ASUS X75VD - 50 minute shutdown and abysmal SATA III performance

[Dan81]

Just as the title says, I have an ASUS X75VD-TY237H, MB model X75VD - soldered on i3-2370M + 4GB DDR3 RAM.

The laptop works almost fine except for two issues:

1. It will shut down at exactly 50 minutes. Not a soft shutdown, but just like somebody pulled the plug on it (battery does hold charge). It just goes off, as if Intel's stupid HPET kicks in. The thing is, I very highly doubt the ME is at fault - if it was ME, it would shut down at exactly 30 minutes after power on - I've had a Samsung NP300E5C do this because its chipset (HM70 for Samsung) would not support anything higher than Pentiums - this wouldn't be the case as the X75VD uses a HM76.

2. Trying to run the laptop with a SATA3 (6Gbps) HDD is basically impossible - trying to install Windows takes almost a hour - the drive in cause (WD7500BPVX) was tested in another ASUS of similar configuration (X55VDR - same i3-2370M and GT610M) and it has installed in about 20 or so minutes, the normal time of installation. Once I put the 750GB WD back into the X75VD, it took a WHOLE 30 MINUTES to get to the desktop.
I should mention here that SATA2 drives (like the current one I am running - Hitachi 5K250-250, dated around mid 2009) run at normal speed, no slow install or anything.

Anyone can guess what's the issue here? I can't figure out if it's the ME region. Just in case, can anyone provide a BIOS image for it that has had the ME region cleaned? I would like to check if the shutdown is caused by a bad ME region.

Thanks to anyone who can help and I am waiting on your suggestions. The laptop has never been opened before and I have ONLY opened it once, to replace the thermal paste.

[SMDFlea]

Re: ASUS X75VD - 50 minute shutdown and abysmal SATA III performance

You can request a bios here: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=40 post your backup and a picture of the white barcode sticker thats on the ram slot

[Dan81]

Re: ASUS X75VD - 50 minute shutdown and abysmal SATA III performance

A few questions:

1. The barcodes aren't visible (masked by the casing since I can't take it apart again at the moment) but I managed to photograph the whole markings of the sticker (all text, that is)

2. How do I dump the BIOS? Just asking so I know what to do next.

I'm trying to do this without having to take apart the whole machine (since the RAM slot is not fully covered.) but if needed I'll take it apart tomorrow, if the barcodes are needed as well.

[SMDFlea]

Re: ASUS X75VD - 50 minute shutdown and abysmal SATA III performance

A few questions:

1. The barcodes aren't visible (masked by the casing since I can't take it apart again at the moment) but I managed to photograph the whole markings of the sticker (all text, that is)

2. How do I dump the BIOS? Just asking so I know what to do next.

I'm trying to do this without having to take apart the whole machine (since the RAM slot is not fully covered.) but if needed I'll take it apart tomorrow, if the barcodes are needed as well.

The reason i asked for the barcode sticker is to try and ID which bios version you need.The motherboard will be silkscreened with a part number,the laptop itself has a model number on the case ,and the motherboard can have a barcode sticker or QR code with a model number.All 3 can be different part number ,see this thread - https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=96604 .Its the model number on the barcode sticker that ID`s which bios it shipped with.
A modern intel bios is split into different parts, and each part can be locked from reading/writing ,see the attached picture of an X75VD bios opened with UEFITool .The flash descriptor write and ME region are both locked from writing,software tools can`t read the whole bios,so you can`t backup the whole thing.There are a few workarounds that could work on older machines, theres a pin on the audio chip that can be shorted to unlock the flash descriptor , and another using the bios update software and grub. They`re all too much farting about though,its much easier if you use an SPI programmer ,with a SOP8 clip to backup the bios.
.

[Dan81]

Re: ASUS X75VD - 50 minute shutdown and abysmal SATA III performance

Welp, pretty much had to resort to buying a CH341A. I managed to brick the laptop trying to downgrade to the first BIOS released (303 I think), so I had to program externally (no, not even the clip was useful - I wasn't getting the chip recognised with it at all. Had to use a SOP 8 socket (the one with springs), and could get the chip to flash correctly through Colibri. Both AsProgrammer and CH341A's flasher would not write the chip correctly for whatever reason, while Colibri flashed it and compared against the original fine and it worked.