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Bricked Razer Blade 15

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Hi all, Back in November I bought a Razer Blade 15 Advanced(GTX 1060, 256GB). Until last night I performed without any real issues. However, last night I started getting Windows BSOD (critical process died) until eventually it would only load the BIOS and I could no longer boot Windows. I tried going to recovery but it did not respond the only available options for me are the BIOS or boot menu. When I tried the boot menu though my internal SSD did not show up. I eventually created a Windows Setup USB stick which the boot menu was able to pick up and the USB stick did boot. However, I tried just about every repair option as well as to install Windows from scratch but nothing seemed to work, the drive just does not show up. I even tried finding a driver for the Samsung SSD that comes with the laptop but the Windows installer would not recognize it as a driver. Eventually I opened up my laptop to see if something might be going on there and the only thing I could find was the grey pad between the bottom and the SSD being a bit "gooey/smudgy" and leaving tiny bits of revenue on the sticker with the serial number of the SSD on it. (Don't know if this is supposed to be like this or not?) Anyway, I am posting this in the hope of someone on this forum knowing a way to fix this myself without having to send it back to Razer. Thanks in advance for your help.
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14 Replies

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  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 16, 2019
Azicre, every ones nightmare. So is the drive booting but BSOD or hanging? Have you tried F8 safe mode? Do you want the drive as was? Are you prepared to rebuild the drive? Did you see my backup and recover videos (albiet a bit dated) and is that an option. Have you pressed F12 which flashed on the top left on power on and tried factory reset? These Questions will help me or others help you before the option to send it back.
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1 person likes this
  • A
    Azicre
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  • Azicre
  • Author
  • 6 replies
  • June 16, 2019
iDATUS
Azicre, every ones nightmare. So is the drive booting but BSOD or hanging? Have you tried F8 safe mode? Do you want the drive as was? Are you prepared to rebuild the drive? Did you see my backup and recover videos (albiet a bit dated) and is that an option. Have you pressed F12 which flashed on the top left on power on and tried factory reset? These Questions will help me or others help you before the option to send it back.
It hangs. I just see the white on black razer logo and the BIOS hotkeys in the top left corner. After about 10 seconds it goes straight to BIOS. No "windows loading animation" either. I have tried pressing F8 but I don't get a response and it goes into BIOS again. What do you mean by "rebuild the drive". If you mean do a clean install and lose all the data on the drive, then yes I am completely okay with that. I did a clean install about a week ago anyway and I still have everything backed up. I am not sure what you mean by "factory reset", however if you mean "restore setup defaults" I already did that and it did not help. One more thing. I created a bootable Ubuntu drive and so far I have not been able to detect the internal drive while in Ubuntu. Everything else including keyboard and trackpad work in Ubuntu. This causes me to believe the drive may have failed or part of the motherboard. In the BIOS under NVME configuration it also states that no NVME device could be found. I really hope it is just the SSD but I have no way of being certain. I have not checked out your videos but will do so as soon as I get home.
I
  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 16, 2019
You will find a lot of Razer help on my videos as I am dedicated to helping Razer folk like myself. F9 boots up into Drive recovery mode and erases the Boot and C drive back to how it was when shipped. If that doesn't work it don't sound good and you could have a faulty drive. But put that to the back of your mind for now. you say you backed everything up is that like imaged each volume separately with macrium? If so then that is way to recover in your situation. Your boot partition table BCD may be damaged and trying this may help https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-rebuild-the-bcd-in-windows-2624508
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A
  • Azicre
  • Author
  • 6 replies
  • June 16, 2019
iDATUS
You will find a lot of Razer help on my videos as I am dedicated to helping Razer folk like myself. F9 boots up into Drive recovery mode and erases the Boot and C drive back to how it was when shipped. If that doesn't work it don't sound good and you could have a faulty drive. But put that to the back of your mind for now. you say you backed everything up is that like imaged each volume separately with macrium? If so then that is way to recover in your situation. Your boot partition table BCD may be damaged and trying this may help https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-rebuild-the-bcd-in-windows-2624508
Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately none of them worked for me. I opened up the bottom again and took some pictures of the gray gooey stuff I was talking about (I believe these are supposed to be thermal pads?? right?) Somehow it started leaving residue on my SSD and part of my heat sink. Do you know whether this is the way it is supposed to be? Should thermal pads leave residue? Should they be this big? Can the residue cause problems? Here is the link to a Google Drive folder with the pictures in it. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-SvDlK05hR3DxUZXIeNJx9rVheeNKXej?usp=sharing Would it be best for me to get a new SSD (Samsung 970 Evo) and see if it works? What should I do with the thermal pads? Do they pose a danger to the rest of the hardware? Also my backups are just copy paste as I keep most of my important files on external HDD or somewhere in the cloud.
I
  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 16, 2019
Does the bios actually see the drive make model and sn etc. What's the red bit on the nvme, looks like felt tip pen? I am pretty sure the pads don't conduct electricity. I would have to open my case and run a resistance meter through them to prove it though. I was wondering what the white paper bit was, its the sticker that's supposed to go onto the nvme chips. Why they do that I don't know as it acts as a thermal insulator. You could clean with a kitchen towel or something around the paper. Then pull the paper off. Lightly dab the towel with the gunk onto the nvme chips. This should leave enough to contact between what's left on the base to the nvme. You could order another pad and replace it. I don't know what the thickness should be but I do remember people adding it themselves on the initial batch of RB15's that didn't have it. Another thought it might not be a pad but thermal paste they used?
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  • Azicre
  • Author
  • 6 replies
  • June 17, 2019
iDATUS
Does the bios actually see the drive make model and sn etc. What's the red bit on the nvme, looks like felt tip pen? I am pretty sure the pads don't conduct electricity. I would have to open my case and run a resistance meter through them to prove it though. I was wondering what the white paper bit was, its the sticker that's supposed to go onto the nvme chips. Why they do that I don't know as it acts as a thermal insulator. You could clean with a kitchen towel or something around the paper. Then pull the paper off. Lightly dab the towel with the gunk onto the nvme chips. This should leave enough to contact between what's left on the base to the nvme. You could order another pad and replace it. I don't know what the thickness should be but I do remember people adding it themselves on the initial batch of RB15's that didn't have it. Another thought it might not be a pad but thermal paste they used?
No the BIOS does not detect the SSD in any way. I am not sure about the red bit but it is not from a felt tip pen unless it was done in the factory. The white bit is indeed the sticker from the SSD. If they used thermal paste would it not be more liquid and less thermal pad shaped? Would it not smear out like when applying it between a cpu and cooler? I decided to order a new SSD (Samsung 970 EVO). It arrives tomorrow. I will at least know then if it is the SSD that failed or it is part of the board or connector, I guess.
I
  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 17, 2019
If its not seeing it in the bios then its probably dead. A thermal pad melts at a very high temp and there are thermals inside the nvme to stop it getting that hot. My guess is they put the nvme in, then put paste on top of it, them put the lid on. The way its smudged looks like the lid going on at an angle and then being straightened.
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  • Azicre
  • Author
  • 6 replies
  • June 17, 2019
Wouldn't it be illogical to apply the thermal paste on top of the SSD if the SSD is so commonly upgraded by people? It also really looks like they put a rectangle of it on the case as a smaller piece of thermanpad/paste is also found on the case. Anyway, do you think I can safely remove a bit of the thermalpad/paste and still keep the SSD from burning my leg? Also do you think the thermalpad/paste might have caused my SSD to fail in some way or is that unlikely? Thanks for you effort in answering my questions and helping me with my problem btw!
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  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 17, 2019
The original RB15 was thinner than the current one and it originally didn't have any paste/pad on the nvme. As there are no air vents (which I think is a design fault) the nvme got very hot and made the palm rests on the RB15 too hot to use. People then put a pad to make it touch the bottom case to use it as a thermal dissipater. Support got wind of this and then shipped the RB15's with this. The next gen is 1mm thicker and from pictures uses a pad stuck on the case bottom. If you got a gunky paste and now buying a new nvme I would get a pad and stick it on the case. But I think it has to be really thin. I will look into it for you if you like?
Enhancing Blade 15 owners with regular YouTube uploads https://www.youtube.com/iDATUS | https://www.iDATUS.tech Includes Razer phone 2, Razer Lian Li O11 PC, Razer Gear!
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1 person likes this
  • A
    Azicre
A
  • Azicre
  • Author
  • 6 replies
  • June 17, 2019
iDATUS
The original RB15 was thinner than the current one and it originally didn't have any paste/pad on the nvme. As there are no air vents (which I think is a design fault) the nvme got very hot and made the palm rests on the RB15 too hot to use. People then put a pad to make it touch the bottom case to use it as a thermal dissipater. Support got wind of this and then shipped the RB15's with this. The next gen is 1mm thicker and from pictures uses a pad stuck on the case bottom. If you got a gunky paste and now buying a new nvme I would get a pad and stick it on the case. But I think it has to be really thin. I will look into it for you if you like?
That would be great. If you could recommend a pad for me to purchase that would great. I just hope the SSD works tomorrow. Do I have to disconnect the battery before switching out the SSD btw?
I
  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 17, 2019
Ok, checked the manual, one I could find online and no mention on how to upgrade. I don't think you need to disconnect the battery but if you feel comfortable disconnecting it then I would recommend to do so. I will check what I can find about the pad and get back to you. PS I just watched a DELL XPS 15 disk swap and it had thermal pad stuff to the base over the nvme as well from the manufacture.
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I
  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 18, 2019
Luckily I spent forever researching about the RB15 when it came out (I waited for the 4k) and remember the NVMe thermal issue. Important for you to know it doesn't have to touch the case but will be even better if it does. The pads spread the hot part of the NVMe across the whole part of it. Treat the NVMe like a mini motherboard, its CPU get very hot and needs a large heat spread. Here is a link to people who have done it https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/8rs56i/rb_thermals_sanity_check/ From this if you want to play safe put a 1.5mm on top. 3mm if you want to touch the case. Important note though if its too thick you are applying pressure to the NVMe and that will go to the connector! To be absolutely safe, if it was me I would do the 1.5mm on top, and 0.5 on the bottom. IF it proves too hot or is throttling, get some paste and put a say 3-4 rice shaped lumps along the pad. As to which pads, search for nvme thermal pad I found some by Adwits which do a 9 pack of different thickness.
Enhancing Blade 15 owners with regular YouTube uploads https://www.youtube.com/iDATUS | https://www.iDATUS.tech Includes Razer phone 2, Razer Lian Li O11 PC, Razer Gear!
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  • Azicre
  • Author
  • 6 replies
  • June 18, 2019
The SSD came and I replaced it. The BIOS picked it up and I am reinstalling windows as I am typing this. Thanks for all your help!! Do I need to download any important drivers before I can start using it or will Windows pick that up with updates? Also a lot of Razer stuff is missing. Are there any other important things I should download ?
I
  • iDATUS
  • Insider
  • 90 replies
  • June 18, 2019
Well that's good news and was luckily expected. Glad I was of some help. Learned some things myself and will pass on. As to drivers, go here https://support.razer.com/gaming-laptops Pick your model and it should be 2018 advanced. Drivers And I would install as many of those as you can. Drivers that is. Don't do the bios and updater etc.
Enhancing Blade 15 owners with regular YouTube uploads https://www.youtube.com/iDATUS | https://www.iDATUS.tech Includes Razer phone 2, Razer Lian Li O11 PC, Razer Gear!
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