The ASUS ROG Ally is frying microSD cards

pcgamesn.com:

The ASUS ROG Ally hasn’t been out for long, but already it’s proven itself to be a great PC gaming handheld in its own right, even against the Steam Deck. Yet, like with any new tech, it’s bound to experience issues here and there, and the latest problem is wreaking havoc on people’s microSD cards.

Many ASUS ROG Ally owners are flocking to the official subreddit to share their frustrations over the latest problems facing the device. Over the past week, there have been multiple posts outlining faults around the microSD card reader.

User PoorImpulseControl states that ASUS Armoury Crate, the software portal where users can get real-time performance and settings information for their devices, refused to boot up, and they could no longer access their microSD card. Despite trying to update drivers, they had no success trying to fix the issue, and many comments on the initial subreddit post suggest this is happening to a large subset of ROG Ally owners.

The exact reason for the microSD card faults hasn’t yet been officially identified. Nevertheless, many ROG Ally owners believe this could be because of handheld overheating, especially as the card reader is positioned alongside one of the heat sink array’s and exhaust ports. Temperatures of up to 95c have been reported after users enabled ‘Turbo mode’, along with the device generally feeling hot to the touch.

However, other users aren’t entirely convinced by overheating being the cause of all the problems. A lot of those having issues are using SanDisk Extreme cards, which are designed to be “temperature proof” and incredibly durable, and some microSD cards began working once the handheld had cooled down.

While we can’t be sure what exactly the reason behind these multiple