billsey Trailblazer

The Aspire Z3-600 models are around ten years old now, and Acer no longer supports them. When you say "flickers on videos" do you mean on videos that are streaming, like YouTube or Netflix, or on downloaded content? Remember a computer that old doesn't run the network at speeds that are currently expected, since the WiFi…

Is there any chance the power connection is a little loose?

That type of artifact is usually caused by a an issue with the cable. Try rerouting it or using a different one to see if the issue persists. Also, try booting into your BIOS to see if it appears there as well. If it does we know it's not an issue with the OS.

There have been a bunch of different XB273U models over the years, there should be more numbers and letters after the 'U'. The version I see on Amazon, a Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx, is under $200 and I doubt if you could replace the screen for less.

If the monitor doesn't show the splash screen when you first turn it on then there is likely an internal hardware error. I'm guessing your model is actually an EI242QR ('i' instead of '1'). Are you still in warranty?

Contact Acer support for your country…

The ES2735G supports an M.2 SSD, position #9 in this diagram: They don't state it specifically, but the block diagram shows PCIe x4 going to that slot, so an NVMe x4 or x2 drive should work. That will be quite a bit faster than a SATA SSD…

Nope, that is one of the old style 5.25" drives, not the newer slimline drives. You might think seriously about just getting an external drive that connects to USB. Those will likely be faster than that one. :)

No, your system is too old to support Windows 11.

Yes, the memory you linked is only 2666, not 3200.

If the BIOS doesn't see the GTX 1650 then that points to a problem with the GPU card or the slot itself. Is it a known good card? is the ATX power connected to #18 on this diagram?

It sounds as if the clone process didn't work. Does the new drive have exactly the same partitions as the original has?

Acer service guides aren't publicly available.

The grayed out Accept should be enabled once you have scrolled all the way through…

You can likely do it without resorting to third party apps… Just move the system reserved files from the hidden folder on D to a newly created hidden folder on C. This is only applicable though if the D: drive is around half the full drive size. Often what has happened is the system reserved partition has been assigned a…

Use the ME FW & System BIOS update document.

Yes, but none of those cables are correct to provide SATA power from a 12VO motherboard…

The "K" features aren't enabled in the BIOS, so it will give almost nothing in the way of a performance increase. There are plenty of other options to better your performance, we typically suggest a SSD first, then memory, then a GPU upgrade, then a new system before doing an CPU change…

Extract the zip file to your system somewhere, I usually do it to my downloads folder but you can use the desktop if you prefer. Inside that extracted folder there should be an appendix, which has PDF files for the instructions. The one you want is something like ME & FW update for Windows… It will instruct you on the…

Can you get it into the BIOS? If Windows is crashing on load due to a Windows update push of a new BIOS rev, then a BIOS reset will often fix it.