Warning: Windows 11 update causing motherboard failure in Razer blade stealth

I have a razer blade stealth (model: RZ09-02810N71-R3N1) that I bought in 2020. Today I accidentally accepted the Windows 11 upgrade while the laptop was turning on. It took about a second before the screen went black. The laptop has been taken very good care of, never dropped or had any heating or other issues. I am strongly suspecting the windows update as the cause here.

The monitor is dead. No backlight. Not even the red facial recognition light blinks. The keyboard lights up, however, and the computer turns on. Charger lights turn on when connected, but the mouse does not.

I have tried a reboot, hard reboot, F8, F12, Win+CTRL+Shift+B, and basically every possible command I can think of, but nothing happens on the screen.

It is impossible to connect to an external monitor. It says that nothing is connected to the HDMI, and I tried all USBA and USBC ports on the laptop as well as clicking F4 to get a signal on the external monitor, but nothing happens.

I found another thread describing the exact same issue: https://insider.razer.com/index.php...windows-11-update-causing-black-screen.80619/

I took the laptop to a repair shop for a hardware analysis, and they discovered that the motherboard had failed, just like in the other thread.

I am posting a new thread as a warning since this no longer seems like a coincidence. I cannot for the life of me understand how a windows update would cause a PCB failure, but people might want to consider postponing the Windows 11 update on these laptops until they can manage the possible consequences.

 

RZB 15 2020 Model new boxed.
I’ve not updated to 11, but it has done an update and a restart I now have a black screen, I can get to the task manager from the shutdown screen but nothing else? Gutted not had it a week yet. The task manager is showing nothing is active or running apart from the task manager!

 

Hey @SandraSteffe. Do you have any updates on how things are going with your device? I'm curious if or how Razer helped with your situation, and if you attempted Win11 again.

I've found that my device, the RZ09-0327 Razer Blade Stealth 13 (purchased 2022) did a similar thing after using the insider program to install windows 11. Major screentearing, and vertical stripes of randomly lit pixels flying around (like dynamically moving dead pixel stripes. It looked like a bad LCD display but they would move around when a window was moved or anything) especially after opening edge browser (still not sure why that was the case). Updated every driver using winupdate, nvidia, and intel graphics commander, but nothing made a difference. I was concerned about board issues like you've experienced so I rolled back to the razer factory Win10 image to be doubly sure and it's been working with no issues since.

Today though, (1/23/22) I'm getting a pop-up to install Win11 without being in the insider program, and I noticed on Razers website that my model is on the list for supported devices for Win11. I would preferably use Win11, but I don't want to go through the hassle of installing and rollingback again if the situation hasn't changed.

Has anyone had success with Windows 11 on the RZ09-0327, particularly recently?

 

I ended up sending the laptop back to the shop I bought it from online. My Razer warranty ran out 6 months ago, but the online shop I bought it from gave me a full refund. They would normally have sent the laptop to Razer for repairs, but since its no longer in production they ended up not doing it. Repairs would have meant replacing the motherboard which is expensive and had to be covered by said online store since the 1 year Razer warranty had run out.

I just bought the newest model of the same laptop, so joke’s on me. I will be installing Win11 sometime soon now that I have a new warranty, but currently in the middle of thesis defense, so I don’t want to risk another meltdown. I’ll update the thread after it is done.

I hope everything works out with your laptop. It’s worrying that you seem to be having serious issues after a Win11 update as well. Razer should absolutely look into this now that we’re quite a few people on the forum that are experiencing problems. Please update the thread with your results as well if you decide to take your chances with installing Win11 again.

 

Will do, I'll let you know after I find the time to tinker with the install again. I appreciate the thorough response and look forward to hearing from ya about how things work out on your end.

-Carl

 

Alright, @SandraSteffe! I followed the automatic upgrade from windows update last week and have been messing with Windows 11 with no issues so far. Edge works fine (though it's not my primary browser anymore); I have no issues with tearing, it feels like a storybook ending. I hope things work out for your situation, and I hope your thesis went (or is going) really well. I'd be curious to see how your experience goes when you give the update a try, and let me know if you have any questions or anything for me.

For people stumbling on this thread in the future, I don't play games on my stealth 13. To me, it's a school/work computer, so you may have a wildly different experience with the auto-update than I did. As far as my use case goes, everything works and I'm happy, but that might not be your situation.

 

yo @sleekventurePearl692 I too have a RZ09-0327, but have NOT gotten the Windows 11 update yet. I check windows update almost daily. When I did the PC Health Check, it says I don't meet the minimum requirements. (i.e the TPM) how in blue blazes did you get it?