ASUS ROG Strix G18 G815LW (Core Ultra 9 275HX + RTX 5080) - Instant power off in Performance/Turbo, stable in Manual. Anyone else?

[DonFredo]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to determine whether this is an issue affecting my specific unit or if other owners of the ASUS ROG Strix G18 G815LW are experiencing the same behavior.

System specifications

• ASUS ROG Strix G18 G815LW-S9076W

• Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX

• NVIDIA RTX 5080 Laptop GPU (175 W)

• 32 GB DDR5 RAM

• Original ASUS 380 W power adapter

• Windows 11 24H2

• BIOS 338

• Latest Intel chipset/ME drivers

• Latest NVIDIA Game Ready driver

• Latest Armoury Crate and ASUS updates

Problem

The laptop performs an instant hard power-off while gaming.

There is:

• no BSOD

• no application crash

• no NVIDIA driver reset

• no WHEA errors

• no thermal warning

• Event Viewer only records Kernel-Power Event ID 41 after reboot.

The shutdown is identical to pulling the power plug.

Games where it happened

• inZOI

• Starfield

• Subnautica 2 Benchmark

• Space Marine 2

The crashes are completely random and not tied to a specific amount of play time.

What I've already tested

• BIOS updated to 338

• Latest NVIDIA driver

• Latest Windows updates

• Latest Intel drivers

• MyASUS hardware diagnostics (no errors)

• Event Viewer analysis (nothing except Kernel-Power 41)

• Temperatures appear normal before shutdown.

Interesting observation

I normally use an Armoury Crate Manual profile with:

• custom fan curve

• GPU Core Offset: 0 MHz

• GPU Memory Offset: +200 MHz

• CPU PL1: 75 W

• CPU PL2: 90 W

While using this Manual profile I don't remember experiencing any shutdowns.

The most recent shutdown happened after an Armoury Crate update. After reboot I noticed Armoury Crate had switched my laptop to Turbo mode, making me suspect the system may have been running Turbo when the shutdown occurred.

Another G815LW owner

I recently found another owner with the exact same model reporting almost identical symptoms:

• instant hard power-off

• no BSOD

• only Kernel-Power 41

• BIOS 338

• latest NVIDIA driver

• original 380 W adapter

• clean Windows installation

• normal temperatures, voltages and power readings

He can reliably reproduce the shutdown with Hashcat benchmark in Performance mode, while Silent mode passes. He also reports that a Manual profile with reduced GPU power limits completely solves the issue.

Interestingly, Prime95 + FurMark together run without problems on his system, suggesting this is not simply a thermal issue.

Questions

• Does anyone else with a G815LW (Core Ultra 9 275HX + RTX 5080) experience similar hard shutdowns?

• Have you noticed any difference between Silent, Performance, Turbo and Manual profiles?

• Has anyone identified whether this is related to GPU boost clocks, Dynamic Boost, power delivery or firmware?

• Has ASUS acknowledged this issue or provided any engineering feedback?

Any additional data or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[electrosoft]

The fact you and  the other user reports a manual profile reducing GPU power limits completely solves the issue points to a faulty PSU failing under higher loads or a board level power delivery issue.

 

If you had a wall power meter to see how much is actually pulled, I think you will see your shutdowns are occurring at a certain overall draw level.

 

First thing, and easiest thing to do, is to order a 380w PSU from Amazon with a 30 day return policy and see if that fixes your problem. If it doesn't, at least you  can rule out the PSU and move onto a board level power delivery issue somewhere.