Asus UX31A screen problem

After a week of various problems with my notebook, I restored a partition with a fresh Windows 10 installation and installed the Windows updates today. Since the (lengthy and major) update, during which new graphics card drivers were installed and the screen blinked a number of times, the screen does not work at all anymore. The VGA and micro HDMI outputs work perfectly. Not only in Windows does the screen not work, but also in the preceding boot phase and in the bios. The background lighting goes on and blinks during the boot phase, as normal, it just remains without any image.

Can a Windows or graphics card driver update access and change the functioning of the screen before the operating system phase or is this just a spurious correlation of some part in the graphics system breaking during the update phase?

I opened up the laptop and checked and cleaned the connector from the screen to the integrated graphics card, to no avail. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

Typically, no. Anything done at an OS level very rarely affects behavior outside of the OS.

It may be either a bad screen, a bad video cable, or a firmware problem. There have been rare reports of the EDID being corrupted in other notebooks; maybe that's what's going on here.

 

Sadly, yes. The edid corruption is one thing, though that hasn't affected Intel gpu systems yet. Software -> firmware corruption is rare, true, but certainly possible and it wouldn't be the first time that has caused a brick.

Try a cmos reset first; easiest it simply to flash the latest bios. That would overwrite any errant Windows 10 modifications with a clean slate. After doing so, remember that 10 'update' is free for a reason; it's as buggy as a freshly released game title, the customer being the guinea pig. Wait until the last possible option to 'upgrade', when most of such kinks having been tackled.

 

Thanks a lot for the reply! I flashed the BIOS, but it did unfortunately not solve the problem. Do you know whether the graphics card firmware is necessarily written in the BIOS ROM, or could it be located somewhere else? In other words, can I conclude that it is a Hardware problem if the flashing the BIOS did not change anything?

 

With your system the vbios is embedded in the bios (optional rom). Noticed that your specific model is not on the windows 10 list and the latest bios precedes 10. Perhaps Secure Boot is doing you in ... remove the hard drives and boot; with any luck you'll have an image in the bios menu, at least.

It can't be the graphic card, otherwise vga/hdmi wouldn't have worked, either. Last thing is the cable or lcd, but it is too much of a coincidence that this happened during the 10 install. Sounds more like the lcd is dormant/sleeping, just need some way to force it to wake up ... One possibility, though risky, is to disconnect and re-connect the cable while it's running. Preferably on the mb side, since that connector is easier to pull out 'straight'. You want to avoid disconnecting it askew; one side before the other, as that risks disconnecting the grounds, but not the voltage wires. A thing like that can easily kill a panel.

 

Thanks again for the info, t456. I couldn't remove the hard drive yet, as the screw was quite tight and I damaged it when trying to open it. I tried disconnecting / reconnecting the cable when it was running, but this did also not get it to work. I think I'll try buying a used, identical model (as I need it as soon as possible) to try exchanging the display.

 

Let's hope it works, though a shame about the display if it does; the N133HSE-EA1 is a very good lcd. Try and order a used model if you can find one; anything that's listed as ' compatible' is a big step down from what you had. Found two offers for exact models, both $70 exc. shipping;

1. N133HSE-EA1
2. N133HSE-EA1