GPU Problem with Razer Blade 15" Advanced (2021) RZ09-0409CG53

It all started in the summer of 2021. I am an AI major university student and therefore I started looking for a device, which will be stealthy, slim, portable yet powerful beast. I needed a device like this as the Uni is located in different country. In addition, I always been a fan of razer devices and was looking at the razer blade lineup. The Razer Blade 15" Advanced (2021) RZ09-0409CG53 immediately caught my attention as it had all that I needed in my AI major, as well as my favorite type of display - OLED. I couldn’t believe that it was just released as the fate itself has gifted me with the perfect variant for my future studies. So, I bought it right away. There was only one issue, which is that at the time, the Razer Blades weren’t selling at Greece (my country), but my friend was studying in Austria, so it was bought there, and she later visited me and passed my long-awaited device to me. And it was simply amazing! I was so impressed with the packaging (which I always enjoyed in Razer products), the quality of case, the keyboard feeling, the display quality - everything was out of this world! I was so excited, I’ve built the most advanced setup for it with custom built cooling pad with filtering system and custom control of the fan speed via USB, so that it knew the current temps of GPU and CPU, so that nothing will ever interfere with it. I also used external UPS block so that it would also be protected from power cuts or electricity spikes. And I enjoyed every single moment when using it, from display to keyboard, from super fast running apps to render speed, which was faster than I could have ever asked for! However, my wonderful experience with this device unfortunately didn’t last forever...

I’ve had a really unfortunate and rather disappointing experience with this laptop as I’ve had two major issues with it within the span of half a year after warranty was conveniently expired.

It all started this winter, when I noticed that trackpad was not clicking properly, which immediately raised suspicion that the battery was swollen. It was quite surprising as I was using this laptop on a custom cooling pad with filtration system + custom control of fan speed depending on the current CPU + GPU temperature, which were always under 65-70 degrees even under heavy load. As the warranty was already over, I had no opportunity to contact official support service, so I had to buy 3rd party battery, which service center successfully installed and all worked fine for another half a year. And now, during the most perfect timing it could choose, when I had lots of deadlines, the laptop discrete GPU just stopped working and all laptop just became unusable, as it was lagging and the monitor output wasn’t working (neither through HDMI or DP in thunderbolt). Only thing it was showing was error 43 in device manager. I immediately started searching for solution, tried literally every possible variant (even updated BIOS). I bought an additional NVME just to install the fresh version of Windows (which I obtained from the serial number on razer website) and it didn’t work. Thankfully all the data for my projects was save on the drives, so at least I didn’t lose progress. So, I had to take the laptop to the service center, as I cannot contact razer support, because as I've said earlier, the warranty was conveniently over, so no contacts for me. And after waiting for over 3 weeks, they returned the laptop to me and said that it has malfunctioning GPU… Seriously razer? I literally bought this device for over 4k euros for it to break after 1.5 years under ideal usage (with it sitting on a custom cooling pad, connected through external UPS to avoid electricity spikes and cuts)? Even the service guys were like is this device new? Because it didn’t have any dust, any scratches etc. And they couldn’t believe that first, it was almost two years old, second, it died after such usage, third, that it literally costs a fortune. The only possible way it could break, as they told to me, was a poor design of motherboard. They told me that a chip that is responsible for some voltages on the GPU and nearby chips were all damaged and the only fix is either full replacement of motherboard or just buying a new device. I am really disappointed in this. And what is even more annoying, is that I have lost my working device and now have to use random computers to actually finish my projects and render it on external resources for renting GPU power…

Despite my pure love, full dedication to this brand (I have literally everything from razer, from mouses, keyboards, cameras to audio systems, thunderbolt docks and chairs), I just can’t believe that you made such a disappointing device, which no wonder has only 1 year of warranty, as it is a jackpot if it lives longer.

Razer, I really hope that you can explain and clarify this situation to me or what should be done.