Asus K53E with 0x00000124 BSOD Help

My brother has had this laptop for maybe 2 or 3 years, not exactly sure. Anyway, he said it stopped working one day. He bought a new laptop and I'm trying to see if this Asus K53E is fixable. Battery in, no AC charger plugged in, boot up Windows in regular mode, the laptop freezes at various times before the login screen with a BSOD 0x00000124 error. Try booting with battery in and AC plugged in, I just get a flashing cursor on black screen after Asus BIOS page, nothing. at. all. Same result with battery out and running on AC only, just flashing cursor. If I boot in safe mode with networking without AC power, laptop runs fine until battery dies. If I plug in AC charger, it'll still be ok, no freeze. Unplug AC and it's still good. Plug it in again and bam, laptop freezes up. I tried booting without the driver signature verification option, no luck, BSOD again. Interestingly, if I just boot into BIOS on the battery, all is well. Plug in AC while in BIOS and the BIOS freezes! Tried restoring with the ASUS recovery disks, BSOD. Then I did a clean install of Windows 7 64bit, erased recovery partition, made one giant partition from whole drive, and was able to fully install Windows, no lock ups or BSODs. Problems still exists with a virgin Windows 7 64bit install, BSOD 0x124 with regular boot but will run till battery is dead in safe mode. Updated BIOS with the easyflash tool in BIOS from 216 to 217, 218, and then 219. 221 looks like just a Windows 8 fix, haven't flashed it. Still no luck, BIOS page freezes when I plug in AC still. Research says 0x124 is hardware failure but I don't understand how it works fine in safe mode but not on regular boots? I've read that in safe mode it doesn't load all the drivers, but even with a virgin 7 install it still will hang. The AC charger isn't the problem, all symptoms still exist with another charger (same voltage, slightly lower amperage, same tip size). I've removed RAM and cleaned it, removed the HDD, nothing is working. Could there be something wrong with the power circuitry or something?

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

Okay, so I ran a live CD and ran a CPU stress program for about 10 minutes. Fans kicked up and were spitting out tons of hot air, but the computer never locked up, still responsive, and says 0 errors. Also ran a memory test off the live cd, no lock ups or errors either. So I'm guessing my 0x124 isn't the memory or processor. And I don't think it's the HDD as I've had that removed completely and still have the BSOD. Again, interestingly, the live CD I'm running with all these tools; once booted up it remains responsive. The exact second I plug in the AC power, the laptop locks up dead in its tracks. I feel like there's got to be something wrong with power. How does plugging in AC power lock up the most basic interface, the BIOS? I even tried hitting the ESC key when powering up which brings up the boot from menu. Hitting up/down arrows to cycle between the disc drive, HDD, and BIOS setup; plug in AC power and instantly the screen scrambles and laptop is locked up. Grrr.....

 

Okay well today I disassembled the laptop. I had called Asus as well as Best Buy where it was purchased. Asus said it needed to be sent in for repair at an estimate of $130 but it could be more or less and I'd need an RMA since it was out of warranty. Best Buy just said it was out of warranty and Geek Squad would charge $65 just to diagnose the problem, then who knows how much.

Anyway, opened the laptop up. I was interested in seeing anything to do with the power because it seems like it is power related... I mean the BIOS friggin locks up when I plug in AC power. I've read around that the DC charging port usually takes a dump, but the thing charges. So my next focus was the little power button board, maybe something would be bad on it?

So open it all up and I find this little thing on the desk...



Not sure what it is but it's tiny. P15. There's some metallic layers in it, some solder pads as well.

Here's some places on the motherboard with the same chip:


These are on the top side of the board on the left, near the HDMI and USB ports, but that probably doesn't mean much. I did check the tiny power button board, I can't find any more of these chips on it nor any places that look like this chip used to be on it. So my guess is that the chip came off the motherboard. I guess it could be the culprit, it definitely isn't right to have it not attached and fall out of the case, but seems strange that this piece would prevent Windows from booting up completely but let it all work just fine in Safe Mode.

So... anyone know what this could be? Is it something I could re-solder on if I find where it goes? Assuming it's not from the power button board and evidence of others on the MB, I guess I could probably buy a new MB at about $130... any one think that's my best move from here?

Thanks!
Mike

 

Since only ASUS has the blueprint they know where to put that chip back in but it may not be worth of your efforts to figure it out.
I would recommend to let ASUS do the repair for you.

 

Just thought I'd update... I found a little sister board that has USB ports and the 2 audio jacks on it, the USB port had been smashed in, ripping off the chip and a few others. I've purchased another little board and we'll see if that fixes it.

 

Oh wow, how did that happen?

 

My guess is it looks like someone tried to put in a USB device the wrong way too hard and broke it.