Laptop wont start, liquid metal

[porina]

Right, the title is probably going to get some attention, but one step at a time.

 

Laptop is MSI GE62 6QF, over two years old. Following the LTT vid on liquid metal a laptop earlier this year, I did mine. All was fine. GPU temps didn't change. CPU temps did.

 

Today I tried turning it on (plugged in), it booted normally, I logged in and went away while it did Windows Updates. When I got back, the screen was dark, and only the power LED was lit. Nothing I did would "wake" it. Long press power button and it turned off. Short press to turn on again results in the power button lighting up, the disk activity LED flashing a little... then nothing. The other two controls for fan speed and keyboard backlight were still functional, but these might be managed separately so I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

I tried various permutations of power plugged in or not, the reset button under the laptop, nothing. Left it alone off but plugged in for a while, no change other than the battery charge light was no longer lit, suggesting it was now full.

 

Screwdriver time, opened it up, everything looks normal. Tried checking visible connections, reseating ram and SSD. None of that made a difference. Took out bios battery (with main battery also removed), nope, didn't help.

 

Take off the cooling assembly, this is getting more interesting. On both the CPU and GPU sides, it looked a bit crusty. Using a cotton bud, I was able to wipe away liquid remaining on the CPU. The GPU stuff seemed dry, and came off dull dark grey rather than metallic silver colour. I cleaned off the CPU/GPU dies as best I could then started on the cooling assembly. The contact areas look like copper, and they had a crusty appearance. Rubbing this also mostly came off black or dark grey.

 

Anyway, I cleaned off what I could and re-applied MX-4 on both. Reassembled and... no change. Still just the blue power LED staying lit and nothing else. With that, I'm out of ideas at the moment. I have no evidence for or against the LM being responsible for the non-functioning, but it is something I did to the laptop making it... let's say, non standard.

 

As a random idea I've put it in the fridge, although don't ask me why that might help. If it doesn't revive, time for a new laptop, with blackjack and hookers.

 

 

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, porina said:

 

Perhaps utterly stupid suggestion, but have you tried an external monitor?

[porina]

Just now, For Science! said:

Perhaps utterly stupid suggestion, but have you tried an external monitor?

I haven't, but it was a thought. Must have got distracted and forgot about it.

 

I have a partial result with the fridge trick, which thinking more, was a supposed workaround to bootloop problems on Nexus 5X. Anyway, first attempt the keyboard lit up red, which it didn't do before. After some waiting, I saw the MSI logo come on screen and it booted. Logged in, fired up some temp monitoring software, seemed normal at that time. Let's give it a load, fired up FFXV benchmark, and screen went blank while it was loading. It kinda bootlooped a bit before I gave up.

 

It's a clue... could something be unhappy when it warms up, and if so, what?

[genexis_x]

I don't think LM is the fault. Maybe storage died. Or something in the mobo has broken. There are many possible reasons.

 

@D13H4RD2L1V3

[D13H4RD]

Since the machine powered up still, I don't think it's LM

[porina]

The only clue I have to go on is it seems to boot from cold, so there is some thermal thing going on. I'm pretty confident it isn't the CPU or GPU, but something else might have got disturbed in the process. For example, there are some thermal pads also on the cooling assembly. While I didn't do anything with them, I could check them again.

[porina]

On further inspection, some of the thermal pads are degraded. I've ordered new and will replace and see if that helps.

[porina]

Got replacement thermal pads, fitted them and... nope, problem is still there. Waved a thermal camera around at it, didn't see any hot spots.

 

I tried ram one stick at a time, so that's unlikely to be it. Tried different disk previously, didn't change.

 

I've had a suggestion from elsewhere to try the oven trick. I'm not a believer in it, but I'm reaching the point where I have few if any options left remaining. Tomorrow I'll try extracting the mobo and see if there's any clues on the opposite side.

[porina]

 

Took apart the laptop further and looked at the other side of the mobo. The only thing that looked out of place was a small patch of unknown residue near the left trackpad switch as shown in the above pic, which was taken after I had cleaned it with some alcohol. Could something have got in at some point via the trackpad area? Reassembled it and... still doesn't work. No change. Think I'm out of options now...

 

Now I have the mobo part number above, I did a search for it. Two hits on ebay US, starting $550. No thanks...