I recently had my MSI GE66 Raider laptop serviced, including replacing the thermal material and cleaning the fans. When I got it back, Secure Boot no longer worked, which prevented me from launching some games. The repair shop has now had it for two days and says the operating system is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled. They said they have never encountered this before. Is an OS reinstall really a normal consequence of this kind of service, and what might have caused the problem?
3 Answers
There can also be compatibility issues involving expired or updated Secure Boot certificates, and a BIOS update may be required for some systems. Still, the timing makes it reasonable to have the repair shop document what happened. A clean installation should be a last resort after backing up data and confirming that the problem is not just a BIOS configuration or BitLocker recovery issue.
Opening the laptop normally should not corrupt Windows. However, the shop may have disconnected or reset the CMOS battery, changed BIOS settings, updated the firmware, or altered settings such as UEFI/Legacy mode, TPM, or Secure Boot keys. Any of those can make Secure Boot appear broken without the Windows installation itself being damaged. I would ask them exactly what BIOS changes or firmware updates they made before agreeing to a reinstall.
If the drive was protected with BitLocker, a BIOS reset or hardware change could trigger a recovery-key prompt. That can look like an operating-system problem, but it does not automatically mean Windows needs to be erased. The first steps should be checking the BIOS boot mode, restoring the default Secure Boot keys, confirming the TPM is enabled, and testing whether the existing installation still boots.
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