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Looks like a place full of smart people.
Here's what I'm dealing with.
I got back from Afghanistan and decided to clean the sand out my laptop.
Fan is clean.
Being a few years old and having reboot issues I decided to get some artic silver 5 thermal paste to replace the old crap.
After applying said paste to my gpu and cpu I powered up and waited 30 minutes for the screen to show me some signs of life.
I reopened the laptop to double check all connections and that everything was seated correctly, it was.
I know I have applied the TIM correctly coating 100% of the surface and thin yet enough to barely squish out the sides "barely".
The thermal tape is covering what it should.
I read that sometimes you may need to unplug cmos. That proved fruitless.

Ok so what happens when I power up is:
Power button lights up and fan kicks on.
The indicators on the front are not flashing like they did, i.e.the hdd doesn't show its working and the screen is off. The MSI logo on the lid doesn't even light up when it used to. The dash has only a few that work like key backlight "works" and the external monitor button lights up yet does nothing even with another monitor attached.

I feel I was cautious enough to not actually damage anything in the process yet something is just not right.

Anyone have similar issues?

Here what I have:

Brand MSI
Model GT780DXR

Operating System Windows 10 64-Bit
CPU Intel Core i7-2630QM 2GHz
Memory 16 GB DDR3
Storage 1.5 TB
Graphics Card NVIDIA Geforce GTX570M
Video Memory 1.5 GB

CPU Type Intel Core i7 2nd Gen
CPU Speed 2630QM (2.00 GHz)
Core Name Sandy Bridge
CPU Support 6MB L3 Cache

GPU/VPU NVIDIA Geforce GTX570M GDDR5
Video Memory 1.5 GB
Graphic Type Dedicated Card

HDD 1.5 TB
HDD RPM 7200 RPM
Storage Spec 750GBx2

Memory 16 GB
Memory Speed DDR3
Memory Spec 4 GB x 4
Optical Drive

AC Adapter 180-watt AC adapter
Battery 9-cell lithium ion

MrKevin74 wrote:

Being a few years old and having reboot issues

Unfortunately that may have been your laptop's death knell, i..e failing solder joints or other heat/electrical damage had occurred and taking it apart simply finished it off. You can try disassembling the unit again and cleaning every edge contact etc. with rubbing alcohol and/or a pencil eraser just to be sure they're clean. A dead GPU is possible, if you can find a replacement GPU module on eBay for cheap, you could try a swap before giving up entirely.

Yup. I would open it up again and carefully check that any ribbon cables or connectors you had to undo or which you might have dislodged by accident are properly seated. Also re-seat the DIMMs.

If that doesn't help, you may have a bad solder joint, a failed component, or ESD damage (did you take proper precautions while working inside?), none of which are going to be easy to diagnose or fix.

Yes sir, took precautions. I tried a few other things I read as in disconnecting the CMOS. Was working fine before just a hot boot up and a loud fan. I think when I went I to full retard mode and lifted the cpu chip, I pretty much flipped the switch on its life. I was apparently ignorantly curious when I should of left it alone. I purchased this laptop in 2012. Since then it has survived a deployment to afghanistan. Maybe the sand and dust in it was what kept it going lol. Meh, I'll give it a few more goes then I'll just accept it's death and bury it with honors.

Well, after you've tried everything else, before you give up on it for good lift the CPU again and check for bent pins; maybe one got nudged when you lifted it the first time. Pins that are not badly bent can sometimes be straightened.

If it is well and truly dead, 5 years for a laptop -- at least part of which was in a rather harsh environment -- is impressive. It had a pretty good run.

I'll give that a look. Thanks.

Funny, Afghanistan killed my previous laptop too. It's a really rough environment, and it killed the solder joints for my BGA graphics card in my laptop.

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.

So wait... they replaced the motherboard, and didn't clean anything while they were in there? Sounds like a bunch of scammers.

[spoiler]yeah, kinda what I was thinking. Found out today that the Computer Renaissance up north indy is legit and the one I went to closer to home shares the name only. Called the legit one and found out that is the only store in the area and the other guy managing the store under the Renaissance name was faking employees and cutting/cashing checks himself. If this is the same scam guy I'm going to see he doesn't scam anyone else./spoiler]

There are three of them in the Indy area listed on the company's web site -- two in Indy and one in Greenwood. Color me confused.

Not sure how North Indy can be the "only store in the area" when the company's own web site lists three.

There used to be 3 but the owner moved to Texas and took the business with him. He trusted the legit guy to run and maintain the remaining store

Sounds like the web site needs some serious updating if that's the case...

It's horribly outdated. They still have a MySpace account lol

Over $600 and all that time spent, I feel bad for you.

Best to save the hard drive contents and then give this one a burial at your local hazardous waste collection point, then start looking at new machines.

The GOOD news is that you have excellent choices for a new graphic/gaming machine.

I wish you luck. And I thank you for your service in Afghanistan. What branch are/were you in?

ARMY, 14 years took a break bow im trying to get back in
Thanks for your support.

If you feel like going through the trouble, work out the parts that you know are working (screen, keyboard, touchpad, charger, etc) and flip then on eBay or Craigslist. Should get a couple hundred back.

Thanks for your service!

I'm with JBI on the potential issues. Actually, even if you did a lousy job of putting the heatsinks back on (not saying you did) then the system would probably at least boot, you'd just have lousy performance due to thermal throttling.

(Incidentally I'm also in the greater Indy region too if there's anything I could do be helpful).

I thought about that and save the good stuff for a future laptop if compatible.

So... I learned a valuable lesson.
I took it all apart one last time.
Removed everything and put it all back together again.
Apparently, I'm guessing the CPU was not so securely fastened down. I reapplied more thermal and it booted up fine. Was concerned at first cause the fan didnt kick on like ive been used to. But it's so frigging super clean, I
guess it wouldn't till it was needed. All control panel buttons work minus the turbo button but I have installed that yet .
Guess the moral to all this is always check and triple check connections even if it appears visually secure.

MrKevin74 wrote:

Guess the moral to all this is always check and triple check connections even if it appears visually secure.

I've been bit by the same issue with drive and PCIe connectors that look like they are fine from a brief visual inspection but then you realize they weren't 100% seated properly... and your hardware suddenly starts working!

Glad you are back in business and welcome back stateside.

Much appreciated!

Glad to hear the laptop's back on the air.

And thank you for your service over in the Sandbox!

Thanks, I think I'm going to still save some pennies to get something a little better. Just stress tested for 20 minutes and it reboot my system lol
Resting temp is 100°F (37°C) to 107°F (41°), about to see what it's at when system is forced to reboot. I'm sure I got the thermal on good. There is abspot that the thermal tape is folded that is probably preventing a good flush connection. Not to sure about where to go to get thermal tape just yet.

Then again it's not quite set yet.
Is there a brand of thermal tape better than others?

So I purchased some Fujipoly thermal tape and correctly placed in the appropriate locations in my laptop. Gotta say this stuff is magical. Did some stress tests ans found my original power supply to be causing my system to reboot also. Got a new power supply and now i cant seem to cause any further issues other than cosmetic. Once I find a new border frame top and bottom for my screen it'll be like new.

Power supply as in charger?

Yep, was weird.
Laptop kept shutting down after I did all that. So I put the adapter to my ear and heard crackling sounds. I unplugged from laptop then stressed it out with a graphically demanding game and it didn't reboot. Plugged it back in did the game once more and it rebooted. Some weird power thing getting triggered to save my laptop. I used the replacement wall adapter and haven't had issues since.