Np700z7c-s01uk

Hello,

My Series 7 has developed a strange problem.

Having worked flawlessly for nearly two years, whilst using it, a USB cable connected to my phone broke (and the laptop powered off).
I suspected the cable, removed it and powered on the laptop.
A blank screen appeared and nothing seemed to be happening (just fans and power LED).
I held the power button to power off and tried to power on again; the machine powered on and everything seemed fine. However.....I can no longer enter sleep mode, hibernate or shut-down successfully (in the instance of all three, the display will turn off, but the power LED and fans will continue to operate).

To date, I have tried:

Re-installing Windows
Removing / Reseating RAM
Clearing CMOS battery (pin in the underside, then power button for 40 secs; also: pin in the underside, power button held down whilst pin still in for one minute)
Rolling back BIOS and then updating again

Still no joy. In addition, the USB port and my phone work fine (though I daren't plug that cable back in).

Anyone got any ideas?....

I suppose, it could be worse.

Cheers!

 

I'm wondering if the cable problem caused a power malfunction that has left the power circuit damaged. Somewhere there must be a chip that actually turns the computer on or off in response to hardware (power button) or software (keyboard or Windows) commands.

You can look in Device Manager for any problem hardware and also use Event Viewer to check the system log. However, even if either of these reveal any problems it might not be possible to identify a fix.

You can try to look inside the computer to see if there is a separate power board (on many notebooks the power system is on the main board). There is a board for the power switch but I don't think that is the problem since the power button works to turn the computer on. There are also numerous other parts on ebay but working mainboards are expensive.

John

 

Ah dammit!

What should I look for in event viewer (I suppose I could clear the log and then attempt a shutdown)?

Sorry, I should have mentioned in my earlier post that if I click restart, the laptop will shutdown completely (lights, fans etc.).

 

Is the shutdown on restart conducted in an orderly manner with Windows closing any open applications or does the computer just shut down once you click restart?

The system log contains innumerable entries starting with Level, which is either Information, Warning or Error.

Those with Warning or Error indicate something that is not behaving as windows would expect. Of particular interest are any entries related to Power. Whether we can understand any messages is another matter (Google sometimes helps).

John

 

Yeah, it behaves in the correct fashion, everything closes, it shutdowns and then powers off properly. Starts as if no error after that. Weird.

 

So it might be easiest to learn to live with the bug.

Perhaps it will go away on its own accord.

John

 

Fixed it.

Method:

Disconnected AC.

Opened up back.

Removed HDD in order to unscrew, disconnect and remove battery.

Disconnected USB board.

Disconnected CMOS battery at the white connector.

Held power button for forty seconds.

Reconnected HDD.

Reconnected AC.

Switched on, booted to Windows and then shut down successfully.

Disconnected AC, re-connected everything else and now Shutdown, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate all work as they should.

There must have been some charge laying on the board which could only be removed (despite trying everything under the sun) with a full physical disconnect.

Phew...