G73JH Hardware Problem (Video Card) Help

[Raging_Flapjack]

As of about 5 days ago, my laptop gives me blue screens. The blue screens only occur when I pick up the laptop a certain way and move it (esp. If i have to move it from the couch to the coffee table). I will get a BCCode 124 which seems to be video card related, and all the solutions I find online have to do with usually a video display driver of some sort. Well, from how the blue screen is triggered, it does not sound to me that it is software related. It almost feels like there is something loose inside my laptop and just moving it causes to lose connection and triggers a BSOD.

Also sometimes after this occurs, when I power my laptop back on, the LED lights and CPU fan will spin, but the GPU fan does not spin and the display does not turn on.

So the only way for me to really use this laptop right now is to leave it stationary without ever moving it while in use. Sometimes moving it very very slowly and carefully works fine, but it's a pain. I've been trying to isolate down whether it is a certain part of the laptop I hold that causes it or the angle it is being held, but I'm unable to reproduce it this way. I've never dropped it and have always babied it.

If anyone knows the best solution for me, please help me. I am a tech at my current job, but I deal with mostly software issues, and the hardware issues I deal with are on desktops. Normally I would reseat the video card and check the connections, but it definitely doesn't look nearly as easy on this laptop, even after watching YouTube videos. I've never taken apart a laptop other than upgrading my RAM and putting in a new SSD. I'm out of warranty and prefer not sending it in to ASUS, especially if it's not really the video card that is bad, but something really simple anyone can tell me. Please help me! Thanks!

[dstrakele]

I think you have a good understanding of what is causing your issue and what needs to be done to resolve it. Others have reported resolving similar issues (black screen on startup) by cleaning the contact pins and reseating the GPU.

Since you are no longer under warranty, a qualified local shop could do the job, probably for significantly less than ASUS would charge you. The fresh repaste from doing the job will also result in lower GPU temperatures.

[Raging_Flapjack]

Thanks for the quick reply. I will definitely look into the idea of any local shops that can perform this for me. Any known shops
or franchises anyone know of? I'm in central fl Orlando area.

[dstrakele]

I'd give Google Maps "Search Nearby" feature a go using "computer repair" and read the reviews.

Alternatively, you could pose the question in a relevant forum on Notebook Review Forums. I've seen computer repair shop folks post there.

[DurbanPoison]

Hi, please note the following quote from my post in this thread:

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2329-ATTENTION-G73-53SW-Owners-CPU-Throttling-to-798mhz-and...

DurbanPoison wrote:
I also want to mention my brother has an Asus G73JH notebook which had temperatures that soared up to 114'C causing the laptop to continually shutdown as the gpu's internal threshold temp had been reached. I fixed this issue by updating both the Bios and VBios of the machine. The temperature now reaches a maximum of 84'C using Kombuster and the shutdown issue has been solved. I should mention that at this temperature no GPU throttling takes place.

What I didn't mention there was that the notebook continually had BSOD issues, display driver BSOD's that took place when trying to update the video card drivers. I suspected bad RAM along with the overheating issues primarily until I researched the G73JH and read about the issues relating to the vBios and default Bios of that notebook.

Have you tried updating any or either of these?

[dstrakele]

Those are good firmware resolutions for specific software issues, but are unlikely to resolve an issue caused by physical pressure to the case of a laptop when it is moved.

[DurbanPoison]

dstrakele wrote:
Those are good firmware resolutions for specific software issues, but are unlikely to resolve an issue caused by physical pressure to the case of a laptop when it is moved.

Sure, but I would certainly research the avenue a little - particularly as he mentions boot up issues, and gpu related ones too

You'd be surprised how many (hardware & software) issues were solved on that notebook by updating the Bios and vBios and I would think its a worth taking a peek into if you're going to be troubleshooting regardless 😉

[dstrakele]

Can you document where the "boot to a black screen" issue is permanently resolved by any firmware or software update? And I mean permanent black screen, not a slow boot with an extended interval of no video before the desktop is displayed.

I'd like to recommend a software fix for it. I've just never come across any...

[Raging_Flapjack]

Thanks for the advice guys. So far I just wanted to give you guys an update about my laptop. I haven't had time to take it into a shop or try to take the laptop apart, but the issue has stopped happening so far for the past 2 days. I have even been picking it up and moving it around and the BSOD has not been reoccuring. I'm going to keep an eye on it to see if it comes back.

[Raging_Flapjack]

I spoke too soon... The issue reoccured just now, however I think I have isolated it down further. When the issue reoccured, I picked up the laptop a bit differently than usual. If I pick it up from the back side at all where the vent/fans are, the issue seems to reoccur just about every time. When I pick it up from the sides, it seems to be fine. The back side plastic where the vents and the fans blow air out felt a little loose. I have tightened the screws on the case to see if that helps but it doesn't look like it does. The plastic vents still feel loose though on both sides. Not sure if that matters.