[suggestion] Please read before performing updates

Check what the driver update did to this user's notebook: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/577478/helios-500-ph517-51-firmware-update-fail#latest

@sri369 @egydiocoelho this is one of the main reasons why i had disabled mine permanently since day 1 and im always recommending to everyone to not update anything unless its to fix issues if theres no issues at all theres no need to fix them

xapim said:

@sri369 @egydiocoelho this is one of the main reasons why i had disabled mine permanently since day 1 and im always recommending to everyone to not update anything unless its to fix issues if theres no issues at all theres no need to fix them

:-) this is why i made this a separate post! Now gotta wait until someone pins this post - it is so sad to hear people brick their systems bad and literally all their data in efforts to get it working again.

@sri369
Prob someone from the acer staff ( @Acer-Manny @Acer-Jose @Acer-Harvey @Acer-Karp etc... ) could pin it ?? if they would consider that this is really a important issue to address

How do you pin the thread? Would it be interesting to put it in the Ace lounge?

XdxD

Regarding the firmware update: When I clean installed Windows 10, 1903, last month, the firmware in Device Manager was a generic one (I have BIOS 1.22 installed since April, 2019). Later I checked for its update through Device Manager and it installed 1.22 firmware. Also, I fetched the Wi-Fi and Ethernet drivers from Microsoft Catalog since Acer's ones from 2017 weren't working properly with 1903. I also disabled Fast Startup.
The best thing that has happened since then is (being a Scapegoat

) all the updates that have been offered have installed successfully in the first try itself (previously, they used to fail and I had to manually install them). Moreover, all the problems of the recent Cumulative Updates don't apply to my G3-572 as well as @Red-Sand's Predator since we both had clean installed 1903 build. While gaming, temperature seems to be 84°C CPU and 70°C GPU as highest for me. Before 1903, it used to touch 95°C for CPU and 80°C for GPU. Will repaste next year but with some good paste as the one Acer technician used was just from some local company.

Harvey-Acer_Retired

Apologies, I do not have the access of pinning the posts. I will pass it on to Acer-Manny.

AlpineTom

sri369 said:
it is so sad to hear people brick their systems bad and literally all their data in efforts to get it working again.

While I completely agree with you that it sucks if the system gets bricked because the OS decides to update things that don't need to be updated and, more importantly, shouldn't be treated like regular OS updates, the data loss is always on the user. Three words: backups, backups, backups.

It may be unpopular to say this in light of the current issues, but that's exactly why it needs to be said: If you don't have backups of your data and you lose it for whatever reason, it's your own fault. Period.

So, don't be a victim of your own idleness and do the smart thing -- BACK UP YOUR DATA!

This user also had his notebook blocked because windows update decided to update the firmware driver automatically, see: https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/578126/how-do-i-put-in-a-formal-complaint-predator-g9-793

Seems a common issue these days this is why i recommend to disable windows updates and only update what you need when you need manually to avoid these kind of issues in my personal view microsoft had nothing to stick their nose in manufacturers bios updates they always worked well updating it manually why force manufacturers to to embedded bios updates in their own windows updates it was to be expected this would gonna go wrong if is there anyone to blame here about all the bricked laptops everywhere its microsoft and their bend the knee policies against manufacturers not the manufacturers but they forget that without the devices to run it on their OS would be useless and worthless

Thamerov

xapim said:

Seems a common issue these days this is why i recommend to disable windows updates and only update what you need when you need manually to avoid these kind of issues in my personal view microsoft had nothing to stick their nose in manufacturers bios updates they always worked well updating it manually why force manufacturers to to embedded bios updates in their own windows updates it was to be expected this would gonna go wrong if is there anyone to blame here about all the bricked laptops everywhere its microsoft and their bend the knee policies against manufacturers not the manufacturers but they forget that without the devices to run it on their OS would be useless and worthless

Yes right MS ruining pcs through drivers.
Thats why most of their answer is to (RESET).

egydiocoelho said:

How do you pin the thread? Would it be interesting to put it in the Ace lounge?

Yes. I think this could be put in the Lounge too since this effects any laptop with windows 10 on it.

Windows 1903 update:

Windows 10 has done some internal changes that crashes graphics card when undervolted or overclocked - I noticed this since i moved from 1809 to 1903.
After moving to 1903 i had to uninstall my MSI Afterburner software (analogous to turbo mode on Predator Sense).
So if you moved to 1903, do NOT expect turbo button to work flawless.

Yeah its already known for awhile that 1903 wont work well with afterburner and some other software

oobula

man, i have a 77HB model arriving today and reading this board has made me go from excited to nervous. there's so much stuff that can mess up apparently. having to remember to turn off windows update and do all the tips i've read here in order to not brick the laptop is so much more complicated than my old VN7 Nitro.

oobula welcome to the wonderful world of microsoft windows 10 (forced) updates

i myself always play on the safe side never had a single issue for 2 years now but also disabled them completely since day 1 im not recommending it in any way for those who are more afraid to do it but the fact is 0 issues and still on 1809 same great performance as always

The issues with updates got more serious when MS decided to take ownership of the bios updates via windows updates many got their laptops bricked because the bios was not properly flashed and many still do only way to fix them its to send them back for repair to get it reflashed and then of course you have the bsods after updates drivers were broken etc... its a long list of a mess

xapim said:
The issues with updates got more serious when MS decided to take ownership of the bios updates via windows updates many got their laptops bricked because the bios was not properly flashed and many still do only way to fix them its to send them back for repair to get it reflashed

This is the most dangerous kind... for in most cases this would become a paid for service!

I agree with you @sri369. However, just to complement the thread, I found that windows update usually provides downloadable bios files with the extension .fd. If any user wants to try to recover the bios, just go to the microsoft driver catalog and identify the correct version of the firmware driver and then apply the correct name in the .fd file to try to recover the bios. But this procedure cannot be published here in the community.

oobula

i just went in and paused updates for as long as i could, which seems to be 35 days. that is the max i can, i think the ability to delay longer is only for Windows Pro and not Home. i don't see anywhere to prevent a feature update at all. so i guess people with Windows Home can delay these updates for a month before our laptops are bricked lol.