Computer glitching out when I touch the bottom of case

Hi, I have only had my Predator Helios 300 for a couple of months. Even the first days when I had it it would completely freeze with the screen having a lot of different color lines on it. At first I thought it had to do with my laptop cooler which is just a base to set the laptop on with fans on it. So I would unplug it and stop using it. Well today I just randomly pressed lightly on the bottom of case when moving it and I noticed when I touch it in a specific area it is whats causing the freezing and screen to be covered in bright colored lines. Any help I would really appreciate it because I really prefer not to send the laptop in to Acer as its the only computer in the house. Thank you in advanced to anyone that can give me a hand.

Accepted answers

sri369

kainamor said:

sri369

Ok, that is interesting you say that. One time when I had this glitch and restarted windows I about had a heart attack because it would not boot saying it could not find a drive. Restarted it again and it booted normally. So I am going to try all these tonight when I get home.

For #2 In the recovery options it says 'Reset this PC' and gives the option to keep or remove personal files, then reinstalls Windows. Is this correct?

For #3 So the reset then go here 'https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7213?b=1' and download all those drivers individually and install them?

Also I could get a Live USB Linux media and boot to it. Is there a place you recommend to go to make a USB like that? The one I keep seeing from google is Linux Mint USB, is that one fine for this?

I am trying to be careful because my laptop before this one I tried to revert to an earlier Windows before an update and ended up in a loading loop and I didn't have a Windows recovery USB so I had to pay to get it fixed since I couldn't get one made without my laptop. I wont make that mistake again and make sure I always have one.

Thank you very much for helping me out with all of this. When I get home I will make sure the hard drive and ram is secure then if so I will try the next steps you recommend.

* before you try any of these, make a bootable USB with latest windows 10, and ensure it boots up into installation screen.
** install any freeware like macrium, and take a complete image of your C drive. also, these software allow to create a bootable usb; make one and test that one before saving it away.
*** ideally, restrict windows to a partition around 120 GB, based on your SSD/primary disk size, and allocate rest for others like games. This way windows is isolate in case of any windows killing events. Also backup size of system images remain restricted to windows.

3. Yes. And disable driver updates via windows update. You do not need every update any manufacturer releases. You can wait easily about 6-12 months between driver updates.

2. This option resets windows.
* a bonus for you... always... ALWAYS... create a "my documents" folder outside of windows partition, preferably on a partition on a separate drive, and map windows folders to those folders. This way your windows drive stays small, and corruption of windows would not effect accessibility of your personal data.

1. windows 10 is very finicky - esp with the bad set of updates they are releasing without rigorous testing. if possible, defer all updates by 30 days, and system feature update to atleast 3-6 months.

All comments

xapim

Which specific part did u pressed there are emergency pressure power cut switches along the chassis to avoid any short circuit when disassembling it one of those is in the ram compartment and if they are not properly pressed/screwed might cause freezes/shutdown/black screen etc... so check if all screws are properly tight and what is the exact model and specs

kainamor

Hi, sorry to get back to you so late. I didn't realize anyone responded to me. I will check the thread manually now. My laptop and specs are as follows:

Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" Full HD IPS, Intel i7-7700HQ CPU, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD, GeForce GTX 1060-6GB, VR Ready, Red Backlit KB, Metal Chassis, Windows 10 64-bit, G3-571-77QK

It seems to happen when I touch the bottom of the laptop in some spots. It felt like all the screws were loose, which is weird as this is a new laptop. I am not touching where the ram or the spot for the extra drive can go. More in the middle of the laptop. Also it happened to me the other day also. I was using my phone and I dropped it on the top of my laptop around where the touch pad is. The same thing happened, the screen went all glitched out looking and weird with a lot of colors. This time I got the Windows blue screen, it read this error "SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED'. Generally this does not happen but the screen will just freeze until I reset myself with power button.

I am wondering if there is an issue with this laptop and I should get it sent in to Acer before the one year manufactures warranty is up. Or if its something I can take care of my self I would much prefer to handle it myself. Anyhow, thank you in advance for any help that may come my way.

kainamor

Sorry to comment again but if you wanted something more specific it is model # N17C1

sri369

@kainamor

A couple of things you might want to check; this error is frequent in case where windows is unable to access data on hard disk, and could be because of any of the reasons below - esp the hard disk one.

Foremost: try uninstalling graphics drivers completely (physx and all), and install the drivers on Acer site. And see if the problem still occurs.

If it still occurs, try the below.
1. check for any loose contacts of hard disk and RAM modules
2. try a windows reset - it could be a case of corrupted windows files
3. try updating drivers; if you are resetting windows, update to drivers on Acer site only, not to latest (and disable drivers auto updating via windows update)

Also, you might want to create a Live USB Linux media and try booting via the USB and see if the issue occurs then too. If it doesn't it, we could narrow it down to windows/hard disk.

kainamor

sri369

Ok, that is interesting you say that. One time when I had this glitch and restarted windows I about had a heart attack because it would not boot saying it could not find a drive. Restarted it again and it booted normally. So I am going to try all these tonight when I get home.

For #2 In the recovery options it says 'Reset this PC' and gives the option to keep or remove personal files, then reinstalls Windows. Is this correct?

For #3 So the reset then go here 'https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7213?b=1' and download all those drivers individually and install them?

Also I could get a Live USB Linux media and boot to it. Is there a place you recommend to go to make a USB like that? The one I keep seeing from google is Linux Mint USB, is that one fine for this?

I am trying to be careful because my laptop before this one I tried to revert to an earlier Windows before an update and ended up in a loading loop and I didn't have a Windows recovery USB so I had to pay to get it fixed since I couldn't get one made without my laptop. I wont make that mistake again and make sure I always have one.

Thank you very much for helping me out with all of this. When I get home I will make sure the hard drive and ram is secure then if so I will try the next steps you recommend.

sri369

kainamor said:

sri369

Ok, that is interesting you say that. One time when I had this glitch and restarted windows I about had a heart attack because it would not boot saying it could not find a drive. Restarted it again and it booted normally. So I am going to try all these tonight when I get home.

For #2 In the recovery options it says 'Reset this PC' and gives the option to keep or remove personal files, then reinstalls Windows. Is this correct?

For #3 So the reset then go here 'https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7213?b=1' and download all those drivers individually and install them?

Also I could get a Live USB Linux media and boot to it. Is there a place you recommend to go to make a USB like that? The one I keep seeing from google is Linux Mint USB, is that one fine for this?

I am trying to be careful because my laptop before this one I tried to revert to an earlier Windows before an update and ended up in a loading loop and I didn't have a Windows recovery USB so I had to pay to get it fixed since I couldn't get one made without my laptop. I wont make that mistake again and make sure I always have one.

Thank you very much for helping me out with all of this. When I get home I will make sure the hard drive and ram is secure then if so I will try the next steps you recommend.

* before you try any of these, make a bootable USB with latest windows 10, and ensure it boots up into installation screen.
** install any freeware like macrium, and take a complete image of your C drive. also, these software allow to create a bootable usb; make one and test that one before saving it away.
*** ideally, restrict windows to a partition around 120 GB, based on your SSD/primary disk size, and allocate rest for others like games. This way windows is isolate in case of any windows killing events. Also backup size of system images remain restricted to windows.

3. Yes. And disable driver updates via windows update. You do not need every update any manufacturer releases. You can wait easily about 6-12 months between driver updates.

2. This option resets windows.
* a bonus for you... always... ALWAYS... create a "my documents" folder outside of windows partition, preferably on a partition on a separate drive, and map windows folders to those folders. This way your windows drive stays small, and corruption of windows would not effect accessibility of your personal data.

1. windows 10 is very finicky - esp with the bad set of updates they are releasing without rigorous testing. if possible, defer all updates by 30 days, and system feature update to atleast 3-6 months.

xapim

@kainamor you stated "It seems to happen when I touch the bottom of the laptop in some spots. It felt like all the screws were loose, which is weird as this is a new laptop." Seems to me that might be the display cable with a bad connection or a bad cable itself but because its a brand new laptop depending on each country it should have seals that you would have to break to open it voiding the warranty so if i were in your situation i would contact the shop/seller where you bought it for a possible repair/replacement if they somehow refuse contact acer support directly as i said previously seems to me some kind of bad contact somewhere and u stated it feels the screws were loose have u checked all the scrwes in the shell to see if they are all tight might also be internally and as i said i recommend to contact support for warranty don'r open it yourself without having sure you can do so and not void warranty in some countryes you can to for ex upgrade the ssd and the SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED seem to be also a driver issue which might also happens if there is a bad contact somewhere check the bsod error with nirsoft bluescreenviewer to find out which driver was exactly

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