Acer Extensa EX2540 has freezing issues and Whea Uncorrectable Error BSOD ever since I bought it...

Hello! I bought this laptop last year, around May. I've already posted on a similar post on this forum about this same laptop, but no solutions were given, so after the laptop crashed once again today, I've decided to create a new one and explain my issues with this machine. I should note that the other post in this forum is from a while back and enough time has passed for me to believe that nobody is going to help there. Anyway, here goes my story... Within the first week I bought this laptop, the problems started. What happens is that when I'm playing a video game like League of Legends or The Sims or when I'm watching a video on YouTube or just browsing the web, there are chances that the laptop will crash. It doesn't happen all the time but there's no way to predict it either. It could go a day or two with me doing all of those things and it won't crash, or it could happen twice within the same day. There are 2 types of crashes. The first one goes like this: the laptop's screen freezes, the sound becomes a buzzing noise and everything is unresponsive until I physically press and hold the power button and wait for it to shut down. Then, when I press it again, it boots up and it's like nothing happened... I can't find absolutely any information about this issue because no dump file gets created, and in event viewer, it just shows some errors that the last windows session didn't shut down properly or something like that. Useless information... So all I can do is just keep using the laptop like nothing happened. If I'm playing a game, I've lost my progress due to this issue... I've gotten used to expecting my laptop to crash, while a person with a normal machine shouldn't have to live like this. Anyway, some other times when the laptop crashes, the screen becomes a blue screen, and it shows the error Whea Uncorrectable Error, but it gets stuck at 0% no matter how long I leave it. The sound becomes a buzzing noise once again, and the solution is the same. I have to hold the power button until it shuts down. No dump file is created once again... So that leaves me without any clue as to where to search for a fix. Searching the internet is useless. Between last year and now, I've clicked every single whea uncorrectable error site on google, I've read countless forum posts from many different sites, and NONE of them have fixed their issue. I have started to believe now that this error is truly uncorrectable and that this machine is doomed to be like this forever... From all those sites, I've done all kinds of "fixes". I've updated all my drivers from Intel sites and Acer sites. No improvement. I've updated my bios to the latest version (1.14, it got offered by windows update to me from insyde sofrware, before that I had the 1.11 version available here on Acer's site) and once again no improvement. I've freshly installed windows about 4 times, no improvement. I've swapped my RAM cards, used each one of them individually and it still crashed in any of those circumstances. I also used the laptop both with the HDD it came with and also the SSD I bought my self, but it still crashed with both of them. Honestly, I don't think there's anything I haven't done so far... I am out of options and this laptop is still crashing. I thought about sending it to Acer for repairs because maybe this is a hardware problem, but I need this machine for my university studies, and while it does crash, when it works it helps me with readings and completing home assignments. I can't give it away for that long and wait for it to get repaired. I need it every day... But I have no money to buy a new one. So I'm stuck in this situation that I can't get out of. I don't really expect anyone to be able to help at this point. Pretty much most of the posts I've read so far consisted of people having very similar issues to mine, and their posts were left unanswered or even with some people answering, no conclusion was ever reached. And the answers consisted of people suggesting driver updates or checking for faulty RAM, but I've done those things and the issue wasn't fixed. Forgot to mention about RAM, I've done the windows memtest with both rams installed and each one individually and it passed every time, so I don't consider RAM to be the problem here. Both are 4GB, one came with the laptop and I bought the second one. Here are the specs in case they're needed:
CPU: Intel Core I5 - 7200U 2.50 GHz 2.70GHz
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620
SSD: SanDisk Ultra II 240GB (The HDD that came with the laptop was a Western Digital 500GB one, but the laptop has crashed with either of these installed)
RAM: 8GB 2133MHz (One 4GB Micron Technology, came with the laptop) (And the other 4GB is Kingston)
OS: Windows 10 (now with the April 2018 update, but it has been crashing since I got it and it was on the Creators Update then, so no os update has been helpful with this)
I'll also mention that the WiFi card is Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168, because for a time I thought that this was the cause of the errors but after further searching, it appears that it's not. That's all I've got for now. Feel free to ask me for any further questions if you believe you are able to help me in any way. I would deeply appreciate it, because buying this laptop I intended to keep it for a few years, not only economically wise but also because I really like it! It sucks that it has this problem... I hope I'm proven wrong and that there is a solution to this problem. Thank you for reading all of this!

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Lazarosgeor

Forgot to add this: https://www.acer.com/datasheets/2017/4876/2540/NX.EFGEK.002.html It has all the specs in more detail. Hoping for an answer

JackE

Have you tried re-setting the machine to a factory fresh state using the ALT+F10 coldboot method outside of the Windows environment? Jack E/NJ

Lazarosgeor

Hello and thanks for your answer! I had no idea about this feature, so no so far I've never used it. By searching about ALT-F10, it seems that this option resets everything, windows included, so that means I would have to reinstall everything afterwards... I'm gonna give this a go and see if it stops crashing! So far, after the day I posted it hasn't crashed, but on the other hand, I barely used it during those days... I'll keep you updated. If there are any more solutions please don't hesitate to suggest them! Thanks again for your answer

JackE

Yes, you have two options using the ALT+F10 method. The first is a complete re-set to factory-fresh Win10 state that removes all your personal files. So if you choose this it's best to backup your files. The second is a partial re-set of the Win10 system files while saving your personal files. The first option is best for ruling in or ruling out a hardware issue. The second, not so much. Jack E/NJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA

Commodore_1995#

Since you tested the ram, hd and ssd memory and the problem continued, it is very likely that the problem is in the cpu!

Try leaving the bios in their original settings! To do this, restart the notebook and press f2, go to the exit section and click loadsetupdefaults!

You can also check if there is any latest driver update using the driverbooster or also try to do a windows 10 installation through a pendrive, ie install windows 10 without using the acer recovery partition to see if it solves the problem !

Lazarosgeor

JackE said:

Yes, you have two options using the ALT+F10 method. The first is a complete re-set to factory-fresh Win10 state that removes all your personal files. So if you choose this it's best to backup your files. The second is a partial re-set of the Win10 system files while saving your personal files. The first option is best for ruling in or ruling out a hardware issue. The second, not so much. Jack E/NJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA

This is a nice tip, but since I've already freshly installed windows 10 many times, I'm not sure if it'll really help...

egydiocoelho said:

Since you tested the ram, hd and ssd memory and the problem continued, it is very likely that the problem is in the cpu!
Try leaving the bios in their original settings! To do this, restart the notebook and press f2, go to the exit section and click loadsetupdefaults!
You can also check if there is any latest driver update using the driverbooster or also try to do a windows 10 installation through a pendrive, ie install windows 10 without using the acer recovery partition to see if it solves the problem !

Thank you for your reply! I actually used the loadsetupdefaults option in bios last week, because I was once again searching for a fix, but since it crashed again, I suppose it didn't work. I've installed driver booster too! It's a very nice program that finds missing drivers. After one of the fresh windows installations I did last year, I thought that maybe this program installed a wrong driver and so the bsods and crashes were happening afterward. But then the laptop crashed again without this program ever installed in that fresh install, so I ruled it out and I've been using it normally ever since. Also, all the windows installations I've done so far are from Microsoft's official iso files and using rufus to create a bootable usb. When I reach the part to select the drive to install windows, I delete all the old ones and then when I create a new one, 3 new ones get created. The first 2 are OEM partition and EFI System Partition, and the 3rd is the main one for windows to get installed. I could delete them and leave that space unallocated, but is that safe? They seem pretty necessary... Anyway thank you again for the replies, I guess a new installation is at hand. I'll wait to make sure about those partitions first.

P.S. If this is a hardware problem, the motherboard for example, then I wish there was a way to determine that so at least I would know that there's nothing to be done except sending this laptop for repairs. The other user who had posted in the forums a while ago and had the same problems like me on the same laptop model like mine seems to suggest that maybe a few faulty laptops got released and I was just unlucky to get one of them... Anyway, I'm hoping this is not the case!

Commodore_1995#

These partitions are created when installing windows 10! It's important to leave them intact! However, I only delete them when I go to do a new installation of windows 10!

Commodore_1995#

You can also try installing by doing a slow formatting through the installation of windows 10! To do this, simply press shift + 10 and type diskpart, list disk, sel disk x, clean (delete everything even if hd is split), convert gpt, create partition primary, format fs = ntfs, assign!

Commodore_1995#

Slow formatting checks the disk for errors and corrects them!

JackE

>>>This is a nice tip, but since I've already freshly installed windows 10 many times, I'm not sure if it'll really help..>>>

What do you mean by fresh installed? Was this a Microsoft generic Win10 fresh install? Or the ACER speciific Win10 fresh install? There is a difference!! The latter has all the ACER drivers and system files that are tied to your machine's serial number id (SNID). The former does NOT. If you haven't tried the ALT+F10 coldboot ACER-specific Win10 re-set, then you can't as easily rule in or rule out a hardware issue. Jack E/NJ

Lazarosgeor

Hello and thank you for the replies! I'm so sorry for taking so long to respond, I was gone on vacation for a couple of days and as a result I didn't use the laptop at all. I'm back now, and that means back to testing and trying to solve this. I'm willing to do an Acer specific Windows 10 reset because what I did the other times was exactly what JackE said, I used the generic .iso file from Microsoft's site. That file however installed generic drivers after installing Windows, and that probably caused this. I'm giving it one last chance because before going on vacation I noticed another setting and I changed it and I haven't had a crash since. What I did was I went to the Intel Graphics Settings, and then in Power. I noticed that for both plugged in mode and battery power, the Plan was Maximum Performance. I think originally only plugged in mode was into Maximum Performance, but since it had crashed on battery sometimes, I changed the battery plan into Maximum Performance too. That didn't seem to help since it crashed again, so the thing I did this time was that I changed both of them to balanced mode. I think I did that the next day after creating this post, and to my surprise, the laptop hasn't crashed since the day I created this post. I know that I didn't use it for some days because of the vacation, so now I'll just see how it goes. If it crashes again, then that means that this didn't fix it either, and then I'll proceed to do the reset. Thank you again for the posts and I'll keep you updated if anything new happens.