Acer G9-793-79V5 - Predator Logo Sometimes Doesn't Show at Boot-Up & Screen Remains Black

dmw_4814

My Predator 17 (G9-793-79V5) developed a problem roughly six to eight weeks ago, where sometimes, when I turn it on, the keyboard lights up; the screen backlight comes on, and the light indicating the SSD is being accessed flashes, but the Predator logo never displays, and the screen just displays all black (although, as I said, I can see that the LED backlight is on). I also get a brief, momentary (like, ½ second) flash of a distorted image, almost like static or "snow", as displayed on an old tube TV, but that goes away, leaving the screen black. At that point, the only thing I can do is press & hold the power button, until the unit shuts down. Then, as soon as I turn it back on, it boots normally, first showing the Predator logo, then the Windows sign-in screen (I do sometimes still get that brief flash of static or whatever, but it boots normally after that). If I'm using the laptop and restart it, such as when restarting after installing a new program or an update, it usually always boots normally. This just seems to happen if it's been off for a while. If I manually shut it down, via the Windows Start Menu, and the turn it back on, it seems to boot normally.

This seemed to start happening, although I realize this could be purely a coincidence, one day when I kept tapping one of the function keys - I think it was the F5 key - during boot-up. I had read somewhere; and it might not have even been applicable to my particular Predator model, that hitting F5 during boot-up would access a recovery menu, which is what I was trying to do. After the third or fourth attempt (because it kept booting into Windows), I got that burst of static/distorted image, and it's been happening ever since.

This has also happened when Windows put the laptop into Sleep, before I adjusted the power plan to never put the laptop to Sleep, when on A/C power (I've reinstalled Windows 10 a couple of times in the last week or two, related to attempting to put Windows 7 on my machine, which didn't work out so well). When I pressed the power button to bring it out of sleep, I got that distorted image briefly, and a few times the screen remained black (with the backlight on, I think). Once, I connected my external monitor to the laptop, and Windows appeared on that, although the laptop screen was dark.

I'll have to check (my PC is off right now; I'm a tractor-trailer driver, and I just pulled into a rest area to post this question), but I'm pretty sure I'm on the latest BIOS/UEFI firmware, as offered/shown in the Acer support page for my unit.

Anyone have any ideas what's wrong? This is really irritating! 

dmw_4814

By the way, I took the screen bezel and the cover that exposes the lid hinges off the other day, and the LCD cable seems securely connected at both ends.

XdxD

That distorted image thing started happening with my Predator Helios 300 as well after updating to Windows 10 1903.

dmw_4814

XdxD said:

That distorted image thing started happening with my Predator Helios 300 as well after updating to Windows 10 1903.

Yeah, I'm completely clueless as to whether this is a hardware problem, or a problem with Windows (I've even thought maybe I should try reflashing my BIOS).

dmw_4814

Update - when I have my laptop connected to my external monitor, it ALWAYS boots up normally. It never fails to show the Predator logo, and I never get a black screen. When Windows shuts off my external monitor (due to inactivity), I can touch my mouse and the monitor springs back to life, displaying the Windows logon screen, without any of that "static" or distortion I often see on my laptop's LCD.

Also, Windows downloaded & installed the May, 2019 update (Windows 10 version 1903, I think) last weekend, and it reset a lot of customization I had done to Windows. As a result, I messed things up by deleting a font I shouldn't have, and Windows got stuck in a boot-loop. I had to use the recovery to repair Windows 10, and was forced to reinstall some of my programs that got deleted in the process. As I was downloading Office 365 again, my screen (I'm referring to the laptop's internal LCD; not my external monitor) kept turning off after several minutes. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I touched my trackpad to turn the screen back on, I got that "static" or distortion, sometimes for a full second or two (a couple of times, I didn't think the normal image was going to appear!). A few times, I noticed several dark-colored horizontal bands in the distorted image; they were faint, but definitely noticable.

Does this sound like my LCD is bad/going bad?

XdxD

dmw_4814 said:

Update - when I have my laptop connected to my external monitor, it ALWAYS boots up normally. It never fails to show the Predator logo, and I never get a black screen. When Windows shuts off my external monitor (due to inactivity), I can touch my mouse and the monitor springs back to life, displaying the Windows logon screen, without any of that "static" or distortion I often see on my laptop's LCD.

Also, Windows downloaded & installed the May, 2019 update (Windows 10 version 1903, I think) last weekend, and it reset a lot of customization I had done to Windows. As a result, I messed things up by deleting a font I shouldn't have, and Windows got stuck in a boot-loop. I had to use the recovery to repair Windows 10, and was forced to reinstall some of my programs that got deleted in the process. As I was downloading Office 365 again, my screen (I'm referring to the laptop's internal LCD; not my external monitor) kept turning off after several minutes. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I touched my trackpad to turn the screen back on, I got that "static" or distortion, sometimes for a full second or two (a couple of times, I didn't think the normal image was going to appear!). A few times, I noticed several dark-colored horizontal bands in the distorted image; they were faint, but definitely noticable.

Does this sound like my LCD is bad/going bad?

Sounds like a faulty LCD to me.

dmw_4814

Yeah, unfortunately, I'm thinking you're right. This is the 2nd 4k panel I've had go bad (in fairness, I believe the first one was a cheap, inferior panel - it didn't say AU Optronics anywhere on the back label).

I found a place yesterday - I think they're India - that has an AU Optronics (at least, it's listed as that, and a photo of the label on the back of the LCD says AU Optronics, with the correct part number) 4k LCD for $149US. But, honestly, I'm not sure now that I want another 4k screen. Maybe I should've just kept the full HD screen my Predator came with.

Does anyone have the part number for the OEM full HD screen my Predator 17 came with, from Acer? Alternatively, does anyone know of/have a part number for a compatible full HD screen that has a 120Hz refresh rate?

I'm getting frustrated with this laptop, and am almost thinking of selling it (anyone interested?). I was looking at a really nice Alienware M17 laptop at Best Buy the other day, that's significantly thinner and lighter than my Predator is (of course, it lacks the optical drive my Predator has, but I find I rarely use that).

dmw_4814

Or, is there a compatible 17.3" full HD screen with 144Hz refresh rate? I might go for that, if there is.

xapim

Join the predator fb group you might find someone there who might have the same laptop and has upgraded/replaced the display (links in my signature)

dmw_4814

I bought a 17.3" full HD 120Hz screen for my laptop. It's an Innolux N173HHE-G32 REV.C3 screen. Innolux is a major manufacturer of LCD panels (they used to be known as Chi Mei Optoelectronics), and a supplier to major OEMs, like Dell; Lenovo; HP; Samsung, etc. The REV.C1 & REV.C2 screens are 5ms response times, and the REV.C3 is supposedly 3ms. At least, that's the information given to me by the person I bought the AU Optronics 17.3" 4k screen from, as that's the screen he bought for his MSI laptop, to replace the screen I bought from him. The company I bought the screen from (Bliss Computers, in NJ) assured me it's a genuine Innolux screen, and is in fact REV.C3.

I haven't yet installed the screen, as I'm on the road (I'm a tractor-trailer driver; my wife told me FedEx delivered it, yesterday), but I plan on doing that as soon as I'm back home, which should be Sunday afternoon/evening. I'll report back as to how it goes, meaning I hope my screen is the reason I don't see the Acer logo/Windows 10 when I first boot up my laptop. I'm going to be REALLY irritated if I experience the same issue with the new screen!

I'm not even 100% certain this screen will work in my Predator 17, but the guy I bought the 4k screen used it in his MSI laptop, and I figure if we used the same 4k screen, and this full-HD screen worked in his laptop, it should also work in mine. It uses the same 40- pin cable. I'm also not 100% certain if it's an IPS or a TN panel, but I read on some forums (Dell Alienware, for example) gamers commenting about what a nice screen it was.

We'll see. Wish me luck! 

dmw_4814

Well, apparently the problem WAS my screen - I installed my new screen tonight, and the very first time I booted it up, the Acer logo appeared without any of the static/distortion I'd been getting!

xapim

dmw_4814 said:

Well, apparently the problem WAS my screen - I installed my new screen tonight, and the very first time I booted it up, the Acer logo appeared without any of the static/distortion I'd been getting!

Glad you finally got it sorted   in most of the cases its just software issues my we cant rule out hardware issues either 

dmw_4814

Yeah, I'm happy the laptop boots properly, now, but when I turned it on this morning, there was a dead/stuck pixel that was quite noticeable on a black background. However, it seems to be working again, because I'm unable to see it, now. Sadly, though, there is no G-sync option for the laptop's internal LCD panel, anymore. It worked before with my 4k screen (and, my HP Omen 35 external monitor still shows as G-sync capable), and I know this panel is G-sync compatible, but it must have something to do with a whitelist or something, maybe in the BIOS/UEFI firmware. Since this panel isn't an option used by the OEM, Acer, something is prohibiting G-sync from being shown as an option for it. I'm not really a gamer, but it kinda bothers me that it's no longer available.

xapim

dmw_4814 said:

Yeah, I'm happy the laptop boots properly, now, but when I turned it on this morning, there was a dead/stuck pixel that was quite noticeable on a black background. However, it seems to be working again, because I'm unable to see it, now. Sadly, though, there is no G-sync option for the laptop's internal LCD panel, anymore. It worked before with my 4k screen (and, my HP Omen 35 external monitor still shows as G-sync capable), and I know this panel is G-sync compatible, but it must have something to do with a whitelist or something, maybe in the BIOS/UEFI firmware. Since this panel isn't an option used by the OEM, Acer, something is prohibiting G-sync from being shown as an option for it. I'm not really a gamer, but it kinda bothers me that it's no longer available.

Thats one of the downsides of replacing/upgrading the displays with another thats not exactly the same factory part some option might not be available anymore and sometimes even more options are available u never know until you install it but at least its working which its good