fx505dv ASUS Warranty nightmare for a new laptop

[ToasterPC]

Hey there everyone! To be honest I'm desperate at this point, so I'll try to keep it brief.

 

On January 21, 2020, I bought an ASUS TUF Gaming FX505DV-AL11T laptop from Best Buy Mexico (I am in Jalisco), I spent about a year of work saving up for the computer since I needed it for both my job and college (I work as a WordPress developer and study for a bachelor's of Systems Engineering).

 

Every moment with this piece of junk has been a waking nightmare.

 

For some odd reason it seems that the computer will always be stuck at 100% CPU unless I boot into safe mode (The process making this issue seems to be "System Interrupts", in particular related to the driver "AMDRyzenMaster.sys" that comes bundled with the Armoury Crate service). And to make matters worse, attempting to use any virtualization-dependant workload (Hyper-V, Virtualbox, VMWare, Android Studio, etc.) invariably leads to a BSOD (DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION and SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION) unless I disable SVM from the UEFI settings.

 

Also, the system will randomly refuse to boot if any mass storage device is plugged in or I'm not touching the touchpad while the system loads Windows.

 

And to top it off, if I somehow managed to get to my desktop, the WiFi card (Realtek RTL8822CE) will randomly refuse to connect to any network without rebooting the device first.

 

I have already tried both with the OEM image and a clean Windows 10 x64 install (November 2019) on the latest BIOS (505) to update every driver be it from the laptop's support section, the Windows Update catalog, the generic Windows drivers and the manufacturer-provisioned drivers for each component on the device, and nothing has worked so far.

 

I have already been through 4 different RMA service requests, three of which they only flashed the factory image and the fourth one was a return shipping because the laptop arrived without any packaging protection and with a bent top lid from a hit that dented the box.

 

I have already provided both pictures and video of me reproducing the issue step by step, and I have over 10GB of an ADK performance log since the BSOD never saves any dumps or logs to the system, and at this point I'm not sure how to proceed further with ASUS. It's probably my biggest regret at the moment, since I bought the device nearly four months ago, and I have never used it  for more than a week without having to ship it over, only to be disappointed that no one seems to be able to know how to fix it.

 

At this point the only option I know is to cut my losses and try to sell the device, since even though I've been recording every conversation I've had with support I'm not really in a position where anything but a lawsuit would seem to bother them, and I'm running out of ideas of how to fix things myself, so if anyone has any other idea, please let me know.

[TrigrH]

(backup any important files) and make note of your windows version.

 

Remove any secondary storage devices.

Ensure secure boot is disabled.

Ensure CSM (if available) is disabled.

Try another clean install of windows 10 using the media creation tool to download the latest ISO file.

Apply that iso file to a blank USB. using RUFUS. https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v3.9/rufus-3.9p.exe

UEFI boot from the USB to install windows.

Select the correct language and do a CUSTOM install.

delete all partitions such that only a single "unallocated space" entry is listed.

Click that space then hit next. (don't make a partition).

Once windows is installed, do not connect to the internet till AFTER the setup process (this will ensure you get an offline account).

 

Install NO ASUS drivers other than "ASUS System Control Interface V2".

If ethernet or wifi is not working then you can also install that ASUS driver.

 

Do not install ryzen master.

Get updated chipset drivers from AMD. (custom install these also)

Get video drivers from AMD/nvidia.

 

 

[ToasterPC]

On 4/8/2020 at 3:59 AM, TrigrH said:

(backup any important files) and make note of your windows version.

 

Remove any secondary storage devices.

Ensure secure boot is disabled.

Ensure CSM (if available) is disabled.

Try another clean install of windows 10 using the media creation tool to download the latest ISO file.

Apply that iso file to a blank USB. using RUFUS. https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v3.9/rufus-3.9p.exe

UEFI boot from the USB to install windows.

Select the correct language and do a CUSTOM install.

delete all partitions such that only a single "unallocated space" entry is listed.

Click that space then hit next. (don't make a partition).

Once windows is installed, do not connect to the internet till AFTER the setup process (this will ensure you get an offline account).

 

Install NO ASUS drivers other than "ASUS System Control Interface V2".

If ethernet or wifi is not working then you can also install that ASUS driver.

 

Do not install ryzen master.

Get updated chipset drivers from AMD. (custom install these also)

Get video drivers from AMD/nvidia.

 

 

Thanks! So far things have been working in a stable manner, though I wonder if there is any way to set both the fan speed and the keyboard's RGB without relying on Armoury Crate, since the crash only appears when using it.

[TrigrH]

11 minutes ago, ToasterPC said:

Thanks! So far things have been working in a stable manner, though I wonder if there is any way to set both the fan speed and the keyboard's RGB without relying on Armoury Crate, since the crash only appears when using it.

speedfan can do the fans, not sure about RGB.

[ToasterPC]

23 hours ago, TrigrH said:

speedfan can do the fans, not sure about RGB.

Mmm, it seems Sppedfan cannot detect the embedded fan controller. I have tried poking round with notebook fan control, but no dice either. Also took a picture of the opened laptop and I can't seem to find the Super I/O chip, is there anywhere else I might look?

[TrigrH]

1 hour ago, ToasterPC said:

Mmm, it seems Sppedfan cannot detect the embedded fan controller. I have tried poking round with notebook fan control, but no dice either. Also took a picture of the opened laptop and I can't seem to find the Super I/O chip, is there anywhere else I might look?

try argus monitor

[ToasterPC]

14 hours ago, TrigrH said:

try argus monitor

Didn't do the trick either, the Mainboard Fan Control tab in settings is grayed out.