Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC / G702ZC / S7ZC with Ryzen 7 1700 8-core CPU and a Radeon RX580 GPU

Now that you bring it up, that was Asus too.

 

It was pretty much everyone, and here is why:

How a stolen capacitor formula ended up costing Dell $300m
Though the American company had nothing to do with the industrial espionage in China in 2002 that led to faulty components, it paid the price with millions of faulty PCs
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/29/dell-problems-capacitors

https://www.google.com/search?&q=sued+for+bad+capacitors

Actually, I don't see a suit against Asus specifically, just Dell, Samsung, Abit, MSI, and others, but after a few pages through the search about (and below), no Asus mentions except for some people replacing capacitors on old Asus motherboards.
https://www.google.com/search?&q=asus+sued+for+bad+capacitors

 

I still remember it well. Saw tons of these defective Taiwanese OEM boards with leaky/bulging capacitors in the office machines when I was an IT support intern. The majority of them were Asus.

 

I didn't say Asus didn't buy bad capacitors, I said I can't find anything that says Asus were sued. Dell, Samsung, Abit, MSI, and others had links to lawsuits but not Asus.

As that article makes clear, the bad capacitors were everywhere around that time period. The source manufacturers of the capacitors were the problem, and a lot of makers got stung.

 

I got the laptop back.
Good news: it seems to function normally... and the sound is fixed.

Bad news (?) : The cooling assembly is still the old version. Namely, it still has 2 heatpipes going over the RAM (Which makes it a pain in the rear end to upgrade without removing the cooling assembly), and that motherboard chip is still exposed (aka, no heatpipe extending to it).

So, what exactly have they replaced in regards to the cooling?
I was told that Asus stopped shipping the 'older version' over the phone, but they might have meant it in the sense that they didn't know what they were talking about and that Asus would not have sent them the old version (but its quite odd because they got the part on the same day, which is ... not possible as far as I know - so it could be the case they had older assemblies - or they never changed the actual assembly and just changed something else... like the fans?).

This is probably going to result in the same problem again if that missing heatpipe is the main issue that's frying the motherboard constantly.

I'll have to ring the repair depot tomorrow and ask them about it... but they will probably just tell me to speak to Asus... which of course I can't do because all their call centre is good for are minor technical faults... not engineering issues or internals.

 

I spoke to Asus some time ago when have problem with my own unit.
They said that pictures of different cooling system which you can find on internet (with heatpipe on B350 chipset and without heatpipes over RAM slots) were made on review units (with both R5 1600 and R7 1700 CPUs) which they send to reviewers.
There is no difference in cooling system betwen both CPU versions in production units and both have "new" cooling system WITHOUT heatpipe on B350, which is quite dissapointing...

My way to overpass potential problem with overheating of B350 is to add +10-20% to fan boost in ROG gaming center.
It it working well in my case for couple months now, previously it took less than 2 months to fry motherboard.

 

You got it. Unfortunately, reviewer's units are usually pre-production and usually these units have unconfirmed specs that tend to be better than the production units.

 

Actually I don't think that reviewer's units were better thermal designed.
Yes, they probably do not fry chipset due to heatpipe, but check early reviews and CPU/GPU temps - they are a lot higher than that what i have on my two units.

In my opinion only resonable non-temporary solution is to design own alu radiator for B350 chipset (it has >5W TDP!). There is a lot of space there. It will unfortunatelly broke warranty.
I will do it after warranty expiration date. For now +10-20% fan boost is temporary solution.
I was thinking about buying radiator with adhesive tape (raspberry pi like) but I have doubts whether it will not peel off and do electronical damages (short circuits).

 

I raised this issue eith asus technical support via phone and they said they will let me know as soon as they have more information and will escalate the problem to asus itself.

Will likely get the same answer

 

Lower temperatures (vs reference units) are always welcome... but that's not a good long term solution if the motherboards keep frying themselves because the chipset has nothing to cool it (again, IF that's what's causing the failure in the first place).

So, in that situation, it would come down between: higher temperatures (but probably nothing the laptop cannot handle)... or, continuously failing motherboard?

Mind you, I'd prefer lower temps and the motherboard not malfunctioning.

But I have to say, I hadn't exactly noticed lower temperatures in my unit vs the reference designs.
For that matter, mine COULD be a reference design.

I tried the raspberry pi self adhesive radiator, but it fell off after about 5 mins of using the unit.
It's not a very good adhesive (especially if it falls off when the thing heats up)... But admittedly i hadn't tried the aluminium version.

Hold on... What about using a high quality thermal pad (such as ones that have about 11w/mk or more)? With a self adhesive radiator on top of it?

Or we just use the thermal pad without rhe radiator(s) (the raspberry pi radiators are small and we'd need to put multiple of those on that chip to cover it).

 

I remember those type of heatsinks used on motherboards that had hard glue on them. Those were a lot of tougher to remove.

 

I got an email from Asus regarding the issue I raised:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Asus support.
I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Please be advised I am writing this email regarding the repair of the GL702ZC notebook you had with us and your concerns about the cooling assembly of the device not being updated.

Unfortunately our repair center is only allowed to repair a unit, they cannot update a unit per specific wishes. Furthermore, what we can advise in the case you wish to have a later model CPU, would be to contact your local IT shop. Please note that upgrading this notebook would have to be done at your own risk and will likely void the remaining warranty of the device.

Its accurate I asked them to request of Asus the updated cooling assembly, but silly me, that was because I was afraid that the old one was causing the motherboard to constantly FRY ITSELF in the first place, because a potentially crucial component on the motherboard didn't have a heatpipe to take away the waste heat it generated.

Sheesh... and its not 'per specific wishes' because I requested a component that was designed for this laptop in the first place. They made it sound like I requested a custom designed cooling (which in reality I SHOULD have gotten from Asus if that's what it takes to fix this mess).

And what's with the later model CPU comment?
I hadn't asked them about that (at least not in the past 6 months).
Now I'm wondering whether upgrading to Ryzen+ and Zen 2 might end up possible after all.

 

I think 40mm x 10mm x 40mm would suffice for our chipset... on the other hand... it could be a bit big... maybe 30x10x30 ?

 

I think the main issue with self adhesive radiators falling off in this laptop is the fact they get turned upside down when you seal the unit and turn it over do you can use it (that, and obviously weak adhesive layer which doesn't stick well to the chipset).

 

Yup! You're absolutely right.

 

The self-adhesive radiators probably weren't designed to operate upside down, or the chipset material is not playing well with the adhesive (or both) - but the same problem would likely apply to almost any other laptop as most of them have to be turned upside down.
This is what I'm concerned about even if we use high quality thermal pads on the chipset.
Will it stick to it?
And can I apply a radiator on top of it that won't fall off just because its turned upside down?

Ideally, I'd need a radiator that can be screwed into those holes on the sides ofthe chipset... or somehow secure it to prevent it from falling off if its upside down.

Any additional info on how I can go about doing this?

It would/should be a minor modification that can be removed by myself (so if the laptop needs to go in for repairs again - I really hope not - Asus wouldn't really know I did anything of the kind in there).

 

Is the bottom plate plastic or aluminum?

If metal you can try stacking thermal pads and use the bottom plate as medium of heat dispersion.

 

You mean is the bottom laptop chassis plate plastic or aluminium?
The laptop's chassis is plastic.

But the motherboard chipset is covered with metal... potentially, I could try using a thermal pad underneath it (if the metal bit can be disengaged) and see if I can at least do that... but... here's the problem... where's the heat gonna go?

 

You would have to get a mosfet copper heatsink to put on that then. The ones with black tape pre-applied have pretty good adhesive. Unless you're thumping the laptop daily for 6 months it shouldn't be an issue. Just make sure you apply as desired the first time for best adhesive result.

If you can fab a metal bottom plate cover the heat would displace over the whole thing that would yield some good results also. But more expensive naturally.

 

The only mosfet heatsinks that come up under search in UK are way too tall.
I ordered this one:
https://thepihut.com/products/al-heat-sink-with-adhesive-tape-30-30-10mm

Is there some kind of glue I could apply to firm up the heatsink to the metal plate in case the adhesive is too weak?
Perhaps this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermal-Co...&qid=1536432265&sr=1-3&keywords=heatsink+glue
Or this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermal-Co...&qid=1536432265&sr=1-5&keywords=heatsink+glue

Obviously I'd avoid the sticker on the metal plate and just ensure that the metal bits are covered with small amounts of glue (just to make sure the heatsink doesn't fall off).

Btw... I re-applied the small 4 raspberry pi self-adhesive heatsinks to the chipset and they seem to be holding for now (and it might be my imagination, but the idling temperatures for the CPU and GPU might have also dropped since applying the heatsinks to the chipset - but I'll have to test things out thoroughly to make sure).

But I'd feel a lot better if I can apply some just a little bit of proper glue to the metal bits and ensure the heatsinks stay on.

 

You want the ones that are tall, its easy to cut them to size.

I have used glue like that before, works well but if you need to send your laptop in for repair they may use that as grounds to void the warranty, you know how OEM's can be. Its also not something I would want to use with an aluminum, its a kind of perma solution and aluminum doesnt hold much kinetic energy (heat) so the benefits

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enzotech-G...id=1536437680&sr=1-5&keywords=mosfet+heatsink

Too tall but you can repurpose, its been used in a lot of m11x/m14x/y510p heatsink mods.

 

What would I cut them with?
I don't exactly have the needed tools for that.
Also, they don't appear to be self-adhesive... which begs the question, how on Earth would I mount them on the GL702ZC chipset and have them stick to it without perma-gluing them?
Obviously, I would like something that would result in easy removal if the machine breaks down again and it needs to be sent to Asus (again) for RMA, so they wouldn't void the warranty.

 

similar as Dremel F0137750JB 7750-10 NI MH Cordless Multi-Tool, 4.8 V

Some have glued metal foil inside the bottom lid and conneted overheating NVMe ssd's to the bottom lid. Either with use of copper heatsink or thermal pads. Hope you understood what I meant.

Edit... Copper Foil mod

 

Well it wouldnt need to be that specific item but you can cut them easily with wire cutters. wear protective eye wear or close your eyes when cutting (can fly upon cut) any basic wire cutter would do.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adafruit-H...097&sr=1-7&keywords=double+sided+thermal+tape

Never used it personally but just as an example.