Helios 500 (non-Raid) shuts off when writing to NVME's

Helios 500, PH517-51
Bios v1.14
On outlet power.
SSD boot drive, the two NVME's as D and E drives.
No Raid.
AHCI.
Issue: when capturing video over the Thunderbolt port, writing it to C (the SSD) seems stable.
When writing to D or E (the two NVME's, again not raided), the laptop will after a few seconds (sometimes 10, sometimes, 20 or 30) shut off.
No warning, no blue screen, nothing. No reboot. No gentle shutdown. Just a hard, fast, cold shutting off.
Any one else having similar issues ?
Not entirely certain that the writing to the NVME's is THE/ the only reason for the malfunction, but it is replicable that when doing it, disaster happens. But I suspect it may also happen when doing other things.
(had a bad experience with a 2016 Predator ... switched to Asus ... now giving Acer a second chance ... will it break my heart (and trust) a second time? ...)

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patm

Hi

I also updated my predator with two NVME drives and one SSD disk. I'm also using a thunderbolt device to playout video. I experienced the same as you: my laptop suddenly shuts down when I'm constantly writing data to one of the NVME drives (about 30MByte/sek). The thunderbolt device is only connected, no video data is sent...

After some research, I nailed it down to a high PCH (chipset) temperature. It was approx. 105C, probably outside of spec. After 1 minute at this temperature the laptop shuts down to protect itself. On a i7 8750 all peripheral devices are connected to the PCH (https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/program/design/us/en/images/16x9/coffee-lake-h-block-diagram-16x9.png). It seems that heavy using peripheral devices, the temperature gets out of control.

Because the CPU temp and GPU temp are quite low (approx. 50C each), the fans doesn't speed up in auto mode. After setting the fan to maximum mode, the PCH temperature was stable at around 85C and the laptop wasn't shutting down itself anymore.

Check the PCH temperature with HWInfo! Is it the same as mine?

Regards,
Pat

Ario

Wow Pat, amazing advice, thanks so much !
I will test soon, would be awesome if this is what happens, and that it could be prevented.
Will absolutely keep you posted.

Thanks so much again, I would love to be able to solve this issue.

(My Helios 500 has an i9 8950HK by the way)

Cheers
Arie

Ario

Can confirm that temp of both NVME's is around 85 celsius in idle !! When writing lots of data to them (i.e. capturing video), it rises to 100 and then the system shuts off.
With max cooling (Predator Sense) i get them to around 75 celsius in idle.
More testing to come.

Ario

So it seems that with Max cooling on, it is workable. Still kind of strange that NVME's at idle are already 65 or 75 celsius. Will look into possibility for heatsink, not sure if anything will fit. And if it has any effect ;-)

patm

What is your PCH temperature without max cooling and with max cooling? Because the relevant temperature for shutting off is the PCH temperature, not the NVME's.

vilstroem

Hi

Although this is a rather old post I have a sollution to this as I just bought this laptop and had my first incident. Since it's the PCH that overheat and in this laptop it is the controller for ALL peripherals I will recommend turning off or simply remove what you are not using. I went from 100 degree celcuis on the PCH to 70 just by turning off the wifi adapter in Windows (I'm on cable). External devices you're not using, remove them too.

I do however have an issue with NVME drive 2. It's running at 93 degree celcius on idle while drive 1 is around 60. I checked the copper plate covering the two drives but it seems to sit just fine. The drives are in a raid 0 setup os it's a bit strange that one is 33 degree higher.

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