G73jw black screen replaced mb and gpu no success - [Solved!!!!!!!!!!!]

[jclare1285]

As the title states I have a asus g73jw with nvidia gtx 460m and intel i7 920xm and upgraded to ssd. I have had this notebook for a few years now and to say that I love it is an understatement. I know that most of you can afford to dump thousands into newer rigs but for me this is my limit and has been enjoyable to say the least. Problem at hand. A few months ago I took the notebook apart to clean it (again) as I've done many many times. My power brick had went out and was waiting on a replacement so before the new one arrived I decided to clean it again. After re-assembly The screen was completely black. Not blank but BLACK. No backlight no picture at all either on the main display or external via hdmi or vga. I used several different cables and tried 3 TV's . Ones that had worked in the past. Everything loads as it usually did only I could not see it. I logged in blindly and could talk to Cortana the windows 10 assistant. Blindly accessed bios and performed the f9 reset. I have tried hundreds of power cycles with holding the power button down without the battery , with the battery, bios reset by pulling the cmos battery. I replaced the motherboard once, I have replaced the gpu 5 times. All of them used but one from ebay. The latest one that I bought was listed new but is a 460m out of a g53jw however after hours of research on this forum and others I have concluded that that shouldn't matter. Every card that I have feels as though it should be working. I.E. warms up like usual generating heat. The fans work normally. I have repasted the cpu and gpu with artic silver 5. Replaced the thermal pads. At this point I have literally tried EVERY suggestion I could find in these forums as well as hundreds of others. The only thing that I have not done as of yet is replace the lvds cable or video cable connecting the lcd to the motherboard. Although it was working absolutely fine the last time it was functioning correctly. I am not a genius with laptops but I do not consider myself a newb either. It has been a passionate hobby of mine for several years now. I am desperate to get this thing going. I do apologize for the duplicate post however every post that I have found and read on rog forums has lead to a dead end with no solution just a dead topic or has ended in a solution that has not worked for me. I feel as though I have tried everything there is to fix this but I know that I have missed a step somewhere that I am to frustrated to think of and I am putting my baby in the hands of you geniuses. Please, PLEASE help me get this thing going again. Also I tested my screen in another laptop yesterday. It works fine so that rules that out. I read somewhere that someone had said that if the main screen was not working on this laptop than an external one wouldn't either which is the reason I am going to replace the video cable this week. Then try again. I realize as these cards have not be manufactured for several years now and every card I have bought has been used and %100 guaranteed to work that there is a possibility they all could have been faulty what luck that would be to buy FIVE of them that are bad though right? Thanks everyone THANKS a million for taking the time to read this and hopefully help me get this thing going again. I miss it.

[Muratus]

Seems like you've narrowed it down to the cable, if you've tested the LCD and it's working.

If it is just the cable or the LCD a external monitor should work, but you have to cycle the FN + Video Key (I don't remember which number that is on the G73) to get it to display on the external. I can check what key when I get home as my son still has a G73.

I've had a few G73's that had black screens it usually was only the video card, but every once and a while it was the plug on the back of the LCD came loose. So I'm back to thinking cable.

Anyway good luck, keep us posted.

[jclare1285]

Muratus wrote:
Seems like you've narrowed it down to the cable, if you've tested the LCD and it's working.

If it is just the cable or the LCD a external monitor should work, but you have to cycle the FN + Video Key (I don't remember which number that is on the G73) to get it to display on the external. I can check what key when I get home as my son still has a G73.

I've had a few G73's that had black screens it usually was only the video card, but every once and a while it was the plug on the back of the LCD came loose. So I'm back to thinking cable.

Anyway good luck, keep us posted.

I am sincerely hoping that is what it is. If not then I will have to assume that my horrible luck also goes to buying faulty laptop components. I do not get an external image on anything that I've tried. I don't remember the exact fn+ key either but It's labeled on the keyboard and I know that I've tried it more than 100 times. I have been struggling with this for months now. I didn't want to be one to post a repeated thread that has already been solved so I have read hours and hours of threads on this forum and others before posting this. The way things continue to go I really want to believe I've bought a bunch of faulty gpu's but the cable is about $5 and the gpu is $50-$100+ so I am going to replace the cable next then if no success will buy another gpu this time perhaps a bit more carefully and hopefully a working one. Thank you for the reply

[Muratus]

Hopefully it is just the cable, as that's the last item not changed. I doubt you've gotten that many bad GPU's. Plus if it's a bad GPU, Windows would not load up nor would the bios work even blindly. They don't boot completely when a GPU is bad.

[Julskey]

Hello,
You mentioned you tested the the lcd monitor in a different laptop. Do they have the same cable connector? My G74sx and G752 x540 all have fn+F8 for display. First press of combination is PC screen only, 2nd is Duplicate, third is Extend and 4th is 2nd screen only.

[jclare1285]

Julskey wrote:
Hello,
You mentioned you tested the the lcd monitor in a different laptop. Do they have the same cable connector? My G74sx and G752 x540 all have fn+F8 for display. First press of combination is PC screen only, 2nd is Duplicate, third is Extend and 4th is 2nd screen only.

Yeah they have the same end that connects to the screen but not to the motherboard. I tested in in a dell inspiron M731r. It is my wifes. Just getting her to let me pull It apart long enough to test my screen was a challenge. Telling her I have to take her cable.... No.. She'll kill me. haha I will order one tomorrow. I have a pretty good store on ebay that I order from. Pmvision. They have always exceeded my standards. I don't work for them nor have anything to do with them so i'm not advertising for any benefit to me, only to help you'll. They are a very trust worthy store IMO. Everything that I've bought has been exactly what I ordered and worked as it should. I ordered I think maybe one item that was faulty I think a set of speakers for my wifes laptop and they refunded me instantly and shipped out a new set. Anyway, they will be who I buy the cable from and I'll probably have it Monday to test. If that fails then I guess a few hours search for a hopefully real %100 working gpu. I was thinking maybe vbios but every thread that I've read of people having problems related to that they at least were able to boot and see what they were booting into mostly would crash after posting. Mine boots as if nothing is wrong I just can't see it. Is it known that gpu's can get warm or even hot as if they are working even when faulty and not working? That's another thing that throws me off is that all but 1 of the cards I bought heat up. I just can't see anything. Thanks everyone for the reply's. No matter what solves it I will post so that others having this problem won't be lost like me, searching thousands of dead end forums where someone fixed it but never posted what they did.

[jclare1285]

After 8 graphics cards, 2 motherboards and a lvds cable along with COUNTLESS hours of reading and trying everything on forums I am writing this replay from G73JW!! I can not put into words how happy I am right now. I thought no way could it be the processor with it booting up completely normal and me even being able to blindly access things that I memorized there place on the screen. I could speak " Hey Cortana" and she'd replay and do what ever I had commanded. I thought simply to say that I did I would replace the cpu and try one last time. If that failed which I was sure that it would it was going to be parted out and sold to try to recoup some of the money I had dumped into this things. So I ordered a factory i7 740qm from ebay and installed it today. That's all I did. Disassembled it, swapped out the processors and did a quick boot test before re-assembly. OH MY GOD PICTURE ON MY G73!! Haha. It worked. Was the damn cpu this whole time! Just a heads up to others that I am positive will run into this problem and be every bit as frustrated as me. Even if it is acting completely normal and you are absolutely POSITIVE that the processor could no way be bad or the cause of the black screen. Don't assume that. Change it anyway. Because after everything I've done and believe me when I tell you I have done everything you can find on the internet about the black screen fix, this hole time I could have spent 30 dollars on ebay and an hour of my time and been up and running again. Don't exclude anything through the process of elimination regardless of your certainty that it is not bad. So all black screen fellas out there, if you've replaced the gpu and maybe even the motherboard and are stuck wondering why you got a black screen. If you still can't get external screen to work after replacing your graphics card, immediately go to the processor and switch that out. If your gpu is good , even if your screen or lvds cable is bad, you will get picture on an external screen. If you don't change the cpu and take a breath of relief. thanks for the help from the few that responded and I hope that my nightmare becomes a dream for someone else that takes the time to read this. Thanks you.

[Julskey]

"...Even if it is acting completely normal and you are absolutely POSITIVE that the processor could no way be bad or the cause of the black screen. Don't assume that. Change it anyway..."

That is true. As the saying goes, "Never assume anything, or else you make an ASS of U and ME."

Glad you got it working. Woohoo! good job.