Acer Predator PHN16-72 i9-14900HX/RTX 4060/16GB RAM
After reinstalling some 3rd party apps and moving some files over, from my old Razer laptop, I started getting 1-2 BSODs per month, I think related to gaming, Hypervisor and EasyAntiCheat seemed to be the culprit (Hypervisor BSOD error code, EasyAntiCheat and Hypervisor listed in errors Event Viewer). After disabling some of the hypervisor and virtual machine settings, updating my BIOS and Chiptset drivers, and removing some bloatware, BSODs became a lot more frequent. While in programs like FL Studio or Chrome, there would be a BSOD, maybe one per day. After that, I had been getting very frequent BSODs, with multiple happenning in a row shortly after startup.
This is where I started looking at the minidump files, showing FLTMGR.SYS and FILEINFO.SYS, and a few others. I would log on, press the windows key and try to search eventviewer, and get a BSOD. If I would wait a few minutes and idle, and then try to use it normally, it would crash while looking at a minidump or eventviewer. I ended up disabling SearchIndexer.exe, which stopped the BSODs on boot or when pressing windows key.
Currently, I have been opening a steam game after boot and having it on in the background which quells the issue, so its making me think this is a CPU clocking or voltage issue. Any time I close the game and continue work in other programs, programs start to crash and then it eventually blue screens again. Minidumps point to intel and windows drivers/programs.
So far:
- I ran the windows memory diagnostic, no issues there
- Checked for any new driver updates, and have already installed latest BIOS and Chipset
- Ran the system file checker command, it said it found corrupted files and fixed them, still got a crash
- Ran Windows in Safe Mode, no crash there
- Turned off intel VTX and VTD in BIOS
- Tried to run "Fix problems using Windows Update" tool, It crashed after reboot, another FLTMGR.SYS BSOD, and undid the update, error code 0xC1900101 Win11 Ver24H2, no minidump, re-ran this tool, successfully updated, problem still persists
- Disabled the Windows Search Indexer service, SearchIndexer.exe, which stopped some of the BSODs shortly after boot.
-Disabled many of the Acer bloatware services
-Changed the minimum processor state to 65% in power options, although i'm not sure this does anything
I've been trying to research some posts around this type of BSOD, as well as problems around my Acer machine. I've seen culprits relating to overclocking, faulty memory, and hardware compatability issues. Given this is a new machine and manufacturer-built, hardware compatability is probably not the issue? I've tried to look into the overclocking, as this machine has a crazy cpu with new core tech and efficiency buffs, and I can't troubleshoot that issue because clocking and power settings are hard-disabled by Acer; no settings in BIOS and it can't be accessed by Throttlestop. I've seen drivers be a culprit, and have seen a troubleshooting method around the Driver Verifier tool, but I am hesitant to try changing boot modes and doing full dump gathering, as this could take a while or brick the machine.
I opened a support ticket to send in my device to have Acer look at it, but I am worried they are just going to do a hard reset with a new SSD and send it back without doing anything else and the issue is still going to happen.
TLDR, I think its a cpu overclocking issue where the cpu is factory set to overclocked and transitioning to a low-power state is unstable and causes program crashes and BSODs. Changing clock speed and voltage is hard-disabled in BIOS, no access even from adv settings menu. Let me know if i've missed anything or if there are any solutions. If anyone wants to take a look at minidumps, let me know.
[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]
