MSI GT72 sudden power off while gaming

Hi

My MSI GT72 2QD laptop suddenly shuts down when gaming. Temps look fine, no throttling, just instant shut off, with a little click sound. This is while plugged in to charger. If I want to immediately turn it back on, I have to unplug the charger from the power and plug it back in - it wont start on battery alone, or if I unplug and plug back just the laptop.

I read somewhere that it might be an issue with battery or charger, so I've tried running it only on battery and it also shuts off. I've tried disconnecting internal battery and running it only on charger, and it shuts off. Even did a EC reset, but still shutting down.

It's an i7-4720HQ and gtx970m, if relevant, running windows 10(but i doubt its software related, as troubles only started, but I haven't made any changes )

Anyone have any ideas?

 

The system might had overheated and shut off. Check the heatsink and vent to make sure that they are clean. Monitor the system temperature while running a game.

 

Temperature seems ok, maybe around 60°c around the time it crashes, but its not something consistent. I've seen it go higher in the past with no problem. Cleaning the vents and fans was the first thing I did, but didn't help

 

If its clicking its either a Short or the Power controller is dying.

 

Try another power adapter.

 

Ok just to be sure, I repasted the gpu and cpu. I have better temperatures now (about 3-5°c better when idle) and when gaming the laptop last 3-4x longer before shut off. So maybe it is a temperature issue.

Edit: ran OCCT for around 6 min, and got gpu up to 67°and cpu to 78° for like a minute before it shut off. Temp issue?

 

It's not temp issue unless your CPU hits 90+ Celsius. Do you have another power adapter of the same rating as your current one? What's the voltage and amperage on it?

 

Sadly no, no other adapter with enough power.
You mean what voltage and amperage is written on it, or measured?

 

Yup, what are the numbers printed on it? If it's worn out then it may not provide sufficient wattage to keep the system running under load.

 

230W adapter, output is 19.5V 11.8A

 

How long have you had the unit?

 

5 years. No hardware issues until now, except an ssd died 2 years ago.

Starting to get annoyed with this, two days now, I spent a good hour running a game that usually instantly shuts down the laptop. Only difference is it was right after it was off the whole night.
Maybe some kind of charge building somewhere that dissipates during the night?

 

Try another AC adapter, if it fixes the issue then that is it.

 

Worth a try, just need to find one with enough power.
But if it's the adapter, why doesn't the laptop turn on when only on battery - while working fine if I disconnect adapter once it's already running?

 

AC mode requires a higher amount of watts and if AC adapter no longer produces that amount of power and when the system requested for the same amount of power then it will overload and shut off.

 

Yeah but on battery mode it doesn't even start

 

Well there ya go.....

The battery acts like a capacitor to supply extra when a high surge is needed and it also stabilizes voltage during most (if not all) times of operation.

Get out the fluke meter and make sure the battery is really dead (sounds like it is) and get ya one coming...amazon has always been a good battery hookup but make sure you check ALL the details before ordering (mwh, cell amount, size, reviews...you know).

 

You will also need to replace battery as N2ishun said. So do the battery replacement first, then see if you need to replace the AC adapter or not.

 

So anything other than 19.5V means it's dead?

Sure. Hopefully it's only the battery...

 

It's clearly the battery and here's the specs for your reference.

P/N: BTY-L77

Battery specs:
11.1V 7500mAh/83.25Wh

 

Thanks for the help

 

If the EC Reset button is pressed, or the battery is unplugged completely and then replugged (with the AC not plugged in), the laptop will not start on battery power. It has to be plugged into AC originally at least once and powered on, for it to work on battery afterwards.

That being said, it could be a bad AC adapter or the board could be going south also. Replacing the AC Adapter is a good first step however.

 

His battery is not working at all, and AC still works, so it's likely that he may need both replaced.

 

Batteries are not cheap (and that's assuming he find a vendor with a non counterfeit battery).
First replace the AC Adapter with a genuine version.

Then test the new AC Adapter with the old battery disconnected (UNPLUG the AC before opening the laptop). There will be some bad power throttling (this can be avoided, by hacking the embedded controller with RW Everything, I forgot already what it was, I think EC RAM register 31 to "09" and EC register 42 to "64"? I forgot :/ Someone can find one of my old posts, then use the laptop. The AC adapter should only power trip at >240 watts pulled through the adapter, which isn't possible without a TDP modded video card.

Then plug in the battery (unplug the AC FIRST BEFORE OPENING THE LAPTOP), then do a battery calibration with the new AC adapter.

 

Laptop wont start on battery alone, but if I start it on AC and disconnect it after it's on, it will work on battery alone to about 70% i think. So it's working a bit I guess.

Actually from what I can find in Europe, the battery seems cheaper than the AC.

 

Finally got my hands on a multimeter. Charger seems fine 19.48V. But I'm having some problems with how to measure the battery - 16 cables: 6 black, 4 different, 6 red. Does it matter which red and black i measure at? Because I'm getting VERY low readings (like 0.21V) from what I understand there should be, so I may be doing something wrong

 

Not sure about the pin-outs on the battery. Maybe go through the pins again with caution.

 

Went through all of the red and black ones, always getting ~210-220mV

 

So it is defective. The battery might had been reporting a false capacity level to the system.

 

The black is 0V, the red is battery positive, the other 4 wires are used for comms, two are used for PMBus/SMBus(another name for i2c), the other two are either an extra temperature sensor, or Gnd and Vcc from the laptop mobo to power the battery monitor IC.

 

I have a similar problem with the gt75 7re at OC

is it possible
when use on gt75 7re 230w "default" change to 330w ,change something in "power shutdown limit" max vcore used or still need mod EC ??

my common problem was the limit value, when warming up VR, it was still getting random power off
...change VR pads works for some time but not too long and it is still possible to accidentally shut down

is it possible to fix this to 330w PSU, or you still need to adjust the EC VR temp sensor not exist ,,i now use thermal grizzly 8pad ,,can be so bad after a few months ?? they all work for a similar time :/

\\\my spec\\\
battery wear is about 10% that maybe not even a problem

nb has modified cooling ,, most pch hdd ssd has 40-50C ,, cpu max 80C on 120A 4.5ghz 1.220-1.265 ..95-100w AC DC load line lowest setting "1"
now work normal all normal test ok ,,,long AVX test sometimes unstable

1.270v get click to AVX test and get to shutdown
on new pads 1.295v works but first week

occasionally the only thing I see is "Max VR Voltage, ICCmax, PL4"
it can also be a "shutdown" problem ??

I won't get anything useful from msi

msi forum is full this same "power off"old gt72 ,,g73 ,,g75

please help

i test update all
MSI ..will not help with anything, i test manually update all bios modules, but again I will not get over .,bios protection "wrong bios format 11" ME fw use last 11.8.71, windows microcode B4

msi support is useless ,, my old nb still gets bios updates and they're not heavy gaming notebook, ordinary "low end" **** get better support


I'm sorry about the translator

 

6 core CPU Limit is 138 amps. Exceeding this will cause VRM shutdown, but it's unknown how far past 138A it will happen. These laptops do not have Current monitoring in HWINFO64.
However "EC RAM" map register "C8" and "C9" will show laptop power, in RW Everything. But it's CPU + GPU+Fans+USB+LCD (all power) combined, not just CPU. I do not know if the EC has a limit on CPU Amps, or if its BIOS (without bios option to override amps limit).

There is no "VRM Overcurrent protection" setting in these laptops. So you are limited to MSI defaults.

If I set my Z390 board with 8 core CPU, "CPU Current Protection" to "Normal" (lowest setting), it will trip (Power off) somewhere around 100 amps (Maybe lower). "Low" will trip somewhere a bit higher. "Medium" will trip around 138 amps. "High" will trip at 193 amps (I think). Turbo and Extreme can exceed 193A.

 

hi Falkentyne

now i ok .,need only lower icc and work normal .,.now max 115A ,. I was only interested in being stronger psu ,.will increase any limits ?
my 230w use 11.8A .,330 use 16.9A there will be no difference in voltage stability at least ?

I guess you're the only one who can advise me

and,.
goes somehow to turn on or see vccsa and vccio? I can't find it anywhere in bios or monitor app .,gt73 is same
.,.and gpu tdp change is possible only with custom vbios? .,pcie 75w limit in bios noting change or something else ?

,,real hell gaming on 100-120w tdp gpu

 

Strongly recommend trying this before spending money on batteries and chargers...

I had exactly the same problem when gaming, fans go mad then boom! - shutdown. Have to unplug the charger... Read a couple of forum suggestions and subsequently bought and changed the battery - seemed to make it worse! - fans were on full when I was trying to log on to windows, tried the ECC reset - waste of time.

In the end I took it apart (yet again) and removed the heatsinks from the graphics card and processor and noticed the Thermal Paste looked very dry and crumbly, picked it off with a plastic scraper, cleaned the surfaces and replaced the TIM and now it works perfectly. Can't believe that after all the times I took it apart and the cost of a new battery, I was able to solve it with £5 worth of thermal paste. I should have worked this out sooner, the fans spinning up to max, then the machine shutting down...

 

MSI GT72 6QE Pro Dominator. 4 years in pawnshop with burnt 4gb 980m. 2133 ram replaced with 16gb 2666. WD Black SN750 Nvme on OS an Game drives. 1Tb storage HDD. 4gb 980m replaced with 8gb Generic 980m card (proper MSI tagged Wxxxx). Liquid Metal TIM.
Everything working normal for 3+ weeks gaming and lengthy video encodes.Good overall temps!
Battery had shown charging in tray icon always when starting up. Wear level HWinfo at 17% 70+ mw total capacity remaining.
Puter shuts down with marble in cardboard tube sound while installing a game. Will not restart plugged or unplugged. Let sit for half hour an tried battery start, AC unplugged-Not! (no indication of heating cause had HWinfo open and monitoring when it crashed?? Plugged in later after ordering a new battery and puter finally boots. Then reboots 3? more times thru MSI logo screen and then loads normal with Low battery warning at 20% charge.Wear level on battery HWinfo is NOW 50%. Battery was just short of 100% charge just before crash. Shut down overnight. Next morning fire up and battery at 100% charge,1% more wear than before @18% and everything working smoothly.
Because I just brought this rig back from the dead I have been keeping a close eye on and recording everything.
Since this incident, power now used by both the CPU and GPU has dropped by roughly 10-12 watts for the same FPS or a tad better and temperatures have dropped 8-10c across the board. Enough of a change that I was wondering if HWinfo was working! New battery on the way BUT!
Can anyone explain what happened here?

BIOS and EC were updated previously to parts and fresh Win 10 pro install.

 

some GT 6TH is random life time "any bad power chip / or design" ??
models + "stronger GPU" gtx 980 burned faster .,,.or most users have this configuration

dcjack ??
.,.or recharging / temperatures / battery - EC chip

all this GT dead random "no temperatures reason"
on MSI forum there used to be a lot of users "same problem"

or any missing limit in bios or EC ,..,.,my GT75 7re contains "something like 1.265V heavy current limit"
and I can't destroy it

gt73 .,.and older "not have this item in EC fw" ?? ,.,.but I don't know exactly what it is

edit
battery wear level vs AC adapter
my old 19.75V 230W - 12./. -- 15./. wear level
when i got a heavy shutdown "this level has changed"

now using 19.38V 330W - here after using this AC adapter,.,.battery wear level is only 6./. or sometimes lower 4./.

my setup
all time + AC adapter / 90-100./. recharge cycle .,.,.no using battery mode
some mods "before" 230W still on the edge

 

Well! I transduced some of that. What I forgot to mention in the previous post is that I am using an HP 230 watt adapter and NOT the factory 180 watt.
The HP 230 watt has been used since rebuild and the first fire up.Puter is NEVER run on battery.
The power jack and all connections were all checked when the mobo was out to remove the keyboard side RAM. I am no rookie at these games and all work was done to the highest standards.

 

best try HWINFO + LOG for CPU + GPU usage
or you use + GRAPH monitoring ,,.,.similar devices creates drops "SPIKES" for this load

but consider the possibility of a defect !!! testing // full usage is RISK !!

the best is I think GT 6TH to sell .,.,Another common problem is "error43/ non-pnp" - broken LCD panel
I've seen quite a lot of them too

 

Computer running cool and stable.Battery returned to original specs at 17+% wear and maintains 100% charge. The triple MSI screen reboot is standard when the rig is resetting itself as I have experienced when changing out hard parts like graphics card and RAM upgrades. Also on older rigs when upgrading the CPU you will get a double or triple boot.
With the Cool Running it gets 5+ FPS more than any of the you tube 980m tests.
@NeXt3R Say what??????? NOT 4 SALE!

 

it's a good laptop ,.,.but GT72 6TH sometimes have some this problems

I don't mean triple boot - normal reset "cmos"
..,,.but sometimes these notebooks have a problem with power supply "cpu /gpu drops in load" or random kick on SHUTDOWN limit

next is MSI support ? for GT75 7re ,.,.run AVX2 + original setup is impossible ??
MSI probably doesn't test its laptops at all ,..,,this way you can easily run into problems "in specific usage / future systems"

 

In retrospect I think a lot of problems happening to the 2015-16 MSI laptops was the switch to 10 series Pascal GPU . MSI screwed the pooch on their "With Future Proof Upgradeable GPU" claims and their scramble to "patch" their programs left "Bugs" in the mix.
Top center of box: "Dream Come True" Upgradable Design.
Easy Upgrade- Next Generation GPU Ready

My Battery Wear has dropped again to a stable 14%+@100% charge and holds. This is the Original battery as case seal was not broken, mind it spent 4 years inactive in the Pawnshop with burnt 980m.