Whea_Uncorrectable_Error, freezing, dark screen

Forums ate my first, lengthy post, so that's cool. Gives me a chance to pare it down, I guess.

This problem's been going on for about three weeks now. Laptop is Acer Nitro AN515-54, Windows 10 (build 19045.2728), about two years old. When the laptop is shifted, bumped, sometimes when the screen is angled differently, it does one of three things: it freezes completely, the screen goes backlit black (but my repair guy tried an external monitor when this happened and said the whole system was frozen, because nothing happened), or it does this BSOD.



It first happened while I was watching a video in VLC, which scared me because I cannot afford a new motherboard, which is what I'd need if it was the CPU or GPU. Then it seemed like it was mostly happening when I had a game open, which still looked like a graphics issue. I took it to the repair guy, he opened it up, found that the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU had been burnt, and the fan had a huge wad of animal hair in it. He fixed those things, and I took it home, but it was still doing the thing. Through testing via usage, and running tests at home, I thought I had it narrowed down to my secondary hard drive, an HDD (the primary drive that the OS is on is an SSD). But I just ordered a new one, waited five and a half hours for it to clone over, installed it, booted, and it almost immediately bluescreened on me.

Things I've run to test:

• MemTest86 (fine)
• Windows Memory Diagnostic (fine)
• Crystal Disk Info (fine)
• Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (fine)
• chkdsk on the second drive (twice; it found and fixed some things both times)
• sfc /scannow (on the second drive, it found some things but couldn't fix them)
• Acer Care Center tests for memory, battery, hard drives (fine)

When this first started, the string in the upper left of the bluescreen (which my repair guy said isn't usually where that info is?) was different, and I posted on r/techsupport about it and the one person who replied said it pointed to something wrong with the CPU. I have no idea how accurate that is, or what this newer one means. The laptop was running at an average of 190-200F during games, for months, so obviously it's very possible that some other component got cooked, but I don't know what. I tried BlueScreenView, and because the bluescreen I'm getting just sits on 0% until I hold the power button down, it's useless, because no dump files are ever generated.

I'm seriously at my wit's end with this. I'm disabled, I can't work, and my computer is my life, I spend most of my time awake playing video games, writing, and chatting with friends. My laptop is usable, as long as I move very carefully with it, and considering I have two dogs who like to come in and wrestle on top of my legs in my bed, that's not always possible. If anyone can help or provide insight, I'd be incredibly grateful.

somnomania said:

Forums ate my first, lengthy post, so that's cool. Gives me a chance to pare it down, I guess.

This problem's been going on for about three weeks now. Laptop is Acer Nitro AN515-54, Windows 10 (build 19045.2728), about two years old. When the laptop is shifted, bumped, sometimes when the screen is angled differently, it does one of three things: it freezes completely, the screen goes backlit black (but my repair guy tried an external monitor when this happened and said the whole system was frozen, because nothing happened), or it does this BSOD.



It first happened while I was watching a video in VLC, which scared me because I cannot afford a new motherboard, which is what I'd need if it was the CPU or GPU. Then it seemed like it was mostly happening when I had a game open, which still looked like a graphics issue. I took it to the repair guy, he opened it up, found that the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU had been burnt, and the fan had a huge wad of animal hair in it. He fixed those things, and I took it home, but it was still doing the thing. Through testing via usage, and running tests at home, I thought I had it narrowed down to my secondary hard drive, an HDD (the primary drive that the OS is on is an SSD). But I just ordered a new one, waited five and a half hours for it to clone over, installed it, booted, and it almost immediately bluescreened on me.

Things I've run to test:

• MemTest86 (fine)
• Windows Memory Diagnostic (fine)
• Crystal Disk Info (fine)
• Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (fine)
• chkdsk on the second drive (twice; it found and fixed some things both times)
• sfc /scannow (on the second drive, it found some things but couldn't fix them)
• Acer Care Center tests for memory, battery, hard drives (fine)

When this first started, the string in the upper left of the bluescreen (which my repair guy said isn't usually where that info is?) was different, and I posted on r/techsupport about it and the one person who replied said it pointed to something wrong with the CPU. I have no idea how accurate that is, or what this newer one means. The laptop was running at an average of 190-200F during games, for months, so obviously it's very possible that some other component got cooked, but I don't know what. I tried BlueScreenView, and because the bluescreen I'm getting just sits on 0% until I hold the power button down, it's useless, because no dump files are ever generated.

I'm seriously at my wit's end with this. I'm disabled, I can't work, and my computer is my life, I spend most of my time awake playing video games, writing, and chatting with friends. My laptop is usable, as long as I move very carefully with it, and considering I have two dogs who like to come in and wrestle on top of my legs in my bed, that's not always possible. If anyone can help or provide insight, I'd be incredibly grateful.

no dump files and you cleared your event log today before posting.

tomdsr said:

no dump files and you cleared your event log today before posting.

Yes, I said very clearly that there were no dump files ever generated with this. I can't change that. And if the event log is cleared, it's the system doing so on its own, I don't even know how to clear it. The couple of times I had it open over a week ago to see if there was anything of use there, it was mostly 10016 and 6062. I just opened it now, and the two oldest entries are from about ten minutes ago, clearing the application log file and the system log file.

somnomania said:

Yes, I said very clearly that there were no dump files ever generated with this. I can't change that. And if the event log is cleared, it's the system doing so on its own, I don't even know how to clear it. The couple of times I had it open over a week ago to see if there was anything of use there, it was mostly 10016 and 6062. I just opened it now, and the two oldest entries are from about ten minutes ago, clearing the application log file and the system log file.

both likely as your main drive is 75% full.

my oldest in my system log is 10/6/2022

Sadly there is very little we can suggest without dump or log data. WHEA (the Windows Hardware Error Architecture) BSODs are most usually hardware related, although they can be triggered by bad drivers.

The first thing I'd suggest then, is that you check that all drivers are up to date. DO NOT use any third-party driver search and install tool, and if you have used one of these in the past that could well be your problem. Look for updated drivers in these locations, and in this order...

1. The laptop vendor's support website (Acer in the UK site). Laptops are very sensitive to drivers, they are often customised by the vendor for power saving and other requirements. Generic drivers from hardware vendors (Nvidia, Intel, etc.) often do not work properly because they don't contain these customisations.

2. Windows Update. Click on the 'View optional updates' link and expand Driver Updates to see drivers found by Windows Update.

3. The specific hardware vendor's website (Nvidia, Intel, etc.). Use these sites ONLY if the Acer site does not have a driver.

The second thing I'd suggest is that you disconnect all external devices, except monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

The log files displayed mismatched RAM modules.

Please remove the most recently installed RAM module and monitor the computer for instability / stability.

Code:

Capacity     : 8GB
Speed        : 2667
PartNumber   : HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK    

Capacity     : 8GB
Speed        : 3200
PartNumber   : V01D4S88GB1G81G83200

tomdsr said:

both likely as your main drive is 75% full.

my oldest in my system log is 10/6/2022

I thought 10% free was the hard limit re: things happening with hard drives.

ubuysa said:

Sadly there is very little we can suggest without dump or log data. WHEA (the Windows Hardware Error Architecture) BSODs are most usually hardware related, although they can be triggered by bad drivers.

The first thing I'd suggest then, is that you check that all drivers are up to date. DO NOT use any third-party driver search and install tool, and if you have used one of these in the past that could well be your problem. Look for updated drivers in these locations, and in this order...

1. The laptop vendor's support website (Acer in the UK site). Laptops are very sensitive to drivers, they are often customised by the vendor for power saving and other requirements. Generic drivers from hardware vendors (Nvidia, Intel, etc.) often do not work properly because they don't contain these customisations.

2. Windows Update. Click on the 'View optional updates' link and expand Driver Updates to see drivers found by Windows Update.

3. The specific hardware vendor's website (Nvidia, Intel, etc.). Use these sites ONLY if the Acer site does not have a driver.

The second thing I'd suggest is that you disconnect all external devices, except monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

1. I just installed all I could from there, we'll see how it goes.

2. Bafflingly, I don't have that option. I've seen it before, it's usually there, but not today:



3. Those drivers are all up to date, as far as I know.

zbook said:

The log files displayed mismatched RAM modules.

Please remove the most recently installed RAM module and monitor the computer for instability / stability.

Code:

Capacity     : 8GB
Speed        : 2667
PartNumber   : HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK    

Capacity     : 8GB
Speed        : 3200
PartNumber   : V01D4S88GB1G81G83200

I'll try it, but it's had those two mismatched RAM sticks since the day I got it. I bought the Hynix one alongside the laptop and installed it when it got here, so it's been running like that for two years just fine.

- - - Updated - - -

ubuysa said:

Sadly there is very little we can suggest without dump or log data. WHEA (the Windows Hardware Error Architecture) BSODs are most usually hardware related, although they can be triggered by bad drivers.

The first thing I'd suggest then, is that you check that all drivers are up to date. DO NOT use any third-party driver search and install tool, and if you have used one of these in the past that could well be your problem. Look for updated drivers in these locations, and in this order...

1. The laptop vendor's support website (Acer in the UK site). Laptops are very sensitive to drivers, they are often customised by the vendor for power saving and other requirements. Generic drivers from hardware vendors (Nvidia, Intel, etc.) often do not work properly because they don't contain these customisations.

2. Windows Update. Click on the 'View optional updates' link and expand Driver Updates to see drivers found by Windows Update.

3. The specific hardware vendor's website (Nvidia, Intel, etc.). Use these sites ONLY if the Acer site does not have a driver.

The second thing I'd suggest is that you disconnect all external devices, except monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

Sorry for a second reply quote, I couldn't see a way to edit a reply. Something about the drivers I installed caused some problems, the screen stopped working and it was doing partial boots and then boot loops, and when I finally got the screen to work again I let it do startup repair, and it removed some of the updates. Also, the only external device I ever have on this laptop is a Bluetooth wireless mouse.

zbook said:

The log files displayed mismatched RAM modules.

Please remove the most recently installed RAM module and monitor the computer for instability / stability.

Code:

Capacity     : 8GB
Speed        : 2667
PartNumber   : HMA81GS6CJR8N-VK    

Capacity     : 8GB
Speed        : 3200
PartNumber   : V01D4S88GB1G81G83200

Also apologies for a second reply. I was mistaken, the Hynix was the one originally in the laptop, as the SSD is the same brand, but my point still stands. Taking out the one I added did not fix the problem.