ASUS ROG Ally’s Thermal Solution Leads To Death of Its MicroSD Card Reader, Fix On Its Way

ASUS ROG Ally has been a victim of a defect in the MicroSD reader, and now the company has officially verified the problem.

For a brief recap, several handheld users reported an issue where the MicroSD card malfunctioned or provided a degraded performance. In some cases, once the card was installed, after some time, it couldn't be accessible through the File Explorer program in Windows. The main hurdle with this issue is that once the MicroSD is installed in a defective ROG Ally unit, it can't be used again since, apparently, the card burns out and turns into "e-waste."

However, you shouldn't worry for now as ASUS has addressed the issue through a statement on Discord. Here is what ASUS has to say:

Good evening everyone. HQ has released a new statement regarding their work on the Ally’s SD card reader:

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 cl-adrian@asus.com (US) or contact customer service for your region to RMA your unit, which we will inspect for any issues and repair.

While ASUS here hasn't specified the core issue, it has hinted towards a fault in the thermal dissipation system of the handheld which leads to a malfunction. The company has offered replacements under RMA for the affected units, hence you shouldn't lose hope if you have faced the issue.

Tom's Hardware has pointed out a crucial detail about the reason for the malfunction, citing a hardware expert CPPC TEK. Upon reviewing the design of ASUS ROG Ally, it was revealed that the power delivery VRMs for the onboard APU are too near the MicroSD card reader. Since a lot of heat is dissipated within those VRMs, it is causing issues within the MicroSD card reader, leading to potential burnout.

While there isn't a permanent fix devised by the company yet, CPPC TEK states that affected users should create a custom fan curve in order to enhance the cooling within the device. Moreover, ASUS's statement has also hinted towards releasing an update to set the fan curves by default in a way to achieve enhanced cooling at a lesser fan noise.

Although using a MicroSD reader in handheld devices holds little importance, it is undoubtedly something ASUS should cater to immediately since this could cause trouble for several consumers. ASUS has requested affected consumers to approach cl-adrian@asus.com (US) to claim the RMA of the unit.

News Source: Tom's Hardware