Asus G73 Lockup Issues
- Thread starter Matts96HB
- Start date
- Replies 67
- Views 12K
We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms
Battle Pope
Well-Known Member
Power issues, bad hard drive controller, lots of stuff.
Battle Pope
Well-Known Member
Did you flash the bios?
endlesszeal
Senior Member
it seems like its 1 of 2 things:
1) bad cables = cant see the drive because no connection is made.
2) faulty chipset = corrupts hdd
its pretty unlucky (not entirely impossible) to have two drives go south in a year. id contact ASUS or BB to see if youre warranty is good and RMA that fucker.
youre not throwing your laptop around or dropping it are you?
traditional hdds have very senstive moving parts and if you drop it about 3-4 feet, most likely you FUBAR'ed something.
also, if youre able to get it up and running somehow, id strongly install suggest running seatools or some type of S.M.A.R.T. monitoring program to see what the hell is wrong. itll usually give out a code or a warning to tell you why youre driving is failing or not. if its not, your problem lies with either broken chipset, bios or bad cables.
| Seagate
1) bad cables = cant see the drive because no connection is made.
2) faulty chipset = corrupts hdd
its pretty unlucky (not entirely impossible) to have two drives go south in a year. id contact ASUS or BB to see if youre warranty is good and RMA that fucker.
youre not throwing your laptop around or dropping it are you?
traditional hdds have very senstive moving parts and if you drop it about 3-4 feet, most likely you FUBAR'ed something.also, if youre able to get it up and running somehow, id strongly install suggest running seatools or some type of S.M.A.R.T. monitoring program to see what the hell is wrong. itll usually give out a code or a warning to tell you why youre driving is failing or not. if its not, your problem lies with either broken chipset, bios or bad cables.
| Seagate
Battle Pope
Well-Known Member
Since it's a laptop I'm not sure how it would be cables, unless the hard drive connects to a separate PCB that's connected to the motherboard by a cable.
endlesszeal
Senior Member
Asus G73 Series Disassembly Guide
ASUS G73 SATA Hard Drive Connector 69N0H3J10C01-01 | eBay
most optical or hard drives have some type of interface with the motherboard that is not soldered onto the board unless its NAND or via the miniPCIe connector.
anyway, if its under warranty, id RMA or at least make a case so they know youre having problems with it, that way if anything does crop up again, you have a trail.
also, what you can try is if you have an extra USB lying around, throw ubuntu on and use it for a week or so. if its still doing it, then its more likely the OS or the motherboard, so you can rule out the hdds.
unlikely, but possible, memory can also corrupt drives, so if you feel like it, you can run memtest to see if it passes at least 2 hrs. cpus, most of the time, are the last equipment to fail. as for power supply, on a laptop its not likely but possible.
anyway, id throw linux on usb and see if its still giving you booting errors and lockups.
ASUS G73 SATA Hard Drive Connector 69N0H3J10C01-01 | eBay
most optical or hard drives have some type of interface with the motherboard that is not soldered onto the board unless its NAND or via the miniPCIe connector.
anyway, if its under warranty, id RMA or at least make a case so they know youre having problems with it, that way if anything does crop up again, you have a trail.
also, what you can try is if you have an extra USB lying around, throw ubuntu on and use it for a week or so. if its still doing it, then its more likely the OS or the motherboard, so you can rule out the hdds.
unlikely, but possible, memory can also corrupt drives, so if you feel like it, you can run memtest to see if it passes at least 2 hrs. cpus, most of the time, are the last equipment to fail. as for power supply, on a laptop its not likely but possible.
anyway, id throw linux on usb and see if its still giving you booting errors and lockups.
endlesszeal
Senior Member
you know what, i just thought of cpu temps. do you have a monitor for it? if not, i recommend coretemp, hwmonitor, or realtemp. loud it with prime95 and see what you get. most new intel cpus can do 100c but thats a little toasty. 70c-80c seems reasonable. if it locks up, then that could be causing corrupt data.
this is getting popular with the ladies too now.
I hate to bump this again, but I'm heading out of town for school in January, so I need to get my laptop back in working order.
I am out of warranty at ASUS, and I did not buy a warranty through Best Buy.
I did go down to geek squad and bitched and moaned my way to a free diagnosis from them. Well, the diagnosis was shit. They informed me that the hard drive was dead, and its possible the the mobo is too because this is the second drive in six or less months. Nothing that I didn't already know.
Anyway, the laptop will be back to me in a week or so, and I think I have a game plan.
1) get the fucker to boot (it will if i spend enough time trying)
2) run seatools to see if I can get an idea of what is going wrong
if I cant figure out what is wrong from there, is there any way to isolate the problem? I really don't want to just throw cash and parts at this thing until I get it right. lol
also, i have never dropped the laptop. it has always been on a table or other flat surface.
oh, and i was quoted $1k to replace the motherboard. thats what i paid for the damn thing
I am out of warranty at ASUS, and I did not buy a warranty through Best Buy.
I did go down to geek squad and bitched and moaned my way to a free diagnosis from them. Well, the diagnosis was shit. They informed me that the hard drive was dead, and its possible the the mobo is too because this is the second drive in six or less months. Nothing that I didn't already know.
Anyway, the laptop will be back to me in a week or so, and I think I have a game plan.
1) get the fucker to boot (it will if i spend enough time trying)
2) run seatools to see if I can get an idea of what is going wrong
if I cant figure out what is wrong from there, is there any way to isolate the problem? I really don't want to just throw cash and parts at this thing until I get it right. lol
also, i have never dropped the laptop. it has always been on a table or other flat surface.
oh, and i was quoted $1k to replace the motherboard. thats what i paid for the damn thing
endlesszeal
Senior Member
download Ultimate Boot CD, it has a host of stress testing software that you can boot of a USB or CDROM. disable the hard drive and run memtest and cpuburn. or you can do the same with Ubuntu installed on flash. Stress test the CPU, memory and GPU without the hard drive. This will determine if any of those are causing corruption.
If all pass, its either the chipset or just sh*t luck with hard drives. Chipset is much hard to detect and the only real fix is to see if their is a BIOS update or replace the motherboard (and that should not cost $1000 for parts and labor).
To check hard drive at low level you can use testdisk in conjuction with seatools. hard drives are sensitive but its hard to believe you have such bad luck with them.
If all pass, its either the chipset or just sh*t luck with hard drives. Chipset is much hard to detect and the only real fix is to see if their is a BIOS update or replace the motherboard (and that should not cost $1000 for parts and labor).
To check hard drive at low level you can use testdisk in conjuction with seatools. hard drives are sensitive but its hard to believe you have such bad luck with them.
Okay, so I'll try ultimate cd boot first.
if all pass, update the bios (i think there is an update available) if that doesnt work, i guess ill just order a mobo and do it? or maybe a hdd first and if that doesnt fix it ill assume the motherboard.
have not, i sent the damn thing out before i could even think because i was pissed
endlesszeal
Senior Member
a hdd replacement is cheaper and way easier than a mobo replacement.
if you do end up replacing it, just be really patient, read instructions 4 times and give yourself at least a day to do it. taking apart a laptop can be difficult because of all the small wires and screws, but not impossible and with enough patient, anyone can do it.
if you do end up replacing it, just be really patient, read instructions 4 times and give yourself at least a day to do it. taking apart a laptop can be difficult because of all the small wires and screws, but not impossible and with enough patient, anyone can do it.
Battle Pope
Well-Known Member
LOL a grand to replace a motherboard? Makes me sad we don't have a best buy around here to steal customers from.
endlesszeal
Senior Member
best buy probably takes like $500 just cuz thats what they do, pay $50 to ship it to some 3rd party shop that will actually do the replacement, $250 for parts and pay the shop its $200 contract agreement for accomplishing the job.
as a former geek squad employee, i can tell you that if they quoted a grand for the parts, thats what they are buying them for. they buy parts from some 3rd party (i dont know who) and pay a premium as kind of insurance that the parts are correct and not DOA. that's usually why they are so expensive. you can get the same parts on ebay for much less usually, but thats how they decide to do things. labor will prob run an additional 150ish.
as a store employee i waited and waited for the day that they would let us repair laptop screens and motherboards instore, as it would be much quicker for the customer, but it never happened. i had the skills to do any kind of laptop or computer repair, but not everyone does and they dont want to spend more in training i guess, plus laptops are much more specialized and different, than the more standardized desktops (which we could do nearly anything instore other than warranty motherboard repair/replacements). although i did have a few customers bring in screens/motherboards for laptops and they paid me to just fix it in store. i wasnt "technically" allowed to, but my manager was cool with it as long as i made it clear that i couldnt warranty any parts that the customer provided.
and geek squad has their own service centers, all computers are worked on by geeksquad employees and never a 3rd party. the major one being in Louisville, KY and the other in Chino CA.
as a store employee i waited and waited for the day that they would let us repair laptop screens and motherboards instore, as it would be much quicker for the customer, but it never happened. i had the skills to do any kind of laptop or computer repair, but not everyone does and they dont want to spend more in training i guess, plus laptops are much more specialized and different, than the more standardized desktops (which we could do nearly anything instore other than warranty motherboard repair/replacements). although i did have a few customers bring in screens/motherboards for laptops and they paid me to just fix it in store. i wasnt "technically" allowed to, but my manager was cool with it as long as i made it clear that i couldnt warranty any parts that the customer provided.
and geek squad has their own service centers, all computers are worked on by geeksquad employees and never a 3rd party. the major one being in Louisville, KY and the other in Chino CA.
endlesszeal
Senior Member
i think he meant $1k was for everything, not just parts. I did a quick search and most places all came up to be around $3-400 for the mobo. I would only imagine a highly specific gaming one with SLI or Xfire, military grade or some kind of server type motherboard to priced at $1000. regardless, everyone has to make their money, but its crossing the line when you "stretch the truth" or straight out lie.
i have no problem GS contracting out labor or charging $100 for network setup. is it a rip off? sure, but if you dont know how to do it or find someone that can do it for cheaper, its your fault for being an uninformed consumer. anyone that does the foot work will find someone that knows someone or a small shop that will do it for cheaper. besides, they spent the millions in adverting and building an image, so worst buy deserves the business if youre ready to pony up. (on a side note, my brother works at worst buy too and his particular store does very well because most of the clientele are affluent old people that throw money at stuff to make it easier or just work).
but it pisses me off when they start lying out their teeth. case in point, my brother isnt very tech savvy and a coworker from geek squad convinced him to buy a GT220 for $100. he was told that it will play any game with ease. yeah, any games with aa and af turned off @ 800x600 resolution.
by the time he told me, he couldnt return the card anymore. i was disgruntled how a co worker can misinform (unintentionally or intentionally) a fellow "team member" just to make a sale. this isnt a one time incident either because now my brother knows betters and gives me a call before he makes any tech buys and some of the BS he relays to me from a GS coworker makes me want to shoryuken a bitch.
anyway, long story short, everyone has to make a dollar, just dont f**king lie. and if you research and take your time, you can save a pretty penny.
i have no problem GS contracting out labor or charging $100 for network setup. is it a rip off? sure, but if you dont know how to do it or find someone that can do it for cheaper, its your fault for being an uninformed consumer. anyone that does the foot work will find someone that knows someone or a small shop that will do it for cheaper. besides, they spent the millions in adverting and building an image, so worst buy deserves the business if youre ready to pony up. (on a side note, my brother works at worst buy too and his particular store does very well because most of the clientele are affluent old people that throw money at stuff to make it easier or just work).
but it pisses me off when they start lying out their teeth. case in point, my brother isnt very tech savvy and a coworker from geek squad convinced him to buy a GT220 for $100. he was told that it will play any game with ease. yeah, any games with aa and af turned off @ 800x600 resolution.
by the time he told me, he couldnt return the card anymore. i was disgruntled how a co worker can misinform (unintentionally or intentionally) a fellow "team member" just to make a sale. this isnt a one time incident either because now my brother knows betters and gives me a call before he makes any tech buys and some of the BS he relays to me from a GS coworker makes me want to shoryuken a bitch.
anyway, long story short, everyone has to make a dollar, just dont f**king lie. and if you research and take your time, you can save a pretty penny.
So, I'm currently posting from the laptop. I got it back from GS yesterday and it booted up this time without a hitch. I downloaded Seatools and ran the SMART test, and it passed.
Ive also downloaded and installed ultimate boot cd to a USB drive. Trying to figure out where to go from here.
Ive also downloaded and installed ultimate boot cd to a USB drive. Trying to figure out where to go from here.
