MSI GT780DXR crash when gaming.

Hello,

I am writing to you about the issue of the laptop.
When playing games, the laptop lets out a "crashing noise" and the screen goes blank or freezes, forcing to restart the laptop by holding the power button.
At first the laptop kept running on high temperature during games (80*C+ GPU, I assume CPU was not far away), but without any signs of crashing. Then, the system experienced a BSOD due to Windows Updates and I had to re-install it. I removed Raid0 array and wiped out both HDDs completely.
After that, I noticed performance dropped and upon starting closer monitor, I soon realized that temperatures for both CPU & GPU have reached 90*C. But this didn't seem to cause any other problems, until one day it experienced the crash, mentioned above. I opened the laptop and cleaned the dust on fan and vents. This brought the temperature down, but the problem still ensued. Later, I found a video, with instructions of opening and inspecting heat-sinks for both GPU and CPU. After following them, I discovered that the thermal paste has melted off on both components, and has covered the chips (see picture attached.). After cleaning out and re-applying thermal paste, as well as a brief clean of heat-sinks, I noticed that the temperature went down significantly (38*C+ on idle). However, this did not fix the problem. Upon following the advice on the owners lounge, View attachment 91896 I did another re-install and attempted to run a game without any overclocking or other modifications. This did not help. I don't know what else could I do, I bought the laptop completely new on e-bay, so it did not have any warranty. Any information is welcome.
Thank you for reading.
-Indre.

P.S. I have posted in the owners' lounge thread, but got a reply once. So, yes, any information would be appreciated.

 

It sounds like you covered just about all your bases. I think the poor thermal paste application would have caused damage to the card - whether by coming into contact with the PCB, or by poor heat dissipation - and may have caused long term damage/instability.

If your temps are stable at least now, even when gaming (despite the crash), your next step is to start with different drivers.

 

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.
I've been running my games with a manually applied full fan (the control on MSI Afterburner, Nvidia Control Panel is disabled), which leaves me with temperatures varying from 55*C to 65*C, which is when it crashes.
When watching videos, the temperature goes up to similar range as well, without the fan, and crashes at the same temperature. At the moment I have latest drivers, but I will attempt to go back a bit and use ones provided by the manufacturer.
Thank you.

 

Those are very safe and stable ranges, so unless your thermal monitoring chip is relaying incorrect values, there is a likely possibility the GPU is damaged. I hope you can get it resolved! Good luck!