My Predator PHN16-71 laptop randomly freezes on any task, no matter how light.

I used LatencyMon to diagnose a problem, and it returned the following error:

Conclusion: Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. Also one or more ISR routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates.

I don't know what this diagnosis means please help me.

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Puraw

Hi Ultrainstintoplus,

– Update your BIOS to version 1.18, dated 2024/09/20, available on Acer’s support page:– https://www.acer.com/ph-en/support/product-support/Predator_PHN16-71

– If freezing persists, boot into Safe Mode.– If the system runs fine in Safe Mode, you likely have a rogue driver causing instability.

Steps to troubleshoot:

– Uninstall all pre-installed bloatware and unnecessary programs.– Open Device Manager and check for devices with yellow exclamation marks. Uninstall those entries.– If the issue continues, use DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in Safe Mode to remove the dGPU driver.– After rebooting, do not manually install any drivers—let Windows handle automatic driver reinstallation.

This process helps isolate driver conflicts and restore system stability.

StevenGen

Just want to give you some further advice, as I'm using the same exact laptop and have never ever had any problems with this excellent Predator Helios Neo PHN16-71 gaming laptop, with either high end gaming or editing. The problem is that you haven't set your laptop up properly and fully and its OS windows could be corrupted and not functioning properly or you don't have enough ram for the applications that you are using this laptop for, so do the below.

For best operation of this laptop make sure that you do the following:

Reinstall Win-11 24H2 and update to the last OS build: 26100.6584
Update the bios to version 1.18 as that is essential for the cpu microcode fix for this laptops 13th Gen Intel cpu overheating issues.
Install the NVidia App and make sure that the NVidia latest game ready driver is installed and play all games through this apps settings.
Make sure that you run this laptop at a min of 64GB total ram at 2x 32GB DDR5-4800MT/s CL40 type ram if you play high end gaming and do allot of editing as high memory capacity is essential for these operations.

Doing all the above will ensure that your PHN16-71 will operate at its best performance without any freezing, crashing and at its most perfect operation. Good luck and hope this helps you out further.

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

Ultrainstintoplus

Hi StevenGen

I followed all your steps exactly, but the computer still has the same problem. It freezes even when I don't do anything. But I appreciate your help. If you find out how to fix it, please write to me.

Thank you very much.

StevenGen

Sorry to hear that, as and if the above doesn't fix those lagging and freezing problems, your PHN16-71 model might have a faulty cpu that could have been damaged by the Intel microcode overheating issue problems that the 13th Gen cpu's had in the PHN16-71 laptops.

If you bought your PHN16-71-xxxx model laptop before 2023/05/29 and used this laptop without the bios version 1.10 that Acer passed on that had the Intel 1. Update CPU microcode 2. Update EC for thermal optimization, that could have damaged your 13th Gen cpu prior to this 1.10 bios cpu microcode update.

I suggest that you consult Acer in your country and see if you can get a new mainboard replacement, as Intel did extend the warranty on the i5-13500HX, i7-13700HX and the i9-13900HX cpu’s, so consult Acer in your country and see if you can get a new mainboard from them. Good luck and hope this helps you out further.

These are the mainboards of the PHN16-71 13th gen laptops

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

devidjhon

I’ve faced similar random freezes on the PHN16-71. Updating BIOS, reinstalling GPU drivers with DDU, and even a clean Windows install didn’t fully fix it. Running MemTest86+ and checking temps/voltages might help rule out memory or power issues, but if the freezes continue, it’s likely a hardware fault (CPU or motherboard). Best step is to log the crashes and contact Acer support for a deeper check.

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