I recently had my MSI GE66 Raider laptop, with an RTX 3080 and 32GB of RAM, serviced. The shop replaced the thermal material and cleaned the fans. When I got it back, Secure Boot no longer worked, which prevented some of my games from launching. I returned it to the shop, and after two days they said the operating system was corrupted and recommended reinstalling Windows. They claimed they had never seen this happen before. Is an OS reinstall really a normal consequence of this kind of service, and what might have caused Secure Boot to stop working?
2 Answers
Secure Boot failures can also happen because of outdated BIOS firmware or changes to the certificates used to validate boot components. Updating the laptop’s BIOS and Windows may restore compatibility, provided MSI still supplies firmware for that model. The repair shop should first verify the BIOS version, Secure Boot keys, boot mode, TPM state, and EFI system partition. A clean installation might fix the symptom, but it should not be the first assumption without checking those items.
The first things to check are the BIOS settings and whether the CMOS was reset or the battery disconnected during service. That can restore default firmware settings, change the boot mode, or disable Secure Boot. If BitLocker or another drive-encryption feature was enabled, a firmware or TPM change could also trigger a recovery prompt. None of that automatically means Windows itself is corrupted, so the shop should diagnose the boot configuration and check the drive before wiping the system.
I’m not sure whether they removed the CMOS battery. The laptop worked normally before the cleaning, so I’m wondering whether the service changed a BIOS or TPM setting rather than actually damaging Windows.
That makes sense, but the problem appeared immediately after the laptop was serviced. It seems more likely that something changed in the firmware or boot settings than that Windows happened to become corrupted at the same time.