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Older Asus laptop crashed, won't boot up

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  • Cosmopolitan 2 Dec 2012 17:21:51 1,592 posts
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    Anyone kind to offer advice to my problem? An old Asus laptop "froze" when I was playng Gta Vice City. Stopped responding to key presses and was making really loud unplesant, screeching intermittent sounds. Did not have other option how to shut it down so I removed the battery. But now it won't start. When turned on, just the fan starts to make noise ( the exact same way as it did when the laptop crashed) and the system seems as if starting to boot up, but there is nothing else, screen remains black, no hard disk activity. Just the fan noise. Tried removing and inserting the hard drive, no help. I don't understand laptops well but suspect the graphics card might have fried? It has Windows XP, the graphics is ATI Mobility Radeon 200. Any advice greatly appreciated.

    Edited by Cosmopolitan at 17:23:09 02-12-2012

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • RobTheBuilder 2 Dec 2012 17:23:47 6,415 posts
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    Sounds serious. Does it beep when starting?
  • Cosmopolitan 2 Dec 2012 17:29:50 1,592 posts
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    RobTheBuilder wrote:
    Sounds serious. Does it beep when starting?
    No, no beep. The CD drive makes a noise though. Already tried to boot from CD but it won't read... To give more info about the incident, I was actually applying the Big Bang cheat in the game which might have stressed the laptop too much? It makes all cars near the character explode...

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • meme 2 Dec 2012 17:32:00 15,810 posts
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    Yeah, sounds like either the GPU or CPU's fried. Something's fried, anyway.

    Might be worth taking it apart, blowing out the dust, leaving it for a while then putting it back together and seeing if there'll be any change, but I doubt it.

    GHOSTBUSTERS

  • jonsaan 2 Dec 2012 17:33:22 24,369 posts
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    Can you you F8 or f12 it when you turn it on to get to the bios?

    Dead graphics card will normally give you a beep code.

    Edited by jonsaan at 17:34:11 02-12-2012

    FCUTA!

  • Fake_Blood 2 Dec 2012 17:33:46 3,066 posts
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    Death by cheating.
  • RobTheBuilder 2 Dec 2012 17:34:41 6,415 posts
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    @Cosmopolitan I wouldn't have thought that would do more than crash it. If its not going to the cd drive or beeping it sounds like a serious issue. If nothing displays at all then sounds like you'll need a new one (repair will prob cost half as much as a new one).

    There should be others here who have more intricate knowledge, but it doesn't sound good I'm afraid!
  • Cosmopolitan 2 Dec 2012 17:36:59 1,592 posts
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    jonsaan wrote:
    Can you you F8 or f12 it when you turn it on to get to the bios?

    Dead graphics card will normally give you a beep code.
    No, it won't even start the boot sequence, the screen remains black.

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • Cosmopolitan 2 Dec 2012 17:45:57 1,592 posts
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    Ok if it's dead there is a way how to save data from the hard drive right? I might as well ask for advice for a new laptop though I know it's not a popular topic here ie laptops are generally shit for gaming. About 500 euro is what I'd invest in such thing...

    Edited by Cosmopolitan at 17:47:23 02-12-2012

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • Dirtbox 2 Dec 2012 18:12:12 73,998 posts
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    Pull the HDD out and stick it into whatever else you've got.

    I think it's probably a popped capacitor on the motherboard, but there's no telling, really.

    +1 / Like / Tweet this post

  • jonsaan 2 Dec 2012 18:18:37 24,369 posts
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    Also, try taking the battery out and running on mains power only.

    FCUTA!

  • Bremenacht 2 Dec 2012 19:53:35 11,696 posts
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    Sounds a bit like a HDD head crash. If it is, you're data is already fucked so you can do what DB suggests and try it in another device.

    Another thing to try is create a bootable USB disk (if you've got a spare machine) and try setting your laptop to boot off that, if you can still access the bios. Can you access bios?
  • Cosmopolitan 2 Dec 2012 20:13:44 1,592 posts
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    ^ no, can't access the bios, it won't reach that point. As I said earlier when I switch it on, it just blinks the leds and turns on the fan noise, nothing after that. I can sort of put it on standby by long-pressing the on/off switch, but when woken up from that it again doesn't do anything apart from the fan noise.

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • vizzini 2 Dec 2012 20:20:16 1,250 posts
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    @Cosmopolitan

    It probably is something fatal, like the GPU, CPU or motherboard, but just to rule out everything else. Remove the memory, the HDD, battery, DVD bay any external devices(mouse/keyboards/speakers, usb hubs, etc),

    Then plugin the mains power and power up. If the laptop screen displays anything like a bios screen with errors, then the fault is unlikely GPU,CPU or motherboard related, and one of the other parts, like a memory module.

    Maybe even try the videoout socket(dvi/vga,hdmi or composite) to rule the screen failing.

    In my experience with older ATI devices, and troubleshooting a couple of friend's cheap AMD CPU/discrete GPU laptops, they do tend to be far less reliable than integrated Intel graphics or discrete nvidia models, unless in a Thinkpad, so sadly, it probably is dead.
  • Cosmopolitan 4 Dec 2012 21:25:52 1,592 posts
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    Thank you people for all the replies, very helpful. Although the laptop is definitely dead, the hard drive seems ok so my data are saved. I just need this 'enclosure' thingy for an ATA hard drive. Anyone had an idea where I could get such thing?

    Edited by Cosmopolitan at 21:27:44 04-12-2012

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • kosigan 4 Dec 2012 21:36:25 404 posts
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    @Cosmopolitan - ebay. I've bought from there before, just make sure it's the right interface type for your drive, i.e. IDE or SATA. If the drive is Ok and you have things like iTunes to de-authorise, you may be able to make an image of the drive to run as a virtual machine on another computer, if you have access to one.
  • Cosmopolitan 6 Dec 2012 09:22:11 1,592 posts
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    @kosigan Thanks, but I'm not sure if I'm choosing the correct item. Could this be it? There seems to be a confusion in my mind about enclosure and "caddy".

    Edited by Cosmopolitan at 09:22:32 06-12-2012

    The Master of Unlocking.

  • midnight_walker 6 Dec 2012 09:43:33 1,198 posts
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    @Cosmopolitan Yep, that'll do it. It'll also serve as an external hard drive once you're done. Probably a small one though given that it's an IDE drive :)
  • DaM 6 Dec 2012 10:41:22 11,835 posts
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    I did this for my father-in-laws screwed laptop (he buys expensive ones and manages to completely wreck them, I don't know what he does to them). Drive out, in a caddy, got all his files off it onto the new laptop.

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