p751dm2 bringing a Clevo P751DM2 that doesn't boot back to life

[dude-137]

Hi everyone! ☺️

 

 

 

I'm struggling with bringing my Clevo P751DM2 (i7-7700K, GTX 1070, Prema BIOS) back to life, and hope to find help here.

It turns on but doesn't boot.

 

It hasn't been my main PC for like 5 years, and has been unused and stored in the box until about 1 year ago.

 

Here is what happened.

 

 

 

A) ~1 year ago.

 

I decided to re-use it as a secondary PC, took it out from the box, booted it into BIOS and checked the settings.

Then, I decided to open it and re-paste the CPU and GPU.

I removed the heat-sink and took the CPU out to clean it from the old thermal paste better.

 

Suddenly, the IHS fell off.

 

First I panicked, but after a short internet-search and some reddit threads i thought that this is nothing critical, and some people actually detach it intentionally for delidding.

 

So I just cleaned the CPU and the IHS from the old thermal paste, applied Arctic MX4 on the naked CPU, applied the IHS on top back where it was, applied the paste on it, fixed the CPU in the socket, cleaned/re-pasted the GPU, and assembled everything.

 

A few weeks later, I decided to start preparing it.

I booted it into BIOS a couple of times.

Then I changed the RAM configuration, replaced the CMOS battery (included waiting for a few minutes to reset the BIOS).

At some point, it supposed to re-POST (and get back to BIOS after self-restarting several times) as RAM configuration changed, however it didn't happen.

 

Here's the behavior that started:

When turning on, the screen remained black, no BIOS, no anything.

The laptop stayed powered on, with the lamps on, but with zero activity and black screen without lit.

And when pressing Fn+1, the fans didn't start blasting at the maximal speed (which I thought is a very low-level thing that should work at all times as long as the laptop is powered on).

After some minutes (~3-5 minutes I guess), the fans suddenly started to blast at maximal speeds, and a minute later the laptop turns off.

When powering on again, the same stuff repeats.

 

I had to stop and postpone doing anything with the laptop.

 

 

 

B) Now.

 

A few days ago I came back to the laptop with the aim to find out what the hell is going on, possibly fix it and start using it.

 

I powered it on several times, with the same result as before.

Tried removing all RAM and keeping just one brick, removing the battery and using only the adapter.

 

I opened ChatGPT, described the situation, and asked what it could be.

But when I mentioned that IHS fell off, ChatGPT raised a red flag, stated that this is bad and the best would be to get a new CPU instead of trying to re-apply IHS back. It also claimed that simply re-pasting the naked CPU and re-apply IHS back is not quite ok, can cause various issues, and a special high-quality thermal adhesive must be carefully applied instead.

I checked other AI chats (Duck, Proton, etc.), and they didn't rise any red flags and even listed re-applying the IHS back as one of the solutions.

 

But at least now I got a candidate that potentially zombied the laptop.

 

Before checking the online markets, I decided to give the original CPU the last try.

I opened the whole thing again, detached the IHS, re-pasted the naked CPU, applied the IHS back on top, re-pasted the IHS and fixed the CPU in the socket.

 

The laptop didn't get back to life.

 

However, the behavior changed:

Now, when powering on, the laptop stays idle with the lamps on and screen turned off like before. A few minutes later, the fans don't start raging like 1 year ago and the laptop just reboots itself. This repeats several times. After several such repetitions, it stops rebooting and just turns off.

The situation with Fn+1 remains the same - nothing happens.

 

What I also noticed, is that the battery takes about 1 whole day to be fully charged, according to the lamp colour.

I started charging it yesterday afternoon with the unknown current battery charge, the lamp has been remaining orange until the late night, and only today in the morning it was green.

I decided to re-plug the charger and see what happens.

I re-plugged it, the lamp still remain orange after 5 hours have passed. What the hell's happening with the charging.

I'm not sure if this situation was the case 1 year ago. I think it wasn't (but i can be wrong).

 

 

 

Does anyone know what's going on, what could be causing the issue?

Could it be indeed the CPU, and is replacing it worth a try?

Or is the situation worse than that?

 

I would be thankful about any advice or help with getting it back to life.

[Kastner]

2 hours ago, dude-137 said:

A few minutes later, the fans don't start raging like 1 year ago and the laptop just reboots itself. This repeats several times. After several such repetitions, it stops rebooting and just turns off.

I think you should try more just turning on the laptop.

When RAM is replaced in p775 or p870 it takes a lots of reboot and turning on and off for me. (It takes so much time you start considering the status of the new components but after it starts. It looks the same like a new bios flash)
FN+D is the default settings you can give it a try. 

[dude-137]

Updates & details:

 

 

 

1.

 

I now recall what exactly  was happening 1 year ago.

Before I make the operation of CMOS replacement / BIOS reset + changing of RAM, I could boot into BIOS.

However, the situation was still very unhealthy.

 

After ~5 minutes or so of being powered on and BIOS screen on, the fans were suddenly starting to blast at maximal speeds, and the right lamp indicating power was blinking orange instead of glowing green!

And after a minute or two, the laptop was shutting down by itself.

If i remember correctly, Fn+1 was not functioning + only the right 3rd of the KB was glowing green - from power-on until self-shutdown.

 

And after the operation, the laptop stopped being able to boot into BIOS and was having black unlit screen. With the fans and orange-blinking power lamp remaining the same. Fn+1 was not functioning.

 

Please disregard the info about the "changed behavior" in the first post, and consider that it stayed the same since then and until today.

 

 

 

2.

 

Posting this with a 4-5 days delay, been powering on the laptop >30 times and logging the behavior.

 

Attempt 1:

00:00-10:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

10:00-11.30: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11.30: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 2:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast

01:30-07:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

07:30-12:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

12:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 3-4:

00:00-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

07:00-11:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 5:

00:00-07:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

07:30-12:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

12:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 6:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

07:00-11:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 7-9:

00:00-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

07:00-11:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 10:

00:00-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

07:00-09:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

09:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 11:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-04:15: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

04:15-05:15: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

05:15: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 12:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-08:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

08:30-09:30: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

09:30: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 13-15:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

07:00-11:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 16:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

07:00-09:30: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

09:30: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 17:

00:00-09:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

09:30-10:30: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

10:30: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 18-19:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-07:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

07:00-11:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 20:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-25:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

25:30-27:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

27:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 21:

00:00:00-00:00:0000:05: restart with very short fan blast.

00:00:05-00:01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

00:01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

00:01:30-03:00:00+: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

03:00:00+-03:00:00+: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

03:00:00+: self-shutdown.

-> had go to sleep lol. PC was off when I woke up.

 

Attempt 22:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-07:45: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was NOT functioning, only the right third of the was glowing (green).

07:45-12:15: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

12:15: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 23:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-04:45: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

04:45-05:45: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

05:45: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 24:

00:00-05:45: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green. But sometimes it was stuck in fan-blasting mode and ignoring Fn+1 for a short while. ~05:00-05:45: Fn+1 stopped functioning.

05:45-07:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

07:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 25:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-29:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

29:30-30:45: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

30:45: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 26:

00:00:00-3:00:00+: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

-> aborted, had to leave.

 

Attempt 27:

00:00:00-00:01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

00:01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

00:01:30-24:28:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

24:28:00-24:29:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

24:29:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 28:

00:00:00-06:31:15: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

06:31:15-06:32:15: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

06:32:15: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 29:

00:00:00-00:01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

00:01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

0:01:30-26:00:00+: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

26:00:00+-26:00:00+: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

26:00:00+: self-shutdown.

-> had go to sleep lol. PC was off when I woke up.

 

Attempt 30:

00:00-04:30: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

04:30-05:30: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

05:30: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 31:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-10:45: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

10:45-11:45: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

11:45: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 32:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-07:45: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

07:45-09:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

09:00: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 33:

00:00-01:25: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

01:25: self-restart accompanied with short fan blast.

01:30-03:45: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green.

03:45-04:45: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

04:45: self-shutdown.

 

Attempt 34:

00:00:00-25:38:00: silent idle with black screen, power-on lamp glowing green. Fn+1 was functioning, and the standard weak blue KB led was glowing together with the KB's right third glowing green.

25:38:00-25:39:00: fans were blasting, the power lamp was blinking orange every ~1.5 seconds instead of glowing green despite the laptop being still powered on!

25:39:00: self-shutdown.

 

 

[dude-137]

@Kastner,

 

I guess you're talking about the situation when laptop self-restarts with short fan blasts about 3-5 times, when for example RAM configuration changes, right?

If yes, it usually happens 3-5 times or so, not permanently stuck.

 

Given the update and info in the previous post above, are you sure the situation you describe could have a relation to my situation?