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Question

ASUS older UEFI no power management options?

Mar 14, 2018 8:54PM PDT

Hi there,
I have an ASUS S400C, and the power button has started to go. It has a power on when lid opened feature which I use, but if the power ever fully goes (which happens as power goes out in my office a lot) it takes about 20 tries to press the power button and get it back on. It otherwise functions fine. I have the most recent BIOS update, but so far as I can tell the ONLY power option that I can access is the lid power opening. I've seen screenshots of UEFI utilities from ASUS and also from the same era (2012-ish, my last BIOS update I just flashed was from 2014) with WAY more options. Are they just better motherboards? Sorry I'm a bit dim at all this but generally can deal with these things. I also live in a developing country where I really don't trust a tech to take it apart and replace the button, it seems to just be a hardware issue. I'd like to bypass this with AC power however if possible. Just surprised to not see it as an option!

Post was last edited on March 14, 2018 8:56 PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I have a laptop like this.
Mar 14, 2018 9:09PM PDT

What was its issue? The battery turned out to be worn out. So when the battery is too low it took 15 minutes on power before the power button worked. Another Dell had a BIOS update that mysteriously fixed the iffy power button.

Given the laptop is 5 years old, did you try a new battery?

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Button
Mar 14, 2018 9:18PM PDT

I did a BIOS update today but that wasn't it unfortunately.
Hmmmmm I wonder if the battery could be playing a role but I'm not sure that's it. Briefly last year the battery did throw a bit of a fit. The battery is full right now, usually this problem has been associated with a power down after losing battery so I'll try to be 100% sure. (edit: this was not the problem)

But the actual button doesn't appear to want to press anymore, I think it could just be a dirt problem. I should probably take it apart and clean it but I want to avoid that as I'm not the most savvy, and unscrewing too many components makes me really nervous, I've done it before but kinda hated it and was stressed out. It's one of those pretty darn thin all components super integrated laptops.

Ideally I was hoping to have it use the AC Powerloss restart ie when reconnected to mains it would turn on automatically rather than needing the physical press, as it otherwise (including the battery) seems to be working fine.

I'm wondering if the answer is just going to one of the sketchy laptop shops in the market (I live in SE Asia in the kind of place where your best bet is some guy in the market) and either asking them to clean the switch for me, or asking them to help me replace it. Sounds terrifying but on the other hand they're probably more pro than I suspect

Post was last edited on March 14, 2018 9:23 PM PDT

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Never heard of cleaning a switch.
Mar 14, 2018 9:29PM PDT

But I didn't answer your question because only Asus could answer the question about boards, bios etc.

I TOTALLY FORGOT A CHEAP PART THAT CAN CAUSE POWER UP ISSUES.
What is it? The CMOS battery. I will not go to any length why this is or how to test. It's 25 cents here for the usual CR2032. Any tech caught testing such gets a talking to. These are swapped out without any test because testing costs time which is money. There are some that want long details about why this is. I won't discuss a long time known thing as it's been done and it's just too cheap to pass up. Some folk take offense over this stance. Sure. Let them think that. Let's get cheap stuff out of the way before we go deep and expensive.

I guess one could try a contact cleaner spray but JUST IN CASE I want to share some VERY IMPORTANT WARNINGS.

1. BEFORE any work is done or spray used. The power must be removed and the battery removed. Not doing so carries a risk too high in my opinion.

2. To test the power button it's a two person job. The usual removal of power and battery then the Ohm meter is put across the button legs and the second person usually using a wooden stick presses the button. These rarely fail. It's so rare. It's usually the batteries or board.