Issues with new laptop Strix Scar 17 2023 (R9 7945HX, 4080)

[hexaae]

MY ISSUES WITH THIS G733PZ Strix Scar 17 2023 (R9 7945HX, 4080)

Love it but it has many annoying little issues (fully updated with Win Update and MyASUS official app, BIOS 311):

1. [COMMON] Speaker sounds randomly muted 'till I reboot with no error in Device Manager, no icons with X and no crashes, but speakers simply do not play audio anymore (headphones still work). Only solution a reboot. Totally random in normal desktop usage.

2. [COMMON] Sometimes randomly after 2 days of sleep and resume, USB-C DisplaPort won't detect anymore the attached (but turned off) monitor when I turn it on. Have to reinsert DisplayPort cable (8K high quality). To be exact it happens after Windows Hibernation. (SOLVED with BIOS 315 ✔️)

3. [MY UNIT] Loud coil whine with the test from GPU_Caps_Viewer: 3D Demos/Vulkan 2 Tessellation. Tested in real games or other 3D Demos and coil whine is minimal and acceptable though...

4. [COMMON] Random internal screen (desktop usage) fast-flickerings (0.1sec, very fast almost unnoticeable, mostrly in the upper portion of the screen)... looks like AMD iGPU unstable frequency (?). This seems a well known AMD iGPU issue reported in many forums with previous AMD CPU models. Waiting for AMD Adrenalin driver/BIOS updates hoping for a fix... 🤞🏻

5. [COMMON] No S3 Standby state in the BIOS!! Forced S0 only (a sort of MS hybrid standby 2.0) with fans quietly active (???). You can check it with powercfg /a from admin Cmd prompt. Microsoft calls it "Modern Standby", which is good only for office workstations, maybe. We need S3 (classic Standby) instead.

6. [COMMON] Standby set as: after 10 min screen off and after 45 min standby; when I return to the laptop after 1-2 hours I find the keyboard leds on and system freezed including stuck white mouse pointer over a black screen (!?). I've found a workaround from admin prompt simply forcing hibernate after 30 min and setting screen off and standby both after 10 min. It didn't happen anymore.

   Power settings commands (admin):
   powercfg /x  hibernate-timeout-ac 0  (default 0, AC is for PSU mode)
   powercfg /x  hibernate-timeout-dc 60 (default 60 min = 3600 sec, DC is for battery mode)
   powercfg HIBERNATE ON (force-enable Hibernation if not present)
   and
   powercfg /q (to show current idle settings)
   Microsoft link on how to disable Modern Standby, if you want to: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/iot-core/learn-about-hardware/wakeontouch Remember to disable also Armoury Crate's Modern Standby Assistant completely (Off).
   
   Recommended: enable hibernate, something like 30mins AC and 20mins DC, you can keep Modern Standby set after 20 and 10mins. This will workaround unresponsive screen or keyboard after a long time if you rely solely on Modern Standby (probably drivers are still not good enough).
   
   
7. [COMMON] BSOD or other issues connecting an autopowered storage device to the rear USB-C ports. I tried 3 different external enclosures with different controller chipset (ViaLab USB\VID_2109&PID_0716, Realtek USB\VID_0BDA&PID_9210, ASMedia USB\VID_174C&PID_235C) with a 2TB disk inside. They all caused strange slowdowns just opening directories and random black screen or direct BSOD (ViaLab in particular). In other cases they just disconnect frequently (unstable). Same devices connected to the lateral USB-A ports or to another PC work perfectly. Probably BIOS issues still present with 315.
   NEWS: there's an (untested) hotfix for ASMedia USB ports on the official site in the download page!
   
   
8. [COMMON] RANDOM REBOOTS 🧨 MAJOR ISSUE, in particular while using the machine at desktop through APU/iGPU (especially watching simple YT videos), even after factory reset and no driver updates! Here was a video showing this severe issue: https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApMUGr0cuN39gsMCAwx9_wjnHscEXg?e=DJlN7i 
   👉🏻 NOTE: if you're using "NVidia GPU Only" mode (or Ultimate mode from Armoury Crate) you won't be using the APU at all, so this issue should not be reproducible... Some users reported random reboots also in Ultimate GPU mode (= not using iGPU/APU)!
   👉🏻 NOTE2: users reported that completely uninstalling Armoury Crate (good free replacements tools are Laptop ToolBox or G-Helper) + BIOS 327, solved all their random reboots. Please test and confirm!
   👉🏻 NOTE3: some users reported changing RAM modules fixed instability. Recommended: Kingston Fury KF556S40IBK2 running at 5200MT/s on this laptop.
   
   
   It's a powerful machine and many things are good but is also affected by a lot of bugs... hope they are just BIOS or driver issues and will be fixed one day 😞

✍🏻 IMPORTANT: to report issues with Armoury Crate to ASUS support, follow this post (create the log and fill out the form!): https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/armoury-crate/armoury-crate-v5-7-6-0-amp-v5-7-9-0-aura-creator-v3-7-6-...

[hexaae]

WARNING! ⚠ 

FREQUENT RANDOM REBOOTS EVEN RUNNING FROM A BASE UNEXPANDED MACHINE IN A FACTORY RESET ENVIRONMENT, JUST WATCHING YT VIDEOS!

E.g. https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApMUGr0cuN39gsMCAwx9_wjnHscEXg?e=DJlN7i

(Possibly an AMD 610M APU and Adrenalin drivers issue???)

[cenksenci]

I’ve got the same model and complaining about the coil whine. Tried to contact with the tech but they say it’s a common phenomenon but not sure if it’s a symptom of an issue. Have you fixed it or it went away during the time? 

[bmhq]

 i have posted an article with instructions,to get rid of whine coil.read it and make sure to follow the steps.whine coil goes away 99.9%

[hexaae]

...downgrading Adrenalin 23.4.1 --> 23.3.2 seems to have worked and desktop usage and YT watching is finally stable! 🤞

[Fouadz]

Random internal screen (desktop usage) flickerings (0.1sec, very fast almost unnoticeable)... looks like AMD iGPU is trying to change resolution or something... ??

This also happens to my laptop for some reason, Ive had it for 3 months and still havent found a solution for it, guess you just have to get used to it...

[ziomek]

Hi, on my G733PY problems are similar to yours. Screen flicker occurs, seems to be problem with AMD iGPU, because when I switched to dGPU (Armoury Crate set to ultimate) there is no problem. I don't have any random reboot, but system behavior looks to be unstable during long use. No problems with sound. Coil whine is also noticeable. No S3 Standby is really frustrating. Despite those bugs laptop is really awesome 🙂

[hexaae]

@ziomek 

Install older AMD Adrenalin Edition drivers 23.3.2, not latest 23.4.1. This should fix desktop experience instability on AMD 610M APU. Latest drivers cause random reboots in some circumstances and other strange slow-down issues, so randomly that is hard to find what's happening. It took me some days to understand the origin of this issue and find a solution.

[hexaae]

So happy to see other users, finally! 😊

Did you try rear usb-c ports with external drives? I'm having a lot of troubles there too: disconnecting drives, sudden BSODS etc. It's hard to understand if they are hw/sw (driver) issues. I booted from external pendrive with Macrium Reflect 8 and when I attached external drive to usb-c rear ports I got immediate BSOD or the drive simply disappeared randomly... BIOS (315) issues, hw issues on a faulty unit??

Sigh...

[ziomek]

Yes, I tried all external ports rear and side with pendrives , hdd drives, mice no problems so far. I am only disabled iGPU wait for AMD to update 610M drivers.

[hexaae]

Please let me know in case you find something strange because on my PC they don't work well, even in the factory reset environement and I don't understand if it's a defective unit or simply buggy BIOS (because they don't work reliably even form WinPE pendrive minimal systems, so it's not something screwed in Windows)