zephyrus running extremely slow, getting extremely hot, and malfunctioning keys

[Mr__Mage]

this is my first thread here, I've had my zephyrus for almost a year or 2 now and it always had issues, possibly defective but it's warranty is history, so I don't know much about it at all because I'm no computer guru like most of the people here that I've seen, as of yesterday it's performance has been sliding on the floor when running games and it's temperature is off the charts even when not running games, in fact it's fan is on overdrive even now as I'm typing this, I've tried updating my graphics cards, updating armoury crate and checking to see if the performance mode hasn't changed on it's own and no luck, still having unplayable lag even while playing simple games like roblox, probably gonna get my laptop scrapped into spare parts for my father once it kicks the bucket as I've certainly learned my lesson with buying prebuilt PCs rather than building one yourself

edit: forgot to mention the keys, as of mid summer this year my S key started malfunctioning though it only does so once I start my laptop up after getting home from work, however this has spread like a virus and now keys like x, z, and sometimes my c key malfunction, but my left ctrl has ceased working entirely, I would say it would be crumbs that got under the keys but I only eat at my desk once in a blue moon and I always eat over a plate

[Mr__Mage]

bump

[dvrko]

hello i have a gx502gv which is probably the same model you have, as far as it goes for the temperatures i can tell you that it's just asus that uses a trash thermal compound, I've changed the thermal paste the other day after having the laptop for 2 years and it made a day and night difference, i used to get around 100 C on cpu and 86 on gpu playing warzone on manual with fans set to max and by also removing the back lid to get more air going now after repasting the laptop won't get past 80s on both cpu and gpu on warzone with less fan going. as far as it goes for the keyboard I've been experiencing weird bugs since this summer, some keys just are always on a different coulour, after certain updates they get back to working as normal and after some updates they just start to flash the color they want. let's just say asus didn't do his best with this laptop

[Mr__Mage]

dvrko wrote:
hello i have a gx502gv which is probably the same model you have, as far as it goes for the temperatures i can tell you that it's just asus that uses a trash thermal compound, I've changed the thermal paste the other day after having the laptop for 2 years and it made a day and night difference, i used to get around 100 C on cpu and 86 on gpu playing warzone on manual with fans set to max and by also removing the back lid to get more air going now after repasting the laptop won't get past 80s on both cpu and gpu on warzone with less fan going. as far as it goes for the keyboard I've been experiencing weird bugs since this summer, some keys just are always on a different coulour, after certain updates they get back to working as normal and after some updates they just start to flash the color they want. let's just say asus didn't do his best with this laptop

I don't even know what this thermal paste is nor where you can even get it, but with my past experiences with the laptop I'm just gonna scrap it and sell the parts to save towards a rig from cyberpower.uk because again, I've learned my lesson the hard way with prebuilt PCs and I'll likely never buy one again

[Arno_Boun]

It's been about 2 years since I bought my Zephyrus and it's been running pretty well so far. These were the steps I took to keep my laptop running efficiently:

* Cleaned the vents with compressed air. I found that dust had accumulated over time, hampering the air flow for cooling. In my opinion, the best way was removing the bottom cover of the laptop and cleaning out the dust in and around the vents, heatsink, motherboard, etc.

* Replaced the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU. Since I had already removed the bottom cover of the laptop, I might as well replace the thermal paste. I have tried various thermal pastes, including the Corsair XTM50. For my most recent replacement, I used Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut. From my experience, the Carbonaut offered the best cooling when running performance-intensive programs or games (During peak: GPU stayed under 80 degrees Celsius; CPU stayed under 90 degrees Celsius). This procedure does require some technical skills but there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube that can help you complete this successfully. If you strongly feel that you might end up screwing up the laptop, I would find someone/store that can perform this procedure. If you're planning to scrap the laptop, I think this would be the perfect time to use it as a 'guinea pig' and practice. You mentioned that you weren't a computer guru but I think that you'll be amazed regarding what you can possibly achieve!

* Reinstalled the graphics card driver using the clean method. Download the latest graphics card driver and use NVSlimmer to trim/remove optional files within the driver. I don't need the extra features, such as Geforce Experience and ShadowPlay. Therefore, I would remove them to prevent them from being installed on my laptop. This would also remove some unnecessary background processes/services from running, potentially offering a bit more gain in performance. You can find more info on NVSlimmer here: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/nvslimmer-nvidia-driver-slimming-utility.423072/
Use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to completely remove the old graphics card driver and associated files, reboot the laptop, and then install the latest graphics card driver. You can find more info on DDU here: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/display-driver-uninstaller-thread.379506/

You can skip the part regarding NVSlimmer if you feel uncomfortable using it. I would recommend using DDU for graphics card driver reinstallation, at the very least.

* Use Autoruns for Windows to prevent unnecessary programs from starting up with Windows. This would reduce the number of processes running in the background. You can download it here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns#download

When I felt that my laptop was still not running like it did when I first bought it, I would reinstall the operating system. I would flash the BIOS with the latest version (not necessary but it gives me piece of mind). the BIOS Wipe the SSD and do a clean install of Windows. Make sure no external drives are connected to the laptop while reinstalling the OS. This would be my last resort if the aforementioned steps did not address any performance issues.

Hope this helps!

[Mr__Mage]

arno boun wrote:
it's been about 2 years since i bought my zephyrus and it's been running pretty well so far. These were the steps i took to keep my laptop running efficiently:

* cleaned the vents with compressed air. I found that dust had accumulated over time, hampering the air flow for cooling. In my opinion, the best way was removing the bottom cover of the laptop and cleaning out the dust in and around the vents, heatsink, motherboard, etc.

* replaced the thermal paste on the cpu and gpu. Since i had already removed the bottom cover of the laptop, i might as well replace the thermal paste. I have tried various thermal pastes, including the corsair xtm50. For my most recent replacement, i used thermal grizzly carbonaut. From my experience, the carbonaut offered the best cooling when running performance-intensive programs or games (during peak: Gpu stayed under 80 degrees celsius; cpu stayed under 90 degrees celsius). This procedure does require some technical skills but there are plenty of tutorials on youtube that can help you complete this successfully. If you strongly feel that you might end up screwing up the laptop, i would find someone/store that can perform this procedure. If you're planning to scrap the laptop, i think this would be the perfect time to use it as a 'guinea pig' and practice. You mentioned that you weren't a computer guru but i think that you'll be amazed regarding what you can possibly achieve!

* reinstalled the graphics card driver using the clean method. Download the latest graphics card driver and use nvslimmer to trim/remove optional files within the driver. I don't need the extra features, such as geforce experience and shadowplay. Therefore, i would remove them to prevent them from being installed on my laptop. This would also remove some unnecessary background processes/services from running, potentially offering a bit more gain in performance. You can find more info on nvslimmer here: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/nvslimmer-nvidia-driver-slimming-utility.423072/
use display driver uninstaller (ddu) to completely remove the old graphics card driver and associated files, reboot the laptop, and then install the latest graphics card driver. You can find more info on ddu here: https://forums.guru3d.com/threads/display-driver-uninstaller-thread.379506/

you can skip the part regarding nvslimmer if you feel uncomfortable using it. I would recommend using ddu for graphics card driver reinstallation, at the very least.

* use autoruns for windows to prevent unnecessary programs from starting up with windows. This would reduce the number of processes running in the background. You can download it here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns#download

when i felt that my laptop was still not running like it did when i first bought it, i would reinstall the operating system. I would flash the bios with the latest version (not necessary but it gives me piece of mind). The bios wipe the ssd and do a clean install of windows. Make sure no external drives are connected to the laptop while reinstalling the os. This would be my last resort if the aforementioned steps did not address any performance issues.

Hope this helps!

tl;dr