Acer Swift SF315-52 Hard shutdown every 30 minutes, likely BIOS or Intel Management Engine Issue

For about a month now, my Acer Swift 3 does a hard shutdown every 30 minutes exactly. It is not an overheating or malware issue, it shuts down after exactly 30 minutes even when in BIOS. After looking online, I've gathered it's likely a BIOS/Intel Management Engine issue.

The last BIOS update for my device is V1.08 from 2018 and I'm up to date. I reset BIOS settings to default, and when that didn't help, I disconnected and reconnected the CMOS battery. (Tried reinstalling V1.08, but it won't allow the same version, and I can't find the temp file to override the flag). Still didn't work, so I went to install the most recent Intel Management Engine driver suitable for my model and Windows 11. Windows throws me an error, 'Error in device matching', code: 0x4E24 (20004).

I tried to run some Windows Updates, but it suddenly tells me I don't meet the requirements for Windows 11, due to missing TPM 2.0. I've been running Windows 11 with no problem since 2022. When I run tpm.msc, it says "no compatible TPM found" - but in BIOS, TPM is enabled.

Just reinstalled Windows 11, keeping my files -- still no luck. I'm really stumped at this point. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you so much in advance.

Specs: Acer Swift SF315-52, Intel(R) Core i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz, running Windows 11.

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StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/724647/acer-swift-sf315-52-hard-shutdown-every-30-minutes-likely-bios-or-intel-management-engine-issue

The SF315-52 model is a 2018 and a 7 years old release laptop and if you haven't changed its original battery the shutdown symptoms could be from an old battery that needs replacing, as batteries on these laptops only last between 3-4 years.

Also. do you have anything connected to the USBs of your SF315-52 laptop, like a hub as that could be a cause of these shutdowns. Otherwise its a main power rail issue that could have its power regulator fault or a mosfet or capacitor that overheats and shorts the rail down and shuts the power off, have your laptop analysed by a technician so that they can pinpoint the problem. Good luck and hope this helps you out.

SF315-52 new battery, get this exact oem Acer fitted battery.

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

RadovanRakovicky

But he said it's EXACTLY 30 MINUTES, even in the BIOS. That's most likely some BIOS setting...did you try to enable BIOS hidden features in the past? Some of these features are related to power management.

What I'll do:

1, reset BIOS to defaults

2, if still the same - re-flash latest BIOS using USB stick method...or from Windows

goshkiki

Hi @RadovanRakovicky, thanks for the answer. I also excluded power management issues as the root cause and with my BIOS settings until now as I'm trying to fix this. Reflashing the latest BIOS via USB will be my next bet… Have tried, but been unsuccessful so far as I can't prioritize booting from USB in the boot order for some reason; "booting from USB" doesn't show up in the selection at all. (Despite disabling Secure Boot, setting Supervisor password and enabling F12 boot mode, which were fixes for other people).

billsey

With the latest version of Windows 11, they dropped support for the Intel 8th gen chipset. They allow you to continue running W11 if you have upgraded already, but stopped allowing new installs. Your issue, however, is happening when you are in the BIOS without Windows loaded. That points to either a hardware issue or a corrupted BIOS. You don't boot an OS to do a BIOS flash from USB, so the boot menu won't help. The BIOS crisis recovery flash drive needs to be in FAT32 format and you will hold Fn-Esc while you power up, there will be no display during the process:

goshkiki

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1340293#Comment_1340293

By the BIOS recovery file you mean the .bin file accessible through the temp folder when I click on the .exe and stay in the Acerflash setup, right? I cannot get this file; no matter what I do, it doesn't appear in any temp folders on my laptop. Is there another way to get it? I really want to be careful even if I could find it, as I don't want to brick my laptop. Many thanks.

(In the BIOS .zip download from the website, there is only the .exe file contained, nothing else. I can't execute it since my laptop doesn't allow installation of the same version BIOS over the updater tool)

RadovanRakovicky

And is available for example some older BIOS exe on Acer web? Just to try older one...I don't know if BIOS ver downgrade is even possible...maybe not. But it makes sense that we cannot re-flash the same version.

Or - to remove CMOS (CR-2032?) battery again from motherboard, disconnect also main battery, press power button to drain the rest of power from all components, waut few seconds, then place NEW CR-2032 battery. Leave main battery disconnected, plug ac cable , go to BIOS, do BIOS reset to defaults and chevk if it holds more than 30 minutes in BIOS. If yes, connect also main battery, and chcek again.

Maybe there's some timing component on the motherboard which causes this...but doing procedure with CMOS battery should "reset" it...

goshkiki

@RadovanRakovicky Yeah, I tried it with all previous Acer versions that I could find, for all of them I get the error that I cannot revert to a previous version of BIOS, so that falls through too. (And I can't force it because I cannot access/find the platform.ini file). I'll try with a new CMOS battery

RadovanRakovicky

Yeah, looks that CMOS battery removal + battery disconnecting + power cord removal + complete power drain by pressing Power button is last option here :-(

billsey

Yes, I see that the exe file isn't an archive, so can't be extracted to get to the .bin file. Maybe contacting Acer support would prompt them to send you the appropriate file?

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