Helios 500 AMD (PH517-61-R0GX) Graphics Drivers

Ok, I've been searching the internet and the Acer forums for a clear answer and I can't find one. First, the Vega 56 drivers that came with the system

are about a year old. Second, I've managed to update the drivers with the ones from June 2019 (19.6.3), and the drivers after that work with all functions

until the unit goes to sleep. It no longer wakes up properly from sleep. Get a snowy screen and have to power down to reset the laptop. So here are the issues

I'd like answered.

1. I've read everything from none of the AMD drivers work properly to they all work fine. Is anyone running 19.9.3 or 19.10.1 and have sleep working properly?

2. If so, is there another setting or something I'm missing?

3. If not, does anyone know what the problem actually is and with whom the issue lies?

4. I was under the impression that this is just a desktop vega 56/hbm2 setup with a desktop r7-2700 cpu and B450 chipset. If so, there should be absolutely

no reason for this. Dose anybody have any better information?

And before the Acer fan that has helped on this forum for the last 10 years chimes in, NO the original drivers are NOT the best for a gaming system, and

breaking the AMD drivers is a giant NO NO. As games are released, optimizations to the drivers are made for newer games, and without the latest drivers, the

GPU runs WELL below it's optimum frame rate. In addition, features are added that are also desirable, such as Radeon Image Sharpening, which was just added.

So a gaming laptop stuck on 1+ year old drivers should not happen. Although I have AMD cards in my desktops, my last 3 laptops all ran Nvidia graphics, and I

ALWAYS ran the latest drivers for those (Lenovo, Asus, Gateway).

I've read that the issue may lie with freesync, and might be a monitor and/or monitor driver issue, but again, I have no idea why it's acting up.

Any help would be appreciated (except to live wtih the 2018 drivers....please).

BTW, Windows 10 1903 with all of the latest updates and patches installed. OEM nvme drive replaces by 1tb intel 660 with drive copy successful. so, original install

from when I bought it.

Accepted answers

All comments

xapim

SRB151 that should be most probably windows update compatibility issue creating a driver issue with the sleep mode in the ryzen vegas you can see here another threads about the same and as far as i read the solution was to downgrade the drivers or just dont sleep disable fast boot and hibernate instead or just shutdown i can tell you right now that the sleep mode never worked properly on any windows since XP and so on sooner or later would create issues and as you might already know on windows 10 1903 recently every time microsoft forces an update out ends up by messing everything software stops working driver issues etc oh well ... the last i had read was the latest update cut the support vmware 14 iwouldnt open anymore saying that this system its not supported

so everyone had to either spend thousands upgrading and buy new licenses or just find out the exact update and uninstall it to see if the issue would go away or not one of the reasons my updates are completely disabled and im still on 1809 and not moving up anyway give it a check here hope it helps in anyway

whitebunnyflock

I would also like an answer to this question. I know that 19.9.2 still has the issue but I would be interested in knowing if AMD has fixed this problem in 19.10.1

whitebunnyflock

i should mention i am running the 19.5.2 drivers on mine and suspend still works fine with those drivers. it would be necessary to remove all drivers except the stock windows one and then install the 19.5.2 but don't choose the option to "replace" the windows driver as it is still needed for FreeSync to work
(don't do a clean install). The other thing to know is that you will have to find a way to make Windows Update not replace your new installed driver. I can't remember what i did here but duckduckgo.com was a great source for me. I seem to think it was a registry hack that I did to force windows to accept the new driver.

whitebunnyflock

19.10.2 still has the suspend issue.....

SRB151

Thanks for the input. Surprisingly, hibernate works, but sleep does not. As a short term workaround, I set the system to hibernate if I'm away too long. The startup hit isn't that much worse than sleep that I can't deal with it until I can call support and see what they have to say.

LennartF

Has someone tried the new version 19.11.11 yet ?

ArkaneBLUE

I'd like to know as well. It's interesting that hibernate works, from the OP's statement. I'll give it a shot in the interim, but we desperately need newer drivers. I just want my laptop to sleep and not flash seizure lights.

xapim

ArkaneBLUE the sleep feature has always been an issue on laptops especially on win10 this is a common windows issue nothing to do with the laptop itself some might work well some might not its all a matter of how windows is behaving and the updates installed i would suggest you to disable fastboot and use hibernate instead you can setup the keys to hibernate instead of sleep

deksman2

My Helios 500 Ph517-61 (Ryzen/Vega) also experienced an identical problem (before the latest BIOS update corrupted the machine and I was forced to return it for a refund because they couldn't repair it in the allotted time frame - it took well over 1 month for the repair team to continue to say they ordered a replacement motherboard, but no word on whether it was dispatched or delivered for that matter - and since no viable replacements exist in UK, it was pointless to try and get a replacement - and no, I will NOT get an Intel/NV version).

I complained to both Acer and AMD about this static noise problem upon waking up from sleep issue.
Acer of course said the 'best' thing is to use original drivers (which of course is nonsense), while AMD said they will address this problem in the next driver release (that was 3 driver releases ago).
Sufficed to say that AMD still hadn't repaired this problem and any driver above 19.5.2 doesn't wake up the machine from sleep mode properly, even if only the screen shuts down to conserve power.

This seems like a software/driver issue which is specifically contained to the new drivers. It might be Windows related, but given that any driver before and up to 19.5.2 doesn't exhibit this problem, I just think AMD broke the Vega drivers.

This issue started occurring upon AMD releasing Navi GPU's and subsequent drivers for them.
And yes, we ARE losing performance/efficiency enhancements for latest games (not to mention very useful features like RIS, etc.) if we stick to older drivers.
19.5.2 drivers are hardly ancient, but they don't have RIS or other optimisations for new games.

Its possible that because uArch is differently implemented on Navi, the drivers mess about with Vega architectural pathways resulting in static noise problem (but I cannot be sure about this).

I think this is something that AMD needs to repair... but given that I reported this issue to AMD three times already, and the only thing I got from them was that they ware working on this problem and will resolve it with the upcoming driver release (but this was 3 driver releases ago - about 2 months now), I cannot say whether AMD will actually release fixed drivers or if even they might be working on it.
My advice is to report it to both Acer and AMD and keep at it.

Acer might be able to repair the problem if they released reliable BIOS updates that also include Zen2 and higher RAM support along with modern drivers. BIOS updates also contain other improvements/modifications of course which the Helios 500 in all likelihood will never see (simply because Acer is likely unwilling to give users the option to upgrade the CPU).
I could be wrong on the BIOS front and Acer may surprise us, but considering I suffered a complete corruption of the BIOS because it was being updated to the latest version, I don't trust Acer's competence.

This is seriously skewing me towards a desktop... or Acer could consider upgrading this machine to Zen 2 and Navi hardware with B550 mobo's and move the RAM slots to the easily accessible side of the laptop without crippling the RAM slots speeds (aka they shouldn't automatically drop to 2400MhZ just because all 4 slots are populated).

SRB151

First off, I've read that idiotic line about "sleep has always been broken" far too many times. Let's keep in mind, unlike a desktop, with lots of variations in hardware, laptops are pretty much locked down. Second, I've had three different vega cards in three different desktops and had ZERO sleep problems with some of the oddest hardware attached. Last, I've had more laptops than I can count, and with the occasional update glitch which was fixed with another update, never had any problems with sleep. All using discrete graphics cards with Nvidia/AMD latest drivers. All have had no sleep problems whatsoever. One of the desktops is in the windows insider fast ring, and again, despite some hiccups that come with the fast ring, sleep has been reliable. BTW, fastboot doesn't change a thing, so you can put that line to rest as well.

Next, as to the cause, if I had to guess, the problem is with Acer. This is more or less the same dead common hardware as the desktops use, on custom circuit boards. The major difference is that Acer has specified bios versions designed to lock down and

limit certain functions (clock speeds, memory, bios settings, etc.). I am convinced this has more to do with the problem than anything, and, since this is already an out of production laptop, the chances of Acer spending any time to sort this out is probably nil.

I had a similar thing happen with my Lenovo Y 510p laptop. A windows update broke SLI on the laptop shortly after I bought it with the latest Nvida drivers (two 750m chips in SLI). A few complaints to Lenovo, and an updated video bios was released by them in a month or so and I've never had a problem with it since. Still running latest drivers and Windows 10 on it.

From some of the reviews I've read, this has been going on for quite some time, and aside from the person on here ( I know your just trying to help), telling us to live with it and it's Microsoft's fault, nothing but crickets. It would really be nice for Acer to spend some man hours on this issue and get it corrected. I haven't had mine that long, and some people have been fighting this a lot longer than I have. Please, if Acer reads any of this, FIX IT. I called in on this once before to support, needed to escalate the problem, and never had time or remembered when I did to follow up.

Just for fun, do they tell the people who bought the Nvidia/Intel versions to keep the launch drivers and/or live with operational issues?

Red-Sand

I'm at the airport so I didn't read EVERYTHING just the jist of the issues.

Few things I know I'm gonna throw in there in the meantime until I can read/research properly.

I know certain USB devices cause suspension/sleep/shut down issues if it is occupying a USB port when those functions are attempted.
Example: My Samsung Odyssey HMD + will absolutely not allow any sleep/suspend function while it's plugged in, I have to remove it before attampting, I also have a old Blackweb wireless mouse that causes the same thing. (And it's not limited to just my Acer machines, it's also on my Razer and Dell/AW). This includes getting the static flickering as a symptom some of the time.

Next I'd like to add that OEM drivers can technically be considered best but depends on user practice. Once a laptop has been in the wild for 1+ years that usually doesn't apply anymore, but certainly when first released and the Windows Version is the same as release, then it's usually the best for performance, regardless of latest game release.

I'd love to get my hands on a AMD H500 to be able to help better but I'm stuck in speculation at this point.

Are there any error codes?
Windows reverting to DCH drivers could also be suspect here.

deksman2

SRB151 said:

First off, I've read that idiotic line about "sleep has always been broken" far too many times.   Let's keep in mind, unlike a desktop, with lots of variations in hardware, laptops are pretty much locked down. Second, I've had three different vega cards in three different desktops and had ZERO sleep problems with some of the oddest hardware attached. Last, I've had more laptops than I can count, and with the occasional update glitch which was fixed with another update, never had any problems with sleep. All using discrete graphics cards with Nvidia/AMD latest drivers. All have had no sleep problems whatsoever. One of the desktops is in the windows insider fast ring, and again, despite some hiccups that come with the fast ring, sleep has been reliable. BTW, fastboot doesn't change a thing, so you can put that line to rest as well.

Next, as to the cause, if I had to guess, the problem is with Acer. This is more or less the same dead common hardware as the desktops use, on custom circuit boards. The major difference is that Acer has specified bios versions designed to lock down and
limit certain functions (clock speeds, memory, bios settings, etc.). I am convinced this has more to do with the problem than anything, and, since this is already an out of production laptop, the chances of Acer spending any time to sort this out is probably nil.

    I had a similar thing happen with my Lenovo Y 510p laptop. A windows update broke SLI on the laptop shortly after I bought it with the latest Nvida drivers (two 750m chips in SLI). A few complaints to Lenovo, and an updated video bios was released by them in a month or so and I've never had a problem with it since. Still running latest drivers and Windows 10 on it.

    From some of the reviews I've read, this has been going on for quite some time, and aside from the person on here ( I know your just trying to help), telling us to live with it and it's Microsoft's fault, nothing but crickets.   It would really be nice for Acer to spend some man hours on this issue and get it corrected. I haven't had mine that long, and some people have been fighting this a lot longer than I have. Please, if Acer reads any of this, FIX IT. I called in on this once before to support, needed to escalate the problem, and never had time or remembered when I did to follow up.

   Just for fun, do they tell the people who bought the Nvidia/Intel versions to keep the launch drivers and/or live with operational issues?

The 'wake from sleep static noise' problem is NOT something that always happened. At least not to me. I never had this issue with laptops (or desktops for that matter).
All drivers (stock Acer and subsequent AMD ones) up until (and including) version 19.5.2 work fine with waking the laptop from sleep mode.
Its the drivers AFTER 19.5.2 that's been causing the problem with the laptop display showing static noise whenever it switched off.

It is quite possible this could be down to the locked BIOS and Acer mucking things up on that front to make it very limited for users (which really shouldn't be the case on a machine of this calibre - BIOS on this thing should be unlocked and receive full support, including updates for Zen 2), but given that the problem didn't start to happen until AMD released new drivers that included Navi optimisations, it could be either down to the BIOS or down to AMD... or both.

If it is down to the BIOS then it would be up to Acer to release a new version to resolve the problem... trouble is, I suffered a BIOS corruption as a result of trying to upgrade from 1.08v to 1.09 and have now lost my Predator laptop as a result (got my refund back, but have no Ph517-61 to replace it with). What's worse, I'm now wary of Acer's BIOS updates (even if they DID release them to fix this problem and include by some miracle Zen 2 support). If they do release BIOS updates for this laptop, I (and others) would need some kind of contingency measure to restore the BIOS to its previous state should a new one become corrupted again.

SRB151

Well, just to add to the fun, Adrenalin 2020 drivers just dropped, and the lockup on sleep is the least of our problems. AMD made a lot of features available, and I'll have to wait till I get home to my desktop to find out what they are. Upon installing, Freesync was disabled, and on reboot, the screen went extremely dark. Backlight adjustment did nothing, many settings either did not work or couldn't tell with the screen the way it was. If someone has better luck, let us know.

otori0rao

SRB151 said:

Well, just to add to the fun, Adrenalin 2020 drivers just dropped, and the lockup on sleep is the least of our problems. AMD made a lot of features available, and I'll have to wait till I get home to my desktop to find out what they are. Upon installing, Freesync was disabled, and on reboot, the screen went extremely dark. Backlight adjustment did nothing, many settings either did not work or couldn't tell with the screen the way it was. If someone has better luck, let us know.

Well, yeah, same issues except for display going dark... I worked out solution for Freesync. No luck with statick screen after sleep.
Here you go and share the love!

I) clean install newest drivers,

II) get Custom Resollution Utility (it just adds information in system registry in for display:

CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) Tips, Tricks and Monitors OC (LCD/LED/CRT) | guru3D Forums

III) run CRU and follow the steps (if the image is too small, open it in new tab):

freesync reenabled

-> step 7: type in refresh rate range - for this display official range is 60 - 144Hz. Then Accept and OK out of the CRU

-> step 8: restart the pc,

-> step 9: notification about freesync display connected should appear, Freesync option is now available!

Happy to share!

P.S.: Probably new drivers just clear the information from registry about display refrash rate range...

kingmetal

I tried following your procedure and still don't have the option to enable Freesync. Any other steps you might have taken?

otori0rao

kingmetal said:

I tried following your procedure and still don't have the option to enable Freesync. Any other steps you might have taken?

No additional steps needed. Are you sure you installed new drivers then edited the ACTIVE display?
I am sure this steps are what done it because i tried to extend refresh rate range by setting 45-144Hz and below about 60fps i got blanking...

otori0rao

Oh, maybe there is one thing i done in CRU:
I also deleted other Not active displays with the same id as the (Active) one from the display drop down list on top of CRU app. It removed them from sys registry.
@kingmetalCan you confirm this step is what makes a difference?

otori0rao

SRB151 said:

Well, just to add to the fun, Adrenalin 2020 drivers just dropped, and the lockup on sleep is the least of our problems. AMD made a lot of features available, and I'll have to wait till I get home to my desktop to find out what they are. Upon installing, Freesync was disabled, and on reboot, the screen went extremely dark. Backlight adjustment did nothing, many settings either did not work or couldn't tell with the screen the way it was. If someone has better luck, let us know.

Well, yeah, same issues except for display going dark... I worked out solution for Freesync. No luck with statick screen after sleep.
Here you go and share the love!

I) clean install newest drivers,

II) get Custom Resollution Utility (it just adds information in system registry in for Active/in use display:

CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) Tips, Tricks and Monitors OC (LCD/LED/CRT) | guru3D Forums

III) run CRU and follow the steps (if the image is too small, open it in new tab):

freesync reenabled

-> step 7: type in refresh rate range - for this display official range is 60 - 144Hz. Then Accept and OK out of the CRU

-> step 8: restart the pc,

-> step 9: notification about freesync display connected should appear, Freesync option is now available!

Happy to share!

P.S.: Probably new drivers just clear the information from registry about display refrash rate range...

dcmod

Freesync work for me with the above procedure .. You have to make sure you are modifying the active display,, On mine it says AUO329D Lenovo Display 1920 X 1080 (active)*

Bullfrog78

haven't had a chance to try the above method, but.......

I had done a clean install of windows, and all awhile back, and had just been staying at 19.5.2. When I first installed the 2020 driver my sleep was still working fine. Though I had the same issue saying that the display didn't support sync.

A notification for windows update, display driver,... and it recognized, and got the notification of detecting a sync capable display. Click to go to the settings....... and

Error : display and adapter drivers do not match.

ACER ya REALLY need to get this **** figured out!!!!

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 185

StevenGen 100

Alejandro_AC 95

Kno63 80

Jack22 55

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™