Asus C90S: Black screen and no POST beep

My Asus C90S has been standing on the same place for about 1.5 years and has been treated carefully. The overclock software have only been tested a few times when it was new, but never again. The computer has been running perfectly and some nights ago I powered it off from Windows as I always do.

The day after when I turned it on it starts, there are light in the LEDs, the fans are starting, but the screen is completely black and there are not a single POST beep, just silence.

What I've done: Turned it on and off numerous times. Removed battery and power, and held down the power button for 20 seconds. Powered on without battery but with power and the other way around. Moved screen in every possible position to check for a bad connection. And the screen is 100% black, so it cannot be the inverter.

The computer has never been opened or modified. What can I do and what can be wrong? If it is something simple as RAM I can order new, but if it is the LCD it might be too expensive. But how can I figure out just what can be wrong? And does it have to be hardware related? Does the computer have any hard reset-button?

I am truly greatful for any help!

 

Most notebooks must have a diag mode, usually only service people know what to press.

I played around with my notebook, holding ~ while turning on takes it to emergency BIOS recovery. Holding TAB while turning on is the diag mode, it looks for the diag disks, which I dont have so that mode is useless for me.

Did you try using a flash light to see if it was just a dead backlight?

If you hear nothing, no booting sounds and no bios beeps it's probably a hardware failure. I dont know what failed, do you have warranty?

You should probably take it to a repair shop.

Or take it apart yourself.
Test it with only the important parts connected, CPU, ram, CMOS battery and power cord.

 

Your GPU the 8600M GT has died. It is a common issue that the solder around critical components cracks over time as the card goes through numerous heat/cool cycles. To fix the card you will need to reset the solder:

1.) Carefully remove the card from the machine, clean all thermal compound off the die.

2.) Pre-heat your oven to 200C

3.) PuT the card die facing upward on a oven tray propped up on small balls of aluminium foil so that no vital circuit is touching metal of the tray.

4.) Place in oven and bake for 10 miinutes.

5.) Remove and allow to cool for 1 hour before re-installing into the C90S

6.) Make sure to apply new thermal compound on the die before putting heatsink back on.

It might sound absurd but it has fixed many peoples cards. If it doesn't work like it didn't for me then it will be your motherboard; that is what happened to me.

 

If you dont want to cook electronics where you eat (which has to be nothing but trouble), buy a heat gun from a HW store (used to strip paint).

Because a heat gun is very simmilar to a BGA reworking station (which the pros use).

Anyway set the heat gun to 300C and heat up the GPU for a few mins.

There are lots of vids on youtube with great instructions.

If this works for you, make sure you keep the GPU cool for the rest of it's life.
Copper mod, undervolt, turn up the fan speed.

 

That is indeed another option although you will have to be careful that the heat is distributed over the entire card evenly which may be more difficult and it will cost money The smell of elecctronics will be gone from the oven after 20 mins lol just leave the oven door open

 

I guess it shouldn't do anything bad to the oven, and you're right it could be a cheaper method.

But before you try any heating, check to see if the GPU is lead free.