Aspire V7-482pg Freezes

This is an extensive post. The TL;DR is my Acer Ultrabook thinks it's a Dell. Smiley Tongue

I bought my brand new Acer Aspire V7-482pg in March of 2015. I know for a fact that for the last several (6?) months I have had a very specific problem. When I try to do something that accesses the onboard disk (:C), my computer will sometimes freeze. There is a very specific order of what happens. We'll say, for the example's sake, I am typing in Microsoft Office Word. So, I type and at some point my computer might (or at the rate it happens, will) freeze. First, even though I push buttons on my keyboard, nothing appears on screen. Then, my Windows task bar (the one at the bottom of the screen) will freeze. I cannot click the icons on it--the icons will not even highlight! Then my desktop freezes, similar to the taskbar. My desktop shortcut icons will not highlight. Then, Microsoft Word will now tell me that it is not responding (this happens at any point in the process, not only at the end). After a minute or two, my computer will make a spooling-up noise. I think that this is either my fans or my HDD. Then things resume as normal, I can type and work again.

I've investigated some things while this happens. I have opened Windows Task Manager and find that no programs are really eating any of my resources. The disk column glows bright red but the programs are barely reading/writing. Even more odd, is in the performance tab. In the hard drive section, my HDD is at 100% active time, but my read and write speeds are both at 0. Then, when things return to normal these values change and whatnot as they normally do in normal operation. I've included pictures of WTM in the post.

This might have gone on even longer than 6 months, but I do not know for sure. I had been getting similar freezess then, but they were overshadowed by BSOD's that were caused by the Nvidia Physx driver (which I have sinced removed and never reinstalled), so I cannot say if that was caused by this issue, or Nvidia Physx which caused the BSOD's.

Anyway, this freezing event can happen when using Microsoft Office (as exemplified), using a web browser, playing a game (taking an unusual amount of time to load the game, and sometimes freezing in the game), Windows Media Player, and probably more activites that I cannot recollect.

It is not like I have wierd programs on my PC. I uninstall the bloatware (and Nvidia Physx, leaving the GeForce driver), and put on Google drive and chrome, Avast antivirus, Microsoft Office 2015, CCleaner, Steam (currently with the games Insurgency, Mount and Blade: Warband, Company of Heroes 2, and Star Wars: Empire at War). I've tried different antiviruses, browsers, and cloud services to see if that would remedy the issue, but none have.

I do not think this is a normal thing, that my computer is "thinking". I used to own a crappy old Dell desktop that would pause when opening a game, but nothing else like this thing is doing.

I've called Acer Tech support multiple times, they have had me perform system recovery upon system recovery, even taking it for repair. Oddly, the Repair Facility in Texas stated that my hardware passed all of their diagnostic tests, so they simply reloaded a fresh OS. Still no dice.

Are these things normal for a laptop? While never personally owning a laptop, I've extensively used them and never had this issue. Is this a normal thing for Acer computers? I don't see why it would be. Any suggestions? Any insights? Any comforting pats on the shoulder?

System Specs (Might be relevant):

Windows 8.1 (Tried Windows 10, but it ran terribly because of the freezing problem)

8GB Ram

Nvidia GeForce 750m

Intel Core i5-4200u

500GB Hybrid HDD

All drivers and Windows are, AFAIK, up-to-date. This does not iclude my Nvidia driver, it is one update behind (have had no time to update it).

Accepted answers

zackh

Yeah, I wound up sending it back to the manufacturer. It wound up being a motherboard.

All comments

IronFly

zackh wrote:
Any suggestions? Any insights? Any comforting pats on the shoulder?

have you tried to run your laptop without any third-party antivirus and use only the built-in windows defender antivirus?

what do you do with CCleaner?

have you checked HDD SMART data?

if it was my laptop, i would had a deep check at the HDD.

zackh

I will try running my rig sans antivirus.

I've done two disk checks, which was one of my first attempted solutions, even running diagnostics on my RAM. Are disk checks what you are suggesting? I'm not familiar with "Disk SMART Data".

With CCleaner I simply let it monitor and occasionally run the file cleaning (I don't remember what it's called, I'm typing this on my phone so I can't check). I don't mess with the registry cleaning or the other advanced stuff.

IronFly

disk checks are ok.

try a check using Crystal disk too:

http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

zackh

Crystal Disk says that my Hard drive's "Health status" is "Good". I shut off avast (did not uninstall because I'm lazy, but I will if you feel it would yield better results).

I'll keep using the PC for a few days like this and see if anything happens.

IronFly

ok, keep me updated.

JordanB

Are you using Windows 8.1 now or Windows 10?

Also, you are just using the Acer pre-installed Windows, right? You're not trying to clean install vanilla Windows 8.1 or vanilla Windows 10 are you?

When you had the freezing problem with Windows 10, it was most likely due to the Intel Management Engine Interface driver since you have Haswell 4200U. Acer has subsequently pulled the Windows 10 ver. 11.xx. IMEI. so you shouldn't experience those same problems in Windows 10 anymore.

My advice is to just start over (reset to factory condition) and stick with the drivers that Acer Care Center gives you. And install them in the exact order that you see them in Acer Care Center (from top to bottom). Install every driver (and critical update) that Acer Care Center gives you to update. But don't go to Acer downloads to get drivers from there. Update to Windows 10 through Windows Update, but again, only use the drivers that Acer Care Center gives you. And install them in the exact order that they appear in Acer Care Center (from top to bottom).

And then go in to your BIOS Settings and load the BIOS defaults (F9) and then save/exit (F10).

And then stay away from Avast and CCleaner for at least a month and just use Windows Defender. Smiley Happy

Note: I'm sure you already read about someone having the weird freezing problem with charger although it's probably unrelated.

http://community.acer.com/t5/V-and-VN-Series/Aspire-V7-482PG-Touchpad-mouse-freeze-when-plugging-in-power/m-p/388398#U388398

zackh

I am using the windows 8.1 that came with the computer, or in this case, the windows that the repair facility put on.

The freezes happen whether or not my power chord is connected.

I'll probably look into your reset and update from care Center advice once I have the time and patience to reset my computer for the fourth time. ????

Also, that's great to hear about with Windows 10. I've been meaning to upgrade once I knew the bugs were worked out.

zackh

Yeah, the computer did it again. So, unless I need to remove the entire antivirus, it being shut off made no difference.

IronFly

this kind of issue is very hard to narrow, in my opinion, since you are still under 1 year warranty, i would contact Acer support service and let them give a check.