Nitro 5 AN-515-52 Problems Everywhere... How can I fix them?

Hello, 2 - 3 months ago I bought an Acer Nitro 5 AN-515-52 with the following specs:
- CPU: Intel i7+ 8750H 2.2Ghz
- GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1050 4GB
- RAM: 8GB DDR4 Module
- Storage: 1TB HDD
- Storage Plus: Intel Optane 16GB

A few weeks ago, I began to notice that my laptop was beginning to have strange behaviors, and soon after problems began to appear one by one:

1 - The first problem that appeared, happened while working in Adobe Photoshop, I was not doing heavy work at that time, but for some reason Photoshop stopped responding (A few seconds before I had made a save of my work), so I said "There is no problem", so I tried to open the Task Manager to finish the process; at that time Windows also stopped responding and shortly after, the pointer stopped moving. At this point I thought I would have to do a forced shutdown to use my laptop again; and so I did... After booting it up again, everything was back to normal. THIS IS THE FIRST PROBLEM!

2 - A few days after the first problem appeared, another issue happened... This time was after a Windows Update install (not the October Update), everything started to lag in my laptop and was taking a long time to load apps. So I opened up the Task Manager and discovered that my Disk Usage was at 100% at all times, but there wasn't any program using a lot of disk bandwidth, not even the system process. This was a big problem for me, because I have to use my laptop for college and I have a lot of things to do, so I restored Windows to a point where the update wasn't installed yet, and that solved my problem more or less. After doing that my Disk Usage was between 40% - 50% in idle, and days later everything went back to normal. SECOND PROBLEM

3 - FINAL PROBLEM: Last Wednesday (10/10/2018) late at night I was doing some programming for a college project in C++ on the app "Dev C++"; I wasn't playing with any memory in my code at the time, so there was nothing to worry about my code... When I finished doing my code, I saved it and pressed F11 on Dev C++, which is a hot key for saving and run the latest code... Right after pressing that key, Dev C++ stopped working and my "program" that I coded, never showed up running. (From this point, happened the same with the problem #1). I tried to open Task Manager to finish the process and Windows stopped working again... I could move the Windows pointer, but I could not do anything. In this very moment I remembered that forcing a shutdown repaired this kind of problem last time, and I proceed to do that. My laptop went black and then I pressed the power button to power it up. After the Acer logo appeared, a message also appeared saying "Initializing Automatic Repair", after that finished a second message appeared "Diagnosing your PC", 5 seconds right after that, a blue screen appered saying that Automatic Repair could not repair my laptop and I started to worry. So I shut it down again with the Windows Recovery Shutdown option. Powered up again and the same happened, so I realized that I was in a "Automatic Repair Boot Loop".
I have a bit of experience with the Windows Recovery menu and it's options, but I had never seen anything like this... I went to the Recovery Console and typed a few commands, and two of them gave me dark results: "No Windows partition or Windows device detected" was one of them.
After this I ran the command "chkdsk C: /f /r" this is a command that will analize every windows file and try to repair them or search for missing, and turn out that almost 25% of the Windows Index File were missing, and because of this, nothing worked in the Windows Recovery Menu, not even the Windows Safe Mode. HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE?

To fix this problem, I made a bootable-USB with a Windows 10 ISO, and reinstalled Windows on the laptop, but now I had more problems, since it was a clean Windows Install, it had no drivers installed for anything, so I thought that in the Acer Prodcut page, there would be the drivers, and indeed there are, so I started with the Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) and when finished installing I restarted only to see that this installation made my laptop crash everytime at boot with a BSoD saying "Innaccesible Boot Device"... I tried a lot of things and couldn't repair that by any ways, so I ended up reinstalling Windows a 2nd time.

This time I didn't install Intel RST, and installed every other driver that was available in the page; (PS: Every single driver in the Acer Product Page for my laptop is Out-dated), but there was a problem with 2 of them.

This two drivers executables said "This platform is not compatible", although in the Acer Product Page (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7572?b=1) it says that they are meant for my Laptop)

- Intel Turbo Boost 11.6.25 W10x64
- IO Drivers Intel 30.100.1633.33 W10x64

How can I install them successfully?

Next problem: Touchpad -> The touchpad is not listed as a device in the Device Administrator Tool in Windows, this has to be because the Drivers are not installed, right? Wrong. I tried installing the "Touchpad_Synaptics_19.0.25.8_W10x64_A.zip" driver in the Acer Product Page (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7572?b=1), and when trying to execute the installation it gives me a menu saying "You're about to install this driver bla bla bla, click next", after clicking next, the windows changes it context to other menu that changes so fast to the next part, you cant even see what it says, and then the last menu says that the driver successfully installed... Anyway, I restarted my Laptop to see if it worked and it didn't. I also saw a second driver for the Touchpad from ELANTECH, but when trying to open the executable it doesn't do anything, even when trying to execute with Admin rights or with Compatibility mode. So I'm kinda stuck there atm.

So, a quick list of all my questions above:
- How can a Force Shutdown delete a Windows Partition/Device?
- How can I install Intel RST without making my Laptop to go into BoSD?
- Why I can't install those two drivers that Acer says are meant for my Laptop?
- How can I make the Touchpad work?
- How can I install NitroSense again on this laptop?
- How can I install the Optane Drivers?

Sorry for the long post, but this is an issue I want to be solved and I tried to explain everything in detail.
Also sorry if I make spelling mistakes, english is not my native language

Thank you for your time!
- Alan a.k.a DrN3MESiS

Accepted answers

MaxGamer

Hello@DrN3MESiS
Okay do the following steps to make the touchpad working again, using Microsoft prebuilt drivers:
Change the bios setting to Basic, reboot, go to device manager, right click on Mouse Compatible PS/2, Click uninstall, don't forget to check the dialog box to uninstall the drivers too!

After that reboot and see if the touchpad starts to work again. Sometimes it may take upto 2 reboots.

Before all this, Press Fn+F7 to check whether the touchpad is enabled or not.

MaxGamer

@DrN3MESiS

Try installing the Serial IO driver from here:
https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/IO Drivers/IO Drivers_Intel_30.100.1727.1_W10x64_A.zip?acerid=636591864958628414&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=NITRO&Step3=NITRO AN515-52&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

If you get any error, just attach a screenshot for me to have a look at it.

Also the touchpad driver is pretty old one so its not customized for your touchpad hence the issues which you are facing. Also are you running the latest BIOS v1.19?

All comments

MaxGamer

Hello @DrN3MESiS

I recently had to suffer the same problem recently which you did, not exactly but Windows crashed for me and never booted up again.
I faced similar problems like you, so I will try to help you out with the solutions which worked for me. I will try to answer some of your queries one by one.
First tell me:
1. What is your Windows build number. Type winver in the start menu and run the command, and it will show a popup with your build number.
2. Was the touchpad working before you installed either of the Synaptics or ElanTech Drivers? I am talking about the time when the windows first booted up after installation.

Also I would highly recommend having a USB mouse with you before troubleshooting the problems using the steps I am about to tell you, incase your touchpad fails to work.

I take no responsibility for your actions, these are the steps which worked for me and may or may not work for you!

Intel RST and Optane is same. You don't need to install both of them, just one is fine and will configure your Optane module as a caching device.

- How can I install Intel RST without making my Laptop to go into BoSD?
- How can I install the Optane Drivers?

Install the Intel RST software from Acer's support page. After enabling Optane from the RST application, it will ask you for a restart. While restarting it will probably show you Automatic repair loop or No boot device.
If you are able to enter Windows Recovery after the loop, go to UEFI firmware (from the windows recovery its in there I cant remember where) which will take you to the BIOS.
If it shows No bootable device, force shutdown your laptop, wait for 10 seconds and then boot up and press F2 to enter bios.
In BIOS:
Goto Main>>SATA Mode>>Select RST with Optane.
Reboot and you should be back in Windows with optane working!

- How can I install NitroSense again on this laptop?
You can download NitroSense from the following link and install.
https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Application/Nitro%20Sense/Nitro%20Sense_Acer_3.01.3000_W10x64_A.zip?acerid=636628352544442200&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=NITRO&Step3=NITRO%20AN515-52&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

- How can I make the Touchpad work?
Go to Device Manager>>Mice and pointing devices>>Expand it using the arrow. Do you see a error triangle against a device under Mice and pointing devices. Please attach a screenshot of that. Also go to Rightclick>>Properties>>Details>>Hardware ID and let me know what is it.
I will tell you the fix after you reply to verify the problem.

- How can a Force Shutdown delete a Windows Partition/Device?
I don't know the exact reason, but at least what I have experienced, Nitro 5 does not react very well to force shutdowns. I have experienced it everytime I use force shutdown, leading to complete loss of systems and I have read numerous reviews regarding the similar problem. The best I can recommend is having a bootable USB ready and also I know a trick to backup data from Windows Recovery Environment!

DrN3MESiS

Hello @MaxGamer ! Thank you for your reply!
1° What's your build number?
My build number is: 1803 - 17137.345 (Screenshot is in spanish, sorry!)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/20/jmlvazblkvo3.png

2° Was the touchpad working before you installed either of the Synaptics or ElanTech Drivers?
Before Windows was deleted, it was working fine; When entering the Windows Recovery Menu, it doesn't work; When I was installing Windows via USB-Boot-Image it wasn't working either (I had to connect an external mouse to be able to install it); The first time Windows let me go to the Desktop after installing it, it wasn't working; and obviously not even after the drivers install.

** Question **
I actually got to install the Synaptics driver like I explained in the orginal post, but I couldn't install ElanTech drivers, I don't know how, it's just some files and an executable named Set.exe, after running that app, a message of loading appears on screen saying "loading", then dissapears and nothing happens. How can I install that driver? Or where can I download the latest version of the ElanTech drivers?

"- How can I make the Touchpad work?
Go to Device Manager>>Mice and pointing devices>>Expand it using the arrow. Do you see a error triangle against a device under Mice and pointing devices. Please attach a screenshot of that. Also go to Rightclick>>Properties>>Details>>Hardware ID and let me know what is it."

The Touchpad doesn't even appear on the Mice and pointing devices list

(Sorry for being in spanish)
There's only two devices in the Mice section, one is the External Mouse, and one that I don't know what it is. (After the Windows installation there was no device in there except from the external mice, I don't know where it came from)

** NOTE **
This laptop has never been dropped or something like that, so I don't think it could be something internal...
Right now, it has all the Windows Updates installed, even when I check for new Updates, it tells me that there are none.

Thank you for your time!

DrN3MESiS

About the RST and Optane...

What if I told you that with no drivers installed, right now I have this in the BIOS?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/l4/fjn80t2cxumf.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/35/s9fm1h9bgwjj.jpg

DrN3MESiS

Also, do you know something about this question in the original post?
- Why I can't install those two drivers that Acer says are meant for my Laptop?

MaxGamer

Hello @DrN3MESiS

Your touchpad is one of the two devices shown under Mice and Pointing devices in Device Manager, so dontd worry. In order to verify, can you please send the Hardware IDs of both, as explained in my first post.

Also, if the BIOS shows RST with Optane, I think your Optane is configured. Do you see any other disk other than you Hard Disk in your This PC or Disk Management? Kindly let me know!

I am not able to figure out the driver issue, but I will try to find something and revert back to you.

DrN3MESiS

Hardware IDs:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/46/u6frdza0nvmy.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/6s/veb9r6v0w2v2.png

In the Device Manager I can see this:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/pr/evnx6uf5w061.png

I think it's configured then, but how? I don't have any drivers for it.

Thank you for your time!
- Alan

MaxGamer

Optane is configured for sure. I don't know how exactly, but that setup shows Intel Optane is working fine.

The touched pad is "Mouse Compatible PS/2"
And your laptop has a Synaptics Touchpad.

Okay go to BIOS>>Main>>Touchpad>>Select Advanced and reboot. That should fix your touchpad and gestures too!

DrN3MESiS

Hello @MaxGamer
Before I made the clean installation of Windows, my TouchPad setting in the BIOS was in Advanced Mode, after the install, it was still the same; when I noticed the problem with the TouchPad I thought of that option and went to the BIOS to change it to Basic, and still wasn't working (That's why I had it in basic in the picture); right now I turned it on again (to advanced) and still doesn't work.

Also I noticed that when I was in Basic Mode, the Device Manager detected it as a connected device, but right now in advanced mode, it's not there. If I turn on the option "See hidden devices" in the Device Manager, it appears as one of them.

I don't know what is happening

**EDIT**
I went to the TouchPad device properties (still hidden or not connected) and saw that the controller installed is from 06/21/2006.

MaxGamer

Hello@DrN3MESiS
Okay do the following steps to make the touchpad working again, using Microsoft prebuilt drivers:
Change the bios setting to Basic, reboot, go to device manager, right click on Mouse Compatible PS/2, Click uninstall, don't forget to check the dialog box to uninstall the drivers too!

After that reboot and see if the touchpad starts to work again. Sometimes it may take upto 2 reboots.

Before all this, Press Fn+F7 to check whether the touchpad is enabled or not.

DrN3MESiS

Hey @MaxGamer
OMG! Thank you so much! The TouchPad is working again!
After this, can I turn on the Advanced Mode in BIOS?

MaxGamer

Hey @DrN3MESiS, Glad I was able to help you in this problem

What does the device manager show now? The name and the driver version?
Aslo go to settings>>Touchpad and check whether is shows like this or not

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/s3/9lsrelx3ahwh.png

DrN3MESiS

I think the drivers is still the same:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/up/2od2cpdmzdyw.png

And my TouchPad Menu is the next one (different from yours):

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/2n/tkzufugiywfv.png

This seems weird because before the Windows install, when everything was working fine, I had a menu like yours, but now it's like this... What could it be?
Maybe the ElanTech Drivers are not installed?

DrN3MESiS

Also, I went to the BIOS to change the TouchPad to advanced, and when logged to Windows again, the touchpad didn't worked.
**NOTE: In the BIOS i saw this message: "Please make sure I2C driver is installed before Advanced feature enabled. Otherwise, touchpad will be no function"

MaxGamer

@DrN3MESiS
Yes that is correct. Windows is using basic drivers only, that is why you don't have precision drivers and those gestures.
You can now install Synaptics driver using the .exe, go to BIOS and Advanced and it should work now!

DrN3MESiS

Alright, I have installed this drivers:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/r5/bj1gk16w40lc.png

And I have a question with the ElanTech one... Inside the folder these are the files:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ec/fp0ypk21nugy.png

I don't actually know which one to run... I thought that the Set.exe was the one, but it only shows this a mini screen saying "Please wait" and then nothing happens... and the cmd file has this code:

I did run the two of them, and installed the synaptics driver, so I'm going to reboot, change the BIOS to Advanced and then I'll came here to post results.

DrN3MESiS

Welp, still not working in Advanced... Here's a video of me doing the process after the "driver" installation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2uMRR2Kl3c&feature=youtu.be

MaxGamer

Hi @DrN3MESiS

Alright so I will tell you another method to install the driver.
1.Switch to BASIC in BIOS and make the touchpad working again.
2. DeviceManager>>Standard PS2>>Right Click>>Update Driver>>Browse my computer>>Let me pick...>>HaveDisk>>Browse>>Goto to your Synaptics Driver folder and select SynRMIHID file>>Okay and then install it this way. This will manually install the required driver file in your windows folder and hopefully it will work now.

Also you don't need to install both ElanTech and Synaptics drivers. Your laptop has Synaptics touchpad, so only Synaptics is required.

DrN3MESiS

Hey @MaxGamer
So yesterday I wasn't able to reply to your comment because I got out of college @ 9pm, sorry about that.

I tried what you said to manually install the driver following your steps, but it seemed that it didn't did anything when I selected the folder where the file was... I don't know if I did something wrong, but I'm going to record my screen so you can see what I did.

https://youtu.be/C6Y40n_-Un4

Again, thank you for your time!
- Alan

MaxGamer

@DrN3MESiS

You got confused there a bit, no worries I will help you out. At 00:25 timestamp, you have to click the dialogue box which says "Elegir en una lista........" then Have disk. You have to select the specific file and not the whole folder.
Revert me back with the results or any other help that you may need (: