Samsung NP-RV510-A05US No Boot - Motherboard Or CPU?

Hello,
I have a Samsung NP-RV510-A05US that has a 2.3ghz Intel Processor. Lately the laptop started just shutting off on its own and it progressively got worse. Fan was always running and never felt hot. Power adapter jack in unit is solid and when I plug it in, the charging light immediately comes on. I did try another power adapter but same results which now are nothing. Just the light comes on when plugged in, nothing turns on at all when I press the power switch.
Since the motherboards are expensive for this model, I'm wondering if I should try replacing the processor first. No matter what I do, nothing powers up, no drives, nothing just dead.

Here is a video of what I'm experiencing.
Samsung startup issues
Samsung Laptop Startup Issues - YouTube


Thanks in advance

 

It is very rare for an Intel CPU to die.

I would first reseat the RAM - if the BIOS can't detect the RAM properly then it won't boot. You can also try disconnecting the HDD - if this has an electronic problem then it can disrupt the boot process.

John

 

I should get the power lights to come on though even though the ram is good or not right? I only get the charging light when I plug the cable in.Usually when you take the ram out and try powering up, you hear everything spinning up but start getting beeps.

I have taken the ram out, pressed the power button and nothing
taken both hard drive and ram out, pressed the power button and nothing
put hard drive back in and reseated the ram, nothing.

 

There's usually a brief flash of the power light if you try to start with a RAM problem. Desktops used to beep but I haven't heard of notebooks giving diagnostic beep codes. It would be worthwhile trying booting with each RAM module independently.

John

 

Thanks so much John for the reply, unfortunately I only have one ram module, but will try reseating again.

 

Well I came home, put the laptop back together, seated the ram and it started up. As I got in to windows for a little bit (about 10 minutes), the laptop acted just like I put it in sleep mode. I pressed the power button and it came to the desktop again but only lasted about 2 minutes before doing it again. From that point on, the laptop pretty much just shut off. Everytime I pressed the power button, all lights would come on for about 5 seconds, then it would shut off again. This is typical behavior of a temperature problem, however the bottom is not hot. I'll let it supposedly cool down for a bit, then start it up again later to see if I even hear the fan kick on at all. If it doesn't, then that will be my next replacement, if it does, then I'm not sure what.

 

Clueless, shutting the laptop off for more than 15 minutes, should net me more than about 9 seconds of it starting up if it was a heat issue. If I leave the power cord plugged in after it has shut off (battery out) , it constantly tries to turn itself back on in which it just lights up the LED's in front, then shuts off, then starts again until I just pull the plug. Could this very well be a CPU issue? The bottom feels cold, not hot at all.

 

I agree it sounds like a heat issue -- but clearly isn't. Maybe a sensor defect, causing it to think it is overheating when it isn't. What temps does it display in HWInfo before shutting itself down?

We did have one member with fan problems who managed to solve it be re-flashing his BIOS (first to an earlier version, then back to the version he was on before). My take was the DSDT tables that control fan speeds (and a thousand other things) had been corrupted.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/717955-problem-samsung-series-9-fans-not-working.html

Honestly, I think you have a hardware defect. If there is a way you can back up your data and possibly an image of your OS, that would be my priority. Then as a last resort I would restore the factory installation (F4 Recovery) to see if the problem is still there. And presuming it is (still there) I would call Samsung.

If you can wait till tomorrow (for another European session) maybe John has some more ideas. He is better than me with this stuff.

 

I can definitely wait until tomorrow for sure. As you can see in this video I posted, this unit does not stay on long enough to be able to get close to the OS starting. This video shows me inserting the memory after the laptop has been siting unplugged for a few hours, then plugging it in.
Let me know what you guys think, thanks !

Samsung startup issues
Samsung Laptop Startup Issues - YouTube

 

If the heatsink has worked loose resulting in a poor thermal connection with the CPU then the temperature could get high because even the heat generated by low usage can't dissipate from the chip but the chassis won't get hot. However, the fan should go frantic in response to the high temperature. What is the fan doing?

When you have the computer starting from cold install a program such as HWmonitor or HWiNFO and set it write a log file of CPU temperature (preferably to a flash drive so you can read it on another computer). You can then look in the file and see if the temperature has got high enough to trigger a shut down. Removal of the heat sink, cleaning off the thermal paste and refitting the heat sink with a very thin layer of thermal paste might fix the problem.

John

 

Hello John,
I have already taken the motherboard out, took off the heatsink and fan, then cleaned and applied new thermal paste. As you can see in the video, once it is heated up, the timespan is so short, I cannot even get to the post screen. Since it will be cold from sitting all day once I get home, I will try to boot it up again and pay close attention to see if the fan even kicks on. Like you said, it should be running while I'm in the bios settings. If I get in to BIOS and make change on the fan setting from Auto to Low or back to Auto, it should kick on right? If it doesn't, could I assume the fan is bad then? Only reason I ask that is because of BIOS nightmares I have been reading about. I am confident the individual I got this from did not update the BIOS, whatever is on here, is from factory. I won't even attempt a bios upgrade at this point with this thing shutting off on its own.
Maybe I'll download that HWinfo program and have it on USB ready.

Thanks

 

Bad fan is a possibility. It should come on once the CPU temp gets above 60C. Get the temperature monitor running.

John

 

Hello,
I was able to try this out again tonight. I first booted it up in to the bios and was able to hear the fan kick on shortly after which was good. I then booted up, had HwInfo on USB ready to install and was able to get it running. I'm including a few pics that I took of the stats. Although the temps look ok and I heard the fan running, the machine shut down shortly after I took that picture and it had only climbed a couple degrees in celsius before it went down.
Think the CPU is dying out? I'm thinking if it was the GPU chip heating up, just the display would possibly go out and the machine would still be running. Sorry for the image quality, I was short on time before this shut down lol.

Thanks again

 

Thanks for the extra info which shows that it is not a high temperature problem.

A CPU swap is the next step. It is, I presume, socketed. Have you identified a source of something compatible with a reasonable price?

John

 

Better yet, I had the same model processor saved in my watchlist in ebay just in case. I ordered the same processor and its within my state so at the latest I should have this on Monday. 24.00 shipped, not bad.

Thanks for your help

 

I have much experience in repairing laptop. I do repair it everyday (3,5,7,9 serries) and I can tell you that "no boot" come from Motherboard. just replace your motherboard,everything will be fine.

 

It boots, just doesn't stay on long
I'm thinking this is a GPU issue. I put another processor in there today and it does the same thing. The boards for these things sure are $$pricey$$, ebay has them starting around 150.00. Don't know if there is any other place out there that would sell these boards.

Thanks

 

housej55,
Were you able to fix the issue? I'm having an exact same problem with my 2 year old samsung laptop.
Thanks.

 

Hello, I ended up having to send the board to a business and having them resurface the GPU. That GPU was the issue unfortunately. If you are interested in who I sent it to, send me a private message or let me know. It was reasonable on the price and worked great afterwards.

 

I'm very interested in getting this fiexed if the cost is lower than buying a new one. send me an email at [email protected]. I couldn't figure out send you a private message. Thanks.

 

just fixed 1 unit on today,with the same issue like this post.
Unit really get hot when turn on, and absolutely shut off within 2 minutes running. I replaced CPU, and everything get back to work properly. hope this will help you guy.

 

Hello,
I just sent you a email.

For others, I had this done from CPRS6951 on ebay. They did a great job and for less than a 100.00, I was back up and running.