Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro - 59FPS lock

Hey guys. I got this problem more than a while but was not giving it some more attention. But last time I tried to play some FPS game it really irritated me, that I got some like micro-stutters or how can you call it. It seems like my laptop has locked on 59FPS, but it's not only an in-game problem. I got it like always (middlemouse click and browsing text make it stutter, internet UFO display test also make that UFO guy stutter). It seems to be some V-Sync problem or what. I don't really know how to fix it. With that UFO guy, I was trying to do it just after I restarted PC and then it worked, then it was synced. But after a while of running laptop when I refreshed a page, it couldn't sync and was stuttering once again (the same with the game, after restart it was running smooth, but after some while, it seemed to become desynchronized again). Not sure what the problem can be.

Can I try some Do It Yourself "repair" or it looks like a hardware problem and so I should bring it to servis (as I got last month of warranty on it).

Thanks!!

Accepted answers

dablik415

Okay, so it was that f.lux absolutely.

But after reinstalling audio driver I didn't get rid of that clicking sound (now it's only a little quieter). Not sure if to create new thread or to continue in this one.

All comments

IronFly

Can you post the exact model?

VN7-xxx

windows 10 installed?

dablik415

Oh sorry, I forgot. It's VN7-591G-76L9. And I don't have Windows 10 installed. I got 8.1 because when there was that Windows 10 boom, I was trying to ignore it for about half a year but then I made a backup and installed. Never got any problems on Windows 8.1 but after upgrade to 10 I was getting random system freezes and the reason was that Intel graphics driver stopped working. So after maybe 2 weeks I returned to 8.1 and got maybe only one BSOD since then (it was maybe like a year ago).

IronFly

ok, can you please report the BIOS version?

windows logo key + r

type

msinfo32

report BIOS DATE/version string

Drivers are from Acer support website or Intel/nVidia?

dablik415

BIOS Version/Date: Insyde Corp. V1.15, 6.8.2015

All drivers downloaded from Acer Driver site, only NVidia drivers are from NVidia site (downloaded through client NVIDIA GeForce Experience)

IronFly

ok, so your system seems updated.

Microstutters are not easy to fix, can be related to:

HDD read/write

chipset drivers

Audio latency (try to download latest audio drivers from Realtek):

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=5&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

WiFi/BT drivers

check latency with this tool:

http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml

can be also some pre-render frames issue on nVidia (you can set it to 1 instead of 3), check if enabling disabling V-sync helps.

dablik415

So I downloaded that driver from site you posted (but it's not audio driver, it's some ethernet controller driver) and repaired with it the old one (so it installed new one).

I let Latency checker run for like about 10 minutes and it ended up with:"Some device drivers on this machine behave bad and will probably cause drop-outs in real-time audio and/or video streams. To isolate the misbehaving driver use Device Manager and disable/re-enable various devices, one at a time. Try network and W-LAN adapters, modems, internal sound devices, USB host controllers, etc."
But most of the time it is all ok only once in a while there is one red peek.

Not really sure if there is any possibility to enable/disable NVidia V-Sync on system (I think you meant ingame, but ingame it's not worth as I was playing a lots of games since i started to notice it and was doing a lot's of tweaks and what helps the most is playing without V-Sync, but then tearing occurs), but as I said, it does also on the internet e.g. when Im "smooth" scrolling with middle mouse button clicked (and my web browser runs on Intel graphics not explicitly on NVidia).

**EDIT**
Actually I found out on that DPC Latency site, that they got some issues with Windows 8 compatibility, so it can give incorrect results.

IronFly

ok, sorry about the wrong drivers:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Tick i accept and click on next.

if you enter Intel HD control panel, what are the resolution and frequency reported?

on nVidia panel?

Any antivirus installed?

IronFly

wrong reply

dablik415

Okey, I installed that driver, nothing changed actually.
On Intel it shows 60p Hz (resolution FullHD). NVidia shows pretty the same (60 Hz).

I don't have any explicit antivirus, only Windows Defender.

IronFly

Can you please run the Intel Driver Update utility and check if gives you some updates?

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

dablik415

It gave me an update for an Intel graphics driver. But I think I have solved the problem. It wasn't in drivers at all.

It seems that the problem was a program called "f.lux" which makes your display go more warm-temperatured colors, so it's not hurting my eyes that much in the night. And that would make sense, as I wrote in the start, that that UFO test or anything connected with that microstuttering didn't occur right after the restart (or after new boot of the computer), because it took some time for f.lux to start (sth like 2 minutes- I set it like this, so it hasn't got impact on booting speed).

Doesn't matter how I found out, I uninstalled it to give it a try and it seems working like Swiss watch Smiley Happy
I'll wait some time to see, if it's not changing and if not, then I'm marking thread as solved.

P.S.: Thanks for your time and at least, I got my Intel HD driver updated

P.S2.: I hear sometimes "electrical-clicking" sound in my speakers when I start things (video, mp3, game...). I don't know if it's not by that new Realtek driver I installed.

IronFly

Good to hear that you find the culprit.

about sound drivers, in the worst case, uninstall it and download the Acer version.

dablik415

Okay, so it was that f.lux absolutely.

But after reinstalling audio driver I didn't get rid of that clicking sound (now it's only a little quieter). Not sure if to create new thread or to continue in this one.

IronFly

About the clicking sound...

i found this, but i don't know if it applies to your Realtek version, worth a try:

Anyway, go the Realtek HD Audio Manager (accessible by double clicking the tray icon) and in the lower right-hand corner there is a tiny button with a battery on it. In the window it opens, uncheck Power Management Enabled. This removed this stupid popping. What you thought about the speaker port being enabled and disabled was almost true in my case at least - the card has a stupid power management system. It may save some battery life but it's a very frustrating thing.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/11715-63-realtek-audio-noise-sound

dablik415

I tried and it helped. I couldn't use uncheck but I used "Only battery" what actually solved my problem, because as I use my laptop mostly as desktop substitute. I'm only curious, how it was working back then, because I wasn't unchecking anything and I didn't notice that clicking sound.
Anyway, thanks for help, 59FPS lock was f.lux problem!