Funny problem - can not switch on the K93SV

Hi,

I have a problem with my K93SV-YZ149V notebook. Normally the ASUS sign should show up at switching on, and then the OS should boot. Sometimes (better: most times) when I press the power button, nothing happens, after a few seconds the screen turns white, then red, then green, then blue, and then the HDD makes some noise. Sometimes when I make a restart (ctrl-alt-del) I see the ASUS sign and the notebook works fine. Has someone an idea what could be wrong? I think it is the power button, everything else seems to be OK. I have installed Windows 7 Prof and Kubuntu 12.10.

I followed this thread and thanks to GenTechPC's PDF I could open the device and remove some dust out of the fan.

Has anyone an idea?

Greetings,

Heinz

 

*pushing up* Has noone a clue?

 

Sounds a bit like a faulty video cable, but restarting the system wouldn't fix that in itself - I'm just going off the distortion you're seeing.

It's probably more likely a problem with your GPU. I believe that model has the NVidia 540m. If the laptop is no longer under warranty, then it may need to be opened up to be inspected. You can try reseating the GPU and see if it needs repasted while you're at it.

 

Thank you very much, Prostar, but I'd better not disassemble the mainboard. I don't want to damage anything and lose the warranty. I work at an IT company and will show the notebook to a colleague in the RMA department, perhaps he can tell me what's wrong better when he sees it. And when not, I'll open a RMA at Asus. I learned that the German service should not be too bad.

Thanks again, Heinz (still )

 

Good luck! I gather that if you pivot the monitor and the screen flickers and/or returns to normal, then it's the video cable. If not, then I'd wager it's the GPU. Hopefully your colleague can figure it out!

 

Long time ago I opened the RMA at Asus. After a week I hat the notebook back with the mainboard exchanged. But the problem was still there.
Now I have had the idea that it is not good to use two different RAMs? Both 4 GB and 1333 MHz DDR3, but one is a Samsung, the other one is a Transcend.
Now I swapped them and I will see what will happen.

And there is a new problem since I got the notebook back. I can not boot from the harddisk. Bios settings are OK, I checked them several times. I have to boot from a live CD (as Knoppix or Ubuntu) and then from its boot menu select "Boot from first harddisk" and that works. The bootsector and GRUB (for starting Ubuntu and Windows) are OK.
Any ideas??? Or will I have to send the notebook again to Asus and get it back with another fault?

Heinz

 

Sheesh! Well regarding your memory, I highly advise using the same make and model for all of your modules for compatibility and stability sake. Mixing and matching is never 'advised'.

As far as booting - I wonder what they (Asus) did? If your disk drive shows up within BIOS, is it set as the boot device priority?

 

Thank you Prostar for your quick answer. Of course the boot device is correctly set in the Bios. Otherwise it would become too simple...
When I try to boot from harddisk I get the message "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key".
Booting from CD/DVD and then from the harddisk works...

And about the two different RAMs: the seller of my notebook will get a nice e-mail

 

You're welcome! Have you already tried a BIOS reset and/or a EC reset? EC reset is simple if you haven't: just power down the computer, remove all the peripherals and power (battery and ac adapter), and leave it as is for a few minutes (press the power button a few times to drain the chip). Then reconnect everything and give it another go!

You can reset the BIOS either by selecting "load defaults" within the BIOS menu, or you can remove the battery for a minute to perform a hard reset of the BIOS. Just be careful not to void your warranty! I don't see why reseating the drive would fix anything at this point since you can boot off it using your workaround, but you are welcome to do that as well.

 

Yes, an EC reset and BIOS reset to defaults (from the setup menu, removing the CMOS battery is not enough and is difficult to get to) are both good things to try (in that order). If neither of those works, try reinstalling grub2:

Code:

sudo grub-install --recheck /dev/sdX

where sdX is your boot drive, probably sda

If all of that gets nowhere, pressing ESC repeatedly as you power the machine on should give you a boot menu. Sometimes (usually with failing hard disks), it may take a few tries of this combined with CTRL+ALT+DEL to get the system to boot directly. Also in these circumstances, chainloading with another GRUB instance from a different medium (like CD or USB) will give the disk time to warm up. If you find that this is the case, you should run a SMART self test on your disk and check its reporting.

 

I tried all of that, except of removing the Bios battery), nothing worked. The disk is a 120 GB Intel-SSD, about half a year old, only with the operating systems installed. My data is on the 3.5"-HDD (1 TB Seagate). SMART shows no errors...

 

You should set up an RMA then, it sounds like a hardware problem. Make sure you know how many times on average it needs to be rebooted so that you can explain this in the problem description.

 

If it's within warranty, then you should only be looking at shipping cost one way to Asus. If not, then you're looking at the cost of labor (and parts, if necessary). I think at this point, I have to agree with ALLurGroceries in that, the system needs serviced. If you send it in to Asus or manage to fix it, update us with results! And good luck!

 

OK, the boot problem is solved. It was a wrong Bios setting. The other problem still persists. I removed one RAM and left the other in the notebook, then I swapped it against the other. It's unlikely that both RAMs have a defect. I managed to record a short video (20 s, 3.2 MB) of the faulty boot. It's the first twenty seconds after pressing the power button. How can I embed it here?
I'll move in a month, I think I will send in the notebook thereafter.
Thanks for your help!
Heinz

 

What was the BIOS setting in question?

To post a video, either provide the hyperlink or click on the "insert video" icon, in between the quote tags icon and the "insert picture" icon (looks like a film reel).

 

It was the setting "Hard Drive BBS Priorities" in the "Boot Configuration" menu. I had selected the wrong HDD
And here is the video of the "booting":
[video]http://www.vidup.de/v/QwRmI/[/video]
After the colors are shown, the screen switches off.
The bright corner on the upper left is the reflection of my window.

 

And now the problem is (seems to be) solved. I bought a second Samsung RAM, and now it works. Hooray!