Performance issues with Predator Helios 300 (PH315-51)

wollpie
wollpie Member Posts: 5

Tinkerer

edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives
I wish to apologize if this has already been asked and answered, and I'm sure it has, but I cannot find the solution that works for me. I have an Acer Predator Helios 300, purchased on Tuesday and arrived just yesterday, and it's giving me issues. In every game I play, the performance is fine until it suddenly drops to like 15 FPS for about 15 seconds before jumping back up to what it was before. I'm not sure if it's related, but I have a Logitech G Pro Mouse which worked fine on my old laptop but on this one its RGB randomly flickers blue at max brightness whenever it wants, even if I turn the Mouses RGB off. I've tried updating drivers but everything is up to date. The BIOS is 1.19 and I even reinstalled that to see if it was the issue, but to no avail. I know it's not the thermals because I keep the fans on max and make sure that the temps never reach anything higher than 95 degrees Celsius. Task manager also never reports any spikes in GPU or CPU performance when it slows down, so I'm genuinely out of ideas on what to do. Any suggestions would be great because I'm happy with this laptop if only it would stop the performance drops. Model is PH315-51.

Thanks.

Answers

  • Deejay_tech
    Deejay_tech Member Posts: 356 Seasoned Practitioner WiFi Icon
    it could be that your machine goes into battery mode for those 15 secs of low fps, and then goes back to charger / adapter mode.
    this happens in some machines when the battery is 100% charged and you have plugged in the charger while gaming.

    My personal Acer m/c's
    1) Gaming: Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51
    Config:Core i5 8300H, 16GB, 250GB SSD, 1TB HDD, 1050ti GPU

    2) Daily Use: Acer Aspire A315-53  59GR
    Config: Core i5 8250u, 8GB, 256 SSD, 1TB HDD, IPS FHD 

    3) Linux Learning: Acer Aspire A315-53 P4MY
    Config: Pentium Gold 4417U, 8 GB, 256 SSD, 500GB HDD.
  • wollpie
    wollpie Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    it could be that your machine goes into battery mode for those 15 secs of low fps, and then goes back to charger / adapter mode.
    this happens in some machines when the battery is 100% charged and you have plugged in the charger while gaming.

    Thanks for the suggestion, this does not appear to be the case though.
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,763 Pathfinder
    Put fans on auto, turn cool boost on, and undervolt. This could help solve your issue.
    -----
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  • wollpie
    wollpie Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    edited November 2018
    sri369 said:
    Put fans on auto, turn cool boost on, and undervolt. This could help solve your issue.
    Is putting fans on auto really better than putting it on max? It would seem to me that it would be the other way around, though I will look in to what you said. Thanks for the suggestion.
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,763 Pathfinder
    wollpie said:
    sri369 said:
    Put fans on auto, turn cool boost on, and undervolt. This could help solve your issue.
    Is putting fans on auto really better than putting it on max? It would seem to me that it would be the other way around.
    Putting them on max would wear them out faster. Get a cheap externally powered usb fan and point to the area above Fn keys. This will help cool significantly.
    -----
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  • wollpie
    wollpie Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    sri369 said:
    wollpie said:
    sri369 said:
    Put fans on auto, turn cool boost on, and undervolt. This could help solve your issue.
    Is putting fans on auto really better than putting it on max? It would seem to me that it would be the other way around.
    Putting them on max would wear them out faster. Get a cheap externally powered usb fan and point to the area above Fn keys. This will help cool significantly.
    Thanks for the info and the suggestion. I've come to the conclusion that I was mistaken in stating my temps were okay in my first post. My CPU hits 95 on high settings in some games and sometimes on medium and throttles significantly. I know it shouldn't be doing this however. I'm thinking that it was poorly pasted or there's just something wrong with the laptop. Do you think I should just return the laptop and wait to find something cheaper at Black Friday/Cyber Monday or is this work trying to save, maybe if I can send it in to Acer to repaste or perhaps doing it myself? 
  • sri369
    sri369 ACE Posts: 2,763 Pathfinder
    edited November 2018
    wollpie said:
    Thanks for the info and the suggestion. I've come to the conclusion that I was mistaken in stating my temps were okay in my first post. My CPU hits 95 on high settings in some games and sometimes on medium and throttles significantly. I know it shouldn't be doing this however. I'm thinking that it was poorly pasted or there's just something wrong with the laptop. Do you think I should just return the laptop and wait to find something cheaper at Black Friday/Cyber Monday or is this work trying to save, maybe if I can send it in to Acer to repaste or perhaps doing it myself? 
    These temps are normal as stock for these systems. Mine came down from 80-95 to 60-75 with just undervolting in throttlestop and optimizing windows and windows power plan. Windows 10 tends to force people to performance power plan, and this is a bummer. You are better off creating one to suit your needs.

    Repaste is the last option possible after you have exhausted soft options below:
    1. undervolting
    2. windows optimization
    3. power plan optimization
    4. externally powered usb fan/lap pad
    -----
    Karma...
    LIKE - if helpful
    ACCEPT - if helped resolve
  • wollpie
    wollpie Member Posts: 5

    Tinkerer

    sri369 said:
    wollpie said:
    Thanks for the info and the suggestion. I've come to the conclusion that I was mistaken in stating my temps were okay in my first post. My CPU hits 95 on high settings in some games and sometimes on medium and throttles significantly. I know it shouldn't be doing this however. I'm thinking that it was poorly pasted or there's just something wrong with the laptop. Do you think I should just return the laptop and wait to find something cheaper at Black Friday/Cyber Monday or is this work trying to save, maybe if I can send it in to Acer to repaste or perhaps doing it myself? 
    These temps are normal as stock for these systems. Mine came down from 80-95 to 60-75 with just undervolting in throttlestop and optimizing windows and windows power plan. Windows 10 tends to force people to performance power plan, and this is a bummer. You are better off creating one to suit your needs.

    Repaste is the last option possible after you have exhausted soft options below:
    1. undervolting
    2. windows optimization
    3. power plan optimization
    4. externally powered usb fan/lap pad
    Problematically, I have undervolted it to -.15 and performed windows optimziation. It still reaches 95 C. This is why I think theres an actual issue with mine. I will look into power plan optimization tomorrow, though I dont think I should ever have to spend more money on a fan or cooling pad for such an expensive device. 
  • xapim
    xapim ACE Posts: 7,253 Pathfinder
    edited November 2018
    wollpie said:
    sri369 said:
    wollpie said:
    Thanks for the info and the suggestion. I've come to the conclusion that I was mistaken in stating my temps were okay in my first post. My CPU hits 95 on high settings in some games and sometimes on medium and throttles significantly. I know it shouldn't be doing this however. I'm thinking that it was poorly pasted or there's just something wrong with the laptop. Do you think I should just return the laptop and wait to find something cheaper at Black Friday/Cyber Monday or is this work trying to save, maybe if I can send it in to Acer to repaste or perhaps doing it myself? 
    These temps are normal as stock for these systems. Mine came down from 80-95 to 60-75 with just undervolting in throttlestop and optimizing windows and windows power plan. Windows 10 tends to force people to performance power plan, and this is a bummer. You are better off creating one to suit your needs.

    Repaste is the last option possible after you have exhausted soft options below:
    1. undervolting
    2. windows optimization
    3. power plan optimization
    4. externally powered usb fan/lap pad
    Problematically, I have undervolted it to -.15 and performed windows optimziation. It still reaches 95 C. This is why I think theres an actual issue with mine. I will look into power plan optimization tomorrow, though I dont think I should ever have to spend more money on a fan or cooling pad for such an expensive device. 
    Repaste with kryonaut (if you dont have any seals in any screw to open it) that seems to me bad thermal paste if you have seals send it to warranty to repaste (but they will not certainly repaste it with kryonaut lol u might ask them if they would use the thermal paste you want if you bought it yourself and send it to them)


    https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11532543

    UserBenchmarks: Game 43%, Desk 61%, Work 40%
    CPU: Intel Core i5-7300HQ - 63.5%
    GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050-Ti (Mobile) - 41.9%
    SSD: WDC WDS200T2B0B-00YS70 2TB - 71.4%
    HDD: WD WD10SPZX-00HKTT0 1TB - 93.7%
    RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR4 2666 C15 2x16GB - 76.8%
    MBD: Acer Predator G3-572

    I'm not an Acer employee. (just here to help in the best way i can)
    If my answer fixed you issue please accept it for any other users who search for it would find it quickly thanks :)
    If you want to learn more about undervolting/optimizing windows join the Predator fb group and youtube channel:

    Owner/Admin (HOTEL HERO/Red-Sand/Opoka Opoka)
    https://www.facebook.com/groups/PredatorHelios300
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNJwGUHxSJ8FKqAhnOqQuAw
    Acer support:
    https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/service-contact
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/  


  • Hazmat07
    Hazmat07 Member Posts: 16

    Tinkerer

    -.150 is too low and will cause power throttling and framerates drops, try -.140
  • dartman120
    dartman120 Member Posts: 3 New User
    I have the exact same issue. I called in to Acer and they told me the laptop was going into the s3 state, which saves everything to the hard drive before going into hibernate. I tried changing windows settings to not hibernate but it did not fix the slowdown issue.
  • bandarqsitus
    bandarqsitus Member Posts: 1 New User
    i have Similar Issue Which is the display get blank...
    https://situs-bandarq.org/
  • poker888ku
    poker888ku Member Posts: 1 New User
    Problematically, I have undervolted it to -.15 and performed windows optimziation. It still reaches 95 C. This is why I think theres an actual issue with mine. I will look into power plan optimization tomorrow,
    https://poker888ku.com/