Acer Helios Neo 16 4060 laptop has been freezing once every single day for the past month

DP2023

My Acer Helios Neo 16 4060 laptop has been freezing minimum once every single day for the past 1 month, from day 1 since I bought the laptop.
My friend had purchased the same laptop just a few days before me, and he does not have any freezing issues.
The mouse, trackpad, and keyboard are fully unresponsive, the only way out is to force shutdown by holding the power button.

Here are all the things I tried:
# Checked everything in Acer Care Center
# Ran DISM scanhealth and restorehealth commands, and sfc /scannow
# Ran "Windows Memory Diagnostic"
# Ran disk check for C:
# Installed "Intel driver and support assistant" and updated to all the latest drivers
# Installed Nvidia Geforce Experience and updated to the latest Driver 536.40
I tried reverting the drivers too, to the one in Acer's support website, and that did not work too.
# I also fresh-installed Windows 10 on a different SSD, and the same freezing issue happened.
# Then after speaking to acer customer support yesterday, I followed the PDF instructions sent and fresh reinstalled WIN11 through a bootable USB and cleaned-up all prior installations.
# I changed Nvidia Control Panel, Power management setting to 'prefer max performance'.

This debugging has taken up a SIGNIFICANT amount of my time, but no solution works.
I suspect this is an issue with the GPU/VRAM or motherboard.
Definitely a hardware issue.

I also had high backlight bleed in the display, so I asked for a screen replacement which acer service agreed to do.
But now I got this much more serious issue, for which ideally I'd wish they'd send me a prompt replacement.
But everytime I speak to them on phone, I'm just sent through multiple hoops, and they just ask me to wait until the screen replacement engineer gets the 'spare parts'.
So that ticket is stuck in 'awaiting spares' and they refuse to attend to this more pressing issue.

Could someone help me, how I can convince them that they need to give me a replacement immediately, and it would end up solving both issues, including the defective display.
Thanks.

Accepted answers

All comments

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/688257/acer-helios-neo-16-4060-laptop-has-been-freezing-once-every-single-day-for-the-past-month

Make a Safe Boot configuration in Windows11, Windows key+R and type MSconfig, go to the Boot tab and click the Safe Boot Minimum boxes, also click on the Base Video box (next column). Click Apply at the bottom and reboot. After you work a few hours running simple apps without freezing you probably have display driver corruption. Run MSconfig.exe again, remove the Safe Boot and Base Video check marks, and click on Apply.

Try to uninstall both Intel and NVIDIA drivers in Safe Mode with DDU, you may have a mismatch of display drivers by now, open Device Manager if you see any Unkown Devices and yellow exclamation marks, including Hidden Devices, uninstall those.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000091878/graphics.html
DDU is for Window10 but works in W11 as well. Once uninstalled go online, check that internet is working and just reboot, W11 will install compatible display drivers.

DP2023

@Puraw
Thanks for the suggestion.
I extracted DDU and ran in it Safe mode, cleaned out both the Nvidia and Intel drivers, also removed all the exclamation marked items from device manager.
Then on restart, Win11 started up, and on turning on the internet, all the drivers have got auto-installed.
I will check to see if this setup freezes again, for the next 1-2 days.
(Usually it happens 1-2 times in a day otherwise)

However, one issue is that, it has auto-installed an older driver 31.0.15.2825 (528.xx) vs the latest driver 31.0.15.3640 (536.40).
So I am getting a time-spy score of 1000pts lower, i.e. at 10300 vs. the usual score of 11300 I used to get.
So performance wise it is running more like a 3060 instead of a 4060 right now.

Commodore_1995#

Hey! As for the light bleeding, it's not a problem with the display. Maybe the bezel is pressing on the display, causing the bleed. About crashes, try reinstalling windows by pressing alt+f10 before the acer logo.

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1215227#Comment_1215227

I tried doing a clean reinstall of both win10 and win11 on even 2 different ssds, nothing works.

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1215148#Comment_1215148

It still crashed today even after doing all of that.
The laptop refused to wake up from sleep, I had to force shutdown by holding the power button.

Commodore_1995#

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1215553#Comment_1215553

Ideally, replace the laptop, if you can still request such an exchange from the seller.

wiltolentino429

I have exactly the same issue. I tried everything, and still it's freezing without any logs in windows event viewer.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/688257/acer-helios-neo-16-4060-laptop-has-been-freezing-once-every-single-day-for-the-past-month

Have you updated the bios 2023/05/29 that is its last version 1.10 for your Predator PHN16-71, try that as a last resort, as so far there are no firmware updates for the RTX4060 from Acer. There must be something faulty with either the vcore or the voltages coming to the RTX4060 gpu or it could be with the ram also. Try to diagnose the ram by using just 1x module to test the freezing out and alternate the ram modules into their slots and see if that stops the freezing.

Best way to document faults is to take a video of the freezing and screen problems that you are having to document these problems to Acer when you send your Predator PHN16-71 to Acer support, as there must be something not right with your laptop if it freezes and it has screen problems for such a new laptop.

danielc07

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1215553#Comment_1215553

Hi, I have the exact same model laptop as you and am experiencing the exact same problem as you as well. The only form of debugging I’ve done is doing a clean install of the latest gpu driver with Geforce Experience. I saw though that even though you did a lot of other debugging, the problem is still there. If it comes down to it, will Acer or the retailer we bought the laptops from (Best Buy in my case) be able to give us a refund/replacement? I believe the laptops come with a warranty from Acer and I payed for the Geek Squad protection from Best Buy. Sorry it’s my first time buying a gaming laptop so I’m not too sure how the warranty’s work and stuff.

Commodore_1995#

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1215767#Comment_1215767

This is the most recent version:

Update EC for thermal optimization

Date:2023/07/10
Version:1.08
Revendeur:Acer
Taille:13.97 MB
Télécharger

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1215840#Comment_1215840

Yea, I was unable to resolve this issue no matter what I tried.
The freezing now has increased to 2 to 4 times a day from 1 time a day in the past.
I have been running loops with Acer service for the past 20 days through phone, sending multiple emails, it has been quite an ordeal (a real pain).
I'll let you know if I managed to have success at the end.

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1216080#Comment_1216080

It did not work.
It gave a message: 'this version is not meant for my laptop'.

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1216080#Comment_1216080

It did not work for me. Says this version is not meant for my laptop.

Commodore_1995#

I assume your model is the phn16-71?

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1217561#Comment_1217561

Yea the model is right.
In Acer support India website, I found a bios version v1.10 and updated to that a month ago.
But the file in your link was v1.08, and for some reason it also reported that I cannot install that version on my laptop.

Funny_Username123

Any update, OP? I just bought this laptop and am having the same issue. 🙄

Commodore_1995#

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1223028#Comment_1223028

Does the same issue occur when upgrading to version 1.11? Updating the bios is risky: BIOS

Update for new panel support

2023/08/08

1.11

Acer

13.97 MB

Download

Funny_Username123

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1223078#Comment_1223078

It does, unfortunately. I was able to update from 1.06 to 1.10 and then 1.11, but the problem persisted. I've been reading that disabling G-Sync has helped someone else with a 4060, so I will try that next.

DP2023

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1223028#Comment_1223028

After loads of follow-ups and ordeals, back and forth, I managed to submit the laptop for a replacement unit.
They said it would take 10-15 days, I've still not heard from them yet, tomorrow will be the 15th day, will need to keep following up till I get the replacement.
I'll let you all know in case the replacement does not have this issue.

Funny_Username123

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1223359#Comment_1223359

Thank you for the update! Please do let us know how it goes with your replacement laptop. Disabling G-Sync didn't work for me either. I'm going to try Debug mode in NVIDIA Control Panel next, but I have a feeling I'll be starting the replacement process soon. 😐️

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