Predator Helios 500 not booting correctly most of time??

msetzerii60

Sometimes nothing happens when power button press. Some times try many times and nothing.

Sometimes the light flashes on for about 1/2 second then off.

Sometimes light comes on and lights under keyboard go across but then nothing for a long time, and eventual shut off.

Sometimes comes up, keyboard lights go across, and sometimes does this a number of times.

All of the above never show the Predator screen.

Sometimes it gets to the Predator Screen, but then just stays there.

On some occassions it does sucessfully boot.

Have run memtest86+ 6.10 on Ram and has no issues.

Booted to a Fedora 37 boot USB and seemed to work fine once booted. Did a full install onto another 128G USB of the Fedora 37, and once booted it seems to work fine.

Thought might be an issue with the 256G Nvme disk, so got a new 1T Nvme disk, and did a bit image of it to the 1TB drive and validated exact copy. Did have to reset GPT setting for disk size change. But otherwise with that drive was getting same kind of results on booting from off or sleep state. Did note the original Nvme card had speed of 880 while new 1TB one had over 2000. Buffered speed on origal was about 18000 while new one was closer to 20000.. So considerable faster.

Tried the ALT-F10 option to do a complete reinstall of windows. Process when thru with the save files options, but on reboot, it kept coming up with message about an error, and would say setting auto repair, but never would do anthing. Just start on screen??

Redid ALT-F10 and did the reinstall with wiping everything. That went thru and when it boot correctly the windows 11 seemed to be fine, but seems to be a generic windows 11, no acer options. But still see the issues with booting. Also, not issue with problem restarting if machine went to sleep. Sometimes it would come back just fine, and other times nothing, and only holding power button for full shutdown and then going thru the process of getting it to reboot. Changed sleep option to never when plugged in right now..

Additionlly, have a strange problem with wifi card. Sometimes when it boots correctly, the wifi card is seen and connects, sometimes it does't show at all, but plugging in a usb wifi card works. Sometimes it reboots, and then will see both wifi cards. Don't know if built in wifi card is changable or is wired in as I've seen on sites.

No beeps or codes and note sure if keyboard flashing lights mean something. Just seems to be a very flaky machine for $2500 and only a few years old. My notebook here is a much older Aspire E1-731 and it has no such problems.

So, any method to try and figure what is causing the boot problem or wifi card issue. Can wifi card be changed? Not sure on CMOS battery in computer. Removing bottom cover doesn't seem to show cmos or wifi card. Know me E1-731 has a wifi card that can be removed, but haven't found info on what cards might work in place. Current one only connects at 150M.

Thanks. [Content Removed] Retired Computer Instructor with 36 years.

[Edited the content to hide sensitive information]

Commodore_1995#

Hello! What is the exact model? Example AN515-55-5890. All these problems even after disabling fast startup in power options?

Puraw

Hi @msetzerii60

You never mention the status of your battery or power adapter, how old, etc.

This would be the first things I would check for booting issues. is the charge lights on when you cannot boot? Create a Battery Report in Windows: type or paste the following in the Command Prompt:

powercfg /batteryreport /output %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\battery_report.html

Open the file battery_report.html (double click) on the Desktop and compare the Full Charged Capacity with the Designed Capacity, this indicates the condition of your battery. If bad consider replacing your battery,