Acer Predator Orion 3000 PO3-640 - disconnects and freezes

Hi all,

I purchased an Acer Predator Orion PO3-640 in January:
https://www.harveynorman.com.au/predator-orion-3000-i7-12700-16gb-512gb-ssd-1tb-hdd-rtx3060-12gb-gaming-desktop.html

Whenever I play BF2042 it's not a certainty but there's a high chance of the game pausing, followed by the audio garbling and then being disconnected from the Internet. This happens at least once a week up to daily. It also tends to happen more often when both my wife and I are trying to play the same game but usually resetting my PC and coming back in will resolve the issue (although sometimes it doesn't). What's curious is that my wife using an older PC has no issues whatsoever.

Also, whenever the kids play Among Us, Minecraft or even single player games on my PC, there's also a chance of this happening too (I've observed it at least once in each case).

I've tried the following exhaustive list but nothing has worked so far. I'm at wit's end now so any helpful suggestions will be much appreciated. I'm wondering if it's worth just returning the PC to Acer, but with such an intermittent issue, I doubt they'll even find it!

(Oh I'm also connecting via an ethernet cable, not wireless)

(oh, and also, sometimes the PC seems to go into a sleep state, even though it's not enabled, and I can't wake it, meaning I have to do a hard reset. Also sometimes leaving the computer idle will cause it to freeze and again I have to do a hard reset)

All of these things failed to resolve the issue:
- Reinstalling network drivers
- Windows network reset
- Plugged ethernet cable into different port in modem
- Installed latest drivers
- Ran a malware scan (no malware)
- Repaired Easy Anti-Cheat
- Ran sfc /scannow
- Ran Program as Administrator
- Power Cycling
- Uninstalling and reinstalling Battlefield 2042 ONLY (not EA App)
- Run EAC as Administrator
- BIOS update
- Prime 95 Test (no memory issues)
- Installed Visual C++ Redistributable for Easy Anti-Cheat
- Turned Kernel Mode Hardware Enforced Stack Protection On
- Removed Acer User Experience service
- Installed new chipset drivers
- New ethernet cable
- Restart modem
- netsh winsock reset
- netsh int ip reset
- Tried a different modem
- Windows 11 Reset
- Added Easy Anti-Cheat to firewall
- Easy Anti-Cheat Full Control for all users
- DISM
- Reformat Computer
- Moving keyboard and mouse to USB 2.0
- Uninstalled Acer Care Centre
- Uninstalled PredatorSense
- Replaced Powerboard
- Killer Performance Suite uninstalled
- Replaced Network cable
- Killer Driver Uninstaller/Clean Installation
- Disable Wi-Fi Adapter and Bluetooth Adapter
- Installed new NIC
- Network Reset and Turned Permit Independent Port Sharing on Router
- Public to Private Network and changed router to Annex B
- Prioritized PC on modem in QoS settings
- Unplugged external hard disk
- I have installed an Acer firmware update to see if that helps (acer firmware 5.40.11.10)
- Reseated RAM
- Tried a new power extension cord
- Uninstalled OneDrive

Accepted answers

All comments

Rambutaan

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1219877#Comment_1219877

BIOS is already the most up-to-date one but that's a good idea. I'll try leaving it on the BIOS screen and see if it freezes there.

I've already reinstalled Windows and it didn't resolve the issue, so seems like it may be a hardware issue, but will check.

chugzilla

what about the hibernation settings buried deep in the power plan that is selected? there are i think 3 on that you have to turn off, they used to get me until i researched why when i had everything else off was my 5000 still going to sleep on me overnight and disconnecting everything i was connected too lol

Rambutaan

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1219962#Comment_1219962

Thanks for the suggestion but yeah I already have those turned off.

I just ran OCCT to stress test the machine and not sure how reliable the program is but it's suggesting my idle temperature is sitting around 50 degrees celsius and when the stress test is on it reaches 100 degrees… I read somewhere these are not normal CPU temperatures.

chugzilla

well, they def are a little high, but when you game and run these tests do you have all your fans running 100% in gaming mode? the stock coolers in any acer gaming pc are terrible unfortunately, most of us put another air cooler in that's a lot better.

Rambutaan

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1219971#Comment_1219971

Usually the PredatorSense app would do that stuff but it doesn't seem to be anymore (i.e. pretty sure it used to bump up the RPM when I was gaming but it doesn't seem to do that anymore after reinstalling it). I noticed when I put the fans on Gaming mode (which is really loud and around 3,000-4,000 rpm) then the temperature hovers around 80 degrees which seems better, but yeah, may have to invest in another cooler like everyone else has.

billsey

If staying in the BIOS doesn't exhibit the symptoms, try booting in safe mode and test with that environment. That essentially disables all non-Microsoft apps and drivers…

Rambutaan

So I updated the BIOS recently to version R01-B1 but it failed and noticed that each time I try to install it it gives the following error message:

"Setup settings error, CMOS checksum error or CMOS battery loss occurs. Default settings loaded"

system boots up fine after that (since I guess it resorts to default settings whatever that means, I've never changed the default settings) but I was thinking maybe there was something wrong with the CMOS battery (despite the computer only being a few months old). I replaced the CMOS battery but it again gave the same error, so not sure what's going on. Maybe the CPU or motherboard is damaged?

billsey

When you enter the BIOS, then use an F9 to reset to factory defaults, followed by an F10 to save and exit, does the issue clear up? When you just continue from that error message it likely doesn't actually get saved.

Rambutaan

It's been over a week now since I tried something new. No freezes or disconnects so fingers crossed, I think my issues are resolved. So, just in case anyone ever experiences the same issues, I ended up applying two fixes to get rid of them:

1. Freezing while idle

To stop the PC freezing while idle I read somewhere that sometimes manually setting the generation of the PCIe slots helps. So I changed the setting from Auto to Gen 3 for my RTX 3060 and since then I've had no freezes in Windows while the computer is idle, even after leaving it on for several hours.

2. PC disconnecting from network

To stop the PC dropping its connection to my modem, I checked out a solution to my model of NIC off Intel (Killer E2600).
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059939/ethernet-products.html

Set Connection Speed to 1 Gbps full duplex.
Disable Power Saving Mode.
Turn off Gigalite*.

While I wasn't experiencing exactly the same issues as described here, applying the settings as recommended in this knowledgebase article resulted in me no longer experiencing disconnects from the Internet while playing BF2042.

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