Asus X54H screen problem?

I'm working on an Asus X54H laptop running Win7. The power connector was bad (wouldn't run the computer or charge the battery from a good power supply), so I ordered one on-line for a couple of bucks. Removed the old one, soldered in the new one and now it has power. Battery charges and all lights blink when I turn it on. The caps lock and numbers lock lights come on when I push the appropriate keys. BUT--I get a white screen. The hard drive light blinks on and off and you can hear the hard drive spin, but nothing, not blue, not black, appears on the white screen. It might be the 6 pin flat ribbon cable from the power switch to the mother board-it was pretty bunged up when I went to put the computer back together (i.e., the connections were bad). I cut the end off and sanded down the insulation so wire showed again and put it back together. Still white screen. Can a bad connection there make the screen turn white? Plus I haven't been able to find that cable on line. I put in the numbers printed on the cable and get lots of hits, but they're for 12 pin and 20 pin cables, not the 6 pin that I need. I can get the entire power switch plus cable for ONLY $45.... but the .24 cent cable doesn't seem to be for sale anywhere. Any help appreciated.
kjhansen

 

I really don't have much to offer now, since so much has been done already. But if me, I would connect an external monitor to the notebook, hit the appropriate Fn + F-key combination and see if the external monitor does the same thing. If it is all white too, then you know the problem is with the notebook's computer/graphic solution. If you get a picture, then you know the problem is with the notebook's display.

 

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I haven't tried hooking up an external monitor, but I will now. I actually have one just for this purpose! BTW, I'm retired AF too.
kjhansen

 

Well then, thanks for your service! :dood

And let us know if the second monitor works.

 

And thanks for your service too. And thanks for the hint. The external monitor does work! I get the Windows 7 screen with all the icons etc. However, it has other problems that I couldn't see because of the white screen before. Now I can see that the built-in "mouse" sensor doesn't work and the boot process gets hung up after Windows 7 comes up--the little circle goes around and around with no sign of stopping. Hmmm.
Update: Booting in safe mode fixed the mouse sensor and the constant spinning. Hmmm again.

 

Well - good news the external monitor works. That means the notebook is still usable - at least as a desktop system, and if you get the other issues resolved. Note the touchpad (built in mouse) may be disabled with a different F-key combo.

Unfortunately, when you were using just the notebook monitor, you likely forced several ungraceful shutdowns or reboots and that might have corrupted the Windows installation on the drive. Since it seems to work in Safe Mode, that suggests a driver problem.

 

Booting into safe mode (with networking) also seems to have fixed the mouse in normal mode and fixed the constant spinning problem. Maybe had something to do with the laptop looking for the wireless network and not being able to log on. After I logged on in safe mode, I did a normal shutdown and started up and all is well. Except of course the endless updates that are occurring from being broken for a long time... ah well. It's working anyway, except for the screen.

 

I suspect finally able to do a normal shutdown forced Windows to reload and properly setup the drivers for hardware it found. The function key combo for the monitor should allow you to run both the external and notebook at the same time. The combo typically cycles through notebook, external, and both. That said, it sounds like the notebook monitor is bad, or the cable or connector going to it is damaged.

 

All is finally well. The cable to the screen was slightly (1/64 of an inch?) skewed even though I had never removed it. I guess it got pulled accidentally. I removed and reseated it and now the screen works. I also reseated the mouse touch-pad cable to make sure it would stay working--it pulled right out, so it was loose. Thanks for your help

 

Great! I am glad you got it resolved and thanks for posting the follow-up.