Restoration project Laptop ASUS X52JU SX335V - Production date: June 2011

[Kiriakos GR]

This is a Blog post in favor of ASUS X52JU SX335V - Production date: June 2011 ,this revision did circulated in Greece.

About three months ago a customer he did abandon one ASUS X52J in my shop, because he was in denial to pay for a complete product restoration.
1) Keyboard is dead due abuse due spillage of liquids.
2) Battery dead due it own age of 10 years old.
3) DC power input jack, internally damaged and actually burned, due the use of inappropriate No-name power supply.     
4) LAN card pins, few of them at misalignment or bent = user caused damage.
5) USB ports slightly abused, mechanical strength of retention of USB plugged devices was an issue.

Other Physical damages due abuse:
Plastics broken at screen top right corner ( laptop fall).
Touch pad - keyboard plastic housing also damaged at right corner.
 
Product named specifications:
Intel Core i3-380M (2.53 GHz)
4096MB DDR3
500GB SATA HDD.
AMD Radeon HD 6370 512MB
15.6" TFT LED, 1366 x 768
0.3MP Camera
3x USB 2.0, 1x HDMI, SD/MS/MMS
Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi,
Windows 7 Home Premium
2.62kg, Brown   
 
What is going to follow this is brief description of hardware parts details, among steps that I did so to restore it at 100% and to keep it as my own. 

[Kiriakos GR]

First discovered interesting detail this is about the hard drive.
Some of those laptop were advertised as Shock-proof at free fall.

The devil here is hidden behind Seagate product specifications.
At Seagate Momentus HDD series the part code that I have this is ST9500325AS  the magic full sock-proof HDD model code should end to ASG.
Only an true computers expert he might know or find the truth, but not the vast majority of consumers.

Seagate Momentus 5400.6 ST9500325AS
500GB
5400 RPM
8MB Cache
SATA 3.0Gbs
2.5"
These drives comply with the performance levels specified in this document when subjected to a maximum
operating shock of 350 Gs based on half-sine shock pulses of 2 msec. Shocks should not be repeated more
than two times per second.

Additional shock protection is provided by the Free Fall Protection feature on ST9500325ASG
The Free Fall Protection feature provides enhanced data protection against shock events that may occur while
the drive is operating. This feature is designed to decrease the likelihood of data loss by detecting a free fall
event and unloading the actuator before a shock takes place in falls of >8 inches (nominal). The drive uses a 0
G sensor mounted on the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) to sense this event.

Next .. AzureWave WiFi card.
I would not get in to trouble to search in depth about the card, if ASUS website was not that unclear of which AzureWave software / driver I should download? 

My X52JU this came with AR5B95 PCI-Express mini card, and seems having potentials of WiFi at 2.4G and of 5G
 

[Kiriakos GR]

Sad News for any one expecting from ASUS direct support about acquisition of spare parts.
They consider 10 years product in the market as OLD and they do not keep any stock of parts.

But they are friendly enough so to inform you of compatible part codes if you seeking for a specific part.
I am now after to replace the keyboard with a genuine one, and I am currently in to a HUGE adventure because especially Greek keyboards for those models was never sold out of Greece.     

Part Name : KEYBOARD 348mm ISOLATION(GR)
Part Description : R2.0/DARFON
Part No : 04GNV32KGR01-3 or 04GNV32KGR00-1

Alternatively US Keyboard.
Part Name : KEYBOARD 348mm ISOLATION(US)
Part No : 04GNV32KUS00-1
 
 

[Kiriakos GR]

This is the beginning of the restoration. 

Close up pictures of it condition as it came, but not actually, as I have restore/repair all ready the right corner of the case for the motherboard, with transplant of plastic from an ancient ACER laptop.

[Kiriakos GR]

Here are few screenshots of Hardware - Info 

Sensors
CPU
Motherboard
Memory
System devices
other & BIOS Upgrade

[Kiriakos GR]

Here are few screenshots of Hardware - Info  more in-depth details.

Monitor Screen: AU Optronics B156XW02 V6

Seagate HDD

Slim type DVD DS8A5SH 

Audio adapter: INTEL 5 series (Conexant)

Network card:  Atheros  AR9285  LAN:100 & 1000 Mbps

PCI - Bus

[Kiriakos GR]

Restoration Part 1 = Keyboard

The long story in short,  I was able to buy at extreme price the identical keyboard at Back-light Version.
This seemed as good idea in the beginning, when I inspect the product due photos.

The New keyboard arrived fast (local market buy) but I did immediately spotted the issue, keyboard has Keys with text contrast issue, especially at average and low indoor light conditions.
You can hardly see the text over the keys (keys are made from transparent material), my laptop does not have back light support.

Then I had the bright idea, to transfer all key cap from the original (damaged) keyboard to the new.
The old keyboard has one key missing, and because of that, now you are able to see pictures of the major differences regarding contrast.

Original keyboard key cap they offer very good contrast, along with the black dark frame around keys.
I did transfer the key cap at the new keyboard, but I did not dare to do the same about the frame. 

Either way, we have now a working keyboard. 

By having again an working keyboard my Odyssey, this did not over.
Some multimedia keys was not working.
Some FN combinations did not work.
F8 & F5 not working at OS Boot.   

Solution:
Re-installation of ATK0100 driver did not help.
ASUS ATKACPI driver download for W10 this saved the day. 

F8 & F5 still not working at OS Boot ( The only way to Safe mode this is due Msconfig.exe )



 

[Kiriakos GR]

Restoration Part 2 = The invisible issue of the Hard Drive

The laptop was unable to hibernate and also unable to perform System restore point.
Windows HDD repair utilities was unable to find the problem, no drive errors, no bad sectors detected, but still the hard-drive was not 100% usable by the OS.
 
After some research I did discover a topic at Microsoft forum.
At similar issues it did helped the dedicated Seagate HDD tool repair utility.
Seagate HDD tool (USB boot) repair utility
Linux based and does not work with my laptop AMD GPU, the utility crash on load.
I was had to remove the HDD and transfer it to a desktop (old system with NVIDIA VGA card) this kept in use for such tasks.
 
Seagate HDD tool (USB boot) repair utility
This was able to find the issue, and this was not related with bad sectors, Slow scan and fix this required 1:45 minutes, and the repair was ended successfully.
Then I did install this HDD back to the laptop, and windows OS this were now extremely pleased, no nags, no errors, no event viewer error logs.


ASUS X52JU with AMD GPU this proven to be a bad combination when you thinking to run SeaTools Bootable - HDD repair utility 
https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/support/downloads/seatools/

[Kiriakos GR]

Restoration Part 3 = The missing DVD bezel - Part 1

By not having access to ASUS part codes for the specific laptop, I did get one used DVD drive (ASUS x53 k53 ) from eBay (Ciudad Real - Spain).
The pricing was more like consumer to consumer assistance, as this gentlemen from Spain he was not after profitability.

I did receive a healthy DVD drive, it is identical to my own and few months fresher, but the plastic door it proven not be the appropriate one.
We can say that I have now 94% success with this solution, from the other hand the 100%one this is always better. 

This time I was able to find the REAL thing at eBay, seller from Moldova.
The spare part it is now paid and shipping expected soon.

ASUS Part code number: 13N0-GUA0401
Last picture.   

[Kiriakos GR]

Restoration Part 4 = The missing DVD bezel - Part 2

I never thought either, that its one spare part shipping process, will be an individual adventure for my nerves mostly. 
Either way, Today I do feel significant satisfaction, 97% of aesthetics they did recover to original condition.

The bezel around the screen, this is now replaced with the non-shiny version of it (they are two versions) this came from Turkey.
DVD bezel this came from Moldova, and it is the original one, and or 100% compatible with this laptop model.

DVD bezel underneath this leaves 2 mm of a gap, I think that this is unavoidable visual issue, because DVD mechanism it does require some distance clearance so to function properly.



Restoration Part 5 =   ASUS X52JU SX335V it is finally ready to get back in action
ASUS X52JU SX335V - Production date:  June 2011
ASUS X52JU SX335V - restoration date: September 2021 

This laptop is now going to replace my much older ACER TM2414 WLMI, this has a Pentium 1.6 GHz (725A) which I succeed to make it function at 2128 MHz by the use of an old trick.
It is in the fate of laptops, them to deliver max performance with the operating system which they came loaded with.
The old ACER this using Windows XP.
 
In the positive side of things,  newer laptop as is ASUS X52JU (Production date: June 2011),  it is still fully capable to do anything,  for example YouTube along all multimedia needs, they can served in full.
Internet browsing can be served in full.
Win7 64 bit operating system this is served well.

Class of Business plus Multimedia laptop PC, this is long life product class, in contrast to gaming laptops which are known for premature failure due their GPU and overtime developed soldering issues.   

Restoration project cost:
NEW DC charging port for the PCB.. from Germany .. 6.00 EUR
NEW Battery A32-K52:  Germany, 4400 mWh ... 29.80     (First charge Jun 15, 2021)
NEW Screen bezel .... from Turkey ( Non-EU ) ... 35.00 EUR
NEW keyboard .. from Greece ...        44.50 EUR
Used DVD bezel .... from Moldavia ... 10.50 EUR

SUM = 125.80 EUR



 

[Kiriakos GR]

Thanks to Lars from Denmark, my ASUS laptop soon will be able to operate as Dual-Channel DDR3 for a first time !!

I was looking for a second Hynix HMT351S6BFR8C-H9 4GB module, an identical one with the one onboard.
HM55 chip-set this support up to 8GB DDR3.
Therefore both goals will be served, at a total of 8GB RAM along Dual-channel      

[Andrew-88]

I was looking for a second Hynix HMT351S6BFR8C-H9 4GB module, an identical one with the one onboard.
HM55 chip-set this support up to 8GB DDR3.
Therefore both goals will be served, at a total of 8GB RAM along Dual-channel    

Benchmarks ?