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Part 1
The one resource you'll mostly need is MS 1771 assembly + disassembly PDF guides, easily found on MSI's User to User HQ forums (need to be logged in). If you do not wish to subscribe to the forum, then google it and you'll find one elsewhere for sure. MS 1771 is last year's GS70 though, the actual Pro version is labeled MS 1772, and minor changes concerning the assembly, at least in the case of my own GS70 2PE-010US, are to be found. Also, because MSI's guide features bad pictures and very short descriptions, I know most people with little to no experience with laptops disassembly may not feel safe doing it even with the guide.
Hence my own take at the procedure, which is more of a slide show of better pictures (for the important part at least), with specific explanations where I found discrepancies between the MS 1771's guide and my own MS 1772 assembly, and a careful look at heatsinks and manufacturer's thermal paste application.
For those that absolutely need a video, know that they are near impossible to find, and I don't have the kind of equipment at home to shoot a proper one. But once you'll be through this photoshoot you may not feel the necessity for it anymore, it's pretty much straightforward, and quite easy. Still... I found this, the guy speaks spanish, disassembly is only partly shown and you don't get to see much of the underside of the mobo and the heatsink assembly... but here it is.
The other resource you'll need, of course, is that handy micrometric screwdriver.
If you have some antistatic bags laying around, then it's a nice add-on to temporarily store any "sensible" part while you're working on the rest, or covering your work in progress in the case you have to get away. If not, don't worry, just keep removed sensible components apart (not piled up) and safe in a clean box or on a clean wooden surface where they won't be a bother.
Keep your screws tidy. You don't have to label anything though, just keep each group of scews (say, one group for each step of the procedure involving screws) together and safe. Two groups - lower case and motherboard - will have a bunch of short ones and a couple of long ones, but don't worry about it, the MS 1771 guide tells you exactly where the longer ones go with a yellow circle instead of red - no discrepancies concerning those ones.
You won't have to disassemble the keyboard, nor the screen, to get to your fans, CPU, GPU, RAM, and heatsinks. All the procedure can be done with the laptop closed and laying underside up in front of you. Ideal orientation is the lid towards you, and the hinge away from you. Reversing the procedure to rebuild the laptop is also quite simple if you proceed logically, and all of this will in fact seem really really easy if you have any kind of kinesthetic logic working for you, or if you have some experience in building PC. Nothing will break if you proceed carefully, there are no hidden screws or cables that will have you rip something off the bad way, it doesn't matter how noob you are you'll get through this quite simply - and unharmed.
What else... it's quite fun to do, actually, and a well thought layout that's easy to follow through. BUT DO REMEMBER that MSI's "voided warranty" WILL APPLY if you break something, and YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE OF YOUR CHOICE TO FOLLOW THROUGH. You all know the drill anyway.
Note that I did not shootout the liquid metal application, nor the reassembly : I already had too much pictures with the disassembly and heatsink close shots, reassembly is easy, and there are a thousand guides out there how to apply liquid metal to an Haswell CPU. I'll still provide some details about it when we'll come to those close shots of the heatsinks, CPU-GPU die, and terrible stock TIM application. What is really missing on the net right now are images of the disassembly procedure - hence this.
So have that MSI's PDF guide ready, because I'll work from it in order to spare us some words.
1- Removing the lower case and battery
Just find the screws as they are shown on the pic in MSI's guide. It's a little blurred, but you can't mess up this part. Just remember there is one under the warranty sticker, whereas the pic doesn't display such a sticker, but still displays the correct location.
If your first time doing it, best way to go about actually removing the lower case once all screws are off is to start lifting the corners near the hinge carefully, until you have both of them lifted enough to start prying the edges down to the lid of the laptop. It takes a little strength the couple of first times to pry it off, but do not worry the plate is quite flexible, and IF all the screws are off you won't mess it up. After working your way about halfway down the edges it should more or less come off by itself. After a couple of times doing it, just removing the scews will pretty much loosen the plate enough to remove it without applying any particular strength.
FROM NOW ON, you should be aware of the possibility of electrostatic discharge from your hands to sensible components. Ground yourself before going further if you want absolute assurance; depending on your level of experience handling PC components, you may just want to ground yourself once before proceeding, and then from time to time when you have to move around - or not at all. Your choice, your responsibility. Alternatively, if you have a clean pair of typical rubber dishwashing gloves, it's another way to avoid these problems, and it's fit enough for you to retain the better part of your working skills.
You DO NOT need to remove the battery entirely, just unplugging it's cable will do. If you want to remove it, then do mind that it is quite flat and real easy to bend (bending too much is not good, I imagine), while there's two powerful adhesive bands under it that makes it hard NOT to bend it. Moreover, there's a black plastic sheet covering the entire battery, and you may feel like it's gonna rip off instead of the adhesive. Again, going about it carefully does the trick, the plastic sheet should hold on and the adhesive will eventually yield. From then on, there's only ONE more step in the procedure that requires particular caution (meaning, other than usual caution manipulating sensible parts), the rest will all come off easily.
Battery cable unplugged - big flat one over it is USB.
Battery adhesives
Without Battery - nothing under there you need to access, so you simply do not need to remove it, just unplug it.
2- HDD, SSD, WLAN
Still follow the guide. If you have those antistatic bags I was mentioning in prep, then use them accordingly to store all these components. If you don't have the bags, dispose these parts carefully in a clean carton box or on a clean wooden surface as mentioned earlier, sticker side down. If you're super worried that you'll "shock" them somehow and kill them, you may alternatively use sheets of normal paper to wrap them loosely before putting aside. But don't worry too much, these things are much more resilient than they appear, if you handle them carefully and avoid metallic or plastic surfaces - or rubbing your hair with balloons - they will be alright. Finally, DO MIND the tiny screws...
WiFi Card Removed
Close shot on the LVDS (screen) cable, found near the wireless card. Just pull the black plastic tab to unplug. The gray cable standing straight is DC in.
To be followed...
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Part 2
3- Cables and MB
Cables are pretty obvious, and the very same than in the guide. So I'll concentrate mostly on the screws that hold the MB to the whole structure, as there were differences in my case comparing to the MS 1771 guide. PDF states a total of 12 screws, 11 short and 1 long; in my MS 1772 I found a total of 10 screws, 9 short and 1 long. The locations are the same though, outside of those two screws apparently not used anymore. Roughly, we could say that half those screws are located CPU side, and the other half GPU side of the mainboard
(In green, actual screws; in red, two "missing" screws, one location doesn't even have the hole for it, as the area was redesigned to handle a third mSata slot. Three green arrows for three obvious screws not in the picture, attaching the audio board, completing my count of 10 screws holding the main board, instead of 12)
(The audio board is plugged directly to the mainboard, and two screws are found in the overlapping area between main and audio, while the third is near the HDD Sata connector. These screws are the ones missing in the previous pic, completing the set of 10 screws)
About cables : the flat plastic ones are held in place by a clip on the board, that clip should be pulled up before removing, and pushed down after plugging back. Also note that you can hold them flat cables by that darker blue plastic tab at each end, which you'll find is quite stiff and allows to pull out or push in place quite easily. Other cables are pretty much your typical connections - though some of them tiny.
Speaker cables (2), camera cable, and fan cable.
About center of the build, hiding the Keyboard & LED & TP cables, are two black plastic sheets. The left one has the upper side glued much more strongly to the MB bracket and I do not recommend trying to remove it completely; the right one is removed quite easily and is better off as it's mainly the one interfering with those cables, but it's not mandatory to do so; just reserve it aside if you do remove it, so you can stick it back there upon completion.
KB, LED, TP cables
So when all screws are removed, and all cables unplugged, off comes the main board, simply by lifting it up holding the part near the battery location, and remove it entirely. But, comes also the second hassle of disassembling a GS laptop : there are cables coming from the hinge and going through liners around the fans, on both sides (LVDS and one wireless antenna on one side, speakers and camera on the other side), that will need to be removed from there before you can really lift the main board - and the thing is that there's not much length of them cables between the hinge and the fans, so you'll have to work these cables out of the fans liners using one hand, while the other will be holding the mainboard lifted up as much as possible. But here's the real ordeal about it : the reverse procedure WILL be a total PITA! So remember when comes the time to lift the board, GO CAREFULLY, as to not pull harshly on those cables!!
Once the MB is lifted out, no need to remove the MB bracket to disassemble the heatsinks and repaste your CPU/GPU; on the contrary it provides a protection to lie the main board down on your workspace and go at it. No need to remove RAM, there's ample space between the modules and the heatsinks to work on the latter safely. Hence, no need obviously to go further than step 3 in the PDF disassembly guide neither.
To be followed...ChowMeow, SirSavien and extrospector like this. -
Part 3
Disassembling the heatsinks is also straightforward procedure. The official guide states nine screws to the heatsinks, but my MS 1772 only had the eight screws absolutely necessary for the 4 corners of both heatsinks; no ninth screw near the GPU fan was found. Only caution I'll advise is to take the time to feel the torque of those eight screws. For the rest of the build you can use (about) finger strength only to reassemble, but here more torque is involved, and although the heatsinks brackets are made to compensate force, you're still screwing a copper plate directly on die, so too much force applied unevenly on the screws may damage it, while on the other hand too little force will make the bond between thermal pad, paste, and die less effective. So unscrew one screw a bit, screw back with the strength you think is appropriate, then compare unscrewing it again with unscrewing another one, and so on until you feel safe enough that when comes reassembly time you have a good feel of the torque to apply. There are indications in the official guide as to the exact torque necessary for all screws, but if you use a standard micrometric screwdriver and don't have much experience with those measures, then it doesn't help a bit. In all cases, DO NOT apply force to the center of each heatsink with your fingers while reassembling after the repaste, use only screwdriver torque applied gradually to all screws using the X pattern, and let the brackets basic compensation system do the rest.
Still the same, green for actual screws, red for location in the PDF guide not reciprocated for the MS 1772
GPU side - and closer shot to the nonexistant screw location.
CPU side
RAM
Chipset & mSata slots
While it should not be necessary to do it now for new GS70 SP owners, you WILL be able to detach the fans from the heatsinks by removing some tiny screws holding the fan frame to the heatsink frame - foreseeing that eventual dust buildup removal in about a year from now.ChowMeow, SirSavien and extrospector like this. -
Part 4
And then the terrible stock thermal paste application...
Pics will mostly speak by themselves. At the end I'll provide some indications about repasting.
But beforehand, we need to take a look at this :
... being where the two separate heatsinks are joined together with one of the GPU thermal pad screw. Do mind, as the arrows show in the pic, that the GPU bracket goes OVER the CPU bracket there.
And now...
CPU thermal pad
CPU die
GPU thermal pad
GPU die
ChowMeow, SirSavien and extrospector like this. -
Part 5 - Final
Now take a look at this... those three Qtips were used solely to remove extra paste from the GPU die - NOT talking about wiping it clear yet, and NOT talking about the paste stuck to the GPU thermal pad, CPU die and thermal pad.
For comparison a micrometric bit was left nearby; on the first two pics you can also see a typical Sharpie cap...
... just the paste stuck to
each of the four tips of the first two Qtips could about do for a complete repaste of both GPU and CPU...
... and then reserves on that third Qtip, with three other surfaces still left to be roughly wiped. Terrible...
Removing thermal paste and applying new one.
99% isopropyl alcohol is a must, but ordinary 70% does the job. Qtips are also a must. Paper towels may be effectively used on the heatsink thermal pad, and for a die surface wipe, but for details you'll need those Qtips.
Roughly wiped CPU die
You can see that MSI applied an orange plastic sticker on one side of the CPU die, and that there is a fair amount of thermal paste trapped under it. That orange plastic is in fact covering the cpu's VRMs, though it's hard to figure out what it's covering them from, as there is thermal grease trapped even there, and it is in direct contact with the VRMs. IF that thermal grease was any bit electrically conducive, then the VRMs of all our laptops would have shorten and probably killed the CPU. OBVIOUSLY, it's not, and so while the plastic sticker isn't necessary for MSI's stock thermal paste application, it does a great job of covering the VRMs for an eventual repaste with liquid metal - which is highly conducive. I suggest to leave that plastic sticker there untouched; VRMs are quite fragile, and trying to remove the thermal paste there could likely result with you ripping off one. Usually, when delidding a desktop Haswell CPU, we apply nail polish on the VRMs to cover them in case of liquid metal coming into contact, but folks also use non conducive thermal grease there too, so I figure MSI's sticker and cheap grease layer do the job.
Don't use excessive amounts of your new thermal paste application, surface to spread is small, and a tiny amount of grease will do the job. There's no real trick here, ideal amounts will vary with the type of thermal paste applied, but for usual stuff an "X" pattern touching all four corners is ideal for the square GPU die, and a straight line from one end to the other is ideal for the rectangular CPU die; compression and heat will do the job of filling the microscopic gaps between die and thermal pad with the TIM. Thousand of videos to be found on YouTube, specific to your kind of thermal paste and it's application.
Closing Thoughts : reassembly
Just the thing... once you put the mb bracket back in place, having dealt with the PITA of rewiring those cables coming from the hinge through the fans, make sure to check/reconnect all other cables before screwing back the mb. If you forgot one under the board, you won't have to unscrew it all over again just to fetch it. When unsure, make a point to refer to the PDF guide as for all these cables locations, and that you actually plugged all of them back, or made them available to be plugged back.
This last part from mardon, I think it's worth including in the guide and maybe avoid a couple of heart attacks :
ChowMeow, SirSavien and extrospector like this. -
Great thread! Keep up the good work. We all need these type of informative posts for all models
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GS70 Stealth Pro : Disassembly
Discussion in 'MSI' started by ModRQC, May 28, 2014.
