MSI Raider GE68 hx 13vi overheating and crashing

[ArniBandyo]

Hello,

I've bought this laptop end of Jan, 2024 with upgraded ssd & RAM from official MSI store. From day 1 it was running hot (reaching 95 c during cinebench r24 multi core test) causing thermal throttle, but remained around 80-90 c during my usual tasks/gaming after some undervolting. But from December, 2024 the thermal throttling started and from Jan, 2025 crashing/restart began frequently. I've undervolted both core and ring by 100mV, underclocked to 3.7ghz for 4 p-cores and 2.8 ghz for the remaining 4 p-cores, reduced the PL1 & PL2 to 60W & 74 W respectively, did thermal re-pasting via MSI certified service center (because there was a clipped screw in the heatsink) and it still didn't resolve the heat and performance issue although reduced the restart instances. So, last night it again restarted due to high temp, and today while having a closer look at the HWinfo I noticed that the PCH temp is too high even at idle. It's reaching 90c and only going down to 80c if I use coolerboost. Attached is the HWinfo readings.

At this point I'm not sure what else can be done from my end. So any help would be highly appreciated.

P.s. since the whole Intel 13th & 14th gen fiasco, MSI did provide an update bios for this laptop, but the updated bios is using microcode 113 instead of 129/12B.

Edited April 20 by ArniBandyo
Copy pasted twice by mistake.

[strange13930]

5 hours ago, ArniBandyo said:

Hello,

I've bought this laptop end of Jan, 2024 with upgraded ssd & RAM from official MSI store. From day 1 it was running hot (reaching 95 c during cinebench r24 multi core test) causing thermal throttle, but remained around 80-90 c during my usual tasks/gaming after some undervolting. But from December, 2024 the thermal throttling started and from Jan, 2025 crashing/restart began frequently. I've undervolted both core and ring by 100mV, underclocked to 3.7ghz for 4 p-cores and 2.8 ghz for the remaining 4 p-cores, reduced the PL1 & PL2 to 60W & 74 W respectively, did thermal re-pasting via MSI certified service center (because there was a clipped screw in the heatsink) and it still didn't resolve the heat and performance issue although reduced the restart instances. So, last night it again restarted due to high temp, and today while having a closer look at the HWinfo I noticed that the PCH temp is too high even at idle. It's reaching 90c and only going down to 80c if I use coolerboost. Attached is the HWinfo readings.

At this point I'm not sure what else can be done from my end. So any help would be highly appreciated.

P.s. since the whole Intel 13th & 14th gen fiasco, MSI did provide an update bios for this laptop, but the updated bios is using microcode 113 instead of 129/12B.Hello,

I've bought this laptop end of Jan, 2024 with upgraded ssd & RAM from official MSI store. From day 1 it was running hot (reaching 95 c during cinebench r24 multi core test) causing thermal throttle, but remained around 80-90 c during my usual tasks/gaming after some undervolting. But from December, 2024 the thermal throttling started and from Jan, 2025 crashing/restart began frequently. I've undervolted both core and ring by 100mV, underclocked to 3.7ghz for 4 p-cores and 2.8 ghz for the remaining 4 p-cores, reduced the PL1 & PL2 to 60W & 74 W respectively, did thermal re-pasting via MSI certified service center (because there was a clipped screw in the heatsink) and it still didn't resolve the heat and performance issue although reduced the restart instances. So, last night it again restarted due to high temp, and today while having a closer look at the HWinfo I noticed that the PCH temp is too high even at idle. It's reaching 90c and only going down to 80c if I use coolerboost. Attached is the HWinfo readings of idle with high PCH temp and post restart after playing Doom eternal for 5 minutes (filename: HWinfo_scrnshot3.jpeg). Note for the 2nd screenshot, since this was after restart, the frequencies were rolled back to their default settings. But at the time of playing/restart, 4 P-cores were clocked at 3.8 ghz and the rest were at 2.8 ghz. 

At this point I'm not sure what else can be done from my end. So any help would be highly appreciated.

P.s. since the whole Intel 13th & 14th gen fiasco, MSI did provide an update bios for this laptop, but the updated bios is still using microcode 113 instead of 129/12B.

When using it prop it up so there’s more room under it. Have you cleaned the fans at all?

[Mark Kaine]

6 hours ago, strange13930 said:

When using it prop it up so there’s more room under it. Have you cleaned the fans at all?

When I bought my new laptop (R9 7940hx) I immediately also bought this thing for 30 bucks

worth every penny, it's also really cool as it comes with a dust filter (additionally to the ones in the laptop already)

 

Good for about 10-20c lower temps... Idk why people would want to use a laptop without cooler, my old Lenovo is the same , basically unusable for gaming without the 15 bucks "cooling pad" I bought...

 

To me a laptop sure is portable, but it's definitely not meant to be used without plugged into power and additional cooling for gaming.  

[spunk.funk]

15 hours ago, ArniBandyo said:

From day 1 it was running hot (reaching 95 c during cinebench r24 multi core test) causing thermal throttle

Why would you not return this laptop when it was new if it was running hot?

 

As stated, get yourself a Laptop Cooling Pad which is powered by one of the USB ports 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop+cooling+pad&crid=127UX11V7QSRR&sprefix=laptop+cool%2Caps%2C127&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_11

[ArniBandyo]

7 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

When I bought my new laptop (R9 7940hx) I immediately also bought this thing for 30 bucks

worth every penny, it's also really cool as it comes with a dust filter (additionally to the ones in the laptop already)

 

Good for about 10-20c lower temps... Idk why people would want to use a laptop without cooler, my old Lenovo is the same , basically unusable for gaming without the 15 bucks "cooling pad" I bought...

 

To me a laptop sure is portable, but it's definitely not meant to be used without plugged into power and additional cooling for gaming.  

Been using the following from day one:
https://www.thermaltake.com/thermaltake-massive-20-rgb.html

 

[ArniBandyo]

4 hours ago, spunk.funk said:

Why would you not return this laptop when it was new if it was running hot?

 

As stated, get yourself a Laptop Cooling Pad which is powered by one of the USB ports 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laptop+cooling+pad&crid=127UX11V7QSRR&sprefix=laptop+cool%2Caps%2C127&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_11

Apparently all the reviews suggested that this temp range is normal for this cpu/laptop. And the crashes started since December. It''s still under warranty. So if no solution is found that's going to be the last resort.
Unfortunately this is my daily driver for work as well without any back up system. 
Also using this laptop cooler from day one: https://www.thermaltake.com/thermaltake-massive-20-rgb.html

[ArniBandyo]

14 hours ago, strange13930 said:

When using it prop it up so there’s more room under it. Have you cleaned the fans at all?

Yes, I'm using this thermaltake stand: https://www.thermaltake.com/thermaltake-massive-20-rgb.html.

And recently did a thermal repaste by MSI certified service center. So fans and everything is serviced. Also GPU (RTX4090 M) never gets hot. 60-70c max during any regular task and around 80+-2c during synthetic testing.

[SesuDesu]

On 4/19/2025 at 5:22 AM, ArniBandyo said:

Hello,

I've bought this laptop end of Jan, 2024 with upgraded ssd & RAM from official MSI store. From day 1 it was running hot (reaching 95 c during cinebench r24 multi core test) causing thermal throttle, but remained around 80-90 c during my usual tasks/gaming after some undervolting. But from December, 2024 the thermal throttling started and from Jan, 2025 crashing/restart began frequently. I've undervolted both core and ring by 100mV, underclocked to 3.7ghz for 4 p-cores and 2.8 ghz for the remaining 4 p-cores, reduced the PL1 & PL2 to 60W & 74 W respectively, did thermal re-pasting via MSI certified service center (because there was a clipped screw in the heatsink) and it still didn't resolve the heat and performance issue although reduced the restart instances. So, last night it again restarted due to high temp, and today while having a closer look at the HWinfo I noticed that the PCH temp is too high even at idle. It's reaching 90c and only going down to 80c if I use coolerboost. Attached is the HWinfo readings.

At this point I'm not sure what else can be done from my end. So any help would be highly appreciated.

P.s. since the whole Intel 13th & 14th gen fiasco, MSI did provide an update bios for this laptop, but the updated bios is using microcode 113 instead of 129/12B.

I have the very same laptop. I got it on a deal at Costco around September or October 2023 IIRC. For the first few months everything was fine, no complaints at all, but eventually, during gaming session with friends I would experience overheats and hard thermal shutdowns. I was able to mitigate most issues for a while by cranking up the fan curves when gaming, but recently that hasn't been enough. 

 

I've been doing a lot of digging trying to find the exact cause and I have found references to some DDR5 being very heat sensitive, and everyone else saying "oh clean all the hair out of it and use a cooling mat noob" and all those are not great answers. This makes the most sense out of anything I've seen! Right now I have my system out of commission, as it's unuseable in this state, and I intend to do some upgrades. Better ram, clean up, and add in some ptm7950 instead of stock thermal paste. I'll see about trying to get some kind of heat sink/better cooling situation around the PCH, and see where that gets me. Apologies for not having stats, and graphs or anything right now, but once it's back online I'll run a full test campaign and see if I can make these thermal shutdowns go away.