Acer Swift 3 (SF314-54) freezes on sleep or soft shutdown

Ever since I bought this notebook (Nov 2018) it came with an issue where it freezes when the notebook sleeps or sometimes even when I shut it down. The notebook seems turned off but I can still hear the fan, so I have to hold the power button for a few seconds to be able to actually shut it down. To avoid the issue from happening so often, I had to disable the sleep altogether, so now it only freezes during the soft shutdowns.

So far I have updated the drivers and BIOS, destroyed the partitions, and installed Windows 10 fresh, and recently I took the 1TB hard-disk out and installed a new 1TB NVME M.2 SSD, but the issue persists.

At this point, I believe that the issue is with the motherboard but I would like to know if anyone has a solution or extra steps before I purchase a new board. Thanks in advance.

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ALfawaz

If the computer is not working

and The fan is always running

Here's how to fix the problem It's best to start by changing the system settings

1. These steps apply to Windows 10: Go to Start > Settings > System > Power & Sleep >

Additional power settings

2. Choose "Change plan settings" in the pop-up window.

3. Choose "Change advanced power settings" in the pop-up window.

4. Choose "Processor Power Management", then choose "System Cooling Policy" in the drop-down list,

Then "Active", change "Active" to "Inactive", then OK. Setup is now complete. We will find the fan running as needed rather than running all the time.

billsey

You can also see those symptoms when fast startup is turned on in Windows. It leaves some functions still active in order to turn on as quickly as possible, and they can keep the CPU temperature warm enough to run the fan. It's possible, since this has been happening so long, that the thermal compound wasn't properly placed between the heat sink and CPU, causing the CPU to run hotter than normal.

Easwar

Hi @henriquemarrocos,

# Try to get the BIOS page.

1. Turn OFF the unit.

2. Press and hold the F2 key and turn on the unit.
3. You will be in setup utility page.
4. Once you got the screen release the F2 key.
5. Tap on F9 key and hit enter key without changing the option.
6. Tap on F10 key and hit enter key without changing the option.
7. Your unit will restart by itself.

Check this T/S and post the result.

henriquemarrocos

ALfawaz said:

If the computer is not working
and The fan is always running
Here's how to fix the problem It's best to start by changing the system settings
1. These steps apply to Windows 10: Go to Start > Settings > System > Power & Sleep >
Additional power settings
2. Choose "Change plan settings" in the pop-up window.
3. Choose "Change advanced power settings" in the pop-up window.
4. Choose "Processor Power Management", then choose "System Cooling Policy" in the drop-down list,
Then "Active", change "Active" to "Inactive", then OK. Setup is now complete. We will find the fan running as needed rather than running all the time.

This notebook doesn't have the ¨Processor Power Management" option available, even with Windows freshly installed.

henriquemarrocos

Easwar said:

Hi @henriquemarrocos,

# Try to get the BIOS page.
1. Turn OFF the unit.
2. Press and hold the F2 key and turn on the unit.
3. You will be in setup utility page.
4. Once you got the screen release the F2 key.
5. Tap on F9 key and hit enter key without changing the option.
6. Tap on F10 key and hit enter key without changing the option.
7. Your unit will restart by itself.

Check this T/S and post the result.

Thanks for the help, but setting the BIOS to the default values didn't fix the issue.

henriquemarrocos

billsey said:

You can also see those symptoms when fast startup is turned on in Windows. It leaves some functions still active in order to turn on as quickly as possible, and they can keep the CPU temperature warm enough to run the fan. It's possible, since this has been happening so long, that the thermal compound wasn't properly placed between the heat sink and CPU, causing the CPU to run hotter than normal.

Thanks for the help. Disabling Fast Boot didn't impact noticeably the boot speed, but also didn't fix the issue. After turning the notebook off a couple of times, it froze again. The notebook looks off, doesn't respond to any of the keyboard keys, doesn't light up the keyboard, but the fan remains on. The only way to shut it down is by holding the power button for a few seconds.

billsey

If pressing and holding the power button does end up turning it off, then the shutdown process isn't completing. That usually isn't the fault of the OS, but instead is one of the third party apps or drivers. Try this, boot into safe mode with networking and wander around long enough to have the issue, then do a shutdown. If it succeeds then we can dive deeper into what else is running during a normal boot.

henriquemarrocos

billsey said:

If pressing and holding the power button does end up turning it off, then the shutdown process isn't completing. That usually isn't the fault of the OS, but instead is one of the third party apps or drivers. Try this, boot into safe mode with networking and wander around long enough to have the issue, then do a shutdown. If it succeeds then we can dive deeper into what else is running during a normal boot.

The issue didn't happen during the few times that I shutdown the computer from the safe mode, but I couldn't test putting the computer to sleep since this option is not available in safe mode. I ended up erasing all partitions and installing Fedora Linux 35 fresh and unfortunately I can confirm that the issue persists. Either it's a hardware issue or the faulty driver works on Linux as well. Thanks for the help so far.

gmp

Unfortunately I have the same issue (win10 win11). The sleep freezes the laptop, the only way out is to force the power-off using the log power button press.

The laptop is therefore unusable with batteries unless you disable completely the sleep function and the screen off timer.

I have tried:

- BIOS downgrade - upgrade;

- advanced energy option; deactivated PCI link mangement;

- video driver downgrade . upgrade (as I thought it to be related to the screen off timer);

- reloaded win 11 from scratch;

Entering sleep mode using sleep button most of times works but randomly you get the PC frozen anyway.

Entering sleep mode with the timer set in Windows, will always freeze the laptop;

All in all the laptop has became unusable in battery mode, unless you leave it always on (the same anyway when connected to power supply), but then the battery life will decrease.

I have tried the sllep mode even during win11 installation screen (I suppose it is run in very basic operating mode) and the laptop froze again.

It seems really an HW bug, is there any solution somewhere?

My laptop is an SF314-54 model N17W7.

As the computer was a gift from my side to my daughter (who is now complaining because she cannot use the PC at the University), I believe that the defect was there since the beggining.

As a last resort I will reload the original SW provided by Acer and if the defect will be again thare, I will complain officially to Acer.

henriquemarrocos

gmp said:

Unfortunately I have the same issue (win10 win11). The sleep freezes the laptop, the only way out is to force the power-off using the log power button press.
The laptop is therefore unusable with batteries unless you disable completely the sleep function and the screen off timer.
I have tried:
- BIOS downgrade - upgrade;
- advanced energy option; deactivated PCI link mangement;
- video driver downgrade . upgrade (as I thought it to be related to the screen off timer);
- reloaded win 11 from scratch;
Entering sleep mode using sleep button most of times works but randomly you get the PC frozen anyway.
Entering sleep mode with the timer set in Windows, will always freeze the laptop;
All in all the laptop has became unusable in battery mode, unless you leave it always on (the same anyway when connected to power supply), but then the battery life will decrease.
I have tried the sllep mode even during win11 installation screen (I suppose it is run in very basic operating mode) and the laptop froze again.
It seems really an HW bug, is there any solution somewhere?
My laptop is an SF314-54 model N17W7.
As the computer was a gift from my side to my daughter (who is now complaining because she cannot use the PC at the University), I believe that the defect was there since the beggining.
As a last resort I will reload the original SW provided by Acer and if the defect will be again thare, I will complain officially to Acer.

Thanks for the input, I have had the exact same issue ever since I bought this notebook in 2018. It took me forever to diagnose the issue as being the hardware's fault and now that the warranty is over I won't have a fix for it anymore. I contacted Acer via chat, phone, and email looking at least for a discount on a new notebook (like Lenovo does when a customer has an out-of-warranty issue) but I never got an answer back from Acer. That's how they treat us, sell us garbage and leave us hanging. Well, no more Acer for me.

If your daughter's notebook is still under warranty I encourage you to contact them ASAP.

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