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Huge Mystery

AGeek
Level 8
UL50A MOBO version UL50AG Was set down years ago , it was 2 weeks out of warranty. Now it will not boot. It has been sitting ever since. Powers on ..HDD light flickers briefly and nothing.. Screen never shows any type of boot , stays solid Black , no post , Nothing...

I don't even see the model listed here.. they were very popular in 2009.

I have searched the entire internet for info.. even a simple MANUAL and it is like this machine never existed.

I saw on the Asus site that one model has a reset button.. can't see one on this one.

I would really like to make this machine work for this lady.

Any Ideas??
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10 REPLIES 10

fuzon1337
Level 10
Hi @AGeek

In this link (UL50AG) you can find the manual from Asus support.

What you can try to do is to take out all RAM sticks, insert one at the time and see if that helps. If the notebook boots and shows picture on the screen. with one RAM in at the time, then you perhaps have a faulty RAM. (you will notice which one it is when you have tested all of them)

Also you can take out the HDD and insert it to see if that helps 🙂
Asus G73SW-91058V 3D
- Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
- BIOS 205

Thank you for the Link. I will let you know how it all goes.

A Geek

fuzon1337 wrote:
Hi @AGeek

In this link (UL50AG) you can find the manual from Asus support.

What you can try to do is to take out all RAM sticks, insert one at the time and see if that helps. If the notebook boots and shows picture on the screen. with one RAM in at the time, then you perhaps have a faulty RAM. (you will notice which one it is when you have tested all of them)

Also you can take out the HDD and insert it to see if that helps 🙂


Tried both and nothing. Connected HDD to another machine and can browse it just fine ..... it doesn't even think about posting.. the screen never even flickers. but lights are on. ughhhhhh

fuzon1337
Level 10
Hmm... take out the battery, leave it out and hold down the power on button for 30-45 sec then put the battery back in, any difference ?

Also if the notebook can run only on the power supply, then leave the battery out, connect the power supply to the notebook, power on, any difference or still black screen?

From your first post you say that the HDD light is flashing, do you mean that the notebook boots up but you get no screen? Try to connect a external screen and see if that works 🙂
Asus G73SW-91058V 3D
- Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
- BIOS 205

fuzon1337 wrote:
Hmm... take out the battery, leave it out and hold down the power on button for 30-45 sec then put the battery back in, any difference ?

Also if the notebook can run only on the power supply, then leave the battery out, connect the power supply to the notebook, power on, any difference or still black screen?

From your first post you say that the HDD light is flashing, do you mean that the notebook boots up but you get no screen? Try to connect a external screen and see if that works 🙂



I am feeling pretty Smart so far. Everything the experts are suggesting I have tried so I know I am on the right track...

As for the HDD , I see it flicker as it cycles after hitting the power switch then nothing.. I have used all of the function keys that affect the Screen and used external. Just now I put in a win 7 boot disk to see if the drive would spin up and I heard the Optical drive spin up and seek but ZERO HDD activity. Of course Zero screen as well. This is like the BIOS isn't even there. I saw that one of these models had a reset button accessible through a hole in the bottom , this one doesn't. Barring that of course they say Take it to an ASUS Service Center... UGHHHH I don't want to pay big bucks to have the bios reset when I should be able to do it myself. Can you do hat on one of these by removing and replacing the Cmos Batt? I also heard that there are key combos you can use when powering up that do things like that but they keep it all one HUGE secret....

This is a really nice laptop. Asus really dropped the Ball on this one when it comes to information available.

fuzon1337
Level 10
If you understand this info: http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=UL50Ag&s=211&hashedid=zrT2N5K... then I think you may find the reset button so you can try to get the BIOS back 😛

But removing the CMOS battery should do the trick if it doesn't then it is a hardware failure you're dealing with.

Since you mention the BIOS, have you flashed the BIOS lately ?
Asus G73SW-91058V 3D
- Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
- BIOS 205

fuzon1337 wrote:
If you understand this info: http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=UL50Ag&s=211&hashedid=zrT2N5K... then I think you may find the reset button so you can try to get the BIOS back 😛

But removing the CMOS battery should do the trick if it doesn't then it is a hardware failure you're dealing with.

Since you mention the BIOS, have you flashed the BIOS lately ?


Yes I have seen that before but as you see they say PINHOLE? So some do not have it. I cannot find one on this model. Bio has never been touched. The people who own it don't do anything but surf and do accounting. Simply set it down one day and poof. I guess I will open it up and remove the cmos battery. I can't believe ASUS doesn't make the key combos available anymore.... you used to be able to do this by holding a few keys down during power up. but now I have to tear this thing down just to get at it.

fuzon1337
Level 10
Then I hope you get this issue fixed by resetting the CMOS battery 🙂

I couldn't find any disassembly guides on google, so I don't know how access able the notebook is/ how easy it is to take it a part.

I don't know about the buttons to hold down during bootup you are talking about, sorry for that 😞
Asus G73SW-91058V 3D
- Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
- BIOS 205

dstrakele
Level 14
Check out this thread: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?11968-G73JH-Black-screen-(

It's a similar issue - one day the system just fails to boot. It looks for all the world like a dead video graphics adapter, but some disassembly, cleaning, CMOS battery removal, etc. did the trick!

I'm not saying it's likely to fix your issue, but it shows what's possible. The VGA on your system may truly be dead, but you'd think some video corruption would've preceded the boot failure...
G74SX-A1 - stock hardware - BIOS 202 - 2nd Monitor VISIO VF551XVT