Predator PHN18-71 blue screen when booting in safe mode & from USB. Unable to update BIOS/drivers.

I bought my wife the subj laptop a little over a year ago, the warranty expired April 2025 unfortunately.

TLDR: I think its a chipset or motherboard diver issue, but am unable to update the drivers bedcause the computer blue screens when booting to windows on the SSD or when trying to reinstall windows from a recovery USB.

She started getting blue screens. I reset windows (save files) and that seemed to fix it for a while, but then she said it continued. After some more troubleshooting, the computer repeatedly blue screens, and will occasionally make it to log in/desktop(safe mode) but will generally blue screen within 2 minutes. It's not enough time to fix anything. In BIOS the CPU regularly idles at 70 degrees, which seems high to me. The fans work and are clear of obstructions.

I ran a RAM test successfully from a USB during troubleshooting and it doesn't appear to be an issue. I note that the BIOS is very out of date, but am unable to update it because the computer will rarely boot in to safe mode, and even when it does it only stays on for ~2 minutes before blue screening. I have attempted to reset windows with a boot-from-USB, but any time it begins the reinstall process it blue screens again. I think it is either a graphics driver or motherboard/chipset driver that is the issue, but I am unable to get in and reinstall/reset these drivers and the BIOS/motherboard doesn't seem to have a feature where I can update drivers/firmware without booting in to the OS….. seems like a poor design.

I've been trying to configure a USB to boot from and install the drivers from, but there doesn't appear to be a straightforward way of doing this successfully.

Anyone have any insight? Dxdiag encl.

Accepted answers

All comments

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728310/predator-phn18-71-blue-screen-when-booting-in-safe-mode-from-usb-unable-to-update-bios-drivers

Those symptoms are from a faulty Win-11 OS and drivers, best is to completely reinstall the Win-11 OS and do a Clean Install, use Rufus 4.9 guide to construct this bootable USB and put the PHN18-71 IRST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) Driver version: 19.5.7.1058 folder on the Rufus bootable USB also, and when you get to the Win-11 OS section at: Where do you want to install Windows? > Load driver > you load the IRST driver 09AB driver, so that the Win-11 installation recognizes your PHN18-71 laptops M.2 SSD drive and you can continue and finish the installation.

Also and afterwards when you have a clean install of Win-11, you update bios to the last version 1.17 through the Win-11 OS only, as you don't update bios in "Safe Mode". As and if your PHN18-71 laptop gets BSOD blue screens in the normal Win-11 OS DO NOT update the bios as and if a BSOD crash happens mid way through a bios flash, the bios chip will be bricked and will need reprograming. Also Install the NVidia App and update all drivers of your RTX40xx gpu with this NVidia app, last Win-11 RTX40xx driver is version 580.97

Note: one of the most important bios updates for this laptop is the 1.14 that has the "1. Update MCU to 0x129 for 2024.4 IPU security update" which is the cpu microcode fix for this laptops 14th Gen cpu Intel voltage problems and overheating.

Also run this laptop on the NVidia GPU only setting in bios and upgrade the ram to min 64GB at 2x 32GB DDR5-5600MT/s CL46 type ram for best results and operation of this laptop. As doing all the above should stop the BSODs if you don't have faulty hardware like a gpu or cpu problems. Good luck and hopr this helps you out to solve this problem.

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

AnhEZ28

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728310/predator-phn18-71-blue-screen-when-booting-in-safe-mode-from-usb-unable-to-update-bios-drivers

Did you try to change the liquid metal? High load with bad cooling performance could cause a BSOD. You can go to a PC repair shop and ask them to change it, along with trying to install Windows.

Sadlaptopguy

Good day,

Thank you for the replies.

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1352146#Comment_1352146

I did this, and after trying several times the computer is able to consistently boot from the USB. I was able to install the drivers, but when I attempt to install windows I continue to get BSODs. Would it be a bad idea to attempt to update the BIOS via the USB? The other drivers installed correctly and after install were able to look at the drives. The CPU is idling at 70 degrees and I note that one of the BIOS updates deals with CPU cooling.