Question MSI -When booting, laptop fan turns on loud for 3 secs, off for 3 secs, repeat, no screen or other noises from laptop

Jul 13, 2021
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Older laptop, also, sometimes when I boot, it simply lights the power button up with no other noises. This appears to revert back to the fan on/off situation when I unplug it from power vs turning it off.

No battery in.
update: after sitting with the battery on, and plugged in, I turned it on and its making a little bit more processing noise, and even the DVD drive opened... the little orange light under the symbol to show something is processing is blinking, but nothing else....

Thank you for any help!

Trying to unscrew the back cover to take out the motherboard battery..... don't have small screw drivers ha
Thank you!
 
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Jul 13, 2021
7
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10
update: after sitting with the battery on, and plugged in, I turned it on and its making a little bit more processing noise, and even the DVD drive opened... the little orange light under the symbol to show something is processing is blinking but nothing else....

Hey thanks for the reply. Haven't had the battery in for years, I forgot why, I think it was causing issues.

Anyway, the fan starts quiet, off/on, and gets louder and louder and louder if that means anything.
Sometimes it doesn't go on at all, usually it does.

I put the battery back in, blue battery charging light came on, but same fan pattern.

I wasn't at my desk when it first happen came back to the fan spinning. But this AM when I tried to fix it, the first boot I had no screen but some lap top keyboard lights lit up, I have since lost that!

Thanks for any tips
 
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Jul 13, 2021
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Basically, from a previuse post, laptop wouldn't turn on, or if it did, fans would get loud and quiet and repeat.
I didn't have the battery in, just plugged in.

Now that I have left the battery in (blue flashing light means its not charging), the lap top is actually booting, I can tell- windows welcome music plays

But.. now the screen is still black.

I have tried testing with other monitors, but no luck. Is there any way this isn't a graphics card issue but power, given that its working better with a charged battery than not?
Could lack of power be causing no screen display?
 
Basically, from a previuse post, laptop wouldn't turn on, or if it did, fans would get loud and quiet and repeat.
I didn't have the battery in, just plugged in.

Now that I have left the battery in (blue flashing light means its not charging), the lap top is actually booting, I can tell- windows welcome music plays

But.. now the screen is still black.

I have tried testing with other monitors, but no luck. Is there any way this isn't a graphics card issue but power, given that its working better with a charged battery than not?
Could lack of power be causing no screen display?

Did it work before the way you were using it? If yes, then it's not a power issue. And it's not necesseraly a graphics card issue, but could be an overall bad motherboard.

To reset the BIOS, take out the CMOS battery and the main battery, hold in the power button for about 30 seconds, plug everything back and see if it works.
 
Jul 13, 2021
7
0
10
Did it work before the way you were using it? If yes, then it's not a power issue. And it's not necesseraly a graphics card issue, but could be an overall bad motherboard.

To reset the BIOS, take out the CMOS battery and the main battery, hold in the power button for about 30 seconds, plug everything back and see if it works.
Thank you for the response.

It was working "fine" with no battery in for a long time, only charger. Then the other day it reset when I wasn't at my desk and I came back to the fan turning on and off for about 3 secs.

Now, despite the battery doesn't charge, it only turns on with the battery in and "charged" for a bit. The screen stays black but I can hear log-in music. If no battery, it resorts to fan on/off for about 3 secs and nothing else.

My screw drivers come today so I will try that.

I also read online this could be a ram issue? Yanking a ram card out may work? Will the laptop work if I yank out one piece of ram? It is an old gaming laptop so games may not work but it should still... work I assume?
 
Thank you for the response.

It was working "fine" with no battery in for a long time, only charger. Then the other day it reset when I wasn't at my desk and I came back to the fan turning on and off for about 3 secs.

Now, despite the battery doesn't charge, it only turns on with the battery in and "charged" for a bit. The screen stays black but I can hear log-in music. If no battery, it resorts to fan on/off for about 3 secs and nothing else.

My screw drivers come today so I will try that.

I also read online this could be a ram issue? Yanking a ram card out may work? Will the laptop work if I yank out one piece of ram? It is an old gaming laptop so games may not work but it should still... work I assume?

Yes laptop will run on one RAM stick, the fact that it does something different with the battery than with it pretty much rules out RAM as the issue, but it won't hurt to try one stick at a time or swapping the RAM.
 
Jul 13, 2021
7
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10
Yes laptop will run on one RAM stick, the fact that it does something different with the battery than with it pretty much rules out RAM as the issue, but it won't hurt to try one stick at a time or swapping the RAM.

I went to a local computer shop and they think its the video card, which is mounted on to the mother board. Am I screwed? No way to replace right?

Picture attached
View: https://imgur.com/a/h9IIWse