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-...

[Merelinie]

Same random shutdown issues here. Also almost always get a blue screen of death when i remove my laptop from the charger for one second. And screenflickering issues happen at times, mostly when im in Teams calls. Super annoying 

[hexaae]

Added in the first msg the ASUS official support LOG filling instructions, see at the bottom.

[q3railer]

Hey everyone! 
I've just ordered RAM and SSD to upgrade my Scar 17 G733PY. I've went with Kingston KF556S40IBK2-64 (64GB 5600Mhz) and Samsung 990Pro 4TB (no heatsink).
I'm interested now should I add some thermal pads over RAM and SSD? As I've seen on image here, there are some on model tested here (I think mine is the same - based on main SSD type). 
https://www.ultrabookreview.com/63626-asus-rog-strix-scar-17/
I know some of you upgraded to the same RAM (possibly SSD as well), so I'm curious about your experiences with thermal pads (needed or not). Thanks!

[TheLordTarius]

I went with 2tb 990 Pro for SSD and 64gb Corsair Vengeance 4800Mhz for ram (forget why I chose this ram specifically). No thermal pads or anything added and I havent seen any temperature issues, only noticed a very slight elevation while running a game benchmark. That said, if you are running something exceedingly memory intensive with loads of read/write cycles nonstop for a long period, I could see it rising more, but seems like with normal usage you wouldnt see any problems, or at least I havent seen any like I said.

[q3railer]

Thanks for the reply. Ram should sink up at 5200Mhz, as user hexaae menioned earlier in this post. Probably no thermal pads needed for RAM. But we'll see once I open the laptop. I've bought Thermal Grizzly pads 120x20x0.5mm and 120x20x3mm (for SSD). Same user mentioned before 2-3mm pad should work well with additional SSD cooling. I'll write my thoughts here once I finish the upgrade. Hope everything goes well.

[q3railer]

Reporting back after successful upgrade of RAM and SSD. Everything works as intended. I must admit that new RAM synced at 5200Mhz makes the system more responsive (snappier), even in Silent profile of G-Helper. I've kept original thermal pads for RAM and added 3mm Thermal Grizzly pad for 990 Pro 4TB (quite a chunky pad). I'm happy everything worked out great in the end. Thanks everyone for their recommendations about RAM and SSD upgrades!

[cenksenci]

That's great! But I don't remnember the RAM has original thermal pad on my laptop, what do you mean by that? 

[q3railer]

On the photo I've posted 4 posts above, those black things covering the RAM. Some sort of covers with white smaller pad glued in the center. These cover RAM, so to me, they look like thermal pads. Maybe they are called differently, not sure. But I reckon they are there as additional heat dissipation items. 

[cenksenci]

Ah I see now, I think you're right, they are some sort of thermal peds. Do we actually need to use thermal pad on the SSD? I never get thermal throttle. But I was thinking maybe I could get down some components temperature by using these pads. Thanks for the advice.

[hexaae]

The black films covering stock RAM and SSD are a thermal protection for surrounding hardware, not a heat-spreader.