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Predator Helios 300 PH315-51: Random crashes to no bootable drive

Hello! I have a brand new (literally pulled it out of the box hours ago) Predator Helios 300, and the laptop keeps crashing, leading to a black screen that reads "No bootable drive". I installed a Seagate 2TB HDD when I got the laptop, initialized as GPT and created a single volume for additional storage, nothing crazy. I haven't touched the stock SSD. It's worked fine for the first 3 hours or so, but in the last half hour it's crashed twice to the no bootable drive screen. The computer will boot and run for a time, then crashes to the no bootable drive screen.

I found a semi-recent thread with the same issue, but the only item in the BIOS boot priority order is "Windows Boot Manager", neither the SSD or HDD are shown.

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/539954/no-bootable-device-cant-boot-past-bios

I'm not even sure how to start fixing this one, I'd very much appreciate any help. Thank you!

Model: Predator PH315-51

Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 bit

Intel i7 8750H

Accepted answers

DoubleMonocles

Thanks xapim, I appreciate the response! I couldn't find anything wrong, and none of the solutions worked, so I ended up returning it and exchanging it for a new one. It's been 3 days and I've had no problems, so I'm guessing it was a hardware issue with the original.

All comments

Red-Sand

Try disabling secure boot and set UEFI to Legacy in BIOs and see if you can get into desktop.
You might need to set a admin password in BIOs to activate Legacy.

If you get to desktop immediately go to Acer's website and updatento the latest BIOs.

DoubleMonocles

Red-Sand said:

Try disabling secure boot and set UEFI to Legacy in BIOs and see if you can get into desktop.
You might need to set a admin password in BIOs to activate Legacy.

If you get to desktop immediately go to Acer's website and updatento the latest BIOs.

Thanks for the reply! I can get to the desktop without changing anything, the computer will boot normally and will run anywhere between ~10 minutes to 2 hours before it crashes to a blue screen that says ":( your pc has a problem and needs to restart. we're just collecting some error info and then we'll restart for you 0% complete. Stop Code: DPC Watchdog Violation" and then switches to the black screen with "No Bootable Device".

I didn't missed seeing the blue screen the past couple of times, a quick google of DPC Watchdog Violation looks like it could be an error with the SSD drivers. I'll update those, and look for the BIOS update, and report back.

DoubleMonocles

BIOS was already the most current version, and all drivers were up to date. It hasn't crashed yet this morning, but given how unpredictable the crashes have been I'm not convinced that it won't happen again. I did have a couple fresh Windows updates this morning (Feature update to Windows 10 version 1803; Update for adobe flash player... KB4462930; 2018-09 Update for Windows 10 version 1803 for x64-based systems KB4100347; and 2018-09 Security update for adobe flash player...KB4100347), but I'd be surprised if they solved the problem. They seem to be pretty recent updates, and if this were a problem common enough to be addressed in a Windows update I figure it would have been done by now. I'll post again next time it crashes, in the meantime, and idea what to do next?

DoubleMonocles

Just crashed again after about 6 hours of use, so the Windows updates didn't do it. Still looking for a solution if anyone has suggestions

xapim

DoubleMonocles said:

Red-Sand said:

Try disabling secure boot and set UEFI to Legacy in BIOs and see if you can get into desktop.
You might need to set a admin password in BIOs to activate Legacy.

If you get to desktop immediately go to Acer's website and updatento the latest BIOs.

Thanks for the reply! I can get to the desktop without changing anything, the computer will boot normally and will run anywhere between ~10 minutes to 2 hours before it crashes to a blue screen that says ":( your pc has a problem and needs to restart. we're just collecting some error info and then we'll restart for you 0% complete. Stop Code: DPC Watchdog Violation" and then switches to the black screen with "No Bootable Device".

I didn't missed seeing the blue screen the past couple of times, a quick google of DPC Watchdog Violation looks like it could be an error with the SSD drivers. I'll update those, and look for the BIOS update, and report back.

DPC_Watchdog_Violation) is a common issue in the Windows operating system. It's occurred due to some specific reasons, like unsupported SSD firmware, old SSD driver version, hardware incompatibility issues, or system files are corrupted.

your windows system files/file might be corrupted and when windows tries to access that specific file crashes try to run sfc /scannow in cmd (admin rights) just to see if it finds any errors with the system files

and also check the logs in the administrative tools/computer management/event viewer/ windows logs check all logs to see any critical errors u might find

DoubleMonocles

Thanks xapim, I appreciate the response! I couldn't find anything wrong, and none of the solutions worked, so I ended up returning it and exchanging it for a new one. It's been 3 days and I've had no problems, so I'm guessing it was a hardware issue with the original.

altamash007

DoubleMonocles said:

Hello! I have a brand new (literally pulled it out of the box hours ago) Predator Helios 300, and the laptop keeps crashing, leading to a black screen that reads "No bootable drive". I installed a Seagate 2TB HDD when I got the laptop, initialized as GPT and created a single volume for additional storage, nothing crazy. I haven't touched the stock SSD. It's worked fine for the first 3 hours or so, but in the last half hour it's crashed twice to the no bootable drive screen. The computer will boot and run for a time, then crashes to the no bootable drive screen.

I found a semi-recent thread with the same issue, but the only item in the BIOS boot priority order is "Windows Boot Manager", neither the SSD or HDD are shown.
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/539954/no-bootable-device-cant-boot-past-bios

I'm not even sure how to start fixing this one, I'd very much appreciate any help. Thank you!

Model: Predator PH315-51
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 bit
Intel i7 8750H

same issue its been only 12 hours i have bought same version it is showing black screen on boot up.

altamash007

what should i do it is not respondung my helios 300 ph15-51 on boot up showing only black screen.
i7 8750. from india

altamash007

altamash007 said:

what should i do it is not respondung my helios 300 ph15-51 on boot up showing only black screen.
i7 8750. from india

bought only few hours ago

milsabords

I had the same symtoms 2 months ago. Computer was repaired under warranty: mother board changed.
If you can, backup your SSD and HD with a disk backup utility, Easeus, Aomei, Macrium ... before giving it to customer service.

Svarog

Anyone knows what is the issue and how to fix it? I am having the same problem (got a computer 3 days ago) and I would rather not send it away to customer service for god knows how long.

xapim

Follow the advice and return it as out of the box it shouldn't do that should work just fine if it's not just ask for a replacement asap depending from who/where you bought it (i had been reading really bad reviews about flipkart brand new boxes opened broken seals etc.. so watch out also wrong model showing up on windows wrong predator sense (factory windows installed for the wrong model) just keep an eye on those.