Need help troubleshooting P150HM failure - BIOS / GPU / Hardware specialists wanted! ;-)

Alright folks, even though its actually a little embarassing for me to be posting this, being the author of the 7970M blind-flashing guide for the HM machines and all, Im posting this in hopes that one of you guys can help me out here.

So here goes:

A week ago my beloved machine suddenly black-screened on me while i was watching a flash video online. I switched it off, tried to reboot, but all I got were blue dots during the Bios Splash Screen, followed by a ton of exclamation marks on a black screen, followed by a slightly "off" or distorted Windows Boot Logo. It wouldnt go any further, so I did a little research online and came to the conclusion that my gpu was the reason for this culprit.

Which made sense to me: Graphical glitches during Bios load can only mean a hardware issue, not software-related. Plus, all the posts ive found relating to blue dots in Bios screen and those weird exclamation marks could be resolved by swapping out the video card.

So, next step for me was to try my luck baking the card, unfortunately without success. After baking and letting it cool down to room temperature, I re-installed it, started the machine and was then greeted with a black screen, nothing else.

Thus I did some research on ebay and luckily found myself an affordable replacement card, namely a Clevo 7970M Revision 1.2 2G (as we all know, rev 1.1 cards dont work in HM machines, even when trying to blind-flash them). I actually bought it from Clevo-Extreme, who has a Notebook-Retailer account here at NBR (hope youre seeing this as well, btw!)

Today I received the card, installed it, tried to boot up and still got a black screen. Ok, i said to myself, this was expected, thats why I prepared myself a usb stick with atiflash and the non-enduro vbios from my blind-flashing thread beforehand.

Since i wasnt able to set the boot order in the bios i just removed the primary hard drive and also the dvd drive and also did a cmos reset just for the heck of it. Reconnected the power, put in the prepared usb stick, switched on the laptop and waited.....
Unfortunately, nothing happened! Normally, the fans would spin up to max at some point, indicating that the vbios flashing process has begun, followed by an automated system shutdown as coded in the autoexec.bat file from my blind-flashing guide.

Ive tried different USB ports, did another CMOS reset, all to no avail. What I also did was to install my SSD and watch the hard drive indicator LED when powering up, it doesnt look like it boots to windows without display output, so naturally, a blind-flash wouldnt help out in this case i guess.

Soooo, aside from the obvious, namely that i got a defective card, what other possibilities are there that you guys can hopefully come up with? Maybe a different component, other than the gpu that failed? the CPU maybe? or a corrupt bios chip? or the mobo? Ive tested the usb stick on another machine first, doing a "dry run" where i purposefully changed the included .rom file so that the flashing process would be interrupted by an error. It booted fine into DOS and executed the autoexec.bat commands just as intended, so thats not the culprit here.

Alright, thats it so far from my side, thanks in advance for any input you guys might have!

Cheers.

edit: almost forgot - when i power it up, only the bluetooth led comes on, while the hdd led flashes shortly and then switches off when the ssd is installed. power and battery led function as expected.

edit2: i do have the ability to switch on max. fans, aint that an indicator for a functioning bios/ec?

 

Sounds like trying to boot the "baked" card may have caused a "hickup"

Take one RAM out and retry, this rewrites the nvram clean.

 

yea i was thinking about that as well@baked card messed up smth. ill try it asap once i get home, at the gym right now letting off some steam thx for the input!

 

no luck

tried it with one ram stick, cmos reset, boot without ram, then with one ram stick again, nothing.....crap!

also what ive noticed now: when i press the power button, the system comes on for a second, then switches off and then switches on again on its own. like it needs two tries to properly switch itself on.

would a system start without gpu help? and then reseat it?

 

The other thing could have been solder running and shorting on the baked card and then taking out the motherboard with it when putting it back in.

Try going through lots of different component combinations, run at a minimum, one stick of ram, motherboard outside the case too if you have the time to help rule out a freak short somewhere. I suppose no one around has a testable rig?

 

ugh, thats the thing, dont know anyone around here with a similarly equipped rig that i could use for testing...

and yeah, im afraid that i mightve messed up the mainboard with the baked card. although i made sure it was cooled down to room temp. before i installed it again!

ok, heres to hoping that its just something unimportant keeping the system from booting up, like the wifi adapter or the subwoofer or smth

 

It wasn't doing the auto-reboot with your old "baked" card, right?

What vBIOS does the cards label read? If it's just really incompatible vBIOS then you could swap the vBIOS chip from the old to the new card.


Also put the old card back into the oven...

 

nope, it didnt do that with the baked card. it only started doing that with the new card after i took out the ram, i think.

ill come back to you concerning the vbios, the new card is installed in the laptop atm so i cant see the stickers on it. unfortunately though, i dont have a soldering iron... but if it were just the vbios, wouldnt the blindflash take care of it?

put it back into the oven? u mean try and bake it again?

 

Make it hot!

What to do with dying/dead MXM GPUs ?

 

but thats exactly what i did initially! i baked the card for 8 min at 200C and it didnt work....

sigh, my parents are here now for the weekend so dont have time to take care of the laptop... thanks a lot for the input guys, u have no idea how much i appreciate this!

 

I really wish mxm to desktop converters were more common, it would make this easier.

 

alright guys, back with an update from my side.

found a repair shop that can check my machine with both a new gpu and, if necessary, a new motherboard. ill first just let them do their diagnosis to see whats up and then make a decision how to proceed based on that. if the motherboard is fine and theyre able to let another gpu run in it with the current board then ill give CEG the "strong suggestion" to accept a return from my side. if it indeed is the motherboard ill go ahead and pay for a replacement and proceed with the installation of the new 7970m. whatever the case, ill make sure to get the laptop up and running again, wait for the 980m and clevo refresh models to come out, order a new rig as soon as they do, make the f**k sure to get myself a nice 4 years warranty & service package and then sell off my pimped up and then hopefully functioning p150hm in order to get back some of the money that ive invested into the new machine.

all in all, i just think its time to bid my current rig goodbye since i cannot count on its reliability anymore....as sad as it is! had a great ride and was lovely while it lasted even with a time machine handy id do it aaaall over again, baby! best computer i ever had...

ps: totally admitting to be a clevo fanboy through and through, but want me to ne honest? eyeballing the alienwares... just soooo daaaaamn expensive! but all those nice bios options and awesome upgradeability of gpus, generation after generation, just plug n play, no vbios hassle.....hmmmmm

 

They had some issues though this generation which put me off.

 

who? alienware or clevo? i thought ure on the MSI side of life now, anyways

and what kind of issues?

 

Alienware had bios/power issues. Current machine is a p570wm. Looking to update soon

 

alright guys, just for completeness' sake, here two pics of the new 7970m i received from CEG:





made an order through a repair shop today that has p150hm mainboards in stock, costs me 178€ incl. shipping, installation and warranty extension from 6 to 12 months. actually not bad if u think about it! theyre also gonna do a full systems diagnosis to make sure its reaaaally the mainboard and not smth else (gpu for example? ) so yeah, curious as to what they will find!

if its really the mainboard and the new gpu turns out to be fine & blind-flashable then i might just stick with my beloved machine for a while longer, especially since the two most important components are covered for 12 months now

cheers!

 

Soooo....just got a call from the repair shop, as it seems it was indeed not just the GPU but also the mainboard AND the display cable that were faulty, damn!

Funny thing about this: the repair guy told me it looked like defects caused by a liquid spill. i was like: huh? then i remember i accidentally spilled some OJ on my machine like a year or 18 months ago! pulled out the PSU and switched it off right away, took out all the components and cleaned it out as best i could. worked fine after that until i opened up this thread... weird how that would only show up so much later!

anyways, all in all im looking at around 250€ for a new mobo and display cable, that includes 12 months warranty and shipping. i guess i can call myself lucky, considering the circumstances lets just hope that the new GPU works as advertized!

Cheers

 

He may of seen liquid marks and assumed that's what did it.

 

Good to hear jaybee
Looks like OJ Simpson has made a return.

 

so ive already told meaker, this is the situation at the moment: got the laptop back from repairs, supposedly with a new mainboard and display controller. in went the new 7970M, but alas! i still get the same behaviour as i did before: usb stick isnt accessed, no blind flash possible, laptop turns off by itself after a few seconds and starts up again on its own, just showing a black screen the whole time.

sooo, i rechecked all the internal components, two lil things that caught my eye:

first, as u can also see on the pics above, the new 7970m has some weird brownish spots on its PCB, as if it was either calls by a liquid spill or maybe even defect and thus leaking condensators.

second: my cmos battery plastic mount used to have this little crack, it was purely cosmetic, thus bios settings were kept without any issues. so now i open up my laptop, check the cmos battery mounting and what do i see? exactly the same plastic mounting with exactly the same crack in it...did they even exchange the mobo at all????

anyways, im going double sure on this and already contacted the ebay seller CEG (clevo extreme gaming) about this, they offered to replace the card under the 12 month warranty. now its the repair shops turn to get yelled at... >:-I

wish me luck folks! slowly getting tired of this...

 

Sorry to hear things are not working out well for your laptop jaybee. I'm sure you have a full time with you Phd studies and on top of that a broken laptop, not fun! Hopefully your new shiny P651 will arrive soon. All the best!

 

cheers to you my friend, indeed hard times atm! it can only get better (or thats what i keep telling myself )

 

oooh boy, now theyre in BIG trouble.... just checked the pictures i posted in my 2960XM thread, since the mainboard including stickers is also visible WITH date and time and what did i find? the stickers are in the EXACT SAME LOCATION, like exact to the mm, and thats basically impossible for any two mainboards since the stickers are not straight, theyre slightly slanted the serial number is the same as well, of course.... ugh! and thats what i paid 250€ for?! u gotta be kidding me....

 

Name and shame the repair center please..

 

with pleasure: Technik-Spezialist Service-Center-Süd based in Austria, but they also have branches in other countries: http://service-center-sued.at/

initially i went with them cuz they offered an unbeatable price for a mainboard exchange (128€ as opposed to the usual 299€ with other shops), now i know better though took pictures last night, also of the package my laptop was in when they send it back. was completely uncovered and thus came out dirty and sporting lots of extra scratches and bumps. i hope ill have the time to prepare a nice evil email today....

 

Are they authorized clevo dealer jaybee?
I don't know any Austrian but I imagine the email will be quite blunt with before and after pictures.

They should refund the cost of the motherboard and provide a plausible reason for what repairs they actually did do.

Good luck phile

 

Yeah that's pretty terrible, I'm sorry you have to go through the hassle. New notebook motherboards are sadly always a little pricy.

 

alright, heres the picture evidence that points to them not having swapped out the mainboard.

first one shows the afore-mentioned crack in the CMOS battery mounting:



i dunno about u guys, but i for one think it wouldnt make sense to unsolder the mounting and transfer it to a new motherboard and yes, this crack has been there for a while already, happened like a few years back when i took out the battery with a lil too much force

second is the comparison of the mainboard stickers, upper one was taken from my 2960XM thread (january 2013), whereas the lower one i took last night. these are blow ups of the interesting picture sections, but luckily the originals have the date and time hardcoded into them



notice how the stickers are placed EXACTLY in the same locations? look at the spots marked with the red circles, the stickers cover exactly the same part of PCB writings and marks. also, the lower sticker has this one corner that doesnt stick completely to the mainboard and the angle of the two stickers towards each other are exactly the same in both pictures.

now u tell me guys: same or different mainboard?

 

LOL, same serial = same mobo. No other evidence needed as they are unique to each board.

 

ha i wasnt sure about that! i was thinking the same, but wasnt sure if that was the serial or just the mobo model number thx for that

 

Looking at serial sticker it seems that they have not even been tampered with on the edges.
It's a no brainer...

Good luck.

 

yep, heres to hoping that they actually even READ my email ill wait until monday, then ill give them a call and hell additionally....

 

well, looks like i can forget about the 250€...

just gave them a call, needed several tries to actually get through (call me paranoid, but the first few times it sounded like they just hang up on me)

talked to the service lady and she put me through to the repair guy, you cant imagine what a db he was!

so basically, this is what came out of the conversation with him:

- one cannot trust pictures anymore nowadays, since they can be digitally altered
- THEIR pictures though are trustworthy because they also provide the pictures serial number taken with the camera (? and mine dont?)
- supposedly, it has NEVER happened before that a mainboard has NOT been swapped out, even though it was actually stated so
- in his view, its probably the (new, original clevo, 12 month warranty from the manufacturer) gpu thats faulty and NOT the motherboard, that was, of course, swapped out
- sending back the new gpu and exchanging it under warranty would most likely result in getting another faulty gpu, because thats what clevo is known for (i dont even know what to say to that)
- asking him, what my option would be if the computer would STILL not work even with a second new gpu, his answer was: only option would be for us to contact Dell and ask for a new gpu from them / um.... Dell cards dont work in Clevo HM machines? / but OF COURSE they do, all Dell cards work in all Clevos, because Dell doesnt manufacture their own cards, they also get them from clevo!!! / ok, so if Dell cards are basically Clevo as well, why are they supposedly "better" than actual Clevo cards and not also faulty? / well, duh, because dell actually keeps reserves of new unused cards, whereas clevo only uses old used cards, even if theyre covered by warranty! (can you believe this bs?)
- he said he would make an inquiry at clevo (where they supposedly sent the laptop for the mainboard exchange, weird though the he himself was actually on it when he called me to tell me that also the display cable was also faulty) and supposedly get an answer sometime next week, around tuesday (how exactly would that help, anways?)
- he also promised to send me pictures of my working laptop in the repair shop with their own "special gpu", which is not for sale, because it is the one universal, tried and tested gpu that works in all laptops....

i must say, im speechless! im seriously thinking about taking legal actions now, since obviously theres just no reasoning with these people...

interesting fact: searched the net for other user experiences with that repair shop, and i was actually lucky: they didnt even get their laptop back!

 

What a nightmare.
If you have the time legal action yes otherwise move on from this and moral of story never do business with these guys again.

 

thats for sure...they sent me pictures yesterday as proof that my laptop was functional after the repairs. funny thing about it: theyre totally dark and blurry, cant even discern if that is really my laptop or just some random p150hm they got in the shop

 

How did you pay? You could just file a case with PP or your credit card company...

 

online bank transfer.... aint that easy as with credit card or paypal and such *ugh* they sure know what theyre doing, them ba$tard$

 

That sounds terrible! Why is it that so many PC shops are not trustworthy (I remember my experience with Hawkfore back in 2011 with the ES Cards of the 6970m)...

I think I would threaten them with legal actions. I think you could proof that the photo is not altered, at least you have posted it here back then, a long time before this happened! That should be proof enough...

I hope you will solve this soon...

 

i still remember ur fallout with those ES cards tirenz! it seems like its a profitable business area, ripping off computer customers

well, my gf knows this lawyer...basically a family friend, thats definitely an option otherwise i wouldnt be able to afford one, gotta love the croatian mafia

and yeah exactly, the post also includes the info when it was last edited by me, something i cannot just change at will without actually hacking nbr

 

Shady business may earn a quick buck but in the long run it makes no sense.