ASUS laptop problems

[Idkwhat2putheresowhatever]

Hello everyone, my friend's laptop couldn't start up recently as it showed the asus logo and reboots without showing the windows loading circle below the logo or anything. It keeps looping until we forced it to shut off. So I reinstalled windows using a flash drive, rufus, and a fresh iso using media creation tool as the windows 10 one couldn't create the bootable drive without giving an error. It finished installing and everything went fine until we began to download the first driver. While we were doing that, the laptop just shut off randomly, without any warning, and it did not show any screen or notification. The screen just went black and stayed there until we turned it back on again. The issue persisted until we took out the main battery and pushed the power button for 30 seconds before putting it back in. We tried turning it on after that but it wouldn't. So we plugged it in and it booted up just fine. But the laptop could only start when it is plugged in and to use it on battery power, must be restarted after being plugged in for a few minutes. It did not shut down randomly until a while ago. The laptop was idling until it shut off and rebooted into the recovery screen. We continued into windows, logged in, then it shut off again. So we ran chkdsk and halfway through, it happened again. This time, it was just like way in the beginning, the asus logo shows, then the screen blacks out and the process repeats itself over again. We managed to get it into the bios, but couldn't get it to detect the windows 10 bootable usb plugged in so we rebooted it. But this, time, it wouldnt boot up no matter what. The screen stayed black, even when it's plugged in. The charging light on the front of the laptop chassis was on though. After a few minutes, it managed to boot into the recovery. So we opened command prompt and ran "chkdsk C: /f /r /x". An after it rebooted, everything became fine. The reason he did not repair it as he brought it to asus and they said it needed a motherboard replacement for around $670 USD, which is almost the price of the laptop itself when it was new. The laptop is out of warranty btw. It only has 1 year instead of 2 years which some other asus laptops like the one i'm using now has. 

 

Here are the specs:

Model: ASUS Vivobook X556UB

CPU: Intel Core i5-6200U 

RAM: 4GB (soldered) + 4GB (removable DDR4)

GPU: HD520 + 940m

Battery: 37WHr 2 cell

Screen: 15.6 inch 1920x1080 TN

 

Things I tried doing:

1) Removing the ram and had drive, then placing it back again. (Didn't help one bit)

2) Reinstalled Windows (Solved one problem, found another)

3) Monitored temps on Intel XTU, temps capped at 57 degrees celsius, while being turbo boosted to 2.69GHz at 100% utilisation.

4) Removing main battery and pressing power button for 30 seconds (stopped random shutoff issue for around a week)

5) Running chkdsk on recovery cmd (helped for now)

 

Can someone point out to me on what might be the issue. On a desktop, it would likely be a power supply fault but I have no idea on a laptop. I am thinking out replacing the 1TB HDD with an SSHD (SSDs are out of budget). But my friend does not want to spend his money unneccesarily. Although it might be fine for now, but something else might happen in the future. Can someone help me, thanks!

[Idkwhat2putheresowhatever]

6 hours ago, Dellboy56 said:

may try running the battery with just the cord plugged in and take the battery out might be a faulty battery thats been recharged too much or something peobably consider a replacement?

It only shut off last time while plugged in. And everything was fine on battery power. I will try your suggestion if anything happened. A theory I had at that time was that while on battery power, the CPU speed was limited but when plugged in, the CPU ran faster, causing the shutoff. I tried to limit CPU utilization in control panel and undervolting in xtu but non of those helped.

[D4nt3]

Random shutdowns and reboots can also be caused by failing memory. For now, let's assume what you encountered  with the battery is a separate and unrelated issue.

 

You can try running the memory diagnostic that came with Windows, or search for a better diagnostic app. Removing the DRAM would help in isolating the problem. But, we can't obviously do that with the soldered RAM, let's hope the problem isn't here. Total shot in the dark advice: see if there's an option in the BIOS to disable the built-in memory. I'm hoping that if Asus decided to solder the RAM, then they would have foreseen the possibility that the user would want to disable it because either the memory goes bad or the user want to upgrade using a higher capacity RAM. 

 

Failing hard drives don't normally crash systems. More often Windows is able to catch this and exit gracefully. If you suspect the hard drive, an easier way to check would be to remove it, connect it to another computer and run diagnostics there.  

[Froody129]

5 hours ago, Idkwhat2putheresowhatever said:

It only shut off last time while plugged in. And everything was fine on battery power. I will try your suggestion if anything happened. A theory I had at that time was that while on battery power, the CPU speed was limited but when plugged in, the CPU ran faster, causing the shutoff. I tried to limit CPU utilization in control panel and undervolting in xtu but non of those helped.

Try underclocking and leaving the voltage where it is, maybe even sending a bit more. Will rule out any CPU issues

[D4nt3]

This is a locked processor and can't be overclocked or underclocked. The only way to accomplish this on a 6th gen locked processor is to have BIOS and motherboard support, which I doubt this laptop would have. Undervolting and overvolting are halfway measures to achieve a semblance of overclocking. 

 

There's no harm in trying but I would exercise extreme caution in overvolting though. This CPU is very sensitive to higher voltages. A little tndervolting is preferred and it actually improves CPU performance. 

 

Again, I strongly urge you exercise extreme caution with the CPU. Unlike desktops, a laptop's CPU is typically soldered on the motherboard and non-replaceable.  

[Idkwhat2putheresowhatever]

53 minutes ago, D4nt3 said:

This is a locked processor and can't be overclocked or underclocked. The only way to accomplish this on a 6th gen locked processor is to have BIOS and motherboard support, which I doubt this laptop would have. Undervolting and overvolting are halfway measures to achieve a semblance of overclocking. 

 

There's no harm in trying but I would exercise extreme caution in overvolting though. This CPU is very sensitive to higher voltages. A little tndervolting is preferred and it actually improves CPU performance. 

 

Again, I strongly urge you exercise extreme caution with the CPU. Unlike desktops, a laptop's CPU is typically soldered on the motherboard and non-replaceable.  

Regarding your previous post, I would try to run mdsched.exe and see if there's anything wrong when I have time. Undervolting the cpu des not fix the problem though, when I tried doing it last time. Something I noticed is that the CPU frequency caps at 2.69GHz although it's designed to turbo up to 2.8GHz. It doesn't go higher even if the temps are at 47 degrees and the computer has just booted up. My kabylake core I7 boosts all the way to 3.49GHz when just started up. BTW, I have removed the 80% utlilsation limit as that didn't help that well. 

[D4nt3]

14 minutes ago, Idkwhat2putheresowhatever said:

Regarding your previous post, I would try to run mdsched.exe and see if there's anything wrong when I have time. Undervolting the cpu des not fix the problem though, when I tried doing it last time. Something I noticed is that the CPU frequency caps at 2.69GHz although it's designed to turbo up to 2.8GHz. It doesn't go higher even if the temps are at 47 degrees and the computer has just booted up. My kabylake core I7 boosts all the way to 3.49GHz when just started up. BTW, I have removed the 80% utlilsation limit as that didn't help that well. 

 

Memory is bit tricky and for best results you'll need to run your memory diagnostics multiple times. Undervolting won't really help at this point, we'd like to keep your laptop as close as possible to the manufacturer's specs because it might mask the true problem. 

 

It would also be possible that the power supply is the problem. There's no easy way for your test the internal VRMs, but you can try using another power brick. If none is available, I would suggest getting a universal power brick (90W at least). They come with multiple adapters for various brands and some are even smaller than original bricks. But do this last as it involves some cost.

 

[Idkwhat2putheresowhatever]

21 hours ago, D4nt3 said:

 

Memory is bit tricky and for best results you'll need to run your memory diagnostics multiple times. Undervolting won't really help at this point, we'd like to keep your laptop as close as possible to the manufacturer's specs because it might mask the true problem. 

 

It would also be possible that the power supply is the problem. There's no easy way for your test the internal VRMs, but you can try using another power brick. If none is available, I would suggest getting a universal power brick (90W at least). They come with multiple adapters for various brands and some are even smaller than original bricks. But do this last as it involves some cost.

 

The power brick that my friend has looks similar to mine. But I haven't held both of them together and compared them yet. The voltage may be different as my laptop's battery is bigger than his (41WHr 3-cell vs 37WHr 2-cell). I could try to use my power adapter on his laptop but i'm worried that it may cause damage to the battery. Nothing has happened after running chkdsk and the laptop runs fine even after 30 minutes of light gaming. I ran the ram test and it all seemed fine. So if anything happens to the laptop in the future, that would be the first thing I would try. Thanks for the suggestions! Also, my laptop's adapter has an output of 19v and 3.42a. If anyone knows the specs of the x556ub's adapter do tell me as my friend is busy and does not have time to check it.