Laptop prevented from entering sleep mode (Acer Swift SFX16-52G; Intel Arc A370M)

[FlyingFireTree]

I have an Acer Swift SFX16-52G laptop with Intel components (dGPU: Intel Arc A370M; iGPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics; CPU: Intel Core i7-1260P). The latest drivers (31.0.101.4826) from September 2023 are installed.

I'm experiencing several problems with the sleep mode. According to other sources, this seems to be a common problem in Intel Arc laptops. Here's a description of the behaviour:

• The laptop is sometimes not correctly put to sleep (when pressing the power button, closing the lid or selecting sleep mode from the start menu): Screen and fans are turned off but the laptop remains in some kind of working state, emitting coil noise and getting hot over time. This is most easily detected with the keyboard backlight turned on. If sleep mode works correctly, it's turned off. If sleep mode has crashed, keyboard background light remains to be turned on.
• As the fans are turned off when entering faulty sleep mode, I can never be sure if the CPU/GPU won't be toasted when I try setting the laptop to sleep mode. When waking up from that crashed state, the fans start to work very loudly to cool it down.
• In the worst case, the laptop can't be woken up at all from sleep without doing a hard reset.
• Even without the crash described above, waking behaviour is strange. Sometimes, entering sleep mode doesn't work because the laptop is woken up immediately (screen turned on again, log-in screen shown). Also, the laptop is always woken up by just approaching the keyboard with one hand (e. g., when trying to check whether it's hot).

The issue is hard to reproduce since it doesn't happen all the time. Once sleep mode has stopped working correctly, it does so until a full reboot, which temporarily fixes the issue.

This seems to have been a known issue but was supposed to be fixed with driver version 31.0.101.4644 (see release notes). However, for me it still persists using the latest drivers.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

Thank you for posting in the Intel Communities. We would be more than happy to help you with your sleep issues. We understand that you have opened multiple threads, as the original was marked as Spam by the automatic system, but we will be continuing with the support on this thread.

Based on your issue, we would like to recommend you run the Display Driver Uninstaller to eliminate all drivers and leftover files from previous driver versions. After you run the DDU tool, install driver 31.0.101.4826 again. Check How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an Intel® Graphics Driver for instructions.

To discard that the issue is related to your A370M, we would like to recommend you use only the Integrated Graphics (Xe Graphics). You can disable the Intel Arc Graphics using Windows Device Manager or through your BIOS settings.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[FlyingFireTree]

Thank you for your reply!

I have followed the instructions using the Display Driver Uninstaller and have re-installed driver 31.0.101.4826. I'll have a look what the behaviour will be from now on and will let you know. In case I encounter issues, I would temporarily deactivate the A370M in device manager as suggested.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

We understand that you will need some time to check your system behavior. We will give you some time, and we will be contacting you back on October 6th so you can have a week to test your system. In case you need more time, don't hesitate to let us know.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

We are following up with you to see if you have been able to test the system to confirm if the outcome improved.  Let us know if you require further support.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[FlyingFireTree]

Hello Jean,

Thank you for your reply! I have had now had time to check the system behaviour. Unfortunately, I don’t see improvements when applying the suggested solutions. Sleep mode remains to be broken in the way I described. I also tested with the Intel Arc 370M deactivated, which did not resolve sleep problems. On the contrary, I noticed abnormally loud fan noise and reverted back to the initial state.

One positive thing I noticed is that the sleep mode might work when closing the lid rather than pressing the power button. It is not a problem with configuration: Both closing the lid and pressing the power button are configured to set the laptop into sleep mode on my machine. I’m also not fully certain whether closing the lid works all the time.

Additionally to the problems described above, I would also like to mention that the laptop tends make relatively high-pitched “pulsing” sounds at times, which shouldn’t be the case for a new machine.

I would be thankful if you can find a solution for this problem, possibly a driver update.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

Thank you for taking the time to try our recommendations and monitor the system for any improvement. We understand that the issue remains after testing our recommendations. We will proceed to look into this matter internally, and we will post back as soon as we have more details.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

We are looking into this matter, but we are jumping into the thread to confirm the following details:

• Please test the system using the latest driver from Acer, based on the Acer website, the latest driver is 30.0.101.1331. Is the same behavior present?
• We have just launched a new driver, v31.0.101.4887, please check if the issue remains with the late fixes included in the driver.
• Is the issue present since day one, or does it start after a certain update?

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[FlyingFireTree]

Hello Jean,

Thank you for your reply! think the issue was present since day one (I bought the laptop in August 2023) but it took me a while to realise it is not a problem with any settings but probably a driver issue.

I will test this with both drivers as suggested and will let you know about the results soon!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

Thank you for letting us know that the issue has been present since day one. We understand that you need some time to try the drivers we mentioned in the previous post, but no worries, we will be waiting for the results. Let us know once you have the details.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

We are checking in your thread to know if you have been able to try the drivers we mentioned in the previous post. Let us know if you have any update.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[FlyingFireTree]

Hello Jean,

I've checked the v31.0.101.4887 drivers. The issue remains and I still have wake-from-sleep issues. My impression is that the behaviour might be a bit better and sometimes sleep mode seems to work without a full new power cycle. However, because of the problems, I have been careful (using sleep mode less) so that impression might be the result of my changed user behaviour rather than an improvement in drivers. Maybe related, I still notice coil whine sometimes.

I have decided to abstain from re-installing the very old set of drivers provided by Acer as I need my machine for productivity and as the issue seems to be present from day one (i.e., before driver updates).

So a fix remains very much necessary.

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

We appreciate the information provided. We understand that you have decided not to use the drivers from Acer since you need this productivity device, and the issue has been present since day one. We would like to inform you that we recommended you use the driver from Acer, as the best thing to do is to use the drivers provided by the system manufacturer (OEM) to eliminate the potential impact caused by loading non-custom drivers; therefore, it would be ideal to confirm if the issue is present using the latest OEM customizations.

However, we will proceed to look into this matter internally. We will post back as soon as we have more details.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

Thank you for your patience. After looking into this matter, we would like to let you know that ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) states such as S3 (sleep) and S4 (Hybrid-hibernation) require BIOS, Operating System, and driver implementation. We have tested the drivers on laptop and desktop GPUs, so the issue seems to be isolated to your laptop. That is why we recommend you report this to your laptop manufacturer so they can debug the system.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello FlyingFireTree,

Since we have not heard back from you, we will proceed to close this thread. As we mentioned, we recommend you report this to your laptop manufacturer so they can debug the system.

If you require any additional information, open a new thread, as this one will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Jean O. 

Intel Customer Support Technician