UncleMikey42 Enthusiast

Without it, you don't have wireless drivers. That said, as I said earlier, you probably need to uninstall it first before installing the new one.

Then I'm not sure what else to suggest. That should be current.

Make sure this is what you downloaded:

You may need to explicitly uninstall the older version first. In this situation, always make sure you have the installer for the current version on your hard drive, since you may otherwise be unable to install anything at all off the net!

Yes, that should it.

The current version of PredatorSense all Acer stuff can be grabbed here: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7604?b=1&pn=NH.Q3NAA.003 -- scroll to the Application section near the bottom. The Killer Networks update can be found on their support…

(alternately, you could just UNINSTALL PredatorSense, but there are things about it that are useful to have for fan control etc.)

Right. You need to update your software. You have The Bug you'll find us talking about three months ago. Grab the newest versions of Acer's PredatorSense from here, and also update your Killer Networks stuff. Something about a particular version of the two of them, together, plus Windows 10 release 1803, causes that…

Sort by CPU percentage until the worst offenders are at the top. What are they?

Sorry. I was speaking MacOS-ese there for a minute. Task Manager is what you want!

First thing to check for is, what's eating your system's resources. Use the Activity Monitor and find out. The only reason your system should be underperforming that badly is if some other program is chewing up the CPU, or bloating memory until the machine is swapping all the time.

Same. Whole reason I got this specific product was because it looked like it was actually designed to stay cool, and so far, it has, without any tinkering. I haven't even cracked the case out of curiosity, let alone to actually modify anything! Weird.

That's correct. I bought the machine to play games at max settings, and the machine stays perfectly comfortable and cool the entire time. I rarely bother cranking up the fans, I've only experimented a little bit with undervolting, and I certainly haven't cracked the case open to re-paste anything, since the entire reason I…

I definitely can appreciate wanting to avoid the extra do-hickey if you don't need it. I used it directly on my lap for a few days before deciding to buy the cooling pad, and ultimately went with it for ergonomics more than cooling performance, although as I said, I did have some concerns about possibly blocking the…

I use this device so far exclusively on my lap. I do use a laptop cooling pad underneath it, but more to guarantee a stand-off between my body and the laptop's fan intakes on the bottom than anything else--otherwise, those intakes would be resting right on my legs much of the time. The pad I chose (Targus Chill Hub) also…

Awesome review (and a few tips and tricks I had missed reading elsewhere that I plan to look into). I agree with you that Acer has really knocked it out of the park with this machine. I bought mine (also at MicroCenter) in lieu of paying more for a "thin and light" and I actually find myself with no regrets whatsoever.…

Check the support/drivers page. There's actually a driver update about that, I believe. 

Are you overclocking or undervolting or any other such tricks?

Mine was on sale for US$1699 at MicroCenter last week when I bought it (and that sale price was part of my decision-making, although it was on my radar anyway). I'm very happy with it, despite it's hugeness, so I'm not surprised if it sold out quickly.

...that's fascinating. Given that I was buying this for gaming, I'm not sure I'd have considered that option if it were offered, this time. I have a development laptop, though (Dell XPS13) that I did get Linux pre-installed on. But there are very few "mainstream" brands in the US that offer it as an option!