Acer 1810T screen is locking up...!

After a few days of happy 1810T ownership, the computer has begun to have a problem where the screen locks up tight. Nothing revives the computer except holding the power button down to force a powerdown. It reboots OK but shows the screen to optionally boot into Safe Mode.

The screen is a random color when this happens: sometimes green, blue or red. It is NOT the traditional "blue screen of death".

At first I thought it was due to some problems I was having with a conflict between The KM Player and Adobe Flash (as detailed here and here, for example). Luckily I had done Acronis 2010 images at each step of the way in the "new notebook" process:

- image made right out of the box by booting from Acronis disc first, before ever running Win7 on the computer (I call this the "Day 0 Image")

- image made after doing Windows Updates, Windows Security Essentials, installing apps (KM Player, IrfanView, FireFox, etc) and user data

Thinking the problem was due to the KM Player conflicts, I restored the computer back to when there was no KM Player, i.e. out-of-the-box Day 0 Image. This went fine and Acronis worked smoothly.

I did the Windows Updates but did not install any apps or user data... and the screen lockup still happens! Sometimes it happens soon after login, other times things run OK for a while first.

I am really concerned about this. If I can't rely on the computer to not lock up regularly, it is essentially useless to me. I am very surprised to see the problem even after an "out of the box" disk restore.

Any suggestions? Even if you don't have knowledge of how to deal with this problem specifically, do you know where else I can ask? What will Acer's take on this be? I am afraid they will just pass it off as "user error" and leave me stuck...

I would really appreciate any help; thanks.

Edited To Add:

1) I can't remember if this has happened only when on battery, or also when plugged in. I will check and see if it happens in both modes. If it only happens when on battery, at least that shows a path forward.

2) I have not tried to restore via the Acer eRecovery DVDs yet, though I don't know why this would be any better than the Acronis 2010 Day 0 image. I was in the process of burning the first Acer recovery DVD last night when... the screen locked up!

3) I have emailed Acer Support about the problem, though I suspect they won't trust Acronis 2010 and they'll tell me to restore via Acer eRecovery DVD...

 

Hard to guess what's wrong. Try disabling all power saving features of the graphics chip in Intel graphics driver control panel(click on custom settings and uncheck all boxes) this setting will supposedly be reset after reboot if you have ePower Management installed.

 

Okay, I've been letting the Acer run here this morning, plugged into the AC cord. I disabled all sleeping/dimming/etc when it's plugged in, and I've turned off the Acer screensaver.

I just walked into my office, and the screen is totally blank (no color at all). The power is on. The power and battery LEDs are on, but the disk activity light is off and nothing I do makes it come alive. Holding the power button down forces a shutdown, and when rebooted it comes up to the usual "safe mode" options list.

Sigh... if any of the dozens of Windows Updates is causing a problem, how will the thing ever run right...

 

DerMali, I'm looking at all the Intel graphics options and I don't see any power saving features to choose. The only power options I know how to access are when I click on the battery icon in the systray, which brings me to the Win7 Control Panel power settings.

 

I've got a German OS so you have to figure it out yourself. Here is a screenshot. First right click on the desktop and select graphics properties.

 

OK, I found it. I will see if that helps.

I ran the computer in Safe Mode for about 30 minutes with no lockups, so I am starting to lean towards the problem being some kind of software issue... though that leaves a lot of room for exploration

 

I may have had this same problem. The day I got my 1810T it froze with a yellow screen. Had to reboot to get it started again. Then another time it locked up 3 times in about 15 minutes, each with a different colored screen (white, black, etc).

Then I updated my BIOS to 3.20, updated video driver, installed 1810tray (in case it was an overheating issue). Worked fine, then locked up once (shortly after doing all the installs). Since then it hasn't locked up.

I know that most of the times it locked up (maybe all of them), it was on battery power. And I was browsing with Firefox (although most of the time I'm using it I am on Firefox).

 

install X4500MHD latest drivers from intel's site. that will do the work and enable true and properly working dxva and shader 3.0

 

Thanks a ton for the info GoldenEye; I really hope this works. I don't have my 1810T on the 'net right now so I can't run the Intel site's automatic driver scanner until I get home tonight.

I bet you are on to something, though, because over 1 hour ago I followed Der Mali's suggestion and turned off all power settings through the Intel graphics setup screen... and the computer has not locked up since then.

(edited to delete a stupid question from me!)

 

Products

*

Product family
Graphics
Product line
Laptop graphics controllers
Product name
Mobile Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset Family

That's what you need

 

I had exactly same problem on older Acer laptops. It is caused by Intel video driver. Just upgrade the video driver and BIOS to the latest version and you should be good to go!

 

As expected, Acer emailed me back and recommended a factory restore as described here. I think I will try the video driver fix first...

Thanks a ton, PrikolChik. I understand how to find the video driver; what's the procedure for updating the BIOS?

 

Download the latest BIOS version for your model from Acer Support website and simply launch the .exe file corresponding to your Windiows architecture (32bit or 64bit).

 

Thank you Patrick. I followed the path on the Intel site. My OS is 64-bit Win7 Home Premium so that's the driver I selected from the list. I saved the .exe file. When I ran it, it unpacked the files but then gave a warning message:

"The driver being installed is not validated on this computer. Please obtain the appropriate driver from the computer's manufacturer. Setup will exit."

Program Compatibility Assistant came up and asked "reinstall using recommended settings" or "this program installed correctly". I chose "reinstall using recommended settings" but got the same result. Did it really install or not?

Should I have selected the 32-bit Win7 driver instead, or is there a special driver on the Acer site?

I'm sorry for coming off as such a dunce. I've dealt with drivers and such plenty in the past but I keep hitting brick walls in this situation. Sorry!

 

That driver won't install without a few tweaks on the 1810T. Here's instructions on what you need to do to install that driver:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5466246

I installed it last week using the instructions from that linked post without any problems. Just make sure you download the ZIP version - you won't be able to install it with the EXE installer.

 

To be clear, are you saying that you used hkklife's method of uninstalling the stock Intel driver, rebooting, then installing the new Intel driver

-OR-

did you use StereoDude's method of manually editing the "igdlh64.inf" file in the new Intel driver package?

edit: whoops, OK now I think I see what you mean: edit the .inf file like StereoDude, [then] uninstall the old and reinstall the new per hkklife, right?

I am getting so tired I can't read properly.

BTW still no freezeups since I turned off Intel's power management options...

 

I edited the .inf file per StereoDude's post. I deleted the lines that were in that section and replaced them with what he posted. Then I uninstalled the stock Intel driver, which put my computer into VGA mode as expected. I rebooted with no problems, still in VGA mode of course. I then used Device Manager to install the new, tweaked driver. This seemed to go ok.

Upon restart, the "Starting Windows" text and red/green/blue/yellow logo appeared... then nothing. No login screen, nothing at all. The hard drive worked for a bit then settled down. Nothing I did made anything show up on the screen.

I rebooted into Safe Mode successfully then went back to the restore point I had created before installing the new, tweaked driver. This was successful and now I'm back where I started.

I sure hope the BIOS upgrade goes better than this. I don't want to turn the computer into a brick.

 

I'm not sure what happened in your case. When I did the steps listed by StereoDude, my computer rebooted fine and worked right away. Maybe you mis-pasted into the .inf file? Make sure you do a search for the exact section - I think there's one other section in the .inf file that looks similar but isn't it.

I still have my modded .inf file, so if you want a copy PM me with your email and I'll send it over.

 

With the new drivers the power savings modes came back. you probably need to do the bios and then the video driver...............

Edit; The reason they ask you do a fresh install rather than the Acronis restore is that you could have a bad or stuck file. This means without any updates all MAY work fine but as the system ages and gets updates etc things start to go awry. When you do the day0 restore you may just be putting back the old file. So in all a day0 restore does not always equal a factory image restore..........

 

That would be great. I tried to send you a PM but the forum said you have not elected to receive PMs. Maybe you have them disabled...?

 

Give it a try now. Hopefully that did the trick.

(it might be because I only have 5 posts and can't do PMs/email yet.)

 

Tanware is right and it shouldn't make a difference with that .inf, the power saving settings just came back by changing the drivers. You could disable all power saving features again and enable one by one to see what exactly is causing it. I suppose it's Rapid Memory Power Management, which could be either caused by a software problem or bad RAM. Reseating the RAM modules might help also. I would just do a real factory restore and check if the problem is still there.
Btw, which BIOS version is installed on your device?

 

According to the initial BIOS screen the system BIOS is at revision 0.3115

I unzipped the BIOS file from Acer and it yielded two executables, one for x86 and one for x64. I ran the x64 file, and it came back with a window saying "the requested operation requires elevation". That's a real handy message...

I restarted and the BIOS is still at v0.3115; apparently nothing changed. There is a sub folder in the BIOS update directory called "DOS" and it has one file, an executable named "ZH73120D.exe". Am I supposed to run this one manually as well?

Sigh, almost 2:30AM here; gotta get some sleep.

 

Yeah, first get some good sleep and then take your time when flashing the BIOS and only do it if you are exactly knowing what to do.

A lockup while flashing the BIOS could brick your device!!!

I seriously suggest flashing in (real)DOS mode. I wouldn't do it in Windows. You need an USB stick for this and the procedure is similar to this:
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html

Understand what you are doing before doing anything, first!

 

I got a good night's sleep. I followed the instructions on that page and the 1810T tries to boot from the USB stick, getting the initial UNETbootin default screen "Automatic boot in X seconds...".

But after X seconds, it sends this error message:

"Loading /ubukern...
Could not find ramdisk image: /ubuinit
boot: "

Which just takes you back to the UNETbootin default screen.

Is this what you guys go through to update the BIOS? I find myself surprised at every turn at how hard Acer has made it to get their product to run properly.

 

Are the following files on the stick?

syslinux.cfg
ubninit
ubnkern
vesamenu.c32

 

Yes, all 4 of those files are on the stick along with a 5th one: "ldlinux.sys".

ETA: I tried to boot another laptop here from the same stick and got the same result.

 

You could try to prepare the stick a second time, maybe format it first. If it still doesn't work, you could try a different stick or an SD card.

 

Turns out my USB stick was not set up to be bootable, it was merely a storage place for files. I used the info at this link to make it bootable into DOS, which worked fine on the 1810T.

I have not yet attempted to update the BIOS, though. I am hesitating since all the advice I have seen on the 'net is to avoid this procedure if the computer is working properly, and I have not had the screen lockup problem since turning off the Intel power management option.

I'm a leeeeetle skeeeered of making the BIOS leap...!

 

I don't get it.. Isn't there a Windows version of the BIOS update? I just got v3120 from USA support website and it has an option to upgrade from Windows... Might be better to do it in Safe mode so that it doesn't lock up in the process

 

I know that there were heated debates about DOS vs. Windows flashing
I'm one of those "old-schoolers" that prefer a plain DOS environment, especially when Windows isn't working properly. Making a bootable USB stick and using DOS is something everyone should have done at least once in life, just in case
Being already 33 years old I realize that many skills already got lost these days with Windows getting more closed with every update. Go Linux! lol

 

Synozeer was kind enough to email me the modified .inf file for the Intel video driver package. I made a fresh system restore point. I was then successful with installing the new driver, and the version went from 8.15.10.1855 (7/28/2009) to 8.15.10.1892 (9/2/2009). The Intel power management options went back to their defaults, of course...

... and then the screen locked up in about 1 minute after restart, this time in a pale blue. I forced a restart to let it try again and it locked up in green after about 1 or 1.5 minutes. Same old problem. I again clicked "disable power settings" in the Intel graphics properties tab and the machine has been running fine with no lockups.

So after all this drama, I think I will do the following:

1) Reload the hard drive to the factory state, since going through all these procedures has left a lot of drivers, old restore points and file chunks laying around on the system. Then install the later Intel driver once more, now that I know I can get it to install properly, along with the various Microsoft Updates. I want a more pristine image to archive in Acronis 2010.

2) Leave the BIOS alone for now since I don't have any other issues and I'm afraid of bricking the computer.

3) Thank you all for your input and help. I really appreciate you taking the time to post and share your knowledge, without which I would have a useless computer, because I doubt Acer Support would have gone down the same road with me.

I must say, I wonder how this kind of thing gets past quality control and testing at Acer.

 

Well here we go again. I restored using the Acer recover procedure, and the computer can't even make it through the entire setup process without the screen locking up tight. I tried 3 times and gave up. I think Acer owes me a replacement machine.

Here is what I sent to them today on the support ticket I originally opened:

Hello, I followed the instructions using Alt+F10 and performed a system recovery. This executed without a problem. I then went through the Windows 7 setup process of setting up a username and password, etc and this executed without a problem.

The computer came up with the standard Acer desktop and icons. A small window at the bottom showed the progress of the Acer driver installations. At about item 7 of 17 (the crystal webcam, I think), the screen locked up completely with a pale, sky-blue color (NOT the "blue screen of death"). The only way to get the computer to do something at this point was to hold down the power button and force a shutdown.

Once restarted, the computer allowed me to log in, and the Acer driver installation continued where it left off before. But then in about 30-45 seconds, the screen locked up again, this time with a dark blue color. Once again the only thing to do is force a shutdown and restart.

I booted the computer for the third time. Just as before, I logged in and the Acer driver installation continued. And just as before, after a couple of minutes the screen locked up with a dark blue color. At this point I gave up and just shut down the computer.

This is the same kind of problem I originally saw with this computer.

I am very concerned about this. Even with a factory restored system, the screen continues to lock up and make the computer unusable. Could there be a hardware problem with the memory or video chipset?

Please advise.

 

Apart from that Acer laptop i mentioned in my previous post in this thread I also recall similar behaviour on one of the desktops I had to fix for a friend. It turned out to be a failing Intel GMA video chip on the motherboard. There was no option to disable it in BIOS and computer would still fail even with external video card so motherboard had to be replaced.

Anyway, I would still recommend flashing the BIOS. What do you have to lose?

 

Well, if I brick it, Acer will be much less willing to take responsibility for the problem. I'd rather they say "send it in". That way, either they fix it by flashing the BIOS, they fix a bad part, or they give me a new machine. Either way, I suffer no risk.

It sucks, I know, but I don't want to give them an excuse to pass the buck.

 

If you can afford to live without the device, I would exchange it under warranty. You wouldn't have to worry about a failing flash or dying IGP.

 

My thinking exactly, DM. This computer is not in a mission-critical role for me now. I can afford to sit back and let Acer deal with it. While the computer might be able to limp along with the Intel power management options turned off, I'm concerned about a gradually failing subsystem that might leave me high and dry down the road, when there's no more warranty support or (worse) once I've started to depend on using it.

I will update this thread with Acer's responses and how things work out. And again, mucho thanks to everybody for your contributions and interest.

 

I got an email today from Acer support. They are issuing me a shipping voucher to return the 1810T for service. I must say, they have been very responsive so far.

 

This is scary. I just returned by Acer 751 since it locked up many, many times. Luckly I got it at costco, so returning was easy.

Now I just ordered a 1810T. I should get it in a day or two. I thought with a different processor, OS, what were the chances I could be hit twice. I guess I will see. If that happens I'm done with Acer.

 

The 751 reported many problems with freezing - locking up so it`s common.

The problem SlowTypist is having seems like an isolated event. Nobody else reported a problem. For what is worth my 1810T works like a charm

So think positive!

 

Thanks for the pep talk. I'm glad to hear it is an isolated case. Hopefully SlowTypist will get the problem resolved. I know the frustration.

 

Actually I did report a similar problem too, but as of late it's been working fine. Still, the symptoms were exactly what SlowTypist had. If it happens again, I'll probably go the same route and return it.

Edit: It just happened to me again right within 2 minutes of putting in the battery and unplugging the power cable. As far as I can recall, it's only happened when on battery power. Same problem, or something different?

 

Just an update - I locked up again so I contacted Acer support. They had me do a factory restore, but within 20 minutes of using the 1810T after the restore (and with no new programs/updates installed), it locked up yet again. Hoping the next step is a replacement.

My wife says I have bad luck ordering anything electronic and it's true. Most of the time, there's something wrong with the first one. The 2nd one is usually good though

 

Wow Synozeer, I feel your pain but... I'm glad I'm not alone! Keep us updated.

 

Wow, this is exactly what happened to me with my 751. Customer supported wanted me to do a eRecovery (factory restore). So I did and it did not help at all. Next they asked me to reboot using a boot CD I needed to create. Ah, right. I explained to them this computer did not have a CD/DVD device. Next, they wanted me to create a special USB drive. That is when I took it back for a refund. I would crash up to 10 times per day. Particularly when I starting viewing a movie. That would cause a crash within 1 minute of starting the movie. I was always on wall power.

 

Well I suppose a supervisor got a look at the Acer technician's initial offer to take the computer in for service. I got an email from them today with links to update the video driver and LAN driver, then a link for a downloadable hard drive diagnostic test. Funny thing is, the video driver they directed me to is the old version 8.15.10.1855 (7/28/2009) that was always the original driver on the system... sigh.

 

I updated the drivers they requested and ran the hard drive scanner but the problem persists. Here's what I sent to Acer today:

Hello Acer,

I followed the instructions you sent.

I downloaded and installed the VGA and LAN drivers, rebooting after each one. After the second reboot, the screen locked up in about 45 seconds.

I ran the hard driver analyzer you recommended. In both the quick scan and full scan, no errors were detected. I rebooted into Windows and the Acer installation finished, ending with the phase "17/17, installation cleanup". About 5 minutes later, the screen locked up again.

I believe there is a hardware problem with the computer. I also would like to receive a new computer, since I paid for a new one that works and this one has not worked properly at all. Please advise.

 

Okay, now I'm starting to get irritated. Got this from Acer just now:

I understand from your email that you are facing an issue with your hard drive.

In order to get this issue fixed we would recommend you to do a complete system recovery. you may follow the following link to do a complete system recovery.

Notebooks <<http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/manuals/acer/0000/userguides/Acer%20eRecovery%20Management%20v2.5%20-%20final.pdf>>

And my reply:

I already did a full system recovery, as you directed me to do on 11/11/2009, and it did not fix the problem. I just emailed you today with the results of the hard drive scan which showed no errors whatsoever. Also, the PDF link you just sent for Acer Recovery Management does not work.

You need to take the computer back and fix it. Do I need to make a phone call and speak with a supervisor? Please advise.

 

Acer came back with an RMA and a FedEx voucher. The computer goes out today.

 

Got an automated email today from Acer saying that the computer was shipped from the repair facility in Texas yesterday. Should have it later this week. I sent a message asking which part had to be replaced but haven't heard back on that yet.