Is my ASUS G1 dead??

This is what the screen looks like as soon as I boot:



That's all I see. No BIOS.

There is hard drive activity as with normal booting process.

My external monitor (a TV connected via HDMI -> HDMI-to_DVI adapter -> laptop's DVI port) does not get a signal.

Just before this happened, the screen was seriously artifacting, with randomly colored pixels/squares appearing/disappearing all over the browser initially, then the whole screen, then the computer seemed to crash.

I rebooted and got into memtest (through GRUB which I use to dual boot linux and windows) and ran it for about an hour with no errors. I rebooted, and here we are; that white screen with the strange shape is all I get.

Interestingly, the power button still manages to turn the computer off gracefully, and Alt + SysRq + REISUB also works.

Is there any chance to keep my 11 year old original Asus G1 going, or is this the end?

 

Hey, unfortunately, your GPU seems to be dead... it happens frequently on very old motherboards ( just like yours).
I had this on many laptops and never managed to make them work again ( if its soldered, maybe oven baking the motherboard (desperate last try to revive it...)).

 

What would diagnose and confirm that it's a GPU issue? Yes, it's a soldered NVIDIA Go7700. I'm thinking the problem is either the GPU, monitor, or video cables.

I managed to log in through ssh, so the computer is actually running. Would it run without the GPU?

 

" the screen was seriously artifacting, with randomly colored pixels/squares appearing/disappearing all over the browser initially"
This would only happen when the GPU is dying or an issue on the GPU... but idk when you say you are able to boot and knowing that it cant boot without a GPU or display adapter, i really dont know
When you are booted and connected to the external monitor, isnt there a key combination to switch from internal screen to external ?
Did you try a "hard" reset of the BIOS ?

 

Yes the key combination to change display seems to do nothing. Normally I use the external display and have the laptop lid closed.

What do you mean by "hard" BIOS reset? Pulling the CMOS battery? Not sure what that would achieve.

 

Yeah pulling the CMOS and emptying the power from the motherboard, im kinda lost coz it looks like a dead GPU ( no internal/external display signal) but with the boot..

 

It's final; my faithful laptop of 11 years is dead



I will never know if the GPU was dead or not. The chip in the image above got burnt because I forgot to remove the battery when working on it.

Years ago, I had had similar graphics artifacts as today, and it was "solved" by disassembling the laptop, cleaning it, and reseating cables.

This time when I reinserted the video cable connector I must have bent some pins which I noticed because the connector was not fully inserted. I removed it and was using a screw driver to straighten pins when... a spark and nasty smelling puff of smoke reminded me that I forgot to remove the battery.

The laptop might already have been past the point of no return, but it's still sad.

Now time to find a successor.

Thanks anyways for the help.

 

11 years is a long life.