MSI GS70 not powering on at all

Hey guys, a friend of mine has a MSI GT70 that died on him and is no longer turning on and he asked me to take a look at it for him. He said he was playing Skyrim on it one day and all of the sudden it just shut off on him in mid game and never turned on again.

I have tried opening it up, unplugging the battery and testing it on just AC, doing a power drain, tried my AC adapter from my laptop which works with it and nothing so I know the AC adapter and battery are not the issue.

The fact that it died playing Skyrim and with how thin these laptops are and how hot they ran, I can only assume it is a motherboard issue. Is there anything a user can do to try and diagnose and or repair something like this? Is it worth attempting to completely disassemble the motherboard and removing it to try and do anything? Can I chuck it in an oven and attempt to reflow it or does that not really work or not worth it?

Is my best bet to try and reach out to MSI to have them look at it even though it is out of warranty and would cost money, if I want to try and have this working again?

From everything that is going on with it, plus the age of the laptop and thinness of these machines at the time I can only assume that he burned out the video card and or the motherboard itself. My question is what should we do in this situation? He does not have a lot of money to buy a new laptop or computer but I was hoping something could be done to salvage this which was given to him as a gift a couple years ago and is/was his only computer.

I tried posting this on reddit but did not get any replies except for one who thought the video card burned out and recommended "trying another one". Now, I don't exactly have laptop video cards laying around on deck for testing and I do not want to spend a couple hundred bucks on one hoping it works and I will get paid back for it. Is this a common thing, or is it usually the whole motherboard or CPU that goes bad?

If trying to test another GPU is a worthy step to take, how involved is this? I have never replaced a laptop video card before, however I have opened my own Alienware 17 in my signature and repasted the CPU and GPU before. His laptop has (I believe) a 765m in it, and my AW has a 780m. Will these both me mxm (I think thats the name?) slot cards and be interchangeable? Can I open up my Alienware and take the video card out of my laptop and put it in his and attempt to run the laptop? If the machine is not even getting power (no LEDs, no fans spinning when pressing power) is it more likely to be a motherboard rather than a video card (that's what it seems like to me).

The laptop is almost surely out of warranty now, but can one still contact MSI about issues they are having and send a machine in for repairs and diagnostics and attempt to have it fixed? Would the cost of this not be worth it compared to saving and buying a new machine?

Been hoping to get this thing back up and running for my friend for a while now I hope you guys have some advice for me.

Edit: A quick google search turns out that the 765m is soldered to the motherboard and not replaceable in this laptop so I guess that eliminates attempting that.

 

His GS70 might be still under warranty. But if not, MSI will charge a diagnostic fee to take a look at out of warranty unit, and if your friend decides to proceed with out of warranty repair then the diagnostic fee will be part of repair cost otherwise it's just the diagnostic fee.

 

Do you know where I can check or find out if it is still under warranty? I am not sure if stickers are missing or have been removed but I cannot even find a model number on the bottom of it and do not remember if there is a serial or not, I will have to check when I get home. Is there a specific place it would be and if so can I go to MSIs website to check it out? I guess these came out around 2016 so depending when he got it, it could still be under an extended warranty. I wouldn't put it past the person who bought it to have gotten extra time on the warranty. Do they have a check on their website or would I have to call if I can find the serial number?

 

You can find out its warranty info by registering the product in your profile, or call MSI directly to find out.
MSI also honors warranty starting from your purchase date as long as you can show proof of purchase.

 

Did you tried to re-seat the RAM at all?