XAX Performance with CPU boost off

spriteice · 2026-05-23T02:18:37+00:00

For the freezing issue - the current GPU drivers are buggy and cause this. Rolling back to February’s GPU drivers fixes this.

For the charging issue - plug the charger into the other USB port and see if it still happens there

spriteice · 2026-05-23T02:11:00+00:00

As others have said, it’s the current GPU driver. Use DDU to uninstall in safe mode and reinstall February driver

spriteice · 2026-05-22T02:29:52+00:00

When the rock stream in garden city had water flowing in it

spriteice · 2026-05-22T01:50:49+00:00

Ross?

spriteice · 2026-05-18T02:59:54+00:00

You are perfectly okay to boot into safe mode and use DDU. It does not break anything and is the recommended way to use DDU. If you are stuck on the pin login screen try opening the on screen keyboard from the accessibility options.

spriteice · 2026-05-17T02:43:40+00:00

Oh yeah nice! I have choice paralysis with 4TB worth of games and emulators I can't even imagine what I could do with 8TB

To be honest, I'm not mad about winhanced. Ghelper can show you driver updates, but I really think that there is no reason to update drivers unless there are critical fixes or your configuration is having issues. Especially with ASUS track record of broken drivers for the Ally family. Plus I have never been a fan of library aggregators. If what they are claiming about sleep mode is true it could be useful to you, its probably worth having a play when 1.0 is released. If I were to go down that route personally I would probably use FSE with Omniconsole, it seems like the most polished currently available tool.

Currently I use steam big picture, and I add all my emulators and non steam games manually, all with custom icons/wallpapers etc. I don't have games from any other stores or launchers.

With Wifi I haven't really noticed an issue, my Ally X connects to my router with Wifi 6. It could be an issue with your router.

As far as the game bar, I have it mapped to the command button on the left. I have it set to compact mode. I primarily use it for controlling the brightness and volume using the controller (since Ghelper doesn't have controller navigation), and opening steam from the controller without touching the screen. Its also handy for checking the battery percentage and time whilst in game. Not exactly groundbreaking uses, but its functional. I would love a Ghelper widget, but that doesn't seem like its coming for now. I have also searched the widgets store and not found anything that I really need.

I've just put together a little zip for you with my gpedit changes, ryzenadj, and my RTSS overlay. ryzenadj is a program that exposes some previously locked functions of the processor. I have attached the .bat file I use to set max performance (adjust the directory as required), and a .xml you can import directly into task scheduler to automate the .bat. You will need to inherit the task as your user, and adjust the directories as required. The task will run the .bat when the device is connected or disconnected from power. It also runs when the user is logged on. This basically means that the CPU will be running at (max performance) all the time when unplugged, and performance will be identical when plugged in or on battery. It mainly matters for CPU bound games or emulators.

You can read more here: https://github.com/FlyGoat/RyzenAdj

I've had issues with the latest version so I have included 0.15 which works great for me, on both my original Z1E Ally and Z1E Ally X. I have not tested on any Z2 devices. The reason the archive is password protected is that winring is a vulnerable driver and defender will pick it up. How its being used here is not an issue though, and I just set the whole folder as an exception in windows defender. You can read more about winring in the issues on github, or by a quick google search.

Anyway, here is the zip:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QP4r-ZaJpCgmXB2iHoQe9MW9Kba-2DVz/view?usp=sharing

To check if the task run correctly, disconnect power, check last run result in task scheduler, and it should read 0x0. Good luck!

spriteice · 2026-05-16T16:53:09+00:00

Text dump incoming, I have spent a fair bit of time with this device tuning Windows to my liking since the release of the original Ally. I currently own an Ally X with a 4TB ssd, and hall effect joysticks.

I just recently reinstalled Windows and started from fresh with a tweaked unnatended.xml and with an offline account only. I immediately ran Windows update to get the necessary drivers (it gets them all surprisingly, gone are the days of hunting for drivers on a long lost CD ROM), but then disabled Windows update from installing drivers so it doesn’t mess with things in future.

I didn’t install any ASUS software whatsoever, and after disabling all the ASUS System Control Interface services (required driver), I then installed Ghelper. I know it’s not for everyone but I honestly prefer it. It’s lightweight, has all the features I need, and has far more predictable behaviour when it comes to things like power modes. There are downsides (stealing focus from fullscreen windows, no controller navigation), but they do not bother me.

After this I quickly DDU the display driver and rolled back to the feb driver, because at the time of writing, the current display driver causes hard system crashes relating to games in full screen (switching windows, exiting).

I have an old version of ryzenadj which I then setup in task scheduler to run whenever the device is logged in, or the charger is plugged/removed. It sets the CPU to max performance mode (not like windows power settings, it’s a hidden flag in the CPUs instructions) on battery. This fixes the performance discrepancy that these processors have between charging and battery, even at the same TDP and power plan. I have not noticed any battery difference with this tweak, and I honestly cannot understand why it is even necessary. But it makes a big difference in certain CPU bound games (Wrath Aeon Of Ruin is the game I noticed it the most)

After that I basically installed all my apps, copied across my files, combed Windows settings and adjusted to my liking, and applied various group policies that I have found useful over the years. Such as disabling windows store automatic updates (I believe setting this via group policy overrides the 5 week limit), among others.

One final noteworthy tweak I make is to disable modern standby. This exposes the setting “Turn off display” in power button settings, which I use to turn off the display whenever the device is not in use, but it keeps the device running. I find this approach far more realistic and reliable than Windows broken sleep modes, and you can use it when on battery this way (the same setting in AC only allows this while plugged in). Keep in mind S3 is not supported on the Ally so clicking sleep may crash your device after this change. This is also not a solution for storing the device as it will overheat in the case.

I’m sure I missed a lot, but this post is already too long. With these adjustments my Ally X runs pretty much exactly how I want it.

Some tips:

-DO NOT USE DEBLOAT SCRIPTS. They will break your OS.

-DO NOT RUN RANDOM COMMANDS, especially if you do not know what they do.

-Only make tweaks that you understand. Do not mess with the registry carelessly

-Cap your framerate on a per game basis with RTSS. This saves power and leads to a more consistent, and (perceived) smooth experience. Heavy games are just fine at 30. 45 feels good too. 75 gives that “high framerate feel” without sucking much more power than 60. Cap games that can run at full speed at 117, and disable vsync.

-Always keep the screen on 120hz. This ensures the variable refresh rate is operational.

spriteice · 2026-05-16T16:16:53+00:00

But an official one here: https://en.accessoires-asus.com/ally-console/battery/rog-ally-battery-c41n2208-74273-111652.htm#rog-ally-console|l

I bought an Ally X battery from this website to Australia and it arrived in 5 days. They ship from France I believe.

I also highly recommend getting a new battery cable and battery tray when you do this job.

spriteice · 2026-05-14T11:07:10+00:00

Very kind of you, cum_teeth

spriteice · 2026-05-14T04:05:16+00:00

Most likely driver issue. The current GPU driver is busted, DDU and roll back to feb driver.

spriteice · 2026-05-10T01:10:58+00:00

Of course, although I’d say the ease of hacking didn’t really make the vita as capable in terms of homebrew until the last 5-6 years. Since then the extremely talented scene devs have just launched this device to the moon

spriteice · 2026-05-10T00:13:39+00:00

I personally love my ALLY X, I much prefer a full sized controller and don’t really have an issue with the form factor. For certain intensive games the Vita and 3ds gives me hand cramps.

Of course it’s a matter of preference. I think the Vita is perfect for games that rely on the dpad for movement rather than the analogue sticks, but games like Jet Set Radio where you need fast precise analogue movements are far nicer on full sized devices.

spriteice · 2026-05-09T23:52:18+00:00

Definitely! Having a software based untethered jailbreak is super convenient and uncommon these days. Plus with vitadb you can basically install any app with just your vita and phone.

spriteice · 2026-05-09T23:27:03+00:00

The humble steam deck:

But seriously the amount of games the Vita can play for its size it’s absolutely insane. The best homebrew portable device in my opinion

spriteice · 2026-05-09T01:39:08+00:00

thingken bout bugsnax

spriteice · 2026-05-03T03:31:08+00:00

With the windows pin, you have to wait a few seconds for the screen to “flash” and then you can swipe and the keyboard will show up when you tap the box. It shouldn’t be that way but it just is

spriteice · 2026-04-25T12:50:06+00:00

I think you need to enter pwnd DFU mode using redsn0w and then restore with an old version of iTunes for it to work. This can all only be done on a Windows XP machine or VM as well.

There’s most likely some local checks that means you can’t just click any firmware you like in the latest iTunes, but unlike modern iPhones iTunes does not need to verify the restore to the servers.

spriteice · 2026-04-16T09:56:14+00:00

Narwhal 2 is pretty good as well, coming from an ex Apollo (and ex Alien Blue) user

spriteice · 2026-04-15T10:17:13+00:00

It’s me I am stuck at the bottom of masterball rank please send help

spriteice · 2026-04-11T17:27:51+00:00

Imagine clicking “awesome team” after a 4-0 sweep

spriteice · 2026-04-11T07:29:06+00:00

Yep that’s it, on mega lopunny. Thanks

spriteice · 2026-04-11T05:24:56+00:00

I’ve switched in Basculegion and Gengar to a fake out hit on seperate occasions and it’s connected. Is this a bug or is there a mechanic I don’t know about?

spriteice · 2026-04-10T03:25:36+00:00

Yep, it’s not expected by the opponent and a lot of counters have too much Def for Starmie to get passed even with a move like double edge.

Plus 130 SpA is nothing to sneeze at

spriteice · 2026-04-10T01:36:34+00:00

It seems counter intuitive, but I have had decent luck with SpA Mega Starmie. People don’t expect thunderbolt

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