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FaniRama · ‎07-26-2014

I have the Asus G74SX (great laptop for last 2 years) and while gaming one day, it shut itself off randomly.

On more investigation I found -

- the laptop doesn't turn ON on just the a/c adapter without the battery installed. I thought all laptops do that.

- with battery inserted, the laptop turns on if the battery has enough charge
the windows 7 (64bit) shows "plugged in, charging" with the taskbar icon showing the battery charging icons for a short bit
after about 30 secs or so, it goes back to a solid battery icon (without the charge level animation)
All this while the battery is actually not getting charged. It is actually discharging

If i unplug the ac adapter and plug it back in, it shows that animation for a few more seconds again before going back to solid, non-animation icon. It is still saying "plugged in, charging"

I even tried with a new battery and same result. Awaiting a new power adapter next.
HWinfo actually shows battery in good health and charge amounts and the fact it is charging while it actually isn't.

I tried removing the Battery driver (ACPI compliant MS driver for battery and then rescan for HW changes to reinstall this) to no avail. The battery just keeps draining. I even tried the holding the power button for 60sec and that didn't work either.
The power indicator light does light up solid white when I plug in adapter or when running on battery
The ac adapter light is always a solid green
The battery indicator light is solid orange (but I did see it go orange blinking indicating charge < 10%)

I left the laptop off overnight with the battery plugged in and ac adapter connected but it doesn't look like it charged the battery at all.
This is a brand new battery as well.

Is this indicative of some problem with the motherboard power circuitry? The ac adapter is a snug fit on the laptop - doesn't wiggle, not loose. Or a problem with the ac adapter? (hoping this is it)

If the motherboard is bad then servicing might be only option unless others have figured out what is actually wrong here.
With lot of games on it I think maybe heat might've been one reason.
Servicing might be expensive as well so maybe getting new 3D vision based laptop - any recommendations on this? I like gaming with nvidia 3d vision.

Any assistance?

Thanks,

FaniRama · ‎07-29-2014

So even with a new battery and a new ac power brick/adapter, the system will not charge the battery nor boot up.

I am thoroughly disappointed in Asus. This will be the last Asus laptop for me. Such an expensive gaming laptop and barely lasted 2.5 years.
I have a MacBookPro from 2006 and another PC/laptop from even earlier which work.

I see that many people have the same issues as me. Probably cheaper quality adapter or components which likely got fried somehow...

Very disappointed in asus. My next laptop will be the much superior Alienware or even perhaps a Toshiba Qosimo.....

cl-Albert · ‎07-30-2014

Sorry for the delay and sounds like you did a pretty thorough and good job of troubleshooting.

Anyway, if you or others are still interested, it sounds like there is likely some kind of hardware problem with the unit which you have already concluded correctly in my opinion.

FaniRama wrote:
- the laptop doesn't turn ON on just the a/c adapter without the battery installed. I thought all laptops do that.

FaniRama wrote:

If i unplug the ac adapter and plug it back in, it shows that animation for a few more seconds again before going back to solid, non-animation icon. It is still saying "plugged in, charging"

FaniRama wrote:

Is this indicative of some problem with the motherboard power circuitry? The ac adapter is a snug fit on the laptop - doesn't wiggle, not loose.

Yes, the G74Sx should be able to power-on with just the AC adapter and without the battery if everything is working properly.
Basically sounds like there is some problem with getting the AC adapter 'power' to your notebook and it is only working on battery power right now.
Normally, we might suspect a problem with the DC jack in this case, but you have mentioned the DC jack connection appears normal and Windows recognizes when the AC adapter is plugged in, so this does not appear to be the case in this situation.

1. You may already know you can send it back to ASUS for out-of-warranty service, but not sure how much it will cost at this point or if it will be worth it for you although everybody's situation is different.
It looks like there is the possibility that one of the smaller and cheaper 'boards' instead of the motherboard would need to be replaced, but still, you may just want to put the money into a newer, faster, better system with warranty rather than an older out-of-warranty unit which might have more problems in the near future.

2. If you have any data from your non-working G74Sx that you want to keep/transfer and didn't already know, you should be able to connect your hard drive to another computer through a USB adapter, or find a store to do this for you if you prefer, so hopefully you will not lose any important data at least.

Feel free to discuss more if you wish. Thanks!

FaniRama · ‎07-31-2014

Damn... I wish I had seen your reply just a bit sooner. I just shipped out the unit to Asus Service center. The laptop has 2 years warranty on it (just expired).

I already paid UPS and shipped the unit out... I really want to repair this because this is a 3d vision built in laptop (I know I can just buy a regular laptop and for 3D send HDMI out to another 120Hz 3D ready monitor and use the external USB nvidia emitter and 3D glasses but I prefer built-in).

Additionally I had almost 200 Steam games on my laptop so the hassle of reinstalling all those games is not worth it for me...

Anyways, I sent the laptop (minus the drives of course) with the adapter and cord. Lets see what they say. If they give a price that is too much I can always have it shipped back (which is free) and then sell it off for parts for at least some money back.
Then invest that into another modern 3D laptop like Dell Alienware.... sadly they are all again in the $2000 price range....

A gaming desktop by contrast can be assembled for like $800 for a top class core i7, nvidia gtx titan, 12GB+ DDR3 mem @1600MHz, 2x1TB 7200rpm HDD or 1x80GB SSD, some good mobo like MSI or Gigabyte etc., a 600W PSU and a decent case.
I already have the 120Hz monitor and 3D glasses and emitter.
But I just like a compact gaming laptop...

Too bad Asus isn't making any more 3D laptops.

cl-Albert · ‎07-31-2014

FaniRama wrote:
Damn... I wish I had seen your reply just a bit sooner. I just shipped out the unit to Asus Service center. The laptop has 2 years warranty on it (just expired).

I already paid UPS and shipped the unit out... I really want to repair this because this is a 3d vision built in laptop (I know I can just buy a regular laptop and for 3D send HDMI out to another 120Hz 3D ready monitor and use the external USB nvidia emitter and 3D glasses but I prefer built-in).

Additionally I had almost 200 Steam games on my laptop so the hassle of reinstalling all those games is not worth it for me...

Well, in your case, sounds like it will still be worth it to repair if the cost is not too high since you're interested in having a 3D notebook and have a lot of software on it, so don't think there was anything wrong for you to ship it back. Hopefully, it is one of the smaller and cheaper boards that has gone bad (let us know how it goes if you can in case other G74Sx owners run into the same issue?).

By the way I assume the warranty was checked from your invoice, but if not, you may want to let support/RMA know your the purchase date on your invoice if you're still within the warranty period and have a copy of the invoice.
Support is able to check the manufacturer warranty from the serial number, but your invoice date should give you a little more warranty.

FaniRama wrote:

Too bad Asus isn't making any more 3D laptops.

I should probably be keeping up more with this, but although the U.S. region doesn't seem to have any 3D notebook models right now, other regions might still have them.
This probably doesn't help you much if you are located in the U.S., but just wanted to let the people located in other regions know they may want to check with their local support/stores about it if necessary.

Anyway, hope this works out okay for you.

FaniRama · ‎09-03-2014

So I got my laptop back from Asus after about 4 weeks in repair. The problem was some kind of burnout near the power input area. (odd because I have on a power strip with fuse and rarely move the laptop or the power).
They replaced those components.

I'm leaving this answer for others in case they have this problem. You would have to send the unit in to Asus to get it repaired.

Autobot · ‎02-21-2019

FaniRama wrote:
So I got my laptop back from Asus after about 4 weeks in repair. The problem was some kind of burnout near the power input area. (odd because I have on a power strip with fuse and rarely move the laptop or the power).
They replaced those components.

I'm leaving this answer for others in case they have this problem. You would have to send the unit in to Asus to get it repaired.

I know this is an old post buy I think I have same issue just happened to me I am wondering how much the repair costed you. Trying to see if it's even worth it to send back to repair

cl-Albert · ‎09-04-2014

Thanks for the update and sounds like there may just have been some motherboard component failure.

retro_johnny · ‎05-19-2020

I'm having a similar problem:

Had a power outage in January 2019, and original adapter would not recover the charge. Bought a cheap aftermarket adapter from @mazon. It brought the charge back, but also brought buzzing in speakers and interference on monitor.

So I went back to using original adapter until it blew - literally: blue flash, and a hole blown through the plastic casing.

Aftermarket adapter has kept me running for the last 16 months, until now it quit on me as well.

Laptop will NOT power on without battery installed. I believe the manual mentions this, but not sure.

Now, I can barely get into Windows before it shuts off.
I know my battery is nearly or completely dead. I ran a Windows 10 battery report: looks like when I had the power outage, max charge went from 78k mAH to like 3.5k

I already have a new Asus ADP-150bn adapter on the way, but I don't think that's the problem, as the aftermarket adapter shows 19.7V. Battery is clearly bad, but no way to know if I have internal damage, and don't want to spend ANOTHER $100 on a battery.

Already received all parts for a new desktop build... But Coronavirus is making nearly every decent power supply "Out of Stock".

When it rains, it pours.

So - Asus G74SX lasted 6 years, but now it's ready for recycling. 😞

jdfrench3 · ‎05-20-2020

I have a neighbor that has needed a replacement battery for her G74SX for months. Can't find a good replacement. Several batteries ordered but all are flat discharged upon receipt. I have an external battery charger and so far every discharged battery received will not charge.

Agreed, the G74SX should be retired.

Good Luck

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G74SX not turning ON on just ac adapter and battery not charging