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) flickerings (0.1sec, very fast almost unnoticeable)... looks like AMD iGPU is trying to change resolution or something... ?? This seems a well known AMD issue reported in many forums with previous CPUs. Waiting for AMD Adrenalin driver updates hoping for a fix... 🤞🏻
   NOTICE: Has been reported that disabling Defender (Security Center) > Core Isolation > Memory Integrity + using only ASUS provided AMD video drivers the issue is not reproducible anymore. 

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:
   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 /q (query current idle settings)
   powercfg HIBERNATE ON (force-enable Hibernation if not present)
   
   
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!
   
   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 😞

[hexaae]

About point 2:

Just found that when is not working, running HWiNFO64 resumes normal behaviour and the external monitor through USB-C DP1.4 in the laptop wakes up again! Clearly a software driver bug ASUS should fix. Looks like the USB-C video port needs a software wake up trigger after Hibernation!

Repro steps for ASUS to reproduce the issue:

• set Windows screen mode to single display (external or internal)
• set G733PZ to "Optimized GPU Mode" (auto switch iGPU<->dGPU)
• connect external monitor to the USB-C DP1.4 rear port near HDMI (ext screen will turn on and internal will turn off)
• switch external monitor off (ext screen will turn off and internal laptop display will turn on)
• put G733PZ in Hibernation or let it go automatically after Sleep+Hibernation for a long time
• resume G733PZ
• switch external monitor on. At this point it should turn ext screen on and internal display off, but nothing happens: laptop will ignore connected external monitor turned on (connected through USB-C DP1.4 cable)
• run a program like HWiNFO64 triggering ports and connected devices, and ext monitor will finally turn on again!

Ext monitor connection after Sleep only will always work fine instead. The problem with "lazy USB-C DP port" will happen only after laptop Hibernation.

NEWS: fixed with BIOS 315 ✔️

[hexaae]

New BIOS 315 today solved point 2! No more lazy external screen wake up after Hibernation! 👍 ASUS

[hexaae]

VIDEO SETTINGS

Recommended video settings to compensate a bit excessive saturation and too hot temp (yellowish desktop): 

Change screen color settings from AMD Adrenaline: Temp 6500 to 7000; Saturation 100 to 96

[hexaae]

Seems to support SODIMM Kingston Fury Impact 5600 at 5200 instead of standard ram banks at 4800:

[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???)

[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.