My Acer Predator 15 G9-592-71EF Gaming Laptop Has Serious Display/Function Issues w/ Game Launchers

As suggested by a community member, I'm now creating my own thread to explain an issue I'm dealing with on my Acer Preadator G9-592-71EF laptop.

I tried posting this thread a couple days ago but it never showed up and I have no idea what happened.

My laptop details:
- Acer Predator 15
- Model # G9-592-71EF
- Intel Core i7-6700HQ
- GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 980M 8GB GDDR5
- 16GB DDR3 RAM
- Windows 10 Home 64-Bit (updated to Version 1909)
- NVIDIA Driver Version 390.77*
* Latest version available is 441.87. However, all newer versions after 390.77 cause additional problems/issues with launching my different game launchers and the Fortnite game installed on my laptop.

The problem/issues experienced:

[A] Upon launching the Battle.net game launcher desktop app, the window is invisible. I can hover over the window and some popup messages will appear but the main window itself will remain invisible. Unable to update and/or launch any games within Battle.net game launcher. This issue occurs with both current NVIDIA driver version 390.77 installed and any new driver versions I update to.
Reference Video Recording:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isCBsRx04c&t=8s

[B] Upon launching the EPIC Games Launcher desktop app, the window is completely invisible. I can hover over one of the sides of the window to try to resize it. If I resize the window it will appear but then it becomes frozen and not functional meaning I cannot click any of the buttons. Sticking with NVIDIA Driver Version 390.77 temporarily resolved this issue and made the EPIC Games Launcher window viewable and functioning again. However, EPIC Games Launcher recently prompted an update in Dec. 2019 and this caused a new issue regardless of which NVIDIA driver version I had installed. The EPIC Games Launcher app would continuously flash on and off the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen, thus making it completely non-functioning.
Reference Video Recording:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGILNaby-3Y - EPIC Games Launcher window not displaying at all (invisible).
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgmnaH2CT0g (starts at 0:58) - EPIC Games Launcher window displaying but in frozen state.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isCBsRx04c&t=8s (starts at 0:56) - EPIC Games Launcher update continuously flashing on and off.

[C] Upon launching the RuneScape game client, the window displays partially black and white. If I adjust and move the window I'm able to get the login screen to display but it becomes frozen so I'm not able to click any buttons or type on this window. The game client sound does play but display is non-functioning.
Reference Video Recording:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgmnaH2CT0g

[D] Fortnite game available thru EPIC Games Launcher will abruptly crash with "UE4-Fortnite Game Crash" error immediately after opening the game. This issue occurs with any new NVIDIA driver version AFTER 390.77 installed. The issue does not occur if I stick with NVIDIA Driver Version 390.77 (or older) installed.

I really appreciate any suggestions or solutions you may have. I already contacted Acer Support inquiring about a repair request but they quoted $1169.99 CAD, which is completely out of the picture. I would just upgrade to a new laptop instead of paying that high of a repair fee. But I'm not interested in buying a new/replacement gaming laptop. I'd very much like to try and resolve this issue to some degree so that I can continue to play games on this laptop.

Thanks all.

Accepted answers

Jadchor

I'm thinking you're likely right that older GPU probably isn't properly supported by all the newer drivers.

I tried some troubleshooting tonight and got some success out of it!

Firstly, I defaulted back to the original chipset and VGA drivers provided by Acer for this laptop model available at https://www.acer.com/ac/en/ID/content/support-product/6645;-;

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/a5/m9glkx75ldc5.png

The VGA driver for NVIDIA is very old. It's GeForce Game Ready Driver Version 359.00 (11/19/2015). This worked and allowed me to open and view all my game launchers again (see screenshot below). However, the extremely old NVIDIA driver may cause even more problems while playing newer games.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/72/avdycqqhabg4.png

So I decided to install and try out the latest NVIDIA driver (Version 441.87) again now that I have the Intel chipset and VGA drivers reset to the old original versions. Just wanted to rule out if there was some sort of incompatibility between the new NVIDIA and Intel drivers.

With great surprise, the latest NVIDIA driver is now installed and I'm still able to open and view all my game launchers and games (i.e., RuneScape)! See screenshot below... My guess is there was some sort of incompatibility issue with the newer Intel drivers.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ft/rn6i1r50rcad.png

All comments

xapim

Seems to me your issue its with windows netframework the symptoms you have I can replicate exactly when I access my laptops via remote access either vnc/team viewer make sure the launchers are running though the dgpu and not the igpu and probably also due to your gpu being old it's not properly supported by the newer nvidia drivers that should be addressed to nvidia on their own support because game Dec's and launchers drop support for older drivers and if you have an old unsupported gpu there's nothing you can do to fix anything unfortunately

Jadchor

I'm thinking you're likely right that older GPU probably isn't properly supported by all the newer drivers.

I tried some troubleshooting tonight and got some success out of it!

Firstly, I defaulted back to the original chipset and VGA drivers provided by Acer for this laptop model available at https://www.acer.com/ac/en/ID/content/support-product/6645;-;

The VGA driver for NVIDIA is very old. It's GeForce Game Ready Driver Version 359.00 (11/19/2015). This worked and allowed me to open and view all my game launchers again (see screenshot below). However, the extremely old NVIDIA driver may cause even more problems while playing newer games.

So I decided to install and try out the latest NVIDIA driver (Version 441.87) again now that I have the Intel chipset and VGA drivers reset to the old original versions. Just wanted to rule out if there was some sort of incompatibility between the new NVIDIA and Intel drivers.

With great surprise, the latest NVIDIA driver is now installed and I'm still able to open and view all my game launchers and games (i.e., RuneScape)! See screenshot below... My guess is there was some sort of incompatibility issue with the newer Intel drivers.

xapim

@Jadchor i only updated my gtx drivers once and it was because BF5 and BO required a newer driver in order to launch im still on 416.94 and works fine all other drivers including igpu are still stock you could give a try with the driver i have see if it works for you you can find it here and yes the intel drivers can be a pain sometimes

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