Acer Predator Helios 300 Weird colours on screen

Weird colours on screen suddenly when I'm using laptop for more than 15 minutes. What to do?

I've bought Acer Predator Helios 300 in November 2018. The laptop was functioning quite well with any problems. Last week, during playing a game my laptop suddenly started started displaying colours and started making weird sounds from speakers (might be a case of crash? Idk). All the keys are unresponsive except for the power key which I pressed for 10 seconds and it shut down the laptop. Since that day, this incident is happening repeatedly. Everytime I operate my laptop, after around 15 minutes it starts showing these signs of crashing. Anyone can please tell me what's going on with my laptop, or can someone point towards right direction as to what is to be done to troubleshoot the same??

I've thought initially, that this might be the case of broken screen but NO it is not. I booted the PC and it started fine. It was only after using it for around 15 minutes that these crashing sort of thing took place. Overheating isn't a problem, either I suppose because the temps were around 60 to 70°C during gaming, sometimes touching 80°C.

Model: Predator Helios 300 PH315-51-51V7.

Attached are the pics to help better understand what's the problem I'm trying to convey though this post.

(Thread was edited to add model name to the title)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/v1/7dtitjp1d049.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/5s/tiad5b8l1od8.png

Accepted answers

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Jack22

@Zombatarpz
Try the below steps and check

power drain: Just check the back of the unit, you can find a pin hole , unplug the charger and turn off the unit. now put a paper clip in the small pin hole and press and hold it for 30 sec.

BIOS default: After power drain is done, power on the unit, but as soon as you power on the unit keep pressing the F2 key so that it take you to BIOS page.

Press F9 and press Enter than press F10 and press Enter. the unit will restart
Also uninstall the display adapter and restart the unit and check

Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!

Zombatarpz

Hi @Jack22 ! I wasn't expecting such a quick response!! Thanks for that. So I've followed exactly what you've instructed me to. So, in the first instance, the screen started to behave abnormally after a minute I booted the laptop. I thought muat have done something wrong, so I gave it another go, and the laptop started normally. It haven't "crashed" till now after running it for half an hour. I haven't uninstalled display adapter yet but would that be necessary to troubleshoot this problem? Anyway the solution you provided seems to be working now. Thanks a loads.

Jack22

@Zombatarpz
Dont uninstall the driver until you get the issue. If you still have the problem than follow the uninstall of the display adapter and check.

Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!

Zombatarpz

@Jack22 apparently this still isn't working. After 40 minutes of operation, the laptop again "crashed". Like all the previous instances, the keys aren't working as well. So I guess I have to check by uninstalling the display adapter. Now the confusion arises, which driver to uninstall? Intel 630 display or Nvidia 1050ti or both?

Jack22

Zombatarpz said:

@Jack22 apparently this still isn't working. After 40 minutes of operation, the laptop again "crashed". Like all the previous instances, the keys aren't working as well. So I guess I have to check by uninstalling the display adapter. Now the confusion arises, which driver to uninstall? Intel 630 display or Nvidia 1050ti or both?

Nvidia.

Zombatarpz

@Jack22 it's so much worse now that right after booting, the laptop crashes. I can't get enough time to uninstall the display adapter (Nvidia). It's so much stressing me out!

andylb

You should not have uninstalled the Nvidia Display Adapter, instead you should have updated the Nvidia GPU drivers in the Nvidia Control Panel. Never update or uninstall the Nvidia GPU from the Device Manager
Reboot into Safe Mode with Networking and download and run DDU https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html to do a clean uninstall of any Nvidia Drivers then reboot back into Safe Mode with Networking. Now go here and download and install the latest Nvidia Drivers then Reboot into normal Mode and report back here, this probably is only the first step in solving the problem
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us#

Zombatarpz

@andylb Hi, I haven't uninstalled anything yet. I was just telling that right after booting, the PC crashed so I can't do anything that @Jack22 had suggested me to do.

andylb

i’m sorry your English grammar suggested that you had. See if yo can boot into Safe Mode

Zombatarpz

@andylb No worries! I was too stressed out to think of correct grammatical format. Also, English isn't my first language, so kindly ignore any grammatical error that you may find. Now since I can't get access to my laptop due to constant crashing problem, I can't download anything on my laptop right now. So the DDU method that you've suggested might not be possible for now. Would there be some other method that you can suggest me to apply?

andylb

Yes reboot your laptop into Safe Mode it hopefully won’t crash. Read this tutorial on how to boot Windows 10 into Safe Mode
https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

Zombatarpz

Okay so I've rebooted in Safe Mode. It's showing me various options but is not crashing thankfully. So what's next?

andylb

So now do this

Make sure you have rebooted into Safe Mode with Networking option then download and run DDU https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html to do a clean uninstall of any Nvidia Drivers then reboot back into Safe Mode with Networking. Now go here and download and install the latest Nvidia Drivers then Reboot into normal Mode and report back here, this probably is only the first step in solving the problem but it is a good start
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us#

Zombatarpz

@andylb So I've done everything that you suggested, but this problem can't seem to be resolved. I've downloaded and installed the latest Nvidia drivers in Safe Mode with Networking but the problem still not resolved. What to do now?

andylb

Boot back into Safe Mode and In the search box at the bottom left type "Windows Memory Diagnostic" then run the tool to check your RAM
Also make sure you are updated to BIOS v 1.26 https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7603?b=1 if you're not then update it, it's the only one you need as it contains all other updates. The BIOS download is a ZIP file so unzip it and run the .exe. Make sure you are plugged into the AC, disable all virus programs and be patient it can take a while

Zombatarpz

Done it! No problems found.

Zombatarpz

andylb said:

Boot back into Safe Mode and In the search box at the bottom left type "Windows Memory Diagnostic" then run the tool to check your RAM
Also make sure you are updated to BIOS v 1.26 https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7603?b=1 if you're not then update it, it's the only one you need as it contains all other updates. The BIOS download is a ZIP file so unzip it and run the .exe. Make sure you are plugged into the AC, disable all virus programs and be patient it can take a while

Did the BIOS upgrade. Now the problem is reduced but is not eliminated completely. The laptop runs atleast two hours now, on an average, before crashing.