Need an IT Sanity Check (Dead/Nearly-Dead Laptop)

[Ares]

Aight this one is for any of our tech junkies on the forums, I need a second (or third or fourth) opinion on the following situation:

I have an ASUS G51JX laptop which literally about an hour ago seems to have crapped out.

I had it on my lap, went to put it on my coffee table with the screen closed, the AC cable came loose and I pushed it back in and set the laptop down on the table, then when I tried opening the display back up the screen was black but all the lights were still on.

I have seen it before where the mechanism that turns the display on/off based on opening and closing the lid is goofy so I tried closing and re-opening to try and get it to flip back on but to no avail.

So I hard booted it off (as I used to do before I figured out the display mechanism trick) closed the lid, opened it back up and hit the power button.

Again the lights come on, I hear the optical drive kick on, but no display and I hear no fans,

I tried removing the battery and plugging in AC and I get the same.
I tried removing the battery and AC for a few minutes and then tried it and I get the same.

At this point I have it open and when I hit the power button the fan does not try to spin up, the lights still come on, the optical drive still comes on, but nothing else really happens.

I am thinking the board or CPU (or both) just died on me and this laptop is ed (and its a year outside the 24 month warranty) and I have no choice but to start looking at a new one (yay more debt) and try to yank out the hard drive and get what I can off of it on to my desktop.

I found replacement boards and/or replacement GTS 360Ms out there on e-bay and whatnot, would it be worth it to try to replace one or both? Is there any chance its not dead and I am missing something?

That's my thinking, would anyone else think differently or try something different before giving this one up and start looking at new laptops?

 

[Crystallas]

Sounds like something you can't begin to diagnose unless you take it apart.

 

[Ares]

I have it open, without buying working replacement parts and changing stuff out how would you go about it?

I have tried removing memory and adding each stick on individually, nothing.... I assumed so but what the hell.

A hard drive causing a board to not fully function makes no sense, but I tried removing it and same result.

Only other things left are Graphics, CPU, and board.... how do you test those without pulling and replacing?

 

[Crystallas]

Do you have a multimeter? I would check the components around the sensors for the monitor and the power supply.

I find with monitor failures, it's usually a faulty cap. Check to see if any look swollen. Sometimes caps are pretty easy to solder on and off, it's just a matter of your skills.

 

[Crystallas]

BTW, that's not advice I would give to anyone. Only if they show a high amount of skill with hardware. Ares, I have faith in you. Use the force! LOL

So if someone else with low skill reads this, and thinks, "Oh hay! I can fix my laptop", um, no, you probably will make it worse.

 

[Ares]

Lol thanks Crys... I don't normally get that low level on the hardware to be honest, but my dad does.... I will try and check it out with him.

Is your recommendation sort of assuming a monitor failure? Cause I am thinking the monitor may be ok, while the board may be fucked.... the fan for the CPU/GPU heat sink will not kick on when I turn the power on and the connection to the board looks fine.

You think if I caused a power surge or something when I was pushing that AC back in to place I could have fried the board?

Side question, what do you think of the new ASUS 750 series? (Yeah I am sadly thinking that way already)

 

[Crystallas]

Lol thanks Crys... I don't normally get that low level on the hardware to be honest, but my dad does.... I will try and check it out with him.

Is your recommendation sort of assuming a monitor failure? Cause I am thinking the monitor may be ok, while the board may be fucked.... the fan for the CPU/GPU heat sink will not kick on when I turn the power on and the connection to the board looks fine.

You think if I caused a power surge or something when I was pushing that AC back in to place I could have fried the board?

Side question, what do you think of the new ASUS 750 series? (Yeah I am sadly thinking that way already)

The fan is getting power, then trace it back. The fan could have taken a shit, I still would check the caps. Unfortunately, you can not tell by description, unless there is a common problem with that model(I haven't looked TBH) Good thing you have your dad who does have experience with electronics, that is a handy set of knowledge with computing.
(edit, forget the rest of my comment that I had here before, I had a *whoosh moment*)

As far as the 750, I haven't cracked open any HM87 mobile boards(which might be a good thing, depending on how you look at it). But specs and component list looks solid. I like most(not all) mobile AMD graphics better, just because of power:heaterformance, but the later line of kepler bins are actually signs of life from nvidia dropping real world consumption nicely, thus making it a bit more guilt-free and convenient for when you're not using gpu intensive applications.

 

[botfly10]

Try plugging in an external monitor.

 

[nvanprooyen]

BTW, that's not advice I would give to anyone. Only if they show a high amount of skill with hardware. Ares, I have faith in you. Use the force! LOL

So if someone else with low skill reads this, and thinks, "Oh hay! I can fix my laptop", um, no, you probably will make it worse.

Lol.

 

[brett05]

Try plugging in an external monitor.

Good advice. If you get no video with the monitor attached, MB. If you get Video, it's the LCD.

 

[Ares]

Meant to try the external monitor last night and forgot, I will give it a shot when I get home but I am pretty sure the board is fucked.

I reached out to a geek shop in Oak Brook called Avenue Computer, it was recommended by a co-worker.

Based on my description the guy e-mailed me back saying it was likely the board and/or one of the other major components (aka GPU/CPU) and I should save my money and put it towards a new laptop. He said failing ASUS boards has become commonplace for him, which freaks me out since I have always gotten good quality out of my ASUS boards, though they are in desktops, this is the first ASUS laptop I have owned. This one lasted 3.5 years, so idk if its a terrible life span, but I certainly would have liked to of gotten 2 or 3 more years out of it.

Looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-231-089
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231090

If I have to replace.... I have a Newegg Preferred account where I can get 12 month no interest on purchases over 500$, so theoretically I can just make minimum payments till my next tax return and then pay it off.... I should have a nice return this year since I just bought my first house, got lots more to claim now.

 

[botfly10]

Im not trying to say anything about that guy in particular, but when you talk to repair shops about hardware problems with laptops (not counting simple shit like HDDs and ram), 90% of the time they just say some shit like that. I think most people don't want to deal with them.

 

[Ares]

Im not trying to say anything about that guy in particular, but when you talk to repair shops about hardware problems with laptops (not counting simple shit like HDDs and ram), 90% of the time they just say some shit like that. I think most people don't want to deal with them.

Yeah Bot I know what you mean, I used to have a similar attitude when I worked IT Support at UIUC but in this case I gave him a very detailed rundown and even I am quite sure the board is dead. And these guys at this shop do low level diagnosis like what Crystallas was recommending, so its a pretty good bet the board is dead.

BTW I did try an external monitor as it was suggested and as I expected I got nada.... I will keep this laptop around till I can snag a replacement board cheap and then I will try taking it all apart and putting in a new board over a weekend, but that won't be for a while.... so.

My new Beast is now on the way http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231090

 

[Ares]

My Newegg Preferred account covered it btw.... 12 months no interest, so I can make minimum payments for a while and come April next year pay it off with tax return money.

 

[Crystallas]

:clap: Yay, solution found, albeit not economically ideal.

If it wasn't for federal end of fiscal year sweeps, I might offer to zap the bad board for you, and just charge you for components if you wanted it fixed. But I know in the next week or so, I'm going to get a lot of last minute work from clients who run their businesses like a jack-in-the-box.

 

[botfly10]

wow, that is a beast.

 

[Ares]

wow, that is a beast.

Yep, I am working from home today to receive the delivery.

Question.... someone at work just had a baby and sent out an e-mail to notify everyone.... would it be entirely out of bounds to copy the e-mail, change it to reflect the measurements of my new laptop, and send out a notification of my new laptop? I think it would be hilarious

 

[Ares]

So I have the new laptop, and spent my first day with it trying to figure out how to get Windows 8 off of it..... Windows 7 disc would freeze when trying to boot to the install.... turns out you have to reformat the drive prior to trying to do the Windows 7 "downgrade".... thats running now while I am at work.

Also, they took a 256GB SSD and partitioned it into 4 parts and a 1TB hard drive they partitioned into 2 parts..... why the **** do I need 6 godamned partitions.... im just formatting both drives. I can understand some argument on the SSD cause it had an OS part, Recovery part, Reinstall part, and a remainder part.... don't want any of it, but I kinda get it.... but I really don't need the 1TB in 2 parts.... 1 part regular, 1 part backup? Not sure it makes sense, you lose the drive you lose both....

Anyways, Windows 8 dies tonight and I will do my Windows 7 "downgrade"

 

[Ares]

Windows 8 is now finally gone, I got Windows 7 installed last night and about 75% of my drivers.

Need to finish installing drivers and my essential apps so I can start putting the beast through its paces.

Boot is taking 10 seconds on average right now