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-...

[OmegaSW]

I actually did send videos for random shutdowns, and they did do a repair, and for the most part, it's good now, but it was a struggle since they couldn't reproduce.

It seems to me that these laptops are having issues with power regulation, and I'm hoping a firmware upgrade fixes it one day.

When I return home, I'm going to try a lower end dock that uses regular DP over USB-C instead of Thunderbolt 4. I connect to my monitor directly anyways to get 240hz, and I'm using the dock as a convenient way to connect my keyboard, mouse, gamepad, speakers and be able to swap between my work laptop easily. 

[hexaae]

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@compguru910  ha scritto:

Good luck. I've been trying to get mine swapped out for just the Intel Strix 18 (coming from the Zephyrus Duo) and Asus is refusing and making RMA a real PITA by changing what they want me to send them. They are even requesting videos of "random reboots" lol. This will be the last product I buy from them. Support has never been this bad with them before. I have RMAd 4 laptops with them over the last 3 years and this is by far the worst. 

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Unfortunately I agree... Seriously, they can't sell (pricy) laptops affected by random reboots. It's the pinnacle of any major issue I've ever seen for a laptop! Incredible they still don't have a solution for a product on the market for at least 6 months already. I was torn whether to send it back or not and wait for miraculous software updates (?) in the first 15 days (EU laws) but I don't regret my choice after I sent it back.
I created this thread to hopefully find some solutions but after 6 months ASUS still seems to be falling from the clouds and have no idea of this major issue... Sigh... There was a time when ASUS paid more attention to customers and their QC/QA was MUCH higher. Recently even a well known tech-YTuber drop them for too low quality standards.

[asaad0x]

Hello,

I been watching all your comments and check them on my device personally. but i have a program and when i try to open it it just la and frames get mixed like this video : https://easyupload.io/365idu

Do you go through anything like this?

[asaad0x]

Also it gets better when i disable the amd driver from device manager, which is not a solution ofc just tryting troubleshooting

[marcopai]

i've got 0 random reboots since i installed the bios 324, random mutes seems back but it happened only once (maybe w11 updates messing me) 

[nis-say]

Update bios to 324 and Nvidia to 536.99. No random reboots whatsoever. I'm very satisfied with my machine. I hope yall get your problems fixed asap!

[hexaae]

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@nis-say  ha scritto:

Update bios to 324 and Nvidia to 536.99. No random reboots whatsoever. I'm very satisfied with my machine. I hope yall get your problems fixed asap!

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You need to use Optimus with AMD's APU at desktop for random reboots. If you set your laptop to NVidia only (or Ultimate mode from AC) you'll hardly see this problem.

[marcopai]

i'm using ''automatic selection'' i'll try to use optimus now and see if it reboots

[hexaae]

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@marcopai  ha scritto:

i'm using ''automatic selection'' i'll try to use optimus now and see if it reboots

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Auto should be fine too: will switch back to APU when last application requiring discrete GPU is closed.

[Chromanin]

Hey guys,

With the latest bios update I'm again getting some issues with the AMD APU, which AMD APU driver are you guys using? And is there any advantage to disabling AC in the bios for this machine?