Device: Razer Blade 16 (2026)
Software: Synapse 4
Issue summary
Activating or switching any Blade device profile in Synapse 4 forces the laptop's actual performance state to Performance Mode, even when the target profile is explicitly configured for Balanced Mode. This is not only a UI display problem: CPU package power, GPU TGP and fan behavior all change to the Performance state.
The trigger is profile activation itself. Linked Games makes the issue easier to notice because launching or focusing a linked game activates its profile, but Linked Games is not the root cause. The same behavior occurs when switching profiles manually in the Synapse UI.
Minimal reproduction
1. Set the Blade to Balanced Mode manually.
2. Verify that CPU package power, GPU TGP and fan behavior match Balanced Mode.
3. In Synapse 4, switch to another Blade profile.
4. Ensure that the target profile is also saved as Balanced.
5. After the profile is applied, observe that the machine is actually running in Performance Mode.
6. Synapse may still display Balanced even though the power limits and fan behavior have changed.
Expected behavior
Activating a profile saved as Balanced should apply Balanced Mode.
Actual behavior
Profile activation applies Performance Mode (internally represented as maximumPower).
Control tests
- Directly selecting Balanced or Performance through Synapse Web works correctly.
- If no profile is switched, the current performance mode remains correct.
- Entering a game, using Alt+Tab and returning to the game does not cause the issue when the game is not linked to a profile.
- Linking the game activates a profile and immediately reproduces the issue.
- Manual profile switching reproduces it without any game or Linked Games configuration.
- The issue reproduces on the latest public Synapse 4 and on an older Synapse 4 Beta.
- It still reproduces after Razer Factory Recovery and a clean/current Synapse installation.
- It reproduces while signed out and in Guest Mode, so cloud profile corruption is unlikely.
- Razer Cortex is not installed.
- The MCU has been updated to the current version.
- Synapse Web can control the same machine correctly, which shows that the BIOS/EC/hardware path supports the requested modes.
Likely root cause found in the profile restore path
The Blade product module's profile-restore logic appears to restore previousModeBeforeHyperboost whenever HyperBoost is supported and AC power is present. The assignment is effectively:
mode = previousModeBeforeHyperboost
It does not appear to be gated by a check that the current saved mode is actually HyperBoost. On this machine, profiles whose visible mode is Balanced or Silent had previousModeBeforeHyperboost persisted as maximumPower. Therefore, every profile activation overwrites the intended mode with that stale value and sends Performance to the device.
This also explains why the direct performance-mode control works: direct switching uses the live control path, while profile activation uses a different restore/apply path.
Evidence from local logs
Before the workaround, switching to a profile whose UI mode was Balanced produced a task payload with performanceMode: maximumPower, followed by a device call equivalent to setOverClockingMode(performanceMode: maximumPower).
As a diagnostic test, I changed only the locally persisted previousModeBeforeHyperboost values so that the Balanced profile stored balanced and the Default/Silent profile stored silent. After restarting Synapse, profile switching immediately sent the correct values:
- Balanced profile -> performanceMode: balanced
- Default/Silent profile -> performanceMode: silent
CPU/GPU power and fan behavior then matched the selected profiles. This is a successful local workaround and strongly isolates the bug to profile serialization/restoration rather than the hardware or EC. It is not a suitable permanent fix because Synapse can rewrite or migrate the local database.
Requested fix
Please investigate the Blade 16 (2026) device module/profile schema and the Profile Apply / Device Profile Restore path. In particular:
1. Only restore previousModeBeforeHyperboost when the saved current mode is actually HyperBoost.
2. Do not let a stale or missing previousModeBeforeHyperboost field override a valid Balanced/Silent/Custom profile mode.
3. Correct or migrate existing profiles where this field was persisted as maximumPower.
4. Verify the enum/ID mapping for Silent, Balanced, Performance, Custom and HyperBoost in the profile restore path.
A useful regression test would compare the low-level request generated by directly clicking Balanced with the request generated by activating a profile saved as Balanced. Both should send the same effective performance mode.