PH315-51 showing black screen after one hour of web surfing

Shashika, so did you installed the BIOS 1.25 v. successfully? 
Other than installing the newest BIOS v and setting Nitro Sense to Max (I am guessing you talking about the fans settings), what other things have you tried?

I mean this thread has plenty of troubleshooting tips like updating the latest drivers also, disabling the Quick Startup, resetting battery using pinhole etc?

Okay, @Shashika Now we're getting somewhere. Could you re-run userBenchmark? The results say "incomplete". Also while running and slowing down, have Sensors window opened on HWInfo as shown below and take a screenshot. Make sure to have it sized to as high as possible and scroll a bit down so we see what it says under CPU performance first, then some CPU thermals.

Also click and designate a location for logging the data during the test. The paper with green "+" on it in the bottom of the window. Then once the benchmark finished, press the same button again, now with red "X" on it to end recording into the file.

Upload those here and let's check out what is not up to par in performance / thermal throttling...or merely lacking newest driver or something but let's narrow it down to what component might be the culprit.

I suspect you might even have space left from this window on the side to open up task manager as well. do that too please.

Also: Not that the intel UHD graphics shouldn't be able to handle it but aren't you supposed to have an nvidia video card too? Make sure to have its drivers installed, then go into nvidia control panel and select under "Manage 3d settings" > "Global settings" > "High performance nVidia processor" (image below) - at least for the duration of the test. But if your drivers are not installed or here it's set to intel hd that may well be the cause of abnormally slow performance. Usually unless you're testing something it's okay to have that setting on auto. perhaps if a game is slow, you can go to the "program settings" tab instead of "global settings" and there, assign to each game the nvidia card.

Let me know how it goes.

screenshots during test

Hi @Shashika. No worries. Can relate. Just glad you got back to me, helping me help you. So! The things that jump out at me are as follows:

1: Even a peek at task manager shows your hard drive going full tilt. Yet in your csv report we have “read” and “write” speeds sub expectations. It seems pretty jumpy, for going full tilt. And the highest read/write values I saw were about 11 mb/sec & 45mb /sec. That might be worth investigating further. A clean OS install on a new SSD could help a lot. 128/256gb will suffice, just so your os and main sofware can run from it and smoothly. Or at least look into it deeper with CrystalDiskMark.

Also your hard seems to be what's not letting your benchmarks finish. Definitely test with a different hdd or even better: an ssd. Intel optane shouldn't be a problematic drive though. Especially with intel CPU...perhaps see if you can find some driver update for it. But do test and narrow it downt to see if that's your main bottleneck or:

2: Throttling. I see power limit exceeded: yes & thermal throttling: yes values. I also see temperatures jumping high, then calming down, but not necessarily because the fan kicks in enough to start stabilizing temperatures. Seems like the throttling might be what brings the temperatures to manageable levels (in turn producing hicupps and loss in performance.

I'd recommend trying to undervolt the cpu, re-apply high quality thermal paste (better than the horribly done factory thermal pasting job…) and clean the fan while you're at it. If you're not comfortable with the procedures, probably consult a technician. But it's not rocket science. I started on a low-risk, old laptop for my first attempt that we were going to throw away if we weren't able to get it into enough of a working condition to give to an elderly family member to use. Fixed it and multiple laptops since. Don't start with your daily driver if you haven't done these things yet though.

I have the exact same CPU as you do. I undervolted by -100 and it's stable. Tried -150 & -125 but when under very low or no load for prolonged periods it froze up every other day or so. -100 is stable and pretty helpful with power & thermals though. Just make sure to apply both to core voltage and cache in throttlestop. Theyre linked. May not apply if only done for core and not cache as well.

These are the main things that should help. Try that undervolt. See if it helps. If it freezes up just lower it. And try an ssd. Even if you borrow one. And a fresh os instal. If it runs like a dream you'll know what your bottleneck is and what you need to do: buy one for yourself. You can also test with crystaldiskmark and compare with what values it SHOULD have.

Best of luck. If you have any further questions or anything pops up let me know.

@keith_uk try the pinhole reset (stick a sim eject tool/equivalent into the pinhole in the back of the laptop into the reset hole & press), also try connecting an external monitor if it starts to some extent - may be a display issue? can't hurt to narrow it down in case the pinhole reset doesn't work.

Of course if it's under warranty you can always send it back but I find the process too tedious and time-consuming, unless absolutely necessary - I like to try and solve it without taking that step.

If you want to try and troubleshoot, share as much as you can. Any lights on when you press the on button? Do you hear the fan inside spinning? 

@Shashika any luck with your stuff?

@tmpusr unfortunately - as far as I know - there's only the UEFI BIOS version available for these devices. I think - tedious as it is - it may be your only solution. So my advice would be to treat it like you would a necessary injection/flu shot: just get it over with.

Maybe try a clean hard/ssd if you have an extra one from an older device, and do a clean install of your config, see if it solves it so you don't need to wipe your data if it doesn't and you need to send it back for any repairs. Then you can just clone the data off the device's hard for safekeeping till you get the device back.

If the data on it however is not as important, it's merely that it'll be tedious and time consuming reinstalling all the software: You'll probably have to go through that anyway so...With weekend coming up, if you don't have extensive plans, you'll probably just have to go through it.

In your stead I'd still be happier with being able to solve it myself then having to wait for repairs, transit time, sit-on-shelf time in their queue...

It's really not cool though...But I guess they had to cut corners somewhere to get such specs in a device priced as these are priced: pretty low in comparison with similarly or same spec-ed devices from other manufacturers.

Arunzone said:

I am also having the same problem even while browsing system is hanging, I tried the BIOS patch but got no luck, got error message  " older than the current version" So how can I resolve it? Help is much appreciated.

Duckrey said:

Roland_Lorinczi said:

Speaking of BIOS flashing: has any of you flashed a NEWER bios?! We got the bios update that fixed the blackscreen issue but i checked back and at least my model, the PH317-52 has like 5 new iterations of BIOS under it? Any idea of their importance level or performance? Any feedback appreciated guys!

Now obviously NVME SSD Performance is not something I'd risk another BIOS flash version with regular ssd (this laptop model has enough cooling issues stock so didn't want to throw another possibly overheating element in, went with safer and still good regular ssd)

And the latest lighting function timeout can really stay as is, always-on. HOWEVER I'm not sure of the implications of the fixes in between those two. And whether the BIOS versions have been adequately tested and proven to be at least as stable as the ones before.

I have v1.19 (windows pushed/flashed it on top of the 1.15 I flashed earlier when they finally came out with the blackscreen fix)

What am I solving or risking to break with flashing newer version? Any feedback from others with versions v1.19 and up appreciated!

@Acer-Manny any way we can learn what "microcode 0X96" and "0x9A" and stuff like that do?
@Red-Sand ? @sri369 Any ideas maybe? Leads or where I could look to find more on this?
Thanks in advance everyone!

Hi, I have the BIOS V1.19 too, but still with the black screen issue, should I install the BIOS 1.15 to solve it?

Predator Helios 300 (PH315-51)

I wish it was that simple, but sadly its a task and a half to revert the BIOS, i too have wondered that and wanted to try and see if that works, but it seems to be a kind of difficult task to do with the firmware on these laptops.