Acer nitro black 15 inch 2017 thermal throttling wifi issues many problems

Reckie
Reckie Member Posts: 3 New User
edited March 2023 in 2017 Archives

This is a 2017 with a 1060.

First problem is the wifi. Sometimes it will cut out and it won't find the wifi again until I restart the computer... being a gamer this kills me. This happens every few hours.

Other times it the screen will turn black with red horizontal lines and it makes a weird sound until I hold the power key to shut it down. Not sure why this happens, overheating?

Now this problem which makes no sense. While playing games I was getting a weird lag hiccup every 1-2 seconds like clockwork. Almost like the computer screen freezes and then jumps ahead to catch up (real time strategy games like starcraft). Very annoying and doesn't allow for competitive play. I thought it was because of the wireless so I called my company and got a new router. After it arrived it worked flawlessly and I was so happy. Now today this problem came back but I noticed when I unplug my laptop it doesn't happen. So when its not charging it plays fine, but when it is charging it has the lag spike again. So now I've been playing until my computer is out of battery then letting it charge back up to play again.

After doing more research this seems to be because of thermal throttling.  I have acer coolboost on.  I tried lowering my max performance to 80% (people said 99% so it wouldn't supercharge).  My computer gets very hot while plugged in causing the thermal throttling.  When my computer is unplugged it doesn't have the lag but the performance sucks.  Something about it being a laptop when its unplugged it lowers performance I guess?  I have all my settings maxed out for performance even when unplugged or plugged in.  I've check every setting on the computer and they are all correct.  


Also for some reason acer coolboost keeps turning itself off.  Not sure why this is.  But sometimes after i restart my computer it goes back to off.  Why!

I have all my battery settings set to full performance, all game settings set to the lowest quality (which shouldn't be the case for a 1060)

This computer is killing me.

Answers

  • Reckie
    Reckie Member Posts: 3 New User
    Also I have coolboost+ active cooling on.
  • ven98
    ven98 ACE Posts: 4,073 Pathfinder
    Quite a lot issues you have with this laptop. Do you have them since you bought the laptop, or they appeared recently after updating to Windows Creators 1703(if you have updates to it)
    Lets start with the thermal throttling. Download HWiNFO and while gaming(laptop should be connected to charger and set the performance to 100%) record the temperatures of the CPU and GPU.

    Update the BIOS to latest version if you haven't done so yet. It is likely to fix many of your issues including the problem with the wifi.

    Report back here the results after updating BIOS and the average and max temps of CPU and GPU you have recorded with HWiNFO.

    To find your current BIOS version in 'run' command enter 'msinfo32'. In system summary you will find the version of the BIOS. Visit this page: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/drivers and find your laptop's driver page by entering the SNID number or fiding manually by model. If there are newer versions of BIOS for your laptop download the latest one. Before installing make sure the battery is at 100% and laptop connected to charger.
    Always post the following characterisitcs of the device:
    -Model number
    -Part number(not required, but helpful)
    -CPU
    -GPU
    -Operating system

    Helios 300 and Nitro 5 users DO NOT update the BIOS to version 1.22 if you don't want the keyboard's backlight to turn off after 30 seconds even when the device is plugged in.


    Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!   
    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!

  • utterbutter
    utterbutter Member Posts: 28 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    I have a similar problem with my nitro black gtx1060 too. Certain games cause my laptop to freeze for 1-2 seconds and then it momentarily speeds up to catch up on the lost frames. I have followed ven98's advice to update the BIOS, which I did, and also enabled Acer Coolboost. I tried logging hwinfo while playing a game called Hollow Knight, and it shows the core #0 - #3 and package/ring thermal throttling as 'Yes' for about 20% of the results during the logging period.
  • ven98
    ven98 ACE Posts: 4,073 Pathfinder
    I have a similar problem with my nitro black gtx1060 too. Certain games cause my laptop to freeze for 1-2 seconds and then it momentarily speeds up to catch up on the lost frames. I have followed ven98's advice to update the BIOS, which I did, and also enabled Acer Coolboost. I tried logging hwinfo while playing a game called Hollow Knight, and it shows the core #0 - #3 and package/ring thermal throttling as 'Yes' for about 20% of the results during the logging period.
    If it says thermal throttling, then that means you should undervolt your CPU, by using Intel XTU or throttlestop. Start with undervolting by -100mV and then keep adding -5mV until your system is stable. Keep in mind that during the process you should have a game running at the background or a stress test program(Prime95), which is better in order to see whether the system will be stable under load. There are many youtube videos showing how to undervolt.
    Always post the following characterisitcs of the device:
    -Model number
    -Part number(not required, but helpful)
    -CPU
    -GPU
    -Operating system

    Helios 300 and Nitro 5 users DO NOT update the BIOS to version 1.22 if you don't want the keyboard's backlight to turn off after 30 seconds even when the device is plugged in.


    Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!   
    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!

  • utterbutter
    utterbutter Member Posts: 28 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Currently using XTU to undervolt. Currently undervolt stands at -0.100V. However when I ran the benchmark package temperatures still reached 90+ degrees celsius. I ran the stress test for CPU and during the test thermal throttling still periodically says yes. Is my undervolt not low enough? 
  • ven98
    ven98 ACE Posts: 4,073 Pathfinder
    You can go even lower. Try with -120mV. When you run the stress test, did you stress test both GPU and CPU or CPU only? Laptops usually don't do well on stress tests and stress tests don't present how the laptop will perform in a real situation. It tests the temperatures under extreme conditions that won't happen during a game session. The question is, how the temperatures are when gaming?
    Always post the following characterisitcs of the device:
    -Model number
    -Part number(not required, but helpful)
    -CPU
    -GPU
    -Operating system

    Helios 300 and Nitro 5 users DO NOT update the BIOS to version 1.22 if you don't want the keyboard's backlight to turn off after 30 seconds even when the device is plugged in.


    Hit 'Like' if you find the answer helpful!   
    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!

  • utterbutter
    utterbutter Member Posts: 28 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    I tried throttlestop and xtu to undervolt. Whether i did or did not undervolt, temperatures still reached 97C and has no impact at all thermally. Is there something wrong with my laptop? I followed all the tutorials online. And nothing has changed. For TS i did click the turn on button.