Acer 8943G game freeze/sound stutter problem.

Hello everyone!

I just want to share this problem with all of you, in hope for some answers.

I got this Acer Aspire 8943G for about 1 month ago, and I'm very happy with it. The ONLY problem(except for wifi) is that in some games: StarCraft II, CoD MW2, CS, CS:Source and other games like that, i get completely RANDOM freezes for 4-6 sec(every 1-5 minutes), together with a sound stuttering(repeats last sound that appeared when it freezes 4-5-6 times) I have read lots of issues like this, but nothing I tried worked.

Games I don't get freezes in is League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth or even BF:Bad Company 2. All games is good graphic wise, and I'm still sitting here clueless and helpless with my random freezes. I would appriciate anything.

Specs:
ATI Radeon HD 5850
Intel i7 1,6
1 TB HDD
8GB DDr3 Memory

(want to add that I read another article on this laptop with some freeze and sound stutters. Mentioned something about the HDD's making this problem happen, but didn't really say anything about a fix.)

 

want to add - just updated sound drivers chipset drivers and some other intel drivers from acer.com webpage, without luck. Still freeze and sound loop/stuttering while playing some games :|

 

Hey, I got that same problem too at first with my Acer Aspire 4820tg, when I was playing Star Wars The Force Unleashed when I first bought my laptop. It was kinda laggy at certain periods and there were shutter noises too. The worst was GTA IV. The laggyness was horrifying and I don't know why. All the other games were fine except GTA IV.

I've tried COD MW2,Battlefield BC 2, Assassins Creed II, Dragon Age Origins , Medieval II Total War , Napoleon Total War, Metro 2033 and Mafia II. So far there were no lagging and shutter issues, even if there is it was due to temperature and my cpu will somehow downclock itself to prevent damage. I've posted a thread regarding that issue here if you wanna look at it.

Here are my specs :

Processor: Intel Core i7 620M

Graphics Adapter: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650

4GB(2x2GB) DDR3 RAM

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The thing is.. You got a lag spike problem, is when you get a random freeze for a few seconds like you mentioned. It may be GPU(Graphics) or CPU(processor) related, but i don't see the reason why your gpu ain't performing as it should. Here is what I did, I set my laptop to full performance.

1) I plugged my laptop to the power cable whenever I wanted to play games and be sure to remove the battery.(I dunno why, but it works for me)

2) Go to CCC(Catalyst Control Center) under the power play. Untick the Enable Power Play option and click Apply. There will be a significant increase in performance. I noticed this when I played Prototype when I ticked and unticked this power play thingy.





3) This is optional, but I suggest that you try it. When you're playing a game, hold ctrl+alt+del and the task manager thing will pop out. Under Applications, find your game, right click it and select go to process. From there set priority to High.

4) Be Careful on this one.Better check if theres any advice on overclocking your ATi 5850m in the forums.I overclocked my GPU using AMD GPU clock tool. You can download it here. After I overclocked my GPU, I noticed the spike lag was gone when I played Star Wars the Forced Unleashed (you still gotta follow steps 1 & 2) and it works well with other games as well.

Try all the steps and be careful if you wanna overclock, but it had no problems for me..Just try steps 1, 2 & 3 first and see if it helps and Good luck

And btw, what type of i7 cpu are you using ?

 

Hey Danny. Very much appriciate your answers I'm trying this right away(not the overclock one, yet at least)
my i7 is 1,6Ghz with 2,8 turbo mode. if thats the question?

 

It's i7-720QM

 

Try and download the tool here, and check your results. Post results, anything yellow and above is not good. A screenshot of the program running could help as well.

 

I also found out this: first time after reboot, I run the game and it works perfectly fine. But when I exit and re-enter it is all freezing with sound stutter again. I will try that tool, thank you

 

That test device were stable at green during the whole game, even tho the game freeze and stutters

 

Hmm... For the audio part, did you do anything to your speakers properties ? If you have try setting them to defaults. Go click on the speakers icon on your taskbar at the bottom right corner, then go click that speaker icon thing at the top when a long vertical bar shows up. There it will show the speakers properties. Go to advanced and click restore to defaults.

The game still shutters ?? I think its time for an Overclock ! Yeayyhh !

I found maximum GPU overclock to be 690MHz Core (up from 625MHz) and 1050MHz memory (up from 800MHz) for your HD5850. Ok.. I suggest you turn up the engine core to 665 and memory to 1035. I found this here. So, it has been tested.Read it if you may.

BTW, what game are you playing that it shutters ? Did you follow my steps, when the game shutters ?

 

To Danny: Thanks again. I Tried all your suggestions(not overclock) but none of them worked.

To the audio part. I have already tried to disable the original soundcard and use USB one, same problem. I also updated the original soundcarddrivers from acer.com, but no difference. I haven't changed any of my speaker properties.

Right no I tried both StarCraft II and CS:Source and I get freeze + sound loops in both. Yes I tried them all.

As for overcloking, I will not do that in case I have to send the PC for repair..

 

sorry for bump.. anyone out there with any ideas? :|

 

this is the HDD idle problem of the WD drives acer uses. there is a thread here in the forum where they solved the problem. i have switched my 2 640Gb WD drives to an intel SSD and a seagate 7200 500GB drive. therefor the problem never occured on my rig.

the solution for your problem is to force the HDD not to go so quick in idle.

 

Wow. That seems logic, but I can't really find the post or any fix for it. How long since u saw that post?

 

Update. Seems like it works fine when I have the games installed on C: disc. Must be something with that issue cuco talked about. I also go with a program named QuietHDD, so it is one out of two sulotions. that program or game installed on windows c:.. I will post here if I find out more / problem comes back.

 

Cuco's description was my issue: Western Digital drives have a power problem.

I've been living with a work around for the last month:

1) Download and install CrystalDiskInfo
2) At boot launch CrystalDiskInfo, open 'Function' > 'Advanced Features' > 'AAM/APM'
3) Slide 'APM' slider to the right (to value FEh) and click 'Enable'
4) Close CrystalDiskInfo

Next boot you have to do it again, but this book ALLLLL your stuttery sound while harddrive spin up problems are gone.

I'd just forgotten to do this and realized I'd been loving my laptop for 2 months not thinking about it, so I dropped by to pay back the internets by spreading the tweak.

 

Use QuietHDD instead.
Set it to start at boot and disable APM- you won't have to do it manually.