PH315-51 showing black screen after one hour of web surfing

sri369 · June 2018

CathodeRayTub said:

I'm having the same issue with the Helios 300 - 571 (have had the laptop for a little over a month, purchased from amazon.)

When the laptop is plugged in, there are not many problems. But if I have it unplugged, it will give me a blue screen of death within minutes, sometimes seconds. After a battery reset, I get the blue screen of death again. So it has to be plugged in to work... Fine.. but then why did I buy a laptop?

I haven't reached out to Acer yet and it's too late to return it to Amazon. I just wanted to add my experience to the list.. AND wanted to see if the people who are having a problem are running into issues on battery power only. Like I said, while plugged in this problem does not occur.

I sort of wish I did a little research before I spent my money on this thing and purchased a fully functioning laptop instead.

Maybe a loose contact on the battery? Or maybe a bad battery? Try this... install battery bar and activate its task bar tool bar. Check through it. It shows battery wear percentage. Or maybe try any battery testing tool that might help with the issue. Based on what you said, it seems to me like a case of a bad battery.

One more thing you could try to do is to make a live USB of any linux distro, and boot up with it. Surf some, and then disconnect power. This would help isolate if this issue is windows related.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/7t/5ku21d72drn1.png

CathodeRayTub · June 2018

sri369 said:

CathodeRayTub said:

I'm having the same issue with the Helios 300 - 571 (have had the laptop for a little over a month, purchased from amazon.)

When the laptop is plugged in, there are not many problems. But if I have it unplugged, it will give me a blue screen of death within minutes, sometimes seconds. After a battery reset, I get the blue screen of death again. So it has to be plugged in to work... Fine.. but then why did I buy a laptop?

I haven't reached out to Acer yet and it's too late to return it to Amazon. I just wanted to add my experience to the list.. AND wanted to see if the people who are having a problem are running into issues on battery power only. Like I said, while plugged in this problem does not occur.

I sort of wish I did a little research before I spent my money on this thing and purchased a fully functioning laptop instead.

Maybe a loose contact on the battery? Or maybe a bad battery? Try this... install battery bar and activate its task bar tool bar. Check through it. It shows battery wear percentage. Or maybe try any battery testing tool that might help with the issue. Based on what you said, it seems to me like a case of a bad battery.

One more thing you could try to do is to make a live USB of any linux distro, and boot up with it. Surf some, and then disconnect power. This would help isolate if this issue is windows related.

Thanks for the response. I can definitely try that, good call on the Linux usb.

So i guess the battery just arrived loose from the shipment if that's the case... It's still fully charged when i turn it back on after this happens. And there has been no physical movement during these incidents.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/nj/1two5j0ob7kf.jpg

This is the screen I get when using the laptop on battery power.

badaltharayil · June 2018

@Acer-Manny

Hi,

My new laptop (Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51 ; i5 8th gen and GTX 1050 ti) is getting frozen randomly. When it freezes, it stops responding to any command (not even task manager; Ctrl + Alt + Del).There is no hanging or slowing down or cursor moving, it simply freezes completely still with not any single action. I have to press power button for few seconds to shut it down completely. This problem is not case specific, i.e. it appears any time from while working in Photoshop to while simply browsing. My Laptop is only 15 days old and free from any virus. (To make sure, I also reset my laptop once, and the same problem is still there).

My SSD is of SK Hynix. I am following up on this issue for so long absolutely disgusted.

badaltharayil · June 2018

@Roland_Lorinczi : Did you get any updates buddy! this seems so screwed up

badaltharayil · June 2018

@Acer-Manny: At least follow up with the users.

sri369 · June 2018

CathodeRayTub said:Thanks for the response. I can definitely try that, good call on the Linux usb.

So i guess the battery just arrived loose from the shipment if that's the case... It's still fully charged when i turn it back on after this happens. And there has been no physical movement during these incidents.

This is the screen I get when using the laptop on battery power.

This seems to me like a driver issue.

One option you can try is to install driver pack or similar software and trying to update the drivers.
Check in your device manager to see if there is any hardware without a proper driver. Even if there no issue with any device, try checking for updates using a 3rd party software. The "system service exception" on windows 10 generally points finger at a bad driver.

Hash6000 · June 2018

hey, even im facing same problem with my helios 300, 8 gen, i bought it a week back, can we expect any help from the acer or we just keep running it lyk that (resetting battery) which is sad, could u please tell me that this can be solved with the update or should i return my device back? i read that by upgrading intel ssd toolbox can solve this, is it true ? please help

praveen001 · June 2018

hey, my acer service center provided me a new updated version of intel uhd 630 (driver version: 23.20.16.5018)after that I have not face random freeze and black screen from last 18hr.
@Acer-Manny

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@praveen001

Please keep us posted with any developments!

I had instances where I tried something and for quite some time it didn't freeze, left thinking that I managed to solve it only to have it freeze again a couple hours later. I hope this one DID solve the issue but please keep us posted if it freezes again!

Meanwhile I'll install that latest driver on my unit and if it seems stable then onto my girlfriend's as well and keep you posted.

------------------------------------------------------

@Acer-Manny

Do you happen to have any word on the UHD driver having to do with the issue and fix perhaps?

Please let us know if so as an official statement has more weight to it than tinkering with possibilities - these sometimes end up "working" for even 18 hours (my last crash was more than a day ago but I have windows and other automatic updates disabled and made no changes whatsoever...) but then result in yet another unexpected crash some time later...

It will help us have closure to get an official statement once it's clear what was causing the issue to begin with - In the meantime we're doing what we can too apparently to try different possible fixes and share them for further testing.

Thank you everyone who didn't rush for a refund and is helping us figure this out and thank you @Acer-Manny for your and the entire Acer team's work. We're counting on you all! Please just let us know of any developments and feel free to even just engage with us, ask any questions that can help identify the issue or just let us know you're still with us...even that helps...For us in this predicament as you've seen it's upsetting...

Maybe if you can even let us know of our options or what's the procedure and protocol from Acer in such cases. Like if it's software/driver etc related we'll get them and an official statement and if they are faulty units how will we be taken care of then? Are there recent precedents of recalls and customers who were affected who are now satisfied, having been taken care of by Acer?

And as you can see I make it a point to phrase my thoughts without being vulgar, but if you'll let me be real for a second and voice what we affected are all thinking: We just wanna know that we, good, paying customers, won't get ***** on now that the money is in and we're left with issues...

I know Computex is going on and E3 is coming up...but affording to lose existing customers in chase of new ones will not be sustainable.

Can you assure us that in any event, since these units that had their issues from day one and on such a scale, under warranty, will be taken care of by Acer?
Can you assure us that we won't be left running to our local Acer service center where they will just press the pinhole button or replace a part that has nothing to o with the issue, over and over again for months?

I think these are our collective concerns at the moment. On top, of course, of being dissatisfied with this all happening in the first place.
So if it ends up taking time until it's resolved, and some of our peace of mind, causing stress, while we payed in full for a product that we expected to be fully functional, I think I'm not out of line expecting a bit more than a fix in a week or two to be honest. What I expect in order to not lose faith in Acer is:
- A solution in a week or two at MOST (It's a global company for Christ's sake, you guys are HUGE! You have to have the resources...)
- Engagement with the affected community a couple times a day or at least daily (stress builds so easily when we don't feel like you guys care...)
- Some compensation for the peace of mind we lost in this hurdle... say a year of additional warranty or free repairs or something...

Now you can go ahead and hate me for voicing this, or just chose to do less or nothing at all, that's your choice (Don't take this TOO personally either @Acer-Manny...we're talking to the company as a whole here...We appreciate if you voice our concerns in any way you have authority and power to but I also realize that you're not single-handedly responsible for all of us, the issue or its solution)

I'm just trying to help you all understand where we (At least me and my girlfriend, but perhaps others affected as well) stand.

Looking forward to hearing from you @Acer-Manny or any representative of the company.

------------------------------------------------------

@everyone

(@Acer-Manny, @badaltharayil, @CathodeRayTub, @sri369, @Red-Sand, @praveen001, @therealsujith, @arean82, @palkansh, @vkmbca29, @katty22, @take2rohit, @asifuddin009, @rajatsingh, @deepanker, @Sharanji, @SivaKurakula, @Wizlert, @pyu, @asifuddin009, @vedang55, @Marathi_Manus + Anyone else affected)

Feel free to point out if I was unreasonable in anything I stated or asked and anyone in the forum is free to like or follow up with a comment to agree or disagree.

The more engagement we have here - and hopefully civil...guys at least for now, please be civil - the more we help Acer-Manny as well be able to make a point when saying that we're becoming restless in the forum if anyone higher-up is inquiring what level of importance should be attributed to this issue or some internal dynamic of that nature.

I have faith in you all! Let's see if we can work through this TOGETHER and in good faith! That would be a way better outcome than any fight between us and the company - not to say there isn't a time for that, if they don't step up...But that's just not a good way to go into this all I believe. It would be somewhat unreasonable on our part. Yes they shouldn't launch a faulty product but I think an accidental error and a week or two for them to fix it still falls within an acceptable range rather than coming at them with the pitchforks from the get-go...

I for one want to give them their fair chance to do the right thing from this point onward. Mistakes happen. Blowing their chance is another story. It wouldn't feel right to not give them one though. My conscience is clear. Looking forward to seeing the upcoming developments in this case and thread.

In the meantime, anyone affected and wishing to try the fix proposed by praveen001: Keep us posted with your experience and results! Thank you all.

TL;DR: If you are affected you'll wanna read it...

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

This post is to keep track of number of affected people with the issue.

While tagging people I saw that we only see and keep count of people who commented - but i know of ~40 people who are facing the same issue and discussing it on WhatsApp.

I've invited them over to the forum asking them to hit like on this comment to have it as a counter for how many people were affected.

Thank you all!

Marathi_Manus · June 2018

@praveen001

the latest version is
Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows® 10

Date: 05-Jun-2018
Version: 24.20.100.6136 (Latest)
OS: Windows 10, 64-bit*

This is pretty much latest. Released two days back. What Acer gave you is something they have tested. The interesting thing here is after win 10 1803 April update things started shaking a bit. On whats app group, the people who chose not update windows are still safe and running without any glitches. This is just my observation.

@Roland_Lorinczi
Better hunt down the Acer top management email (CEO etc) and share the same with them. What you're writing here isn't that effective. @Acer_Manny may not have rights even to acknowledge anything here. You're summoned up few valid points (note:- did not read the whole of your post). Better echo it to top management. That will have a solid effect.

Anywho, as stated in my thread (which Manny closed) running on Linux is never an issue. So I am just thinking that this is more of driver issue. Culprits here are:-
1) Microsoft (for pushing updates and mess up things)
2) Intel (perhaps for not coding proper drivers. UHD 630's drivers are being updated every two weeks)
3) Last but not least, ACER (For packing such new hardware without any testing. And now they are absolutely clueless)

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@Marathi_Manus your points are quite valid...I wish to try via their channel of preference for reports, the forum first though and see if they do the right thing, before escalating further in who and where I contact.

But if they don't have the right infrastructure and protocols in place for what and how the moderators like @Acer-Manny can do, it's true that he may want to help more but he just can't...

I too saw that it seems not to be an issue at all on linux so it may well be a windows 10 - intel driver / nVidia driver issue.

My next course of action will be informing Microsoft, intel and nvidia of the issue - maybe they might be able to help with the troubleshooting or even be aware of the issue and working on it and let us know something that we don't so far - like what exactly is causing the issue.

I'll get back to you guys if I have a post on any of their forums or anything - I will probably point them to this forum thread.
Hopefully we can build up the likes on my post for keeping count of affected owners.

Considering how the chip has been on the market only for a month or two in laptops ~40-60 affected Predator owners affected is a significant number for attention from all parties: Acer, microsoft, intel and nvidia.

praveen001 · June 2018

to get full knowledge, I personally call the service center engineer. he said that the he had install 3 software in my system
1) windows10.0-kb4100403 (in case already install don't try to reinstall)
2) intel driver (driver version: 23.20.16.5018)
3) Nvidia driver(driver version: 24.21.13.9793)
I am currently using predator PH315-51
Sn:NHQ3HSI00XXXXXXXXXXXXX
snid-XXXXXXXXXXX
on window 10(1803 version).

After installing
till now ,I did not get random freezing but laptop is heating and temperature is getting upto 96 during normal working in AC room
@Acer-Manny
@Roland_Lorinczi
actually predator is first device of acer that I ever purchased in my life and it will be last. I am totally fed-up because every day I got new problem in this system and also due to this system ,i lost my job. AS a web developer I need a laptop that can work in office not that always need to fix.

anyway I will update you about this isssue

[Edited post to remove inappropriate or personal content -Acer-Manny]

praveen001 · June 2018

intel link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1855xCY1j4FkwRyt9wIdc31wr4BCeW8Su/view?usp=sharing
nvidia link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1D_avOj2lKO5GqmvZPvo35oaom88xhCxs

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@praveen001 I'm sorry to hear the effect this issue had on you, losing your job 😥 ( in case anyone from Acer reading your account of experience and this is thinking of brushing it off: even if it were only partially attributable to a faulty out-of-the box, brand new unit, it's not acceptable for that to be such a factor in a customer's life!)

In the meantime, to try and control temperatures you can set a CPU Max state limit and an undervolt by about 0.100v and using an active cooling pad can help a couple degrees as well.

That's not to say that it's acceptable to have the units over-heat out-of the box! They should've been tested and optimized. It's not acceptable that a GAMING LAPTOP doesn't perform at acceptable temperatures only after CPU limit and undervolting...

It's a performance trade-off NOBODY who bought the units SIGNED UP FOR!

YES the black screen issue is the worst of all, but that doesn't make the thermal throttling okay either, just before we'd forget about that aspect...

I DO hope that is also something Acer will keep in mind when getting back to us with an official statement... You can't just slap a new, more powerful CPU in a case without testing and redesigning the thermal solution if need be...

You guys basically sold us a Ferrarri, that we can only drive at 80 MPH effectively, cause above that overheats it.

OH! And it breaks down at random intervals

After owning it for less than a month... If it was a car you'd be making headlines by now Acer...This is ridiculous...

@Acer-Manny this again isn't aimed at you, but please show these remarks to the highest authority there you can to...This all is not right...But yeah, feel free to just pop in and say hi

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

Sharanji said:

Brandyjack

If you have black screen with cursor issues, you can try pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc or Ctrl + Alt + Del in order to start Task Manager. From Task Manager you’ll be able to start Device Manager by doing the following:
Press File > Run new task.
Enter devmgmt.msc and press Enter to run it.
When Device Manager opens, locate your graphic card, right click it and choose Uninstall. If asked, make sure that you check Delete driver software for this device. Restart your computer, and let windows install the drivers.
Sometimes the black screen problem keeps happening because fast startup is enabled on your computer.
While in Safe Mode, you can use the following steps to disable fast startup:
Open Control Panel. Click on System and Security. Click on Power options. Select the Choose what the power button does link on the left pane. Click the Change settings that are currently unavailable link.
Clear the Turn on fast startup (recommended) option.
Click Save changes. Restart your computer to complete the task.

Hopefully this should fix this issue!

Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!
Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!

What he says after the line "Sometimes the black screen problem..." I altered this setting as well just in case it might help...
Thought I'd share it here in this thread with you guys.

@Sharanji Thank you for the share over at the original thread: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/576011#Comment_576011

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

Hey Everyone! Another interesting read

:

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/533643/predator-791-screen-went-black-and-now-wont-turn-on-again/p1

And it started in last year November with that model...

badaltharayil · June 2018

@Acer-Manny

@Roland_Lorinczi: One of my friend bought the same laptop along with me and she is facing the same issue. Since she is living in a different city she went to the service center and they updated the bios from v1.05 to v1.12. Is there an official update for bios I couldn't find any from the website.

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

Status update: I just had another blackscreen event.
It occurred under continuous light use.
Haven't updated my UHD driver yet but this means we can rule out that the "fast startup" windows option disabled would fix it.

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

badaltharayil I have BIOS v1.05 as well. I'll look around for a newer version see if I can find anything. If you or anyone knows of a newer BIOS version please let us know and link it.

Also, @Acer-Manny if you can lend us a hand...it'd be appreciated...Or if you lack the capacity from your workload, please let another support know and have someone on our case and interacting here. We'd appreciate it, thank you! Let us know if there is a more recent BIOS please or any official update on this all...