Info: Fixing Asus Vivobook M1605XA (Ryzen 9 7940HS) shutdowns and Modern Standby issues

[jbruchon]

I have an Asus Vivobook M1605XA (Ryzen 9 7940HS model) that had power/shutdown issues under heavy loads (HandBrake, games after a while) right out of the box. I especially had issues with Modern Standby/Connected Standby causing HandBrake encodes to stop overnight because the PC would enter some stupid hybrid sleep and it is impossible to shut it off. There are a few things that I did to fix it and you may want to add them to the troubleshooting wiki. These are specific to my model

Universal AMD Form Browser

1. Use Disk Management (Win+X, K) to shrink the system partition by 8 MB, then create a new FAT partition in the empty space and call it something like "UAMDFB"
2. Download the "beta'' UMAF (I don't know why it's not called "UAFB") and extract the contents to the 8MB FAT partition created in step 1
3. Reboot into the BIOS (F2) and use the boot override to boot from the UAMDFB partition
4. In UAMDFB, find the setting that lets you disabled Modern Standby or Connected Standby and switch back to S0/S3 standby (don't recall the exact wording). Switch to S0/S3 standby.
5. Disable sleep mode entirely in all power plans and don't use the sleep option. Sleep mode will lock up the computer, forcing a restart.

Use G-Helper to prevent thermal/power delivery shutdowns

1. The Ryzen 9 7940HS is too powerful for the Vivobook M1605's power delivery circuits when running at full blast. They eventually overheat and shut down the system. The cooling fan ramp-up is also grossly inadequate.
2. Set the fan mode to Turbo.
3. In Fans+Power, set power limits to SPL 37W, sPPT 45W. This generally prevents the CPU from overwhelming the insufficient power circuits.
4. In the Advanced tab, set a CPU temperature limit of 80C, click Apply, and check Auto Apply. This prevents the CPU from getting too hot which also makes the power circuits too hot and exacerbates the shutdown problem.

Replace the thermal paste

My unit was bought used and I found the CPU and VRM cooling paste/pads to be "baked" from prolonged high-temperature operation. If the machine is used or has been used a lot prior to the software fixes above, replacing all of the thermal paste is strongly advised. I published a video detailing the process.

[seerge]

@jbruchon hello, that's a great tutorial, but since it's not an "issue" with G-Helper I'm converting this to Discussion. Thanks.

[jbruchon]

I didn't even know that discussions existed. Thanks.