Predator Helios 300 (315-51) doesn't boot, doesn't detect C drive.

I'll preface this by saying I haven't even opened the laptop up to add an HDD yet, and I hadn't even opened the BIOS until the issues started.

About 3 days ago my laptop randomly crashed and gave me a DPC Watchdog Violation error, I heard that this was typically caused by Windows 10 not liking SSD drivers, so I made sure all my drivers were up to date, verified the integrity of my files, etc. Nothing was noticeably wrong other than the sudden crash. It seemed like the issue had been a fluke until yesterday afternoon, when I got three more crashes without warning, all citing the same error, so I downloaded GEForce Experience and updated my graphics card drivers, thinking SoulCalibur VI (what I was playing at the time) might be causing the blue screens. Everything ran smoothly again until this afternoon, when the laptop crashed, gave a Machine Check Exception instead, and then required a second restart because "Critical Process Died" during login. I managed to log back in and was trying to check for updates or memory issues, but everything was unstable, I got errors saying I couldn't run updates because there was no memory available (by no means should this be true), and then I got what amounted to an unrecoverable crash. I tried booting in safe mode and doing a system restore to two days ago, but the system restore failed midway through, and all diagnostic/troubleshooting attempts since have failed because the SSD that came with the laptop isn't detected. If I plug in an external USB hard drive, it gets mapped as C:\.

I thought it might still be a driver problem (maybe Windows just isn't reading the drive?) but I downloaded the drivers from the support section to a USB and the refresh utility insisted that there was no drive to install Windows to and no storage drivers on any connected devices.

Any ideas? This thing is all of 6 weeks old and all I've really used it for is some online coursework, Facebook, Twitter, SoulCalibur, and Overwatch. I haven't been using torrents or clicking on suspicious links and it's not like I've put it through the type of abuse that could cause a catastrophic failure.

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xapim

Try a acer factory reset ALT+F10 at boot screen for fresh start but backup everything you would need before because you will loose all files if you do so and see how it behaves if the issues are gone or not and do not update the windows to the lastest version leave it as it is on factory 1703 its the best stable version and was customized for it but in case u upgrade and have issues rollback if the problems still persist use nirsoft bluescreenviewer to check exactly what is giving the error and where u can also try a battery pinhole power reset by pressing it for 30s leave it to rest 5 to 10 mnts then boot into bios load setup defaults and see how it goes if after also if possible test your drive in another device if even after all this nothing was solved i suggest to contact acer support for a possible repair/replacement

Deejay_tech

is the ssd detected in bios. ??

TheRealDMac

It was when the issues first started, but now it isn't. I'm mid-move and don't have a screwdriver handy or I'd have tried taking it out and putting it back in already. Gonna pick one up on the way home from work Monday.

xapim

TheRealDMac said:

It was when the issues first started, but now it isn't. I'm mid-move and don't have a screwdriver handy or I'd have tried taking it out and putting it back in already. Gonna pick one up on the way home from work Monday.

I would get it out and test it in another device just to be sure it's not faulty in case it's not might be the m.2 port in the mobo but unless all is tested can never be sure

TheRealDMac

With the time it'll take before I can get my hands on another device to test whether it's the m.2 port or the SSD, I might as well just ship the laptop back for warranty. In the meantime, I've updated the SSD firmware during a moment of access (the update went through, but doesn't seem to have helped) and done a fresh install of windows on the drive in the SATA port.