Asus g53sx frame rates dropped after repair

[llamabob]

Hey, I have an Asus G53sx laptop (2 gHz i7, gtx 560m, 8gb RAM), and i recently took it apart and removed the motherboard to replace the power port. After reassembling the laptop and booting it up, it seemed to work o.k. When i tried to launch Crysis (which I had normally been able to run on the "very high" setting), the GPU fan immediately kicked in at 100% and the frame rates dropped below 20. I had to turn the settings down to medium in order for it to run smoothly. Every other game i ran behaved the same way. What's causing this? Do I need to reapply the heatsink? Is it a driver problem? It has sufficient airflow...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

I own a lappy repair company and unfortunately this sort of thing happens a lot when amateurs take apart a lappy...

This is quite simple... YOU did something wrong whilst inside the lappy...

Go back in and recheck EVERYTHING...or take it to a lappy repair shop and pay to have it put right....

And to any others reading this....

A laptop is NOT a PC....you cannot just pop it apart and replace things and expect it to work afterwards !!!

When people who have made this mistake, bring them in my computer shops, we charge DOUBLE the labour rate to repair this sort of thing, because customers are NEVER EVER honest about what they did or broke...lol and we have to check EVERYTHING....a very slow process....



All the best Brett

 

[erikalikesfire]

Hey, I have an Asus G53sx laptop (2 gHz i7, gtx 560m, 8gb RAM), and i recently took it apart and removed the motherboard to replace the power port. After reassembling the laptop and booting it up, it seemed to work o.k. When i tried to launch Crysis (which I had normally been able to run on the "very high" setting), the GPU fan immediately kicked in at 100% and the frame rates dropped below 20. I had to turn the settings down to medium in order for it to run smoothly. Every other game i ran behaved the same way. What's causing this? Do I need to reapply the heatsink? Is it a driver problem? It has sufficient airflow...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

The GPU is clearly overheating. Get some MX-4 or some other non-electrically conductive thermal compound, some isopropyl alcohol (99.953% pure if you can, 70% drugstore if you must), and microfiber cloths. Look at videos for how to clean and repaste a CPU/HSF.

Come to think of it, even if you just reused the old compound after putting it back together, it seems unlikely that it would be overheating this badly just from reusing compound. There may be something actually in the way keeping the heatsink from touching the GPU, like some tape or a misrouted wire, or maybe the thermal pad fell off and the heatsink and GPU aren't touching at all. If it was using a thermal pad then thermal paste won't be thick enough to bridge that gap. If that's the case you can get thermal pads instead, or (better but more expensive and labor-intensive) get a copper shim off ebay to bridge the gap.

 

[llamabob]

So if i just take it in to get repaired, how much would it cost? I'm too scared that I'll mess it up even more...

 

[erikalikesfire]

Reapplying the hsf should take about an hour, and the thermal compound, alcohol, and (possibly) a copper shim should cost less than a dollar. A fair price would be $50. But it depends on the store. They'll probably charge you $50 just to diagnose the problem, even if you tell them exactly what it is. They may charge you another three hours of labor for spending five minutes turning it on and running scandisk. They may tell you that you need a new motherboard for $350 and a new hsf for $40. It totally depends on the store and how competent and honest they are.

If price is an issue, I say educate yourself a little and try the fix yourself. At most that costs you $20, and as long as you don't do something completely retarded like pee in there you probably won't make it worse. If you can't figure it out, then take it in to a shop and be prepared to spend $200-$300 and lose all your data for no goddamn reason.

 

[Brett928S2]

So if i just take it in to get repaired, how much would it cost? I'm too scared that I'll mess it up even more...

Hi

My shops are in the Uk so not a fair comparison...but we would charge you £100 in labour (2 hours) to totally strip and rebuild it...and parts if needed on top....

All the best Brett

 

[llamabob]

Hey, thanks for the help Eric and Brett. Right now, though, i can't afford to mess my laptop any more, so i think i'm just going to send it to a professional to get it fixed. I was tempted to tear it apart again and find the problem, but the risk is too high.

Thanks again!