Hey, everyone.
So the sound issue of yesterday is long gone now and I'm happy to have been part of the whole thing.
Laptop has been working great for me but started acting funny, GPU drivers crashing regularly (I check regularly if I have GPU OC on, I don't) and blue screens every 1-2 weeks (I assumed this was XTU's fault with the dynamic undervolt, which was stable at -90 up until 1.5 months ago but appears to cause trouble now, so I changed it to -50).
So against my better judgment I decided to give the new 207 a go in hopes that some of the issues may be decreased and i wanted to see for myself if anything related to G-SYNC is working now (back when that driver came out it did, but flickered a lot).
So I took my trusty 2GB, FAT-formatted USB drive and popped the new .207 file onto it. This drive has been used to great success in this configuration in flashing several laptops, including my old N61Ja, which has been flashed with it upwards of 10 times.
The BIOS hardware and software in that laptop is very similar to the G751JY and the interface is literally the same.
I started up ASUS Easy Flash from the BIOS sicne that's known to be most reliable and it read the new .207 BIOS file just fine and asked for a go-ahead. I chose Yes.
Aaaaand...sigh. 10% in on the "Deleting Flash" or w/e procedure it just cut off, the laptop shut itself off and now it's in that all-too-familiar state where it turns on with no keyboard backlight and no screen backlight, restarting itself with the LEDs on and the fans running. It tries to read off the USB drive but it doesn't manage.
Now - I'm making it obvious - it never got to using the BIOS file on the flash drive. ASUS Easy Flash killed it before it was done removing the old one. I've already messaged Support and requested escalation as I've never seen this process fail like this before.
I know exactly how to disassemble the G751, there are several videos of it online, but the CMOS battery is hidden under the motherboard. You have to remove the keyboard section, which is a potentially damaging process as it is, remove the back speaker plate, detach the screen, detach the motherboard and everything attached to it, flip it and remove the battery. This trick used to work on the N61 when something went kaboom with the BIOS but the risk of damaging something this way is too big and I've read that these new models have memory backups for the BIOS, which the CMOS battery trick doesn't get around - and I want to preserve the warranty in case I absolutely must send it in.
So...anyone have any ideas? Blind flashing, some type of software-based recovery? Again, the machine never got to flashing the new BIOS, so it's unlikely that caused it, and is currently not POSTing. The old adage of "don't touch the BIOS unless you really must" stands true.
Thanks.
Specifications as per standard support standard:
Full model name under the notebook:
G751JY-T7065D
Bios version:
205, attempted update to 207
CPU:
i7-4710HQ
Memory amount in GB:
8
GPU:
nVidia GTX 980M, 4GB
SSD/HDDs/Optical drives:
1TB HD, Super-Multi DVD
AC Adapter:
Original ASUS 230w adapter
Operating system:
Win8.1 64-bit
Original ASUS factory image or clean install?
Clean install, own Win8.1 x64 copy received from MSDN through student program.
Microsoft Activated yes/no?
Yes
Drivers Installed (include version and especially any non-ASUS approved notebook drivers):
Original ASUS drivers, latest ones to date for everything.
Any third Party temp/voltage software installed:
No
System Overclocked (provide details)?
Yes, using Intel XTU. Multipliers set to x36 as permitted by BIOS version .205, Dynamic undervolt set to -50mV.
ASUS GpuTweak, latest, set off at time of issue.
Any hardware upgraded?
No, all factory original hardware.