Asus G50 won't boot

I have a friend with an Asus G50 series. I'm not sure which one it is - I have the G50VT-X1 from BBuy with the 2.26 Core2, and hers is identical in spec only it's got either a 2.0Ghz or 2.13Ghz Core2, and is orange on the lid instead of mine which is blue.

Anyway she was using it yesterday, she had booted it on 10 minutes prior, was on the desktop moving files around, when she hears a pop noise and it goes dead.

I've swapped out the RAM, CPU, battery etc with my working stuff and it won't boot. The ExpressGate light, the ever-present blue light above the keyboard isn't even on. The kicker though is when you plug in either her or my power supply cord, the second it's plugged into the unit, the green light on the brick of the PSU goes out every time.

Clearly something's wrong with it... any suggestions? I'm hoping it's not the mobo but that's my only guess at this point.

Thanks in advance!

Matt



(EDIT)

I suppose it would help to mention it doesn't turn on at all, no monitor glow, no explosion noise, nothing.

Also, stumbling upon this post, it appears it's a G50VT-X5.

(end EDIT)

 

If the charger light is going off, there is no continuity between the charging/power circuit in the G50 and the ac adapter. It is probably a motherboard problem, I hope it's still under warranty because it'll probably need an RMA.

 

It's not unfortunately. It's about a year old and I think she got it as a refurb from Bbuy's website.

Thanks for the info though! +rep for you, good sir.

 

That's a bad situation.

You can take it apart, there's a g50 disassembly guide that you can find in the sticky under the g50 section. Replacing surface mount components is not easy, but isn't completely impossible. If you aren't extremely comfortable with soldering, if you have a good repair shop that you trust (a mom&pop place), take the board to them and see if they think they can swap out the capacitor(s) or whatever looks fried. If the board has significant discoloration, especially around the voltage regulators or any other area, it's probably not worth repairing and just look for a replacement motherboard. You can find them on eBay from parted out G50s if you are patient.

 

By the way - anybody know a place where I can buy a G50 motherboard?

(EDIT)

Thanks, I'll try my luck at eBay.

(end EDIT)

 

Yeah, your only luck will be eBay or a parted out G50 from craigslist or maybe here on NBR's marketplace from time to time. I haven't seen a G50 motherboard on the eStore in a while, I don't think they make them anymore. Plus, the estore was just redesigned and it's impossible to find anything anymore...

Good luck.

Edit: you could make a WTB thread on the marketplace: http://forum.notebookreview.com/nbr-marketplace/