Fixing Issues With Asus Updates and “Ghost Apps”

In October of 2018, I bought an Asus RoG GU501GM Gaming Laptop. It worked well at first, but after a few years it started having…issues.

The first issue was the system would suddenly overheat while running specific games or apps. I’m talking, “low performance/power mode” running the CPU up to 7⁰⁰C and higher. My first thought was bad thermal paste. Easy fix, but I didn’t want to do it myself, and of course the one-year manufacturer’s warranty had run out by now. My best option was to have someone else do it for me — but I’m rather picky about my technology quality, so if I’m going to have this done, I’m buying my own thermal paste and will be extremely selective about who I will trust with this laptop — you know the drill.

Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

I brought the laptop to Geek Squad one day when the screen started showing signs of potential internal damage — possibly from the carrying case as I would often bring the laptop to work with me. I assumed I would have to get the laptop screen replaced, along with the thermal paste.

Luckily, yet again, that wasn’t the case.

Geek Squad was extremely helpful. They popped open the laptop casing for the first time since it’s assembly day, and found that the thermal paste was intact. They cleaned the fans, claiming there was enough dust in there to make a pair of gloves. They also found no damage to the screen — they suggested it was a graphics update that didn’t properly install and suggested that I run updates the moment I get home.

Boy… This is where the fun started.

Running the Nvidia GeForce Experience Updater wasn’t an issue. It fixed the small glitchy matrix square which had previously materialized on the laptop screen, but we felt like there was more to it than just this — especially since the laptop was still overheating at random, and I still could not play my Lara Croft collection via Steam.

Previously, I had read an update suggesting that Asus Live Update had a vulnerability which would allow remote access for hackers. What I didn’t anticipate was the ghost of the app left behind after I had uninstalled it.

I spent forever trying to get the latest version of Asus Live Updates to install, just so I could remove it properly. The issue was the new version insisted that the old version was still installed — but it wasn’t. My laptop had version 1.3-, the vulnerability was listed in the 3.6- version, and I was trying to install version 4.2- so I figured the file would overwrite old files. I was wrong.

Google searches suggested editing the registry. I refuse to ever do that unless absolutely necessary. Asus reps told me to “hard reset” to remove static electricity from the laptop (I have NO idea how that affects ghost apps, just so you know) and eventually, after 1–2 weeks of trying everything under the sun, I installed MyAsus from the Microsoft Store App.

For those of you who don’t know, MyAsus is what quietly replaced Asus Live Updates — but I didn’t know that at the time, and the Asus representative didn’t even mention it. I found it by accident while searching for “Asus” in a desperate Microsoft Store search bender. There was just one problem: all of the options that should have been in the MyAsus app just… weren’t.

The options I needed…

The lack of options I actually had

According to yet another Google search, this was caused by missing software because the laptop existed before the app, and therefore did not come standard with the app pre-installed. I tried to install the ASUS System Control Interface V2 driver, but of course my laptop was not compatible with it.

I’ve had enough.

I decided “To Helheim with it all, I’m refreshing this laptop”

One of the great things about having a secondary internal data drive is the ability to install all of your unnecessary programs there instead of the main C:/ drive. For idiots like me who forget to back everything up first, this was a Godsend for my download speed/bandwidth. All of my important files — desktop shortcuts, course essays, cloud backups, executable files, program files, etc. — basically anything that wasn’t essentially required to keep on the C:/ drive was kept on the D:/ drive. When I did the PC refresh, I opted to keep my files and get rid of everything else.

What most people don’t realize is that a lot of viruses are generally targeted towards the C:/ drive because it’s the only verified drive path in virtually every Microsoft computer system. If you don’t want a virus to attack your personal files, either change the drive path or change the file location. It won’t stop everything, but it can certainly help prevent a lot of losses in the future.

Because my files, programs, etc were all on the D:/ drive, only the C:/ drive was really affected. Windows restored to it’s previous version, restoring all apps and programs to their previous, default state. I only had to reinstall certain things such as Microsoft Store Apps and my antivirus. The only thing left was to re-install updates.

ASUS LIVE UPDATE WAS BACK

I ran every update I could think of, and finally got the computer back to it’s proper state. Even MyAsus was functioning properly. And the best part?

THE LAPTOP STOPPED OVERHEATING

I’m not quite sure what caused the issue in the first place, but I’m still planning to replace the thermal paste just because I’m bothered by what I saw when Geek Squad opened the case up for me. I think, other than the issues with the Asus software, the only real beef I have with them is the cheap thermal paste on a high-end i7 CPU.

Next journey? “Asus USB Charger+ is not the latest version” pop-up at startup….the pop-up is coming from the latest version of the driver, which I manually installed myself directly from The Asus website using the Asus Installer App.

I’m telling you…MSI is looking really sexy right about now.