Overheating Issues (Software Related)

As the title implies, I believe I'm having an overheating issue that lies at the software level...maybe. Possibly.

Laptop: MSI Gx640
Model #: MS-1656
Link to MFR's description page: http://www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?id=216
Specs: ~2 years old, i5-430M processor, 4 gigs ram (2x2), Radeon HD 5850 Broadway Pro (1 gig vram), 9 cell battery

The story so far...
About a month and a half ago, I was having issues with my laptop randomly shutting down when doing resource-intensive tasks (games, photoshop, rendering, etc.). I was worried it was overheating, so I re-created the problem a couple times, looking at various temperatures both in the BIOS and through Speccy (fancy little program if you've never used it before) immediately after a shutdown would occur. Oddly enough, the temperatures were well within the manufacturer's "safe ranges". I dealt with the shutdowns for a little while longer, investigating them every time - I'd check the event viewer, temperatures, I even ended up taking it apart to check for dust clogging anything (it was suspiciously clean...). The laptop has been on a laptop cooler since day one, and I take pretty damn good care of my electronics, so I highly doubt this is an issue of abuse or misuse.

After a while, I re-installed Windows. I figured doing this would answer the question of it being a hardware vs. software issue. The reinstall fixed the problem for a few weeks. I can't imagine that reinstalling the OS would be a significant enough of a change to fix things for THAT long if the issue was hardware related, right? Anyways, after almost a month of no issues, I had no use for it for ~ a week, and so for that whole week, it remained OFF.

Yesterday, someone turned it on, threw a file on a flash drive (verified clear of viruses), and then turned the laptop off. Today, I went to turn it on, and saw that it was actually still on! No biggie though, right? Nothing was running on it all night, and my home is fairly cool, so it wasn't getting hot. Anyways, the screen was blank, so I assumed it went into a hibernate mode. Nothing I did could bring the screen back on, so I force-restarted it. It would get through the BIOS just fine, show the "Loading windows" screen, and then the screen would just go black as soon as it should've loaded the windows logon screen. The fans all ran at ~max speed, and my HDD was getting extremely hot. I restarted it in safe mode, assuming something wonky was trying to boot with the OS. I turned off everything that wasn't windows-related and restarted the computer. Same issue. Safe mode again, and I tried to uninstall my video card's drivers (harder than you might think when the installer service refuses to run in safe mode). After tinkering with that again, I realized that my fans were running pretty damn high, and my HDD was hot again. It was overheating in safe mode (wut). It shut down right as I noticed, and refused to turn right back on. The battery was hot, the HDD was hot, the CPU was hot... I unplugged it, took the battery out, and It's currently cooling.


tl;dr: Laptop overheating, even in safe mode a couple weeks after a fresh windows install. All drivers supplied by the mfr were installed, so nothing seems to be missing. After overheating in safe mode, computer refuses to boot even to BIOS. Thoughts?

 

Hi Kulahan. Welcome to Computer Help Forums.
You have done everything I would have suggested.
Are there any Beeps on startup or odd noises?
This is a difficult issue and one for our Senior Specialists.

 

Unfortunately, hitting the power button doesn't actually receive any sort of response at this point, though when I restarted my computer previously, there were no beeps.

I guess this is more of a curiosity thing at this point; I'm assuming the laptop is gone, but I'm wondering if anyone has ideas as to what the issue might've been. I'm guessing voltage attacked the CPU, or something along those lines, but I can't be sure.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Because of the time zones it may be a little while before you get more replies.
If there is no response from the start button it seems like a power management issue.
I would take the battery out, unplug from Wall.
Leave for 24hrs and put the battery back in and try.
Are you sure your battery is not a brick?
Without a Voltmeter test it is really a guessing game.

 

I'm fairly certain - I tried plugging the laptop in to the wall without a battery inserted, and I tried turning it on with just the battery in, unplugged; no dice.

And that's fine about the time zone difference; I'm a pretty patient guy.

I left it plugged in pretty constantly, so maybe something caused a mini-surge. My laptop isn't on a surge protector, but everything else I've got (in the offending room, anyways) is. I'm still having a hard time understanding the fans. The more I think about it, a really inconvenient short somewhere on the mobo (maybe in multiple places at once?) could've caused a couple random issues. Maybe the restarting from a while back is a totally different issue that a fresh OS install fixed, and this is just an unfortunately-timed new issue.

 

Hi, from all you explained, I firstly agree this is a new issue and not related to the earlier one cured by the re-install of the OS, though there could just be a vague hint that something was starting to go amiss.

As for the present issue, I am with DSTM a 100% that it is an issue in the power management hardware, possibly the bit for the lower voltages is allowing too higfh a voltage out. Considering in most laptops it is integral to the motherboard, it is a new board needed. However, to be sure, you would need both a voltmeter and enough information about the motherboard and the power management hardware to test it out.

Nev.

 

In addition to the advice above it might be worth trying to reapply thermal paste to your CPU and GPU (they will be quite easy to see under either the heatsink or fan & heatsink assembly), since you've unassembled the laptop already this shouldn't be too much of a problem, I can't see it hurting anything to have a go though as it doesn't sound good for the laptop either way.

 

I think it's a waste of time, Woody until you can get it to boot.

 

I wouldn't entirely rule it out, like I say it is worth a try just to help a bit with the temperature issues Kulahan is having, we don't have any figures for temperatures in this laptop but some reapplied thermal paste (AS5 in my case) can knock anything from 5-20c off temperatures on laptops I've worked on (depends how dirty inside/old the laptops were).

At the very least I would disassemble the laptop again, as the previous time it was taken apart may have introduced this power issue like a short circuit (challenging to pack everything back in again neatly, like wires/cables etc), all worth the 1-2 hours effort in my opinion.

 

I agree 100% Woody while it is dismantled to add some paste.
There is nothing to lose and maybe as you say dismantle again and double check all connections etc.
Why no power to the start switch is a worry.
This could even be a human error somewhere.