Helios 300 PH315-51-78NP Frame Drops when performing an action the first time

Seraphim

Hello, I recently purchased a Predator Helios 300 PH315-51 laptop about 2 weeks ago, and have been experiencing unusual frame drops across most of my games. They tend to run incredibly well for the most part, but whenever I do certain actions for the first time after opening the application, the game seems to "pause" for a second or more before resuming. As an example: In Killing floor 2, whenever I fire a gun or shoot an enemy for the first time, everything onscreen stops for a second then resumes where it should be within that interval. It also happens when defeating a boss or accessing the trader for the first time. In Final Fantasy 12, casting magic or switching to a different party member for the first time causes it. It's happened across several more games and it's always from a new action being performed in game. I've tried the following Fixes:

Undervolted CPU by -140 mv
Disabling Diagnostics Policy Service 
Changing Realtek audio format to 16 bit 48000hz DVD quality
Installed the latest Nvidia drivers
Used DDU to remove latest Nvidia drivers and re-install stock drivers
Updated Intel UHD Graphics 630 driver to the latest version
Made Silent mode exceptions for programs in Norton
Disabled Geforce Experience Overlay
Turned off Network Discovery under Private in Network Sharing settings
Disabled Link Power Management in Intel Rapid Storage Technology
Tried the TrayPwrD3 fix
Tried the EmptyStandbyList fix

Unfortunately, none of these fixes seem to have worked, and the problem still persists. Has anyone experienced something similar?

Specs:
Intel 6-Core i7-8750H
Geforce GTX 1060 6GB
16GB DDR4 RAM
256GB SSD
2TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD

JackE

>>>Made Silent mode exceptions for programs in Norton>>>

Uninstall, don't just disable or try to tweak, Norton or any other 3rd party antivirus. Defender and Malicious Software Removal app is all that's needed. Did you set Control Panel power plan to high or max performance, charge battery near 100% and plug charger in before heavy loads? Jack E/NJ

Seraphim

I went ahead and uninstalled Norton and changed my power plan to High Performance, and I typically have the battery near or at full charge and keep the charger plugged in while gaming. The freezes seem to have stopped, but now the CPU seems to throttle in demanding games with temps reaching over 90 degrees.

JackE

Turn undervolting off if still on. Raise laptop a few inches above hard surface to promote better cooling under heavy load. Jack E/NJ

Seraphim

Set options in ThrottleStop to default, made sure it was turned off and the application closed, and I have the laptop sitting on a cooler on top of a lap desk. Tried AC Origins with just under the games default settings and was getting mid 60s to mid 80 degrees under load, but was getting spikes up to 97 degrees and experienced framerate drops. 

Seraphim

Also tried Call of Duty WWII with the games recommended graphics settings, and got temps up 97 degrees under heavy load as well.

JackE

Close games and all apps you opened this session. Open Task Manager. Does idling CPU usage average less than 10%? Jack E/NJ

Seraphim

Yes, 1-3%.

JackE

Good. What's average CPU vs nVidia GPU usage under heavy load? Jack E/NJ

Seraphim

CPU fluctuated from as high as 85% to as low as 39%. GPU averaged at 95% with a couple dips down to 85%.

JackE

Seems good too. Shown below are fan speed tables for 1050 and 1060 cards. When temps reach 90*C both fans should have a pretty loud whir like a drone. And you might be able to detect a beat frequency between the two so you know they're both working. You should get noticeable throttling and FPS issues over 94*C. If these persist, first try going back to Balanced power plan to see what happens before messing with throttle stop. Do you know what your seller/vendor returns time limit policy is for refunds or exchanges?   Jack E/NJ

Seraphim

Bought it off of Amazon and I have until the 31st of January to return or exchange it. Switched back to Balanced Power again, and tried AC Origins with default graphics settings. Had a minimum of 83 degrees and a maximum of 98 for CPU under load, with both the CPU and GPU fans over 5300 RPMs with Fan Control on Auto and CoolBoost enabled. Should I even bother trying to undervolt, or just return it?

JackE

Arrrgh! Sounds like a lemon to me. Maybe bad thermal pasting job. If it was me, I'd return it for a refund. Furthermore, this model has had issues reported here by a number of users that I don't think were fully resolved. An example is in this thread https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/609755

However, before you pack it up and ship it back, let me try to get one of the other ACER users who has more direct hands-on experience with dealing with this (mostly laptop cooling) problem under extra heavy-duty loads.  Stay tuned.

Jack E/NJ

Seraphim

That's alright, I think I want to return it and put the refund towards a 4k ready desktop instead. Thank you so much for all of your help and taking the time to try and resolve the issue.

JackE

OK. Desktops are certainly better-equipped to get rid of the heat than congested laptops. But maybe there's still hope. Good luck whatever you decide.  Jack E/NJ   

ThanatosXR

You got optimize windows registry
http://evilware.com/20170705/evolve/windows10-game-tweaks.html
Also disable vmemory, set second level cashe to 9000 , disable useless services. disable core parking