Asus z7100 laptop ,black screen

patrick3

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Jun 13, 2010
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Hello,
I have a ASUS z7100 laptop,power button lights up like normal next 2 green lights flash once ,third green light stays on .I tried battery in and out ,just power supply no battery the same.Screen black and that's all ,doesn't even try to start windows xp.I had cover off heard hard drive ,cleaned memory stick.still no good ,same.Any one can help.Thanks
 
Does the laptop beep at all? Usually if it is a hardware failure, the laptop will beep. It could be that it is booting up, but you cannot see anything because the inverter or backlight is out. If it is the backlight you can tell by holding up a flashlight to the screen- if you see something, it is the backlight. If not, chances are that it is the inverter.
 

shan3racing

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Feb 17, 2010
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Hello dont hear any beepsand hear nothing at all.Held flash light up to scrreen dont see anything. Thanks
 

joeprosser

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Aug 16, 2010
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Same problem just happened to me. HArd drive light comes on and if I put a disc in, I can hear and feel it spool up. Absolutely no preamble before the failure. I suspect the problem is deeper than a failure of a back light or an inverter for the screen. If I connect an external monitor and Fn 8 to swap display nothing happens. I think it could be a fried Nvidia graphics Go6600 chip on the main board or the M7V VGA card (Nvidia MEP43) P/N 80-20RV06229 Rev: 2.2. Swapping out the VGA card (if I can find a replacement) looks pretty easy - simply remove the cooling fan/duct, unplug the screen plug and pop the card out. I am unfamiliar with the way the Go6600 assembly is mounted, it looks like the 2" square card is surface mounted, so any advice and practical suggestions here would be great. The Go6600 is now quite an old chip and I guess that replacements are reasonably priced.
 

joeprosser

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Aug 16, 2010
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A cure, I fixed it! :bounce: I was right the problem was the graphics card (80-20RV06229); the chip on the mother board also cooled is actually he North bridge chip (NQ82915PM SL8G3). The graphics module, surface mounted onto the graphics card consists of the NVidia Go6600 GPU (diamond shaped chip in the middle) surrounded by four memory chips that make up the 128Mb of graphics RAM.
The cure is also unbelievable but it worked :D . I simply removed the board and baked in a pre heated oven for 8 minutes at 190 centigrade. I held the board above the baking tray by inserting three screws into the two duct mount holes and in the gap between the edge connectors. The Nvidia chip was upper most and the card was held on the level. After 8 minutes I switched the oven off and opened the door about 15cm to allow slow cooling. After 10 minutes I lifted the baking tray out and allowed the card to cool to room temp. Put it back in and bingo :bounce:
The principle is that the solder on the multiple connections on the under side of the surface mounted modules become weakened with each cycle of heating up and cooling down. Baking allows the solder to flow back and make re-connection across cracks. If you have nothing to lose it is worth a try.
I would not have believed until I did it, I am still a little stunned.
 

dpowellmeii

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Jan 4, 2011
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did you put the motherboard in the oven as well or just video card? i am having a problem with the motherboard where it will hardly ever boot up and every now and then i can get it into the bios when it wont boot but it takes forever. i was told that it sounded like the north bridge needed to resoldered/reflowed. i have 2 identical asus z71v's and have eliminated all other hardware problems by swapping stuff out. thanks, d.
 

pivel

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Jan 17, 2012
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Jesus Christ !!! It is unbeliveable, but it work's .. I never thought that I tryed that, but there were no other option, and I have nothink to loose. I cannot belive that ... that is awesome... Thank you so much. You are genious.
 

niborP

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Feb 8, 2013
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I guess this similar to the old problem with old TV's where the solder on the circuit boards used to crack, a TV repair man came out usually knew exactly which TV sets cracked where, wielded his mighty solder pen for ten minutes, then charged a hefty call out fee.
:lol:
 

joeprosser

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Aug 16, 2010
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The original fix was in 2010. The fix lasted a few months before the dreaded black screen came back. Another bake fixed it. Each 'fix' lasts only a few months. The blue rubber on the chips is supposed to conduct heat from the chips to the cooling duct. Note that if you use cooling paste to replace this rubber then use quite a lot. Normally a thin smear on the chip is recommended but here you need to make up the difference in levels between the GPU card and the North bridge chip on the mother board and the heat sink duct. Generally each bake fix lasts a couple of months. I got about another year out of the old computer. I would encourage you to get a USB separate hard drive and backup everything to it so that you can transfer it to a new computer when, inevitably, the old one dies permanently.
 

ogpala

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Jul 19, 2013
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Thanks for the heads-up. FYI , my laptop is Z71V and the color of the rubber is black. Nonetheless, the function should be the same. It is sad to hear that the cure is temporarily in nature. I think it is about time to retire this laptop which I bought for C$3K and has served me well for a number of years. BTW, I always use Clonezilla to make an image of the partition so backup is not a problem. Thanks for the feedback. I will be doing what you had suggested until it stops serving its useful life.
 

fbird455

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Feb 3, 2017
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fbird455

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Feb 3, 2017
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joeprosser...I just used this fix on my Z71V and it worked. I had replaced the video card once a long time ago and that one was failing. I still got a screen but with the yellow "graphics". My son wants to use the Z and now he can...still in service! Just figured I would let you know. Thanks a bunch!!

Chris Anderson
Goldsboro, NC USA