Predator Orion 3000 "died"/never really worked

estelleduval
estelleduval Member Posts: 3 New User
I bought it when it was all new in store and during all the time I've had it, I've been able to use it for a total of about 14 days - the rest oft the time it was broken for one reason or another - most could be fixed with factory resets/deinstalling all software. I've had absolutely no luck with the store I bought it from or support (I gave up when being asked to send it to the US on my expenses - I'm in Europe). Now it's way beyond any warranties and broken again. The software hasn't changed this time as I didn't even get to install anything on it except for an antivirus, TeamViewer and the Windows Updates after the last time it crashed completely and needed a factory reset.

I can turn it on, the lights go on, the fan goes on, it beeps, I see the starting screen with the Predator logo and then it the screen turns black and nothing happens - I can see the mouse pointer though when I move the mouse. For hours (I decided to wait yesterday and turned it on first thing in the morning, by 8PM there still was nothing).

What I've tried so far:
resetting via repair mode (gave me an error message),
boot in safe mode (got another black screen after the logo),
go back to an older system image (error message),
reinstall Windows (error message when trying to access the partition the files are on - USB drives and CD/DVD drive are not being recognised in the boot menu when I tried to use a stick/DVD)
install another OS (error message, Windows 10 doesn't allow a secondary installation - but then again all I had at hands was Windows 7/8/Ubuntu),
formatting the internal drive via DOS command (error message - drive cannot be accessed),
battery exchange on mainboard (same behaviour, I see the logo and then nothing else),
reset via power button (same behaviour, I see the logo and then nothing else),
different screen (same behaviour, I see the logo and then nothing else),
reset BIOS settings to factory settings (same behaviour, I see the logo and then nothing else),
different RAM (same behaviour, I see the logo and then nothing else),
different ports for my screen (HDMI/DVI),
installed the saved system image on a virtual drive on my Mac (pushed that old thing to its limits but works like a charm and has been running without any issues for weeks now)

I can read the hard drive when connecting it to another computer and I've scanned it for errors with no messages showing up and I can use the screen with another computer without any issues. Also, I do have TeamViewer installed on my Predator and my Mac tells me that the computer is coming online when I turn it on. I can also connect to the computer via TeamViewer but even there I don't get anything more than a black screen.

Does anyone else have any other ideas before I throw this 2.5k mistake into the bin?

Thank you very much for your input.




Answers

  • GotBanned
    GotBanned Member Posts: 654 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Sorry to hear about your troubles. Sounds like your PC has been faulty from the start. Just that you know, I'm not affiliated with Acer in any way, so I have no real power to help you. But would you mind answering the following questions?
    1. What is the exact model of the unit?
    2. When did you buy it?
    3. From where did you buy it?
    I don't know about the US, but since you are in Europe, the following information might become handy. That is, if you bought your PC in Europe.

    Consumer guarantees and Warranties

    "EU law also stipulates that you must give the consumer a minimum 2-year guarantee (legal guarantee) as a protection against faulty goods, or goods that don't look or work as advertised. In some countries national law may require you to provide longer guarantees."

    Don't bin your PC quite yet. Maybe we can find a solution to make it work again. Could be that all that is needed is a new HDD/SSD or motherboard.
  • GotBanned
    GotBanned Member Posts: 654 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    One more thing came to mind. If your system has an older NVIDIA GPU, updating the firmware might help with no signal/black screen. More info can be found here:

    https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/nv-uefi-update-x64/
  • It would be interesting to specify the model. Example PO3-630-RV11.

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  • estelleduval
    estelleduval Member Posts: 3 New User
    Sorry for the missing model number. It's an Acer Predator Orion 3000 PO3-600 with an i7-8700 from 2018. All parts are still original, keyboard and mouse included. Only the screen was bought separately but I have used it before with my old computer an I am currently using it with my work laptop. I got the PC from MediaMarkt in Switzerland which is a pretty well known big electronics supplier over here - I'd absolutely call it a reliable source and this is the first thing bought there that I've ever had issues with. I tried their support as the first 6 months of the warranty were on them and was told numerous times that the issue must be my way of using it even when I was able to show them in person what happens if I do as much as try to install a game (I mean, it was supposed to be a gaming PC and that's exactly what I bought it for...) and the first few times the resets worked for a day or two. After that I tried the number and email provided with the purchase but when they couldn't do anything anymore in late 2020 and I was told to ship it to the US shortly about a week before the warranty actually ran out, I gave up and tried whatever I could come up with. Now it has been down again since October 2021 (worked for about half a day back then so I reinstalled Windows, updated all drivers and ran a complete system check that didn't show any issues but when I tried to boot it the next day it was dead again) so I think quite a few things will need an update if I ever get it to actually work again.
  • GotBanned
    GotBanned Member Posts: 654 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Unfortunately a warranty claim is no more an option.

    I think that the two most likely components causing your problems are the motherboard and storage device. But it could also be that the BIOS is corrupted or power supply is acting up. These latter ones are not so likely.

    I see that ebay Germany has few po3-600 motherboards listed, but the asking price is ridiculously high at 210€ + postage from the UK + possible tax. In my opinion, it's not worth to spend that much on such an old PC. Besides, the replacement board might not work. You could try to find someone from this forum who has an old po3-600 motherboard to sell.

    If another forum member can't pinpoint what the problem is, I'd start to consider building a new PC from scratch. If your storage drives are still fully functional and your GPU (what is it?) is good enough for the games you play, at least you can save some money. Unfortunately your CPU is starting to show its age, so I'd sell it as well as the RAM you have now.

    If you need any suggestions for components, I'll be happy to give you a helping hand. I usually use https://geizhals.eu/ when buying new hardware.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    I'd lean toward the drive being the issue rather than the motherboard. Obviously at this point the user profile is corrupt in Windows, since the blank screen shows both on your display and when connecting remotely. Booting from a USB Windows install image will be the best next step to determine what's actually happening. It sounds like you can get into the BIOS... In the BIOS enable the F12 Boot Menu and disable Secure Boot, then with an install flash drive plugged in use F12 to get the boot menu and choose the flash drive as the boot source. We are going to want to get into the repair mode, then to command prompt. From there I'd create a new Windows user, set the password and see if that allows you to continue past the startup screen. You can also from the command prompt run utilities such as SFC and DISM to verify the Windows load on the drive is somewhat sane and potentially do a fresh install on the drive after wiping the old stuff off.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • GotBanned
    GotBanned Member Posts: 654 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    You are right. The easiest and most cost efficient way would be to get a 2.5" SSD SATA III drive and remove whatever storage drives are installed now. I'd look for 1Tb drive from a reputable manufacturer.

    If a fresh Windows installation works without any problems for a couple days, then the culprit was the current OS drive. But if the PC keeps acting up, it is time to look for replacement board or new computer. At least the new SSD drive can be used in other computers, so it does not go into waste.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    It's worth noting that the PO3-600 has an M.2 slot that supports NVMe x4 SSDs, and that would be a faster choice than a 2.5" SATA drive.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • GotBanned
    GotBanned Member Posts: 654 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    OFF TOPIC reasoning for SATA III drive

    Getting a 2.5" SSD, installing it, and maybe even transferring it to another system may be easier to some. I suppose that they are cheaper too.

    PO3-600 supports PCIe gen 3.0 x4 drives, but I have difficulties recommending her to get one. Why? Her next system will most likely support PCIe 4 (or even PCIe 5 as these are already on the way), and good M.2 drives tend to be more expensive.

    If OP went for a 2.5" and got her PC working again spending as little money as possible, she could later swap the drive to her new system and use it as a storage and get the fastest possible drive for OS and programs.

    Besides, the loading times (OS, games) are only few seconds apart between SSD SATA III and M.2 nvme drives. Maybe things will change when PCIe 5 is mainstream and Windows gets more tweaked? Dunno... but I'll get one as soon as I can get my hands one one or three!

    /OT
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,246 Trailblazer
    Typically if someone is here looking at an upgrade, it is because they expect to continue to use the system for some time yet. I wouldn't balk at the difference in price between a 2.5" SATA and an M.2 NVMe x4. Right now a quick look on Amazon for 1TB SSDs shows name brand 2.5" going for $75 and M.2 for $110. That extra third will be well worth it if they plan on running the machine for 2-3 more years. After that, when they upgrade to something newer and more powerful, the main drive will likely be both faster and bigger so the old drive won't be as much of an incentive to keep around.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • estelleduval
    estelleduval Member Posts: 3 New User
    Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I went through every single one of them and ended up binning the computer anyway. I had all drives showing in the BIOS, I had the boot menu activated already, I disabled the secure boot - neither my flash drive with the Windows Install nor the DVD were recognised as the F12 boot menu simply doesn't show them. It only gives me the Windows Boot Manager which then crashes everything again. After crashing the computer about a hundred times within less than an hour, the drive changed to RAW instead of NTFS so I formatted it and retried - same problem. I exchanged the drive and went for a brand new SSD (Seagate 250GB - the old one was a regular Toshiba 1TB) that I still had for another project - same. No DVD/CD/flash dives/USB in the boot menu so no way to even reinstall Windows. Trying to force the access through the command window in the recovery menu didn't work either.

    My guess now is that it's an issue with the board but as I don't want to invest any money in this unless I can get a guarantee that it'll work without any more issues for at least another 5 years, I ended up buying a new board and some more RAM for my 2004 Mac instead to run the virtual copy of Win10 more smoothly and I'm now playing my games on there. Self built is still best and if that one ever gives up I'll definitely go down that path again. At least then I'll have someone I can blame for it if it doesn't work...

    And the games I wanted to play on the Predator were new back when I bought it but now their requirements are pretty much standard so at this point more or less any newer computer does the trick.
  • GotBanned
    GotBanned Member Posts: 654 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    edited February 2022
    Sorry to hear that it came to this. :( Let it rest in peace... or more likely in pieces for all the trouble it caused.

    I hope you didn't just go and bin the whole system, as there are people who are willing to pay good money for an i7-8700 and whatever GPU your Acer had.

    Take care and all the best!