Predator Helios 500 (PH517-51) display distortions and flickering

Firewalker

Hi all,

I've been experiencing this flickering/distortion issue on my laptop display for about a week now.
When it boots it starts ok or minimal flickering, and then just ramps up and goes beserk.

I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling drivers, changing driver versions etc, and ultimately came to the conclusion it's gotta be either the display

itself or the display connector or both.
I don't have this issue on an external monitor, nor does it show when I take a screenshot with the clipping tool.
So GPU issues luckily seem to be out of the question.

Anyone else has had this issue? Did you send it back or replace it yourself? Did you use the same panel brand/type or smth better?

Mine is 2.5 years old so out of warranty (how typical!)... so sending it in for a free replacement is not gonna happen.
The display type is a AU Optronics B173HAN03.1. Not sure if I can get those easily in Europe without importing it and paying huge extra on the import taxes.

kind regards,

Diederik

Easwar

Hi Firewalker,

How the screen looks in BIOS page. 

Firewalker

Hi Easwar,

I get flickering on screen in the BIOS too.
I found a shop I can order the panel from and another I can order the cable.
Will probably start with the cable first, and if that's no good order the replacement panel.

Batareika007

Hi Firewalker

can you check price at acer services ? if it not much difference in price, aе last you will have warranty to that cable/panel and you will know that it's original unit.

I had similar issue but on other acer product (not predator) at the end it was a cpu (integrated video), external monitor connected directly to gpu so there I didn't saw the issue. I think for you is really just cable, but be very careful and  good luck with the fix 

Firewalker

Hey Batareika007,

I contacted acer support and they told me it would be approx 250 euro to get that fixed.

I would also have to send it by postal service or drive to another country to hand it in, because there's no service center in my country.
I looked online and found the cable for approx. 20 euro. I can get a replacement screen for 80 euro. It's an original panel (unused) taken from a new helios 500 laptop that they swapped for a 4k panel.
I agree I won't get the same kind of warranty/guarantee doing it myself ordering parts, but it's almost 1/3rd of the price.
It can't be the CPU in my case since there's no integrated graphics on the helios 500, only the GeForce 1070.

I really considered going the official repair route, but the extra hassle for transport, the cost and the fact I'm very annoyed this happened only a couple months out of warranty made me think otherwise.
Even the keyboard backlighting issue that's been reported on this forum multiple times got zero recognition from Acer Support (they said they had no idea of an issue like that???) and although I could have sent it in for a free repair at the time, I had to have the laptop installed on the supported version of Windows 10 that Acer asked me, official (older) acer drivers, etc.
A bit much really... I had already done the due dilligence on the software side myself (and others on the forum) that's it not due to Windows/drivers but hardware or firmware of some kind that we cannot do anything about ourselves...