I’ve had an ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GU502GV for the past 5 years (the warranty is now expired). I’ve done my fair share of gaming on it but I’ve always tried to be careful when using it - I was able to get almost 3 hours of work when unplugged even after all this time (which I’d consider “decent” for a gaming laptop).
Yesterday, however, I was working on a class project in Unity and started feeling like the building and running of the project was “slow.” Went to restart my laptop, hoping that it’d help, and out of nowhere it just shut off. From that point on, no matter what I did, it showed no signs of life:
No turning on
No charging (from both the main and USB-C chargers)
No “charging indicator” lights turning on
No “internal sounds.”
I’ve tried multiple things I saw online like pressing the power button for a couple of minutes with and without the battery, with and without the chargers plugged in. From what I could gather it might be a motherboard-related issue but I’m really not sure.
From opening up the laptop and looking at the internals I don’t find anything explicitly wrong with it (although I really don’t know what to look for). I’m planning on taking it to a repair shop tomorrow to try to understand what could’ve happened and maybe get an estimate for a possible fix (although I’m expecting that the cost of a possible fix would be better spent on a new laptop). In the meantime, I’d appreciate any suggestions and ideas for possible “solutions” or tests I could run (currently I only have a precision screwdriver kit with me to open the laptop).
Logic board is gone. Like you said, it is better to spend money on a new laptop. Honestly, 5 years out of a gaming laptop isn’t bad, especially from Asus, who is known for somewhat hokey designs and terrible customer service.
@Marley
Was already expecting responses along those lines. Guess I’ll take this as a lesson learned and start looking into laptops to buy. Will probably go with the “work laptop” and “gaming desktop” route this time.
You’ve done the basic troubleshooting, to be honest. Looking around the board in your picture I don’t see anything that stands out other than the righthand fan is a little restricted, but I don’t believe this would be enough to cause any overheating and damage to components. Unless you disassemble the thermal system (heatsinks and fans) and inspect the CPU, GPU, and surrounding components covered by the heatsink, there’s not much left to do other than take it to a service center that will have the proper diagnostic tools. I just want to wish you the best of luck with it and hope it is something simple rather than a new motherboard required.
@Jessie
Thanks, appreciate the reply. Will try to get it checked out ASAP. I’ll post my findings here afterward; in the meantime, let’s just hope it’s a “simple” fix haha.
You definitely have something wrong with the motherboard. A well-equipped and technically knowledgeable computer repair shop can find the problem and tell you if it’s fixable or not. Good luck!
I had the exact same experience as you with my 6-year-old Zephyrus GU501GM dying a little over a month ago. Was restarting it due to some freezing, but it was just completely dead after it turned off. Did all the same troubleshooting and researching, but nothing worked. Eventually landed on it being a motherboard issue and decided to just wait a month and get a new laptop this Black Friday. At least it’s the perfect time for you to get a new one lol. Apparently, one of the signs there was a motherboard problem was a few years back when I tried to add another stick of RAM, but it would just not turn on at all with the 2nd RAM slot filled. If you do end up having to get a new laptop, hopefully, you’re still able to do your class project in time. Good luck!
