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Dead motherboard | Asus Z92t

Buzhidao Posted messages 187 Status Member -  
Tarzan12 Posted messages 5 Status Member -
Hello,
a few weeks ago, the motherboard of my dear little Asus Z92t (Fnac model identical to the A6T or something like that) has died. All components have been checked, no failure could be found even after checking the contacts. Hence the idea that it is the motherboard that is at stake. Apparently, many people have experienced the same symptoms as I have: the screen remains black, the LEDs work fine, but there is no access to the hard drive.
Anyway, I would like to repair it, but I'm not too sure where to turn.
Returning to Fnac? Too expensive, about as much as buying a new laptop.
My laptop repair guy says he can't do anything.
Does anyone know a good plan? Ordering parts from Asus? Or websites that are specialized in spare parts? Used computers, or even ones that are broken? Ideally, I would like to get a shell and cannibalize it...
To consider: I bought an old second-hand computer, so I'm not in a hurry; I can wait if it saves me money.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
Configuration: Windows XP Firefox 3.0

26 answers

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  1. Tarzan12 Posted messages 5 Status Member 44
     
    Hello,

    I had the same problem: I could hear the laptop (Asus K75VJ) starting up, but the screen remained black (however, the backlight was working, and the port for the second screen was also functional). The ribbon cable connecting the screen to the motherboard had come loose on both ends due to the repeated opening and closing of the screen. I opened everything up, reconnected it properly, and it's up and running again...
    34
  2. Un passant
     
    Thank you to PC97 for your BIOS tip.

    I just revived one thanks to his BIOS trick.

    "Knowledge is only valuable if it is shared by all"

    Long live the TEAM
    32
    1. Kallya
       
      Hello!
      I'm adding my two cents to the Asus story: I own an Asus 73SW, a gaming laptop that costs 1400 € ... Quite the investment, and as a graphic design student, I bought it to work on my photo edits and illustrations. But for almost 6 months now, I've only had issues: overheating, artifacts, frozen screen, graphical bugs, fn key disconnecting, and now for the past week, a black screen ... The laptop turns on, I can hear the hard drive spinning, but there's no sign of life from the screen, and after countless calls to Asus customer service (with a rather shaky French, you’d think I was calling Orange ...), I was told "your warranty has expired, I’ll send you a form for repair but I can't tell you the costs"
      Uh, I'm not a billionaire, and on top of that, in their form, they come to pick up the beast from your place and keep the laptop for two weeks or more if needed :)
      I'm going to look for a new laptop, but not from Asus which has disappointed me horrendously :(
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  3. Z92t une arnaque ?
     
    Hello,

    I have the same problem as you; after a year of using the computer, I got a black screen. After sending it to customer service, it worked very well again, but a year later, black screen again and the computer is no longer under warranty. The video card thus has a lifespan of one year, which indicates a manufacturing defect considering all the posts attesting to the same issue.
    Why not come together to assert our consumer rights?
    11
  4. pc297
     
    Buzhidao, just out of curiosity, if you haven't totally given up on your z92t, when you start it, how many times do the diodes flash?
    For a z92t that starts normally, you have the following sequence:
    3 short flashes, pause, 1 long flash, pause, then 1 long flash.

    In fact, following my last post, I bought a z92t motherboard for parts on eBay, which didn’t start but flashed 3 times, plus pause, then only 1 long flash. It took me a while to realize that it was the BIOS that had somehow become corrupted, as when I added a CD drive, it seemed to be desperately looking for something at startup, but the screen was black. So to restore the BIOS, I did the following procedure:

    Download the latest BIOS from ASUS (708)

    Unzip

    Rename the BIOS to A6T.ROM

    Burn only this file onto a CD

    Insert the CD, start the computer, and press F4 several times (the emergency BIOS flashing key), which resulted in activity from the CD drive

    The PC then automatically rebooted, and the miracle happened, I saw a lovely little "ASUS" appear!!!

    I was inspired by this site: https://www.notebookforums.com/ which says:

    "Yehp, that is the BIOS flash. It needs to have a CD with the A6T.ROM on it. I had the file misnamed, and saw the erasing and was scared, but it ended up just using my old BIOS. Once I burned a new disc with the correct BIOS, the 'F4' flash rewrote the BIOS with the newer one.

    If I were you, I would use another computer and go to the ASUS website and get the latest BIOS for the A6T, or get the Beta driver from gentechpc. (Ken can be of great help.)

    Hopefully the F4 still works for you.

    -Chuck"

    Good luck, I hope this can help you

    Pierre
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  6. Orlulas
     
    Hello,
    My Z92T has also failed with the same symptoms as everyone else (black screen at startup). Therefore, I propose the following: what if we send a petition to Asus so that they compensate us for the troubles caused?
    Knowing that the motherboard of my machine had already been changed once!
    Otherwise, if anyone is interested, I am selling the machine either as a whole or for parts (for those who need another component other than the motherboard =D).
    Best regards, Orlulas.
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    1. GYOM
       
      I'm on board for the petition. A PC costing €1200 that lasts 2 years and 2 months :/
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    2. Z92t une arnaque ?
       
      Me too, we need to assert our consumer rights; a PC with a lifespan of one year... that's not great, especially at €1200.
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    3. z92t une arnaque ?
       
      I wrote to Asus support to explain the problem and let them know that many of us are suffering from the same issue, here is their response:

      Hello sir,

      Asus has not declared any hidden defect on PCs equipped with N-vidia graphics cards, so the repair cannot be covered under warranty.

      Sincerely,

      I will write to 60 million consumers, we need to gather on a forum with all the people who have a z92t with this black screen, or who have their graphics card defective.
      Because this is not normal.
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  7. Tassadit
     
    Hello everyone, personally I couldn't find a solution so I had to contact Asus support at this website http://support.asus.com/default.aspx?SLanguage=en-us. I wrote to them and described the problem, then I sent them my computer, they gave me a quote and repaired it, now everything works, good luck to everyone and Happy New Year!
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    1. gyom
       
      Hello Tassadit, could you please let us know the total cost of the repair? Thank you and happy new year to everyone.
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  8. pc297
     
    FOR DIY ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT AFRAID: FIXING YOUR MOTHERBOARD IN THE OVEN!!

    Here’s a technique that can yield results (note that it actually worked for me for 3 weeks before giving up the ghost permanently). It’s based on the “oven trick” that works for the Nvidia 7XXX/8XXX graphics card series (link: https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/606658-THE-OVEN-TRICK-WORKED I tried it for my z92t and was astonished when I saw “ASUS” on the screen after the process!!!

    It may come as a surprise to some, but this is the standard procedure used in factories to solder components to the motherboard... It’s called reflowing.

    1) Remove the hard drive, CD drive, battery, RAM, CPU, mini PCI card, keyboard, etc...

    2) Completely disassemble your asus Z92T/Tc/A6T/Tc, remove all screws (trying to remember where they go, I always end up with extra screws but that’s fine ;)), take off the upper plastic and the screen by disconnecting everything, remove connectors from the motherboard (including the cardbus port), the battery, the fan, the heatsink, remove the motherboard and take off the PVC covers and as much plastic as possible. Count on a good 1/2 hour to 3/4 hour.

    3) Preheat your oven to 200°C for at least 15 minutes. Optionally check the temperature with a thermal probe if you have one.

    4) While it heats up, take a sheet of aluminum foil and place it on the rack of your oven (previously removed).

    5) Take another sheet of aluminum foil and make four balls about 1 cm high.

    6) Place the aluminum balls on the foil on your rack and place your motherboard UPSIDE DOWN (the video chip facing down, explanations later)

    7) Check that the motherboard is horizontal, about 1 cm above the rack, adjust it and the aluminum balls if necessary

    8) Bake your motherboard for 8-10 minutes (watch out for convection heat, 5 minutes max). Leave the kitchen during this time because I guarantee that hot plastics + components smell awful!

    10) Take out the motherboard and let it cool to room temperature (about 1/2 hour)

    11) Reassemble everything and if you are lucky like me you will see “ASUS” on the screen!! Instead of reassembling everything to check if it worked, you can just reconnect the screen and power supply and turn it on for a moment by pressing the power button (the top one on the right of the motherboard). That’s what I did!!

    Anyway, this is no joke!!
    In fact, here are a few explanations: the NVIDIA 7XXX/8XXX tend to overheat (a flaw recognized by Nvidia) so in a laptop, I can’t tell you...

    By putting it upside down while heating and leaving 1 cm between the motherboard and the rack to allow hot air to circulate well, you re-melt the contacts of the motherboard to the graphics card and reconnect them!!

    It’s not forever though, the PC first lasted 2 days then broke down again, I put it back in the oven, it worked again but only lasted 3 weeks for me and didn’t work the third time. I even installed Windows 7 x64 (had quite a struggle finding all the drivers, use those from Vista 64-bit for the Z92Tc on the asus site) and played quite a few games of Far Cry and Stalker, the PC was 100% usable during all that time... Before letting me down. Well, maybe you’ll have better luck than me!! One piece of advice: put thermal paste on the graphics card (and maybe also on the chipset) and install the latest BIOS (BIOS 708), it runs the fan more often. I was planning to do that the day before the PC’s final death!! Good luck!!
    And do be careful not to catch fire, I’m not responsible for your possible misfortunes!! And then wait a bit before baking a pizza in the oven hehe;)

    Feel free to ask me any questions!!!
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    1. tenevas Posted messages 35 Status Member 1
       
      Hello
      Exactly. I have an 8-year-old Packard Bell and one day, the screen went black and it takes about ten attempts to start. But with the next restart or update, you have to turn it off and on again, it's ruined; you have to spend another 10 minutes to get a working PC. I opened it, disassembled as much as possible, like 2 hard drives, etc., and covered the rest with aluminum as much as possible to expose only the strict minimum to the oven. 10 minutes at 180 degrees and my PC gets a second youth.
      According to professionals, it "melts" old solder and repairs it.
      But on the other hand, this has a rather short lifespan. For me, about two months or so. After that, I suppose that one day it won't withstand this torture anymore and it will give out. But repairs could cost more than the PC is worth right now. And taking 15 minutes for startup and restarts is honestly exhausting. Don’t do this with a PC under warranty, of course. But it definitely works.

      --
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  9. odile
     
    Hello,
    I have exactly the same problem and Asus is not honest because I believe it's a defect on their part as I've seen many people online who have had the same issue.
    I took the warranty extension. I brought the laptop back right at the start
    to change it, and after 3 years and 6 months, 6 months after the extension, it's happened again. I'm furious; it's not normal that Asus doesn’t offer its customers low-cost motherboards for such expensive laptops.
    A friend of mine also bought an Asus and had to return it 2 times in less than a year for the motherboard as well.
    If you have a good address, please be kind and pass it along.
    Thank you in advance.
    Best regards, Odile.
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  10. le pro du pc Posted messages 144 Registration date   Status Member 13
     
    Well, listen, I don't have a laptop and at most, I have a recent one.
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    1. Buzhidao Posted messages 187 Status Member 78
       
      uh yeah thanks... but I don't understand anything. Well, if you're advising me to buy something new, the problem is that if it's not the right model, it will never work.
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  11. Tototff06
     
    Hello everyone?

    I have an Asus Z83T that I bought at FNAC, and the motherboard failed three weeks before the warranty expired.
    My computer would turn on but wouldn't display anything.

    Now the DVD drive is not working anymore, but I no longer have a warranty, so I'm looking for a used or new one at a reasonable price... not easy...

    It also shows some strange signs of fatigue, let me explain:

    When I turn it on, the fan starts running (loud) and then turns off after 3 seconds without displaying anything.
    Sometimes I have to insist ten times before it starts normally.

    Does anyone else have the same problem as me, or is it just due to the faulty DVD drive?

    Thank you for your responses.
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  12. le pro du pc Posted messages 144 Registration date   Status Member 13
     
    You can try it on Surcouf, it's an online store.
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    1. Buzhidao Posted messages 187 Status Member 78
       
      Thank you, but I may have forgotten to mention, it's a laptop, and I don't believe that the usual online retailers sell motherboards for old laptops... at least not Surcouf, I've checked.
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  13. Mél
     
    Hello,

    I have the same laptop (ASUS Z92T) as you. I bought it a little over 2 years ago and it just broke: the screen stays black, the Caps Lock light... lights up. I went to see a computer repair technician, and he tells me that the motherboard is dead...
    I know someone who bought the same laptop as us around the same time I did, and his laptop just broke too.
    He has the same problem as us.
    It must be an ASUS issue.....
    When did you buy your laptop?

    Have a good evening.
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    1. Buzhidao Posted messages 187 Status Member 78
       
      I bought it around June 2006. Many people have had the same issue with this computer. It must be a recurring problem.
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      1. Mahad > Buzhidao Posted messages 187 Status Member
         
        hi
        I just saw your messages and I wanted to tell you that I also bought my PC in 2006 (September to be exact!) and I've just run into this problem...

        I don't know what to do... but based on your messages, I think it's a problem with Asus too....
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  14. Lubo
     
    Hi everyone

    Well, guess what? I also have a Z92T and I've had a nice black screen for a week.
    I also want to fix it. I have a friend who advises against doing it; he told me to buy another one, but once you've tasted the Z92T, you can't live without it.
    Just for your information, I bought it in July 2007 at Metro, it's an end-of-series model, so I think it dates from the same period as yours.
    I have a friend who is an electronics engineer; I will pass it on to him.
    I'll keep you updated.
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    1. LUVI
       
      Just to say that I have the same problem, faulty graphics card on a Z92T laptop purchased at FNAC in 2006.
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  15. Ivan
     
    Hello everyone,

    I am experiencing exactly the same problem with an ASUS Z92T Ap010H purchased in July 2006 at SURCOUF.

    Do you know of a website that could centralize and defend our interests?
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  16. Mahad
     
    Good evening everyone

    I fixed my PC!!! My PC had a graphics card issue...

    I repaired my PC in Montgalet for 120 euros so there you go ^^

    Have a good evening
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    1. kadi
       
      Hello Mahad,

      Could you explain what the repair consisted of? Indeed, I am encountering a similar problem with an Asus Z92T purchased in September 2006 (black screen on startup although the hard drive access LED lights up).
      I suppose names of shops or addresses where you had your PC repaired cannot be given on the site.
      In any case, thanks for the information; now we know where to look roughly :)
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    2. osauviat Posted messages 1 Status Member
       
      Hello Mahad, can you tell me who you went to in Montgallet because it's very difficult to find someone to fix this kind of problem? Thanks in advance.
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    3. Tassadit
       
      Hello, where is Montgalet?
      For a few days now, I haven't been able to start my Z83M computer with the power button; I have to try several times to get it to turn on, but it doesn't stay on long, it turns off by itself, and I don't know where the problem comes from! I took it to a technician in my town, but according to him, there's nothing to be done; it comes from the motherboard. So can you direct me to the nearest Asus repair service, please, in Essonne, and tell me how much it costs and if it's really the motherboard that's the issue? I wanted to let you know that I can't take it to my dealer since its warranty has expired, and can I extend it? Thank you for your help and guidance;
      Happy New Year!
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    4. gyom
       
      Hi, I just had the same issue as you with my Asus Z92T and I would like to repair it, so could you give me the address in Montgallet please? And do you have a warranty?
      Thanks
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  17. juleswood Posted messages 7 Status Member
     
    Hello everyone,

    are you talking about a problem where you turn on the computer, the keyboard LEDs light up and the computer shuts down immediately?
    If so, I also had this problem in October 2008 but since I bought my laptop in November 2006, it was still under warranty. The problem came from the motherboard and it was replaced by ASUS.

    Otherwise, xfiles123, how much did your repair cost?

    Julien
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    1. Tassadit
       
      Hello,
      did you have it repaired through your dealer or with the Asus warranty return agreement? I would like to know a little more about it and how to proceed since I just received the agreement and I also want to know how much the motherboard repair cost you, thank you.
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  18. Wuhrkal Posted messages 16 Status Member 1
     
    Hello,

    I have the same problem as many of you with my Z92T: when I turn it on, it tests the drives and then shuts down (it lasts a total of 1.5 seconds and the screen remains black)

    The laptop was purchased new in July 2006 (warranty expired, so :'( )

    Does anyone have any updates on possible diagnostics/repairs??

    Thank you
    0
    1. Tassadit
       
      I have the same problem with my Z83M PC. I contacted Asus support at 0821.23.27.87 or by email using the form available at
      https://www.asus.com/support/Product/ContactUs/Services/questionform

      Step
      1. Contact Asus: https://rma.asus-europe.eu

      I advise you to contact them by phone like I did; I received no response by email, so they indicated the steps to follow (return my PC for repair to them is more reliable)

      Step
      2. Pickup and return: https://rma.asus-europe.eu

      The next steps after return... good luck to everyone, and if you have any other solutions, we are here, we’re waiting for that.
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  19. Wuhrkal Posted messages 16 Status Member 1
     
    We'll wait for you to hear new information from Asus...

    On your link, I didn't find any prices for returns outside of warranty. Do you have any idea what that might cost? (Someone mentioned €150 previously, and I think that’s too much for me...)
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    1. Tassadit
       
      They talked to me about €50, I'll check, I haven't received the return form yet. Personally, I prefer €150 even if it's expensive, rather than someone scamming me or completely ruining it, especially since it's no longer under warranty. See you!
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    2. Tassadit
       
      Here is the response I received regarding my issue with ASUS Technical Support online (by email) if it can help someone:

      You should try to completely reinstall the operating system; for this, there are two solutions:

      Reinstalling WINDOWS will result in the loss of all data located on the C: and D: drive partitions. "PLEASE BACK UP YOUR DATA"

      1st solution:
      Turn on the laptop, please insert Windows with our CDs provided with the laptop (CD1 of RECOVERY).
      At the ASUS logo, press the ESC key. A window will appear, please select the CD/DVD drive, then the CD will launch automatically.
      A phrase will appear asking you to choose from several options. Please choose the last option.
      Please press the letter Q to ACCEPT the installation.
      Answer the questions asked by pressing ENTER to validate your choice (press Y for YES for the 2 questions).
      Follow the instructions given until the device completely shuts down.
      The reinstallation of Windows takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes and will require the driver CD at the end (a CD marked "support" or "drivers and utilities").

      2nd solution: (the hidden partition)
      Turn on the laptop, at the ASUS logo, press the F9 key. A phrase will appear asking you to choose from several options. Please choose the last option.
      Please press the letter Q to ACCEPT the installation.
      Answer the questions asked by pressing ENTER to validate your choice (press Y for YES for the 2 questions).
      Follow the instructions given until the device completely shuts down.
      The reinstallation of Windows takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

      After this process, if the problem persists, your PC requires return for service.
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  20. Yangoo
     
    Hello everyone,
    last night my Asus Z92T laptop from FNAC (purchased just under 3 years ago. Moderate use of 1 to 2 hours a day mainly for internet and DVDs for my kids) had the same symptom as yours, black screen with no display even in BIOS, but everything else seems to work (shift key responds, HDD spins, memory is OK). I plugged in an external screen but I don't get any signal, I think it's the graphics card and not the screen...
    I will check if I took the 3-year extension at FNAC...
    I will post if I have any news.
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  21. PHIL92140 Posted messages 1 Status Member
     
    Hello

    I have the same problem with this PC purchased from FNAC - the screen went black all of a sudden - I can't restart in normal mode on an external screen without hitting a blue screen with a FAT32 problem that scans the PC. After rebooting, it's completely black. The only solution I've found to recover my files is to start in Safe Mode on my TV - the display is distorted. Apparently, the graphics card is dead. I don't have additional insurance, so I’m set to buy a new PC.

    Best regards
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