Acer Aspire A515-56 - weird issues with the laptop

MarciG

Hey! I have Acer Aspire A515-56 since half a year weird issues are appearing:

1)      Sometimes when I’m reading articles or browsing internet or writing a text, out of sudden the screen of laptop goes black, and the fan starts to work very loud (either with short pauses between working loud on charging, or without pauses on the battery). The keyboard is still backlit so I know that the laptop got hanged. It is not overheating then for sure as I checked. The only option then is to turn off the laptop with force through the power button. I waited for it to unfreeze but it doesn’t even after 20-30 minutes. It happens out of sudden even while writing a text, though not often. It is rather rarely happening.

2)      There’s lack of basic settings in the battery management in Advanced Power and Battery options  such as "Power of Processor, Internet Explorer options, Background Wallpaper, WiFi options, Sleep Mode, USB, Graphic Settings, etc.". Windows Defender Offline doesn’t turn on, it just turns on the “keyboard choice”.

3)      When I go to Battery and Power Settings and Advanced  on this pc then there are only "Sleeping Mode, Screen and Battery" options.

4)      Why the laptop  automatically goes into Sleep Mode after 20 mins of idle mode? The Sleep Mode is turned off for sure. After this Sleep Mode, the touchpad starts to freeze sometimes as well.

5)      I don’t use this laptop for heavy usage, usually for writing text, youtube and reading articles. Yet the laptop sometimes overheats on youtube Full HD or during making a call, sometimes small update makes it overheat shortly up to 95*C. All updates are installed, even tried to restore system into ‘clear system’ and it didn’t make settings come back.

6)      I’ve seen that people with this model during reinstalling system have only problem with visibility of the hard drive, yet for me touchpad doesn’t work as well during clear install of system or when system is freshly installed.

Any ideas what might be the reason of these weird things happening? Any solution? Anyone else has this problem?

JackE

It should still be under warranty. So you should arrange for a warranty repair. Jack E/NJ

MarciG

But do you think it needs to go for a warranty repair? Maybe there will be a fix for these issues after update of system or driver? Does anyone has any of these problems? I provided few problems here though.

Commodore_1995#

Have you checked if the RELIABILITY HISTORY and EVENT VIEWER report any errors at the exact time the problem occurs? What is the version of the bios? Does the same problem occur when updating the video driver on the intel website?

MarciG

1) How to see this reliability history? I don't know actually. Everything updated to the latest -- and this issue didn't appear since a month and lately again reappeared. Have this laptop since half a year and it really appears rarely - around 1-2 a month... Didn't update bios.
2)      There’s lack of basic settings in the battery management in Advanced Power and Battery options  - doesn't change even after updating settings, clear reinstall etc..

4)      Why the laptop  automatically goes into Sleep Mode after 20 mins of idle mode? The Sleep Mode is turned off for sure. After this Sleep Mode, the touchpad starts to freeze sometimes as well. -> when updated to Intel drivers no difference.

numbers here are related to the points of problems i mentioned.

Edit: In Reliability History there's only information about "unexpected turn off system" - and it was because of the freeze up... I'll check more...

MarciG

Okay I checked more - It shows only "unexpected turn off system" along with Kernel Power issue, and Driver/WudfRd failed but it is all connected to unexpected turn off that had to be done. On the other hand I've seen that in the same day there were updates of some drivers: Intel Media and Intel System -- maybe that's the reason?

JackE

>>>Have this laptop since half a year and it really appears rarely - around 1-2 a month...>>>

Intermittent issues like this are very hard to diagnose. All my machines exhibit weird behavior at least this often on both my Windows and Linux systems. But they work OK most of the time so I try to ignore the weirdness, bugs and glitches as annoyances and not worry about them too much.     Jack E/NJ
/

MarciG

It would be all fine if not the fact that I might do something important on the laptop and it might out of sudden get black screen and hang that much that nothing would help but hard reset with power button It happened sometimes even two days in a row, I don't know on what it depends on. Maybe it's the fact it lately updated three times in a row Intel Media and Intel System drivers...

JackE

>>> It would be all fine if not the fact that I might do something important on the laptop>>>

Do you mean like spending hours on writing a long important letter without automatic save enabled? Then suddenly losing it all and wasting several hours work? Then having to start writing it all over again for several more hours? Yes, I've had this exact thing happen a lot more in Win10 than Win7 in which I had a lot more control over updates. That's why I now mainly use Linux Mint for even better control than Win7. Jack E/NJ 

MarciG

Yes but I have never had such problems before with other laptops. That's just weird. The sleep mode that turns on even if I turned it off, the lack of settings in the battery and power options (those advanced), or lack of windows defender offline, or this freeezing with black screen and loud fan working, completely not responding at all. 
Could it really have something with three times updating drivers for Intel Media and Intel System?

JackE

Your other older laptops probably didn't run Win10 either. Offline virus scanning can be done with Microsoft's malicious software removal tool which is already on your machine and automatically updated regularly. Just press WIN+R and enter 'mrt.exe'. There are many new and sometimes confusing features and options in Win10 that are constantly and significantly changing about every 6 mos. Win10 is quite unlike any previous Windows versions you may have gotten used to on other laptops. You usually should NOT be manually updating any device drivers from generic Intel sources since the mainboard is ACER proprietary and will often not work properly unless the ACER specific Intel drivers are  used.  

MarciG

My previous laptops were running Windows 10 And yes I've seen in my family that intel i3 or i5 6th,7th and 8th generations didn't make any problems Yes I understand that Acer prepares drivers for their machines and I do not update through Intel sites. I meant Intel Media and Intel System drivers which were found by Windows Update.

Commodore_1995#

Did these problems arise after some windows update?

MarciG

I didn't notice any connection between updates and this situation but there's one thing I already mentioned - last time it happened, few hours before this situation, Windows Update updated again 3 times in a row: Intel Media and Intel System drivers. Is there any chance that someone from Acer Support could let me know if it's common thing that happens or not? I don't know if it might be a problem of the laptop itself?

JackE

Your previous laptops were likely not running the Win10 you're running now. 20H2 & 21H1 updates are like entirely new Windows versions under the old numbering conventions. That's why I also said there are many new and sometimes confusing features and options in Win10 that are constantly and significantly changing about every 6 mos. Win10 is quite unlike any previous Windows versions (including earlier signficant Win10 updates) you may have gotten used to on other laptops. And yes Win10 updates will automatically mess with ACER drivers it thinks are better. But sometimes these automatic updates are worse, much worse. Jack E/NJ  

MarciG

My family have i3-8gen. and they have all of these options which I don't have and yet they were updated to 20H2 like my PC. Okay, so it might be the issue of Windows Update messing up with drivers, right?

JackE

Yes, I agree, possibly the drivers. I suggest replacing the questionable Windows update drivers with the ACER-specific drivers that you find in this link.  Jack E/NJ

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/8614?b=1

MarciG

Okay but there's one question - Where do I find Acer's drivers for Intel Media and Intel System? I mean these were installed again just few hours before this weird freezing appeared, so I suspect it might be the reason of weird behaviour.

JackE

Same link. Many of them you find in DeviceManager are part of chipset driver. If you are unsure about the description, just try installing the ACER specificed Intel driver. If they don't help, you can always right click and uninstall them in Device Manager, then reboot and allow Windows to automatically re-install what it thinks are the best drivers.  You can also reverse Windows updates for several weeks if you have System Protection turned on in Control Panels restore point app. Jack E/NJ

Commodore_1995#

When this problem occurs, does an error appear in the event viewer or in the reliability history?

MarciG

egydiocoelho said:

When this problem occurs, does an error appear in the event viewer or in the reliability history?

It shows only "unexpected turn off system" along with Kernel Power issue, and Driver/WudfRd failed but it is all connected to unexpected turn off that had to be done. 
At this time it didn't reappear, but it's like -- happening really rarely and when it happens, then it happens 2 days in a row... I don't understand it honestly. I suspect it might have been something about 2 'optional' Intel Drivers that maybe messed up. Though I'd prefer to know why it happened.

The other problem is constant Sleep Mode within 15 mins -- I have these settings turned off and yet it happens anyway when I don't use laptop. Other point - I've seen also in other device community that someone also has i5-11gen with Intel Iris Xe and there are also no advanced battery options. My pc is regularly overheating during Full HD video on YouTube or during 30 mins call on skype -- it goes up to 90-96*C. Same with updating system. I don't think it's normal, is it?