Asus N61JQ X1 - all kinds of problems. Please help.

[davygravyt]

Okay, I'm officially stumped here, so any help is appreciated.

I am trying to fix my roommate's old laptop. It is an Asus N61JQ X1 running Windows 7 64 bit.

He was initially getting a lot of BSOD's, and sometimes the computer screen would freeze and he would have to restart. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 after making a recovery cd with an iso I found online.

It was working better for a while, but then I started getting lots of BSOD's again. Most of them seemed to be pointing to memory, if I remember correctly, they were of the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" variety.

So I ran memtest86+, and all kinds of errors came up for both sticks of ram, and the computer crashed halfway through the test. After I reset the computer, Windows automatically reset the computer for windows updates, but the computer crashed halfway through installing them.

Then I went to microcenter and bought two new 4g sticks (it only had 4g total before), and installed them.

When I turned the computer back on, I got another BSOD, I believe it was something like "stop 0x00000050", and a google search led me to believe it was caused by an error with the windows update, which would make sense since it never finished installing.

I am currently trying to reinstall windows again to fix the problem, because for some reason I don't have any restore points to go back to, but I keep getting interrupted by ANOTHER issue that has been recurring this whole time.

Sometimes, with or without a BSOD, I will hear the power supply shut off (like the noise it makes when you hold down the power button to shut off), and the computer will shut off. However, when I push the power button, instead of powering back on, the power light will slowly blink, and will not power back on. Usually if I either let it sit for a while, or pull out the battery and unplug the ac adapter for a few seconds, it will power back on again when I press the power button.

I don't believe it is the hard drive, because it is seated properly, and I ran crystal disk info and it says the drive is health.

Help!

 

[vegettonox]

You need to check the memory again, just because you bought it new doesn't mean that it is in good shape. If you can reliably run the memory test and verify that it is good then you can move on to another possibility. If the computer was crashing in the middle of a memory test I'm going to say there is something wrong with the hardware, it sounds like a possible power issue. Have him back up whatever he can, the internal power supply may be shot or the power brick, I would have a local repair joint take a look at it.

 

[davygravyt]

Finally got it to stay on long enough for a memory test. The memory is fine. However, I installed speedfan and just as I noticed it was overheating, it shut off again.

So... it seems overheating is my issue...

*Update

The computer gave me a "bad pool header" BSOD, then another BSOD popped up and said something like "hardware malfunction - system has been halted" and then restart itself.

 

[silentdoh]

I have this laptop and suffered from BSODs for a time as well, I'm not sure what your issue might be, mine were related to a USB Driver issue, and were resolved by changing the power settings in device manager to not allow windows to turn the device off to save power, when it would bring them back up, it would crash the driver. Sorry if this isn't too much help, I would check your fan, maybe there's something up with the cooling system, because after almost 3 years with this laptop I've never had it overheat once. Hot, absolutely, but never to the point of shutting off.

 

[Flamey87]

Hi, sorry for bumping an old thread. I have the same issue here. My memory is fine, but the laptop can't handle programs like it could before. I will constantly reach a core temp of 100C and have it shut down (when the power button is pressed initially after the forced shutdown, it blinks and does not turn on). I opened the laptop and there is minimal visible dust. I need to back up quite a bit of files before I can reformat, so I suppose I will do that and troubleshoot again if the problem persists.

I hope someone can give a few more pointers on the situation, it would be much appreciated. I know the laptop is notorious for its high temperatures, but I should be able to perform tasks on it without it overheating!

 

[Ivan Bustor]

Hey there,

I'm sorry to bring this up after such a long time, but I have been experiencing the same problems for a while now. Symptoms are exatly the same, even the blinking and not turning on. I scanned the RAM sticks, tried another ones, tried only one RAM slot, did a clean install... Temperatures actually seem to be ok, didn't reach the 100 nowhere near now. I even have a cooling pad below the laptop.

Did you find a solution to your problem? Please, it would be most helpful

Ivan

Okay, I'm officially stumped here, so any help is appreciated.


I am trying to fix my roommate's old laptop. It is an Asus N61JQ X1 running Windows 7 64 bit.

He was initially getting a lot of BSOD's, and sometimes the computer screen would freeze and he would have to restart. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 after making a recovery cd with an iso I found online.

It was working better for a while, but then I started getting lots of BSOD's again. Most of them seemed to be pointing to memory, if I remember correctly, they were of the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" variety.

So I ran memtest86+, and all kinds of errors came up for both sticks of ram, and the computer crashed halfway through the test. After I reset the computer, Windows automatically reset the computer for windows updates, but the computer crashed halfway through installing them.

Then I went to microcenter and bought two new 4g sticks (it only had 4g total before), and installed them.

When I turned the computer back on, I got another BSOD, I believe it was something like "stop 0x00000050", and a google search led me to believe it was caused by an error with the windows update, which would make sense since it never finished installing.

I am currently trying to reinstall windows again to fix the problem, because for some reason I don't have any restore points to go back to, but I keep getting interrupted by ANOTHER issue that has been recurring this whole time.

Sometimes, with or without a BSOD, I will hear the power supply shut off (like the noise it makes when you hold down the power button to shut off), and the computer will shut off. However, when I push the power button, instead of powering back on, the power light will slowly blink, and will not power back on. Usually if I either let it sit for a while, or pull out the battery and unplug the ac adapter for a few seconds, it will power back on again when I press the power button.

I don't believe it is the hard drive, because it is seated properly, and I ran crystal disk info and it says the drive is health.

Help!

 

[Kenneth Tan]

Hi, sorry for bumping an old thread. I have the same issue here. My memory is fine, but the laptop can't handle programs like it could before. I will constantly reach a core temp of 100C and have it shut down (when the power button is pressed initially after the forced shutdown, it blinks and does not turn on). I opened the laptop and there is minimal visible dust. I need to back up quite a bit of files before I can reformat, so I suppose I will do that and troubleshoot again if the problem persists.

I hope someone can give a few more pointers on the situation, it would be much appreciated. I know the laptop is notorious for its high temperatures, but I should be able to perform tasks on it without it overheating!

I had the same problem as yours !!! even after the cleaning and everything , its works for like 1 week at 60C and then goes back to 100C and shutdown. i have no idea what to do next!

 

[Sillyist]

Hello everyone,

I've been experiencing hard freezes on this laptop for about 4 to 6 months now. It mainly happens when I run 3D graphics intensive software. I purchased it back in 2009 and have played an extensive amount of online games. I just completely reformatted and I'm still getting the same types of hard freezes. Sometimes they happen instantly, sometimes it takes over an hour, but eventually the computer freezes and I have to reboot with the power button, select start windows normally in the BIOS, etc, etc. I haven't seen a BSOD in a while (knock on wood) but they have occasionally popped up in the past.

I did memtest86 today and it gave me a score of 1307 when the benchmark for this processor should be over 3000. I'm fairly certain, in my case anyhow, that the baby is just worn out. Thousands and thousands of hours of gaming have gone into my laptop. I don't notice any extreme overheating going on, but that could be because the HDD and Vid Card just aren't powerful enough to get that hot anymore.

Not sure if you guys are in the same boat as me. The laptop performed amazingly for a long time (about 3 years), considering how much I stressed the hardware. If you purchased the laptop within a year or two of posting in this thread, you may have a faulty build on your hands because this laptop should run very well for a while.

Hope this helps,

Johnny

 

[Phantoms]

I have the same problem with my N61JQ.
Power light lights but nothing at all starts. Was working fine in the evening. Hibernated it and unplugged the power. In the morning it wouldn't start.

Have tried taking out the battery and holding down the power button with no success.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

[vichhi]

Hi, sorry for bumping an old thread. I have the same issue here. My memory is fine, but the laptop can't handle programs like it could before. I will constantly reach a core temp of 100C and have it shut down (when the power button is pressed initially after the forced shutdown, it blinks and does not turn on). I opened the laptop and there is minimal visible dust. I need to back up quite a bit of files before I can reformat, so I suppose I will do that and troubleshoot again if the problem persists.

I hope someone can give a few more pointers on the situation, it would be much appreciated. I know the laptop is notorious for its high temperatures, but I should be able to perform tasks on it without it overheating!

I had the same problem as yours !!! even after the cleaning and everything , its works for like 1 week at 60C and then goes back to 100C and shutdown. i have no idea what to do next!

I had this problem, this is caused by the fan not rotating fast enough. All you need to do is take out the back cover piece of the laptop, remove the metal plate covering the fan, carefully take the fan out (the fan is not fixated to the base, it is just holding with its magnet) clean the fan with a brush (no water) make sure the fan is clean, use an air can to blow all dust from the fan base and heat syncs and pipes. Onces you have gone through these steps, take some oil (not cooking oil, oils which would be used with mechanical machines or other, the oil should not be too thick or it won't help. I used gun oil) take this oil and drop one drop on the axis of the fan, and one drop into the hole the axis goes into. when i say one drop i mean one single, small drop, putting more oil won't make it better. Once the fan is back into its base just play with it a little by rotating it so the oil spreads and takes well. Once you feel the rotation is fluid, put the metal plate back on, screw it properly and close the back cover. Your laptop should not shut down anymore.

Should you feel unsure of yourself or not be accustomed to such procedures, just don't do it or ask a friend to do it for you.

 

[DFW_Andy]

I've been experiencing this for months - hard locks. I "fix" it by booting to safe, uninstall (and delete) video driver. Boot back to safe it'll load Standard VGA. Update driver, 'Have disk" and point to where you've previously downloaded the ATI Mobility driver version 8.692.1.0 (1/22/2010). Don't go with the latest release - it's not compatible with your display. Once loaded reboot to normal.....until the machine locks again. Not sure what causes the original lock but once mine locks it will lock with EVERY reboot until I go through the above steps.
I'll try the fan lube trick..sounds like that may help.
Thanks.

 

[Sixmark]

While many of you have tried to isolate the fan as the problem you have overlooked one of the most common issues with any graphics intensive related issues. When you experience an overheating or repeated overheating problems it damages the system in general, specifically the GPU and/or its contact with the circuit it is a part of. In every laptop the GPU also serves as a voltage distribution bus for the system.

When the GPU is overheated the solder reaches extreme temps which are high enough to cause it to reach a liquid or fluid state when it cools it returns to a solid state, after so many cycles of these extremes the GPU will experience cold solder joints or fractures in the solder itself leading to multiple failures of other components which are dependent on sustained steady voltages for proper operation.

Properly cleaning the system internally and re-seating the GPU and replacing the thermal compound between the heatsinks and GPU and CPU resolve these issues if damage hasn't been done to the GPU itself. A simple way to avoid this alltogether in many cases is to simply have the laptop internally cleaned on a regular basis. Doing the repair requires proper procedures and equipment to do so, the tips and tricks of baking it in an oven or heating it up to fix it are only temporary fixes and it will fail again.

 

[Ivan Bustor]

I've been experiencing this for months - hard locks. I "fix" it by booting to safe, uninstall (and delete) video driver. Boot back to safe it'll load Standard VGA. Update driver, 'Have disk" and point to where you've previously downloaded the ATI Mobility driver version 8.692.1.0 (1/22/2010). Don't go with the latest release - it's not compatible with your display. Once loaded reboot to normal.....until the machine locks again. Not sure what causes the original lock but once mine locks it will lock with EVERY reboot until I go through the above steps.
I'll try the fan lube trick..sounds like that may help.
Thanks.

Hey there,
were you able to stop those freezes? This issue started bothering my laptop again. Or maybe anybody else in this thread?
Thanks

 

[valuetown]

I've been experiencing this for months - hard locks. I "fix" it by booting to safe, uninstall (and delete) video driver. Boot back to safe it'll load Standard VGA. Update driver, 'Have disk" and point to where you've previously downloaded the ATI Mobility driver version 8.692.1.0 (1/22/2010). Don't go with the latest release - it's not compatible with your display. Once loaded reboot to normal.....until the machine locks again. Not sure what causes the original lock but once mine locks it will lock with EVERY reboot until I go through the above steps.
I'll try the fan lube trick..sounds like that may help.
Thanks.

My laptop has worked great for past 3-4 years, and last month it froze for the first time.
I reinstalled windows and did exactly the same thing, safe mode\uninstall driver\install old driver and it's been working for a while, then it froze again.
One thing that happens when I install the newest version of driver is that I get black screen when booting and when screen changes to windows resolution. System boots fine except there is no signal on the display.
Old driver however works well but then the pc randomly freezes and after that first freeze it keeps happening every time I boot just like DFW_Andy described. Also it freezes in the diskcheck procedure so I have to skip it and go directly to safe mode. After reinstalling the original old driver diskcheck can complete normally.
If anyone detects the cause please keep us updated, I'm gonna dig into it too. First thing that comes to mind is cleaning the whole thing.