Acer Nitro 5 Freezing Issue

BertLife
BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
edited October 2023 in 2020 Archives
So this has been as issue since I got the laptop several months ago, but it is happening every day now.
I play League of Legends mostly, and in alot of games I play, about 2 minutes in (at around the same point every game) my screen (on my monitor through HDMI) freezes completely.
No buttons work, the only thing I can do is shut off the laptop and fully restart it. 
At first I thought it was the fan being broken or something related to overheating, but just now the screen froze mid game about 5 minutes after I turned on the laptop and started playing.
The vents were not hot, it literally just froze for no reason.
I have all settings for battery maxed out and I have basically nothing on my hard drive, so I'm at a loss for what is causing this. 
As as side note, this laptop has been very slow and laggy doing even simple things like opening google chrome since the day I got it.
I would really appreciate some help as I spent a lot on this and it is turning out to be a massive disappointment.

Best Answer

  • andylb
    andylb ACE Posts: 3,827 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019 Answer ✓
    Yes the Graphics card (referred to as a GPU) drivers, which I think were your original problem, Windows may not have installed the latest ones so I want you to go here and download the  latest drivers to your laptop and then install them. I don't like automatic updates but I'm a control freak so my advice is to opt out of the option for GEforce experience when installing. Please click YES if I have answered your questions, thankyou
    https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

    Please click YES if I answered your question

    I am not an ACER employee
    Thank you and have a blessed day  B)

    ★★ ACE Pathfinder 2019★★

Answers

  • Jack22
    Jack22 ACE Posts: 4,074 Pathfinder
    @BertLife
    I would suggest you to try a reset or refresh on he unit. Either do a factory reset or try to do a reset by keeping your personal files. It might just work 

    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!
    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!
  • BertLife
    BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
    Jack22 said:
    @BertLife
    I would suggest you to try a reset or refresh on he unit. Either do a factory reset or try to do a reset by keeping your personal files. It might just work 

    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!
    Okay, would you suggest trying to keep my files, testing it out, and then if that doesn't work try a full factory reset, or just skip straight to doing a factory reset? (Would doing a factory reset be more likely to solve my issue?)
  • Jack22
    Jack22 ACE Posts: 4,074 Pathfinder
    @BertLife
    Try first doing keeping the personal file , if that dont work than do the full factory reset.

    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!
    Click on 'Yes' if the comment answers your question!
  • andylb
    andylb ACE Posts: 3,827 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019
    BEFORE you do a factory reset let's update your graphic card drivers and make sure they are configured properly, they are the most likely culprit. What is your exact model number
    AN515-**

    Please click YES if I answered your question

    I am not an ACER employee
    Thank you and have a blessed day  B)

    ★★ ACE Pathfinder 2019★★

  • BertLife
    BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
    andylb said:
    BEFORE you do a factory reset let's update your graphic card drivers and make sure they are configured properly, they are the most likely culprit. What is your exact model number
    AN515-**
    Welp my bad. I actually already started the factory reset about an hour ago (it is currently at 42% but it seems sort of stuck there). Sorry.
    I will try do that and make sure they are configured properly after the reset is done.
    My exact model number is: AIN515-53-52FA.
  • andylb
    andylb ACE Posts: 3,827 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019
    Don't worry it's not stuck it can take a long time. For future reference, when you have graphic card problems then start with the card and it's drivers. In fact reinstalling Windows should be the last option for ANY computer problem. The Windows reinstall may fix it because it should update the GPU driver but it is a process that was probably unnecessary 

    Please click YES if I answered your question

    I am not an ACER employee
    Thank you and have a blessed day  B)

    ★★ ACE Pathfinder 2019★★

  • BertLife
    BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
    andylb said:
    Don't worry it's not stuck it can take a long time. For future reference, when you have graphic card problems then start with the card and it's drivers. In fact reinstalling Windows should be the last option for ANY computer problem. The Windows reinstall may fix it because it should update the GPU driver but it is a process that was probably unnecessary 
    Got it! I will keep that in mind for the future.
    By a long time, are we talking all night long? (7-8+ hours?) 
    Thanks.
  • andylb
    andylb ACE Posts: 3,827 Pathfinder
    Could be, it just depends

    Please click YES if I answered your question

    I am not an ACER employee
    Thank you and have a blessed day  B)

    ★★ ACE Pathfinder 2019★★

  • BertLife
    BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
    edited August 2019
    andylb said:
    Could be, it just depends
    Alright, thanks for your help.
    Just to be clear, when the reset is done, the drivers should be updated right?
    (If not or for the future, is the easiest way to update them through the NVIDIA Application or is there some way for me to turn on "automatic updates?"
    As you can tell I am very new to all of this :)
    Edit: by driver's i meant graphics cards and its drivers
  • andylb
    andylb ACE Posts: 3,827 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019 Answer ✓
    Yes the Graphics card (referred to as a GPU) drivers, which I think were your original problem, Windows may not have installed the latest ones so I want you to go here and download the  latest drivers to your laptop and then install them. I don't like automatic updates but I'm a control freak so my advice is to opt out of the option for GEforce experience when installing. Please click YES if I have answered your questions, thankyou
    https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

    Please click YES if I answered your question

    I am not an ACER employee
    Thank you and have a blessed day  B)

    ★★ ACE Pathfinder 2019★★

  • BertLife
    BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
    andylb said:
    Yes the Graphics card (referred to as a GPU) drivers, which I think were your original problem, Windows may not have installed the latest ones so I want you to go here and download the  latest drivers to your laptop and then install them. I don't like automatic updates but I'm a control freak so my advice is to opt out of the option for GEforce experience when installing. Please click YES if I have answered your questions, thankyou
    https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
    Ok so you know how I said that it would freeze at around 2 minutes into the game every time... well sometimes instead of freezing the game stutters at that same point (what I means is that the laptop freezes for a second or two, and then continues throughout the game perfectly fine).
    I have reset my laptop and updated the graphics card drivers and yet in my first game the stutter happened again (at the same time as usual). Although it didn't freeze, I am sure the two are connected as both happen in most if not all of my games at the exact same time.
    As an extra question, what is the threshold for being "too hot" in my GPU/CPU so that it would overheat my laptop? (Because I used NitroSense during the game and my CPU was hovering around 70-80 degrees which I assume is a major issue.
  • BertLife
    BertLife Member Posts: 21 Troubleshooter
    BertLife said:
    andylb said:
    Yes the Graphics card (referred to as a GPU) drivers, which I think were your original problem, Windows may not have installed the latest ones so I want you to go here and download the  latest drivers to your laptop and then install them. I don't like automatic updates but I'm a control freak so my advice is to opt out of the option for GEforce experience when installing. Please click YES if I have answered your questions, thankyou
    https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
    Ok so you know how I said that it would freeze at around 2 minutes into the game every time... well sometimes instead of freezing the game stutters at that same point (what I means is that the laptop freezes for a second or two, and then continues throughout the game perfectly fine).
    I have reset my laptop and updated the graphics card drivers and yet in my first game the stutter happened again (at the same time as usual). Although it didn't freeze, I am sure the two are connected as both happen in most if not all of my games at the exact same time.
    As an extra question, what is the threshold for being "too hot" in my GPU/CPU so that it would overheat my laptop? (Because I used NitroSense during the game and my CPU was hovering around 70-80 degrees which I assume is a major issue.
    Also I have ordered a Laptop cooling pad in the hopes it will help, do you think this will help?
  • andylb
    andylb ACE Posts: 3,827 Pathfinder
    edited August 2019
    No those temperatures are well within range, Nitros are designed to run up to 90 deg c. let me think on it, I think it's throttling up at a certain point in the game. I've seen something about this before and i'll research it

    1. Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> Edit Plan Settings -> advanced settings 
    2. the select processor power management -> maximum processor state -> plugged in -> change 100 to 80-60.


    Please click YES if I answered your question

    I am not an ACER employee
    Thank you and have a blessed day  B)

    ★★ ACE Pathfinder 2019★★

  • Spritan
    Spritan Member Posts: 3 New User
    Hello everyone i also have struggled much with this problem after many experiments i have seen tat it is due to most chromium based browsers so turning hardware acceleration in your browser of choice should do it i had the same problem with Vivaldi, chrome, edge and also brave but turning off hardware acceleration in each was the cure so it. if the issue still remains try switching to Firefox and even than it remains than it may be a hardware related problem