Nitro 5 crashes after game shutdown

[Entrias]

Hello,

This will be a bit of a long post as I have been documenting this for quite awhile as to get as much info as I could before reporting to a forum(s). All help is appreciated but please read the full post first.

 

INTRO:

I bought my Nitro 5 back in early may 2019 from Acers Ebay site as a "CERTIFIED REFURBISHED". I had use for a cheap and relatively thin and light-ish daily-driver (work/light gaming on the go) laptop at the time i picked it up for like 500-ish bucks off their site on ebay. I usually play games like Elite Dangerous, Overwatch or Minecraft :), on this machine. Strangely the crash is 90% replicatable with Overwatch but NEVER happens with Minecraft or DeSmuMe or Baba is You, Ect no matter how long or hard I play. More on that below. 

 

I own a NITRO 5 AN515-53

 

I5 8300h/1050TI/256gb M.2/8gb ram

Win 10 1809 - Updating as I write this to 1903

 

The only "mods" I have done are as follows:

1tb WD hhd add-on (need the extra space 256 gb on a m.2 wasn't cutting it)

16gb of balistix laptop memory @2666 picked it up at my local tech shop on sale so why not. I have a total of 24gb in this unit 8gb from Acer, 16 is the aforementioned ram. I have tried using one or the other stick of ram solo and still get the crash. (closest thing I could find quickly online)

And seeing people online saying the laptop does get a little warm I went and reapplied some kryonaught thermal paste I had just around to see if that would keep thermals more manageable without undervolting.

Lastly i did a panel swap for a more color accurate 1080p 120hz panel. I put a link to the EXACT tutorial i followed for the panel. Its even the same panel he recommended and demonstrated that it works. (linked below) (it also retains stock factory brightness controls) 

Panel

Tutorial

 

All the pins on the panel are intact and the connection on the ribbon cable is secure with the tape from the stock panel.

So yes, technically its modded but its all just "bolt on" or thermal paste. I didn't do anything crazy like messing with the motherboard, just some quick quality of life improvements.

 

PROBLEM:

Ok now i've gotten that out of the way. Its time to get down to it. I have tried everything most of you are about to comment...not to say your help or opinion i'snt welcome (i'm here for help in the first place) just please read the full post first before telling me to redo drivers or something simple like that. 

So as i mentioned above - "I usually play games like Elite Dangerous, Overwatch or Minecraft :), on this machine. Strangely the crash is 90% replicatable with Overwatch but NEVER happens with Minecraft no matter how long or hard I play." 

Programs such as Chrome,Steam, Notepad++, Discord, Minecraft (Java/OpenGL), DEmuME (OpenGL Nintendo DS Emulation) dont give me issues nor does video/audio playback from VLC.

 

- My method to getting the getting the crash to occur is as follows:

1. log into windows normally. (while checking i'm on wall power)

2. Open battlenet/overwatch/task manager (boot the game) 

3. go into practice range, walk to busy area with lots on screen to simulate the stress of a quick/arcade match

4. stand still for 3-5 mins (you can walk around a bit i don't think it actually matters, it may crash sometimes while doing so)

5. alt+f4, Esc "quit to desktop", Esc "quit to main menu" 

 

**SIDE NOTE** (I make sure to have task manager open and have Overwatch's advanced FPS/GPU temp open as a rough estimate of how hot i'm running. Usually no hotter than 70-73 at worst. Also just booting games like BF1,The Crew 2, Arma 3 (Sometimes), TW Shogun 2, Ect will possibly cause the error, sometimes you can get in a game for a bit but it has a good chance of just crapping out at any second or on game close. Overwatch is the one game I can get it to do it consistently.)

 

Then at this point you get to desktop for a split second if your lucky and the GPU will spike for half a second as it closes the app then it calms down and bam screen goes black you will get audio feedback at this point if you were playing music (as i often do while gaming). The laptop itself seems to recover sometimes but the screen does not also the screen will flicker random pixels on and off. Any side display you have open will just be black as well or will just freeze as it was.

 

Only way to recover fully is to powercycle. 

 

Lastly just want to make clear that I have spent better part of an hour typing this on the laptop in question with no issue so long as I dont dare touch a DX program. 

 

THINGS I HAVE TRIED:

1. Seeing as it caused my screen to "die" I thought drivers instantly. I uninstalled Nvidias drivers and reverted to a stable build 390. that comes with the laptop. Still crashed.

So I updated the drivers to the newest available 430.39 at the time. Still no fix. I wiped both the Intel and Nvidia driver and went to device manager and let it download what it thought was best automatically. Still no fix. I did a full DDU and reinstalled 430.39 and set the gpu 3d settings to pick the 1050ti for Overwatch. No fix. 

**Currently on 419.72 as I will explain why down below**

 

2. Updating windows

I checked for updates when the error started to occur and windows had it usual small definitions updates but nothing major. I have been on 1809 this whole time since I got the laptop pretty much.

 

3. Antivirus

I have done the free trial of malwarebytes and nothing to report there clean slate. 

 

4. Direct X  DXDIAG check

Tried doing a Direct X self check since it only seems to happen with direct X based applications. DXDIAG.exe had nothing unusual to report.

 

5. Verifying game files

I know this might seem dumb but i couldn't rule it out, still no change to report.

 

6. Using diffrent ram set-ups

Ok so, seeing as i have 2 sticks of ram in this laptop, the Acer OEM 8gb 2666 and the Balistix sport LT 16gb 2666 i decided to do some ram swapping in various configs. Maybe its my too different sticks causing some weird issues?  After messing around with it on all tests it still would reproduce the crash on multiple DX based games. Nothing much really to report there. 

 

7. Harddrive removal

Well I figure i'm this far so i should at least give it a shot. So I transfer a few test games to the 256gb ssd and boot them up after removing the 1tb disk drive. Crash as usual. Currently have the drive back in.

 

8. Checking the Panel

So as mentioned i do have a 120hz panel in here. I first though it was the pin connection to the panel and something could be loose but apon inspection and re-installation it seems to be fine and functions nominally as I type this. Windows picks it up and Nvidia does too as 120 hz 1920x1080. 

 

9. Doing a fresh install of games that are causing the issues

Yeah nope. Still crashes.

 

10. Event viewer and reliability monitor

Ok, i see why other people use these to detect issues, but for some reason the only issue this laptop detects is windows was shut down improperly: IE me powercycling after it "crashes".

 

11. Doing a fresh windows install.

Last night I did a fresh windows install as the last stand before doing my write up and getting community input. The laptop has run fine over the night and this morning, ive reinstalled mostly everything. I went into device manager and updated the 1050ti based on whatever windows felt is best which as i mentioned above is 419.72. Just watching some YouTube and playing minecraft while having a good breakfast and coffee :D, had elite dangerous's launcher open, 1 chome tab, steam (with a dl in progress) and minecraft. 

 

This time screen doesn't go black windows just freezes. I get the audio feed back loop from the YouTube audio and that's that. Its just stops. *powercycle* And here we are writing this because honestly about 2 -5 days from moving and i'm selling my desktop, so id like this laptop to be a nice tie-over until thing settle down and I can buy/build a new desktop. All these crashes happened without a single error reported or blue screen so its been hard to track down and trace. I'm personally thinking i bought a dead gpu laptop "refurbished" from acer.

 

Id love to get feedback/comments/questions/answers. My main goal is to A) get my baby fixed and B) give light onto an issue that some of you might be having and a place where we can try and figure out not just for me but for other people googling this right now wondering if they have to go to geek squad and spend that last paycheck.

 

 

Thanks for your time, and sorry about the long post its just been a side project of mine since may to figure it out so I wanted to be through before asking people to dedicate time to this.

Cheers Entrias.

*writing this on the broken laptop in question XD*

[Entrias]

also new to the forum sorry if i posted in the wrong spot 

[AndreiArgeanu]

Firstly Edit your post and remove the SNID and Serial. A- they are not required B- it's sensitive data about your laptop you should keep to yourself.

[AndreiArgeanu]

One of the solutions

Try their drivers here

So check the driver section and make sure you have all of those and also in the applications download nitro sense as it may help optimize some stuff.

 

If none of that works I recommend using Acers Live Chat or online formular to send them a question/enquiry however I believe live chat is more effective.

They are open Monday - Friday; 9.00am - 6.00pm

 

Edit: Also all the modifications you have done could have cause certain issues. Anyway, I recommend trying stress testing (gpu/cpu/ram) using Aida64 and if it crashes while doing the test it may have stability issues. Also have you tried other games which put a lot of stress on the cpu and gpu like gta v and see if it crashes there?

[Entrias]

Thanks for the reply, Im going though the driver list and just downloading and installing all of the ones they have listed. (just to be super safe)

Also i have had nitro sense the whole time i dont know if it seems to do much besides fans and power modes.