Is Acer Nitro N50-640 having trouble starting?
Is Acer Nitro N50-640 having trouble starting?
Hi guys, I am having a really annoying problem with my Acer Nitro N50 (model DG.E2VEQ.004). The computer specs are: CPU Intel Core i5‑12400F GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 RAM 16 GB DDR4 (two sticks of 8GB, running at 3200 MHz) Storage 512 GB NVMe SSD plus a 1 TB Seagate HDD Motherboard Intel B66 OS Trying: Windows 11 and Linux (several versions). Problem: I can boot up Live USBs with no issues—everything works fine, the GPU shows up, and there are no crashes. But when I try to install Windows 11, it fails with "Windows could not be installed" errors. When I try to install Linux, it installs okay on first startup but then gets stuck right after logging in. If I boot from either a drive that has an OS already on it (SSD or HDD), I see a gray screen and nothing else happens. This is happening whether the drives are internal or external, no matter what OS is installed. It doesn't matter if I use the SSD or the HDD; Linux or Windows—the problem keeps coming back. But booting from USB always works perfectly. What I've Tried: Ran MemTest86: No errors found on RAM after running one full pass. CPU stress test: No problems or overheating. NVIDIA drivers: I had some graphics glitches before, but updating them fixed those temporarily for now. Disabled Secure Boot and tried UEFI/Legacy modes. Swapped drives around, wiped partitions, and did a few fresh installs. I haven't updated the BIOS yet, so I'm wondering if that matters. Suspect VMD/RST might be interfering, though I don't know if it is turned on or needed for this Acer motherboard. Important Notes: I am a developer and have done many OS installations before. This problem started suddenly—I used the system normally in the morning, then came back later, and after logging into Windows, only a gray screen showed up. Since then, no OS has booted from the internal storage anymore. Could it be the motherboard, the storage controller, or a VMD setting causing this? Looking for suggestions on: BIOS settings (VMD, SATA/NVMe config, UEFI tweaks) Disk controller or firmware issues? Anything specific to Acer or this B660 chip set? Thanks so much for any help!
Hi there! You're starting out on this forum. Your PC has 512 GB of fast NVMe SSD and a big 1 TB Seagate HDD. Can you tell me what brand and model that SSD is? Did you check if it needs a firmware update? I think removing all drives except the one where you want to put your OS is better, but since you haven't changed out your BIOS yet, maybe that doesn't matter much. I would have said remove everything else first though. If there are pending BIOS updates, please upgrade them to the newest version. For your Windows installer, I'm a developer and do a lot of installs before. Where did you get the installer from? What power supply unit (PSU) is it using, and how old is this whole thing?
Here is the information for this PC, and I think I should be at the latest BIOS version, but I will try reflashing it if needed. The processor comes from Intel, it's an i5 model with cores, number 12400F, has six cores and twelve threads, runs fast at 2.5 GHz or goes up to 4.4 GHz when Turbo is on. It also has a graphics card made by Nvidia that is the GeForce RTX 3060. The memory includes both internal RAM of 16 GB (two 8GB sticks) and external DRAM of 12 GB from DDR4, which can hold up to 64 GB total. I don't have free slots for more memory right now. For storage, there is a solid-state drive that holds 512 GB using an M.2 slot. It connects through PCIe with Bluetooth and uses Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) for wireless internet. You can get HDMI output, three DisplayPort connections, and multiple USB ports including Type A and Type C versions. The PC is about 39 cm tall and weighs 8 kilograms. There are some other features like a DTS:X sound card and a power supply rated at 500 watts. This computer runs on Windows 11 Home with one year of warranty. You can find the item number for this product online or in my listing details.
I can tell you more about what happened yesterday morning. While watching YouTube, I saw strange pictures (artifacts) on both screens. So I figured the graphics card was causing the problem. I updated my RTX 3060 driver and now those images are gone. After a few hours, I turned off my computer. When I started it up again, I went through the Windows login screen and got in. Right away, the screen went gray. Restarting didn't help much. Finally, when I live-booted Ubuntu from a USB drive, everything worked fine. I tested the GPU, checked how much memory was there (I used MemTest86 before), and even ran a stress test on the CPU—it passed. But whenever I try to install any OS onto my hard drive or SSD, it either crashes immediately after starting up, or later it shows a gray screen.