PH317-52 Installed PredatorSense appears as service; no software or GUI

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

I installed PredatorSense from the official Product Support page from the drivers and software section.
None of the executable files open anything from under Program Files (x86)>Acer>PredatorSense Service.
I really wish to have it running as It seems i need the capability to set fan speed to max to try and combat overheating while gaming...
Also pondering undervolting...any advice on that also welcome but mainly, under this post: help with getting PredatorSense working is my priority.
So far I tried running in compatibility mode and as administrator without any luck.
I'm running windows 10 64bit (Build 1803)

sri369 · June 2018

Until you figure this out, or running fans at max for extended periods of time and risk burning them out, try using a cheap usb fan and see if that helps.

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@sri369 I managed to get a different laptop's version of PredatorSense running on my system. That trick didn't work however for my girlfriend (she has a PH315-51). I already use an active cooling pad. On top of that, I use predator sense to set my fanspeed to maximum while I'm Gaming.
What do you base your assumption that running the fans at 100% would "burn them out"?... I haven't found any evidence for that being a possibility - I really hope it won't.
I also undervolted my system by 0.100 volts with intel XTU. Now I my laptop keeps at around 50 degrees celcius vs around 80 what it did initially out of the box while gaming with high settings...

geekromi · June 2018

Roland_Lorinczi said:

@sri369 I managed to get a different laptop's version of PredatorSense running on my system. That trick didn't work however for my girlfriend (she has a PH315-51). I already use an active cooling pad. On top of that, I use predator sense to set my fanspeed to maximum while I'm Gaming.
What do you base your assumption that running the fans at 100% would "burn them out"?... I haven't found any evidence for that being a possibility - I really hope it won't.
I also undervolted my system by 0.100 volts with intel XTU. Now I my laptop keeps at around 50 degrees celcius vs around 80 what it did initially out of the box while gaming with high settings...

Wow! 50 C° while gaming in high settings: you got a sort of "miracle," here!

sri369 · June 2018

Roland_Lorinczi said:

@sri369 I managed to get a different laptop's version of PredatorSense running on my system. That trick didn't work however for my girlfriend (she has a PH315-51). I already use an active cooling pad. On top of that, I use predator sense to set my fanspeed to maximum while I'm Gaming.
What do you base your assumption that running the fans at 100% would "burn them out"?... I haven't found any evidence for that being a possibility - I really hope it won't.
I also undervolted my system by 0.100 volts with intel XTU. Now I my laptop keeps at around 50 degrees celcius vs around 80 what it did initially out of the box while gaming with high settings...

@Roland_Lorinczi
I understand where you are coming from. Personally, I don't meddle into under volting and such, since manufacturers already stress test and add a little over what is needed for any bad case scenarios.

Running anything at full speed all the time tend to burn them out, esp considering a fan is made up of mechanical parts; and all mechanical components are delivered with some level usage limit before they wear out. Example would be mouse and keyboard that are sold with a few million clicks before dying. And personally, replacing a cheap usb is cheaper for me than replacing the internal fans.

What I did on mine was to disable turbo in a round about way - set laptop processor max to 95% so turbo won't get enabled. With this setting I didn't notice much difference in my gaming experience, but the temps came down by about 15-20 degrees. Now even on ultra, games like witcher 3, ghost recon wildlands, the temps are about 50-65 range, occasionally spiking to low 70s. So from temp point, I am pretty satisfied. And this is without any external usb fans. Fans too don't feel the need to cross mid 4000s to even high 4000s. For normal day to works like browsing, or visiting these forums, and another less load works, the temps hover in 40s and fans in low 2000s.

I have been on the laptop for about 30 mins now before switching over to this forum, and below is the screenshot from my predator sense app (started app a few mins ago to take this screenshot).

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/df/lp3cxbej43g6.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ib/5d1kg81qeaw7.png

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@geekromi Whoops! Meant to write 60 degrees 😅 Still, and even though I have that while also using a cooling pad, I consider it pretty nice! Especially versus the ~80 I was getting before undervolting and setting fan-speed to 100% through predator sense.

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@sri369 Woah! Nice! Thanks for the feedback. How did you limit your cpu at 95% so the turbo doesn't kick in?
I'd love to try that in combination with letting the fan run on auto, see if I can get good temperatures and not burn the built-in fans out.
I already have a cooling pad anyway so if using that with it additionally to the CPU cap manages to keep it at around or 70 under load I'll probably go that route since replacing the usb fan as you said is preferable to having the built-in fans burn out...

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@sri369 did you limit the processor from the power management settings?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/9c/1qmjmbfhnopm.png

sri369 · June 2018

Roland_Lorinczi said:

@sri369 did you limit the processor from the power management settings?

Yes... Let met tell you what all I did.
1. Installed Park Control Free version.
I installed this only to set core parking, and enabling park settings in windows power options. After enabling, this program can be uninstalled. Screenshots below show all the options added by this enabling.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/e7/ixv4ccw8cvtn.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/3v/n6u956dlzejl.png

2. Created my own power scheme.
3. Enabled core parking on all cores.
4. Update the power settings to be more battery and heat friendly, without causing much impact on performance.

To simplify this for you, I exported my power settings (rename the file from txt to pow before importing).
Copy this to your hard disk and import using the command (in admin mode):
powercfg /import "full path to the file with file name"

Also, windows 10 is notorious to always turning on performance mode all the time. So switch to this plan. Unplug from power source. Check which plan it is on, and switch back to this plan as needed. Connect power supply back. Check for plan.

The settings here never made me feel the system was slow nor there was any performance hit in the games i play.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/bb/w3w6zd2zzjm9.png

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

Thanks! I'll first have to sort out my black screen issue though

I thought I was lucky and I got away with a laptop from the batch everyone keeps reporting a blackscreen issue with but turns out it was only a matter of time sadly...got it last night... there's a pinhole reset temporary fix. But I really hope acer does something fast. I wouldn't like to reture it, especially having solved the thermal issues, iit' a nice rig...but if it's not reliable and I can't work I'll have to return it...

Wish me luck @sri369 😋 thank you so much for the tip though ☺️

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

Update: so apparently last thursday they released an updated version of predatorsense for my laptop model only for me to find out now by myself.

Nobody gave a flying duck from them to say "hey...were workig on that and you'll see uldated predatorsense downloads for the following models / all by xyz date..."

Like...are my standards and expectations REALLY that unrealistic here? What is this bull?...

Anyway there's a new version uploaded and it seems to be working.

sri369 · June 2018

@Roland_Lorinczi

Check the screenshot you posted... same size, same version number... are you sure its an update and not a re-upload of existing version?

Roland_Lorinczi · June 2018

@sri369 Perhaps. It eludes me why they would do that, I believe it should be tweaked if it was uploaded later and the older isn't missing...I did merely assume it's a newer version though...I'm not brave enough to test the older version though after having it installed and working...

I do assume though that this may be a fixed version (can be same size but different content if there was a parentheses or something misplaced in the code...) and it might mean others won't have the issue in the future with this...

sri369 · June 2018

Roland_Lorinczi said:

@sri369 Perhaps. It eludes me why they would do that, I believe it should be tweaked if it was uploaded later and the older isn't missing...I did merely assume it's a newer version though...I'm not brave enough to test the older version though after having it installed and working...

The way how software works, same size is a possibility albeit rare, but version numbers would never be the same. Plus I don't see any option in Predator Sense app that allows to see build date and/or version number.

Lars1977 · March 2019

Hello Roland,

do you still got that Predator update saved somewhere ? As i have the same issue that only the service appears not the tool itself.

Roland_Lorinczi · March 2019

@lars1977 You're in luck. I found my copy of the installer that ended up working. I'll upload it to wetransfer. file size too large to upload directly. https://we.tl/t-riM2SgmzJi

Jelqzko05 · July 2019

Sorry to bother but I have the same issue and the Predator update you uploaded has expired. Can you please upload it again if you still keep it?

xapim · July 2019

Here everyone is free to try the latest one from the H700 working fine for me even the android/iphone app
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/570716/latest-predator-sense-working-on-old-h300-models

Jelqzko05 · July 2019

Thanks. But the thing is that I have Helios 300 Ph317-52. So I need the one that is compatible with my device and still works fine and opens. Thanks Again!

xapim · July 2019

Jelqzko05 said:

Thanks. But the thing is that I have Helios 300 Ph317-52. So I need the one that is compatible with my device and still works fine and opens. Thanks Again!

I dunno if you read the thread properly it's compatible and works on all older models if u follow the instructions correctly those screens are from my g3 572 but if you don't want to try it it's up to you u dunno what your missing with the extra features