News Asus Admits ROG Ally MicroSD Card Reader “May Malfunction”

[Admin]

Asus HQ has admitted that the ROG Ally handheld might have issues with MicroSD cards and the root cause seems to be thermals.

Asus Admits ROG Ally MicroSD Card Reader “May Malfunction” : Read more

 

[NeoMorpheus]

That sucks.

But at the same time, I wonder if MS is giving them a some kind of deal to include windows, instead of working with Valve and using SteamOS.

 

[bigdragon]

Seems like every Asus product is having some sort of hardware or software issue. This specific MicroSD problem should have been caught prior to release.

 

[Christopher1]

Seems like every Asus product is having some sort of hardware or software issue. This specific MicroSD problem should have been caught prior to release.

Often from prototype to final there are changes made without the knowledge of the engineering team due to cost concerns.
I can understand why this issue would not have been caught before release.

 

[cryoburner]

But at the same time, I wonder if MS is giving them a some kind of deal to include windows, instead of working with Valve and using SteamOS.

They probably went with Windows to ensure better compatibility with games. The Linux gaming situation might be better now with the Proton compatibility layer, but a number of hugely popular games, particularly some multiplayer titles utilizing anti-cheat software, won't run on the OS.

As for a licensing deal, I don't know what the current situation is, but at least some years back Microsoft was reported to be giving out Windows licenses for free for small-screen devices with displays under 9 inches.

Often from prototype to final there are changes made without the knowledge of the engineering team due to cost concerns.
I can understand why this issue would not have been caught before release.

It could have been something as simple as them lowering the fan speed shortly before launch to reduce fan noise and improve battery life a bit. They may have found that reported temperatures still appeared to be within their limits, but might not have detected a hot spot under the card reader. Or maybe it's only an issue with certain SD cards, or in certain situations where both the VRMs and card reader are under heavy load.

 

[rejjie]

I'm able to get A1 class microSD cards to work reliably but not my A2 V30 cards. The A2 cards will work for a while but then fail after heavier use. Reformatting and/or repartitioning seems to work temporarily but I've permanently damaged 2 microSD cards already! It seems to be hit or miss for others. I suspect it's because the heat is causing intermittent violation of the tighter timing requirements for the A2 read and write cycles of the SD card reader silicon, resulting in data corruption. I was hesitant at first to buy the Ally with this issue but no regrets. It's a great handheld. With the workaround described here I'm now able to use any microSD card:

View: https://youtu.be/6Vy4OW8O5WU