Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH317-52) screen turning off when idle and not turning back on

alextdrv

Hello!

First off, I'm sorry if this question has already been asked, I tried to find a similar thread and while many people have had comparable issues, I couldn't find a thread that tackles the exact same problem

I have an Acer Predator Helios 300 PH317-52 that I've been using it since 2018. This problem started happening a long time ago, I can't remember when exactly. I had tried resolving it but didn't manage, and since I'm not the most tech savy person, I decided to leave it at that and just got used to it by saving whatever I was working on before leaving my laptop idle, in case it didn't turn back on.

Basically what happens is that often when I'm not using my laptop, the screen turns off but the laptop never goes to sleep even if it's programmed to do so after 10 minutes. Then there's a few different cases of what happens next:

• - the laptop is silent but not sleeping, the lights next to the charger plug are both on, and the Num Lock indicator on the keyboard is on (I always leave it on but the fact that it's lit up makes me conclude that the laptop is not off). When I try to turn it back on by moving the mouse, nothing happens; I press the power key but it doesn't work either; the keyboard isn't backlit in that moment, the Num Lock indicator does not turn on and off when I press the key, so I feel like the laptop is unresponsive. I have to forcefully shut it down by holding the power key. When I turn it back on, there are no specific messages.
• - 20% of the time, it turns back on when I come back to it and move the mouse. I've noticed that there's a higher chance of it turning back on if I've unplugged it before leaving it idle.
• - the laptop goes into hyperventilation, keyboard is backlit, but the device is unresponsive. This hasn't happened in a while but this is what used to happen when the problem first started occurring. I have to forcefully shut it down by pressing the power key.

Just to note, I leave the laptop open, I don't close the screen down. Sometimes, even if I close down the screen, it will stay on with a black screen.

Other information that might be helpful maybe: the screen/battery settings are the following - on battery and when plugged in, the device screen shuts off after 5 mins and it should go to sleep after 10 minutes. I had once set the screen off/sleep times to never but this sends my laptop into hyperventilation if I leave it idle for too long. I use a wireless mouse so there is wireless receiver plugged in one of the USB ports at all times.

Sometimes I leave it idle for 3 hours and it turns back without issue, sometimes I look away for 5 minutes and have to forcefully shut it down upon returning. :( It's not a huge problem but I find it incredibly annoying to have to do that multiple times a day, and I can imagine that forceful shut down isn't the best thing to do to a laptop.

Any advice?

Thank you!

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/673895/acer-predator-helios-300-ph317-52-screen-turning-off-when-idle-and-not-turning-back-on

Have you got all the windows updates up to date and all drivers up to date like the NVidia graphics and all Intel drivers, as you need every driver up to date for this laptop to perform at its beast. Also, this laptop has a last bios update version 1.26 that could be a solution to your power problems titled "Fix F9 load default then save & shutdown will power on issue" so try that also but and with bios updates, be very careful and never update bios if your laptop has any dangers of bsods or black screen or any chance of crashing, turn off all anti-virus, malware and background software, always have the laptop on charger/adaptor power when doing a bios update as Acer warns every user that "Upgrading your system BIOS incorrectly could harm your Acer product. Please proceed with caution" so be very careful!