[P_RePTiLe]

I am trying to help a girl i am dating with her computer,
but since it's a 'Lappy' i am not that well experienced unfortunately.
It is an Acer Aspire 5100, about 2 years old.

The problem is, which suddenly occured, was that it hangs/freezes after a minute or so after powering up, you can about boot into windows (which is an reinstallet xp in this case but i don't think it matters) before it freezes, and the same happens even in bios after a while.
When it has been turned of, or if i go outside in the cold weather, it manages an half minute more or so before freezing, so i suspect some heat-issue?

I have already opened the case a bit, and cleansed the only fan i could find that blew the air outside. and i also cleansed anything else i saw that had dust on it. But it weren't that much dust to begin with, and the problem remains. And i also exhanged and tested the ram in my "try it all"-cluelessness.

Anyone has any experience with similar problems with this model or any other lappies, that knows what could be done?

 

[skoreanime]

It does sound like a heat issue..

Are you sure the fan is running? Many laptops, especially cheaper made ones like Acers, the bearings in the fan do give out eventually and need to be replaced.

I had to do it with my brother ****ty HP laptop after awhile.

 

[P_RePTiLe]

Yeah, the fan runs, i checked it by having the bottom open while turning it on, and it seems to adjust itself as it should, blazing up like mad at power on and then adjusting itself to a more silent mode a.s.o. though i don't know how it is regulated.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

graphic card......this can happen if you hear windows booting and cant see anything...

hard disk dead??....

tried a clean install??...dont know if viruses can stop the boot process or not...but then again give it a try

shake ur laptop up and down a little bit ......i did that when my laptops video card was nearly dead....and it worked till i retrieved the data nad then poof ......and the smell of expensive smoke....

 

[P_RePTiLe]

Since, as i wrote, it freezes in bios even - a dead hard-drive is not of issue, neither are an virus-infection. but thanks for the pointers.

And haha, yeah, a little inanimate-object-violence solves the weirdest things sometimes

 

[lagunareturns]

mine froze in the bios due to a dead hard drive, it will since it tries to detect it, what im trying to say it may be the hard drive as i had the same issue, i got it replaced and now it works perfect

 

[P_RePTiLe]

But it always freezes after a certain time, an half minute -after- entering the bios setup, depending on how long it has been off, and that is long since it has poked the harddrive and gotten the ID and sectors and whatnot info from it.

But then again computers are _the_ area where you can be bloody certain about some things and then "something" always does "something" you believed never could happen

 

[LoneWolf]

maybe a nut or screw has gone loss and some wire is not properly attached to the connector

 

[D.D.]

Could be an exploded capacitor or a temperature problem ? Just judging from what you said about it being dependent on how long its been off.

 

[tuanming]

1. Try to get into safe mode (F8) on boot and see how long you can last.
2. Download coretemp to check for the temperature and if everything is good.
3. I suggest you should format the hard drive and do a fresh Windows installation. Before you do that you should back up all of the driver mainly the sound, graphic, lan and wireless drivers, but it's best to do a full drivers backup.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

can ram be dead???....<a shot in the dark >