Is something wrong with this Acer Nitro AN515-51 79DL Gaming laptop?

[Master]

Hello everyone,
Hope you are having a great day.
My little brother has recently bought a new gaming laptop, naming Acer Nitro AN515-51-79DL (Link to the Full Config on Acer product page (note, my brothers RAM is 16 instead of 8 but the rest of the config is the same)
But after the first 3 days he noticed a strange click sound and also high temperatures .
He recorded the sound which I attached below (heard on the seconds 20 to 22 and 47 to 49 ).(you need to increase the volume to hear it clearly!)
To him that sounded like a faulty fan which even doesn't work or works faulty.
He also ran a few games such as mafia 3 and witcher 3 which are taxing games to asses the temps (thus fans!) and the system as a whole to see if it performs like describe in different reviews notably notebookcheck
The temps at idle were around 20~22 C (68~71.6 F) and under full load it reached 80 C (176 F) .
Thats very high compared to what is being displayed and said in the reviews. As they pointed out under any circumstances the temps were around 40 :

The device does not heat up particularly at any load. Only one spot heated up to just over 40 °C (~104 °F) during the stress test. The device heated up a little more during the The Witcher 3 test (the game runs for one hour in FHD resolution and maximum quality settings). But temperatures are still OK.

Now, he asked me if I can seek some professionals idea on this. He took his laptop and asked for RMA, (the company that guarantees it, says if under a 7 day period, the laptop is faulty, they will replace it with a brand new one, however, they insist that there is nothing wrong with the laptop and its prefectly fine. the clicking sound comes from the hdd and is fine! and the temps are also normal.
My brother adds that the clicking sound happens regardless of him using the hdd or not. the OS is installed on the SSD drive, and also the games, and the click sound happens at random it seems. (for example, when he opens the word, that click sound happens, and then when he closes the MS word, and opens Adobe Photoshop, again that click sound happens)
Concerning the high temps, he says this is unacceptable for a gaming laptop especially with other reviews indicating the temps should not under any load be more than 40 C!
He also says, the airflow concerning the two fans are not the same.

All in all whats your view on this ? Is it faulty or is my brother overly sensitive about this ?

Edit :
I uploaded the amplified versions as well, they now should be heard much better than the originals. (however a higher volume always helps)

Thank you all again in advance

 

[DRDNA]

I did not hear any clicking in the recording , i'm not saying there is not but i can not hear it.
The temps of this laptop will indeed hit the 80c while gaming AAA titles! But you could adjust the system fan or fans to a higher fixed default (or a more aggressive fan curve) for gaming to help with the heat! Good luck !

EDIT install "Hard Disk Sentinel" and you will be able to see the health of both the SSD and the 1TB hard drive. this app works with out paying for it with a buy splash screen https://www.hdsentinel.com/

EDIT good to still see you around man, have not seen you around in some time!

 

[Bill_Bright]

I didn't hear the clicks either but you need to determine if they are coming from the speakers, or if a mechanical sound from inside the computer.

Fans don't normally make a clicking noise unless the blades are hitting something like a wire. Hard drives are the typical clicking noise makers and are often the sign of a failing drive. If the maker is saying clicks from a hard drive is normal, they are lying. Hard drives do make noise as the stepping motor positions the R/W head over the platter, but those noises happen every time the arm holding the R/W head moves. Clicking noises happen when the R/W bangs in the end-stops while seeking data. You could run error checking (or chkdsk /r) on the drive and see if that helps.

My brother adds that the clicking sound happens regardless of him using the hdd or not. the OS is installed on the SSD drive, and also the games, and the click sound happens at random it seems. (for example, when he opens the word, that click sound happens, and then when he closes the MS word, and opens Adobe Photoshop, again that click sound happens)

If the OS is on a SSD, unplug the power to the hard drive and use the computer and see if the sound happens.

Concerning the high temps, he says this is unacceptable for a gaming laptop especially with other reviews indicating the temps should not under any load be more than 40 C!

No. I don't believe that notebookcheck review was done properly. 40°C under load would be phenomenal - if not totally unbelievable. For them to actually say, "But temperatures are still OK" (OK???) proves it in my book.

And besides, if you look at that review under the Temperature section and look at the "Nitro 5 during the stress test" screen shot, it clearly shows temps hitting well into the 90s°C.

Also, if you look at the specs for that processor here, it shows the maximum allowed temp at the T Junction is 100°C.

 

[DRDNA]

I use an app called "ROG Gaming Center" to up the System fans when gaming on a laptop.

 

[Master]

I did not hear any clicking in the recording , i'm not saying there is not but i can not hear it.
The temps of this laptop will indeed hit the 80c while gaming AAA titles! But you could adjust the system fan or fans to a higher fixed default (or a more aggressive fan curve) for gaming to help with the heat! Good luck !

EDIT install "Hard Disk Sentinel" and you will be able to see the health of both the SSD and the 1TB hard drive. this app works with out paying for it with a buy splash screen https://www.hdsentinel.com/

EDIT good to still see you around man, have not seen you around in some time!

Thank you very much, he doesnt have the laptop at the moment, and he thinks the HDD is fine but there should be a problem with the fans. I amplified the sounds so they should be heard much better now.
I'm always grateful to be in such a great community with such great members

I didn't hear the clicks either but you need to determine if they are coming from the speakers, or if a mechanical sound from inside the computer.

Fans don't normally make a clicking noise unless the blades are hitting something like a wire. Hard drives are the typical clicking noise makers and are often the sign of a failing drive. If the maker is saying clicks from a hard drive is normal, they are lying. Hard drives do make noise as the stepping motor positions the R/W head over the platter, but those noises happen every time the arm holding the R/W head moves. Clicking noises happen when the R/W bangs in the end-stops while seeking data. You could run error checking (or chkdsk /r) on the drive and see if that helps. If the OS is on a SSD, unplug the power to the hard drive and use the computer and see if the sound happens.

No. I don't believe that notebookcheck review was done properly. 40°C under load would be phenomenal - if not totally unbelievable. For them to actually say, "But temperatures are still OK" (OK???) proves it in my book.

And besides, if you look at that review under the Temperature section and look at the "Nitro 5 during the stress test" screen shot, it clearly shows temps hitting well into the 90s°C.

Also, if you look at the specs for that processor here, it shows the maximum allowed temp at the T Junction is 100°C.

Very good points indeed. Thank you
By the way I uploaded the amplified version as well, they should now be much better.

 

[DRDNA]

okay I heard it that time and YES that sounds like the hardrive for sure. I have heard some hard drives make that sound from day one until end of life with no problems but i have also heard this noise and it was a hard drive soon to die. Some hard drives do make this noise and all is well so I dont know , see what Hard Disk Sent. says about the hard drive and report back.

EDIT, usually if its just a one off sound it is a cheap harddrive parking its self but if it clicks a lot when trying to access the hard drive this is normally sign of failure.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I heard those clicks but again, you need to verify if coming from the speakers, or if mechanical noises from inside the case.

 

[Master]

no they weren't from the speaker but indeed from the inside of the laptop.
And by the way concerning the temps, I guess I found out what those 40 degrees actually were for and referred to. I guess they actually meant the temps for the upper side and the bottom of the laptop, and not the temps of the inside of the laptop.
I read the article just now and noticed Maximum Upper Side* and Maximum Bottom*

and also this link which says :

Emissions (noise, heat), Connectivity and speakers

What boggles me is the fact that the Aspire VX15 with its older internal design allows the CPU and GPU to run a little cooler than on this Nitro 5. The pic below shows the cooling system on the Nitro 5, with two fans and two heatpipes that spread over both the CPU and the GPU, and here’s the cooling on the VX15. The Aspire VX15 averages 80C – CPU , 59C – GPU in a 30 min session of FarCry 4, while this Nitro averages 83C – CPU, 64C – GPU in the same game, but with the CPU mostly running at around 2.7 – 2.9 GHz and not at 3.4 GHz (TurboBoost speed).

and then down below :

Case level temperatures get pretty high as well, albeit not as high as on the Aspire 7 with similar specs and cooling and albeit only on the interior. Mid 40s at the keyboard level is a bit much considering the thickness of the chassis and the hardware inside, but what’s annoying is that the interior runs hotter than the back and the hottest zone is the left-side of the keyboard, around the WASD keys that are so commonly used in games, an area that you’ll often come in contact with. You’ll find details on temperatures below, and here’s how the VX15 does in similar conditions, for comparison.

And looking at these now all that makes sense .

Concerning the click sound, my brother said, I deleted all partitions and so the hdd was not being used at all. (the sound continues to exists both when it was used and when it was not)

 

[Bill_Bright]

Concerning the click sound, my brother said, I deleted all partitions and so the hdd was not being used at all.

For it to not be used at all, power must be removed. There likely is still one big partition.

The point is, if Windows sees the drive, it will occasionally check it to see if any Indexing or defragging is needed.

 

[newtekie1]

For it to not be used at all, power must be removed. There likely is still one big partition.

The point is, if Windows sees the drive, it will occasionally check it to see if any Indexing or defragging is needed.

Yep, just pull the drive and see if the noise is still there.

If it is an issue with the fans, the clicking should speed up as load is put on the laptop and the fans start spinning faster.