Weird power issue with Asus laptop

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slippyjim

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I have an Asus F551C laptop that was working fine last night then this morning it turns on briefly for 20s ish then goes off.
If I plug the charger in the charging light comes on, I press the power button and the power light comes on and the laptop powers on, it POSTs OK and tries to load Windows then powers off, all lights go off then the charging light comes back on after 1-2s. If I then press the power button again it does start up but for only 2-3s and the same again next time etc

If I remove the battery, it will not turn on at all
The charger works fine with another laptop
I get exactly the same results with a different charger

I’ve taken it all apart, disconnected the hard drive, DVD, wifi card, speakers, keyboard, trackpad etc basically only think connected to the motherboard is the screen and removed the CMOS battery and its still the same

It seems pretty dead to me, but the fact it turns on for up to 20s gives me hope

Any ideas what to try next?
 
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thejackal85

thejackal85

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One thing you said explains what's happening here
"If I remove the battery, it will not turn on at all"

Even if you remove the battery and have the charger plugged in, the laptop should still turn on.


This honestly sounds like a motherboard issue to me. Did you get a warranty of any kind? Is it relatively new?
 
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grimfox

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My laptop would turn on for about 20 seconds and shut down when it was switching from a sleep state to shut down. It may have also done this because the battery was out of power. You mentioned it wasn't plugged in at the time, so that makes me think that's what happened, initially. But since it won't turn on without the battery plugged in my guess is that the battery is dead because the brick was not supplying power to the computer to charge the battery. If you have another power brick try that out. If you have a spare battery try that too and let us know how it works out. In any event going back to the manufacturer or seller for support is your best option to see what if anything they can do.

On my alienware I had an issue where the power supply was not recognized by the PC and wouldn't charge the battery. The cause was leaving the power supply plugged in too long. If I unplug it when I'm not using it, that issue doesn't happen any more. Weird but that's the way it is sometimes. Not sure if that is relevant to your case but it might help.
 
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slippyjim

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Its out of warranty, about 2 years old, its quite a strange motherboard as there is no RAM slot its soldered directly onto the motherboard

There is one more thing I forgot to mention before the vga monitor output connector is loose, do you think a short in that could cause this issue?

The charger works fine with another laptop
I get exactly the same results with a different charger
 
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grimfox

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soldering the ram directly to the motherboard is a lot more common than it used to be. Especially in slim and consumer products. Most people don't ever upgrade their laptops so it's better for the manufacturer to solder them down. More robust and saves a little power since they don't have to overcome the resistance of the ram socket. It's also smaller and flatter. So the laptop can be smaller and flatter.

You might try taking it into a local computer shop and see if there is something they can do for it. Odds are the motherboard is dead. Most consumer electronics are not made to last much longer than their warranties. In the world of computers usually by the time the warranty is up the system is outdated enough to need a upgrade of some kind anyway.

Your other option is to charge it powered off and unplug it when you need to use it. Which is maybe not so bad if you can get several hours of use on a single charge. Definitely not the ideal solution.

I'm sure that isn't the news you wanted to hear but I think we've covered everything else that could have been a cause.
 
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Guest

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Greetings forum!

Try cleaning out the internals since you are familiar with opening up your unit. Dust can accumulate heat and it can cause your laptop to do an “emergency” shutdown. It can also cause your fans to stop moving so there will be nothing to cool down your components. You can simply use an air can to safely blow the debris. If your fan is not working properly I would suggest using a cooling pad to take over the job of the internal fan. Try it out if you feel like you are out of options may as well!

You can also hold down the power button for 30 seconds without the battery and charger plugged. If you somehow get your unit up and running I would recommend downloading the ASUS power4 gear software. With this you can monitor your battery levels and health.

ASUS can also give you a quote for a repair if need be.

Otherwise if you want to keep this guy alive I would consider trying out another battery if you can find one on ebay, amazon or even try contacting the Manufacturer if they still sell it. Wish I could help more but feel free to ask the community that’s what we are here for! Good luck!
 
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slippyjim

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Grimfox - it wont charge the battery up

Ive looked at the fan and heatsink and very little dust even though the rest of the inside of the laptop is covered in the stuff

Today it seems to have taken a turn for the worse and not even turn on at all, so looking very dead now

Thanks for everyones suggestions
 
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Guest

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Thats rough.

Well since there's not much you can do with it anyway perhaps you can talk to a customer service agent at ASUS to try to get a quote. That way you can see if it's worth fixing or if it's too much you can put that money towards a new unit! They will not charge you for a diagnostic and you can decide whether or not to go with the repair. Good luck slippy and make sure to pick up Star Fox Zero tomorrow!

http://www.asus.com/us/support/​
 
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grimfox

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Ah, I guess I misread. I thought it would just crash if it was plugged in an running. Since it's not charging at all, it looks like CL-tom has the final answer for you. Good luck.
 
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