Reboot cycle, blank screen, can't get bios

[mondaymother]

Hi everyone.

I have a strange issue with my MSI GS70 Stealth Pro, I'll give all the details below, it's a bit convoluted so bare with me. I really hope someone has some new ideas because I have no spare cash for a repair/ new laptop so need to figure this out myself!

So, I was playing a game and the screen froze with the image locked up. I couldn't alt f4 or ctrl alt del, so I held the off button to turn it off (it's done this a couple times before).

When I rebooted it got stuck loading the MSI logo so I turned it off and on.

Then I got the MSI logo but with a message underneath saying something like "repairing" and a spinning circle. The spinning circle stopped spinning and after a while (3 mins or so) I rebooted again. Same issue again.

I read somewhere that to fix this I just need to go into the bios and then save and exit. So I did this but still got the same problem.

I tried the bios thing again (changing the language to English and save exiting) but got the same problem.

So somewhere else suggested resetting the ec controller. So I did this (by unplugging battery and ac and pressing the power button (and I used the MSI ec reset button) before trying to boot again.

Unfortunately now I don't get any power to the screen but everything else turns on. The laptop then stays on for 15 second before turning itself off. It then turns itself back on again does the exact same thing for about 40 second this time before turning off again.

I can no longer get into the bios or anything as I am not getting any power to the screen (no backlight or anything).

So I take everything out (hdd, ssd (operating system etc) and try booting the bios. Miraculously I get the bios, screen on and everything. So I turn off put the ssd back in and try for the bios again but I then get the black screen boot/ reboot issue as described above.

I've checked the ram, no issues there. Oh and I have taken the CMOS battery out and tried rebooting after a few mins of that being out, still same issue.

Currently I can't get back into the bios even with the ssd unplugged and I am completely confused as to what has gone wrong. I'm praying people are not going to tell me the gpu is toast because personally I don't think it is (I have had screen freezes before).

Does anyone have any ideas as to what on earth is going on!?

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Tom

 

[ebm9000]

I don't know if this applies to a pre-boot environment but:

Most gaming laptops have a discrete card, in your case the GTX970M. HOWEVER, when the laptop is running without the AC adapter plugged in, the machine is supposed to switch to the onboard Intel HD 530 graphics. Does anything happen when you do that?

 

[mondaymother]

Hi EBM thank you for your reply,really appreciate you looking into this.

I have tried booting with just the battery, just the a.c. and both. Sadly the same issue each time.

One additional new piece of info: now (in the last 30 mins) i no longer see the LED charging light appear when i have the a.c. and battery plugged in...

 

[ebm9000]

Board's probably shot. You should send it in.

 

[mondaymother]

I've been able to get into the bios since this started though which makes me think it's still got life in there.

Can resetting the ec controller cause issues? I bought the laptop with Windows 8 on it but have windows 10 on the ssd...

 

[ebm9000]

Windows 10 will work fine with the system. Resetting the EC is actually supposed to fix basic problems with the system. You can do this (again; try resetting the EC again) by (quoted from https://www.xoticpcforums.com):

HOW TO RESET THE EC IF YOUR LAPTOP IS MSI-BRAND
To do this, follow the steps below:

turn off the unit completely

unplug it from any power sources/ac adapters and also unplug all peripherals such as mice/keyboards, headphones, ect.

Locate the EC reset button. This button may be on the sides, the back, or even the bottom of the unit. It is extremely small, and could be mistaken for a screw-hole. This button is typically indicated by a circular/battery/lightning bolt symbol. Sometimes it'll simply just say "EC" in small text (MSI is not very consistent with labeling their EC button, be sure to look thoroughly!)

With a small object such as a needle or paper clip, hold down the unit's EC button for a maximum of 30 seconds.

Release the button for 10 seconds, and hold again for another 30 seconds.

Plug in the AC adapter and let the unit charge for 5 minutes and turn on the computer normally.

 

[mondaymother]

Unfortunately I've tried this already. I've sent it in for repair (not to msi) to see if they can work out the issue because I'm all out of ideas