armory Crate (Asus Framework Service and SDK Asus Core) and new Asus System Control Interface V2 2.2.30.0. Still the same problem, fans turn off after a while when the screen turns off.

[KorosuKivy]

ShadowButton wrote:
Maybe something with the latest windows version ? I did a complete windows 10 reinstall without armoury crate or other asus related software and my system still shuts it's fans down when the screen goes to sleep. Also sleep/hypernate mode isn't working

Question for you since you have installed windows without asus armoury crate:

Do you have access to the windows (default) Advanced power control options I.E can you access minimum & maximum processor state settings and all the other settings that Armoury crate takes control of by default?

Sleep/hibernate mode go to:
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings Click on the UAC link "Change settings that are currently unavailable".

Honestly, I find sleep/hibernate and screen off to be a pain in the ass and cause issues with Asus software... so yea I disabled it, ALL of it. even fast startup as that **** causes issues and has BSOD tendencies and that **** happens on dell laptops too so yea no a fan of anything that turns the screen off if I'm not doing anything.

[ShadowButton]

KorosuKivy wrote:
Question for you since you have installed windows without asus armoury crate:

Do you have access to the windows (default) Advanced power control options I.E can you access minimum & maximum processor state settings and all the other settings that Armoury crate takes control of by default?

Sleep/hibernate mode go to:
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings Click on the UAC link "Change settings that are currently unavailable".

Honestly, I find sleep/hibernate and screen off to be a pain in the ass and cause issues with Asus software... so yea I disabled it, ALL of it. even fast startup as that **** causes issues and has BSOD tendencies and that **** happens on dell laptops too so yea no a fan of anything that turns the screen off if I'm not doing anything.

To be fair I didn't checked the advanced power options after the clean windows installation without all the Asus software
I was completely focused on the fan issue that I only changed the time settings for when the screen goes black/sleep.

Windows directly started to install some of the asus software through windows updates, like the Asus System Control Interface (old version) and some other Asus related software and drivers stuff, during the tests I had still the same problems like before even without the drivers and software provided by MyAsus.

I did a new windows installation but now with a disabled internet connection to prevend any automatic software or driver installation. Tested again the fans when the screen goes to sleep and even without the drivers and Asus software the fans autmaticly turned off again.


( Maybe some of those laptop models are designed doing this ? I did notice regardless of all the tests and installations, when the screen goes out; windows reverts to the lock screen. Unlike my other systems where after waking up the screen the system is still in the state where it was left. I Asus trying to make the screen off function some sort of in between sleep for the laptop )

What I also tested: downgraded my BIOS version from (in my case) v309 to v307 with EZ Flash, this made no difference. Upgraded again to v309 eventually.

Reinstalled windows 10 for the third time.

And actually after the third reinstallation the laptop behaves for the first time much better. I've been observing everything for a whole day now. sleep mode works without overheating, the laptop also no longer wakes up with loud fans or CPU speed problems. Switching off the fans during screen off is still present but after dozens of tests it is no longer overheating and it switches now for the first time correctly from the screen off state (after 3 minutes) to sleep/hybernate state (after 10 minutes) and wakesup correctly without dying from the heat like several times before.

I also noticed that the battery time lasts much longer now than before. In the beginning, windows indicated a maximum of 3 hours of use on forced integrated graphics and browsing the web, while this is now suddenly between 7 and 8 hours when I am developing in Unity , visual Studio and with the web browser in the background. during the last reinstallation I had all drivers installed by windows. Afterwards I downloaded and installed Asus Armory crate directly from the website itself. And finally I manually installed the driver for Asus System Control Interface V2 2.2.30.0 with MyAsus since windows 10 didn't wanted to automatically upgrade the old version. I am going to do more tests and report back if something changes in the meanwhile.


Furthermore, I cannot explain why it suddenly works better after 3 reinstallations than before.