Brand new Aspire R14 with Disk Error out of box, plus screen issues

Owned the new Aspire R14 less than 24 hours. Set it up last night. Very quickly had an error: display driver crashed and restarted. Had read of this in reviews – Updated Windows 10. Updated Acer Care Center, which did a check for updates and health. Check function gave a Disk Error. "Attention required - Defect Found: You are advised to back up your data to another disk". Ran this check again an hour later and now shows OK.

Second issue: major major screen flicker when one window is shrunk over others on desktop, behind and around that window and flickering wildly around any desktop tiles with moving pictures. Missing chunk of screen (blank white area) in a McAfeee popup that arises in front of everything. Remembered in the pre-purchase Reviews on Best Buy that some people had issues like this w/combo of either the chip and Intel HD Graphics 520 or Win 10 and the 520. Checked for Updates on Acer and there was an updated VGA driver for my serial number so I installed it. Still having the flickering after reboot.

Any help? Tried chat - timed out after almost half an hour with a message Unavailable, and that it doesn't work on Low-Res screens - hey this is your own HD display! So far not feelin' confident - except in my ability to return this to BBuy.

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finlux

Hi nogR14

I'm sorry to hear you're having issues with a brand new R14. it is a very good unit!

I think as it is new, return it back for a replacement. Once you've used it a few times you'll love it!

Let us know how you get on....

nogaR14

Windows display driver error.PNG Store was out of stock; contacted CHAT support, was advised to update BIOS from Acer site, per my serial number, even though Acer Care center on the computer itself said everything was up to date. Did so. Still getting video driver error messages - video driver has stopped and restarted. :-( This is a Windows 10 preinstalled computer... why is it a Win 8(R) message? There are no updates to the Intel 520 graphics that is on board.

Windows display driver error.PNG

padgett

First thing if it is working is to create a recovery drive and a full system image. That way you can always get back to where you are now even if it won't boot at all.

Next record what display drver you have. The current one on my R14 is 20.19.15.4300 but I understand there is now a .4331.

Then I'd run a chkdsk/f and see what happens.

nogaR14

Chkdsk /f revealed no errors at all. - I have the same display driver version as you .4300; Windows search online for driver updates finds nothing. On the Intel site however there is a Dec 22, 2015 Driver update that's a whole series of files, for Win 10/6th gen Core i7/HD Graphics 520

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25620/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40-6th-Gen-

but it says DRIVER VERSION: 15.40.14.64.4352. It includes more than just the video driver; there are some fixes and a whole bunch of known issues. :-( Should I be installing this? Why doesn't this come up in the Acer Care center?

CONTENTS OF THE PACKAGE:

Intel® Graphics Driver

Intel® Display Audio Driver

Intel® Media SDK Runtime

Intel® OpenCL* Driver

Intel® Graphics Control Panel

Update same evening: Acer Chat agent says Acer is working with Intel on the issue. Says the error reads Windows 8(R) because the display driver was for Windows 8 and this machine has Win 10. Said to go ahead and install package at above link.

Additional update: UNABLE to install Intel's driver package, get Error "The driver being installed is not validated for this computer. Please obtain the appropirate driver from the computer manufacturer." with a link to this info:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005469.html that includes " Installing a generic Intel® driver instead of the customized computer manufacturer driver may cause technical issues. " This is exactly what I wrote in Chat to the tech, that I hesitated to install a generic driver. He said "not to worry."

So, Acer, the problem is on your shoulders to work with Intel on this to resolve.

IronFly

to install Intel generic drivers, you need to uninstall Acer's driver.

from Device manager,

click on display adapters

right click the Intel VGA adapters

choose to unisntall and tick to uninstall software too

once done try to install Intel drivers without rebooting or windows will override the Intel's drivers.

padgett

I have had Microsoft drivers install themselves before and Things Don't Work.

Windows 7 through 10 are enough alike under the hood that a driver for an earlier one will usually work with another.

Hate to say this but my impression is that Acer is more of an integrator than a developer (Michael Dell started out the same way) and graphics is more of a sideline for Intel (had to wait almost two years for 64 bit thermal management for ventless designs).

All I can really say is that the 4300 is working fine on my R14 (G7WAA.002) but there are so many variants of the R14 that what works for mine may not work for you. Do you have the 520 graphics engine ?

ps should mention that I really like Acer products, they seem more innovative than others (have had examples from most) particularly with bleeding edge products. Guess that is why I keep buying them.

That said I've tended to go to extreemes to make something work, just spent about four days (Microsoft upgrades tend to take hours even with a 80 MB/s pipe, & when fail take even longer to recover) dragging a homebuilt tower kicking and screaming from 7-64 to 10-64. Hard part was keeping all of my APPs, some from the last century, intact.

OTOH the R and even R14 (14" screen) have an incredible number of variants from processors (Pentium, i3, i5, i7 Hazwell and Broadwell) to graphcs so it is important to know which model you are dealing with (first 10 digits of the serial number).

Important thing is this is fixable, just if hardware may need to be returned. If software we may be able to fix online. Frankly the R14 is the nicest travel machine I've had - cures everything I found wrong with the Switch 12 (but that was the first of the ventless 64 bit machines so may be excused some) and when connected to a dock/real monitors, etc. makes a fine desktop.

Also the R14 is thoroughly conventional so should not be hard to get tuned up. But first we need to know exactly what you have.

pps Catch 22 "The message body contains dat ing, which is not permitted in this community. Please remove this content before sending your post." "dat ing to the last century" ?

nogaR14

as referred to above my machine is Win 10/6th gen Core i7 6500/HD Graphics 520 with 520gb SSD.

padgett

Sounds like the one I have here, G7WAA002. In that case you should have the Intel Graphics adapter 520. In that case you want to go to http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers and give it model R5-471T. The VGA driver should be Intel 20.19.15.4300 (171.9MB). Try that, it is what I have on mine.

nogaR14

already have 4300, last error occured on that driver

nogaR14

Even with the Intel eror message that driver is not validated for my comuter? Do you know for a fact or from experience that the absence (deletion) of the existing Acer graphics driver will allow the Intel one to work? or is that a hopeful suggestion. I am hesitant to try.

padgett

Can always load a different driver. I have seen the .1102 do some nasty things (flashing, partial screens) that were ard to roll back.

I have a R14 here and have had no problems, is really a better machine than my Swich 12.

nogaR14

load what driver? both current and previous have the problem and can't load generic Intel.

A user on the Win 10 boards had this problem and followed advice to delete OEM driver and install generic Intel... upon deletion but before install could happen, system rebooted itself and then... no video.

nogaR14

This error is all over the internet. Problem with Intel 520A (also 515) graphics driver plus core i7 chip and Win 10. On all sorts of laptops - Asus, HP, Lenovo, whatever. There doesn't seem to be a fix yet from either Intel or in this case Acer, although apparently SOME manufacturers are coming up with updates that resolve it. Hello, Acer, are you listening? Just google the error verbage and look at the Dec 2015 and Jan 2016 results.

https://communities.intel.com/thread/97013?start=0&tstart=0

padgett

OK I have see the "Display driver...has recovered" but only when opening the lid when connected to the docking station and the R14 changes from the Displaylink driver to the Intel.

Intel drivers start with a code for the intended graphics chip. Mine is 20.19.15.4300. I would personally suspect any driver that did not start 20.19.

I have seen the wrong driver cause all sorts of problems (flashing, missing pointer, black display) & have has to go use accessibility options at boot (e.g. high contrast display) to be able to remove the driver.

That said, looking at the Intel site, 15.40.14.4352 would appear to be correct, unless Acer or Intel has done something unusual OTOH 20.19.15.4300 appears specific for IRIS and NUC devices with 4K capability.

Since my 20.19.15.4300 is working properly, I think I'll leave it there.

nogaR14

I have 20.19.15.4300 and experience the crash and recovery seemingly randomly while using different apps (not games) or just web browsing. I will at this point just keep checking back for a manufacturer-updated driver from Acer.

nogaR14

update: still happening frequently; Best Buy PC head says happening on almost all manufacturers so I kept the PC. Very annoying, happens when streaming video a lot. Still waiting for Microsoft or Acer to fix the driver.

padgett

Just a possibility but I removed McAfee and use Windows Defender and EMET set paranoid.

nogaR14

Thanks, I never installed the (bloatware) McAfee that was included. Tonight the Driver Error occurred in Firefox just when changing pages in Facebook, no running video or sound.

padgett

Are you sure ? Two I have seen (R3 and R5) had it installed by default. Had to remove it.

IronFly

nogaR14 wrote:
Thanks, I never installed the (bloatware) McAfee that was included. Tonight the Driver Error occurred in Firefox just when changing pages in Facebook, no running video or sound.

Can you try Chrome as browser instead of Firefox and check if driver error occours?

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