Discussion Asus software ruins Asus's hardware

[Leeea]

Armory Crate

Recently updated the BIOS on a x470i strix rog mainboard, this triggered an armory crate install. No option to disable this in BIOS either, armory crate will now install no matter what anyone does.


This breaks everything.

System starts, works for about a minute, and then the whole thing goes into a loop:
Step 1: system completely freezes, no mouse movement, nothing
Step 2: 1 minute later, throws up another error box associated with armory crate
Step 3: system works for 5 seconds
Step 4: goto step one

100% unusable.

Reboot to safe mode, attempt to uninstall ... fail.
Use Asus armory crate uninstaller ... fail.
Manually delete files ... completely breaks armory crate, restoring system function.


Lost RGB control and lost fan control, Asus other utilities are all now just broke.

Just wow Asus, wow. What a nightmare.



( I am not going to reinstall windows, according to reddit reinstalling windows fixes nothing )
( going back to old BIOS will remove support for Ryzen 5000 )

 

[igor_kavinski]

You could try disabling it from startup and in Services.

 

[Tup3x]

MSI, ASUS... It doesn't matter, the software is pure cancer - worse than virus. That has always been the case and always will be. Better to handle everything through the BIOS.

 

[Leeea]

Better to handle everything through the BIOS.

Asus does not have AIO fan speed or RGB controls in BIOS.

The software auto-installs. There is no way to stop it from infecting the system.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

Every asus board I have has a UEFI option to disable the prompt armory crate install. The armory crate install is also optional, but prompted frequently during windows startup.

 

[lopri]

Find an alternative to control RGB and avoid Armory Crate like a plague.

 

[lopri]

Well, it is possible the OP's BIOS does not have this option. I did hear about horror stories about Armory Crate. A lot. I wonder what ASUS is trying to achieve?

 

[Leeea]

Every asus board I have has a UEFI option to disable the prompt armory crate install. The armory crate install is also optional, but prompted frequently during windows startup.

Not with this board, it silently installs in the background unless actively attacked.

View attachment 73813View attachment 73814

Find an alternative to control RGB and avoid Armory Crate like a plague.

This is not my first Asus board, and on this one, Armory Crate is now required:


I checked the BIOS very thoroughly.

This is a premium board, an ASUS Republic of Gamers Strix x470-I Gaming.

Well, it is possible the OP's BIOS does not have this option. I did hear about horror stories about Armory Crate. A lot. I wonder what ASUS is trying to achieve?

Armory Crate when it does work, spams the user with Advertising in the windows notifications area. This can be turned off in settings.

I have been unable to find a way to control the fans and RGB without a working installation of Armory Crate. ASUS noise cancellation for microphones also seems gated behind Armory Crate.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I have been unable to find a way to control the fans and RGB without a working installation of Armory Crate.

Probably why they think everyone needs their software installed automatically. Good for the clueless kiddies but hell for the power users.

 

[kschendel]

According to the online manual, you can certainly control the fans from the BIOS; look for Q-Fan control and the Monitor sub-menu. Dunno about the RGB.

 

[lopri]

Maybe find a spare drive and install Windows/Armory Crate, change the RGB, and reformat? Obviously an ongoing maintenance of RGB will not be feasible if there is no other way to control it.

 

[Khanan]

I lost advanced Fan Control one day. Yes after bios update. The Ai fan wouldn’t work anymore and countless installs didn’t change, the program was basic and everything was gone from it. Armory Crate wouldn’t adjust fan speed to GPU (I have a rog gpu too), only as per usual to cpu. I complained about this to Asus and they allegedly forwarded it but to this day after countless updates of the app it’s still only caring about CPU temps. Nice example of a downgrade per retiring old apps Asus

 

[lopri]

Yah, well. Avoid Armory Crate. Configure fans in the BIOS and save the BIOS profile in a USB drive.

On a second thought, saved profiles might not work once BIOS is updated. XD

 

[Leeea]

According to the online manual, you can certainly control the fans from the BIOS; look for Q-Fan control and the Monitor sub-menu. Dunno about the RGB.

The manual is only partly correct.

the AIO header cannot be controled in BIOS, but can be controlled from Armory Crate.

Yah, well. Avoid Armory Crate. Configure fans in the BIOS and save the BIOS profile in a USB drive.

When it automatically installs and gives you no choice about it that is a bit difficult.

also, the BIOS only allows control of the CPU and Chassis fan headers, it does not control the AIO header.

On a second thought, saved profiles might not work once BIOS is updated. XD

This is correct, I tried to migrate the profile over but it would not boot. I had to short the CMOS jumper to default after attempting to apply profile like this.

 

[blckgrffn]

My Armory Crate experiences have been awful as well.

The last time I used it, I was building random PC to sell and after getting it all setup, it started blue screening.

Now that was weird, because I had set it up basically then spent a week running stress tests and stuff with pretty basic "drivers only" post OS install setup.

I wipe it, basic install, all is good.

Carefully start adding apps back that I had added after I had "confirmed" the stability.

You guessed it. Armory Crate. Minutes after installation, blue screen. Uninstall, fine. Re-install (this was the latest from ASUS with latest BIOS on the board) and immediately started blue screening. What a joke. I didn't need to configure RGB that badly.