Users are finding that the Asus ROG Ally could be having trouble with overheating a particular area around the SD card, leading to issues and weird fixes.
With the Asus ROG Ally finally in players’ hands, hardware issues are starting to crop up. The handheld, running a custom AMD Z1 Extreme chip, can get quite hot during play. We found in our review that the screen got a little too hot while playing.
However, users are now finding that a critical part of the hardware, the SD card slot, is potentially at risk. Asus has positioned the microSD card slot at the top of the device, next to the ventilation fans.
As heat is being drawn to the top of the device constantly, it appears to be having an adverse effect on the SD card. Valve and Ayaneo, have positioned the SD card slots on the bottom of their devices.
Users are concerned that the heat could destroy the microSD card inside, losing access to their games. MicroSD cards are vital to handheld systems like this, as the storage is fairly limited without modding the system.
However, according to a Reddit user on the official Discord, Asus is aware of the failing SD cards and hasn’t provided its own fix yet.
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A user from Reddit found that his expensive microSD had burnt out due to playing regularly. It also began to cause key software like Armory Crate to run poorly. Some other users in the thread have said that they’re afraid to use an SD card until the issue is fixed.
The Asus ROG Ally has also recently run afoul of a BIOS update, which caused a loss in performance.
How to fix SD cards on the Asus ROG Ally – potential fix
A fix has supposedly been found by another Reddit user, u/georgioslambros, which installs an updated driver.
It requires you to download an Intel package, extract the ZIP file and install “GIPciSD” that is inside it. Reboot your device and the SD card should appear back to normal.
More SD card woes for the ROG Ally
An SD card breaking doesn’t appear to be the only issue surrounding the device. Industry veteran Jeff Gerstmann was testing the ROG Ally and was preparing to ship it back to Asus. His SD card had become stuck in the device and to retrieve it had to play a game to overheat the device and it sluiced out.
Voila! Took about five minutes to get hot enough. pic.twitter.com/fGYq3ZhF9E
— Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann) June 28, 2023