Is the Thunderbolt 4 port on Acer AN515-57 different depending on region?

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Hey, so recently I tried to connect an eGPU to my Acer AN515-57 laptop as the discrete 3060 finally failed/stopped working after 2 years. I read from the official store page that the laptop should have support for thunderbolt 4 (see specifications here: https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-57-black ) however, there was nothing about thunderbolt in Device Manager or the BIOS, and the USB-C port doesn't have a thunderbolt icon next to it (see attached images). But, when I looked online to see if anyone else had the same issue, I came across a thread that seems to have my exact issue, however it was shown later in the thread that some people who also had the same laptop model had thunderbolt available on their laptop. (thread:

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/691145/why-doesnt-thunderbolt-work-on-the-acer-nitro-5-an515-58

)

So does thunderbolt 4 support differ depending on region or is it something in my laptop that is preventing me from accessing the thunderbolt 4 capabilities? It's really frustrating as I've already spent a lot of money for this eGPU only to have the required specs be confusing and downright misleading.

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StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/703482/is-the-thunderbolt-4-port-on-acer-an515-57-different-depending-on-region

NO, the TBT4 port that you have on your AN515-57 laptop is the same for every region, the below specification tables are all the Acer SG specifications provided for your laptop including the TBT4 port that you are trying to connect your eGPU to, there must be another reason why your eGPU doesn't connect or work 100% to this port and one could be that it might be that your laptops TBT4 port could be faulty or you have cause some damage connecting the eGPU to it, do a diagnosis on the port to make sure or have the port checked out by an experienced technician. Good luck and hope things work out for you.

AN515-57 port specs:

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AnhEZ28

@kingstatic

Based on your picture, the USB-C port is not a ThunderBolt 4 port. It functions like a normal data transfer USB port only. The ThunderBolt port will depend on the sub-model of AN515-57.

kingstatic

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1268404#Comment_1268404

@AnhEZ28 So only some sub-models for the AN515-57 have access to thunderbolt 4? If so, what sub-models are confirmed to have it and how do I check what sub-model I have?

AnhEZ28

@kingstatic

There are a few models that have ThunderBolt 4 like this: https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-nitro-5-gaming-laptop-an515-57-black-nh-qesek-003

Sub-models that do not have ThunderBolt 4 will show this USB-C information

The sub-model is the full model number's last 4 numbers/characters (AN515-57-XXXX).

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1268420#Comment_1268420

With your Thunderbolt 4 Port not detecting your eGPU setup, look at this guide "Thunderbolt not detecting display in Windows 11" and see if this will make the AN515-57 laptop detect the eGPU through TBT4 on your laptop.

The newer laptops (the below caption is from a Swift SFX14-51G) and it has this sort of marking for its 2x TBT4 ports:

The AN515-57 is marked like this and you can't tell,

Check in Device Manager > System devices > Thunderbolt™ Controller should be there if your AN515-57 has TBT4 SKU model. Also, if your TBT is a 2021 driver you can update to the latest "Intel® Thunderbolt™ Driver for Windows® 10 64-bit for Intel® NUC Kit - NUC6i7KYK" version 1.41.1340.0, which is what you should have if your AN515-57 is the model with the TBT4 SKU model

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

kingstatic

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1268436#Comment_1268436

I've already checked the device manager in my initial post (check one of the attached images) and it shows that Thunderbolt Controller is not there under the System Devices. That just means that my model doesn't have the TBT4 SKU model, right?

kingstatic

Alright I just checked using Acer Support, identifying my device via the SNID number and checking the actual specifications of my model (AN515-57-75LM), and it shows that the port I have is only a generic USB-C 3.2 port with no actual thunderbolt capabilities. Really frustrated and disappointed since in the page that I originally bought this device from it stated that TBT4 was available, and now only finding out 2 years after I bought it that its not actually there, only after buying the GPU and its corresponding devices that I intended to use as an eGPU.

BTW, I just realised that in my initial post I linked to the wrong forum post, here is the correct forum post which also has a person facing the same issue as me: