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G51J stuck at BIOS screen, won't boot [solved]

mr_johnson22
Level 7
Hi everyone. I hate being that guy who makes a forum account just to ask for help with something, but I don't want to make any irreversible and preventable mistakes... Sorry.

As of yesterday afternoon, my G51J notebook can't get past the BIOS screen on boot (the screen with the RoG logo and the keyboard prompts to enter the setup / popup menus). It all started while I was using the computer normally, in Windows 7, when all of a sudden a system dialog popped up saying that my hard disks failed, both the C drive and the D data drive (I know it wasn't a web browser popup or anything, so I'm not worried about viruses or anything like that). I started a backup to an external hard drive a minute later but got a BSOD as it was going (the hard drive didn't get corrupted, thankfully). When the computer rebooted it got stuck at the splash screen, and it hasn't been able to get past it since. The same problem happens when I turn the computer on in quick boot mode (the one that has its own power button); even that gets stuck at its own boot screen.

I'm worried that this is a motherboard failure, as I can't even access the (dual-booted) Linux partition I put on, and turning the computer on with OS-loaded media plugged in (either a Live USB or CD), has no effect at all. I'm also unable to enter any of the (explicitly mentioned) BIOS menus with keyboard prompts, which includes the boot menu. The keyboard itself does work, though, as the Function key commands (adjusting keyboard backlight, screen brightness) still work. The disc drive also makes familiar sounds as it reads the CD (if it's inserted), so I'm pretty sure the disk drive works too. Power is supplied to the USB drives as well.

Is it possible that something is wrong with the BIOS itself? I'm willing to try flashing the CMOS but only if the problem is related to it. I also assume there are plenty of other keys to press at startup that do hidden commands, but I wouldn't know where to start. One forum thread here had someone fix a G51JX problem by flashing the CMOS with Ctrl+Home, but if this isn't a BIOS problem I'm afraid to try it lest it makes things worse.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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18 REPLIES 18

cl-Albert
US Customer Loyalty Agent
Welcome to the forums!

If I read your post correctly, doesn't sound like you can get into the bios with 'F2' (or the delete key?) which you probably know you want to solve first.

If you are able to remove your hard drives safely, try to remove them and see if you can get into the bios (if it helps, try plugging in a different hard drive if available).

If that doesn't work, try removing any easily accessible extra memory modules (leave at least 1 module in to get into the bios).

Good luck!

Okay, there's progress! Thanks so much. I finally got a chance to spend some time with my computer again; I followed your instructions and, after reading some disassembly manuals, removed the HDD. Now I'm able to enter the BIOS setup and boot menus, which I hope is good news... on one hand, it should mean the motherboard is okay, but on the other hand it probably means the hard drive is busted.

After rebooting a couple of times, the computer was able to boot from the Live CD without me having to use the boot menu, but running it is a bit finicky due to unrelated issues that have always existed (nVidia graphics cards don't work well with Fedora, but I've dealt with this before). I'm still not able to boot from the Live USB (I get a Boot Error), but there's probably just something wrong with the flash drive itself.

If it's of any help, every OS partition of the computer is on the same HDD -- Windows, Linux, and Express Gate (the fast boot mode whose name I couldn't remember last post). Other than external media, there isn't any bootable media without the hard drive. I was never sure if C and D were on the same piece of hardware; it looks like they are after all.

I'll try getting the Live CD / USB working and take it from there. I'll post any updates.

cl-Albert
US Customer Loyalty Agent
Sounds good and thanks for the update!

fyi.
I haven't checked this system in a while, but I'm pretty sure you will see the hard drive listed in the bios under the 'advanced' settings if everything is okay, so just one more troubleshooting steps if you're still running into problems with a different hard drive and still able to get into the bios.

Yes, hopefully the motherboard is still okay, but we probably will not know until you get the chance to try another hard drive.
It's doubtful the memory went bad at the same time, but probably easy enough to check if it's easily accessible and you're still seeing any problems.

Finally, if it turns out there is something else wrong with the system and you're stuck with an extra hard drive, you can get an external USB hard drive kit to convert that hard drive to external storage, so it can still be useful.

mr_johnson22
Level 7
Thanks for the advice! Just one question: can the alternate hard drive be an external one connected by USB, or do I have to get another HDD to put in the now-vacant slot in the computer? (I assume it's the latter, but I already have a few external drives lying around.) In any case, what I think I should do next is perform a fresh OS install on the new hard drive and see if things still work. Or if I can get the Live CD working, I could also set the BIOS to give boot priority to the optical drive over the HDD, put the old HDD back in, and hopefully be able to boot into the Live CD and try to examine the hard drive while running that.

I should get a chance to try things out in a day or two. I'll be sure to post my progress here.

cl-Albert
US Customer Loyalty Agent
mr_johnson22 wrote:
Thanks for the advice! Just one question: can the alternate hard drive be an external one connected by USB, or do I have to get another HDD to put in the now-vacant slot in the computer? (I assume it's the latter, but I already have a few external drives lying around.) In any case, what I think I should do next is perform a fresh OS install on the new hard drive and see if things still work. Or if I can get the Live CD working, I could also set the BIOS to give boot priority to the optical drive over the HDD, put the old HDD back in, and hopefully be able to boot into the Live CD and try to examine the hard drive while running that.

I should get a chance to try things out in a day or two. I'll be sure to post my progress here.


Yes, recommend plugging in another internal hard drive as Asushat mentioned.

fyi. Not sure how likely it is these days, but if there's any external USB hard drives you don't care a lot about, you might try to check if they happen to use the same kind of 2.5 inch SATA hard drive that you could use internally for your notebook if you can find a way to take it apart safely.

May not be a very good idea, but thought I would just run it by you.

Asushat
Level 7
Alternate HDD will need to be native to the system not external (if no internals are installed). So yes you would need a new one. Provided it takes the ordinary sized laptop HDD, frys has WD 1 tb 7200 rpm laptop internal drives for 70$ or less right now, probably less due to christmas. Got one last year on sale for like 25$ still have not installed it yet (but its intended for a craptop not my asus).

mr_johnson22
Level 7
Alright, thanks for all the hard drive tips. Before I go out and get one, though, do you think it's safe for me to try to put my old HDD back in and to back it up (or at least copy some important files) while running a Live USB, which I just got working? If putting the old HDD will damage it further (I don't see why it would, but then again I don't know why it got damaged in the first place), I'll use some other method of getting my data back from it.

cl-Albert
US Customer Loyalty Agent
mr_johnson22 wrote:
Alright, thanks for all the hard drive tips. Before I go out and get one, though, do you think it's safe for me to try to put my old HDD back in and to back it up (or at least copy some important files) while running a Live USB, which I just got working? If putting the old HDD will damage it further (I don't see why it would, but then again I don't know why it got damaged in the first place), I'll use some other method of getting my data back from it.


You never know, but I would think whatever damaged is damaged and putting the defective hard drive back in your notebook isn't going to change very much now.
From what I understand though as soon as you put the defective hard drive back in your notebook, you will not be able to get into the bios or boot to USB, but maybe you still want to try it to see.

mr_johnson22
Level 7
Yup, you were right, putting the HDD back in brought me back to square 1. I'll look into hard drive options; I'm fortunate enough to have a Tiger Direct in my neighborhood.