Sat Jun 03, 2017 11:41 am
I took my laptop to who I thought was a professional at Computer Renaissance. I originally had an issue with the AC Port on the mother board. I told them what was wrong and that being this was an expensive laptop i didnt want to fix it myself. He took it and assured me it was indeed fixable so I felt the $110 it cost was worthy of there time and labor. Took about a week to get it back. Since I was working alot it didn't really bother me. Upon receiving it, like a trusting idiot, assumed it was good cause the power was not fluctuation when plugged in. Took it home where it sat for a few days due to my workload. 3rd or 4th day I Grab it to work on some requested graphic work and noticed it was still doing the same fluctuations. Annoyed but calm I call the Computer Renaissance up and tell them I'm having issues with what they obviously failed to fix. The Technician over the phone said it might be the wall adapter and I agreed that is probably the culprit. So I found an adapter with the power specs that my laptop required for about $60. After about another week it showed up in the mail. Eagerly due to the graphic work I was behind in, I plug it in and to my dismay found the issue still occurring. So I called Computer Renaissance again and was told about the 13 day return policy and that there would not be a refund. This angered me but for the price I couldn't find better. He said it's probably the mother board. And he could fix for an awesome price of only $390. The board alone online was $600 So if he could get me with his connection a new compatible mother board for $390 including labor, whi am I to refuse that. I felt he was indeed trying to hook me up for my prolonged repair situation. So 3 weeks later... He called saying it was ready for pickup. I arrive and immediately test the power. It still fluctuated... He had a friend working who tried to put conductive cable inside of the wall adapter that goes into the A.C. Jack and sent a spark flying with a loud pop. I about **** myself. If I remember correctly I believe he replaced the A.C. Jack on the new motherboard as well. That obviously didn't work. So unable to get a refund for anything I took it home and constructed a way to hold the adapter just right so power would be continuous. Discovered while paying a graphically demanding game that my laptop instantly justdown and rebooted. I thought it was odd that my fans got as loud as they did on booty so I figured maybe it just needs to be cleaned. I open the bottom to discover most of Afghanistan still inside. So I take the battery out after unplugging of course and take the sole screw out thats holding in the fan and clean the crap out of it. This is where my issues magnify. I get curious. I figure since its open to check out some things as in the solder work and the thermal paste placement. After cleaning out both vents and the fan I unscrew and lift up carefully the gpu heat sink. Found what I can only describe as a glob of thermal paste covering way more than it should. It was covering all the pins around, all of them! So after cleaning I reapply evenly across the entire surface using my finger using Artic Silver 5. Secured it by the numbers and moved on to investigate the gpu. Same issue... glob so i repeat and make it right. After securing all insides, I plugged the fan back in then battery and then wall adapter. I turned it on to do a stress test to help the thermal process only to discover the only status light that lit up was the wall power, and of coarse the power button. The keyboard backlit button worked but nothing else on the control panel worked. It lit up but did nothing but dimmed upon lifting my finger. The display was black as if no power at all was reaching it. The MSI logo on the lid was black as well. So I unplug from the wall, remove battery and pop off the bottom to double check all connections but found nothing wrong. I reseat the DIMM, disconnected the CMOS and tried to power on to dissipate and power within. Put everything together and made sure it was all plugged in securely. I attempted to power up again only to discover nothing had changed. I open again to clean/reapply the thermal paste and make sure all the pins were free and clear of paste. Still no change.
$660 later to not including cleaning/TIM supplies.
A gaming laptop has been rendered a paperweight.
It’s supposed to be automatic, but actually you have to push this button.– John Brunner