MSI CR500 Red Screen

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Douglas Morrison

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Oct 3, 2013
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I am trying to cure a fault on a friends laptop. He has an MSI CR500 and it has started randomly showing a bright red screen with a thick black band across the bottom, at this point the only option is to restart the machine. Recently this has also presented a problem as the laptop would not restart once it had powered down. When it finally did come back on there were blue stripes running vertically across the screen. I've tried stripping and checking cables, re-installing windows7, external monitors etc. nothing seems to work. He is desperate for help as this is his only computer. any advice or help is greatly appreciated.

He is using an aftermarket power lead at 19v 7.1A, the sticker lists 19v 3.42A. I've used chargers with higher amps many times before without issue, but could this cause such an issue?

I have also noticed the laptop is getting VERY hot although the fan is clean and not obstructed in any way.
 
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M_Taylor40

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Jan 11, 2008
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What graphics card is in the laptop?

Does the problem occur as soon as you turn the laptop on, in the BIOS and everything. If so, that rules out software, so it has to be hardware.

After a quick search it looks like a Geforce 8200 GT, which if it is and if I remember correctly, sounds like the GPU has died.

If I'm right, this model of GPU had a manufactoring fault which caused it to overheat and cause lasting damage. I had an Asus G1Sn do the same a couple of years back.

If someone else can confirm that this was one of the faulty models as it's been a while since I dealt with this fault.

If you're from the UK, I know you can take it back to where it was purchased as under EU law it's a manufactoring fault and should be sorted for you.

If you go to www.nvidiadefect.com it will give you guidance to help get it sorted, as I had to threaten the store with legal action before they would do anything as my laptop was just over 2 years old when it stopped working. But after following the guidance on Nvidia Defects site, I got £525 in cash towards a new laptop.

Hope this helps,

M_Taylor40
 
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Douglas Morrison

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Oct 3, 2013
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no , not straight away , the fault occurs after a few minutes of gaming/watching videos etc.
 
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M_Taylor40

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Jan 11, 2008
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When it does happen and you turn it off, does it take a while before it will turn back on, as if it was to hot and the thermal system was preventing it from turning back on until it had ooled down?

When I had the fault with my G1Sn, it started with the laptop crashing when gaming or watching videos, but would let me turn it back on almost immediately. Then over time, I had to give it 5-10 mins to cool down before it would turn back on.

When it finally broke it had just frozen with a distorted screen which would presist in the BIOS, on external monitors and everything.

Actually, what happens when you connect an external display? It might be worthwhile to connect an external monitor and start gaming using the laptops screen while just have something looping on the external monitor, either a movie or even just a GIF image until it becomes distorted. If it happens on both displays, it's got to be the GPU and that rules out the cabling and LCD panel.
 
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Douglas Morrison

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Oct 3, 2013
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it does seem to get worse each time the fault occurs. The last crash left me unable to restart for 10 minutes. now that it has restarted, i have left the WiFi off and have no issues yet. I have found some errors in the system log which i am resolving one at a time namely (nvstreamsvc, microsoft antimalware update issues). I know if i activate wifi, load up any video on youtube and run a facebook game at the same time the system will crash and give me the red screen again. I will try an external monitor after my kids have dinner and i get some peace and quiet haha.
 
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Douglas Morrison

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Oct 3, 2013
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ok. so i was working with the system error log, found the "nvstreamsvc" error, google led me to the action of switching off this service and deleting it which removed the error. cool, one less problem.
Next i found microsoft antimalware couldn't update signatures, at this point, i started to manually update everything i could find. (at this point there were 0 important updates recorded and 1 optional for bing desktop). I carried on finding errors and removing/fixing them until suddenly windows announced 19 updates were available. i took them all and restarted the system. it was at this point the system then found a "new" graphics driver for nvidia. after downloading and installing said driver (which by the way the system reported i already had but overwrote anyway just in case) the system restarted... after a tense few minutes i was up and running again only to be told to restart the machine yet again for more updates. Half an hour later, the system is up, running 4 seperate you tube videos, 2 facebook games, vlc and windows media player all at once. No red screen, no crashing and no errors....so far.
However, there are now about 50 minor errors/info points in the system log all relating to nvidia in some manner. They dont seem to be affecting performance so might just wait and see what happens.

I'll admit I sat for a while saying "surely it can't be that simple" but so far so good....
 
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M_Taylor40

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Jan 11, 2008
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Hopefully you've resolved it then, but I'd still say there's an underlying hardware issue if it would not let you turn it back on straight away.

I'm sure Nvidia released a driver with a "fix" once they officially acknowledged the problem existed, and that "fix" was just to force the system fans to never switch off and to start running at max speed at a lower temperature. Basically delaying the inevitable.

When I found out about the defect (About 6 weeks after buying the laptop!), I bought a laptop cooler that sat under the laptop and connected via USB to power a couple of 12cm fans. It cost me about £15 which was worth keeping my laptop and legs cool, while raising the keyboard to a nice angle for typing.

The best thing you can do is just carry on using it as you would, but make sure everything is backed up in case the issue comes back.

Might also be worth finding the receipt for the laptop and checking if it is one of the models with a faulty GPU, then get everything prepared so if it does break, you'll have all the stuff ready to get it sorted.

Don't worry about threatening legal action either, it almost never gets to that stage. It just takes the threat for you them to take the issue seriously.
 
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