Clevo X170KM-G – Powers on but no display, even after full stripdown. Is motherboard replacement the next step?

[BorislavSE]

Hi all, I am troubleshooting an issue with my Clevo X170KM-G laptop (Intel i9-10900K, RTX 3080), which I have had for 4 years. It was working perfectly yesterday, but today it suddenly refuses to boot properly.

 

When I press the power button:

• The laptop turns on

• Fans spin up

• Keyboard lights come on

• …but the screen stays completely black and nothing shows up on an external monitor either (HDMI or DP).

 

There are no POST beeps, no BIOS splash screen, and no backlight flicker. It just sits there and occasionally changes fan speeds.

 

Here is everything I have tried so far to no avail:

• EC reset (held power button for 1 minute with battery and charger disconnected)

• CMOS battery removed for 15+ minutes

• Removed and tested RAM individually in Slot 1 (tried different sticks)

• Removed SSDs and Wi-Fi card

• Removed dedicated GPU to force fallback to iGPU

• Powered on with only: motherboard, CPU, 1 RAM stick.

• Repeated CMOS reset in this minimal config

 

I am now leaning toward the motherboard being the fault. It could also be a CPU failure, but that would be less likely.

 

Any second opinions would be hugely appreciated. I am no expert, and I want to confirm I am not missing something.

[Kalman]

5 hours ago, BorislavSE said:

• Removed dedicated GPU to force fallback to iGPU

•  

Hi,

I think x170 does not have iGPU just like P870.

It is more likely based on the sympthons that the GPU is faulty.

Because the fan speed change and keyboard lit, it seems the EC should work. 
For the BIOS/EC work the CPU should be working.

I am no expert either but I would test the GPU first.

[BorislavSE]

12 hours ago, Kalman said:

Hi,

I think x170 does not have iGPU just like P870.

It is more likely based on the sympthons that the GPU is faulty.

Because the fan speed change and keyboard lit, it seems the EC should work. 
For the BIOS/EC work the CPU should be working.

I am no expert either but I would test the GPU first.

Thanks for the response, but the Intel i9-10900K definitely comes with an iGPU. I have seen both GPUs in the device settings when it was working.

[Kalman]

This is what I found, If you have the latest BIOS you have iGPU setting. 
I have P870 it does not have iGPU.

Also you could try flashing a BIOS If you have CH341A programmer.