I just bought an Acer Nitro V 16S AI gaming laptop and it has already developed several frustrating problems. Whenever I connect the charger, the display briefly goes black and the system seems to lag for a moment. The keyboard backlight also turns on briefly, and I would like to know whether that can be disabled.
After the laptop restarts, my Windows PIN or password sometimes stops working, forcing me to set it up again. The laptop also restarts unexpectedly after being shut down for more than a few minutes, even though I expected it to remain off or enter sleep mode.
Every time it restarts, my Discord browser session is logged out as well, so I have to complete two-factor authentication again. Clearing cookies and trying common browser fixes has not helped.
Finally, gaming performance is usually around 60 FPS. That is better than my old laptop, which often stayed below 20 FPS, but I expected higher performance from a new gaming laptop. What should I check to fix these problems, and should I return or contact Acer about the laptop?
3 Answers
Problems like the PIN failure, browser sessions being cleared, and random restarts may be caused by a damaged Windows installation, drivers, or storage errors. You could try updating Windows, the BIOS, and the Acer graphics and chipset drivers first. If that does not help, a clean Windows installation from a USB drive would reinstall the operating system from scratch, but it erases the system drive, so back up personal files and make sure you have your activation and recovery information before doing it. The charger-related display flicker could still be hardware-related, so a clean install is not guaranteed to fix everything.
Make sure you are testing games while the original charger is connected and Windows is set to a performance power mode. Gaming laptops often run at much lower frame rates on battery. Also check that games are using the dedicated NVIDIA or AMD GPU instead of integrated graphics, and lower settings such as resolution, ray tracing, and frame caps. Around 60 FPS can be normal depending on the game and settings, but if performance stays there because of a frame limiter, changing the in-game or driver settings may raise it.
It still stays close to 60 FPS while plugged in. I’ll check whether the games are using the dedicated GPU and whether a frame limit is enabled.
The charger-related black screen and delay could be caused by the laptop switching display modes or graphics drivers, but the combination of flickering, failed PINs, and unexplained restarts is concerning. Since the machine is new, first back up your files and check the return or warranty options. A replacement or repair is safer than spending weeks trying to diagnose a potentially defective unit.
I was hoping to fix it myself, but I may contact the seller or Acer if these issues keep happening. I’m worried I might already be outside the return period.
I don’t really know how to do a clean Windows installation, so I’ll probably try the driver and warranty checks first rather than risk deleting something important.