[SOLVED] CAPS LOCK + POWER button?

[sandijs11]

Hello. My friend asked me if I can fix his computer. It was turning on, acting normal, except the screen was completely black. A repair shop told them the GPU is fried and nothing they could do. However I played with the laptop a bit and got the Windows voice assistant to spell numbers and letters. So I smelled some bs.

I found this random comment on a youtube video to press CAPS + POWER button until the computer shut itself down, and guess what, it worked. I have no idea how, no idea why, but it worked. The laptop is back to normal.

Does anyone have an explanation for this key combo? I couldn't find any info about it.

Huge thanks!

The laptop is ASUS K551L

 

[Ralston18]

Interesting.

Can you provide the URL (link) to the YouTube video?

 

[Colif]

It could be a power problem, I found instances of the caps lock key turning laptops off - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-and-cpu/2f60b43f-945f-4f0f-9e63-2df559d3b71e

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...f-laptop/c4b0b0e2-3e35-47e6-94d7-8aaa3314defa

https://superuser.com/questions/1110493/caps-lock-shuts-down-the-computer-immediately

not sure what the power button does in this situation. Or how it fixed it,

 

[sandijs11]

Interesting.

Can you provide the URL (link) to the YouTube video?

Hi, ofcourse.
The video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRQgN5AT3a0

 

[sandijs11]

It could be a power problem, I found instances of the caps lock key turning laptops off - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-and-cpu/2f60b43f-945f-4f0f-9e63-2df559d3b71e

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...f-laptop/c4b0b0e2-3e35-47e6-94d7-8aaa3314defa

https://superuser.com/questions/1110493/caps-lock-shuts-down-the-computer-immediately

not sure what the power button does in this situation. Or how it fixed it,

The CAPS itself doesn't turn the laptop off. Although I might have rushed a bit to make this post. I posted this thread while being connected to my external monitor, which got output from the laptop. My guess is that CAPS + POWER button forced to switch the display outputs. However the display on the computer itself doesn't work, but it knows it's there. I tried doing all of the "extend", "duplicate" screen methods, it tried to go in the modes, but it switched right back to how it was. Might be a dead display or the flex cable. Seriously no idea. I tried switching RAM and the Hard drive from my other laptop, it stays the same. Doubt it could be a driver problem.

 

[Ralston18]

No explanation.

I found a number of similar links and videos for varying make and model laptops.

Could be just some "perfect storm" of hardware, firmware, and software.....

 

[sandijs11]

No explanation.

I found a number of similar links and videos for varying make and model laptops.

Could be just some "perfect storm" of hardware, firmware, and software.....

Alright, thank you for your help!

Would you have any idea besides the cable/display being dead as the cause of the black screen?

I have tried:
Hard reboot
Disconnecting and reassembling the display,
Changing RAM
Changing the HDD
Updating and disabling drivers
Switching display modes
Setting the GPU as the default for programs
Running in safe mode

The backlight is not dead, tried shining light through and nothing.
The only thing I get from this laptop is a perfectly running computer on my external monitor.
It does not detect the main display now.

 

[Ralston18]

Using the external monitor take a look at Reliability History and Event Viewer.

May be some error codes or warnings related to laptop's main display.

Look in Device Manager > Display adapters to see what displays are present.

Right click to check the Properties.

Another way to dig into it all is to open Powershell and run the following cmdlet:

Get-WmiObject win32_videocontroller

(You can copy and paste in the above "Get-...)

Likely a lengthy output and the results will, at first, appear a bit cryptic.

However, just read through it all and you may note something obviously amiss.

Note - Reference Link:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-to-discover-multi-monitor-information/

 

[sandijs11]

Using the external monitor take a look at Reliability History and Event Viewer.

May be some error codes or warnings related to laptop's main display.

Look in Device Manager > Display adapters to see what displays are present.

Right click to check the Properties.

Another way to dig into it all is to open Powershell and run the following cmdlet:

Get-WmiObject win32_videocontroller

(You can copy and paste in the above "Get-...)

Likely a lengthy output and the results will, at first, appear a bit cryptic.

However, just read through it all and you may note something obviously amiss.

Note - Reference Link:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-to-discover-multi-monitor-information/

Alright. Will do! Huge thanks!

 

[sandijs11]

Okay, so I did everything as mentioned above.
Powershell shows that there, in fact, is a main display. Though is does not display any details or specs of the screen. Don't know what sense to make of this.

 

[Colif]

windows has no use for specs of screen really, hence it doesn't have them included in stats.

Does it see 2 monitors if you type

Get-WmiObject win32_desktopmonitor

There is a cool WMI class on my laptop running Windows 8 (I’m not sure if it exists on Windows 7 devices). It is in the Root\WMI namespace. The class is WmiMonitorBasicDisplayParams, and it tells me if a display is active. It also tells me the capabilities of that monitor. Using the Get-CimInstance cmdlet produces a nice output (but you can also use Get-WmiObject). Here is the command:

Get-CimInstance -Namespace root\wmi -ClassName WmiMonitorBasicDisplayParams

the instance name of the monitor "might" show us more info about it if we search it. Might not but its a start.

if you can share screenshots of the results of the 2 commands, we might get further.

What specs do you want exactly? https://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/ASUS/K551L~SERIES/

 

[sandijs11]

windows has no use for specs of screen really, hence it doesn't have them included in stats.

Does it see 2 monitors if you type



the instance name of the monitor "might" show us more info about it if we search it. Might not but its a start.

if you can share screenshots of the results of the 2 commands, we might get further.

What specs do you want exactly? https://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/ASUS/K551L~SERIES/

With the specs I really meant what is shown here: The resolution.
And with a different command: The refresh rate, bits. Windows doesn't receive any values from the display.

I can note, that in the "Event viewer" it showed, that Windows tried to acquire brightness, contrast etc. values from the main display, but it did not receive any.

P.S I have already disassembled and reassembled the main display after it's failure. Took pictures of it's part code for the display and the flex cable (So I know I didn't mess up buying one of the various versions of them).

 

[Colif]

Since it works and we just trying to figure out why now, the answer might be unknown. If google search didn't give me the opposite results to what I want I might be able to figure it out, but so many results are about flashing caps lock lights that I give up

 

[sandijs11]

Since it works and we just trying to figure out why now, the answer might be unknown. If google search didn't give me the opposite results to what I want I might be able to figure it out, but so many results are about flashing caps lock lights that I give up

I really hope you are able to find better results than I have. Thank you so much for helping!

 

[Ralston18]

I googled about a bit more and likewise did not come up with much of anything.

Your other monitor "DesktopMonitor2" appears to be Dell - correct?

You could try swapping in other known working monitors in place of the Dell and compare the results etc.

I would be quite surprised if there was some resulting "Eureka" moment that pins down the problem.

Likely not worth the time and effort.

It would be nice to know and understand but no harm in a bit of mystery now and then.

Agree with @Colif.

Just let it work....

 

[sandijs11]

I googled about a bit more and likewise did not come up with much of anything.

Your other monitor "DesktopMonitor2" appears to be Dell - correct?

You could try swapping in other known working monitors in place of the Dell and compare the results etc.

I would be quite surprised if there was some resulting "Eureka" moment that pins down the problem.

Likely not worth the time and effort.

It would be nice to know and understand but no harm in a bit of mystery now and then.

Agree with @Colif.

Just let it work....

Alright. Thank you! If no test with the software checks out, the problem must be hardware.

Would any tips be possible? I am thinking of buying a new flex cable. It as a cause of the black out is very unlikely though. I am also thinking of taking the display to a local electronics repair shop, since a fuse might be blown. But I guess the easiest fix would be a new display. I don't really know which one to go with.

 

[Ralston18]

You could do those things but the underlying cause/problem remains unknown.

Now if the shop can swap in a known working cable or new display and demonstrate to you that the existing hardware is indeed broken in some manner then you might have a fix.

I underlined "might" only because things often appear fixed in the shop and once you get back home - the problem shows up again......

 

[sandijs11]

You could do those things but the underlying cause/problem remains unknown.

Now if the shop can swap in a known working cable or new display and demonstrate to you that the existing hardware is indeed broken in some manner then you might have a fix.

I underlined "might" only because things often appear fixed in the shop and once you get back home - the problem shows up again......

Alright, thank you. I try to do my own repair, but this is the thing that mostly concerns me. If a fuse blows, there was a reason. It might be a bad fuse, it might be anything that caused the problem.