Overheated - won't POST

OH crap. s*** even. I own an S96J, running Win Vista. I set it to go to sleep when I shut the lid. It didn't. I didn't check to make sure it was in sleep mode but I did double check that it was SUPPOSED to go into sleep mode.

So I was on the bus with my lappy IN MY BAG - not running any programs, but in an extremely unventilated area i.e. my bag. And after about 50 minutes of this, I noticed that my bag was kinda warm. then it hit me "OH F***" (sorry for the implied cursing, but you would too with your 1.5 month old laptop). anyways, long story short, laptop won't POST. I'm at school hence on the bus to school now and have no access to any tools.

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. that might help are more than welcome. In fact, I beg of you...

 

I'm surprised thermal protection didn't kick in and shut the laptop down. Without AC take the battery out and then put it back in. That'll make sure everything is reset. If that doesn't help then something major is fried.

 

yeah i was kinda surprised to find out that the battery was completely drained. (without AC I couldn't even get the power light on for a second). I had already taken out the battery... crap I think something major is fried.

Note that a little while ago I wasn't able to make POST and reseated my RAM (this was unrelated to thermal issues) and it was fine until this little screwup.

 

I got access to a screwdriver. I just reseated my RAM several times. Looks like I'm gonna have to RMA this thing. Crap. that is a big PITA. Any other suggestions welcome.

 

Would there be any physical damage to the component that got "fried"?

 

When you say it won't post do you mean nothing at all or it beeps at you?

 

Heat is the #1 enemy of batteries, and just about everything else in the case... so it'd hard to narrow down what was fried. I don't think it'd be the CPU because the ACPI controls the fan all the time... but I don't think it'd be the HDD either because it would still post. Most likely, something on the motherboard, your battery, or RAM is dead...

best of luck with your RMA

 

keep the battery out for a day and try to power it up tomorrow. once i was playing a game on my bro's comp and it shut down. couldn't get it to power up. removed the battery and put it back in....did not power up. kept the battery off over a day and then tried to power up, and it worked. may not in your case...but worth a try.

 

1) the DVD has power, and can open/shut, and flickers on and off at the start, as normal

2) The HDD light is solid for about 30 seconds to a minute then just shuts off (no flickering solid --> off)

3) Nothing else.

yeah heat is really not cool, and this thing got really hot.

but with the battery, what if I remove it and just run on AC power? then it's not the battery (i tried that btw, still wouldn't POST)

EDIT: @ ejl: That makes absolutely no sense to me. (read above) ... if the battery is out and your on AC power anyways, then how could it be the battery?

 

You probably just fried something on your board... wish you the best with your RMA.

 

i am not saying the battery is the problem. but when you remove the battery, it does a hardware reset and clears the system of whatever electronic memory and what not.

 

yeah i guess I'll wait on the RMA status with the battery out... seeing as it won't POST anyways. but yeah I did a little test and took out the RAM and tried to turn on the system, and the response was identical to when the RAM was in (and remember it was reseated before which fixed the problem) so I am guessing that my RAM is screwed. There was a problem with it before, but I think this just heigtened/accelerated it.

Thx for the suggestions all

 

by the way, isn't there supposed to be some sort of beep code that happens when there is a POST error? or is that when the POST finds an error? If the first is true, then with a memory error shouldn't it beep like 3 or 5 times or something?

 

The beeps are when POST finds an error. Are you getting any beeps?

 

no... that's the weird part. how long would I have to wait? I haven't left it on (since it has been failing POST) for more than like 2 minutes. If my HDD light is solid, and my DVD drive is flashing/powered, but my fan doesn't start, and HDD doesn't sound like it's spinning, and nothing else seems alive, does that mean it has simply failed POST, or has it even made it to POST?

 

Hey, I have an older laptop (which I'm using now) that has 512 MB DDR RAM. Is it possible, if it fits, to place it in and see if it works? i.e. does the chipset allow DDR? I've only seen DDR2 in laptops with 945 chipsets/core 2, but theoretically shouldn't it be ok?

EDIT: just tried it, DDR sticks don't fit in the DDR2 slot

 

No, it won't fit, they have different pin layout and different signal config.

And I think I've seen somewhere on this forum someone knowledgeable say that laptops don't beep like desktops when something like RAM or GPU doesn't work.

If the HDD is firing up for about 30 seconds, this is consistent with the notebook booting into Windows, up until the login screen... do you have any way of finding that out? If that were the case, I would say something related to the screen (not the GPU) has burned...

 

(i found that out hehe)

I am going to have to disagree with you for several reasons

a) the HDD light is SOLID for 30 seconds. This is not normal at all for a windows bootup - it flickers and does so for significantly more than 30 seconds
and
b) I have tried running the system without a RAM chip in and it did the exact same thing.

does your computer honestly load windows in 30 seconds?

 

Mine does. But that is because I run XP. Get rid of Vista. If you didn't have it, you probably wouldn't be having this problem.(You realize I don't really mean get rid of Vista- but I think it was a bad idea to get it in the first place).

How many RAM modules do you have? If you have two, you can try booting up with each one individually.

If that doesn't work, try your hard disk. Failure rates on those are quite high. Just remove the thing and try to boot up. See if anything different happens.

 

I had XP and it took about 60 seconds to load. Anyways I didn't buy Vista - my girlfriend recently bought a computer from dell and it came with Vista, so I figured I'd try it (lets you load it for 30 days w/o a license). biggest mistake ever.

Just one RAM module (see first post) - yeah I reseated my RAM before and it went from not POSTing properly to working fine. and also tried the hard drive while I was at school - funny; they didn't put screws to keep the HDD in. (the HDD is fine). I'm pretty much

The thing I don't get is why it didn't a) go to sleep when I specifically made sure for the reason that I knew it would get stinkin hot if the processor was left on. I am positive I changed it I double and triple checked (cause I have made the mistake before with XP but it didn't fry the computer i did that to (it was a different one). and also I'm shocked that the battery was completely drained. the power shoulda kicked out long before the battery drained. Like those things go for 2.5 hours - 3 hours... the ol fan musta been eatin some seirous juice. anyways RMA here I come.

 

I'm sorry that I didn't realize you only had one module. I wrote that in a hurry after reading through the thread in a hurry before running off to school.

Great that your hard disk still works...

I'm sure that what happened is vista locked up, which put some serious load on your hardware. The processor must have been under full load the whole time, as well as everything else still powered up and draining mass amounts of power(The battery should only have taken about an hour and a half to shut off at this type of power drain, considering it was fully charged). Considering the fact that the battery would have been heated up to an extent, and you had been using it, this sounds like a reasonable theory if the battery died pretty much right around the time you opened the case.

Sorry to say this, but it does sound like RMA.

 

yeah, for RMA i guess the place i bought the lappy from is useless. I have to deal directly with ASUS, correct? I am already RMA'ing my corsair RAM separately to see if that fixes it (i.e. a bad stick of RAM) - I ran memtest a little while ago and it froze = bad. hopefully it's the RAM which is easily replacable and not something more (i.e. something soldered to the motherboard)

 

i'm pretty sure all built-on models go through the dealer....

 

I thought Intel provided support for the VBI models.

 

um, does anybody know? I've sent a message to ASUS. I was able to get access as a VIP member (as such I figured my laptop was supported by them) by pluggin in the serial number and model number. Plus when I phoned the vendor, they said that ASUS deals with that. If it is a problem with something made by ASUS. as i said i'll rma my RAM - Corsair said they'd test the RAM to see if it was the problem. I might get my hands on my other old laptop which had DDR2-533 RAM - that should be compatible (see if it'll POST - then I definitely know it's the RAM)...

 

The messages on Asus' support site goes to Taiwan. They will probably just tell you to call your regional support center.

 

Z96J -> reseller and/or Asus
S96J -> Intel, some resellers.

It depends on your reseller. Who did you buy from? Some resellers will replace/fix it for you in a few days, whereas others will send you to Intel and you will be without a laptop for a month or two. This is where your choice of reseller becomes important. I learned the hard way.

 

bought from NCIX.com. that would suck to have it sent off for a month/2. dang.

 

NCIX should be your first point of contact, as they were your reseller, for possible RMA. Depending on how they are administering their VBI program for your S96, they may have you send it to them or else directly to Intel (hope for the former, Intel's contractors had a poor reputation for turnaround last summer anyway). Different resellers do the VBI system in various ways.

 

My older ECS laptop beeped, and I know the Thinkpads do as well. Not sure about ASUS laptops though, but I know many Dells do as well as ones from other OEMS. Really it depends on the OEM and the BIOS and their preference.

I remember someone saying the S96JS/Z96JS had a reset button, but I don't think I ever looked for it. I have found in the past, especially with the G732 that if you left it with no battery and unplugged any residual electrical current in the ram and other parts of the machine would dissipate, and it would work again. Sometimes it took an hour, sometimes a day, sometimes 5 minutes. It really depended, but I did the exact same thing as you as also found reseating the ram fixed it a bunch of times, and unplugging fixed it even more often...

It can't hurt. So far no problems with my Z96JS, but this happened to me a bunch of times in the 3 years I used my G732.

Good luck,
Cat

 

thanks cat... I actually was thinking of this as well. I downloaded the user manual and on p. it says that if the laptop is frozen, you can either a) hold down the power button or b) press the reset button. I actually looked for this for some time but couldn't find it...
actually just looking through it now, and the attached screenshot shows where it is supposed to be. I do not have my laptop here atm, but can anyone confirm this (i am at school and get home in several hours)... I'd really like to try it. yeah my battery and power are both unplugged as of now. i really hope it works...

fortunately my RMA from corsair was approved. they're sending me my rMA number w/in 48 hours

 

Cool, found it. I just got home and I turned over my laptop as I looked at the schematic. It was a bit odd, I was looking at it reversed and upside down since I didn't want to unplug anything, but I finally found it. It is well disguised, a very small hole right where it is on the diagram, with some small lettering next to it. It's good that it's tiny of course to prevent accidental triggering, but you'll need some kind of small paperclip or similar object to trigger it.

Hopefully that'll fix it for you

Cat

 

yeah didn't do it. I've left my power sources apart from my laptop for only about 12 hours at at time - I'll leave it for a little longer now I think. but pretty much I'm not expecting anything to be fixed.