Question Whea_Uncorrectable_Error, freezing, dark screen, no dump files

[somnomania]

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, which sits at 0% and never advances or generates a dump file.



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. I also discovered that if the laptop is bumped while on the bluescreen, it just completely powers off, so that's cool.

Things I've run to test:

• MemTest86 (fine)
• Windows Memory Diagnostic (fine)
• Crystal Disk Info (fine)
• Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool (fine)
• chkdsk on both drives (it found and fixed some things on both drives and is now fine)
• sfc /scannow (both drives, found things but couldn't fix them; after running DISM, was able to fix them)
• dism (fixed some things, is now fine)
• 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. I've looked into windbg but I don't have a second machine to test with to find out what the error strings indicate. 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.

 

[rgd1101]

3 weeks and having issue? return it

 

[somnomania]

This is not a new laptop, I've had it for two years and I said that in my post.

 

[rgd1101]

it is hardware issue. take it back to the shop to have them look at

 

[somnomania]

I'm going to today, but I was hoping someone might be able to look at the evidence and at least point me and the repair place in a specific direction. I've already tried replacing the HDD, and the memory tests fine. Last time I brought the laptop home, about a week ago, the repair place agreed that based on what it was doing then, the HDD seemed like the most likely cause.

 

[rgd1101]

could take out the hdd and test without that

 

[somnomania]

I appreciate the suggestion. I tried that just now, and it still has problems. Since I booted it the first time today, it's bluescreened a couple of times, but has also frozen multiple times, including the audio freezing in my headphones. I hadn't had a black screen freeze yet but when I bumped it with the HDD disconnected it did one.

 

[rgd1101]

something could be shorted or loose inside.