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

Here's my technical support ticket I sent to Asus:
I was playing Mass Effect Andromeda game last night and the laptop fans suddenly increased their spinning speed up to 100% and it produced extreme levels of noise.
This is highly unusual since the game never stressed the system fans to such levels before.

I shut down the game and waited to see if the fans would spin down.
They did not.
CPU and GPU utilization was very low to non-existent in Windows using Task Manager.

Also, I tried restarting the computer into UEFI/BIOS, and the fans were still running at 100% in the BIOS/UEFI.

I tried resetting the BIOS/UEFI to defaults (even though I never changed any values to begin with) but that didn't affect the fans (they are still running at 100%).

I even shut down the laptop for the night and turned it on 8 hours later, but the fans started spinning at maximum the moment it started booting (I repeated this several times).

I don't know what could possibly cause this problem.
Since the laptop's BIOS/UEFI is locked, I have no manual fan control and cannot adjust any fan settings.

This is really unacceptable for a £1600 product which is just over a month old.
The noise levels of the fans running at maximum are highly distracting and makes it impossible to focus (never mind get any work done if other people are around).

Asus ROG Gaming center reports nominal values for CPU and GPU as you can see from the pictures and the fans are just sitting at maximum (no other values reported), with the slider not affecting the fans at all.
And I also supplied the BIOS/UEFI snapshot to demonstrate the fans are running 100% there from boot and not reducing speed at all.

I also tried calling your customer services over the phone and it kept saying all your lines were busy (after about 5 to 10 mins of waiting).

 

Yeah, it's a tough tight-rope walk to success in RMA with laptop companies, these guys are run on a performance metric that rewards not fixing things if they can make them perform in the manner defined as "ok".

You don't want to leave out important info, you need to write it as needed to describe and allow them to reproduce the problem, without writing too much they won't read - they will decide in the first few lines how to approach the problem, and if they see a wall of text you can be sure they will try to skip around to find the meat to fix.

It's hard to have sympathy when you have thousands of $ of hardware and it's not working right, but having some empathy for the guy that has to fix it helps get it done right the first time.

That needs to show through in what you write, if only *not* to allow your low estimation of the end results show through - otherwise it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It might anyway, but you have to go in with a positive attitude and speak to them as a "more qualified to fix it than me" peer.

Each person you speak with along the path to get your laptop seen and fixed must be treated with respect and your full attention, otherwise you can go off path very easily, and this is what is behind people having months of RMA instead of days or a week or two.

Not having long descriptions of the problem is the first step to a single RMA visit.

 

I do treat people with respect.
But correct me if I'm wrong... pointing out what you already did/tried without success shouldn't come off as disrespectful superior attitude.
It gives a person the means to narrow down the problem (not that there's much to narrow down considering that the problem is occurring inside and outside Windows irrespective of the load on the hardware - so the Asus technicians will be able to see/hear this issue with the fans running on maximum when they power on the unit immediately if I send it back to them).
If they want to test out other avenues, then by all means, but don't treat me as an ignorant consumer who knows nothing on how computers work and take me through the lengthy process again and again if I already told you I tried it several times without success before making the call - that just makes them look condescending (and disrespective of me) because they just decide to ignore what you tell them.

 

Let's start in reverse order

Complaining to the technician about your difficulty in connecting to tech support isn't in his job description, he doesn't care and shouldn't care, he is there to fix the technical problem.

Just like you wouldn't want to hear this if you were trying to read a problem report to find a way to fix a guys problem, neither does he want to hear it. In fact it's probably one of his pet peeves - people complaining about the process of RMA.

Describing the problem needs be done in one simple statement, and not repeated a bunch of times in different ways with different examples that might confuse them.

For some English isn't their 1st language and even with great English skills it's easy to get confused when someone is using lots of repeated statements about the same problem. State the problem in one sentence. What you did to try to fix it is optional - very short 1 line problem statement and short list of what you did to try to fix it. They may actually read what you tried to do to fix it and try to blame the problem on what you did subsequently.

They would be more interested in what you did just before the problem occurred, did you install new software, uninstall software, change some settings somewhere (ROG settings, maybe reset to defaults or uninstall / reinstall after deleting all ROG associated files / folders), did you drop it or did something drop on it, did you poke around the inside of the laptop, etc etc.

They want to know the cause, not what you did to try to fix it, they need to know the problem so they can fix it - they should already know what the correct fix is, they don't need to know what you did to try to fix it that didn't work.

Also don't complain about how things should work, and how it's unacceptable that it's not working. It's not working, work from there to get it working again.

Try again, see if you can shorten it to about 6 lines.

 

Yeah, it's a personal growth process, don't take it personally though, I am not attacking you I am telling you how to strip out what's not needed and how to get it fixed in one RMA visit.

The idea is to take out all the emotional hurtful stuff (how you are hurt or how you want to hurt them for the pain you feel), and just state it like Spock would, or Yoda - maybe not like Yoda

Be brief, factual, and not presumptive on a solution or get into the solution.

Gotta run for a few hours, see you later

 

I wasn't putting in the emotional hurtful stuff. I simply said that for a £1600 machine, these kinds of problems should not arise (after all, not all of us have the money to write off newly bought hardware worth several months of wages for example or approach the RMA without caution).

But, I already explained what I was doing. I was playing a Mass Effect Andromeda game for several hours and then suddenly, the laptop fans cycled up to 100% and stayed at that speed long after I shut down the game. The fans continued running on maximum with little or no load on the CPU/GPU for extensive periods of time, with Task Manager not indicating any load on either hardware, and the fans continued running at maximum when I restarted the computer into BIOS/UEFI even after several attempts at shutting down and booting it.
I have not dropped the laptop, nor changed or deleted any ROG settings (which wouldn't explain why the fans would behave like this inside the BIOS/UEFI - because those apply for inside of Windows only), I never opened or touched the insides of the laptop.

So, how would I approach them for a technical support ticket response or composing a brief for the RMA?

 

Tell them the failure(s), but not the story around it. Don't suggest solutions, just tell them what you want it to stop doing that it wasn't doing before it started doing it, without the intro or extro.

 

I just want to know if, since the processor is socketed, an 1800X will run in this rig... ??

 

1800x is a 95W TDP CPU... that' vs the 1700 at 65W TDP in GL702ZC.
Too big of a difference to risk it for thermal dissipation.

In terms of putting any higher performing CPU in this laptop, you'd need to wait for Ryzen+ (refresh) or Ryzen 2 (that's provided of course Asus releases the Agesa update for upcoming Ryzen's).

 

I see. I wonder what the CPU was pulling when it was overclocked to 3.6 - then again, that Chinese article seems to indicate that the system is limited to 68 watts....

 

Actually, the GPU is limited to 68W... but that downclocked RX 580 pretty much behaves like GTX 1060 anyway, so it will be more than enough for 1080p Ultra and can squeeze out pretty good FPS at 2K and High settings (if you're outputting on a 2k FreeSync monitor).

I don't know how much the CPU is pulling when overclocked to 3.6GhZ... need to check online reviews for that... but the PSU is rated to about 300 W (it's also big and heavy), and the laptop seems to pull in the area of around 250W when fully stressed if I'm not mistaken.

Also, the CPU is already undervolting itself to lowest possible voltage at stock, so you can't increase efficiency... same is with the GPU which is limited to 1077 MhZ on the core and about 0.86V (the VRAM on the other hand when it clocks up to 2000MhZ under load seems to be set to 1V).

Right now, affecting the GPU's voltages is not possible since Radeon Wattman is not showing in the drivers for this mobile RX 580, and other tools like Wattool cannot change the values without causing problems - I think its a matter of desktop software being adapted to work in a laptop and of course regular software not recognizing it as desktop hardware, but something else/unfamiliar.

 

Ok, I compiled the RMA note for Asus technicians (I spoke with customer support and they said my options are to RMA the laptop for repairs, detailing the issues - they said Windows issues won't be a problem).
This is what I wrote up... so could you adjust it for me if you think it needs adjustment?

Problem 1:
- Laptop fans are running on maximum all the time (producing very high noise levels) from initial bootup and no longer automatically adjust themselves to hardware load. The fans are also running on maximum in BIOS/UEFI and Windows regardless of the hardware temperature or load - this issue started happening 2 days ago, but I had the laptop for just over a month.

- Higher than desired thermals and fan noise during use of the CPU and GPU when playing games or using professional software makes it difficult to focus or do professional work around other people.


Problem 2:
- Pre-installed Windows gave me errors in regards to programs and games not being able to produce saves or autosaves. In some cases, software refused to even install. Windows also refused to install some updates.
The factory reset also does not work as intended. It reached 40%, then said there was some kind of error, undid that and threw me back into Windows, and is non functional. I had to do a clean install to resolve the initial problems of software not installing or producing saves.
I would like to request that the original Windows image is restored, tested if possible to see it works properly without problems, and that the factory reset partition works with latest Windows updates.


Request:
- If you will be re-pasting, please use a high quality paste such as GeLid Extreme in small amounts that spreads well across necessary surface areas and please check the fitment of the heatplates and cooling pipes.
Please also consider using Fujipoly thermal pads for voltage regulators and other components to further improve cooling.

- I am concerned that high thermals during regular use might have caused internal damage to components which are now forcing the fans to run at maximum at all times, and that it might happen again.
Please consider investigating this issue and redoing the cooling if necessary to avoid these kinds of problems in the future.

 

It's perfect except for the whole last "Request" section, I'd leave that out entirely as they can't provide non-standard supplies, but I have heard that if you send them the paste (not sure about the thermal pads) they will use your paste - just not conductive pastes.

Add a line like this to the end of Request #1:

"I will include a tube of my preferred thermal paste and thermal pads, please include a note on the RMA request that they use the non-conductive thermal paste and thermal pads for doing the re-pasting I'm requesting to reduce heat and therefore fan noise."

When they acknowledge this first request with an RMA #, I'd ask for 2 things:

1) Please supply a prepaid shipping label that I can print and affix to the box. I can't afford to pay for shipping.

And repeat this request:

2) I will include a tube of my preferred thermal paste and thermal pads, please include a note on the RMA request that they use the non-conductive thermal paste and thermal pads for doing the re-pasting I've requested.

Please let us know how it goes

 

How would I go about asking them for those 2 things you stated?
Should I raise a support ticket or will the correspondence be difference with the RMA number?

Also for the request section, I only included what you wrote... I think it sums up nicely that I would like them to examine the cooling and ensure its adequate (I can amend the first request with the thermal paste, stating that I already have GeLid Extreme and will supply it in the box along with thermal pads).

Btw... it seems the RMA problem description box allows only for 1000 letters.

 

Yup, 1000 little letters, sounds like so much, but it's never enough.

When you send in the RMA request they will send you an RMA number, and hopefully an attached shipping label that will pay for shipping from you to them.

If they automatically include the shipping label, you can reply to that RMA response and make it one request - repeating the detailed request for re-pasting.

 

Ah ok.
I'll let you know if I encounter issues.

 

Asus is actually picking up the laptop via specific courier service.
I will be charged about £35 for handling costs - I don't think this would apply to a shipping label... but the email I received with the RMA number says 'do not reply' (implying its an automated one).

EDIT: I printed off another copy of the paper with the problems and requests which I will supply with the laptop (along with the thermal pads and GeLid extreme paste).

 

Any confirmation on ASUS supporting upgrading the CPU down the line (Ryzen +/2/3)?

 

Nothing as of yet.
I raised a support ticket with Asus on whether they will include AGESA 1.0.0.7 update from AMD to support Ryzen+, 2 and 3.... but never received a reply on that.

On the other hand, when someone asked about virtualization support, Asus said they will include that in their next BIOS update (I'm not sure if they meant the version they uploaded with the rest of the drivers [and one I currently have installed] or future ones).

 

Someone on TomsHardware mentioned that they had a same problem with their non-gaming laptop.
Main difference however was that the guy's laptop is 3 to 4 years old vs mine that's just over a month old.
Anyway... this was his reply:
So l actually fixed mine cuz it was a hardware problem. It was a 4-pin fan, of course, and the red wire had disconnected so there was no control signal, so it was blasting away at 100%. l just opened mine up and sodored it back together. However, my laptop is 3-4 years old and not a gaming laptop so do as you see fit. But that's what l did.

That's interesting and could actually explain what happened to mine.
Problem is, I don't think I can access the wiring for the fan and check it without removing the cooling assembly (which would be tricky).

 

You can access the the cables that connect the fans to the motherboard without removing the heatsink/cooling assembly. Funny you mention the cable disconnecting, I think that happened to mine. Either that or I forgot to reconnect it while reassembling while drunk.

 

LOL. On my old Lenovo Y500, I disconnected the brown PWM wire on purpose because the laptop had no fan control and wouldn't spin at 100% otherwise.

Speaking of which, I should probably rig a physical switch on that wire to toggle auto and max fans at will.

 

I noticed these in stock now. Are they worth their $1500 asking price?

Here's our local MC model http://www.microcenter.com/product/481879/ROG_GL702ZC-WB74_173_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

 

Looking at the GL702ZC internals from Notebookcheck review ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-...700-Radeon-RX-580-Laptop-Review.247548.0.html) , it appears the fan wires ARE accessible without removing the heatsink.

But, if it was a wire that got disconnected somehow and would require soldering it back onto the motherboard... if another problem pops up, and I need to send it back to Asus, but they notice I did some modifications... they would probably say I voided the warranty (as of course, manual attempt at repairs voids the warranty).

I'm not too good with soldering things, and I don't think its worth risking a 2 year warranty for a £1600 laptop.

Though, I could have opened it up and grabbed a look at the situation at the very least without voiding the warranty to get an idea if it is a cut wire causing the problem.

 

Link is broken...
Otherwise, are they worth the asking price?
I would say, yes.
Considering that an Intel i7 4c/8th + GTX 1060 will cost similar or more with about 8GB RAM (possibly 16GB but not sure), depending on the configuration and manufacturer.

With this laptop from Asus, you get 8 cores and 16 threads plus RX 580 that's pretty much comparable to GTX 1060 performance-wise, 16GB RAM (with the option to upgrade to 32 GB yourself) and of course FreeSync.

Admittedly Asus did skimp a bit on a few things such as creating a non-removable battery that's rated at only 76wh (probably to make it fit better into a thinner 17" chassis, so they sacrificed capacity and removability of the battery - but in all reality, gaming laptops don't really have a high battery life to begin with)... plus the cooling for the GPU could have been executed better to reduce the fan noise during gaming... but you'd be better off using headphones while gaming and muffling out any potential noise from the fans anyway (unless you want to use Asus ROG Gaming centre to make the fans work at 50% during load - that should keep the noise under acceptable levels - assuming the utility overrides auto fan behaviour correctly) - and I suspect that repasting the GPU and CPU with a higher quality thermal compound would improve thermals to the point where the fans wouldn't necessarily cycle up to the point they do during gaming... but the thermals ARE indeed more than acceptable during gaming (they go up to about 70 - 75 degrees Celsius on the gpu... and similar or less on the CPU - which is pretty great).

 

Thanks Deks. I repaired the link too.

Is there a specific sku number to differentiate the 60hz vs the 120hz version? I would not want to buy the 60hz unit personally. Yes I'm a high refresh rate PC gaming snob.

 

Mid range GPU's like GTX 1060 and RX 580 will probably not be able to push 120 FPS on all games anyway. You can likely expect over 100 FPS in some games, but likely not 120 FPS on all of them.

The 60HZ panel is more than adequate... in which case, you can limit the RX 580 using drivers to 60FPS (as there's 0 point going over the LCD panel's refresh rate since it's just producing wasted frames and chugging down on more power).

Furthermore, I don't think Asus made the GL702ZC with 120HZ refresh rate. I think they only made 60HZ version.

Another OEM I think developed a laptop with Intel CPU and RX 580 (full blown desktop specs without limiting its core frequencies) that also has a 120HZ panel if I'm not mistaken - I forgot which one though.

It's up to you.
I wouldn't worry about LCD panel refresh rates. 60 FPS is enough for RX 580 and GTX 1060... at least it is in my case.

 

Depending on the laptop, MSI / Asus have "Warranty Void" stickers over crucial screw holes, which means you need to break the sticker to get into the back of the laptop, and with the MSI GT80 that same screw holds in the top panel that covers the compartment with the RAM, M.2 SSD's, and HDD.

So it's not so casual or easy to "look" on all laptops. Does / did your laptop have a sticker over a screw or cover seam?

 

Not to my knowledge.
Besides, in order to upgrade the RAM you'd need to remove the entire back panel to reach the RAM slots... and was told by Asus I'm allowed to upgrade the RAM myself, so that wouldn't void the warranty.

 

Yup, it's region dependent, which is why I always suggest asking the vendor via a support ticket what is ok to do, changing RAM / Storage, Re-pasting, etc. before doing it.

MSI said it was ok to replace the RAM and M.2 / 2.5" storage and ok to go through "Warranty Void" sticker to do it

 

Technically I could have opened it, but given that I already had the laptop slated for pickup by the courier... well, you get the idea.
Besides, I don't think I would have been able to do anything in the first place even if one of the wires was cut from the motherboard.
I am not allowed to solder stuff on my own (as that would void the warranty), and there's no guarantee such a repair would work in the first place.

And, if the wire connector ended up disconnected from the motherboard... wouldn't that mean that the actual fan wouldn't be running in the first place?

Plus, I wanted Asus to grab a look and requested them to examine the cooling in the event that it may need to be remade to prevent something like this from happening again.
It stands to reason that if this happened during gaming, something happened during that period that affected the hardware in some fashion - could have been the thermals, poor soldering, etc.

Like I said, this gives Asus the chance to examine the issue (at my request) and make sure they didn't create a design flaw (which wouldn't surprise me considering they messed up by putting a weak battery into the system along with a VERY noisy fan system during gaming).

Why not create a thicker system in that case to give us a better battery and better/quieter cooling?
I mean, other laptops of this calibre are maybe 5 to 8 db lower on the noise level when fully stressed... so I don't get it.


Which reminds me... about the laptop fans... are there any resellers of internal laptop fans?
You know the ones that go INSIDE the chassis?
Most of the fans sold seem to be external... no internal ones.
I was just wondering if its possible to get higher quality fans that produce less noise but do the same or better job at cooling.

 

If all the fans stopped or are locked at 100%, then it's likely the circuitry controlling the fans that failed, not the wiring. If it was only one fan affected, and the others are still running correctly, then it might be wiring, but that's usually only for 0% fans.

I wouldn't have opened the laptop to fix that fan problem either

 

True, not to mention if you turn down the graphical detail, then the low clocked Ryzen CPU will become the bottleneck.

Still, 120Hz is a nice option to have for those non-intensive games, like competitive eSports titles.

 

If you guys aren't following this thread on the ROG Forums:

G702ZC - AMD-V VIRTUALIZATION POSSIBLE?
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthre...ation-possible&p=689865&viewfull=1#post689865

"Yesterday 11:51 PM #58 hahataxi
seems they have been looking into this issue since last week, and facing some issues found when enable the CPU VT feature.
anyway, they may update the BIOS on website after the verification of BIOS pass. hope would be next week!"

 

Here's a review of GL702ZC from Hexus:
https://hexus.net/tech/reviews/laptop/112583-asus-rog-strix-gl702zc/

This somewhat confirms my suspicions that Asus apparently cheeped out on the battery, SSD (though I have to say that the SSD is plenty fast for what it does), didn't include a dual channel RAM (or faster RAM for that matter) as options to modify the system prior to purchase (customisation), and of course the cooling solution (not to mention the fans) seems like an afterthought.

I still like the laptop for what it is, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be ignoring how Asus made critical (and probably easily corrected) errors for what is essentially a 'poster child' of mobile computing for AMD using latest technologies.
They could have and SHOULD have done better (for the same price).


Why do reviewers still see the RX 580 as too power hungry?
This mobile version is limited to 68W... its more efficient than the mobile GTX 1060 which is limited to 80W and performs pretty much the same in games.

If Asus worked to limit the RX 580 to 80W as well in mobile space (and implemented proper cooling for it like they did for the GTX 1060, 1070 and 1080, not to mention 1080 SLI), it would likely be able to stretch itself further performance-wise (still, it's good to see that benchmarks are misleading and that actual gaming performance is well on-par even with lower clocks - but somehow no one is mentioning this).


It seems very odd to me that Asus would intentionally ruin what could have been a perfectly GREAT laptop with these issues (main ones being the inferior/integrated battery, and of course really noisy fans).
I wouldn't mind a bulkier laptop if it meant better cooling and superior battery (for the same price - no reason to overcharge on these things).

Or, they could have done so intentionally to prevent the laptop from outselling their Intel+Nvidia counterparts - not sure if this can be substantiated at all, but it wouldn't surprise me.

They still seem to be bending over to Nvidia and Intel as those laptops seem to have better overall cooling implementations (with higher TDP's to boot when you take into account the higher end GPU's like the 1070 and 1080) that are quieter.


I'm sick of OEM's shafting AMD like this repeatedly (Ryzen at least changed things around and we have more AMD options at least), but options alone are not enough. Quality is important. AMD's components are not to blame here. They are efficient... it's the OEM's fault for high noise and less efficient cooling.

They have no issues putting high TDP Intel and Nvidia components or cooling them with acceptable noise levels, but will completely ruin the AMD system in turn.


It's actually a good thing I sent my laptop back to Asus for RMA, and I specifically asked them to have a look at what caused my fans to suddenly start running 100% all the time from boot-up and that they should look into redoing the cooling if needed to avoid it from happening again (since it looks like a hardware fault caused by gaming - or higher thermals).
I also told them about higher than acceptable thermals and noise levels (which are headache inducing and make it impossible to work around people if I need to use professional software).
They 'might' do something about that, but I doubt they would go redesigning a whole cooling assembly just because I mentioned these issues - who knows though - at the very least it could force them to admit they cheeped out on the cooling and might need to redo it.


Would I still recommend the laptop for purchase?
If you're keen on getting an all AMD portable workstation for content creation with decent graphics (which costs the same as an Intel CPU with half as much cores/threads but comparable GPU)... yes.
The laptop is definitely capable and performs well.
But bear in mind that the 'caveats' I mentioned are entirely OEM related... nothing really to do with AMD as such.
In such an instance it would be good if another OEM did an all AMD laptop (properly) or Asus fixes up the cooling/noise levels on this one (and possibly the battery).

Also, the existing cooling and noise levels could likely be improved through simple re-pasting of the GPU and CPU by using higher quality thermal compound (and possibly Fujipoly thermal pads where appropriate).
It might be worth investigating the use of Liquid Metal Conductonaut given Asus cooling implementation (or at the very least GeLid GC Extreme which seems to perform pretty much like Liquid ultra and Liquid Pro).

 

Btw... Asus received my unit.
They said:
"We would like to inform you (my RMA number) has arrived in the repair centre for assessment.
You will be kept updated on the progress of your repair.
If you have any further concerns or queries please do not hesitate to email our support team on:
[email protected]"

Considering I mentioned the issues of higher thermals and noise levels in the note I supplied, any recommendations to emphasise these problems again and make them consider redoing the cooling?

I'm really disappointed that Asus would cheepout like this on cooling in what is otherwise an efficient hardware (it could be what damaged the fan control circuitry in the first place).

I'm open to suggestions if you have some good ones to write back.
Obviously, it might be too much to expect of Asus to improve the battery considering its integrated, etc... however, it might/should be doable for them to redo the cooling.

Hmscott... I know you have some good suggestions.
Would you consider raising these concerns again with them in an email to emphasise them?

 

It's most likely they got the note you printed and tucked in the box for them when it opened...you did do that?

Just in case it gets lost, sometimes one person intakes and inspects and forgets to include the note, so you can reply to the [email protected] address and include a copy of the text from your original ticket and attach the text from the note.

And, ask the reader of the email to print and pass on the note and ticket to the technician doing the work.

They should have the ticket already, and hopefully the printed note in the box, so this is redudant, but it shouldn't hurt to follow up.

I wouldn't add any text to what you already have included in the ticket and note, as those have your complaints and requests.

 

Indeed.
I already supplied the note with the laptop and all other paperwork, but I can resent it to the e-mail they provided and request they pass it on the technician(s) doing the repairs.

 

There's another person who owns a GL702ZC with a similar problem to mine.
They reported it on the ROG forums:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97777-GL702ZC-dead-GPU&p=690432&posted=1#post690432

His primary issue is a dead GPU, but the owner also explained his fans started working on 100% after a restart.
This is his post:
"Hi all,

I got my GL702ZC about 3 weeks ago and today while playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided the screen suddenly turned off and it hasn't turned on since. After rebooting the laptop I could still access it over the network but the GPU seems to have dropped off of the PCI bus entirely, it's just not there any longer. I was playing without headphones on so I could hear the fans the whole time and while they were running they never went insane.

After rebooting the fans did seem to go to 100% the whole time, but I was able to recover my data. The fact that the laptop never went to 100% fans before it broke suggests to me that at the time it broke there was no thermal problem.

I've sent in the laptop for RMA and I hope to get a new one quick. I was wondering if anyone else has had any problems with this model. I've seen several pictures online of the motherboard and mine has two loops of heatpipes over the memory slots, but I've also seen pictures where there are no loops over the memory slots and there appears to be extra heatpipes to what looks like VRMs?

Could the fact that on this model the VRMs aren't cooled be causing me issues? Does anyone else have a model without the loops over the memory slots?

Thanks!"


I'm going to write to Asus support with my RMA number and raise this user's problem as a concern that should be looked at for my laptop as well, and to avoid potential GPU failure.

Both his GPU dying and my fans starting to run at 100% suddenly both happened during gaming.
I could be wrong, but it looks like Asus royally messed up the cooling.
The system could be having problems with waste heat buildup in the system which might be affecting motherboard components (breaking down solder) or just damaging certain parts of the motherboard.

If the inadequate cooling is to blame, this is a serious design flaw.
Either that or just issues with early production models - but even so... I doubt other units would differ at all in terms of cooling.

 

This is what I plan to send them... please let me know if it is adequate or if it needs correcting (and do correct needed parts) :
To whom it may concern

I seem to have stumbled upon another user who described a similar problem with his GL702ZC that should be brought to Asus' attention.

The user posted the problem in Asus ROG GL forums in the following thread:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?97777-GL702ZC-dead-GPU&p=690432&posted=1#post690432

His problem describes what seems to be a dead GPU after playing a game, and subsequently laptop fans running on 100% after the GPU failed and he rebooted the system.

My laptop's problem is with the fans which suddenly started running on 100% all the time after 4 hours of playing a game, and they are not adjusting themselves automatically at all inside or outside Windows (they start running at 100% from power up and continue running like that at all times) - the GPU in my laptop however seemed to run fine.

I am raising this issue because this is now a second report of a similar problem happening on a same laptop.
We both expressed concerns that this might be due to inadequate cooling in the GL702ZC which could result in heat damaging certain hardware components.

I would obviously like to avoid my GPU (or any other component) failing as well, so please have the technicians examine the system thoroughly, make sure the VRM's and any other components are being properly shielded from heat and that the entire system is properly cooled.

Admittedly, this could also be a fault with mine and that other user's laptop being early production units, but I doubt that other units would differ significantly in how they are cooled (which is why it is crucial for the technicians to examine the cooling design in this laptop and determine its not a design flaw - and examine the entire unit to see what is causing these issues).

I am also concerned that Asus engineers/technicians might not have designed adequate cooling for this system, even though it is quite energy efficient for the components it has and not especially demanding in regards to power draw (considering the RX 580 in this laptop is limited to 68W and the comparable Nvidia GTX 1060 mobile in other laptops is limited to 80W - and yet, Asus seems to be unable to provide proper or quiet cooling for the more efficient RX 580).

As a person who paid a premium price for a gaming laptop which is producing potential heat related (and other) problems during gaming that could be damaging the hardware is not what I was expecting.

I would also like to point out that in several reviews of GL702ZC, when the laptop's CPU and GPU were both stressed to the maximum (100%), the system experienced thermal throttling and could not sustain this kind of load.

Asus is advertising this laptop as a gaming machine, but the cooling design and thermals on this laptop appear to contradict that statement.

A gaming laptop should be able to sustain maximum (100%) load on both CPU and GPU for as long as it is needed... without experiencing thermal throttling or high temperatures (or for that matter producing extremely loud fan noise)... however, it is evident that this laptop is both throttling and experiencing high temperatures when stressed to the maximum, while also being extremely noisy in comparison to other laptops that have much higher power and thermal requirements.

Simply speaking, this shouldn't be happening in a £1600 priced laptop (or any laptop for that matter), and I would like Asus technicians/engineers to address.

Kind regards

 

Way too long

Shorten it to a paragraph and include a link to his post.

 

Then help me shorten it please.

This email needs to address these issues along with the laptop being unable to handle 100% load on CPU and GPU without throttling for as long as one needs maximum load.

How can we expect Asus to improve if we don't call them out on things like this?
Or at the very least, raise the problem to such a degree where it could turn rather ugly if it came out publicly (which would actually be preferable, as people would need to know they can't just expect nice looks and sub-par functionality when in reality, you CAN have both - but it requires extra time and testing to get done).

This problem with OEM's designing sub-par cooling needs to stop.
Asus needs to learn a lesson.
If not a public announcement, then they need to correct it quietly... but correct it they must.

 

Well, I spoke to my flatmate, and he says the email was already summarised.
He also described it as a full report (something people apparently pay good money for).

Guys, I think this issue needs to be explained in detail to Asus so it gets tackled properly.
I don't see it being addressed otherwise... especially if they made a mess of the cooling design and charge premium money for it (which they seem to have done and do).
If I pay that kind of money (£1600) for a laptop, I would expect it to perform properly... which is something we didn't seem to get.

Other laptops already perform well and can sustain maxed out loads, or can be tweaked for example (undervolted, etc.) to sustain maxed out CPU and GPU for as long as someone needs them at lower temperatures.
AMD already made both the CPU and GPU as efficient as they can get for their performance levels (you can't undervolt either - at least, not yet)... this is clearly an Asus problem (one I expect them to correct).

 

I've not really had any issues with heat/temps, bearing in mind though I did repaste and use new thermal pads before hand like I do with any laptop. Temps are generally low to mid 80s at highest.

 

What kind of thermal compound did you use and where have you put the thermal pads (also, which thermal pads have you used)?

Btw, I can live with the low to mid 80 degrees C temps... but the fans are way too loud if the system is stressed.
I can even let go of the battery being sub-par... but realistically, I do think Asus should have done better by say integrating better cooling by preventing the temperatures from going over say 75 degrees C at maximum load on both CPU and GPU.

It's a 17" laptop after all with efficient hardware.

My primary issue with the laptop was that the fans basically started running on 100% after playing Mass Effect Andromeda for 4 hours and never cycled down since then. I restarted the laptop, shut it down, powered it back up, waited over night before firing it up again, and the fans simply spin up to 100% from boot-up and never cycle down.

Since this happened during gaming, I'm suspecting that the heat in the system damaged internal circuitry, which leads me to think that either the cooling assembly wasn't designed properly (making it a design flaw), or it's an issue with the laptop being an early production unit.

 

I used Grizzly Kryonaut and fujipoly extreme. Pads were placed where the rest of the thermal paste is on the chips around the gpu/cpu.

Also worth noting that the ASUS bios doesn't engage the fans as best as it could. The fans will never go above state 3 on their own. using the ec-probe tool from nbfc you can force it to cool harder (although with the obvious downside of it getting louder) the ec registers for the fans are 0x97 and 0x98 for the left and right fan respectively. The values can go between 0 and 8. I found that at level '4' a make -j16 of Linux will still keep temps in the high 60s rather than high 80s.

re: Stock voltages for the RX580 being too high; you can manually undervolt the RX580 to reduce temps further without any performance loss (actually returns a gain in most cases), see here https://www.phoronix.com/forums/for...27-asus-rog-strix-gl702zc?p=992308#post992308

After repasting and new thermal pads, undervolting the RX580 and engaging a higher fan level I'm seeing very good temperatures.

 

Cool... Though, which software have you used to undervolt the gpu? I can't use wattman as it does not appear in the drivers and watttool doesn't allow changing the voltages.

Also which voltages have you applied and how?

Edit: I noticed you used a script based tool to undervolt, but it looks like you also managed to get the gpu to run constantly at 1077 mhz without downclocking per your own notes.
This kinda defeats the purpose though because the gpu shouldn't be running at 100% all the time.

Isn't it possible to simply affect the voltage for the final p state and not touch the rest?

 

Microcenter has them in stock:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/481879/ROG_GL702ZC-WB74_173_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

 

Hello everybody !

I just bought this beauty Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC few days ago and i have a huge problem with him, amd-v virtualization.

This was the main reason picking him because i work alot with this type of programs and i cant believe this monster ryzen doesnt have it.

I used leo moon cpu-v and as we all know amd-v its supported but cant be enabled.

I have a big question for you guys, this option will be 100% available in next update? For me its very important and im thinking to return the product, i have 8 more days maximum to do that.

Thank you in advance.

 

Ahh, it's arrival is unknown until it happens, it could happen soon, or take a couple of months...or never show up(??!!).

I returned an Acer with the "Brand Newly Released Haswell" at a Haswell release party, and returned it for the same reason, VM support in the BIOS took 5 months before it came out back then, not saying it's the same, but ya never know.