Please advise on predator 500 pt515-51 usb port issues

Problem: usb ports lose connection

Started On: 5 months ago

Solution Attempted: most online suugestions including resetting the battery, draining it and restart, software update, switching chargers, etc...

Changes Since: replaced the powerboards, usb hub, cables, reinstalled machine from scratch

Observations: after the changes I have noticed less outages and was fine for about 2 weeks until yesterday it happened with the usb c port where i have a dual hdmi monitor splitter adapter plugged in it

New Attempt: plugging in the hdmi cable directly to the hdmi port didnt work, what worked was i rebooted the machine with the charger unplugged and that worked for the rest of the afternoon

Question: does it sound like the heat buildup of the battery is causing the dropouts? Would i need a battery replacement? Or could the motherboard be potentially damaged some way? Have you had similar experience and what would you suggest i can do now?

[Edited the thread to add model number to the title]

Accepted answers

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StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/702286/please-advise-on-predator-500-usb-port-issues

Which Predator model do you have, give us the PH515-xx model number or similar as its very hard to advise you exactly on USB boards if we can't make direct reference with the laptop model. Usually a USB port problem arises if its pins are not making 100% contact with the mainboard traces as they have broken lose or they are shortening out and needs resoldering or the USB needs replacing or the USB board is faulty and needs changing, which is impossible to advise you if we don't know the laptop model number.

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homebarista

Hi @StevenGen

The model is pt515-51.

Thank you

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1265279#Comment_1265279

Take your PT515-51 to a technician that has experience in mainboard repair and can analyze the USB ports. The issue that you are having sounds like its with the USB controllers or the EC or Chipset that control the functions of the USB and HDMI ports that need to be checked out as this is where the issues that you are having come from. The battery 3 years old battery in your PT515-51 should no be having any problems, as heat built up in the battery is normal and if the battery gets too hot the battery has a solder fuse that if the battery reaches a certain temperature this solder fuse breaks or disconnects the battery + link and the battery locks, have a look at the caption below.

PT515-51 mainboard

Battery solder fuse, if the battery gets too hot the red part shown of the solder breaks and the battery locks

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

homebarista

Update: I checked the machine again but i noticed it wasn't even detecting the external monitors so I have checked device manager and noticed the nvidia rtx card isn't being detected. So again i have found online a lot of other users with the same problem of undetectable card and tried to follow their suggestions but nothing is working at this point. Looks like the gpu or motherboard is damaged.

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