cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Asus Amoury Preventing Windows 10 from turning off monitors + Erratic Tracking

Bryan065
Level 7
Hey all,

I just got my Spatha recently and I'm loving it. I updated to the newest beta firmware + newest Amoury and didn't have too many issues that other people were having. The only major issues I'm having now is that Asus Armoury is preventing Windows from turning off the monitors when idling, preventing it from going to sleep, and erratic tracking. I've tried using the mouse with several computers and they all have the same issue. I've also tried the mouse in both wired and wireless modes. Description is as follows:

Asus Spatha Firmware: 1.62/1.32
Asus Spatha mode: Wireless
Asus Armoury version: 10134 & 10207

Computer 1:
Windows 10 Pro AU 1607 64-bit
Intel i7 5930k
Asus x99 Strix
Corsair Dominator 32gb 3200mhz
Samsung 960 EVO m.2

Computer 2:
Windows 10 Home AU 1607 64-bit
Intel i7 820
Asus Maximus III GENE
G.Skill Ripjaws 6gb 1600mhz
Intel SSD (forgot model)

Computer 3:
Windows 10 Pro AU 1607 64-bit via bootcamp
Intel i5 mobile version (forgot model)
Macbook late 2012
G.skill 8gb 1600mhz

Issue 1:
-When Asus Armoury is installed, regardless if it in running in the background or not, Windows 10 will not turn off the monitor when the system is idling. Even when I manually send the command for the monitors to turn off (via an app called nircmd.exe), the monitors will instantly turn back on. I have tested this with Armoury version 10134 & 10207 AND on 2 other computers. The same issue persists.

Issue 2:
-Similar to above, not only does the monitor not turn off, the system will refuse to go to sleep after the designated idle duration. It seems like Asus Amoury is constantly resetting the sleep timer so the computer thinks the system is NOT idle.

Issue 3:
-Using the mouse in wireless mode set to 1000mhz polling rate, the mouse will have erratic tracking at regular intervals. Another member was having the same issue with the mouse as well. What happens is that the mouse will track perfectly but then suddenly for 1-2 seconds, the tracking will go out of wack (kind of like the sensitivity being reduced significantly) and then return normal afterwards. This happens suddenly and at regular intervals and makes for a horrible experience as you cannot predict where the mouse will go. When the polling rate is changed back to the default of 500mhz, this issue disappears completely. This should not be a connection issue as the base stand is about ~2-3 inches away from the mouse.

The tracking issue isn't a big deal as I can live with 500mhz polling rate but as I have set a short timer for when the screen turns off+sleep, not being able to actually perform those actions are killing my experience. I have a fingerprint reader so it is extremely easy to wake the screen/unlock/wake the computer with it.

Thanks.

tl;dr: Asus amoury prevents monitors from turning off and going to sleep. Tried on several computers.
2,735 Views
3 REPLIES 3

Korth
Level 14
The ROG Armoury Software User Guide might help you. Although it doesn't seem particularly informative, lol.

Issue 1:
You can try other executables which do the same thing as NirCmd in slightly different ways. Or you can use more advanced methods such as shell scripts, WinAPI calls, and blank screensavers which could send a power-down command to display, send a power-down command to GPU, or simply black out the screen.
AMD Catalyst and NVIDIA GeForce Experience softwares sometimes provide little options/settings which can force monitor behaviours.

Issue 3:
Is there no setting in Armoury which allows >500Hz mouse polling rates?

Issues 1, 2, 3:
I don't run ROG Armoury, but from your description it seems that the software asserts "Realtime" process priority from the WinOS. Probably so that it has full control over subprocesses which themselves control functions of display, mouse, etc. The cure for this is to run Windows Task Manager (taskmon.exe), right-click on the Armoury process and Set Priority to "High" or "Above Normal", thus it would poll the system with less frequency and cease interfering with higher-priority processes. I doubt the runtime priority can be edited in the launch shortcut or startup commands, Armoury is just not that sort of program, lol. Interestingly, this wiki article identifies ROG Armoury as a broken driver which causes system faults and recommends it be removed.
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]

Thanks for that information korth.

For issue 1/2, i'll have to take your advice and use a different executable than nircmd to do what I want. I wanted to avoid the scripts/powershell as nircmd was much simpler. I'll also look into the NVIDIA control panel or NVIDIA inspector for things regarding monitor behaviour. HOWEVER, I did find a workaround for sleep mode as I had to use the device manager to manually disable the "allow device to wake computer" option for each HID mouse device. Doesn't really fix anything but sleep mode is reliable now.

For issue 3, the issue is when the mouse is set to 1000hz in asus amoury does it exhibit the erratic tracking. The mouse just seems to track at half dpi for 1-2 seconds. When it's set back to 500hz (default), there are no issues. This is in wireless mode of course.

-1000hz=erratic tracking at regular intervals
-500hz =no issues

Waiting on bahz to see if he has any input on this tracking issue.

Lastly, thanks for the heads up about the broken amoury driver and that it probably runs as a "realtime" process (might also explain why other users are getting high CPU use?). I can't NOT run armoury as I also use it for automatic profile switching for gaming. There was an app that auto sets a process's priority on boot so I'll try that out with the armoury process. If you/anyone knows an open source/third party app for switching profiles on a per app basis, please let me know! I came from a Cyborg RAT 7 mouse that had a third party program for profile switching but I've been unable to find anything for ASUS peripherals so far.

Korth
Level 14
I always wanted a Cyborg RAT mouse!

You say your mouse operates in wireless mode. Does it also have a wired mode, and if so, does wired 1000Hz polling still have issues? The reduced DPI/response you describe is common with wireless mice that remain idle/unused long enough to enter a lower power mode. But maybe it's got something to do with two-way communication (transferring profiles or something?) between software and mouse.

An inelegant (but powerful) workaround for your per-app profile issue might be to run each app in a different WinOS instance. As in, run Windows in a hypervised VM or (much easier idea) create a separate Windows User Account for each game (and profile, configuration, etc).
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams

[/Korth]