Sometimes Asus x50vl does not boot

[McLaren]

Hello,

I am now carrying my laptop to job and home everyday. But everytime I am back from job, it does not boot right away. At first I thought it might be because of winter, and one day it was even -27 degrees celcius. So I thought maybe for temperatyre difference. But now its -10 probably outside. Never had problem related to coldness outside and booting laptop.

Later I accidentally found that taking my laptop in the hands and moving it little bit lets him boot.

I mean when I pres power on button, I hear the fan, hear the cd-rom sounds, and HDD light is lighting for few seconds, turning of and lighting again periodically, the same with cd-rom. No text or other graphics on screen.

My laptop is about 5 years old.

Also I see near the battery icon in windows tray - when mouse over - it writes consider replacing battery. But that makes no sense for me - I use the power cable. Also I tried removing battery totaly, in case he tries to get power from battery, not directly from cable. But this does not help.

But I googled and saw posts about bad batteries. Actually the good battery is so expensive and the laptop is old, I am not big fan of buying a new battery. But at first it would be interesting to figure out where the actuall problem comes from. Ideally I could borrom a battery from someone who has asus laptop, but, I don't know such people near me who I could ask.

[techsheaven]

The most common issue, is the power jack and/or the power adapter. Make sure the jack (socket) is not loose inside the computer; they often have broken solder, or are broken from someone tripping over the cord. Also, check that the plug is the correct one for the laptop, and fits snuggly. Sometimes the wires can be broken inside the insulation in such a way they the connect intermittently. Again, this is usually caused by someone tripping over the cord. Sometimes the wires are damaged by twisting them too much.

If your laptop has an indicator on the front that lights when it is off and plugged in, try gently wiggling the plug in the socket and see if the light blinks. You could also bend the cord to see if the is an internal break. Also, be sure the high voltage cable is plugged tightly into the power adapter "brick."

If you can get the power light to come on, and stay on, try charging your battery with the power off over night. In the morning, make sure the light is still on (though it will have likely turned from amber to green). Start the laptop, and verify that the battery is at 100%. Disconnect the power cord, an allow it to discharge until it reaches less than 20%. Charge and discharge it 10-20 times. This is called exercising a battery. Keeping a laptop plugged in causes some batteries to develop a memory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_effect

And low temps can affect batteries and electronics, so allow a cold computer to acclimate before plugging it in or using it.

Good Luck

[techsheaven]

Another note:

I mentioned some ways you could check the power cord, to verify where the problem lies. PLEASE fix the problem when you find it... LOOSE CONNECTIONS CAUSE FIRES!!!
I have seen people wrap tape, string etc. around cords and plugs to keep them working, rather than fixing or replacing the part.

Write back to let us know what you find out. I want to help you fix it right.

Good Luck

[McLaren]

thank you very much for help. yeah, I think it also migtht be the power problem, so as I understood there might be short circuit problem. I have been replaced the head of the cable becasue the original one ws broken. After that I have replaced it again (not me exactly, but my fried who has electronics skills). But maybe this head could be partly broken again, I will try to move it later, now the computer is working after half of an hour trying to start it, so I have work to do.

But with the batter - for me does not make sence - because my laptop can even work without battery, but it does not work always now. How can you explain that? Only the broken power cable head would make sence.

[techsheaven]

Charging the battery, and running the computer is a huge demand on the power adapter; some will automatically shut off. If you have other external devices connected, the demand is even greater - often beyond what the adapter can put out.

I often see this problem on computers where the power adapter is old, wires damaged, or it has been replaced with one that has a lower output amperage. For best results, you should buy a new adapter with the same voltage rating and the same(or higher)amperage rating. They are under $20(USD)!!!

Running a laptop under perfect conditions without the battery, is ok. With a intermittent connection on your power adapter, the battery becomes more important to prevent data corruption and/or hard drive failure.

Good Luck

[mjdodd]

It is worth actually looking at the temp range of chips

A long time ago I ran a network in a school where the average temp in winter was below 0°
All of us froze but even more suffering by the computers!
If you are working in low temps computers do NOT work well (or even boot) bring to normal room temps before starting.

m

[McLaren]

I also start to think - maybe the power socked is not in the best state. This can be posible, right? Ok, I will have this in mind, or reread what you wrote. But 20$ for me is not that cheap when I don't know if this will help 100% . Also the power adapter is much easier to check does it gives the power using some measurement tools, and if the head is broke, replacing with new one is also not that expensive if the friend can do that.

The tougher problem could be the socked, if it does not connect well I guess.

Edit: the room is warm enough, for sure. And if I want to look at temperature of chips, I first have to boot the computer, so after booting, they will fastly warm up.

[techsheaven]

You did not say what model. Some Toshibas have a Jack (socket) like this one:
http://www.ny-shop.us/DC-Cable-Jack-Harness/DC-JACK-POWER-SOCKET-CABLE-TOSHIBA-C655-S5082.html
You may be able to borrow an adapter to verify that the jack is OK. Again, make sure it fits snugly, and the volts and mAmps are correct (mAmps may be higher, but not lower).

Good Luck

[McLaren]

the model is X5VL

yeha, it would be good to borrow an adapted, but now I don't kwno who from. Unless I would go to computer repair store, but then again they might want money, and not play with me - either they repair or not. I want to sort it out cheaply :)

Actually what I didn't tell yet - my current one fits not that well, its litlle bit hard to plug in, but its alreadly like the whole year and it worked well. Becasue when I bouth the head, the seller gave me it and I didin't check how it fits, I gave him the laptop, so he checked himself, and I didn't think that I could not fit that well so just bought it and repaired my adapter

[McLaren]

today it does not start again. And in the ofice I found there is an adapter from lenvovo laptop, with the same volts and ampers output as my. So I tried using it - nothing changed, even the head fits well. So the problem is not the adapter I guess.

[McLaren]

hi, in the repair store they told me that mothearboard is broken, so I am now thinking about buying new laptop, because repair and the motherboard might cost about 100$. So maybe I am buing new cheap laptop, there will be DDR3 ram, bigger HDD better graphics card than of this laptop.

Because I am afraid a little bit - my motherboard has been already replaced few years ago.

[techsheaven]

A Lenovo should be exactly the same as yours as far as the specs I can see online:
110vAC
19v
3.42A

So I would look at this:
http://www.amazon.com/POWER-JACK-ASUS-X50R-X50VL/dp/B005Z7AUNU

As you can see, the construction is cheap; these break all the time. They are easy to solder on. The worst part is disassembling the entire Laptop, but it is a cheap fix (about $5 with shipping)!

I think you will find out your battery works after is gets a full charge.

As far as soldering goes, I would use a solder wick. There are solder-suckers out there, but they can be tricky to use. Use a thin rosin-core solder. Heat the connections and let them melt the solder, and work as quickly as you can so you don't damage the board or new jack. The biggest mistake rookies make is to melt the solder and let it drip on cold components. When they do that, it won't stick well.

http://www.ehow.com/video_4435740_use-solder-wick-remove-solder.html

Good Luck

[McLaren]

thanks, but I think you misunderstood me :) after diagnostics - the motherboard is broken

[techsheaven]

Usually, it is just the jack (socket); a component on the mainboard. If that's all it is, it can be fixed.

[McLaren]

yeah, but they said that they tested, you think they could lie me?

[techsheaven]

No, they are correct, the motherboard is broken... the DC Jack (socket) is part of the motherboard!!! Most PC repair shops don't want to fool with such repairs because they are time-consuming. The entire machine needs to be disassembled. This problem is VERY common; I have fixed hundreds of them.

[McLaren]

the DC Jack (socket) is part of the motherboard!!!

:D yeah, thats true :) but the laptop is disasebled already, I saw it myself, so the time is already spent for disasebling.

I cannot say this is is 100% true, because I didn't listen too carefully, but I think they said that socket itself is ok and the motherboard is broken, most likely the reason was dust and hard thermal compound. They said you need to disaseble laptop from time to time to clean the dust and change the thermal compound. I would clean the dust, but I was afraid to brake something by disasembling myself, so I only cleaned the one part of laptop - near the fan.

So now I don't know - is it worth to say them that I don't need new motheearnboard and give me dissasembled laptop, so maybe my friend could change the socket, (not sure yet if he would do that).

Actually they already took money for diagnostics, so I mean I already paided for time consuming disasembling. So they should be kind and say the true reason if I pay them for this.

[techsheaven]

I was just reviewing our posts, and realized I asked the model when it was in the title! Oops... Anyway, if the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) itself is broken, it's looking grim... I would bring the board to an electronics shop and see what they recommend. A bad MOBO is usually a Notebook killer. They usually cost about $150 and that's a long way toward a new laptop.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-F5VL-X50VL-Motherboard-p-n-08G2005FL20J-REV-2-0-/140641415418?pt=Motherboards&hash=item20bee1b0fa
(I don't know if that is yours, just an example)

[McLaren]

It should be not your mentioned motherboard

Asus F5VL X50VL

it is X5VL as I remember. They said that the repair including diagnostics and motherboard will cost 95$