Asus 540L Laptops

[johnrobert]

1/

Asus X540L Laptop boots to bios every time will boot from Win 10 install USB stick

Installed new SSD, installed all devices works perfect every time, thought the job was done tested before returning
Doing the same thing

Went into bios reset to defaults made other changes UEFI Mode or legacy BIOS mode

The same thing can’t find SSD drive was same with old spinning drive

This morning put in another spinning drive it boots OK every time but have not installed devices

Windows should do that.

2/

I was given another identical laptop Asus X540L totally dead, nada

Removed internal battery then it booted up and everything works was thinking it must be bad battery swapped batteries from other laptop same thing, tested both batteries with millimeter both 12.25 volts.
Will only work with no battery attached

I came within one click of ordering a new battery for client good job I didn’t

 

[Markverhyden]

Long shot but did you try to flash/re-flash BIOS?

 

[johnrobert]

Yes, I did this a couple of hours ago on both and it has fixed the battery problem
the other one is working Ok can find drive I have to leave it overnight see if it's still OK

Bios update not an easy thing to do on these, not like a Dell

Thanks, Mark for the advice

 

[johnrobert]

The one laptop is still booting to bios not seeing the drive
it works OK for a few hours when you change H/D then when left the same problem
I am thinking it might have something to do with CMOS battery
it works then when its discharged won't work but the default should always be to boot H/D

 

[Markverhyden]

Have you cracked one to look at? In the last few years many laptops, especially low priced consumer level don't have CMOS batteries. Instead they have a capacitor to help keep the BIOS setting for a short while in the event of a battery switch.

 

[Tech bud]

Probably newb thought, I have had two differnet computer in that showed now boot device in legacy boot and then just a loop in UEFI. I had to turn off fast boot, and Secure boot. Install the OS, go back and make sure to reenable them after the installation.

 

[johnrobert]

I am thinking it has to be cable , Sata controller, or M/B fault if I unplug something then plug it back in it will work
it works fine until you leave it an hour then goes to bios as drive is not detected did same with other drives
it's a decent laptop i7 cpu

Spent too much time on this already if it was a clutch on a car it would be finished and I could charge $1,000
as it is might get nothing

 

[johnrobert]

when I booted it said something about bad signature id referring the H/D
I went into bios and restored defaults again been working fine for the past 2 days so I think it's fixed
Both laptops are working great now with new Samsung 500 GB SSD's
on sale for S200 cad

They have come down since last I bought them probably only cost $5 to manufacture

 

[johnrobert]

It was OK for 3 days then when I was going to hand it back again it would not boot
I made a note of the error message
I flashed the bios tried multiple H/D

 

[smlie4]

I totally feel you pain. I am 11 years in a Home/Small business tech I used to be a mechanic and get what your saying about clutch job I am considering going back to mechanics as there is so many unbilled hours in this game for stupid problems like this which popup regularly, laptops are only worth so much and you are never going to get paid nowhere near the time you worked on it + you can't mark up parts as much.

Onto the issue and how I would handle it..

BIOS is switches you turn a setting off, it's off! Unless of course it loses power then it can reset settings.

This definitely seems like your up against BIOS/motherboard/hard drive (not windows).

Given you have changed out multiple hard drives including a standard drive I think it's fair enough assumption to rule out hard drive/s.

I believe in your photo attached the motherboard had a secure boot policy stored and it doesn't like the changes that have been made which can be fixed by clearing the secure boot (not sure of the exact wording on bios but you'll find it) and even turn it off.

That said if secure boot was an issue then you plain and simple wouldn't be telling us that the computer was working fine and then not working after a period, because secure boot would have prevented you from getting to windows and secure boot is a switch. So secure boot message is only the outcome of some other issue.

Updating BIOS quiet honestly the only way I can see that BIOS would have needed to be updated is if something was going on with the SSD support, but you said even standard drives have same problem as the SSD. So BIOS??

Dying electronics are the one thing that changes it's state randomly at the beginning and then start dying closer and closer together as they wear/burn out.

I would pin this on the motherboard and say that it's dying somewhere (You don't know, You don't care, your not going to get paid to find out) and quote really high on a replacement board so the customer DOES NOT want to go ahead with repairs, to stop the customer going ahead and then you find out it's not the motherboard and it's some other completely left of field random problem that is going to haunt you.

End of the day you've got bills to pay and a business to run, customers are always thinking how much are repairs vs how much is the laptop worth. Don't forget to offer data transfer service as well from the old drive to the new computer to help recoup some costs and if they get a new laptop try and see if you can offer to setup the new laptop and transfer data so you can get money for both services sell them an antivirus.