G73 bricked after flash down from 209 to 206

Sad day...

I have an Asus G73 JH-A1. It came with BIOS 206 and was decently powerful at playing GTA4 at 30-40 fps, but the GPU would run really hot, reaching 100 degrees C sometimes based on AMD Temp. Plus it would have the problem where CPU would stop throttling when I unplug & replug the power cord. Also any Catalyst driver other than the stock drivers would not work at all for me.

So I decided to flash to BIOS 209 using the EasyFlash utility that was included in the Bios. I downloaded the file from Asus's website, and the flash went without a hiccup. However, I then noticed GTA4 went down to 15 fps... temps were a lot cooler however, maxing at around 70 degrees C. I did a Furmark benchmark and fps was around 30 fps... a lot lower than what I used to get. Then when I did prime95 test, I realized my CPU simply didn't throttle at all, and stayed at 1.6 ghz the whole time.

So I flashed back down to 206 again using the same process, downloading the file from Asus's website as well. The process seemed fine, and the system rebooted itself after saying it will do so in 2 seconds.

When it started to turn back on, the screen remained blank but the blue LED lights were on. Then after 30 seconds the fans went full blast blowing very hot air from the back. Finally after 10 seconds more it shut down. Pressing power again lead to the notebook coming up for 5 seconds, then shutting down again. All I see is the blue LEDs light up, the DVD drive make a low click noise, but no "Asus" splash screen, no fan start-up. Then power off automatically.

Is "down flashing" a instant no-no? Anyways, I called Asus customer support and they've given me instructions to ship it back to them for repair.

A side-note, I have an SSD harddrive installed. Asus wouldn't replace my SSD with a regular stock hard drive, would they?

Thanks

 

I've flashed between 205, 209, and back with no problem, so it's not an "instant no-no." It can also be an overheating problem. Have you tried letting it cool down to see if it stays on longer before shutting down again?

 

Don't send them your SSD. No guarantee you'll get back the same machine. See sig links below for GSOD advice and tips. You may have had a simple issue with P4GH and needed to do an uninstall and update on it.

 

When I unplug the battery and re-plug it, it actually goes into the "full fan-blast" state where nothing happens again. I can't enter BIOS, enter safe-mode, nada. I see the harddrive activity light stays off, so I'm pretty sure the system is simply stuck in a brain-dead state where the OS is completely out of the picture.

FYI - I already had Power4Gear Hybrid uninstalled way back.

 

Have you tried removing your RAM except the last 2G module? Also the CMOS pin reset button?

 

The symptoms you describe makes me think that you have experienced the same issue i had with two G73's: motherboard suicide.
I could be wrong though, i haven't found any other post that confirm that the motherboard is the actual problem.
Good luck if you decide to RMA your G73.

 

Could you clarify how that's done? Are you talking about pushing in the the hole on the bottom side, opposite the DVD drive?

 

Did you this symptom in any of your two G73s?

I noticed that when the charger is plugged in, the laptop's battery charging indicator stays orange even after 5 hours. I remember that it should turn blue or something when the battery is fully charged. This leads me to think it really may be "motherboard suicide", since the system can't even tell if the battery is charged anymore.

 

I'll try to describe the symptoms my two G73's had as detailed as possible.

If i boot the unit the blue light bar under the display turns on, as well as the power button and the hotkeys on the left.

The Capslock and Numlock indicator lights are also on.

The battery indicator on my unit was blue instead of orange probably because my battery was fully charged at the time of the 'mobo suicide'.

The keyboard does not react and the keyboard lighting does not turn on, and it doesn't flash quickly if you turn the system on.

The hard drives also start spinning but the hard drive indicator shows that there is no activity.

The screen stays black and there is no audio coming from the speakers.

Lastly the fans spin very slowly, almost inaudible.



And on my first unit there was a faint smell of burned plastic coming out of one of the vents.

 

Actually thats normal for GTA 4 on the G73....even Starcraft 2 and TF2 reaches 99C memIO and 82C GPU on mine.

 

I wont send my SSD. I'll just put the stock harddrive back in (but it will basically be formatted and have no OS on it). You think that's OK? It's purely a hardware issue at this point anyways.

 

if they need to they'll reimage it

 

...and even when you give them written permission to do so (on the form you send in) they may still email you asking permission, buying them a couple extra days to put your repair aside. They did that to me twice, and ironically, they didn't re-image my system drive.

 

I can't see problem sending them formatted HDD. It should be ok.

 

I updated to the 209 and actually saw a slight increase in FPS across the board... I did he DOS based one not the windows based one.

 

Long overdue update, but after THREE RMAs to ASUS, my laptop is finally fixed. First RMA they replaced mobo, but it kept overheating and shutdown within 10 seconds of boot. Second RMA nothing was even fixed. Third RMA was the charm, but unfortunately they forgot to ship the AC charger back.... honestly this will be the last ASUS notebook I will own. Literally whole took nearly 4 months.

 

Wow, no charger came back? Have you written them or called to voice your dissatisfaction?

That's unbelievably horrible service. I'm sorry you had to go through that

 

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Here's the Targus APA05 180w power supply that's popular here for $38.75 that will work with your laptop, and it's always good to have a spare brick.

 

Thanks! Do you know if this can be easily found at places like best buy, target, Walmart, fry's, microcenter?

 

Yes, you might find that unit locally, but at 4x the price. And most retailers do not carry replacement units above 120w, and you need 150w or better.

 

And people say that best buy's warranty sucks....

 

I guess I'll just need to buy it online and wait until Monday to receive it at the earliest. Darn... I finally get it working over a long weekend and I can't even use it b/c ASUS hires monkeys. I called them again about it, expecting a sincere apology and expedited shipping, but instead the agent said "I'll open a service number to have them look for it. They they will either call you or ship it back to you when they find it."