Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42 Bios v1.16 slow ram

Okay I already opened one thread but decided to ignore it yesterday because I ran out of patience and the title wasn't very good anyway. I'm gonna give it another try and see what can be done cause I do like the laptop and don't really wanna swap it.

I updated my bios to the latest v1.16 and now my 2400 Mhz Kingston ram runs in Asynchronous mode at a maximum of 1866 Mhz and that is very slow compared to the 1:12 FSB it was running with before at 2400 Mhz. You need to be aware of this and don't update to this bios and Acer needs to fix this issue with the next Bios, you have been warned.

If you have a fix for me Acer please let me know. I tried resetting the battery with a pinclip holding it down for 5 seconds and tried various other different things with zero luck. My ram runs in Acynch @ 1866 Mhz no matter what and it's the same with the ram stick that the laptop ships with.

Cheers a frustrated AN515-42 owner.

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Stance

Hello I'm new here nice to meet you.

I just updated the bios on my brand new laptop and now my memory runs in ascynh mode and maxes out at 1866 mhz not 2400.... Also the cpu acts like a potato that can't figure out what it wants to do, constantly fluctuating all over the place even with the power cord plugged in. In games it doesn't boost, it stays at 1600 period. Done a fresh windows reinstall fully updated twice, tried downloading AMD chipset drivers for Raven Ridge mobile.

Nothing helps. What is this? lol -_- Anyone else with these issues that shouldn't be there?

Stance

No options in bios to change memory back to synchronized and a static speed equal to bus.. Bios can't downgrade so this is not going to change unless a bios is released that fixes it I guess. Is there any fix at all or am I really stuck with this slow potato? I built and messed about with pc's for 11 years and tried everything.

Stance

Nvm I dont have the patience to deal with this I rma'ed the laptop and ill get another one. Please ignore my thread and have a nice day/evening wherever you are.

Stance

I have emailed Acer support aswell now and spoken to them on the phone. I'll let you know if a fix exists or not when they have answered my email.

Commodore_1995#

Hello! What is the exact model of the computer? Example an515-51-75kz.

Have you tried restoring the bios by pressing f9 and then f10?

Stance

Hi egy, the model number is in the title; AN515-42

If you mean restoring bios default settings then yes, its F2 on my laptop and F10 to save like always.

Ty for asking!

Commodore_1995#

This is the generic model. Can you enter the exact model? Example an515-42-r1gf

Stance

Oh you want the whole thing

Yes mate here; AN515-42-R5E9 sorry

Commodore_1995#

Can you upload some screenshots of the configuration that appears in cpu-z?

Stance

Yeah here's a few shots of CPU-Z. Ignore the NB Frequency, it's 600 Mhz not 1200

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ko/2hjogvgf54ca.png

Stance

The FSB:DRAM is supposed to be 1:12 ratio at 1200 Mhz not asynch. at 933 So my machine is running quite a bit slower than it should

I have the 1866 Mhz verified by various benchmarks and other utilities showing hardware specs and stats so it's not CPU-Z being wrong.

The bios really should have the option to change between Synchronized mode and Asynchronous for the memory but the bios is as barebones as it gets and I can't do anything in there which is a shame..

Commodore_1995#

I would like to check the memory tab of the two rams memories

Stance

It's 2x8 GB Kingston HyperX Impact DDR4-2400 @ CL14 timings. The ram doesn't affect the Asynch state, the memory that the laptop ships with is doing the same thing unfortunately, I already checked

2400 Mhz Kingston SODIMM.png

Commodore_1995#

This memory has xmp profile, however there are no xmp change profiles in your notebook bios. Have you tried disconnecting both memories and then connecting them individually? I will also ask some colleagues for help @JackE @xapim and @JordanB

Stance

I tried 1 stick at a time in each port yeah and also tried with the generic 8gb memory stick the laptop has originally and nothing changes.. I will try again now for the 3rd time just to make sure

Commodore_1995#

Ok! Post the result here!

Stance

Nothing changes, both sticks 1 at a time in both slot 1 and slot 2. Asynch mode at 800 mhz in single channel and 1866 mhz in dual channel. Exactly the same happens with the ram stick the laptop is shipped with. It never runs at 2400 mhz and it's only in asynch. mode

It seems that bios v1.16 is just bad for the ram.. I need a new bios to test because I can't downgrade, Acer won't let me. I think I need a tool to be able to downgrade it and afaik only the employees at Acer dealing with this kind of stuff has the tool to do it. (Utility)

xapim

You can downgrade the bios (just give a search in the community you will find it you have to edit some files in order to be able to bypass the downgrade restriction) at your own risk i dont recommend it tough I haven't seen this on Intel variants maybe it's the ryzen cpu that doesn't like hyperx very much as sometimes the ryzen cpus are very touchy when it comes to ram anyway it's just a supposition nothing else hopefully its just a bios bug or something I would try a battery power drain and a bios reset to setup defaults if not done yet at this point its the only thing I can think of and anything it's worth a try

Stance

Hi xapim. I have tried everything except a bios downgrade. Ryzen doesn't have memory issues when it's such low Mhz, it can only be a bios issue

I'll look into the bios downgrade then, nothing else will fix it for me. I don't wanna wait 6 months or whatever for a new bios. Acer isn't gonna release a new bios just because a few people complain, takes way more than that :S

Stance

It turns out it was an error during the bios update, just random bad luck.. Anyway they didn't have another AN515-42-R5E9 in stock so I chose an Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52 with an i5 8300H and a 1050 ti + 16 GB of 2666 Mhz Kingston Impact memory.

Thanks to everyone who tried to help

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