MSI Cyborg 17.3 B2WEKG: Two RMAs, and the One Checkbox That Caused It All.
This story starts with why I needed a new laptop, then how I got a display model for a lower price, to finding out it has power issues which leads to 2 RMAs to MSI and then finding out the root cause is due to the embedded controller (EC) returning data when none was requested which was triggered by a piece of software called HWiNFO64 which simulated a hardware fault. Then, after the RMAs, I found out the MSI repair tech had put a large number of reads and writes on the NVME over a couple of days, which had the NVME at 99% and now 93% health, and then, looking at the heat pipe, it was dented in 6 places.
Since I recorded everything, this will be one interesting blog post.
This is my story on this thing.
Why I got the MSI Cyborg 17 Laptop
As stated above, when I am working out in my shop, I may need to use a computer for research, entertainment, and at times for video content whenever that is needed. My older Alienware 17 R2 is up there in age, and it’s starting to struggle on some tasks I need it to do. Mind you, I am also running Windows 11 on it, and it’s unsupported hardware, but it works great. Really, my concern is the CPU temps. That shop can get to +40C easily. There is no insulation in the walls. Pretty much just a large 16x10F shed. The CPU I know was designed to run hot, but running in the 87C ran idol at the desktop is something I really don’t want to see. Yes, the thermal paste was released, but in an environment like that I just can’t use it in mid-summer. I really needed something more powerful and that can run cooler.
So I needed a new laptop but was not really ready to spend money on one. In 2026, everything is just overly expensive. You got the RAM and Memory Cartel. In Canada, everything is even more expensive; it made no sense to get another one. But one day my luck changed.
How I found the MSI Cyborg 17 B2WEKG laptop
One day I went shopping at my local Costco, and I like to look though there tech for things. Not really laptops. I find buying things like PC’s from stores to just suck, and in my location most are just crap and overpriced in general.
To get to the back side to see what they had, I needed to walk past the laptops. One caught my eye, and the price was right. I was looking at this MSI Cyborg 17 with these nice designs, a cool translucent case and a 10-core CPU with a GTX 5050. Now I am not going to use this for gaming, but I know gaming hardware is better then you advrage crap. All for the price of 1199.99 CAD.
Now I was not going to buy it on the spot. I was messing around with it though to try and get as much information from it as possible, as their dumb tags in the store don’t say much. Most of the information was locked as their store accounts on the system limit what you can do on the OS. One of their guys says,
If you like that one, you will like this one here.
I look at the one he was showing, and it too was an MSI Cyborg, but it was a 15-inch. I like larger screens. He also said this one has more RAM. I said to him, I can upgrade the RAM and the drive at any time, but I cannot upgrade the screen. Anyway, I left it there.
When I was ready to buy the MSI Cyborg 17 B2WEKG laptop
3 Months later, I went back to Costco, and I saw it was still there, but this time on the price tag I saw the little star at the top right. I was thinking I should buy it now while I can. Between the 3 months I have been looking at this thing online and the link when they were selling it on their site. They eventually pulled the URL on the site, and when I saw that star, I knew it was going to be gone from their store. I decided to look at my phone and check sites like Best Buy, and the same B2WEKG model was selling for around $2000, and I am thinking I really should get this thing.
I decided to say no. I am not going to buy it. So went home, did my thing, went to sleep, woke up the next day and said screw it, I am going back there. I am getting it today. That’s what I did. Went back to Costco and got someone to assist me in buying one of these laptops. One of the workers said: Sorry, we have no more in stock. The only one we got left is this display model here. In my head, I am thinking, well, that sucks. I came all this way for a new one, and there is this display model I saw 3 months ago. So I know it’s going to have a crap load of hours on it. So I asked. Could you guys give me a discount on it? They said: One moment. I’ll go talk to the manager. Be with you shortly. I am like, ok.
So it was selling for $1199.99 CAD, as it was just the floor model left, and when the manager showed up, they agreed they could give me $200 off. The price was now at $999.00 CAD for the floor model. Also got a bit more of a discount with the upgrade to the membership, so the actual total came out to $967.02 CAD for this thing. Not bad knowing Best Buy has it for a crap load more. The floor model was in great shape visually. They even had the box yet and put it inside.
When the laptop made it home and noticed strange issues.
First thing I did was make a video unboxing the system, doing a bit of explanation, and holding off on the video stuff so I can spend some time setting this up the way I wanted to. The first thing I did was register it on MSI’s website and then proceed to install everything I needed. During the installation process, I noticed strange power issues. I’ll explain it in the power issues section next. During my install and video recording, I was pretty impressed with the performance. Much more powerful than the older system I have. I was pretty happy with what I got, besides the luming issue it had.
In the first part, when I was setting it up, I needed to know how long this system was on for, as it was a display model. I am thinking it’s got some insane hours on it, so what I did was install CrystalDiskInfo and check the drives’ power-on hours, and I was surprised it was only 257 hours (10 days, 17 hours). For a display model, that is extremely low. Pretty much new. The worker at Costco said it was not on display for long. Could be that, or the looming issue you’re about to hear now.
Random Power Issues
Now, first I am going to say this. When so many of the same thing are made on the factory line, you’re going to get one that is a dud while the others are perfectly fine. It happens. So this issue, I would never say, is on all of them.
When I was setting up the system, I noticed some strange power issues. Things I saw.
- Windows 11 low battery messages popped up for a split second, then went away.
- Deskscapes notification pop-up that it paused the animated background because it thought it was on battery and not the wall adapter, even when it was plugged in.
- Going into hibernation mode.
These issues were completely random. I kinda shrugged it off. All of these issues seemed to happen regardless of being plugged in or not. When I was doing my video and doing some game testing, it never did it on that. Things seemed to work. It was only when I was not filming that it would cause these annoying problems. In my video, I mentioned the issue. It seemed to become frequent when I tried to record it.
Before I send a message to MSI
I wanted to see if this was software-related. So I tried a couple of things. In MSI Control Center, I tried to do a battery calibration. Basically, it drains the battery till it’s almost dead and makes you fully charge it again. The second thing I did was to do a BIOS firmware update to see if that would help. I did that on camera in my video. Unfortunately, that did not work.
MSI Ticket
At this point, I opened a ticket with MSI and explained my issue and what I tried to do to solve it, and they asked if Windows was updated as well, and I said: Everything is up to date. It’s also a new install of Windows 11. I just got this laptop a week ago. They said: It may be a problem with the motherboard or battery if it continues to report issues. we would normally recommend warranty service to get it checked, did you want to proceed with service?
I went on rambling about the details on the issue and having it shut off while I am in the middle of updating the ticket ( which I was doing on another system). I thought the next day I would give them a call. They walked me through doing an EC Reset, which pretty much just holds the power button when you turn it on, and it seems like it does a full system train again. Takes a bit, so I update the ticket and say the following: I was on the phone with one of your fellas, and they guided me through an EC Reset; I think it was. That is what I was holding the power button for 20 seconds without the power adapter. I am going to see if that works. Stay tuned.. They replied with Sure thing.
I think I’ll share some of the conversation next here so you get the gist of it.
Me: I’ve done that EC Reset and worked for a day or so, but when my laptop was plugged in, it shut off again at random. So the problem does still exist. I was going to wait till Monday to call, but I just got an email wondering if this was resolved. It’s not, sadly. Should I call on Monday? Also need to know if I can pull the NVME drive before sending it. I don’t like my data in other people’s hands.
I’ve never done an RMA Request before. Typically, things just work.
MSI: We can process the request for warranty service , we recommend to include the drive for service so they can test everything when sending it in. You can make a guest account on the device so they can test it easier
Me: I’ve made a standard local account called MSI_Tech with no pass. So it should be good. I have the box and everything for it still. I can repackage it. I’ll call tomorrow to discuss how to proceed. Wouldn’t be a problem if this thing did not randomly turn off and have strange battery issues. Hard to pinpoint because the randomness could be hours or the next day before it does it again.
MSI: Sure thing, we can also process the request here as well
So the ticket goes on with updates to what I do next, just to keep the log of what I say in the phone call.
RMA Process 1
At this point, I am sick. I played a joke on this little kid, Jimmy, touching this laptop after picking his nose, and I guess it backfired. I felt like crap, but I managed to call them and record the conversation. It’s in my second video. Just so you know. I don’t have the name for that video yet. I am in the process of writing this blog and have not made it to that part in this process. It went back, and that’s RMA Process 2. I have yet to receive the laptop. Should be here in 2 days from this section of this message lol. This is almost like a fricken diary. Anyway, enough of my rambling…Let’s continue.
So the fella on the phone was super nice. He said that most people need to pay to ship it to MSI for repair, but since it was new ..ish lol, they paid for the shipping. I just had to drop it off. I got no fluff, no complaints. They really wanted to help. I appreciated it. So I got all the paper stuff they wanted me to put in the box and the steps and so on. I sent it on its way. When they got it, they replaced the battery and shipped it the same day. They spent a total of 41 min or so on it.
When it came Home 1
I had to grab the camera, since I am recording this whole process; I wanted to also record the unboxing 2.0 lol. The laptop box looked like it went from hell and back, even with the fragile stickers on it. They were rubbed like a genie lamp. Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need? JK. Now I wanna watch Aladdin lol. Anyway, seemed to be a bit dusty, and they had some kind of Factory seal on the bottom of the screw hole. I wanted to take the bottom apart to see if they really did replace the battery, but I waited to make sure the problem was resolved first before I did that.
So at this point I had to reinstall everything as they reset it. I did say they could do that. This time I was being smart and recorded everything. First thing I was was that Deskscapes notification popup that it paused the animated background because it thought it was on battery and not the wall adapter, even when it was plugged in. Yeah, I copied and pasted that from above because it was the same thing that happened. After that, it started to show a lot more that I caught it doing; all 3 on camera. I have even had to look at the video frame by frame and say, while it’s plugged in go from 100% to 0% then back to 100% in a second. I am sure this was some power management issue on the motherboard. So the battery did not fix anything.
RMA Process 2
At this point, I have caught it 4 times on camera, so I have the proof I needed. Although they are happy to help, I still like to show that I am not a nut case lol. So I have the 4 videos to send them in a ticket they made called NB RMA
- MSI Cyborg Random Shutdown 1: https://youtu.be/J8ONLqOGQKQ
- MSI Cyborg Random Shutdown 2: https://youtu.be/oU-yEmTXfcM
- MSI Cyborg Random Shutdown 3: https://youtu.be/QTVJVxgXpWI
- MSI Cyborg Random Shutdown 4: https://youtu.be/Oa3L70ZK9mo
I decided to give them a call, and they sent this while I was on the phone lol: MSI: Okay I can create another RMA and label for your will the previous RMA details be the same as last time? Thanks.
So again on the phone, they said they will just replace everything: the battery and motherboard. Again, very friendly and willing to help and again they paid for shipping. Super happy. I did ask for them not to reset the PC unless they had to. When it was sent to them, I did have their tech send me an email a couple of times over the following.
- MSI Tech: Your laptop is under repair now; the mainboard has been replaced.
The BitLocker recovery key is requested to boot into Windows due to the mainboard replacement. Can you provide the BitLocker recovery key? Then we can do the final test. - Me: I have the fella the key and main account just in case.
- Me: A day later, I said: Were you able to access the OS after entering the BitLocker code? Just making sure. If you can’t, then you do have my permission to wipe it.
Just having to install everything for the 3rd time will be annoying, but I am ok with it if you have no choice. - MSI Tech: Yes, the recovery key works. We can’t duplicate the shutdown issue, but in case, we replaced the mainboard, and we are doing a stress test right now. If you can provide any information that can help with the shutdown issue, that will be good for our final test, such as how it happened, how long after use, what program was running, etc.
- Me: I proceeded to tell him everything and the videos
- MSI Tech: Thank you for the information; we will do further tests with the new mainboard. We would like to test it for a couple more days.
When it came Home 2
When I got the laptop back, I took it out of its box and inspected it. It has a couple more tiny scuffs on the bottom of it and general fingerprints, but really that is about it. I cleaned it up and turned it on, and I did not need to start over. The OS was the same way I left it when I sent it to MSI for repair. So I spent the day on it just doing general browsing, YouTube videos and also wanted to set up my Elgato HD60 S, as I eventually want to record that 2003 XP PC I have, and everything seemed to run just fine. No random shutdowns, nothing.
Later on that evening, I reinstalled the MSI Center and installed Mystic Light and System Diagnosis so I can set things up again. In System Diagnosis, I changed the Battery setting to Balanced (Charge the battery when under 70%, stop at 80%), then clicked on Battery Calibration. The battery calibration will drain the battery till it gets to around 5%, then it will start the process of charging again. This helps to keep an accurate battery level and wear level guess of the battery if it’s good or not.
The next day, I noticed around noontime that the laptop turned off. The same thing it did before. The same reason it was sent in for repair. So once again, I pointed my Logitech BRIO 4K camera at the screen and left it there displaying the Windows Power & Battery until it turned off again. At 1:19 PM on July 10, 2026, it turned off on camera. I slowed the video down and saw that the battery level went from 80% to 1%, then it went into hibernation mode. The same main thing it did before. The battery was replaced, the motherboard was replaced, and it’s still doing it.
MSI Ticket Part 1 – EC microcontroller
Now I am at the point again where I am making a ticket to MSI. In the ticket, I give all the previous history of issues with it and the original videos I recorded of the shutdowns, as it’s the same thing I just noticed again. Just a detailed message so they can catch up without needing to look at the older tickets… The reply I got was this:
MSI: Dear Customer, it seems from your video it is a 3rd party app called Deskscapes that is causing it. Please uninstall this application and restart the computer. Then try using your computer for a few hours. Thank You.
I thought it was odd. Why would Deskscapes cause the power issue? Ok fine. I uninstalled it. So this is a bit of that conversation:
- Me: I’ll give it a shot, but that software runs perfectly fine on my older Alienware 17 R2 2015 without issues. I did successfully record it happening again, but I’ll wait and see if it stays like this now.
- MSI: Yes, please try it after uninstalling that software. It seems like a software/OS issue. You can also reach out to the Deskscapes development team for further support. Thank You.
Now I decided to have a look at the Event Viewer, and this is where EVERYTHING CHANGES. The fact I did not look at this at the start before any RMA was a silly thing. I sent them this message:
Just want to point out when the issue happened, it was around 1:19 PM, and I decided to look through the Event Viewer / Windows Logs / System and saw a log at 2026-07-10 1:05:34 PM that says:
Level: Error – Source: ACPI – Event ID: 13
: The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly.The next one after that is at 1:20:44 Kernal-General (The operating system started at system time)
I then sent screenshots of the Event Viewer and a video showing it here: https://youtu.be/c-8QF6xBlFI
They then told me to go to Device Manager / Batteries / Uninstall: Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery, then restart, and Windows will reinstall it. I did that and told them: Very unlikely this will solve it.
But now I am getting somewhere. Just how can I piece this together? The ACPI Event Logs said everything. This is finally solved.
I cracked the case, my dear Watson
So the system would drop from 100% or 80% down to 1% or 0%, which would put the system into hibernation mode. Sometimes, maybe it would display a low battery.
The embedded controller (EC) in a laptop is a microcontroller that manages low-level hardware functions like power, battery, keyboard, and thermal control independently of the main CPU. The Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery driver talks to the laptop’s embedded controller (EC) via ACPI to read battery status and control charging, then exposes that information to Windows.
Root cause.
I use a tool called HWiNFO64, which runs sensors to fetch system data for the sidebar on my desktop to see what the hardware is doing. It’s a pretty well-known tool and used by many. Anyway, I am assuming that MSI has put a low-budget version of an EC chip in this motherboard that might only handle one thing at a time. So, for example, the Windows ACPI driver is pinging the EC chip for information, and so is HWiNFO64, which, in return, overwhelms it and drops its synchronization, and spits back corrupted data packets to the Windows ACPI driver, causing this problem.
So, I have a new version of HWiNFO64 which has the option of EC enabled by default. (Something I never paid any attention to) I have disabled it now. This option does not exist on the older version of HWiNFO64 that is currently installed on my Alienware 17 R2 2015.
Having a look at the Event Viewer shows Level Error & Warning – Source ACPI – Event ID 15
For the Error says:
: The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly.
The Warning says:
: The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested. The BIOS might be trying to access the EC without synchronizing with the operating system. This data will be ignored. No further action is necessary; however, you should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS.
This says everything. Look at the warning; it says, “The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested.”
Now, this is speculation, but it makes a ton of sense. An EC microcontroller mixed with constant pings from the Windows ACPI driver and HWiNFO64 overwhelmed it. When that timeout happens, Windows suddenly loses its connection to the battery telemetry for a split second. Lacking data, it assumes the absolute worst-case scenario (0% voltage drop) and forces the emergency hibernation.
Sending this in for RMA twice probably wasn’t necessary, but because the embedded controller (EC) manages AC power input and communicates with the battery’s management chip (BMS), it was easy to suspect a hardware failure, since these controllers are critical to the laptop’s power system. By disabling that EC sensor polling option, I have officially relieved the chip of its double-duty and solved a hardware conflict using nothing but logic and system logs.
So the RMA was still the right choice, but unknowingly it was not the right one. I was only able to figure it out by the event viewer error and knowing the logic behind how the EC microcontroller works and how the software I use communicates with the sensors of the hardware. Something that a normal person would never know. That is one of those needles in a haystack, but I had a very powerful magnet to find the issue.
A checkbox on HWiNFO64 simulated a hardware fault. Crazy to think a simple click of a checkbox would have resolved everything. That was a hard one to figure out. This poor laptop, though… It’s lived as a display model…Then goes for two RMAs for a Battery, OS rest and then a MainBoard replacement.
MSI Ticket Part 2 – Drive Health
When I mentioned the random shutdowns, I also said the following:
Speaking of which, what’s the deal with the NVME? When I sent it in the first time, the drive data was the following:
- 99% Health
- Total Host Reads were 2741 GB
- Total Host Writes were 6188 GB
- 257 hours – 10 days 17 hours
Now, when I got it back, it says
- 93% Health
- Total Host Reads were 25755 GB
- Total Host Writes were 31527 GB
- 312 hours – 13 days 0 hours
Not even my main desktop has that many reads and writes, and it’s been running for a year now. Were they testing the drive when they had it?
I never did get a response over it. I even contacted the tech by email and never responded about it. A little frustrating knowing that drives are not cheap right now and they did that in a couple of days.
A floating piece shows dented heat pipes
When I was building a super cool custom laptop stand for this PC, I heard something rattling inside of it. Having something inside moving around, your mind thinks of two things: a piece of plastic possibly broken off from one of the tabs after the bottom cover has been removed a couple times, or something far worse, like a screw moving around, which could cause a short. The screw thought was concerning enough that I had to remove the bottom to find out.
So I stopped what I was doing and then decided to record everything next. Unknowingly at the time of removing the bottom, I was more concerned with the piece floating around and fingerprints from the tech that was last in the laptop. Later on, after watching the video and comparing it to my first one before any RMAs, I was able to see MSI technician bent the original heat pipes. I am not sure if this will be a problem in the future, but I hope it won’t. I am not even sure if I should trust another RMA just in case they do something else. They have already written a ton on the NVMe, and now the heat pipes have dents. I can tell it’s the same one because the permanent marker on the right is the same brushed mark as before, indicating it’s the original. How can you dent them that many times…Better yet, what did you use to dent the heat pipes and why?
The mysterious piece floating around was a piece of plastic. Not sure from what, but I was able to remove it without a fuss. At least it won’t end up in the cooler fan and break any of the fins, and I am glad it was not a screw.
Unsure what I should do next
Right now this laptop is working fine. I haven’t played any games really on it yet, but I should. That video I made removing the plastic piece, I’ll post it right here so you can see it. I do think I should make another video doing some gameplay just to be sure it works fine, but before that, I’ll be doing the laptop stand.
My Cool Laptop Stand
Not yet on this blog page. This is an ongoing blog.