My Asus motherboard started bluescreening Windows. After a lot of effort I traced it down to a specific device ID that windows was loading firmware for. No matter what I tried I couldn't get this auto installation to stop. It was a totally random component that added nothing I could tell.
Asus refused to release new firmware be cause the motherboard was "unsupported" even though the box etc has stickers saying it supports windows 10.
After a ton more effort I figured out how to make some low end api calls that eventually stopped this auto installation. It was mostly reliable. I got to crack a lot of jokes to my friends about my motherboard not supporting windows but it was a really hard period for me particularly because Linux gaming wasn't as strong as it is today. I was really big into league of legends at the time and this experience forced me to quit, losing touch with many friends in the process.
For desktop motherboards I've usually gone MSI but my gaming laptop is an Asus and is a little over a year old. It's worked perfect since I got it and I've had zero problems with it. The Nvidia GPU and laptop fans sure do sing when I'm playing games though
I actually do have an MSI laptop. I forgot I had read so many negative reviews of the Asus that I went the other direction. After posting that I got on my laptop and realized my mistake and remembered the negative reviews about them
I didn't open the video. Was it one of those videos that talk in circles about what they're "going" to talk about in the video, then they keep saying it in different ways?
I ordered a board from Asus last year. FedEx delivered it to the wrong place. Delivery picture was at some apartment somewhere. They gave me so much shit. I had to go to my bank to help me get my money back. Took over a month.
This is a terrible video. 20 minutes just to say "bad customer support". But then, who does nowadays?
On a sidenote, the pearl, the jewel I got from their CS is "WeLL I gUeSs tHiS LaPtOP oNlY sUpPoRtS ThReE ScReEnS iN tOtAl". Bitch! This laptop has 3 separate video outputs! And 2 screens built-in! The fuck is 3 total? Besides, it totally worked until some botched update on their side...
You can have more video outputs than your machine can actually use simultaneously, that's a fairly normal characteristic. It allows you to have a greater variety of output port types without needing more framebuffers inside the GPU. If an update bricked it then it's not that specific characteristic obviously. Probably it's the fault of the GPU manufacturer issuing a bad update that they then repackaged.
Maybe you're right, but I haven't seen a GPU that doesn't have at least 4 distinct outputs in a while, not that I'd expect one in a machine of this class either. The problem, if I were to guess, is that this machine has AMD iGPU with Nvidia dGPU and a switchable MUX on top of that so it could boot with(or without) either as primary. That's like three points of failure already. On top of that, I had the main panel cracked and badly malfunctioning, so I've removed it, just in case, for about a month while I waited for replacement. I guess some firmware update did not expect the main panel to be missing(or to have different s/n) during update and did something stupid to the mux setting that made it so that two outputs can't be active simultaneously. I've tried to reach someone half-competent at ASUS for like a couple months, then just said "fuck it" and installed linux. Now living happily with 6 displays up and running, theoretically up to 9 if I do some output splitting shenanigans. Someday I'll actually build that setup just to dunk on that rep who told me it could only handle 3.
It's fairly common for iGPUs to have less outputs. Apple M1 was especially bad as it only had 2, and the internal screen on the laptops couldn't even be disabled if I remember correctly. I think many Intel (or maybe AMD) iGPUs only have three outputs.
Yeah it definitely sounds like a driver issue. I have had issues with dual GPU systems like that on Linux, not had any on Windows yet. It would be interesting to see to be honest. I've had laptops before where the video ports would only connect to the dGPU, and the internal screen used Optimus (display output from the iGPU with graphics acceleration from the dGPU on demand). Lots of dual GPU laptops are MUXless like that in fact.
I still have the video I've sent to them at some point, it describes it in all detail, if you can bear my accent..
I’ve had laptops before where the video ports would only connect to the dGPU, and the internal screen used Optimus (display output from the iGPU with graphics acceleration from the dGPU on demand). Lots of dual GPU laptops are MUXless like that in fact.
Yeah, I've had some of those. Actually owned one of the first generation optimus laptops and it was horrible, most of the time it did not pick up the heavy load and stayed on iGPU even when playing games. Seems to be much improved a lot in win10-11, but I still prefer the kill-switch.
This one kind of works like that too, though. The MUX only controls which GPU the main panel is connected to (and with it, the framebuffer). The modes basically are:
"Eco" where only iGPU is enabled
"Hybrid" where iGPU is main and maintains framebuffer while offloading work to dGPU when needed just as you've described
"Ultimate" with Nvidia as main, which apparently gives much better framerate and latency because it does not require overhead of workload offloading and framebuffer shuffling, but the dGPU is by far the most power hungry device at 150W TDP which drains the battery in mere minutes, even on idle
I have had issues with dual GPU systems like that on Linux
I feel you. My previous setup was a desktop with both AMD and Nvidia cards, which I juggled between the host and VM. It was pain, mostly because Nvidia did not want to play nicely. Also because most utilities assumed I had Intel APU — I didn't, but it was fair assumption at a time. Nowadays, it seems like everything's sorted out, even VFIO was a breeze to set up (though what for, most games now play on linux nowadays thanks to steamdeck)
Personally I've never had an issue with Asus products but have had numerous quality issues with Acer. Bought a number of small Acer laptops and the hinges kept breaking because they only put one screw in the hold the hinge instead of two in many of them.
I've had two ASUS gaming laptops, and both of them began having issues within a year, and the second didnt last more than a couple years total.
The first laptop was one of their enormous ROG 17 inch gaming laptops that looked like it had jet engine exhaust. The hard drive died and the power port broke within the first year, and I had to send it in under warranty. The power brick also died, and I ended up having to replace it myself around the 3 year mark.
Thinking it was a fluke, I ended up buying a smaller, more portable ASUS gaming laptop next which had more of a standard form factor. Maybe six or eight months later, that one suffered some issue that required being sent in for service as well. It began experiencing the same issue about four months later, I'd sent it in for repair a second time for the same issue, and they apparently fixed it.
I got to use that laptop for maybe 1.5 years total before it was completely unusable, in spite of two RMAs.
My current gaming laptop is an HP Omen 17 from 2017, and has been completely stable and reliable up to this day. I love to hate on HP because of their dumb printers, but I'm pretty impressed. I'll probably end up buying another one, because I will literally never own another ASUS product ever in my life, and there are only so many manufacturers out there who I'd consider for a laptop purchase.
Enterprise laptops for CAD, etc. still prioritize battery life over performance. Switchable graphics are a pain to setup and troubleshoot for gaming, the screens are not optimized for gaming (almost always 60Hz), thermals can be questionable, and they're loud. Gaming laptops are built for that purpose, and they do it better than trying to shoehorn in a laptop built for an entirely different purpose.
Thank you for your input - I think a lot of that depends on the specific model and price point as well. Imo at the end of the day it's good to go for a laptop thick enough to accommodate a heatsink and look up any firmware restrictions on performance beforehand. Plenty of workstation laptops hit point one but I haven't gamed on them enough to speak for point two
I must be in the minority here because I've never had major issues with ASUS products, though the caveat here is I have only used their motherboards. I'm using an x570-PLUS right now and it has been solid since purchase.
Same, my last 4 desktops since Sandy bridge were all Asus boards. Not that I'm not paying attention to all the issues people keep having with them lately
OLED Display on my Zenbook unglued itself after month of use.
They removed the ability to unlock bootloader in their phones (after repeatedly lying about it returning).
Some people sued them and won.
I won't buy another Asus product.
A lot of their shady practices are on their laptop side. For example their ROG laptops support USB PD as their main way of charging however asus forces you to use their own chargers. If you decide to use a third party USB PD charger (of the same wattage or greater mind you) then your laptop will disable the dedicated GPU and limits your fan speed profile to silent which causes your CPU to throttle under heavy load.
