Reviewer’s experiences of the ASUS ROG Ally have been mixed to say the least. Gizmodo Australia’s own Zachariah Kelly had what could only most generously be described as a flawed experience, while I got it a bit later (after more bugs had been squashed) and love it as a travel buddy. But one thing everyone who uses it can agree on is that the ASUS ROG Ally patches roll out at an impressive pace. Almost every time I boot it up there is some new fix that needs to be installed. On the one hand, it’s a little irritating that I have to budget an extra five minutes for updates so often, on the other it means that every time I find some new annoying thing, I know it’ll get fixed soon.
So, here is a list of all the updates pushed (and what was fixed), and a couple of brand-new, Australian-specific issues to work around.
Oh no, what new problems are there with the ASUS ROG Ally?
Mostly, just the usual PC problems: it gets hot, the fans can be loud and spin up too much or not enough depending on whether there have been enough midnight sacrifices at the altar of technology.
But there is one big new issue: The SD card can melt in some situations.
Turns out ASUS didn’t do enough testing on the ROG Ally and the cooling system directs the heat from the APU towards the SD card slot. That’s a problem, because that’s where the delicate SD card lives.
The folks from the ASUS Technical Team do want to reassure you that it will all be fine soon, though, saying in a statement to Gizmodo Australia:
“We want to thank the community for the passionate response we’ve received for the ROG Ally. Your support has been both immense and invaluable, so we’ve been hard at work to improve a number of things. After confirmation from internal testing, under certain thermal stress conditions, the SD card reader may malfunction.
“To alleviate the issue, we will be releasing an update that further fine-tunes the default and minimum fan speeds on the device to improve reliability while keeping fan noise in check, as we know this is a concern for many of you.
“If you are currently experiencing issues with your SD card reader, please contact customer service for your region, which we will inspect for any issues and repair.”
That is a pretty serious mistake to make when manufacturing a portable console with expandable storage. The likely only real way to fix it is for the engineers to reduce the amount of heat the device generates, which will possibly see a reduction in performance. It’ll be interesting to check back on this issue in a month or two and see what it’s like then.
What has been fixed?
Oh god, so much. A lot of my initial issues have been addressed, which is good. Though, it still has a ways to go before it approaches the stability of non-Windows-based handhelds.
Some of the recent highlights are:
- New feature: Modified FPS Limiter options to “30/45/60/90/120/OFF”.
- New feature: Added BIOS and Armoury Crate configuration information under System settings to make troubleshooting simpler
- New feature: Added an “Alt+F4” function in Command Center to quickly exit games and programs.
- New feature: Extreme Modern Standby extends the standby time of the device by turning off some non-essential features while in sleep mode.
This is what was pushed last week:
BIOS 322 on 4/7/23 through MyASUS
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue that caused the ROG Ally to be stuck at the boot up loading screen when users configured a password in BIOS mode.
- Modified the Ally’s fan curve from 30dBA to 35dBA in Turbo mode when plugged in, and from 25dBA to 30 dBA in Turbo mode when using the battery. Changed the minimum fan speed in Manual mode when device hits a certain temperature.
ACSE v1.2.13 on 4/7/23 through Armoury Crate SE
- UX improvement: optimised the panel opacity, resulting in a more visually balanced display.
- New feature: Modified FPS Limiter options to “30/45/60/90/120/OFF”.
- New feature: Added BIOS and Armoury Crate configuration information under System settings.
- Bug fix: Fixed incorrect TDP values displayed on the Manual mode icon.
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue when uploading images and recordings for social media sharing.
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue where an error code from Armoury Crate Service tool was displayed (error code: 0xc0000142).
- New feature: Added an “Alt+F4” function in Command Center to quickly exit games and programs.
AMD iGPU driver v31.0.14058.4001 on 19/6/23 through MyASUS
- Bug fix: Resolved some performance issues with the XG Mobile GC32 on the ROG Ally.
AMD iGPU driver v31.0.14058.3001 on 16/6/23 through MyASUS
- Bug fix: Resolved occasional touch screen malfunction when the panel refresh rate was set to 60Hz.
Previous updates:
BIOS 319 on 9/6/23 through MyASUS and 23/6/23 through Windows Update
- Silent mode TDP has been changed from 9w to 10w.
- Added support for Extreme Modern Standby. (see below).
AC_config 1.0.11 on 1/6/23 through Armoury Crate SE
- Added support for Armoury Crate UI of 10w in silent mode. Please note it needs to work with BIOS 319.
MCU 308 on 9/6/23 through MyAsus
- Added support for Extreme Modern Standby (see below).
ACSE v1.2.10 on 12/6/2023 through Armoury Crate SE
- New feature: Extreme Modern Standby extends the standby time of the device by turning off some non-essential features while in sleep mode.
- UX improvement: Refined language translation for Armoury Crate and added Indonesian.
- UX improvement: Optimize the position of the mouse cursor when switching between control modes.
- UX improvement: Optimized the process of selecting game art for new titles in the Game Library.
- Bug fix: Resolved the occasional issue of the mouse cursor not selecting the right element in certain programs.
BIOS 317:
- Added support for Modern Standby Assistant (see above).
- Added support for user-configurable GPU memory (see above).
- Improved overall system stability.
iGPU driver: 31.0.14058.6 on 1/6/23
- Fixed game crashes for Asphalt 9, Persona 4 Golden, and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.
- Fixed error message for The Last of Us Part I.
iGPU driver v31.0.14003.25002 + AMD Chipset Driver v1.2.0.121 on 15/5/23
- Fixed an issue where certain programs failed to launch.
ACSE v1.2.5
- New feature: Armoury Crate’s User Center now supports the ability to backup and restore configured game profiles.
- New feature: Armoury Crate’s User Center supports Single Sign On with MyASUS v3.1.18.0
- UX improvement: Improved the order of Aura Sync light patterns in the Command Center toggle.
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue where after switching from Manual mode to another mode, the command center will still display that the Manual mode is active.
ACSE v1.2.4
- New feature: Modern Standby Assistant helps the system enter hibernate to save battery.
- New feature: Users can now manually adjust the amount of memory assigned to the GPU in Armoury Crate, from 1GB to 8GB.
- New feature: User can now disable the Embedded Controller to allow for external gamepads.
- New feature: Users can now create custom key combinations in Control Mode Configuration.
- New feature: Added the “Xbox” button as an option for Actions in button mapping.
- New feature: Added a “Back to Desktop” function in Command Center.
- New feature: Added a volume adjustment slider in Command Center.
- New feature: Added a shutdown button in Command Center.
- New feature: Added an option in Media Gallery to open the media directory in File Explorer.
- UX improvement: Added an Exit icon on the Navigation Bar.
- UX improvement: The alert for running multiple programs has been updated with new language.
- UX improvement: Improved the animation for thumb stick range adjustment and improved the slider behaviour for Stick/Trigger/Vibration adjustment.
- UX improvement: Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have now been merged into one “Connection” option.
- UX improvement: Users will now receive an error pop-up if insufficient storage space is detected when taking screenshots or recording video.
- UX improvement: When an external screen is connected, Windows will automatically switch to “Display second screen only” by default.
- UX improvement: Added TDP information to the Operating Mode icons in Command Center.
- UX improvement: Added support for Danish, Polish, Romanian, and Thai languages
- UX improvement: Added an XG Mobile tray icon in the Windows taskbar for quick switching when eGPU is detected.
- UX improvement: Added Base Clock, ROG Boost, and ROG Boost OC measurements for NVIDIA XG Mobile GPUs.
- Bug fix: Improved overall stability of Armoury Crate SE.
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue where saved screenshots and videos were not appearing on the Media Library page.
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue where the Left Bumper would not open the storage file path in Media Gallery.
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue where the ROG Ally would not properly utilize the XG Mobile (GC31/GC33).
- Bug fix: Resolved an issue where the audio settings would not display and updated ASUS Framework from v4.0.0.4 to v4.0.0.5.
This article has been updated since it was first published.