Interesting Story about my G750JX-QS71-CB

So, as someone out there knows, I own a Asus RoG G750JX-QS71-CB, which I've owned for a little more than a year and a half. I purchased it because it would serve my anticipated needs during my time at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in their Civil Engineering Technology program.

This is going to be a post about how much of a PAIN this laptop has become.

Months ago, I had to take out the drives, and plug them into my Colossal3DR gaming computer, where I discovered that the drives needed to be "scanned and fixed" including some file system errors and whatnot... thought nothing about it, afterall the G750JX is my daily driver laptop for school, and for recreation. Fast forward a whole few months and the screen goes dead... or so I thought, it still output to an external display. Then suddenly it's overheat more and more and more to the point where it won't even run AutoCAD 2015 in 2D mode without spooling the fans, but the fans don't seem to be blowing any hot air, even though BOTH the GPU and CPU are well above 70 or 80 C. So I run out to NCIX, and grab a tube of MX-4 non-conductive thermal paste and proceed to take a set of screwdrivers to my laptop, and replace the thermal paste. But this doesn't fix the fact that the screen only came on when I COMPLETELY REMOVED EVERY DISPLAY DRIVER FROM THE BLOODY LAPTOP... But that didn't happen tonight. Nope. instead, I took the laptop apart, reseated the display connector... okay.. Not the problem, screen still dead. Maybe it's booting into windows and windows is the problem [removed SSD], Nope, screens till doesn't turn on, and says "insert boot device" on external display. Plug back in SSD, and IT BLOODY STILL SAYS INSERT BOOT DEVICE... So now i'm scared. This pile of crap costs a good chunk of change afterall, not to mention that my homework/notes are on the thing (yes it's on google drive too... but still! I need to take notes!).

So what finally got the display to turn back on? Going into the BIOS (couldn't flash the bios because 209 is the latest and it won't re-flash the latest OR an older bios! WHATAPOS! So I inadvertedly hit the "restore defaults" button in the bios... thought nothing of it... but then the laptop restarted! HOLLY SHIT THE SCREEN IS ON AGAIN!

Now here's the interesting thing. I booted into windows and disconnected the external display. Laptop display stays on! I restart the laptop, AND IT WON'T BOOT AGAIN! So I turn it off, and plug back in the external display, IT BOOTS! So I try various configurations. BUT IT WILL ONLY TURN ON THE LAPTOP DISPLAY AND BOOT WHEN THERE'S AN EXTERNAL DISPLAY ATTACHED!

It appears when there's no external display attached, the BIOS think's it's headless and refuses to boot! The laptop won't detect it's own attached display unless it has an external display to "reference" or something!

Weird stuff...

Now it's almost 2:00 AM local time and I have 8:00 AM class... The education gods don't believe in me sleeping early it seems!

The next chapter in my life, my dreams someday

Some people out there know I love to do big projects, whether it was the ABS shoe rack in Grade 1, or the Boat I helped rebuild in my final year of high school, small/simple projects just don't have that challenging appeal. It's not because small projects aren't challenging, it's more like their too challenging!

I've always been a man of speed, power and accuracy, which is why the M4 is, in my opinion, better than the AK-47. The love of large projects once upon a time had me thinking: "If I had that one dream project, what would it be. Not like something superficial that would only benefit me, but something huge, something the world could see... Look on in awe". Of course, this was when the concept of space "excursions" for the masses was a pipe dream at best with an estimated cost of $145000 per seat for a mere 45 minute ride into space; space "travel" was out of the question. Cutting to the good part, the point is, my dreams took me to the idea: If one day, I build an airport (or at least am a major part of a team that built one), I can comfortably retire knowing that I've achieved something I set out for. It's a little bit of a pipe dream, but so was space travel just a few years ago. Today, people like Elon Musk and companies and taking huge strides to make what was once impossible, a reality.

Since my last update, I've started college, finished First Semester at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology's Newnham Campus in the Civil Engineering Technology Program with a 3.8/4.0 GPA, then was privileged enough to have worked with and convinced enough professors to let me into the Civil Engineering Technology Co-op Program for my Second Semester where I finished with a 3.6/4.0 GPA! 

For my co-op work term I was lucky enough to have met 6 partners in the Heavy Construction Association of Toronto, who chose me as one of their 3 candidates for the 2014-2015 HCAT Award at Seneca College. In order to qualify for this award, both of my work terms will have to be completed with an HCAT Company. In the end, when it came to choosing a company, it was a close race in my mind between at least 3 of my interviewers, but in the end I choose the one who seemed the most sincere in his regard to the work him and his company did. Overall, now exactly 2 months into my placement, I realize it is a difficult field, both to take in all I need to learn, and physically demanding, but I'm willing to put forth as much effort and bring to the table all I possibly can to make the best possible educational opportunity out of this amazing opportunity which is afterall, only 3 in a lifetime!

Come September however, will be back to the grind of day-in-day-out seeing the same classrooms over and over, same professors over and over. I'm not sure if the boredom will be the death of me, of if the lack of possible death causing the boredom that will.... Anyways, point being, I can't wait to share the ways of the industry with my friends and programates to assist them in doing the best they possibly can, because I've always believed that helping one another is a lot better than fighting one another. Help others reach the sky. It's been a real problem I've seen out in the industry where people are trying so hard to cover their own rear-ends, they just about get nothing done worth a damn. If you're part of a team, IMO you should work as a team, rise and fall as a team, and if everyone's down, GET FOOD AS A TEAM!

In case one of my current/former employers reads this STILL DON'T DRINK COFFEE... yet; maybe that's why I don't have a girlfriend yet either...