Windows 7 ASUS X53E suddenly starts getting blue screens

[jtpcamp]

I bought an ASUS X53E Notebook about 6 months ago as a spare computer. I have not used it much until about a month ago and it has worked very well. Two days ago it was downloading a video file and a blue screen occurred. I rebooted and after a bit it happened again. I ran system repair which included a System Restore but I kept getting blue screens. I have tried a deep virus scan, checked "C" drive for errors, ran Reimage and nothing helped. Today I did a restored the computer to factory status using the Restore Partition but got a blue screen before the Desktop setup was finished. Now it will boot into Windows but it freezes up and blue screen then reboots in normal Windows and Safe Mode also. It is a Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit computer.

I suspect a hardware problem and have a support request with ASUS but have heard nothing yet. Anyone have a possible cause for this??

 

[Digerati]

There are many possible causes for BSODs and without know exactly what the error code or BSOD error message said, it is impossible to narrow it down now.

But, since this notebook is less than 1 year old, you should not be getting any BSOD errors. You need to keep hounding ASUS tech support and tell them you want them to fix it - now. It needs to go back in for factory support (perhaps a new motherboard).

In the meantime, I urge you to try to back up any data you don't want to lose.

 

[jtpcamp]

Thanks Bill for the reply. I don't know how much help ASUS will be as I have read their support sucks but I will see. I plan to take it to a local shop today to get their opinion as to cause but not to do anything yet. I am now on my desktop. The notebook was mainly only on to keep everything on it updated and battery charged till I started downloading TV shows. It would boot in 2 min or less and was running very good till Saturday morning when the blue screens started. Even the restore to factory status did not help. I moved most things to the Data partition before I restored the C drive but there really was nothing on it but some unfinished downloads and the exe's of the software I installed on it so not much to loose..

 

[Digerati]

Is it not still under warranty since it is less than 1 year old? In that case, ASUS (or at least the place you bought it from) are still under legal obligation to repair or fix it - for free?

At the very least, according to your Windows license agreement, the "system builder" is legally bound to provide free tech support for Windows for 1 year.

I would advise against taking it to a shop unless they are an authorized ASUS Warranty Repair center or you may void your warranty.

 

[jtpcamp]

Yes Bill, It is still under warranty and the shop I will visit today will do nothing to void warranty till I see what ASUS will do. As to where I bought it, I purchased it at Sams Club where they do not have 'any' repair options.

This shop does all the work on my desktop as they built it for parts I supplied and do very good work. I trust them and I want to get their take on what 'might' be wrong without actually doing anything. Yet. I have read on google that ASUS support is not very good with a 86% if people report 'unsatisfied' with their work, and how knows how long it will take to get it back. I will decide if a local shops prices is worth the losing of a warranty.

 

[Digerati]

Yes Bill, It is still under warranty and the shop I will visit today will do nothing to void warranty till I see what ASUS will do. As to where I bought it, I purchased it at Sams Club where they do not have 'any' repair options.

No, but you can return it for a refund or exchange.

 

[jtpcamp]

Really? After so long and just because its defective,,

 

[jtpcamp]

I just called Sams and they told me they had a 30 day return policy but tf ASUS gives me a bunch of crap about this then call them back and they might be able to work on my behalf.

 

[Digerati]

Yeah, unless you bought an "open box" or used computer, someone has to give you some support here - even if Sam's sends you to a local shop.

 

[jtpcamp]

No, it was new sealed in the box. The shop I mentioned told me that it could be RAM, Hard Drive, or the Motherboard but I should wait to see what ASUS says. They can check the RAM but for both sticks would take a day and they would charge me for that. So I brought it home and am waiting.

Thanks for the conversation.
Jim

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

All computer & electronics retailers have that 30 day return policy; when I worked for Staples in their computer dept.; they only do 14 days! If you buy an extended warranty with them (2 yr. or 3 yr.), then you can go a little longer if you are willing to do battle with the Store Manager. Generally speaking, retailers will do NOTHING for you, especially big box mover places like Costco and Sams Club during the 1st year, and after their 30 day store return policy (again 14 days for Staples). They make you take the ball and run with it to the Manufacturer, in this case Asus, and duke it out with them. This usually involves you sending your laptop somewhere out of the state if not out of the country. As you said, if ASUS doesn't do anything for you, then it's up to you to raise havoc with the local Sams Club Store Manager. That's a crap shoot, and if he/she replaces your laptop or gives you credit for a new one, this comes right off their store location bottom line--good luck with that! If you ever buy a computer again from Sams, make sure you get an Extended Warranty with it. If they don't offer it, then go to Costco (they now offer 3rd party Warranty services on all their electronics due to many many lawsuits over this very issue!), or Staples, or Best Buy. Sometimes the great prices at these discount warehouses are really as good as them seem!

My 2 cents.

BIGBEARJEDI

I just called Sams and they told me they had a 30 day return policy but tf ASUS gives me a bunch of crap about this then call them back and they might be able to work on my behalf.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Jim:
Interesting thread you have here. I just left you a message above about your situation from the business side, here's some more information from the Tech. side. I just worked on my first ASUStek *made by ASUS* laptop last week, and it seemed to work pretty well, it's a model K52F. A little over 1 yr. old. This laptop failed on the IE10 (Internet Explorer 10) browser update Microsoft has been pushing out to Customers since Feb. 26th. Testing shows Motherboard, RAM, and hard drive to be ok. I was going to reinstall Win7 on the hard drive and do a complete windows rebuild, but the Customer and I agreed that he could use Chrome as his only problem with the laptop was when he was using his Earthlink webmail and IE9 would crash. That's a workaround really, it's a pretty new computer almost as new as yours.

If I had done a rebuild on that computer, and it still failed to install IE10, he probably had a faulty hard drive. And his system did have Win7 SP1 installed. You didn't mention whether your ASUS had SP1 installed or not. Here's the interesting point; every laptop I've worked on in the last year that WOULD NOT take the Win7 SP1 update usually had a faulty hard drive; new or old laptop. Another symptom of a failed hard drive in Win7 laptops occurs when the Automatic Updates feature from Microsoft stops working. In most cases, this is NOT repairable. I think I may have fixed one laptop out of about 12 I worked on with this problem. Some of them respond to a hard drive reformat and windows reload, but if the problem persists, it's usually a faulty hard drive.

You mentioned you are going to take your ASUS to your local trusted computer expert. Once you get some answers from ASUS, and or Sams Club. You might suggest that he pop another hard drive into that laptop and do a quick Win7 load; make sure he updates to SP1, otherwise you will fail the Auto Updates with the new IE10 push update. This can be done in a couple of days, and if the hard drive is defective you can use that to good effect while negotiating with both ASUS and Sams; something like "..what kind of product do you guys sell or make here?? Hard drives shouldn't go out on a brand new laptop??" You'll have proof from your computer expert that this is so. Also, you can ask your computer person to print out diagnostics tests showing the hard drive is faulty. Pretty hard for ASUS or Sams to dispute that. Of course you have the Warranty void issue to deal with, so you'll want to be careful there.

Well, off to rebuild my movie laptop! again...

Good luck!

BIGBEARJEDI

No, it was new sealed in the box. The shop I mentioned told me that it could be RAM, Hard Drive, or the Motherboard but I should wait to see what ASUS says. They can check the RAM but for both sticks would take a day and they would charge me for that. So I brought it home and am waiting.

Thanks for the conversation.
Jim

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi Jim:
Interesting thread you have here. I just left you a message above about your situation from the business side, here's some more information from the Tech. side. I just worked on my first ASUStek *made by ASUS* laptop last week, and it seemed to work pretty well, it's a model K52F. A little over 1 yr. old. This laptop failed on the IE10 (Internet Explorer 10) browser update Microsoft has been pushing out to Customers since Feb. 26th. Testing shows Motherboard, RAM, and hard drive to be ok. I was going to reinstall Win7 on the hard drive and do a complete windows rebuild, but the Customer and I agreed that he could use Chrome as his only problem with the laptop was when he was using his Earthlink webmail and IE9 would crash. That's a workaround really, it's a pretty new computer almost as new as yours.

If I had done a rebuild on that computer, and it still failed to install IE10, he probably had a faulty hard drive. And his system did have Win7 SP1 installed. You didn't mention whether your ASUS had SP1 installed or not. Here's the interesting point; every laptop I've worked on in the last year that WOULD NOT take the Win7 SP1 update usually had a faulty hard drive; new or old laptop. Another symptom of a failed hard drive in Win7 laptops occurs when the Automatic Updates feature from Microsoft stops working. In most cases, this is NOT repairable. I think I may have fixed one laptop out of about 12 I worked on with this problem. Some of them respond to a hard drive reformat and windows reload, but if the problem persists, it's usually a faulty hard drive.

You mentioned you are going to take your ASUS to your local trusted computer expert. Once you get some answers from ASUS, and or Sams Club. You might suggest that he pop another hard drive into that laptop and do a quick Win7 load; make sure he updates to SP1, otherwise you will fail the Auto Updates with the new IE10 push update. This can be done in a couple of days, and if the hard drive is defective you can use that to good effect while negotiating with both ASUS and Sams; something like "..what kind of product do you guys sell or make here?? Hard drives shouldn't go out on a brand new laptop??" You'll have proof from your computer expert that this is so. Also, you can ask your computer person to print out diagnostics tests showing the hard drive is faulty. Pretty hard for ASUS or Sams to dispute that. Of course you have the Warranty void issue to deal with, so you'll want to be careful there.

Well, off to rebuild my movie laptop! again...

Good luck!

BIGBEARJEDI

No, it was new sealed in the box. The shop I mentioned told me that it could be RAM, Hard Drive, or the Motherboard but I should wait to see what ASUS says. They can check the RAM but for both sticks would take a day and they would charge me for that. So I brought it home and am waiting.

Thanks for the conversation.
Jim

 

[jtpcamp]

BIGBEARJEDI,
Thanks for the posts with a lot of information.

My notebook is a X53E that came with Win 7 SP1 64 bit OS. I did take it to a shop and they told me it was likely a motherboard, ram or a bad hard drive just from my telling them what happened and what I have done to try to fix it. For them to do anything it will cost minimum of $65 so I told them to do nothing till I hear from ASUS.

I did get a e-mail from them last evening and they suggested I do a system restore to factory status using the repair partition, which I have already done and had a blue screen just before the process was finished. Also it freezes up now withing 5 min of booting and I had problems removing McAfee and installing Vipre as it just stops, blue screens and reboots. I can't even tell if Vipre is running. This also happens in safe mode which did not happen before restore when safe mode worked. Before these problems I had installed IE 10 with no problems although I use Firefox for nearly everything. My notebook is used mainly for a backup computer and while traveling so I did not install many of the programs I have on my desktop. I kept it uncluttered and just kept everything updated.

I really don't want to spend money with my local shop till I see what ASUS says and I am only in the beginning stages of this. They also said what I am pasting below;
"
Could you please reset to factory configuration and operating system for a try? Please boot up the notebook. You can press F9 when you see the ASUS logo, and then choose the first item to recover OS to the first partition.
I ought to tell you don't forget to backup the data that are important for you.

After that if the problem still exit, that maybe hardware related issue.
Please contact with your retailer for help to check and deal with it.
If it is not possible, please take your product to our local service center for comprehensive inspection and help you to fix the problem.
The following is the contact information: "

He is I think Chinese. The nearest service center to Denver is Ogden, Utah so that is not a choice. I can't find a phone # but they offer chat support, Goody. This is a bit complicated for chat support.

I have tried check disk, which finished but I was out so I did not see the results. I did a deep virus scan but blue screen before it finished. After the factory restore I have decided my problem is a hardware problem. I did move what little data (mainly stored exe's of installed software) to the Data partition on the hard drive. If the problem is a hard drive I can get a new one and have the data drive on the old one cloned to the new one and maybe ever the restore partition so I can easily reinstall windows to factory specs. But I will now wait for ASUS.

Thanks again for the help.
Jim