Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G Weird Green Screen Lines

AbhinavJain200

Hey guys, 

I am facing a weird issue with my Acer Aspire 5 A515-51G.


Problem: 
Suddenly, the screen gets weird green lines all over and the laptop restarts after like 4 seconds on its own. I have attached an image right here: 

How frequently it happens/ Triggers: 
Honestly, It depends. At times, it happens whenever I start the laptop. Other times, it happens after usage of like an hour or two. And sometimes, it does not happen even for like 3 days. 

What I have checked/ Troubleshooted/ Tried: 
- Tried Resetting the battery (Not sure why I did it LOL). 
- Looked at the Display Connector, that doesn't seem to be the issue. - Why not? Because I tried connecting an external monitor and the lines are visible on the Monitor itself as well. 

What I think can be the issue but would like your thoughts:
I think it can be the RAM? I am not sure if it can cause such an issue? 

I am also afraid that it can be the GPU or Motherboard (I wish not). But at times, I just open the laptop up, disconnect RAM, pack it back in and it works for some time (in some cases, that can be just a trial and hit as well.)

Also, just if this information can be helpful in troubleshooting: 
- I noticed that the laptop seems to work for a bit after it has been at rest for some hours and works just for some hours lol. 
- Sometimes, after the green thing, the laptop turns black with the blue light on which goes off when I close the lid and turns back on when I open it. Which I think is because the PC is technically on but the display is not? 

I'll really appreciate any inputs.

Thank You. 

JackE

>>>Because I tried connecting an external monitor and the lines are visible on the Monitor itself as well. >>>

This suggests either a likely integrated or discrete GPU issue. Hard to tell which. Could be driver. Could be hardware. Also hard to tell which. I suggest going to this ACER driver link 

Try downloading and installing the most recent ACER-specific Intel and nvidia VGA drivers. Test it for awhile. If problem persists,  try the latest BIOS firmware update as a last resort since it allegedly addresses some video BIOS issues. Firmware updates are riskier than driver updates and should be considered irreversible.

William_mk2

AbhinavJain200

We need to determine whether it is a hardware or software issue..   Turn off the computer.   Tap f2 while turning on the computer.   It will go to bios.   Please stay on the bios screen for 30 mins.    If the display is looking good on bios then it is a software issue.   If the display is not looking good on the bios screen then it is a hardware issue.   

 

If it is a software issue try the following the steps..

 

Try windows x 
go to device manager 
expand display adapter
right click on display driver - uninstall 
Restart the computer 

It should work fine.. 

If it is still not working 
Uninstall the display adapter from device manager 
Don’t restart the computer. 
Go to support.acer.com 
chose your country 
type snid or chose your model 
go to drivers 
Install the display driver and check..

If it is a hardware issue...

If your laptop is in warranty you can contact the warranty dept.     Go to the website support.acer.com - chose your country.   On the new page - scroll down -  click on "contact support".  Scroll down.  You can find the phone no to contact the warranty dept. 

If it is out of warranty, please contact local store or

Go to the website support.acer.com - chose your country.   On the new page - scroll down -  Click on  "Repair My Acer" - Request to have your Acer product repaired.   There will be charges for repair. 

Easwar

Hi @AbhinavJain200,

It looks like hardware issue. Contact acer tech support,

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/IN/content/service-contact

OR book the unit for repair service,

https://customercare.acer-apac.com/CustomerSelfService/CaseBooking.aspx?CID=IN&LID=ENG

Abhinavjain

Alright, so apologies due to the reset of the laptop, I lost this account but here are the updates:

- I cleaned up the motherboard, RAM, checked the thermal paste.

Everything looked normal but the issue was still persisting. It worked for some time that's when I reinstalled windows, installed and updated all the drivers and thought wow this worked. But no, the issue appeared again and this time it was unable to start. The blue led started blinking and fan started running but stopped after like 3 seconds.

So It was clear that there's some issues with the component and the laptop is failing the components check. That's when I tried disconnecting battery restting the pc, taking out hdd, turning it on. Nah nothing worked.


Remember I asked if it can be RAM? I still thought maybe it's the RAM. That's when I removed the 4 GB stick (the laptop has another 4GB mounted in the mobo) and boom! 

The laptop started. I guess it's faulty ram but wasn't sure if it can cause display artifacts. So since the laptop is now on, I am running Furmark benchmark and so far soooo good. 

The dedicated GPU seems fine ecen at 96 degrees and 100% usage. No display artifacts during the test. I'll update if I get any while using the laptop.


Now, here's my question,
- Can Ram cause display artifacts? 
- If there would've been an issue with my GPU, the furmark wouldn't have been able to cop up well. Right? 


Thank You so much. 

JackE

>>> I cleaned up the motherboard, RAM, checked the thermal paste.>>>

Thanks for report. CPU/GPU temps shouldn't be stressed to exceed about 94*C for long periods of time. The original thermal paste should be cleaned off the heat sinks and processors and replaced with good quality paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4, not simply checked

To answer your questions. Poor socket connections and cracked/loose solder joints are more likely show this kind of intermittent behavior, not faulty memory modules or chips. So it's possible that your housecleaning activities could physically disturbed the connections or joints enough to re-establish continuity at least temporarily and thus no problems would necessarily be detected by benchmarkers or scanners.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that your issue is resolved

Abhinavjain

JackE said:

>>> I cleaned up the motherboard, RAM, checked the thermal paste.>>>

Thanks for report. CPU/GPU temps shouldn't be stressed to exceed about 94*C for long periods of time. The original thermal paste should be cleaned off the heat sinks and processors and replaced with good quality paste like Kryonaut or ArcticMX4, not simply checked

To answer your questions. Poor socket connections and cracked/loose solder joints are more likely show this kind of intermittent behavior, not faulty memory modules or chips. So it's possible that your housecleaning activities could physically disturbed the connections or joints enough to re-establish continuity at least temporarily and thus no problems would necessarily be detected by benchmarkers or scanners.

I'll keep my fingers crossed that your issue is resolved

Thanks for your quick reply and help. I understand that it might be lose sockets and housecleaning might have fixed it temporarily. But here's the thing:

- I used the laptop for a while, run benchmarks and stuff. Shut it down
- started it again, worked super fine.
- shut down again
- Inserted the ram stick back and tried starting it again, and no it didnt booted up. No signs of life. 

Took the ram stick out again and tried to boot it. And boom! It works fine now. Lol I'm feeling like the RAM Stick is that wand from harry potter which doesn't listens/belongs to me.

All this could be just coincidence? Maybe. 
But again can RAM really cause those display artifacts? Like it makes sense because the laptop used to boot just fine and it used to show artifacts all of a sudden. Note: I don't play video games or consume any entertainment media at all. All I do is use chrome, and vscode. None of which is graphic intensive but maybe memory hungry.

Thank You 

JackE

>>>nserted the ram stick back and tried starting it again, and no it didnt booted up. No signs of life. >>>But again can RAM really cause those display artifacts?

Yes, this how an incompatible or failed RAM stick usually behaves. A sudden all or nothing. While rare, It still might be possible to explain the intermittent behavior by assuming that the gpu was sometimes using shared RAM from the bad RAM stick, while at other times it was using shared RAM the good RAM stick. So you might be right afterall. Let's assume you are!  And the weird greenies don't re-appear.        

Abhinavjain

Yes fingers crossed  

Thank you so much for your help. I'm thinking to upgrade the RAM and Install an m.2 ssd but not so sure which one would be the best..


There's one soldered on the mobo which is 4 GB and another 4 gb stick (dead, see attached). I was wondering what capacity would be best fir with the 4GB on the mobo. Also, the Ram speed.



Thank You so much

JackE

Actually, your 2133MHz ADATA module was certified as compatible for your model and likely was a good match for your soldered RAM before it died.  You can replace it with up to a 16GB DDR4 sodimm 2133MHz or higher frequency for a total of 20GB RAM. I recommend running crucial's scanner on your laptop to see what it recommends. Crucial's sodimm's are usually top of the line Micron products and competitive with the budget brands like ADATA & Kingston.

You should be able to install either an m.2 SATA3 SSD card or an m.2 NVME SSD card up to 2TB capacity. The NVME card might be a bit faster than the SATA3 card but not worth paying too much extra for. I personally like the WesternDigital blue m.2 SATA & NVME series for laptops like yours.

 

Abhinavjain

JackE said:

Actually, your 2133MHz ADATA module was certified as compatible for your model and likely was a good match for your soldered RAM before it died.  You can replace it with up to a 16GB DDR4 sodimm 2133MHz or higher frequency for a total of 20GB RAM. I recommend running crucial's scanner on your laptop to see what it recommends. Crucial's sodimm's are usually top of the line Micron products and competitive with the budget brands like ADATA & Kingston.

You should be able to install either an m.2 SATA3 SSD card or an m.2 NVME SSD card up to 2TB capacity. The NVME card might be a bit faster than the SATA3 card but not worth paying too much extra for. I personally like the WesternDigital blue m.2 SATA & NVME series for laptops like yours.

 

Thank you so very much for your help. Really appreciate it!