HELP! MSI GT72 power issues

Recently, the PSU for my GT72 6QD turns off while i'm gaming (the LED on the charger turns off). It works flawlessly on desktop, internet browsing etc. but when gaming the PSU will eventually turn off (sometimes after 5 mins, sometimes an hour).

My laptop battery has been dead for a while now, so when the PSU turns off, the laptop has a minute or so before it also dies. If i'm able to unplug the PSU from the mains and reconnect it before the laptop dies, then i'm able to resume gaming without the game or laptop crashing.

I suspected the issue was related to my battery, so i disconnected my battery, to try the laptop on AC alone. Again, the laptop boots and works fine under light load (desktop, browsing etc.). However, the laptop now turns off immediately when a game is launched. Unlike when the battery was connected, this is immediate and does not allow for any gameplay whatsoever. Also unlike when the battery was connected, when the laptop dies the PSU now stays on.

From what I've read here and on other forums, the problem is likely either with the battery, the PSU, the GPU or the power IC unit. I've ordered a third party PSU from amazon to test (awaiting delivery) but i'm unable to find a trustworthy battery replacement. It seems unlikely to me that it would be a GPU problem, as games continue to run after the PSU dies (when battery is also connected). My technical knowledge is very limited, so i know almost nothing about power IC units and how to diagnose problems with these.

@Kevin@GenTechPC @Khenglish @hacktrix2006 @Falkentyne

I've tagged you guys as I've seen you help in similar posts. Thanks in advance for any responses! Any insight or help with diagnosis & repair will be greatly appreciated!

I'm happy to provide further information and to perform tests if instructed how to do so.

hacktrix - i noticed that you had a similar issue and discovered a fix related to an intel ME firmware update. I'm not sure how to try this fix, any advice?

Background info:

Battery - As mentioned the laptop battery has been dead for some time now. When running on battery alone, the laptop will turn off without warning. Sometimes this happens within a few minutes, other times within an hour. This does not happen at a consistent battery level (according to windows), for example the battery may state 35% or 80% when the laptop dies. The laptop will not turn back on until the PSU is connected.

Power jack - Recently my power jack failed and a friend and i were able to replace it. This appears to have been working properly since the repair. I'm not sure if this is related.

PSU - There have been a few instances where my PSU has shut down in the past. This has been very infrequent (once or twice within the last year) until now and predates the power jack repair.

GPU - over the past 6 months or so, i've been overclocking my GPU. A custom VBIOS was provided by a member of the MSI forums to allow me to do this. Since finding a stable overclock, i've not had any problems with artifacting. Again, not sure if this is related.

New monitor - I recently purchased a new monitor which has a resolution of 3440x1440, a significant upgrade to the 1920x1080 monitor that i currently game on. I tried playing a game on the new monitor with my laptop and was able to achieve around 100FPS (relatively low graphics game). However, after a short while of playing, both the monitor and laptop screen turned off and required me to do a hard reset of my laptop. After restarting and trying again, this happened a second time, except this time the PSU also turned off. This was actually the start of my recent issues with the laptop/PSU, which now occur even when gaming on my 1080p monitor.

 

Right so as you have already pulled the battery out, that rules that out which leaves GPU or Power IC,. So remove the GPU and test load after if the issue is then solved try placing the GPU back in to see if the issue returns if it does it's the GPU.

As for the Intel ME firmware unless you updated to the very latest it will not be that causing the issue.

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Thanks for the swift reponse @hacktrix2006.

I'll pull the GPU out and give that a try ASAP. Quick question on this though - is there a good way to test load without a GPU in? I can try to run a game but will it even run without a GPU?

The new PSU literally just arrived, so will also test that now. Its aftermarket but hopefully will be good enough to test.

On Intel ME firmware - its possible that i updated it but i'm honestly not sure. How do i check the firmware version? and which firmware version is problematic?

 

update - I just tried running a game with the new PSU, battery still disconnected. The laptop died pretty much immediately, this time the PSU also turned off (unlike with the original PSU with battery disconnected).

 

So it's the GPU

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Ok, will check the GPU next. Any recommendation on how to test?

Just to confirm - the intel ME firmware that i've got installed seems to be 11.8.50.3425, am i right in thinking that this isn't the latest version and, therefore, isn't the cause of the problem?

 

IME is fine. GPU check is required

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I've not yet physically removed the GPU but the laptop has a button that disables the GPU and switches to integrated graphics. I just tried to run a game using integrated graphics and it runs without the laptop crashing (albeit at 6 FPS).

Does this confirm that its a GPU problem? Or could it still be the power IC unit (or something else)? I'm guessing that disabling the GPU reduces the power requirement, so could also reduce the symptoms of other, power related, issues. Is there anyway to confirm what is causing the problem?

 

What GPU do you have.

You also mention that you have a modded vbios have you tried to see if a stock vbios resolves the issue?


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I've got the stock gtx 970m. I'll try flashing the original vbios today, to see if that resolves the issue.

I've been using the laptop in integrated graphics mode for a couple of days now with no problems. However, this morning my laptop began doing something strange. When i turned it on, I could hear (what i presume to be) the fans starting, then a clicking noise and the laptop fails to start. It does this over and over again, without me pressing the power button again, until the MSI logo eventually appears on the screen. The laptop then boots as normal.