Severe instability after BIOS update — ROG Strix SCAR 18 (G834JYR)

[pucika2k]

Hi,

My ROG Strix SCAR 18 (G834JYR, serial S4NRKD004559173) has become almost unusable. Until recently everything worked fine, but now I am experiencing frequent crashes, mostly while playing Total War: Warhammer 3 and Age of Wonders 4. Sometimes the games crash instantly to desktop with no logs, and occasionally Windows itself crashes without a BSOD.

This started after updating the BIOS to version 322. I reinstalled Windows and tried several fixes, but the problem persists.

What I have tried:

• Reverted BIOS to an earlier version

• Reinstalled GPU drivers using DDU

• Checked temperatures under load (all normal)

• Increased virtual memory (pagefile) to 30–50 GB

• Reset all settings to default

• Updated all available drivers

The system still occasionally throws IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (0xA) errors. The crash dump points to nt!MiCompletePrivateZeroFault, suggesting possible memory or chipset instability.

Could ASUS confirm:

• Which BIOS version is currently stable for this model

• Whether I should reinstall or update Intel Chipset or ME drivers manually

• Any known issues with BIOS 322 or memory compatibility

Thanks in advance for any guidance, as the laptop is currently very unstable.

[ElectroStingz]

Hello,

Whilst you wait for an official reply to your question, your testing approach would suggest this is not BIOS related as you mention going back to an older version did not solve the issue?

So have you been experiencing some issues previously, decided to flash to the new BIOS, no change or got worse and by going back to the older BIOS it remains unstable. < Maybe some other underlying issue that might be getting worse over time. 

Is the laptop stable under stress testing or benchmarks?

What happens if you disable turbo boost? (apart from the performance impact is it stable)

Use the registry to achieve the above.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c

Change the attribute option to 2

Then go to your power plan settings and you will see the new option, processor performance boost mode.

Set this to disabled to make your CPU run at the base frequency of 2.2GHz on the Performance cores. Use the power plan / mode in armoury crate that you use for gaming when doing this as if you change the power profile you must check the options again / set.

1) If your laptop is stable under high load / stress testing with all default settings.

2) Stable when you have boost mode disabled

It points towards the CPU being an issue.

However, you mention normal temperatures? Can you provide details as to how you are testing these, what is your load condition and how are you monitoring?

I would advise hardware monitor (cpuid.com) as it will show more readings than armoury crate. CPU, P-Cores, E-Cores, PCH <chipset temp is important as this one by default is usually very close to 90 DegC. GPU...

[pucika2k]

Hi, thanks a lot for the detailed reply.

To clarify, I initially updated the BIOS to version 322 after the crashes started, hoping it might fix them. The situation didn’t improve, so I rolled back to an earlier BIOS version, but the instability persisted. So it’s possible the BIOS itself isn’t the cause, but something else may have deteriorated around the same time.

I haven’t tried disabling turbo boost yet, but I’ll follow your registry instructions and test it. I’ll report back on whether the system is stable when boost is off.

I’ve done a few benchmarks on 3DMark mainly GPU-focused tests and one CPU-related test because CPU wasn't my prime suspect.

I’ll try some additional stress tests and monitor temps with HWMonitor to get PCH, CPU, and GPU readings, then share them here.

If I understand correctly, if the system becomes stable with turbo boost disabled, that would point toward a CPU or voltage-related issue?

[ElectroStingz]

Default setup the CPU is always attempting to boost high even for light loads like general desktop usage or games / applications that use a limited number of cores. What this means is that the cores which boost higher generally require more voltage which will cause a heat spike on that core.

A single core running at 5.7/5.8GHz can easily see a temperature well over 95 DegC, so if there is an issue with the cooling, like the liquid metal not making good contact above that core, it can crash / be unstable in both light and heavy loads.

By running turbo boost off you minimise the voltage / heat output so if it becomes stable it's pointing towards the CPU. Another thing to check are the temperatures in this state as the CPU should average around 75-80 DegC, if above you have cooling issues.

As to the voltages, the 14th and 13th Gen Intel Desktop CPUs are known to have a voltage flaw that causes the CPU to degrade if exposed to voltages over 1.55V. This was typical behaviour once the CPU pushes the boost towards 5.6GHZ and above but Intel released a patch to reduce the voltage. They claim laptop CPU's are not impacted but there appears to be a few issues with laptop CPUS degrading especially the ones which can run over 5.6GHz like the i9-14900HX. <Will see at least 1.55V and above at times. So there is a possibility that your CPU might be unstable due to degrading as a result this flaw. Just note, the official reply is that laptop CPUs are not impacted by this flaw but I think it is wise to consider this as a possibility.

[eXplode]

downgrade the bios and install 318 after this you only must watch your temps and do some V\F point undervolt also disable hyperthreading that will improve stability temps latency fps everything i even disable 8 E cores on my laptop