MSI GT70 Laptop won't boot or go past MSI logo... Help pls <3

[HaydenHavok]

I don't know if the cause of this problem is hardware related or the BIOS software  soooo move if need be.

Hello y'all, so I guess I'll get straight to the problem and what I've done to try and fix it.

Alrighty so basically the lappy was acting odd/laggy and it had been on for a day or 2 straight. So I decided it was about time to restart it and I went to restart and it popped up saying it still had some things running and so I did force restart.

Went down then back up and it was in BIOS for some reason. It asked something and so I made like 2 changes and I can't even remember what the changes were to be honest and I'm mad at myself for it. So after I went to save and Exit the laptop would NOT go past the MSI Logo.
i.imgur .com/SIc127p.jpg
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Now that I'm stuck on the logo, I can't get into BIOS I tried tapping Del key over and over or even F1 F2 F3 F4 I tried doing them +Ctrl and +Alt and +Ctrl+Alt
It simply will not go past this. The Power button is staying White, and the keyboard lights up BUT if I press numlock or caps lock the light will NOT cut on on the board for whatever reason.

So after doing what I can with it like it is, and I've tried booting it with no usb things in still nothing. I did some digging and thought if I could get to the CMOS battery that I could reset the BIOS and undo whatever settings I changed and I'd be back in business. I took my laptop apart, yes even down to the mother board, found what I figured is the CMOS. My CMOS looks different then a lot of what I've seen on other mother boards where it just pops on out.
Pic : i.imgur .com/TXi2cFz.jpg
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So then a cord goes to the other side of the board

Pic : i.imgur .com/qYmtf2b.jpg
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(I did the following without the big battery in the laptop, just pointing that out before somebody says it.)
So I left it out for 5 minutes, plugged it in, nothing. I did it for 30, same thing. I did it for a whole 24 hours, nothing.

After doing this and taking my baby apart and putting it back again together again I'm still getting this same thing. :/
I'm totally lost. I called MSI support and he told me to hold down the power button with no battery in for 40 sec to reset BIOS and that didn't seem to work.

 They said my warantee is still good and to send it in but I'd have to pay for shipping and that if they figured that the issue was caused by me taking it apart(which it wasn't it happened prior) they would still repair it but I'd have to pay for the repair.
I'm in the middle of changing jobs, so I'm using all my money at the moment to get to this new job AND move closer to said job and I'm only making it by because of my mom helping a bit. So I don't have money for shipping and possible paying the fix fee.

So I thought maybe it's the hard drive that's messed up, and it does the same thing without the harddrive in or with the harddrive of another laptop in. So I'm thinking that it's not even getting to the point of reading the hard drive. My friend said that he figures that it's not even getting to POST , which I believe.

I wouldn't have to replace the mother board just because of a setting I changed in BIOS would I?

Shouldn't my keyboard lights like Caps and Numlock still come on Pre POST or during POST so that I CAN get into BIOS?

If any of you guys have any ideas let me know and I'll try them. Thanks for any support!
I just basically NEED this computer to work :/ I've taken apart laptops and put them back together perfectly fine so that's not an issue, and when I'm with this new job I'll be building my own desktop, but for now I just need this.

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[coastie65]

You got to the splash screen and no further. The last one I had do that, it was the Hdd. If you are getting to the first splash screen then it IS POSTing. Are you getting any beeps?

[HaydenHavok]

Thanks for your reply, and no , no beeps are happening, and from what I've noticed I've never heard a beep on startup with this lappy.

[DaveLembke]

How costly is shipping it back?

MSI has been known to fail in ways like this due to quality issues, you will want to take advantage of any warranty that may be left on this. And opening it up to the extent that you did you may have voided this.

If at all possible, I'd reseat the RAM, and try to get it to boot off a bootable disc with memtest86 and perform an extensive memory test. If you cant get it to boot off of a disc, check to make sure the boot order is set to optical drive first, and if it still doesnt want to boot its in pretty rough shape and will likely have to go back as for this bootable disc does not require a hard drive to function etc and so its not even getting to the boot of ran OS step of the start up sequence.

[HaydenHavok]

I'm not sure on cost of shipping, I've personally never shipped anything out aside from snail mail.

I asked the guy on the support line and he assured me that the warantee was still able to be used regardless of opening.
If they can "fix" this then so can I, I just need to know how.

I've taken the RAM out and put it back in. I'm not sure how to get it to boot off of a bootable disc. I can't make sure of the boot order because I can't get into BIOS at all.

[DaveLembke]

I can't make sure of the boot order because I can't get into BIOS at all.

I asked the guy on the support line and he assured me that the warantee was still able to be used regardless of opening.
If they can "fix" this then so can I, I just need to know how.

My suggestion is to find out the cost and send it back under warranty before warranty expires or some action is performed that voids it.

You cant do much more than you already have done to troubleshoot and fix this.

[HaydenHavok]

I fixed it, my video card was bad. I took it out and started it and it went to bios, I reset to defaults and such.
You can close/lock it now.
Thanks for your efforts.

[DaveLembke]

Good to hear, and I wasnt aware that this model had integrated + addon video card as an option. It was handy that you had integrated GPU to fall back on as a troubleshooting means.

Thanks for responding back with the solution in case others ever have a similar issue with this make/model to try this option that many laptops do not have as a troubleshooting option due to integrated only GPU on main board.

[Shaawcore]

Hi! I have the exact same problem you had. The problem is, I think my videocard is welded to the motherboard. I've opened it up and removed/put back all other parts now and nothing has helped. I have tried to follow every other tip i could find in other forums but this is the problem that has been described exactly as mine. I also saw a video of someone removing the keyboard from the GE70. Do you have to do that to remove the videocard? You seem to know this stuff so please help me

[plodr]

The video is not removable in a GE70
Source: https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/3288-upgrade-the-video-card-msi-ge-70/

[mrpyle]

I realize this is an older thread. Instead of starting a new topic ... wanted to add my experience to this. Maybe it'll help some of you.

Anyway ... I believe the problem is bios related. I've seen numerous posts about this model hanging at the MSI logo. Won't boot, can't get into bios, removing cmos battery doesn't help. Removing hdd and changing ram doesn't help. Still boots to an MSI logo and hangs. Some reports say it boots to an MSI logo, then goes to a blank screen with a dot in the middle, or an underline.

I ended up removing the bios chip from the board. And using a programmer, erased it. Then after some trial an error, I found that the latest official bios downloaded from MSI, and renamed to .BIN, worked with my programmer. I was able to write the new bios to the chip. Resolder it to the board ... and now the laptop boots into windows once again. So far, so good.

Some things you will need ... a CH341A programmer. Soldering skills. Version 1.29 of the programming software. Google it ... there is a lot of info available online. Even some youtube vids about the programmer.

In my first attempt, I used a BIN file (bios dump) that I found online, in another forum. The laptop powered on to a blank screen and that was it. Wouldn't respond to anything else, no MSI logo. I ended up getting the latest version from MSI directly, on their website. Renamed it to .BIN so it would load in the programmer. Wrote it, and all worked out.

Note - renaming an official bios does not work with some computers, such as HP, where you need an actual bios dump. As the files may be in different formats not compatible with the programmer. In this case, it worked. The laptop wasn't working as is, so I figured, why not give it a go.