bug Multi-year bios bug with manual mode on ASUS laptops just setting the gpu fan to zero rpm

[Nineballo]

This is actually an awful bug, if you try and set a custom fan curve on an ASUS laptop if will just be zero RPM... Now this may not seem too bad at first, just use one of the quieter presets, except the laptop's power draw is also dependent on the mode. So if you are planning on playing games, you have to choose between not being able to hear your thoughts, or not having the performance you otherwise could. 
 

This bug has existed for years across multiple sku's from what I can see, mainly the zephyrus line which is what I use currently. I'll link some complaints below over the years but how is no one else speaking about this. Is this something that could make a wan show it’s kinda ridiculous?
 

https://github.com/seerge/g-helper/issues/1612#issuecomment-1876943224

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/rog-zephyrus-series/rog-zephyrus-g15-ga503rs-ga503rs-fan-manual-mod-problem-only-cpu/td-p/973870

If anyone knows anyone of influence that could make some more noise about this I would appriciate suggestions. For a machine this expensive this shouldnt be an issue, especially for this long. 

 

[da na]

Unfortunately things like this will never get fixed. Many BIOSes have errors such as this that have long gone ignored.

For example, there is a BIOS bug in almost all Intel-based Dell Latitudes 2007-2009, causing the CPU to randomly clock down to 5-10% of its clockspeed for literally no reason at all. 

 

Seems like using a third-party software like FanControl/Speedfan or Afterburner to set curves would be your best recourse here.

[Nineballo]

1 minute ago, da na said:

Unfortunately things like this will never get fixed. Many BIOSes have errors such as this that have long gone ignored.

For example, there is a BIOS bug in almost all Intel-based Dell Latitudes 2007-2009, causing the CPU to randomly clock down to 5-10% of its clockspeed for literally no reason at all. 

 

Seems like using a third-party software like FanControl/Speedfan or Afterburner to set curves would be your best recourse here.

You cant, its a bios bug... That's the whole bug *you cant* set custom fan curves at all. If you try the gpu fan turns off and you just sit at 100c on the gpu until you realize. This laptop doesnt really have a bios menu for clairity so everything is through software.

[da na]

1 minute ago, Nineballo said:

You cant, its a bios bug... That's the whole bug *you cant* set custom fan curves at all. If you try the gpu fan turns off and you just sit at 100c on the gpu until you realize. This laptop doesnt really have a bios menu for clairity so everything is through software.

What do you mean by "Doesn't have a BIOS" - everything has to have a BIOS. I presume it's just not a very good one then?

 

Sorry for misunderstanding, thought you meant fan curves set through a BIOS utility wouldn't work... but wow, that's pretty awful. 

[Nineballo]

Just now, da na said:

What do you mean by "Doesn't have a BIOS" - everything has to have a BIOS. I presume it's just not a very good one then?

 

Sorry for misunderstanding, thought you meant fan curves set through a BIOS utility wouldn't work... but wow, that's pretty awful. 

It just has no interface, you can load into it and see the time, pick the boot order but nothing else. It's the most stripped down interface I've ever seen on a bios tbh. I'll boot into it after responding here and take a picture for ya. 

Everything is supposed to be controlled though "armoury crate", and that is the interface you use to do everything from fan/power profiles, to bios/firmware updates. It honestly sucks though, and the third party tool "G-helper" does a much better job. This issue exists on both but less so on the third party one for some models.

Basically your bios control is all through software on these laptops. The software does everything correctly, but when the bios is submitted a custom fan curve (from software) it bugs out on applying it and will 90% of the time just zero out the gpu fan. 

[da na]

2 minutes ago, Nineballo said:

It just has no interface, you can load into it and see the time, pick the boot order but nothing else. It's the most stripped down interface I've ever seen on a bios tbh. I'll boot into it after responding here and take a picture for ya. 

Everything is supposed to be controlled though "armoury crate", and that is the interface you use to do everything from fan/power profiles, to bios/firmware updates. It honestly sucks though, and the third party tool "G-helper" does a much better job. This issue exists on both but less so on the third party one for some models.

Basically your bios control is all through software on these laptops. The software does everything correctly, but when the bios is submitted a custom fan curve (from software) it bugs out on applying it and will 90% of the time just zero out the gpu fan. 

Ugh, that's horrible. The Mac approach to BIOS: Treat the user like they were born yesterday, thus overcomplicating everything.

 

[Nineballo]

3 minutes ago, da na said:

Ugh, that's horrible. The Mac approach to BIOS: Treat the user like they were born yesterday, thus overcomplicating everything.

 

Yep, it just sucks and there is nothing you can do... I just double checked and yeah you can't even set a fan curve from bios if you wanted to. As you can see the bios is setup to literally auto-install the software for you.... ugh it's just awful to deal with on a multi-thousand dollar laptop.

[Nineballo]

@LinusTech I wonder if this sort of thing could be made into a video, or wan show topic. It's driving me insane and I'm sure there are plenty of other cases across the industry of companies locking out functionality only to break the functionally they decided to expose.

Also I apologise for the ping I'm honestly not sure where else to make these sorts of suggestions.

[BillBill]

The GPU cannot be set to zero. It has to have airflow no matter what. 

[Nineballo]

On 1/21/2024 at 5:27 PM, BillBill said:

The GPU cannot be set to zero. It has to have airflow no matter what. 

Hence the issue. I tell it to spin the fan at 2500rpm, it spins the fan at 0rpm. 

[BillBill]

9 hours ago, Nineballo said:

Hence the issue. I tell it to spin the fan at 2500rpm, it spins the fan at 0rpm. 

The GPU will spin when it reaches a certain temp. Don't try to fix what isn't broken.