Nitro 5 515-44-R99Q started to randomly blackout requiring power cycle

Options
ThatOneRedneckCoder
ThatOneRedneckCoder Member Posts: 1 New User

I know this is long, but I want to make sure I don't have to send many messages to paint a picture of what is going on, what I have already done, and what I know about it. :)

Granted, this is a laptop I bought from a pawn shop a year ago, but this started happening about a month ago about 3-5 times a week.

So, what happens is my screen will go black and backlight turns off, sound will go dead, and USB connected devices will lose power, all in an instant. The fans will still keep going and the keyboard lighting is still responsive for some time but eventually stops working and the fans eventually stop. I would hold the power button to turn it off and it would. Then turning it on again it would try to power on but for some reason nothing happens just the fans kick on and the keyboard lights up still unresponsive to everything, including holding the power button to force shutdown.

I have to hold the power button for 20 seconds to force a total power disconnect (battery light turns off while plugged in) and then turn the laptop on again for it to successfully reboot where nothing appears to have happened in event viewer other than "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first."

Refreshing the screen and Ctrl+Alt+Del do nothing. The computer is completely blacked out and locked up.

I haven't reinstalled Windows 10 yet, but I think it is likely a hardware issue as while running memtest86 which is a test you boot from a USB, the laptop crashed the same way again, although RAM was ruled out as it passed 2 full test cycles. I have run linpack benchmark to see if stressing the CPU makes it more likely to crash which it never did while running 20 cycles.

I also disabled the dedicated NVIDIA GTX 1650 chip and played some games using the integrated graphics, but it still crashed earlier today, and I don't know any way to rule out the integrated graphics.

I haven't paid much attention to it yet, but I believe these problems are not associated with sensitivity to physical contact with the laptop.

Again, there is nothing in event viewer anywhere close before the time of crash, and there has never been a blue screen through all of this and obviously no crash dump data, so I'm really stumped on where to even begin to look for a problem.

I will also restate that this laptop has crashed while running memtest86, booting windows 10, shortly after booting windows 10 while startup apps were starting, while using Word, the internet, and playing games. The crashes happen very randomly and I haven't found a pattern so far.

I will reinstall windows when I have the time to get it ready for that but in the meantime, has anyone here experienced the same thing or has any idea what this could be. The symptoms are vague but the fact I have to completely disconnect power to the laptop to get it to POST is just something I haven't experienced before and didn't know was possible lol.

Answers

  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 10,517 Trailblazer
    Options

    First check your adapter if its charging and the battery if its got charge and its charging, as the AN515-44 is a 4 year old laptop and a battery should be checked after 3 years for its condition and durability. If all is good and you have no problems in the charging and battery regard then I suggest that you and do a Hard Reset of the laptop, as it seems like it could have an EC or Chipset chip problem that these two chips could be frozen and/or not functioning fully, as these chips control allot of the functionality of the laptop that you are having problems with.

    To do a proper Hard Reset do the following, undoing the eleven (11) screws securing the lower case to the upper case, take the main battery out, and disconnect the RTC/BIOS battery that is underneath the main battery, then with a metal object or a flat screwdriver, short the RTC/BIOS batteries mainboard plugs +&- pins to reset CMOS (see circled caption below of the plug) then take the ram out. Leave the laptop and its disconnected components like that for at least 1 hour (preferably overnight) and then reconnect everything and reboot, as afterwards, this hard reset should fix all the black screen and BSODs problems that you have had, as this hard reset should unfreeze/reset the EC and Chipset chips and make your laptop boot and perform perfectly, so try this out first.

    If the hard reset doesn't fix your problem, I suggest that you take your Nitro 5 AN515-44 laptop to an experienced technician that has all the tools to diagnose the exact problem that your laptop could have as it could be a main power rail issue that involves testing if mosats or capacitors are shorted out which could be the culprits of your problem which no reset will fix. Good luck and hope this has helped you out.

    If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍