(You guys are) My Last Hope

One morning a few weeks ago I turned on my C90S's power but the screen didn't turn on. I am sure it doesn't even get past POST, but I've got no real way to confirm that. I have tried hooking up another monitor but it doesn't do anything. I opened it up later that day and I didn't see any noticeable signs of a part burning up or anything. I am guessing that the graphics card died on it because the monitor isn't turning on. But I guess it could be any number of things.

Anyone got any ideas? I can try to give more details but there isn't much else to say.

Meanwhile I'm on my new EEE 1000H.

 

I don't have any answers... but good luck fellow wisconsinite!

 

battery charged? AC plugged in?

 

Not another victim! Test your memory by trying each stick alone first. Do the lights come on and do you think there is HDD activity?

 

Yes and Yes. The power lights come on like normal but the HDD activity light doesn't act like it did when Vista booted up. It just sits there like it is stuck on POST with the monitor.

 

Does sound like the GPU has failed. As the system cannot boot without the GPU it will lockup. I can give a couple of websites that do offer replacements for 179 dollars.

www.gentechpc.com
www.excaliberpc.com

Good luck and hope it is another problem

 

I would try a bios hard reset before buying anything.

There should be some documentation about how to do it, but it's often done with removing battery, removing internal battery and plugging it on the AC plug.
You will need a confirmation with the method, I know HP has close to no documentation about this on their laptops, but it exists, I did it sometimes with laptops blocked on POST or even before. I don't know how this is documented by asus, but it's worth searching for it IMO.

 

Have you tried to re-seat all components, GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD etc etc? What kind of use has this C90 seen? Heavy GPU activity? Any lock ups or artifacting in the past?

 

Thanks for the tip stouf but I don't think I'd be comfortable doing something like that. Sounds a bit complicated.

Anyone else got any ideas?

 

OK I'm not positive, I can't find any other pic that has this angle, and this one is terribly blurry, but I think the CMOS battery is in the lower left hand corner with the red and black twisted cable. I could be wrong, that might be a PC speaker, but it looks reflective so it's probably the CR2032 CMOS battery. If you unplug that for 10+ seconds with the main battery out and disconnected from AC power that's a "hard reset".

The pic:
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/21610.jpg

 

Yep ALLurGroceries, I think it's what you said.
Kiwikat, I think it's worth the try, even if it appears a little difficult.
As you said, you consider us as your last hopes, and this could be your last hope ^^

 

It saw heavy GPU and CPU activity. I used it a lot every day for school and gaming. Probably more than I should have

I'll look into resetting the CMOS and others tomorrow.

 

I'd put $$$ on the GPU! A lot of c90 users have seen the GPU die around the 1-1.5 year mark. Hold old is yours, and had you experienced GPU lock ups (screen freezing requiring reboots) in the past?

 

It is one of the originals, the first wave that came out. Yes my screen did randomly freeze at times. I always thought it was a driver issue or something. Regardless, the plug on my AC adapter is shot. I'll have to get a new AC adapter and graphics card... ugh. I think I might just let her stay dead. (Not to mention the DVD drive hasn't been working for many months...)

Do you guys think it would be worth spending 250+ dollars reviving my laptop when I've got a new gaming rig built as well as an EEE?

 

Lol that would be your final decision but you are certainly mobile with the EEE and can play games better with your new gaming rig. Tis up to you, the C90 is a fun machine to play with and there are not many of its kind around.

 

Time to get the sledgehammer!
But seriously I had high hopes for my C90's but gave up after a while since no real upgrades have been made available besides upgrading the RAM and HD's, was looking to upgrade the GPU with a successor..........but no real MXM II card upgrades that don't require some modification of the card to fit.
Thanks ASUS

 

I would go all Office Space on my C90 if I had something better to use.

 

I had something similar happen to my desktop last year....power on but no bootup or HDD activity. After replacing the motherboard and GPU and not getting anywhere the problem was fixed with a new CPU heatsink and fan.

 

kiwikat, did you try the BIOS reset that I posted above... it's worth a try.

 

I would add : when one is stuck on post, or even before the post, it's the first thing to try...

 

To reset the BIOS, remove the battery from the motherboard in your notebook.

I hope this helps.

Jeremy

 

I've been thinking about what to do when mine kills itself.
Yank the mem, cpu? Or just find a no frills gpu and use it for real plain jane stuff, providing I can fine an uber low power cpu to swap out with the greedy E6700.

Wonder how hard it'd be to use the monitor with other setups, rigged and such.

Still pretty disappointed that I even need to think about the lappy's life span in such a short view, esp with the $$ spent.

 

I'd love to try resetting the bios and what not but I don't even have power going into it anymore. I'd need a new AC adapter...

I think its RIP for my C90... It provided lots of fun for the year and a half it worked. Maybe I'll give the E6700 to someone at school in need of a new processor. I'm also sure someone would happily take my laptop ram. I'll throw the hard drive from it into my rig, making 4 hard drives total. My dog can chew on the old broken DVD drive. No reason to let the parts go to waste.

 

Keep the mobo and case, you never know, might be some good hack projects out there in the future....

 

Upgrade to an E7500 you won't be disappointed. Try 3.263ghz with only 64C temp max.