G750jx doesn't POST, with drive and WiFi lights flashing [Solved]

[008Irata]

>SOLVED<

Getting posting access on the forums took a few days, so I already contacted Customer Service about this (see below).
Their advice was to do a hardware reset (already tried to no effect), then RMA it.
It's been a very nice machine for the past couple years, but this sudden decline worries me about the build quality.
I don't know what the repair cost might be, and am wondering if I should save the money for a replacement.

[Product Information]
Product Type : Notebook
Product Model : G750JX
Place of Purchase : TigerDirect.com
Date of Purchase : 2014/02/08
Operating System : Windows 8.1 64bit

[Problem Description]
Laptop does not POST when power button is pressed. The power button is lit but the
display is black (no backlight); the power indicator and numlock LEDs are lit, and the
drive and WiFi LEDs are flashing.The laptop came with Win8, which I upgraded to
8.1 Pro in April or May 2014. It came with a 750GB SSHD; last year I added a 500GB
BX100 SSD and repurposed the original drive for storage. The computer worked fine
through all of these changes. Recently, I decided to recover wasted drive space by
eliminating the hibernation/Fast Start and minimize the swapfile. That is when the
current problem started. At first the behavior described only persisted for a few
minutes, then the computer would start and operate normally. I tried reversing my
hibernation and swapfile changes, but the problem continued. The non-POSTing
state before start continued to get longer. Now it stays in that state for hours if I let it,
and never reaches startup.

[Gps3dx]

008Irata wrote:
Now it stays in that state for hours if I let it,
and never reaches startup.

thus your thread title is misleading and it isn't POST issue at all.
POST is, according to wiki

(Power-On Self-Test) is the diagnostic testing sequence that a computer's basic input/output system (or "starting program") runs to determine if the computer keyboard, random access memory, disk drives, and other hardware are working correctly

if you can enter your BIOS's menues and boot-selection menu by pressing ESC during POST -> thus your POST is just fine.
i.e you don't have a problem with main HW component like Motherboard/ram/CPU, and your BIOS chip with the BIOS ( UEFI nowadays ) is fine.

The problem you describe about "hibernation/Fast Start and minimize the swapfile" is PROBABLY the cause, thus it is OS dependent issue. ( which is GOOD NEWS as it is a SOFTWARE issue, NOT HW, thus you don't need to RMA ).
I assume here you can run tools from USB to check and rule-out any issue with HW state of HDD/SSD ( please do so, to have a better understanding of the core of your issue .... search for "hiren boot disk" or any other disk checkup tools that can be run from USB ).

please use your current windows version ( guess its win8.1 by the info you left ) ISO on USB / installation DISK to enter recovery environments and run "sfc /scannow" in CMD with admin privileges, to check your system's core integrity.
if that turns out to be 100% ok and problem persist, try to see if you had any "system restore points" before you made those changes and revert your OS back to that state.
Also, i'm sure you can search the web to change your windows bootloader to be the "legacy kind" that support the "press F8 key" just prior to windows loadup, so it will enable you to enter SAFE MODE more easily.
Under safe mode, try to conduct again "sfc /scannow" or/and change any parameter you've changed before ( because the system restore might NOT restored that specific config you've changed ).

also, in safemode, open "event log" and look for any hint that might tell you/us the source of the problem.

good luck.

[008Irata]

Oh, would that it were so...

No. In my experience, one of the first things that happen upon POST is that the display comes on. Not the case
here, neither the laptop's own display, nor an external monitor.
No, I can't enter BIOS/UEFI or a boot menu by pressing ESC, or any other key. As far as I can tell, the power button
is the only one that does anything: it turns on, and holding it a while turns off. The optical drive's button doesn't
release the drawer, either.
Putting a bootable DVD is the drive does nothing when the laptop is turned on. Likewise, my USB recovery drive
does nothing; it doesn't even light up.
I tried pulling out my boot SSD and turning on; there was no change in behavior whatsoever. If the OS was messing
things up, I should expect that to have some effect.

I'm not sure if there is a code pattern to the lights flashing. As long as power is on the power button, numlock
indicator LED and power LED glow steady. The light on the optical drive flashes a steady rhythm. The battery LED
is off if the AC plug is pulled out, on if it is plugged in (orange or green depending on whether it is charging).
When the power switches on, the drive activity LED is off and the WiFi LED flashes a steady rate. After a few cycles of
the WiFi LED, the drive activity LED flashes, then again, then settles into a rapid double-flash of drive activity LED
alternating with the WiFi LED.

[Gps3dx]

@008Irata - oh, ok... so with that new info your provided, it is indeed seems as BIOS or HW malfunction.

have you tried to disconnect ALL of the HDD/SSD from the laptop ? even the CD caddy might cause "panic" behavior.
so please try to disconnect them from the laptop and try to see if you can enter the BIOS.

if that doesn't work, try to take out ALL the RAM sticks, clean them with ethanol(alcohol)/isopropyl alcohol and make sure there isn't any dust in the ram socket when you return them. ( I hope you can access to all of the RAM sticks in your model through only one back door, without the need to open-up the laptop in such a way that will cancel warranty, if you still got one )

also, try try to vacuum carefully any dust you can observe, as dusk can cause short circuit and odd behavior ( one day i'd spent ~half day with some stationary computer try to figure out the random BSOD and then its unwillingness to even POST... just because of dust ).

Last thing that I would do it to try to enforce a BIOS reflash ( aka emergency flash ), as it might got currupt for some unknown reason.
Please follow the following threads to understand how to perform such action, with the right BIOS for your unique G750 model of course:
One, Two, Three - optional: four ( BUT change the content of the autoexec.bat with your bios name ).

I This will help you.

[008Irata]

SUCCESS!

Opening it up and pulling out drives got me nowhere, but the BIOS flash did. I downloaded the latest version
G750JXAS209.zip. This extracted to a file G750JXAS.207, which I copied to a flash drive as G750JXAS.BIN.
Flash drive inserted, I held down Ctrl+Home and pressed the power button. This got some activity: the flash drive
lit up and flashed several times... then the laptop went back to its usual flashing drive activity and WiFi LEDs.
I recalled that the referenced forum threads mentioned multiple possible names for the BIOS update file,
so I renamed the file to G750JX.BIN and tried again. This time the flashing of the drive was followed by the
display and keyboard lighting up, and the BIOS image was loaded.
After restart, the computer came up like normal.

[s3r4ph]

008Irata wrote:
SUCCESS!

Opening it up and pulling out drives got me nowhere, but the BIOS flash did. I downloaded the latest version
G750JXAS209.zip. This extracted to a file G750JXAS.207, which I copied to a flash drive as G750JXAS.BIN.
Flash drive inserted, I held down Ctrl+Home and pressed the power button. This got some activity: the flash drive
lit up and flashed several times... then the laptop went back to its usual flashing drive activity and WiFi LEDs.
I recalled that the referenced forum threads mentioned multiple possible names for the BIOS update file,
so I renamed the file to G750JX.BIN and tried again. This time the flashing of the drive was followed by the
display and keyboard lighting up, and the BIOS image was loaded.
After restart, the computer came up like normal.

Remember to rename the file to G750JX.BIN.... Thanks for sharing the info. Got mine back up and running!!!