Asus n56vz just shuts down

Hi,

I searched a lot and I haven't found what I was looking for.
I have a asus N56VZ notebook, I replaced optical dvd drive with SSD drive. For some time, notebook started to shut down. I thought it was cooling problem, because it happened when I was playing games, but last time it also happened in simple usage. I checked temperatures (I used speedfan to log them) and all of readings were about 50C.
So my question is, what could cause the problem? i tried new graphics drivers, I updated bios, I put something under the laptop so there's good air access. I was afraid that SSD drive could cause it, but it happens no matter if I use OS on SSD drive or on the main HDD.
I know I could just use my warranty, but I'm using my laptop to everyday work so I don't want to loose it for few weeks.

Thanks in advance.

 

Intermittently timed shutdowns are a little difficult to diagnose, but they're usually hardware related. Some other troubleshooting you can try is to (in no particular order):

1. Test your memory using MemTest86+.
2. See if this occurs both on battery and on the AC adapter. If it happens on both, then it's more likely related to the board.

At this point, you may not have much of a choice other than to send it to Asus, as attempting repairs yourself would void your warranty (and something might need replaced).

 

I have an Asus N56VZ that i bought on 6 March 2013 and had my first shutdown within 4 weeks whilst doing MS Excel !!! I didn't think anything of it and then a couple of weeks later i had 2 shutdowns within 48 hours. After restarting the laptop, battery was always more than 50%. The third time it shutdown, it would not restart when i pressed the power button (even though battery was inserted and PSU was plugged in). I disconnected the power, removed the battery, re-inserted in and plugged back in and only then it booted up. I took it back to PC World in Preston and David booked it in for testing. After a few days i called and there had been no progress. Then got a call from PC World and they had re-installed windows 8 and apparently had it on for 3 days without a problem. When i asked what problem they were looking for, the chap said "blue-screening" - unbelievable. Anyway, I had a word and described the problem again and today got a call saying they had re-installed windows 8 and it was working fine. I asked if it had been sent to Asus and they said no. They said that if they sent it to Asus and no problem was found, i would be charged. Obviously i refused to pay. Still waiting to hear from PC World...

 

Reinstalling Windows is a shoddy way of diagnosing a BSOD. Hopefully you can get that sorted out, Muse England.

 

The problem was that the PC was not Blue-screening - it was just switching off immediately. David at PC World Preston didn't even listen to what i said and assumed a re-install of windows would sort everything out. They said they will call tomorrow but i'm not holding my breath ! I really didn't expect a £800 laptop to go wrong in 6 weeks.... my old HP lasted 6 years before it conked out... I'm wondering what i can do if i get the laptop back and after a few weeks find the problem still exists... the hard bit is proving it has a problem....

 

If it's not overheating then could be the battery, charging circuit or AC adapter.

you can try test it with battery only and AC mode only see if it still shuts off instantly.

 

No, I've noticed that as well. That with the standard driver package, plus the updates asus came out with (which are added via the automatic downloader, right..) - then at least a few people have unexplained shutdowns. I've had kernel panics when putting the laptop to sleep as well, and it's mysteriously disappeared with newer drivers and windows kb fixes again.

If you look in the logs afterwards, what you generally tend to see is that there's no actual fault. No specific program that croaks, and nothing of the kind that typically causes the system to fail. Instead there's just failures on various devices when they don't boot up again, or the kernel expects them to be powered on while they're not, present when they're not, etc.

So there's a possibility here that what's causing these problems is the acpi calls package not being completely well tested between the win7 and win8 versions, never mind the newer "kb fixes" libraries. Specifically the user-space "backdoors" have been closed, and some of the "elevated to system app" routines certain software made by people Asus, among others, uses, has been changed. Leaving you with "user-space" access that may actually be invalidated by the time the routine completes, if it's using calls relying on system component "surrogates".

There's a lot of this stuff in Windows - and there had to be, for any of this to work, it's not that, can't blame people for choosing the solution in the first place. But the thing is that it's expensive to fix, or to "support", as they say, when things break backwards. So unless you reach some sort of critical point of no return, I guess, it will just continue to be fixed by improvised repairs.. Most of the time, you don't even have a choice.

But that's very likely what's happening. And you really are going to see this sort of thing turning up on Windows computers by design. It's like if you had a linux distro set up and eventually started to get compilation warnings and errors from missing libraries. And then you just "assume" that the new libraries are backwards-compatible, and compile with no version check, inserting dummy-references that always are current. You know, no one with nominal programming experience would do that and put their name on it. But because of the way Windows is set up and created, that's exactly what happens.

Works most of the time, though... Sort of.

edit: did you check and see if the power-buttons and the external tray are fitted properly, though? Some of the chassis had defects of that sort, with ac and plugs being pushed in some way on the assembly, sticking out at an angle. This is the kind of thing that eventually causes hardware problems such as this, with suddenly losing devices (which causes sometimes shut-downs), and you will get that fixed/laptop replaced on warranty if you point it out, in.. practically every shop on the planet that gives you a receipt. That should not be an issue, at least.

 

I have had my 56vz for several months but this shutdown has only occurred in the last few weeks (2 or 3 perhaps) and coincidentally after I began to close it down without really shutting off so that I can use the Instant On feature.
Do you think this may be the reason (!)?
Thanks,

 

That should not really impact the stability during operation.

 

..given that the application (which does have direct access to acpi-functions, and which can edit registry directly, and likely depends on writing direct static references rather than indirect ones depending on your current setup, while probably fetching statuses from the system from a database that may or may not be current, etc.) is written by someone with a brain. Which it likely isn't.

 

Well windows could kill itself but it's unlikely to make it go unstable, so yes it can cause issues but would not be the first suspect.

 

same problem here with my asus n56vz, every 2-4 weeks it suddenly powers off totally, no shutdown, just klick and no power.. like power blackout..
someone could solve the problem? googled a lot, but found no solution. asus will change motherboard?
but since the problem occurs only every few weeks, can the support find the problem? or just reproduce the problem?

 

It could be the wiring in your house making the brick trip, if it's sensitive to the input voltage and your house supply is going slightly out of spec...

 

like i posted i had the same error for over 1 year...

one time when i was very upset about that, i tried to uninstal asus tools and maybe solved the problem by uninstalling asus tool "Asus Instant On", "Power4Gear" was never installed, please uninstall also... since 5 Months no more Problems with random shutoffs please try

 

I will see if this will help. I've had my 56VZ for a while now... and the "sudden off" just started happening. I have removed both suggested programs.

Waiting for the magic to happen... or not, lol

 

Never had this problem again since mid 2014 ;-)