RAM, IRIS XE, memory and constant crashes Aspire A517-52.

Greetings. Last Summer (2021) I purchased a Aspire A517-52. There was a lot of praise for the little Intel Iris Xe it had as its gpu, and with its price tag of under 800 dollarydoos I figured it was a great purchase. For the first month it seemed to be a fantastic laptop if used within the limits of the gpu. I was able to play games such as Kenshi, FFXIV (with lots of settings turned down or off but still enjoyable) and Warframe without issue. However when I played Risk of Rain 2, the game would ALWAYS without fail crash after about 20-30 minutes of playing. It was obvious that there was a memory issue. What has really burned my a** however is that over the past year this laptop has become utterly useless for virtually any game that isn't barebones in its hardware requirements. Even having less than 8 tabs opened on my Firefox browser causes crashes. Many times there have been blue screens of death with the "dxgkrnl.sys failure". The 256mb of onboard memory for the intel Iris Xe seems utterly and completely ineffectual for anything and the system ram of 8gb seems to disappear into nothingness. Now the real b** is that games I could play last Summer and Autumn, will get immediate crashes and sometimes even a BOS, immediately after launching. This is the second time in a row that I have been f*** over by vague promotions of software, the other being the horrid Nvidia optimus lie.

Please assist me in getting my laptop to at least play games I was able to enjoy for the first few months of owning it. I will post anything you may need in helping diagnose the issue. Thank you very much!

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JackE

Sound like it might be CPU/GPU overheating or RAM issue. What temps are you seeing?

teppogaijin

Thank you for the reply. The temps on speccy for some reason only show the cpu temp and that never goes above 60 degrees Celsius. Many of these programs crash immediately upon entering a the game. I doubt the temps skyrocket to harmful levels that fast.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/671524/ram-iris-xe-memory-and-constant-crashes-aspire-a517-52

The A517-52 is not a gaming laptop, the A517-52G is sort of and much better for gaming as your A517-52 does not have a dedicated Nvidia MX350 gpu, so remember that first! Also tell us which exact model A517-52 do you have, what cpu and what onboard ram does it have? Is it the 4GB onboard ram or 8GB onboard ram, is it an I3-1115G4 or an I5-1135G7 or the top of the range I7-1165G7? As all that does matter with gaming.

This laptop with 4GB onboard memory can be upgraded with a 1x 16GB ram module for a total max of 20GB, while the 8GB onboard memory model can be upgraded with a 1x 16GB ram module for a total of 24GB which makes a very big difference between the 24GB DDR4-2666Mhz ram and paired with the i7-1165G7 cou and between a 12GB DDR4-2666Mhz with a type of ram paired with either an I3-1115G4 or a I5-1135G cpu.. Give us more details of your exact specs as just saying what you have said above is not enough. Also remember, that your problems could also be because of your specs and not knowing how to maintain your OS and graphics drivers and keeping a system up to date or expecting too much out of your laptops specs? Especially if you play high demanding games for a long time that put allot of stress onto a platform like your laptop that wasn't designed as a gaming platform.

What I would do is this, install the Intel® Driver & Support Assistant and do a scan of your system and update all Intel drivers (as I'm sure that there are updates) especially the Intel graphics drivers for your A517-52 and you can also increase the ram to your laptops appropriate total max, as then you can increase the Intel integrated cpu graphics memory manually. Note: be very careful that you need to have experience to change registry editor settings and if you change settings the wrong way it could damage your laptop! also and remember, that increasing memory to your integrated cpu graphics will improve gaming performance slightly but, it will not make it into a hard-core gaming gpu that will handle all games, also make sure that you have your laptop up to date with the latest Windows Updates, as all that I've suggested to you, will increase your laptops performance considerably. Good luck and hope this helps you out.

JackE

>>>8gb seems to disappear into nothingness>>>

I suspect a RAM issue. But what do you mean by ' nothingness'? Do you have too many background processes running and no free RAM? In particular, you should uninstall, not just disable, any non- M i cro soft 3rd party virus scanners . They can wreak havoc with gaming.

teppogaijin

Thank you all very much for the replies😊.

StevenGen: With regards to your first paragraph, please find the attached image. I hope that answers your query regarding the specific model of A517-52.

Most interesting is your suggestion of increasing my RAM. Memory issues are responsible for theses crashes and my laptops inability to do many things regarding even mediocre demanding games and background tasks. I am certain of it. Remember, as I stated before, my laptop could enjoy playing (on high settings I must note) games like Warframe and Kenshi back in the first two months of owning it. Now these games crash immediately. As you can see, I have the i5 1135G7. From what you see of my system specs, am I able to add RAM? If so how do I go about doing that? Is there a forum or other source you could point me to that cover Laptop RAM and its installation process? I apologize for the request.

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JackE and StevenGen: What I mean by "nothingness", is that despite my laptop running basic internet functions and showing a total of no more than 2.5gigs of ram in usage on the Resource monitor, it's still saying that I am using an impossibly high percentage of memory often over 90%. Math is not my strong point but even I can add up the amount of memory being used an its is far below even 50%. As mentioned before, the RAM and general memory of the laptop seems to be the core issue of my laptops seemingly sudden inability to perform as it did in the first two months of owning it. Also, the system came with Norton which I recently deleted and replaced with AVG free.

Thank you both, very much for the assistance.

teppogaijin

In these photos you can see my laptop's interior. The Ram stick says 4gb on it and I only see one stick of 4gb. Unless there is another stick hidden elsewhere.

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StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1148988#Comment_1148988

The reason for why "I am using an impossibly high percentage of memory often over 90%" is because you don't have enough memory for the games and applications that you are using this laptop for! As the current spec of your laptop are, 4GB soldered ram unremovable and not upgradeable plus and in its 1x removable ram slot, you have a 1x 4GB DDR-3200MHz ram for a total of 8GB which is low for Win-10 or 11!

Your A517-52 type laptop (as I've said above) has a soldered onto the motherboard 4GB DDR4 type unremovable/upgradable ram with an additional of a 1x slot ONLY for removable ram that you can change. So don't go looking for any other slots as its not there😁 your total max ram with an addition of a 1x 16GB DDR4 module is 20GB total. I suggest that you do the Crucial System Scanner to find out exactly what their guaranteed compatible upgrades for your laptop, add a 1x 16GB module and if you want any further performance increase add a faster and the Crucial suggested M.2 drive for your laptop, as all this will solve your problems.

JackE

>>>What I mean by "nothingness", is that despite my laptop running basic internet functions and showing a total of no more than 2.5gigs of ram in usage on the Resource monitor, it's still saying that I am using an impossibly high percentage of memory often over 90%. Math is not my strong point but even I can add up the amount of memory being used an its is far below even 50%>>>

Open Task Manager. Click performance tab. Click memory in left pane. Please post screenshot of result.

teppogaijin

Thank you both very much! I will go with what StevenGen suggested and buy a single 16gb stick as recommended by Crucial System Scanner. That was very helpful. Thank you!

JackE

That's fine. But before spending the money please open Task Manager. Click performance tab. Click memory in left pane. Please post screenshot of result. It costs nothing.🙂

teppogaijin

I aplogize for getting back to so late JackE.

MemoryRAM.JPG

JackE

Task Manager shows 1.5GB RAM is not being used of the total 8GB RAM installed. What magic do you think will happen if you install 16GB?

teppogaijin

Thank you for the reply. Perhaps its my naivety but wouldn't adding another 12gb total of RAM allow for more "wiggle room"? My question might seem sarcastic but I am sincere. That screenshot was taken with just five or six non intensive tabs on mozilla opened. As I said in my original post, despite this laptop not being considered a "gaming" laptop, it performed quite well with the games I ran. Far better than my prior laptop with its Nvidia Geforce 555m gpu. I am moving to Japan in a little over one month, and I want to not worry about a crappy laptop. If I have to pay $60 for a 16gb stick of ram to insure I don't have to worry about constant ctd or bsod, then I feel it is a worthwhile purchase. The Iris Xe is, when backed up with sufficient RAM, a pretty impressive little igpu.

JackE

>>>Please assist me in getting my laptop to at least play games I was able to enjoy for the first few months of owning it>>>That screenshot was taken with just five or six non intensive tabs on mozilla opened>>>

Sorry for not being more specific on what's needed for the Task Manager's screenshot. The suggestion was to try to get this screenshot in a window while an intensive game was active to see if all the RAM resources were actually being used.

teppogaijin

Ah I see. The problem with that is games are crashing even before I have time to take a screenshot. Lol, lmao even. :(

JackE

All the games immediately crash?

teppogaijin

Hey JackE. Any game that requires more than 256mb of dedicated vram seems to crash immediately or soon after launch. This was not an issue when I first got the laptop.