I recently bought a Nitro V 16S AI gaming laptop, and I'm already running into several problems. Whenever I connect the charger, the screen briefly goes black and there's a short pause or lag. The keyboard lighting also turns on briefly, which I'd like to disable if possible. After restarting, my Windows PIN or password sometimes stops working and I have to set it up again. The laptop also seems to restart on its own after being powered off for more than a few minutes, even though I expected it to remain off or go to sleep. On top of that, the browser version of Discord signs me out after every restart, despite clearing cookies and trying various fixes. Gaming performance is better than my old laptop, but most games run around 60 FPS even when I expected higher performance. What should I troubleshoot, and should I return the laptop or contact the manufacturer?
4 Answers
Problems with the PIN, unexpected restarts, and Discord losing its login could be caused by a damaged Windows installation, drivers, power settings, or a failing drive. Before doing anything drastic, back up your files and check Windows Update, Acer’s support page for BIOS and driver updates, Event Viewer, and the system’s sleep and restart settings. A clean Windows installation can rule out software problems, but it erases the system drive and requires reinstalling programs and drivers, so it’s best attempted only after backing up everything and confirming you have the necessary installation media and license information.
The combination of problems is concerning for a brand-new machine. If you’re still within the return or exchange period, returning it is usually safer than spending hours trying to repair it yourself. If that window has passed, contact the seller or Acer and ask about a warranty repair or replacement. The brief black screen when connecting power could be a graphics-mode or refresh-rate switch, but it could also indicate a hardware or driver problem.
I may be close to or past the return period, so I’ll check the purchase details and contact the seller or Acer if an exchange is no longer possible.
The keyboard lighting behavior and brief display interruption when plugging in may be tied to the laptop switching power profiles or graphics modes. Check the manufacturer control application and Windows display or graphics settings for automatic GPU switching, refresh-rate changes, and keyboard-light controls. However, because this is happening alongside failed PIN authentication and unexplained restarts, I would document each problem with videos or screenshots and report the whole set to the seller or warranty service rather than treating them as unrelated annoyances.
Around 60 FPS may be normal if the game is capped at 60, V-Sync is enabled, the laptop is using an energy-saving mode, or it is running on the integrated graphics. Make sure the charger is connected, select the laptop’s performance mode, check the game’s frame-rate limit and V-Sync settings, and verify that the dedicated GPU is being used. Also check temperatures and GPU usage while playing. Battery mode usually limits performance, but plugging in alone won’t guarantee a higher frame rate if another setting is limiting it.
I’m not very experienced with computers, so I’ll avoid wiping Windows until I’ve backed everything up and spoken with support. I didn’t realize a clean install would remove the existing system and applications.