Why Acer Aspire A515-56 suddenly during working behave weird?

My laptop Acer Aspire A515-56 sometimes in the middle of writing or browsing, happens to get the screen black, keyboard and touchpad doesn't respond, the lights on the side of laptop are working, the fan works so loudly and no response at all until I try to force it to turn off (waited 10-15 minutes for it to start responding but no chance). Any idea why it would happen? Anyone has similar problem? It doesn't happen very often but like every 2 weeks or 1 month. It's frustrating that in the middle of using it, it behaves that way. Windows is updated, drivers are updated.

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JackE

If it does this only occasionally, and the fan starts spinning faster when it happens, the dust buildup and thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink has probably dried out and needs to be re-pasted with a top quality thermal paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4. This usually happens after a year or two if the machine is used regularly. You might be able able to help avoid this by alternately vacuuming the air intake ports and blowing air into air exhaust ports to remove and dust that has accumulated inside the case.

Erick-Acer_Retired

Hi @MarciG
check if there is a pin 📌hole at the bottom of the unit. Put a small pin inside and press and hold the pin for 30sec. If there is no pin hole then press the power button for 12sec. Remember to remove your charger when you do that.

MarciG

Hello, again that's me with the same issue.
According to the Acer Aspire 515-56 - last night the same thing appeared.

Intel i5 11 generation, Iris Xe, 8 Gb RAM, All drivers and updates installed.

Additionally I realised myself that after clean install system, doing the /sfc scannow makes this laptop show "there are corrupted files".

That happened since the beginning (the first time i reinstalled system was 1 month since it was new).

I must admit that the same source of clean install system didn't show "there are corrupted files" after installing system on other pc.

Back to the topic -- the issue last night happened (suddenly while writing - black screen, loud fan noise (in battery like SHHHH ----- SHHHHHH ------ SHHHHH ....; on the cable power cord SHHHHHHHHHHHH without pause), keyboard backlit, no response even on clicking shortly on 'turn off button', need to hold this key for longer time to make it turn off. I must add that all the lights from "PC turned on" is working when it hanged. It's like the screen got black and no responding while the pc is still turned on.

What i saw in the Windows 10 after turn on:

- Your C partition is broken, fix your hard drive notification.

- Lot of registered notes "C Partition corrupted" over 20 i guess within 5 mins or so.

List of registered notes in Windows:

(My own translation of these notes, as I don't use English version of Windows)

- Driver \ WudfRd \ Detection Verification failed to load

- Volume C detected fatal errors C \ Device \ Harddisk needs fixing

- Broken Structure in C \ Windows Folders

- Table MFT has broken file record C \ Windows Folders issues there

- Table MFT no name found in some folders

- WiFi Driver Not working properly

This time mainly the issue with C Parition appeared; previously (as this issue happens like once a month, out of sudden while writing or using pc); I noticed that lately Windows forced some "Optional Updates of Drivers" to install, maybe that is why? Before I was able to "not install optional updates of drivers where were Intel Media System drivers" and then the pc worked fine for few months without issue, and then someday I noticed they are gone from Optional Updates (Drivers) in Windows Update and since then the issue appeared twice.

Anyone can answer me on these issues?

1) Is there any chance that Windows 11 would fix these issues? I mean, this issue does not appear like everyday or every week, it just happens completely randomly, so for me expecting it to happen again, might take even a month, or next day.

2) Why my PC very often works so loudly (fan noise) and overheating up to even 80*C (once happened even that 90*C during 1 hour of talking on call) on simple things like browsing or making a call on PC.

3) Is there any way to prevent such overheating and sudden situation as mentioned above? Why in battery settings there's no advanced option for "Processor Maximum and Minimum Percentage of Usage" or something like that? Why PC is regularly turning off the screen (sleep mode) even if the PC has turned off Sleep Mode?

4) Any idea what is causing this issue? What is causing this issue? Someone else having same problem? It's really awful when you write on the PC and suddenly black screen and you lose everything you did at that time (e.g. written documents, etc). I waited 10 minutes and no response.

Did anyone have same issue?

MarciG

EDIT: And why Battery Report showed Full Capacity 48 008, while when it was new it was Full Charged on 51 289? After using PC on the Battery, the Battery Full Charged (after 9 months) fell down to 48 200 or something around that. How comes?
And why during installing the system, there's still no support for this Hard Drive (need to upload drivers for it to install system -- Hard Drive still not showing up during installation) (NVMe Hard Drive)

JackE

Dust buildup and thermal paste between the CPU and the heat sink has probably dried out and needs to be re-pasted with a top quality thermal paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4. This usually happens after a year or two if the machine is used regularly. You might be able able to help avoid this by alternately vacuuming the air intake ports and blowing air into air exhaust ports to remove and dust that has accumulated inside the case.

Installing Win11 likely won't help you only confuse the issue. Sounds like overheating CPU/GPU has corrupted your boot drive. The boot drive can probably be fixed. But not before you do some cleaning and thermal paste maintenance of the thermal modules and fans.

MarciG

I don't think so -- Don't use PC with heavy things, only for browsing, writing, watching youtube and calling on an app..
The pc is almost 1 year old (it will be in 3 months)... I don't think the thermal paste would dry?

Anything that I wrote down could give a hint that it might be something else? I am asking because I don't know if I should give it under warranty. It happens not so often and when it happens, I am e.g. typing in the exact time or watching youtube so...
Quite sudden and uncomfortable thing... Adding that it's not overheating during this time (not hot/warm case where it usually would be hot when overheating)...

JackE

>>>Why my PC very often works so loudly (fan noise) and overheating up to even 80*C (once happened even that 90*C during 1 hour of talking on call) on simple things like browsing or making a call on PC.>>>The pc is almost 1 year old (it will be in 3 months)... I don't think the thermal paste would dry?>>>

Yes absolutely, the paste can still be dry and cracked. Since it's still under warranty, you should immediately arrange for warranty repair service. Don't waste any more time on this looking for guesses on what might be wrong before the warranty period expires.

MarciG

Just saw a BIOS update on Acer Site, from June 2021 -- "Fixing Black Screen And RAM update..."
What do you think about it? Though I'd rather not update a BIOS, heard its very risky

JackE

As long as it's still under warranty, you should try to install the latest version which incorporates all previous versions. Yes, it's risky and may brick the machine, but the warranty should cover it. Don't waste any time. Don't let the warranty period expire.

MarciG

The biggest problem is that this issue doesn't appear often, it might take even 1 month until it would appear again. I don't know its cause as I use the pc regularly and it happens out of sudden.
I'm not really sure if warranty will cover this issue in case? That's one of the biggest problem because I don't want PC to end up in worse condition (bricked).

Commodore_1995#

That hum you hear could also be a problem with your electrical outlet, power adapter, or battery. Can you plug your laptop directly into another properly grounded electrical outlet to see if the hum still occurs?

JackE

Intermittent problems that seldom occur like this are hard to diagnose whether due to hardware issues or software issues. This is especially difficult to do on an on-line forum like this where we can only give best guesses what's going on without proper testing equipment or having the machine in front of me.

If it was mine, I'd probably arrange for warranty service with a brief description of what is happening. This is not normal. From your description, it still sounds to me like the thermal contact between the CPU and heat sink and fan has deteriorated. But it's not mine. So you have to make the final decision on whether to take a chance on doing nothing and let the warranty expire or send it in for warranty service to determine why it's overheating like this sometimes.

Easwar

Hi @MarciG,

It looks like hardware issue. Contact acer tech support,

https://www.acer.com/ac/pl/PL/content/service-contact

OR book the unit for repair service,

http://customercare.acer-euro.com/customerselfservice/CaseBooking.aspx?CID=PL&LID=POL&OP=1

MarciG

I found this issue on the YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVIwCpK51rw&t=6s
seems similar issue... just my pc then has loud fan noise...
I assume that maybe 8gb RAM for browsing and youtube is too little?

JackE

Sorry, no. Unless you have a habit opening a dozen or so youtube video tabs all running at the same time plus another few tabs open doing google searches etc.