Asus N56DP froze while playing, had to reset it, now shows the ASUS logo but won't boot the HD

Hi,

This is killing me.

I was playing Skyrim and everything was perfect then suddenly everything froze (the game music can still be heard though, but I couldn't do nothing).

I waited for some minutes, tried to start the Windows Task Manager to no avail, so I decided to turn off the laptop.

After turning it on, the ASUS logo appeared but I nothing happened anymore, you can hear the fan working and the leds on but the HD one. I waited some more but nothing happened.

I turned it off again, restarted and now the laptop tried to start the Auto repair thing, but all there is is the message that it will start under the ASUS logo but nothing else, the HD led still off (it turns on for a second when the system is looking for the HD but then turns off).

I went to the BIOS (F2) and the BIOS still recognize the hard drive.

I can hear no clicks, and no other sounds but the fan's turning.

The laptop is less than 3 months old, and I hate to lose my data and before you lecture about backup the worse thing is that my USB HD died on me 2 days ago and I just RMAed it and now this thing happens.

THis is killing me.

If anyone has any idea what to do I'll be glad to hear it.

Laptop specifications:

- AMD® APU A10-4600M /A8-4500M /A6-4400M Processor
- Windows 8 Pro
- 1TB 5400RPM


Thanks

 

I did some more little tests,

I tried to boot from a USB drive and from a Windows Vista Installation CD (just to see if they are working) to no avail.

Everything is just stuck at the ASUS logo and goes nowhere.

Gives me hope that it might not be the HD dying on me, but still have no Idea what it might be.

One mpre thing when checking the BIOS I saw that the option "Fast Boot" was enabled.

 

Something like that once happened to me, not a laptop though, but a desktop. And it wasn't good - my GPU fried.
I hope it's not a case for you, but I would look into this possibility as well...

 

The logo shows and I can enter the BIOS, so most likely not, but what about the motherboard? Could one get a fried motherboard and still access the BIOS?

 

Don't think so.
Still, I would check the GPU, just to be sure.

 

Long shot: did you try an EC refresh (remove battery and power supply; press and hold power button for 4 seconds; leave system for 3-5 minutes, then reconnect battery and/or power supply cable and try booting again)?

It does sound like a component went bad though.

 

OP, did you solve your problem? I'm very interested in hearing what was the cause of all this.