G73JH-BST7 Booting up successfully, but screen stays black

Hi all, I recently had some trouble with performance with my G73, as detailed in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...ddeny-become-sluggish-gaming-performance.html

Things have been pretty smooth since I did a fresh install of windows on a new SSD a few weeks back to fix the previous issue. My computer was and is probably still as fast as ever, but the screen just won't turn on now..

There is no ASUS post logo, no windows logo, no desktop shown. The only reason I know windows is starting is because it plays sounds and I can still use the keyboard and mouse to do things - just blindly. Also, I've tried hooking up and external display (TV) via HDMI cable and nothing shows up.

This happened for the first time last week. I promptly freaked out and opened the laptop to check the screen connections, but all was fine. It worked again just by restarting about 10 times in a row (probably not the wisest thing to do). The only 'symptom' that prevailed after it starting working again was that the screen would remain turned off when waking up, but it would turn on again after pressing 'enter' to log in to my windows account.

Oh; I should probably mention that the screen stopped working after my foster kitten walked over my keyboard and made my computer sleep/wake about 3 times in quick succession. After the last wake-up, the image was gone.

Now that I think about it though, it was probably a matter of time till the screen stopped working again. I just wish for it to magically start working tomorrow.

Nevertheless, damn kittens and their seemingly innocuous cuteness.

TL,DR: Windows boots but NO ASUS POST, NO WINDOWS LOGO, NO DESKTOP

Any suggestions/halp would be hugely appreciated!

 

Not sure of rules on posting on the same thread too quickly, but I just wanted to pay you guys in kind for your attention..

With a picture of the crime as it happened.



She woke up soon after that picture was taken and proceeded to mash keyboard.

 

Check out this thread: Help Black Screen comes back again even with driver 296.16 installed

Does the following procedure bring back your video?
"Another temporary solution is to unplug the laptop, remove the battery and any connected peripheral devices (including any memory cards in the card reader), hold down the Power On Button for 30 seconds, then plug in the power adapter and start the system."

 

I tried what you said, holding the power button for 30sec, but the screen still won't show anything. Was that a way of factory resetting the BIOS?

I didn't have this trouble before a) I did a fresh windows install, b) used a new SSD, and c) Messing around under the hood, notably pulling the tape back on the screen -> motherboard connector (motherboard end) and revealing the mass of tiny wires.

Could any of these have been the cause? I'm most afraid that it's something with the mobo or GPU because of RMA-phobia

 

Did you try hooking up an external monitor through VGA port? Also did you check if the screen cable that is connected to the motherboard is properly connected (Yes requires an almost full disassembling)?

 

I recall disassembling and checking the mobo side connection the first time this problem occurred last week. It still didn't work after reassembly, but miraculously did after 2 or 3 more restarts.

I plan to check that connection again but I have too much on my plate atm. Also I'll get my laptop over to uni to steal (edit: BORROW) an external VGA monitor and cable when I have more time. I have, however, checked the screen side connection and it's very securely taped down in place.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll have to save the labourious fixes for later and give updates when I try them. Until then I'd still like to know if there's anything else to try..

 

If I were in this situation, I'd try to get into the BIOS (hit F2 quickly if one of the multiple boot attempts brings up the ASUS splash screen) and check boot devices are correctly configured, then "Load Optimized Defaults" (F9), then Save & Exit.

The odds are small this will resolve the issue, since it more typically appears to be a hardware fault. But who knows? Lightning could strike...

 

Hey doug, it's unbelievable but i'm having the exactly same problems as yours! But mine happened by itself, no pets involved lol.

First it happened by the screen going all grey, three days ago. It only shows the vertical lines of the screen, without showing the horizontal ones. But i could hear the all the post(asus,win7), AND i could use the hdmi to have my screen on tv, normally. When i disconnect the hdmi, everything was vertical gray lines again on the notebook screen.

Not satisfied, i opened the screen to check the connections, but it looked ok. Then i reconnected the flat cable, and when i turned on there was nothing on screen, all black, and i could hear the post sounds. And no hdmi, neither vga as i tried on a spare working monitor. I just cant do anything with.

Today i opened it up, until the other screen cable end(motherboard) and checked the connection, unplugged and plugged back. No success.

Im with you on this problem. Hopefully, lets see if anyone can help us.

 

It sounds like GSOD . Have you flashed your vbios before? G73JH is known to have this problem with the default vbios. Chastity has made a thread here. Have you done any fixing like that before you lose the screen signal?

 

Yes, i've updated the vbios to the latest version, something like 11 months ago. I with this laptop for 1 year and 2 months, never had problems with screen, or the laptop before.

I looked into this GSOD before, but mine never started as that single gray vertical line. It just happened to the whole screen =S

Maybe i'll try to re-update the vbios using that blind method, could give that a try. I cant RMA anymore, have to figure it out and fix by myself, damn =/

 

Well... i tried the blind vbios update, but no luck.

 

same thing here tried everything but no luck can somebody please solve this heeelp

 

Damn. Well, three with the same problem afterall.

I tried to repaste the gpu, and to take-out and put back the vga card. Again no luck, same problem.

I cant think of anything else to do. Help us guys!!


Ps: oh, i just remembered that i ordered a new screen from ebay. But i live in Brazil, so it may take at least 20 days to arrive. At first i thought i could be the lcd itself that failed, but im not sure anymore now.

 

Very cute kitty! Cats have some sort of quirky love of keyboards

Just after a recent nVidia driver update, I started seeing the same
thing, you're describing, on my workstation (driver V285?). My workstation
has a GTX470. I also noticed, that when I did get a display, the
monitor would loose signal, for a few seconds, every time a video overlay
was drawn on my desktop (video players etc). I did some experiments,
and discovered that nVidia was incorrectly selecting my default video
port. I was using DVI, and they were selecting HDMI or VGA. I found
that if I hot unplugged the monitor (DVI), and then re-attached, the
video signal would finally appear. I find it odd that you can not
use an external monitor. It is possible that your video sub-section has
died, but not from repeated sleep/wake-up events. So here's what I
suggest:

1. Try hot plugging a monitor, into each of the available video ports.
See if you can get a display to appear. If so, update to the latest
nVidia driver. That appears to have fixed the issue, for me.

2. With an external monitor connected (and windows running), try
cycling through the monitor configurations (function buttons). My G74SX
has two buttons that control the display. F7 turns the LCD on/off. F8
cycles through the monitor configurations. I'm not sure if you have
the same on the G73JH.

3. It may be possible to log in, from another computer, via remote
desktop. If it was not already setup, you may have to run remote process
commands, to get it going. Once you have remote desktop access, you can
check the event logs etc

Good luck,

Sir Robin

 

Hey guys sorry to hear this.
I have the solution ,
first try removing both the harddrives, and see if you could see asus logo , if you don't , then your vga is dead. I'm more sure that your vga is dead , because at its last stage it shows the owner that to buy a new vga , by displaying lines on screen. you can get these cards off NBR market, it sells 130$ or somthing lower than that. if your out of warranty then this is only option left for you.
thanks

 

Hey man, glad you finally came here, i saw your other thread on the hd6970, and i know you know alot about it. And if you saying that i believe you, and that is sad to know that i'll have so much trouble to get a new vga.

Maybe you can tell which model should we buy? Or if maybe it is time to try and upgrade the vga like you guys were doing?

 

HEHE
Today got my new Dell hd 5870m , this is the 5th vga on my laptop , all previous ones are sold , I guess this should stay for a bit.
btw:good that you trust me , you can buy a dell hd 5870m , clevo hd 5870m , msi hd 5870m ,eurocom hd 5870m, the best one is Clevo hd 5870m , because it controls the fans normally , but if you use other cards , both the fans will be on 100% . same thing for hd 6970m , only clevo hd 6970m/6990m are best choice if your upgrading, or if your going to pour more money you should go with hd 7970m, which way faster than a gtx 675/ hd 6990 , the hd 7970m costs a little more than hd 6990m , but it makes use of all $$$ you paid.
if I were you , I'd go with hd 7970m .

 

My original Asus 5870m is laying in a box here.

 

3 in 1 gets a chance to buy it, how faster you move that faster you owe it.

 

Well, i bought a hd 5870m just now. So that i can be sure it was only the vga that got screwed. And next month i'll buy the 7990m and work on it to be sure its properly covered by heatsinks before i plug it in. Probably need another Power Brick for it?

 

Oh, and thanks tilla, if i knew that before a bought it... :/ it probably would cost much less than i payd for it

 

man did you buy one?
is it an clevo ? how much you paid ?

 

Well, i dont REALLY know its a clevo, i bought on ebay from laptoptek. From the picture i can see its Asus, the same on the G73. On the ebay it says: NEW ASUS G73JH
ATI VIDEO CARD 60-NY8VG1000-C02 60-NY8VG1000-C14 60-NY8VG1000-C13.

I paid 299, i think its very expensive!!!

 

I bet you could have bought an hd 6970m.
or hd 6990m if you spend bit more.

 

Yeah you're right. But will go for the 7990m later next month, and will keep the 5870m as a backup if anything goes wrong with the 7990.

 

Hi guys I'm back! glad that someone got some help here.. But my screen still isn't working.. I have opened up my gf's g73 and plugged her screen cable into my mobo and turned it on; Nothing happened.. What do you guys think?

And all this talk about buying a new VGA, is it something one can install with just screwdrivers and a step-by-step guide? I might just give up and build a new desktop if it's harder than that. I'm at my wit's end here..

 

As I told , the problem comes from your vga.
its very easy to replace it, if your g73 is disassembled then its more easy, keep it as is and order an hd 5870m vga card, and just remove all 4 screws that hold the heatsink and take the heatsink off, and remove the two screws that hold the vga. then remove the old vga and insert the new one.
I know its hard to do it without pictures , you can follow this video .
to disassemble your laptop , and make sure not to use IC Diamond thermal paste because it will damage your gpu die, mx-2, mx-3 mx-4 , arctic silver 5, are the most good ones.

 

Duckydoug's problem sounds different to that of diegomcx and
bcrljen. He is not reporting lines or GSOD. I agree, the latter
two are probably bad VGA's or faulty panels/interface cables.

In Duckydoug's case, the problem was caused by a cat stepping
on the keyboard. Windows loads, which suggests that the
VGA is somewhat alive. Otherwise the bios would error out, due
to not detecting a display adapter. It sounds more like the kitty
put the system into a funny state?

Duckydoug, have you tried cycling the Fn+F7 and Fn+F8 keys?

I do not know much about the G73 series, so I could be way off

Sir Robin

 

No! I have powered on my Asus G73Jh without a vga , but I could hear the windows log on sound , and I tried windows key + U then that taking thing was speaking something. so Asus G73jh doesn't need an processor to boot up, except nothing will be on screen.

 

Interesting, and good to know, thanks

Most BIOS's will beep error codes, if you attempt to boot, without
a display adapter present. I wonder if the unused Intel graphics
adapter is sufficient to pass the check? It could also be that Asus has
disabled that function. I have seen that done on some servers.

Sir Robin

 

Thanks for the extra insight guys. I've tried cycling the keys when plugged into an external monitor but still no use. I'll try the booting up with no HDDs soon and see what happens.

If I have to buy a new VGA, will it invariably be one cannibalized from another laptop? Where can I reliably buy one..?

 

Try it and see what happens,
you can get a Dell HD 5870 on NBR market place, or you can search ebay.
the fans will be on 100% if its not an clevo or asus card.

 

Hey Doug, tomorrow my asus vga card is arriving here, and until the end of the afternoon. I will confirm if it is working or not, if you want to wait before buying.

I bought one from ebay at 299, it's the original brand ASUS, but there are some on NBR that sells cheaper.

 

Very bad news, its not the vga, at least for me. I swaped the vga card, but stay the same, no video. I dont know what to do.

 

can you take a video of it and upload to youtube, il diagnose the problem now.
edit: do you have an messenger ? like msn ,yahoo?

 

Msn: [email protected]

 

wait il download live messenger and get back to you, wait few mins.

 

Ok no problem

 

ok, request sent.

 

Nothing here =S

 

resent.
or add me [email protected]

 

Any updates? I've tried reseating the GPU and CPU and the computer won't start up at all now. My fans just turn on at full power and no sounds get played. Screen still doesn't work too!

 

if fans spin at full speed, then mobo doesn't detect an vga.
tray reseating ,

 

oopsie. Will do. I noticed the pins on the vga had some residue on it, like evaporated water stains. What's a safe solvent to clean it with?

Also, just wanted to say thanks again for your continuing help!

How is diego's computer doing?

 

NP mate!!
you can clean it with alcohol , or anything should do.
He got an broken vga from the seller, so he is going to return it, we tried the maximum to make his laptop work but we failed due to bad vga.

 

Out of curiousity, how did you manage to tell if the VGA was broken?

 

well its hard to explain,
you should watch this videos:
HELP!!! ASUS G73JH does not post. - YouTube
HELP!!! ASUS G73 this time without vga - YouTube
Asus G73Jh with Dell HD 5870m - YouTube
Asus G73Jh with Dell HD 6970M - YouTube
now you will know how I knew about this.
is this what your laptop behaves?

 

Posted twice without knowing!

 

it behaves (behaved; before I clawed about at the CPU and GPU ) exactly like THIS video, except i could not tell if the windows started up in your video. Did windows start properly in your first video?

 

no at that time I didnt have a harddisk , when I was bored I installed an harddisk and kept it on for sometime then all of sudden , I heard the windows logon sound.