my clevo d901c Rock SL8 is DEAD!

Hello guys, im so desperate while posting this, as I want to find out what is the cause of the problem and finally fix my rig. I will keep it as brief as possible.
After an uninstall of a game yesterday morning, the whole screen was filled with small blue signs. Then windows froze, and I had to force shutdown with the on/off button. After i opened it up again for the first time, I saw the POST, but on the windows logon screen, the same blue signs came again and windows froze again. I forced it to shutdown again, and since that time whenever i open it, there is NO POST, no BIOS, no code beeps, nothing. Only a black screen.

Several things I ve done to find what the cause is:

- I have inserted a different HDD with working copy of windows. Still the same.
- I have swapped the RAMs from their slots, and also tried with only 1 RAM module (2gb) inserted.
- I have changed the location of my Nvidia card to the next slot, along with its fan, heatsink etc.
- I have added thermal paste to both CPU and GPU as it was previously melted. (not much of a solution but I did it)
- I have removed the battery and tested with the AC adapter only and vice versa. Still the same.

All of the above DON't work. Now, when i opened my laptop i found a SCREW lying on the RAM standalone oO. I dont even know how it got there. It was between the fan and the ram, so im guessing the fan must have hit the screw several times onto the RAM... But i swapped RAMS and nothing changed, No beeps either.

What I will try in a little while is connect my laptop to an external monitor to see if my monitor is dead.. but i highly doubt that. I hope its not a GPU problem coz MXM cards are hard to find and ridiculously expensive. Whatever part it is I know its gonna be expensive, but still I want to find that out so I can try to make my baby run again... Do you think its the motherboard? or the GPU card?
Also, after so many attempts to open my rig, the 'black screen' I had changed to a no working screen now. Its like my laptop is closed. Did i cause that? Before I had that black-grey screen, as in 'laptop is opened, but I get a black screen'. Fans were and are working, but when I press ANY key on the keyboard and I press fn+1 after, fans dont work anymore. I really dont know whats the problem with it im so desperate.

Specs: Clevo D901C, Rock Xtreme SL8
Intel 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 Ghz
4 gb Kingstom ddr2 ram
1 gb geforce 9800m gtx+ (not SLI, but the laptop is easily configurable for SLI etc)

 

Sounds like a dead motherboard to me.

 

Yes mate thanks for replying, I thought of the same thing.. I am going to perform some more tests and if nothing works then its motherboard for sure...
I could appreciate any other ideas or thoughts about the matter meanwhile.

 

I would try baking the laptop GPU, the Nvidia 9800M GT on my Mojave recently did the same thing and I had to bake my GPU in the oven and now it works.

 

A little bit of an update of the things I ve been doing since yesterday, and looking forward for more people to suggest solutions or which part is faulty..

- I connected my laptop to an external monitor with a vga cable and it's still showing a dead black screen. This means I eliminated the monitor from the faulty parts..
-I removed my 9800m gtx card completely before booting up. When I booted, the laptop finally did something different!! The caps/num/scroll lock lights went on and off 10 times and laptop closed by itself!! But the screen was still dead black. This means that the laptop recognizes there's not a gpu inside and closes right? Does that mean that my GPU is not faulty?? What exactly should i assume?

Also in case the motherboard is faulty, I have to remove it. And I still havn't figured out a way to do that on my clevo d901c. I also saw that resetting CMOS battery might be a solution, but I don't know where it is! I was able to remove easily cpu, gpu, ram, fans, hdd, battery but the whole motherboard I couldn't find a way to remove.. in fear that I might accidentally break something. If someone has the same model and has opened it please post. All other replies are welcome as well.

Thanks

 

I 've also searched the idea of baking my GPU, and I surprisingly saw a lot of positive comments about that! But before doing such a thing I have to make sure it's the GPU and not anything else... It would be a shame to destroy 1gb of GPU and at the end I found out it's the motherboard.. Very nice idea however, I will keep that in mind Alienwarez

 

If you want to remove the motherboard or the CMOS battery, download this service manual and follow the instructions :
ftp://sftp.clevo.com.tw/SERVICEM/D9x0C/D900C_ESM.zip

 

Thanks for that mate, really appreciate it

 

Ok guys I think I am going to call a clevo service center based here in London, UK so they can repair it for me... Pricing should be around 400-500 pounds, parts included.. I mean motherboard, if that is the issue...

Clevo UK service center
ADD Unit 39, Rainbow lndustrial Estate,
Trout road, West Drayton, Middx,
UB7, 7RN UK

TEL 44-1895-430333
FAX 44-1895-438338
E-mail [email protected]

Thats the service center, anyone have contacted them or approved it's trustworthy?

Also some off topic questions: would you choose q9550 or i7 in terms of price and performance? Can a laptop configuration include a really powerful gpu(like an 1.5 gb single card) but a not so powerful cpu like an i3 or i5? (providing that u have adequate psu)
Also, has anyone tried all this 3D gaming experience that comes out recently in laptops and pc's? Does that worth the lower resolution that requires?
Also, why in most sites the 1.5 gb 460m nvidia is relatively cheap compared to other sli or single card configurations? (it's even cheaper than 1gb ATI cards..)

 

hi Mate,
could u tell what was the final of ur clevo repair? ive got same problem and just wondering what it can be caused by? i supose its bios stick on motherboard but not sure.

 

Try the following:

Remove the battery, unplug the power cord, press and hold the power button for 30 sec.

Also, if not done already, try removing the CMOS battery for 1 min.

See if this helps.

 

You can get a new D900C motherboard for about $410-430 depending on where the shipping will be for.

 

hi PEKAHETAN could u give me ur email? Im looking for a 2 graphic cards (currently ive got 1 8800m gtx and would like to upgrade to 2 9800m gtx or 2 280m gtx) and 1 heatsink + fan for one of them.

 

Sorry, I don't have any 9800M GTX or 280M GTX
For what laptop you want these cards ?

And by the way, I think that I don't have the right to publish my email in the threads (any mod can confirm that please?) And you have to write at least 5 posts before you can send or receive PM.

Welcome to NBR forum though

 

thanks for welcome, anyway i didnt know that i have to write 5 posts to have contact option. isnt there any other way?
i want these graphic cards for my clevo d901c branded by multicom. at the moment im waiting for my laptop to come back from service as motherboard died (i supose just bios chip but thermal sensor error possible) when it come back im goin to upgrade it to 6gb ram and qx9650 or q9650 depends how much i will pay for repair. later i want to upgrade graphic card from single 8800m gtx to at least 8800m gtx in sli.

 

Then you must be using the MXM 2.1 type IV board, and you'll have to find the GTX 280M to fit that specifically. If there is one; I can't remember. I know the 260M has a 2.1 version, but I'm not sure about the 280M anymore.

Also, depending on how much you're paying for those upgrades, a stock P151HM1 might serve your purposes better. You can get a good 2nd-gen i7 quadcore (with hyperthreading of course) and a GTX 560M with 8GB of RAM for just over $1200 uSD. If your upgrades cap out near that amount, the new laptop might better server your purposes =).