My Titan died!!! Does the GT80 Titan have a reset switch?

Question

Greetings,
When I purchased my GT80 Titan notebook a few weeks ago, I knew that it didn't have a user-removable battery. But I was shocked that I couldn't find a reset switch when I needed one!
After working late Friday night, I turned off my Titan. The next morning on Saturday I tried to turn it back on but nothing happened. Nothing lit up. The display was dark, the power button stayed dark, the keyboard was dark and the WiFi, Power and SSD/HD LEDs along the front were all dark.
I had been using the AC adapter Friday and the battery was fully charged when I shut the Titan down that night. The AC adapter had been connected all night and was on and working now. The Titan had also been connected to my network via gigabit ethernet cable.
Since it had rained Friday night, I wondered if there had been any electric surges or if static had built up inside the notebook. I doubted the AC adapter would be the source because it was plugged into a full sine-wave UPS and was well protected from any irregularities on the power lines. That left the ethernet cable which connected to a router in my cable modem as a possible source.
There was just one other possibility (that I could think of): a defective lid switch. If the lid switch had failed, my Titan might "think" the lid is closed even when it is not. This could also prevent it from turning on. I hoped this wasn't the case because my Titan was not even 2 weeks old and had been handled like a baby. I expected more robust construction for a flagship product like this.
Since it was Saturday, I couldn't get help from MSI. The problem was: I needed my Titan to finish a job that weekend. What to do?
Normally, the first thing to do would be to unplug the notebook. Remove its battery. Press and hold the power button for 10-30 seconds to discharge any static present. Wait a few more minutes to allow any energized capacitors on the motherboard to "loose" their energy. Then re-install the battery, hook up the AC and try to start it again. This usually solves the static problem.
But that's a non-starter with the Titan because you can't remove the battery. So I hunted for a reset switch. You know the kind: a tiny hole through which you insert an unbent paperclip to press a tiny button which temporarily disconnects the battery from the motherboard. But I couldn't find one. The only paperclip hole I could find was the one in the blu-ray drive (to mechanically eject the tray).
I thought: "Maybe a key combination will do a reset." So I tried pressing and holding the Power, GPU and Fan buttons in various combinations but they didn't seem to do anything. Finally, out of ideas, I did what I didn't want to do and started to open the case of my Titan.
I removed the bottom panel (12 screws) and top panel and carefully examined both sides of the motherboard as best I could, looking for a reset switch---but never found one.
Next, I carefully examined the battery cables (left front corner when viewed from the bottom). Normally, you have to remove the left fan and GPU heat diffuser in order to access the battery cable connector on the motherboard. This would be a major job that I wasn't willing to undertake. And this is the only way to disconnect the battery as far as I can tell.
But it looked like there was enough room to disconnect the battery cable without removing the fan or heat diffuser. Sure enough, with care and a thin flat-blade screwdriver, I was able to push the connecter away from the motherboard, removing it. Mission accomplished---battery disconnected!!!
Next, I pressed and held the power button for 60 seconds (with all the trouble this took---I wanted to be sure I discharged the static). Then I let my Titan sit for over 40 minutes with the battery disconnected so there would be plenty of time for an residual energy to dissipate from the capacitors on the motherboard.
At last, it was time for reassembly. It was trickier to reconnect the battery connecter than to disconnect it. You have to be very careful not to push on any wires---just push on the plastic part of the connector with the screwdriver. Once you get the connector aligned properly with its socket on the motherboard, it will slide in easily.
Then I replaced the bottom and top covers and tried to turn on my Titan. It still wouldn't start. Next, I connected the AC adapter and, Voila!, the power button worked and it started. As soon as Windows had booted up, I checked the battery's power level. It was at 98%---almost a full charge just as I had expected.
I was very glad to resurrect my Titan on Saturday when MSI tech support wasn't available. And, any time rain is in the forecast, I'll be careful to disconnect my ethernet cable after I've turned off my Titan. But I was very angry at not finding a reset switch of any kind. Surely this notebook has one and I just didn't see it. Who would build a computer device of any kind with a non-removable battery and fail to provide a reset switch. It's unthinkable to me.
So I have to think that there must be some easier way to "reset" a GT80 Titan if it ever visits static twilight land again. If someone reading this topic can contribute some information, it would be greatly appreciated.
WARNING: What I did to my Titan (taking it apart and disconnecting the battery) is NOT recommended for novice users. This requires great care because many of its components are highly susceptible to static damage. You need to ground yourself to the chassis while you work on it so that you have the same potential as it does. If this really is the only way to "reset" a GT80 Titan, then you'll need to take it to someone qualified to do it. Don't turn your expensive Titan into a brick!!!
Kind regards, David

Answer 1

Quote from: chc on 18-May-15, 12:07:19
If you meant EC reset, you just need to press power button for about 12 seconds.
Thanks chc,
Every bit of new information is helpful toward documenting the "undocumented" features of the Titan. But the EC reset is not the same thing that I'm talking about.
Most folks seem to be missing the subject. There are a variety of things that can happen to a notebook computer that make it impossible to turn off or restart (in the Windows "restart" sense). The most common problem is a software problem. When a turned-on notebook "hangs" or "freezes", pressing and holding the power button for several seconds will force a shut-down. Afterward, you can start the computer again and it should boot up normally---unless there is a hardware problem.
But this is not what I'm talking about.
There are two battery systems in most notebooks. There is a small non-rechargeable battery on the motherboard that provides enough power to maintain the clock and system BIOS settings. And there is a large rechargeable battery to power the rest of the computer.
When the BIOS is replaced with a newer version, the new BIOS will often be out-of-sync with the embedded controller (EC). The embedded controller affects lots of things like the cooling fans, some keyboard functions, WiFi, bluetooth, GPUs, etc. In some extreme cases, a notebook computer with a new BIOS may not turn on until the EC is reset. MSI recommends that the EC be reset any time the BIOS is replaced---it should be done immediately afterward.
How do you reset the EC? Remove the notebook's main battery. Obviously, this won't work for the Titan and other notebooks that have non-removable batteries. In this case, some notebook manufacturers provide an "EC reset" switch for some models---but I don't know if these switches disconnect the main battery completely---they may only remove power to the EC circuit. If the reset does truly disconnect the main battery from all circuits, then it is sometimes labelled a "battery reset" switch (this is the name Toshiba uses).
Evidently the Titan takes a different approach---according to chc, holding down the Titan's power button for about 12 seconds will reset the EC (I'm assuming this only works while the Titan is turned off---otherwise it would simply trigger a forced-shutdown as described above).
But this is not what I'm talking about, either. (Besides, I tried holding down the power button for over a minute and the computer still would not start up.)
The problem I'm talking about is a build-up of static electricity inside the computer. This is the same static electricity that shocks you when you touch your finger to another object after sliding your shoes across a carpeted floor. You see, notebook computers operate without a connection to electrical ground---so they can pick up a static charge more easily than "grounded" computing and electronic devices. The static charge may not be large enough to permanently harm the notebook but it may be large enough to interfere with its operation.
When can this happen? During a thunderstorm or any time the notebook is located in an environment where a lot of static electricity is present. It also happens in space because there is no "ground". As I understand it, it is a periodic source of trouble aboard the international space station.
To correct the problem, you usually need to do two things: (1) Remove the main power sources from the notebook. This includes unplugging the AC adapter and removing the main battery. (2) Press and hold the power button for 10-30 seconds to give the static electricity a path to the power control circuit where it can (hopefully) be safely discharged.
The problem with the Titan and other MSI computers with non-removable batteries, is there is no convenient way to remove the main battery. Therefore, if static electricity builds up, there is no convenient way to discharge it.
Now I can't be certain that the reason my Titan wouldn't turn on two weeks ago was due to static electricity. It was a weekend and my troubleshooting tools were limited. Perhaps the EC decided on its own to go crazy. Perhaps something in the power supply is intermittent and failed for the first time---and I'll have to wait for it to fail again before it can be identified. But the conditions for a static electrical problem were present. There had been a rainstorm that night after the Titan has been shut off. The Titan was connected via ethernet cable to an incoming cable modem and line from Comcast. And the symptoms pointed to a static electrical problem.
Until I disconnected the battery's power cable from the Titan's motherboard, my Titan was dead as a doorknob. It gave absolutely no sign of life when trying to turn it on. It was as if the power switch no longer worked.
So, to my mind, what the Titan needs (as well as all MSI notebooks with non-removeable batteries) is an independent reset switch that will allow the user to temporarily disconnect the main battery for as long as the user presses the switch. If an "EC reset" switch will do this, fine. But I don't think it will work if the power switch serves double-duty as an EC reset because the user needs to disconnect the battery at the same time he/she is holding down the power button to dissipate static electricity. I believe the Titan's power switch cannot do both at the same time because I tried it multiple times and it never helped my Titan.
Perhaps there is some other method to dissipate a static electrical build-up. If there is and it is easier to implement---then I hope it is provided in future products like the Titan.
Kind regards, David