Armoury Crate causes system freezes/crashes (after clean Win10 reinstall)

[AWT]

Hi. Armoury Cra* is driving me mad. (My full detailed specs are in my profile/bio).
I need this atrocious software as my Ryujin AIO watercooling system has a small display on the cooling block which should be controllable (it should be able to display a chosen GIF image, or, as I prefer, be used to display live CPU info like temperature, frequency and voltage).
I have even tried to forego AC to at least get control over the RGBs back (by installing an old version of standalone Aura Sync), but not even that worked (the old Aura Sync won't launch at all).

The problem is that as soon as I install the software, the computer starts freezing up after a random, short amount of time (like 5-10 min max) - usually first the start button and/or power down options stop responding, then the whole system including all running apps starts freezing.
All I can then do is use the reset button.
As soon as I uninstall AC, the whole system is stable again, and can easily handle demanding tasks like OCCT stability tests etc.

I reinstalled windows last night (clean install, incl wiping and recreating partitions etc.), but still the problem reappeared as soon as I reinstalled Armoury Crate.
I managed to get the problem slightly delayed (so it runs normal for up to like 10 minutes instead of the default 5 before freezing) by deleting a file that was named something like "layermanager.dll" (or similar - I found a hint online that pointed to that file causing instability for some users), but the file usually gets recreated automatically if AC is installed, and besides 10 minutes of usable runtime obviously isn't really a solution to my problem.

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this?
I suspect the watercooling system is to blame (as on two occasions, the problem started when I was trying to set a more aggressive fan curve for the embedded fan inside the cooling block assembly, but that could be coincidence). The watercooler is connected to the proprietary ROG connector on the mainboard (unfortunately, I only have one of those).

The problem started after I exchanged my old RGB rams for non-RGB rams as a temporary solution (the old ones were no longer detected by MB), but the reason I reinstalled windows was because I have now installed new RAMS (near identical to the old ones - same Brand/Model with slightly different specs) and a new CPU.

I would be grateful for any advice how to solve this. (Unfortunately, OpenRGB is not an option for me, as the watercooling system isn't supported by that app - the watercooler has both RGBs and the aforementioned screen). Thanks in advance

[AWT]

If anyone has an idea how to solve this, I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance.

[Supafly]

Unfortunately I have no idea I refer to that software as SuckyCrate. It shocks me that it's just as bad, if not worse, than it was when I first started using it. Driver updates is constantly out of date, I'm talking 2+ months after I've installed latest from website and it still list an outdated driver as the latest.

I switched to a third party app for my fan curves because SuckyCrate doesn't save them nor backup them anywhere you can access. Even after using Backup and restore you fancurves are no more. Change a fan and you need to redo the entire fancurve. You can't just tweak the fan that got changed you need to start fresh.

Really P******* me of when companies insist on merging everything into a single application. You can't just install the part you want/need

Hopefully someone can help. I feel sorry that you look stuck having to use it.

[YoSoyJosh]

Why not set your fan curves in bios and get rid of armoury crate?

[AWT]

The fans in the AIO cooling block assembly can only be controlled through AC. They are not detected anywhere else. I now managed to set the RGBs with OpenRGB, but the RGB on the AIO is now off as OpenRGB can't detect the AIO. Also, there is a small display on the AIO cooling block, which should show stats like temperature or frequency etc., which can also only be controlled via the AC software (without it, all it shows is an ROG logo).
The fans are not my main concern, the problem is that the whole AIO system (which has several components - screen, fan, and watercooler) cannot be detected by any other software I know of.
BIOS doesn't detect it either (I don't think it's supposed to - it just detects it as a watercooler).
Of course I leave it as it is for now, but I hope I can find a solution because I also still have remains of that rubbish software (like a listing in the right click menu) even after removal, and I don't want to reinstall Windows and all the apps etc again. It's infuriating. At least the system now runs stable as I'm not installing AC again without a plan what to try change/delete to get it stable.
The monitor (XG32VC) is also not detected (it should also have Aura sync).

[Supafly]

Originally posted by 🜏𐕣 NØNE 𐕣🜏:

Why not set your fan curves in bios and get rid of armoury crate?

Because when updating Bios they get wiped and you have to redo them again, just like in AC. And when I first got my 12700K the board was constantly getting Bios updates and I got fed up of having to redo them all the time. With the app I'm using I can save profiles locally so I can back them up should I wipe my OS or do a Bios update. The app is so much better than the Bios and AC.

https://getfancontrol.com/

or github

https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases

[AWT]

As said, the fans are not my primary issue. The regular fans work fine, and the one only accessible through Armoury Crate cannot be controlled by FanControl.
Besides, I can store my BIOS config (incl fan curves) to a USB drive in BIOS, and since I have the board's final BIOS version I have no reason to use FanControl.
Thanks for the advice, but I need help fixing Armoury, as Fancontrol is useless to me.

[Azurin]

my system had trouble resuming from sleep and random bootup freezes after installing Armoury crate

[AWT]

It's like a virus, eating deeply into your system unnecessarily. I wouldn't even mind that if it at least was somewhat stable. Armoury Crate is the worst piece of **** software I have ever come across. Amazing how ASUS dares to force this down people's throats after they paid PREMIUM prices for the hardware. Even free, third party software does jobs better than ASUS software, yet, instead of leaving the bits that were somewhat stable in place (like standalone Aura Sync), they force everyone to get that rubbish (Armoury Cra*) on their systems just to use the hardware they paid for. Why can't they just offer a simple, lightweight version of that rubbish?!?

[AmaiAmai]

Originally posted by AWT:

As said, the fans are not my primary issue. The regular fans work fine, and the one only accessible through Armoury Crate cannot be controlled by FanControl.
Besides, I can store my BIOS config (incl fan curves) to a USB drive in BIOS, and since I have the board's final BIOS version I have no reason to use FanControl.
Thanks for the advice, but I need help fixing Armoury, as Fancontrol is useless to me.

Ask the devs that made the software. You paid for a working product and didn't receive it.

If they don't help you, well you know next time who not to do business with.

I keep telling people, but by using proprietary devices and software you are ultimately putting yourself in a cage and throwing the key down the sewer yourself. When you regret tossing the key it's too late.

[AWT]

I certainly won't be buying any ASUS hardware designed to work with Armoury Crate ever again. Unfortunately, my current setup is mostly ROG, and it worked fine until they discontinued Aura Sync and forced people to switch to Armoury Crate, which is a nightmare.

[Mr White]

Uninstall it you don't need it. Just bloatware

[Rod]

This grinds my gears, worse is the trend now is software for each vendor and rgb and oled displays. More e waste...


I dont run much software, my aio kb mouse and gfx card were picked to run softwareless. Compared with an armory crate, synapse and afterburner pc i know which one will run better.

[AWT]

Originally posted by Rod:

This grinds my gears, worse is the trend now is software for each vendor and rgb and oled displays. More e waste...


I dont run much software, my aio kb mouse and gfx card were picked to run softwareless. Compared with an armory crate, synapse and afterburner pc i know which one will run better.

Smart move. I will follow a similar approach in future. I don't mind software that actually does something useful (like AMDs GPU driver software, which can actually improve image in older games), but bloatware like Armoury just to run an LCD inside the PC is pointless. I will run one or two final tests today to see if ASUS support can find the problem, but else I am giving up and won't bother getting the LED display to work (Armoury will be finally removed again after the test). Open RGB can sort out having all RGBs in blue instead of rainbow vomit, and that's all I expect by now. I guess I will have the useless internal LCD screen as a warning not to buy ROG ever again (glad I didn't spend more on the newer model with the more fancy screen, or I'd be really angry now).

[Raoul]

Always hated armoury crate but have tested it on various boards and it does sometimes pull extra updates not shown on there site and extra options for RGB control that might not show up in openrgb.

Did you try reinstalling using the separate uninstaller tool that Asus provides?

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/armoury%20crate/helpdesk_download/

Click on the show all and get the uninstall tool and reinstall after, should fix it. Also where are you installing Armoury crate from cause they have a lite and full version?

[Replica]

None of the vendor bloatware is worth it. I'll take random rainbows over both the MSI version and iCue until MS's universal solution works for everything. My last motherboard was Gigabyte and the Gigabyte Control Centre is utter garbage- motherboards are generally fine but the utility software is a bigger headache than it's worth. If I need to tweak my fans, I can change fan speed thresholds via BIOS.

System stability is always more important and if something can't give you an advertised feature without bloatware that can frell your system, it's best to avoid it as a product next time.

I like rainbow- but mine runs a generic sync wave that looks decent in a white case.