Asus C90s Mystery

Hey there.. lots of stuff to read so get ready to sit down & be here awhile.

Normally this laptop cpu might idle up to 80c, the gpu can idle up to 80c.


Win XP Pro Sp3 32bit (Full updates)
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The story so far & issues:

Sometimes boots with or without the screen lighting up.

Even if the bios screen loads, it might freeze anywhere it wants as it tries to load up.

If for some reason windows loads, cpu & gpu temps can near 90c, the gpu can hit 100c. If the gpu hits 90's it might freeze the screen forcing a reboot.

I have 2 gpu cards, one ddr2 the other ddr3, the ddr3 being newer an only one year or so old. Despite this the statements prior do not change.

All attempts to cool or undervolt the laptop have failed me. Undervolting mostly in part due to the bios having no such options an software appears complicated (in some cases) to setup if not dangerous to some extent.. in the end I used what I could an even then nothing worked.

I've also noticed windows acting sluggish despite 3gb of ram. Closing programs makes no difference in this, it'll SLOW whenever it feels like it.
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Things done to aid:


Attempted undervolting, no success.

Moved ram around, removed either stick to leave only one in, tried switching slots even then to no success.

Replaced thermal paste on the cpu with a clean application of "thermal silver". The gpu doesn't need but gave it some anyways, that made no difference either.

Verified fans to be clean & working at optimal speeds, no difference.

Froze the room to the lowest temp I could "survive in" but the temps fight back just as hard holding around 70-80 (it can idle at this, but forget it when u open even firefox, they'll shoot back up, even if its a blank page).

An external pc scan using avast at full strength (taking its sweet time) has revealed no viruses, pups, or suspicious files. No locked archives to get in its way as i'd removed everything but my own files solely.

Reflashed the bios with 1002. Tried default settings or my own (not that there are many options to begin with in this bios).

I have a 120w brick (replacement), I had an original 120w but that is dead now but never made any difference when it did work, and a 90w (original). Neither makes difference (yes I know 120w is ideal, an i just wanted to show i tried everything wither it made sense or not thus far).

I should point out, ccleaner, defraggler, search & destroy, spyware blaster, ad block & script block (firefox), avast & zone alarm, have been used to keep things optimal (or act as prevention methods) in regards to the "slow effect" previously mentioned.

Virtual ram being set off, low, medium, high, fixed not fixed, on C:\ or another drive, solo even, also no difference to anything. Virtual page file empty wither enabled or not also no difference.

Startup programs set to minimal also, no difference to the above nor did it aid the loading speed of windows.

Can't think of anything else right now.
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So guys, whats going on here? how do i get this laptop to behave again?

Anyone gone thru the same?

 

First of all make sure the heatsinks are making proper contact with the gpu/cpu dies. Also when pasting don't overuse the paste. That laptop has an awesome cooling system and something must really be interfering with yours to make the temps so high, the reason why it's acting sluggish is it's overheating and downclocking itself. What are your hard drive temps and motherboard temps? Use hwmonitor if possible, check your bios and make sure you didn't over volt anything by going in and resetting to default. I've always wanted one of those laptops but the limit to mxm ii kept me from it, it's a shame you're having so many problems with yours

 

Moved this to the Asus forums, you have more chances of getting an answer there.

 

Thanks for moving it.

I get really super tired of trying another and another "temp monitoring software" what difference is this one going to make?

(If someone wants to relate to my emotions here, its like when you have 10 techie friends, each of which have an entirely different
"registry cleaning software" they "swear by" will do something. When really they don't.. an infact some are virus/spyware infested dumpsters)

I have speed fan an real temp at this moment (not both on obviously), an idk how many others in my software review/test folder.


I already addressed "voltage" settings by saying the bios has none.
Software is the only means of altering this, by which whatever windows or the hardware has it defaulted to (wherever it does this) is what its set to.

At this point I don't make any attempts to alter the voltage of anything.
Not unless I see something promising, by which I've yet to see.

As previously stated (which typing all this stuff about voltage makes me feel like no one really reads what I've said..) even when I had managed to drop the voltage via software, it made no "true" difference.

As I type this (considering I'm still redoing windows from a clean install) I'm sitting at 68c cpu & 78c gpu. An the only thing I have up is firefox with just this ONE tab.

I remember when I used to idle at cpu 40-50c & 55-65 gpu but that was when I first got this laptop. I absolutely hate it when people bring up the whole "did you over paste" because no.. seriously.. no.. small amount dead center spreads just fine. No I'm not going to try an type out what that means just c'mon.. >.>
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At this point during my clean install the biggest problem I have is the boot screen not wanting to show up upon power or reboot or shutdown w/waiting an powering up. I hate this sooooooo much!!

Theres nothing wrong with the lcd, obviously I'm here.. typing.

I took out 1 stick of ram (1gb) but that hasn't made any difference (recently again thinking "well maybe.. during a clean install.." but no.. just no.) so when I reboot I'm throwing it back in (bringing my total back up to 3gb).

Hard drive temps? forget it, anyone who has this laptop knows the 7200 rpm hard drives keep your left palm toasty. No need to monitor this temp. All tests on the hard drive come clean & clear, it's not broken or breaking.

I don't like sounding ungrateful or angry with people.. I'm glad people reply, really. I just can't stand it when it feels like someone replies an hasn't really read what I've said.

 

I'm gonna go with a shot in the dark here, i read your posts and i can think of 3 possibilities, two that can be fixed and a third one that would really suck.

1. Dust deposits on the heatsink fins and you'll need to take a brush to them to remove it.

2. Bent or pierced heatpipe which would mean a heatsink replacement. This can usually be confirmed visually.

3. Dying motherboard which would explain the erratic behavior, but not the higher temps.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I assure you any & all dust has been removed, the fans work an no dents
or bends in the copper pipe are visable.

When you say dying mb, do you mean like the capacitors or something
aging to death? this laptop was never OC'd.

My understanding is it should last at least 6 years before something like this
occurs provided there are no faults in its manufacturing (its only 4 & 1/2 yrs old).

This really sucks.. are there any tests for this?

 

Not that i know of, however, my M40 was displaying simptoms like the fan running at full speed at boot, no display sometimes, inability to shut down by itself etc. before it died.

At least your temps after a re-install are lower than they were, but still higher than they should be. You could take a peel at the C90S owner's lounge in the owner's lounge sub-forum to see if anyone had similar problems.

 

I think I'm going to go with the idea that heat over time despite the best efforts of one to keep a system cool is futile ultimately.

Eventually the systems up's & down's with temps makes it worse over time.

This was an amazing laptop for its time, sad they never made a better one like it, what a shame.

I guess it's back to being forced to deal with permanent cpu & gpu laptops again.

 

Well, you could go for a Clevo, you'll be limited to a single generation of CPU, but you'll be free to upgrade the GPU through a couple of generations.