Two problems; 1) storage sense, and 2) volume stuck in mute - Aspire R3-131T-C1YF

Scorpion1

My Acer Aspire was bought in 2015, with Win10 loaded. I have never had a "storage sense" option. My hard drive is FULL of fragmented files, but disk cleanup, CCleaner, and Defrag get rid of nothing. I have tried ALL the basic stuff; right click on speaker icon, Control Panel Sound, reloaded/updated driver, updated Audio Manager, etc...STILL stuck in mute. No keys are stuck.
How can I get "storage sense" on my laptop? Also, any "advanced" suggestions on how to get my speakers unmuted?

//Edited the content to add model name.

JackE

It might be helpful to reveal your full Aspire model number. There are hundreds of Aspire models. For example, A515-51G.

Scorpion1

It is an R3-131T-C1YF. As I stated, it has NO storage sense (maybe not available then). This is one I travel with, and it has only 28GB, of which, right now, 12.5GB is fragmented. I'm getting low disk space, but I have NO unneeded programs I can delete. Nothing I have tried will clear the space. Is there any way for me to either download "storage sense" option, or enable it if it's hidden? 
Also, laptop speakers are aggravatingly stuck in mute, but NOTHING is in mute. As I stated above, I have tried all the "basic stuff" people always suggest. No change at all. The speakers DO work, so I thought it was the driver, which I have already changed out two or three times (now loaded with the suggested Acer driver). Not trying to be mean here, but I have had too may weird suggestions, like "got to settings: storage and then enable storage sense. This is right after I just told them I have NO storage sense option in Storage. Or people suggesting that I use Disk Cleanup to get rid of my fragmented files, when I just told them that I already used disk cleanup (numerous times), CCleaner, Defraggler, and two other "suggested" cleaners (which I have deleted), and NO change in fragmentation. A little "higher level" troubleshooting would be helpful. Tks

JackE

You can add a 2.5" HDD or SSD to vastely increase your storage space. 1TB HDD's such as WesternDigital's WD10spzx  are now less than $50 from Amazon. It's probably more capacity than you'll ever need or use with this laptop.

There is no such app as "storage sense" that I know about from ACER for the tiny emmc boot storage chip you have in there now. The only apps that may come close for your model is ACER QuickAccess which should already be installed. Or NitroSense and PredatorSense for other models that won't work on your laptop.

Your laptop's storage is very marginal capacity to begin with. Really not enough room to even do proper Windows updates unless you use an SD card to hold temporary update files that are needed for updates to complete. Defragging will absolutelyl do nothing for this puny emmc chip. You need to spend $50 and add the 2.5" drive like the WesternDigital to get out of your dilemma.

As for the mute issue, if FN+F8 toggle key combo doesn't mute/unmute them properly, then open Device Manager. Click audio, etc folder. Right click and uninstall the realtek audio driver(s) you find in there. Exit Device Manager without trying to reinstall anything. Shut down Windows normally. Then turn it back on and let Windows automatically install fresh copies of the audio drivers. Should be able to unmute unless you have some weird stuff

Scorpion1

Tks for your reply. I have already planned to get a 1TB ext hard drive, but have not needed anything larger, to this date, than the regular 28GB drive, as I just use it for travel, and store nothing much on it. If I save anything, I carry two USB sticks with me. 
AS for the audio, I've already done what you suggested twice, uninstalling the drivers and software, and letting the computer add them in. No change. Still goes to mute.  I even uninstalled the HD Audio Manager, and installed a newer one. No change. Note: Both my speakers AND system sound go to mute. Neither will come out of mute, and will not adjust, whether I use the speaker icon or Sound. But, as mentioned, if I tap the volume key up, the speakers work.

JackE

An external drive can only be used like a USB stick. It'll be a lot slower than an internal drive connected directly to the CPU through the mainboard bus.

Are you saying the FN+F8 doesn't toggle mute on and off? How about simply pushing F8 ?

Scorpion1

Yes, I am aware of how to use an ext drive. To answer your question; FN F8 does nothing. Just F8 does nothing. It does not mute, or unmute the speakers. Even on the mobility mixer, it shows both speakers and system sound muted, and neither will unmute. I tried again today, by uninstalling the sound drivers (and software), and rebooting the laptop. It reloaded with the latest driver version from Realtek, that I had downloaded a few weeks ago. No change at all (that's the 3rd time I did that). I went into Bios again; nothing. Of the MANY things I've tried, nothing has kept the volume from going down to mute by itself. I initially thought it was the sound card, but, as I mentioned, if I tap on the volume key, it goes up and the speakers work. Stop tapping, and it races down to mute. 

JackE

>>>FN F8 does nothing. Just F8 does nothing.>>>

>>> if I tap on the volume key, it goes up and the speakers work. Stop tapping, and it races down to mute.  >>>

Do you have a headset to test the integrity mic/speaker jack?

Scorpion1

Yes, I have tried my headsets. Same thing. If I tap on the volume up key, I can get to full volume on the headsets. The speakers work, the mic works, the headsets work, BUT, stop tapping volume, and down it quickly goes. With this type reaction, I thought it to be two things originally; 1) something is set to mute, and 2) there must be a setting, somewhere, that is causing this. I checked everything I could think of to make sure nothing was muted. There are no options "yellowed" (as in not functioning, or having problems). Everything I try says "this device is working properly". As stated before, everything sound related has been uninstalled, updated, and/or reinstalled. No change at all! Windows update says ALL my drivers are up-to-date. Each day I sit here and try to figure it out, try some new things, follow some suggestions, and still end up just tapping the volume up to watch a video reaction. ALL day! Tapping! Irritating is just the start of my vocabulary. 
I do thank you for still trying to help. Most just shrug it off, and ignore me, after all their "basic" suggestions don't work.

JackE

This seems like it might be a BIOS firmware corruption. Not a Windows driver issue. Press WIN+R. Enter 'msinfo32'. What is the BIOS firmware version number listed in the right pane?

Scorpion1

The version number it shows is Version 10.0.10240 Build 10240. BIOS Version/Date Insyde Corp. V1.09, 7/21/2015. SMBIOS Version 2.8

JackE

>>>My Acer Aspire was bought in 2015, with Win10 loaded>>>

At least part of the problem from the msinfo32 output seems to be that this machine has never had a major Win10 update. There've been at least 10 major Win10 updates in the past six years. Most probably would've required an NTFS formatted SD card or an internal HDD to store temporary files needed for the update to complete. The 32GB emmc  chip just doesn't have enough room for these updates to successfully complete.

The BIOS version 1.09 also seems to have never been updated. This is usually OK unless the machine had problems such as detecting the aforementioned SD card needed for updates to complete. An update might even fix the loss of the FN+F8 mute/unmute functionality since there is a known keyboard controller issue with some production models.

I need one  more piece of info before making any recommendations. Go to the elevated command prompt. Enter "wmic os get serialnumber" without the quotes. Please post output result of this command.

   

Scorpion1

I know the drive is very small, and doesn't have room for full updates. But, the system tells me "no updates are needed", and Win updates says none are pending. As far as doing full Win10 updates, for this small travelling laptop, it's not gonna happen until I hook up an ext hard drive, which, until now, I have never needed. 
The serial number is 00342-20507-03239-AAOEM

JackE

Sorry, as mentioned earlier, an external HDD likely won't work for storing temporary update files on this marginal system. Only an NTFS formatted SD card or an internal HDD seems to be used for temporary storage needed to complete updates.

The serial number suggests it's still running the original ACER factory-installed Win10 version. Has mute/unmute ever worked properly?

Scorpion1

Since I got it new in 2015, everything has worked fine until a few weeks ago. The FN F8, and the mobility bar never gave me any trouble. Then, one fine day, I turned it on, and there it was, stuck down in mute. I had not changed anything prior to that. And that it how it has stayed til now. Everything else on the laptop seems to be working as usual. Except, of course, the inability to get rid of fragged files, and clear up free space. That's another issue. I've used disk cleanup, CCleaner Pro, Defraggler (even tho I didn't want to), and a few others. Right now, my free space is down to 300Mb, and I have 12.8Gb in fragged files that won't clear. I have NO unneeded, or extra programs. 
But, back to the mute problem. I still feel that it is a "program", or file that is causing the mute problem, but can't find it. 
I ran "unhackme" as a suggestion, but all it found was a few pieces of leftover Restoro, which I deleted. Totally at a loss. Took it to a computer shop yesterday, and the guy could not figure it out either. He got very frustrated, too. He wanted to keep it, but I'm not going to allow that. 

JackE

Have you yet tried a full erase-everything ALT+F10 cold boot factory reset from the hidden recovery partition on the emmc chip? It is arguably the best way to rule in or rule out a hardware issue since it should return the Win10 system on the emmc chip to a factory-fresh out of the box state. The drawback is that you'd lose all personal (non-default) Windows settings and all personal files or installed programs on the chip. So you'd need to back up this personal stuff to a USB stick before trying it. 

Scorpion1

Again, a good suggestion, but one I've already done. I have all my personal stuff saved on my sticks. I save nothing to the hard drive. Did a cold boot last week. Reloaded everything. That is when I updated all the drivers, etc...No change. I thought I had it licked, as it did not come up right away after reboot. I thought it was gone. Less than 2 mins later, there it was again. 

JackE

>>>That is when I updated all the drivers, etc.>>>

NO!!! This is NOT done after an ALT+F10 cold boot erase everything factory reset. All the needed drivers are automatically installed  by default and shouldn't need any updates with a factory fresh ACER version of Win10 if there are no hardware issues. This is the only way we can rule in or rule out hardware issues.

So do the erase everything factory reset again. But this time temporarily turn your router off so there's absolutely no chance for any kind of update to happen before testing to see if and how long the issue is fixed. If it lasts for an hour or so, then open Control Panel. Search 'restore point'. Click 'create a restore point' in the left pane. In the box that pops up, make sure System Protection is turned on since it's often turned off by default on a marginal system with minimal emmc storage.

Then you can turn the router back on. But don't try to manually do any driver updates. Then see if the issue re-surfaces.

Scorpion1

I wasn't clear enough. I did not download any drivers. I just checked them. But, I went back and did as you suggested. I understand that all the drivers will be auto loaded. But, I have to disagree that no drivers need to be updated. There are many that are out of date, and Acer has newer drivers. Either way, I did it with the factory settings. Did Alt F10, and had the router off. It came up fine, except, of course, the volume mute problem. Still there right now, and it came up in less than 10 seconds. So, worth a try, but, after all that, the problem is still the same.

JackE

>>>There are many that are out of date, and Acer has newer drivers>>>Still there right now, and it came up in less than 10 seconds. So, worth a try, but, after all that, the problem is still the same.>>>

Please don't get hung up on newer or updated software & firmware.  They're mainly intended for machines that display problems or issues with the original factory software & firmware. They should not be applied indiscriminately because newer & updated doesn't neccessarily mean better. If your machine doesn't have problems with the original device driver software or BIOS firmware, then you should NOT try to fix it.

However, if your particular machine still has this same mute/unmute problem with the original factory drivers (via the ALT+F10 erase-everything cold boot reset) --- AND --- newer ACER driver sottware or BIOS firmware also fail to fix this problem --- then it's more likely to be a hardware failure than a software/firmware issue.

Four hardware pieces seem to be involved with the sound system on your machine. Two (Left & right) speaker modules (single part no. 23.G0YN1.001), the touchpad module (part no. 56.G0YN1.002) thru which they are connected to the mainboard.(part no. NB.G0Y11.00A).

Since both speakers seem to be involved, it's more likely to be upstream. Possibly as simple as re-seating the connector to the  touchpad module or the touchpad ribbon cable to the mainboard. Possibly not so simple. All these parts seem to be available at reasonable prices from various suppliers by googling the part numbers.

Sorry I can't be of more help to you on this issue. 

Scorpion1

I never had any reason to download new drivers, UNTIL this problem started. It was suggested numerous times, so I tried it. That was weeks ago. After checking out things as far as I was able, I also became "convinced" that it was probably a hardware problem. But, was pursuing every avenue I could to try to fix it. I already scheduled an appt to take it into a computer shop, and let them "do their thing". I am busy checking trhu to ensure that I leave nothing on there of a personal nature (all saved to USB's). Not accusing anyone, but this "area" of the world is quite well known for hacking and stealing personal data. 
Anyway, thanks for your suggestions and time.