Acer Swift X SF14 41G Windows 11 - constant Hypervisor errors causing system to freeze

My Swift X is nearly two years old so out of warranty. It's an AMD Ryzen 7 5800 with a GeForce 3050Ti graphics card, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD with about 100GB used as I store all my data on an external Samsung SSD. About 3 months ago it started to randomly freeze. Sometimes while I am using it and sometimes while idle. It's constant. Multiple times per day now.

The issue is pretty much certainly Hypervisor errors as many times I get the Blue Screen of death with the Windows Stop Code message and the Hypervisor explanation. Other times the PC just freezes in place. Can't move the cursor, keyboard not active, etc. The only solution is to hard restart by holding down the power button. I have run every Windows diagnostic there is. No memory, disk, driver or other hardware issues. Run DISM Restore Health more times than I can remember. SFC /Scannow, CHKDSK, and many more Windows commands many many times. All my drivers are up to date - I've checked each one manually one at a time and also used the Windows 11 tool to update them en masse.

I've reinstalled Windows 11 several times. Fresh install. Wiped everything and reinstalled the applications I use which are Office 365, Norton 360, CC Cleaner Professional and a free AMD CPU / GPU / Virtual RAM monitor. My PC is not running too hot. I leave the free AMD I installed open so the screen shows when the PC freezes if it's not the Blue Screen of death and it's showing no heat, GPU or Virtual RAM abnormalities. I did see a suggestion to change the Windows 11 Virtual RAM to Custom and I did that using the low end as what Windows 11 recommended (2861) and a high end of like 4 times the low end. I've tried Restoro but that didn't fix anything of substance so I haven't reinstalled it. Norton finds no Malware or Virus issues.

I am running the most current version of Windows 11 with Virtual Machine enabled, Remote Procedure Call enabled / running and all the Hyper V services enabled and running. I checked the BIOS on this PC and I can't see where it supports virtualization. There is no Virtualization option shown so I am assuming it's not available on this configuration or AMD doesn't allow the option to toggle it on or off.

The only changes to my Windows configuration after each re-install are the Virtual RAM to Custom and making sure the HyperV services are all enabled.

I'm not sure when HyperV got installed on this laptop so guessing it happened during one of the automatic Windows updates some months back….or maybe it was always there but an automatic update turned on Virtual Machine and the HyperV services.

This is now becoming a personal quest to fix this issue. Regardless I'll get another lightweight laptop, but I'm not letting Hyper V beat me without more tries.

Since this just started a few months ago my question is can I just disable Hyper V and Virtual Machine in Windows 11? Are there downsides to doing that? Has anyone done that and it fixed the persistent freezing issue?

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billsey

Almost always the low level cause of a total freeze that leaves the display up but no mouse movement is a driver that asks for exclusive access to the bus, then never releases it. That can be either a buggy driver or a driver that's experiencing something it's not designed to handle (ie., hardware issues). You can easily just remove Hyper-V from your Windows install. Since you are running Windows 11 the easiest process is to open Control Panel, go to Programs and Features, then select Turn Windows features on and off from the menu on the left. Deselect the Hyper-V feature and continue to have it removed.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/687501/acer-swift-x-sf14-41g-windows-11-constant-hypervisor-errors-causing-system-to-freeze

Uninstall Norton 360, CC Cleaner Professional and the free AMD CPU / GPU / Virtual RAM monitor, you don't need any of those apps, Windows11 Defender will take care of all security issues. Boot to BIOS with F2 or type UEFI in the Search bar. Go to the advanced screen (Ctrl+S) and see if the VTX and VTD (virtualization) switches are on, save on exit and reboot. Then open Services in W11 and check that the 9 Hyper-V services are all enabled and the HV host is running:

Check Windows Security if you see any red/yellow warnings, if you disabled Defender that will cause the freezing, check if Core Isolation is enabled and working:

https://community.acer.com/en/kb/articles/14750-how-to-enable-virtualization-technology-on-acer-products

ChasK

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1211981#Comment_1211981

Right now there is nothing but Windows 11 installed. I unselected Hyper V and Virtual Machine in Programs and Features. Rebooted. Still freezes. Within minutes.

I did notice there is a device driver with a question mark next to it. It’s only visible if I select show hidden devices. It’s named ACP HDA NODE. If I try to update the driver Windows 11 says it can’t find a an update. I disabled the device but the freeze issue still occurs. Does anyone know what this device is and how to update the driver? I searched and got mixed results on what it is Some posts said is a Realtec driver, others said it’s an AMD driver but I can’t find any sites that describe how to update it. Since I only recently began checking the hidden devices I’m not sure if this is a related issue, but at the moment it’s disabled.

Per another suggestion I booted to BIOS which I had done many times. Under the Advanced tab this PC shows AMD-SVM is enabled - this is the Virtual Machine switch for this Motherboard / CPU and it’s on.

I checked Core Isolation and it is on. Rebooted - freeze within minutes.

It used to take longer to freeze but the time interval to freeze has dropped to minutes so I’m starting to believe this is a hardware problem but other than running memory and disk checks which always showed no issues I don’t know how to check anything else like the motherboard. I did open the case and blew dust out of the fan, but didn’t touch anything else and was very careful to not disturb anything. There wasn’t much dust in the fan and since the PC wasn’t running hot I doubt that was an issue. Other than normal Acer laptop random loud fan events it has never felt hot to the touch. Visibly nothing else appeared amiss.

I remember another post discussing replacing the thermal paste but I haven’t consider that yet. I guess the next step is to pay Acer to tell me if it’s hardware but it really isn’t worth investing in because if it needs new hardware it wouldn’t be worth paying for any….cheaper to buy a new laptop. It’s just a mystery I’d like to know the answer to. If it’s hardware so be it but I’d like to know so I don’t get another Acer, but I’ve cycled through lightweights from ASUS and Dell in 2 years or so as well so I guess they all have that expected lifespan.