Acer 3680-2633: Major Problem!

In March '08, I bought myself a Toshiba 160 5,400 Gb SATA-150 Hard Drive. A couple of weeks after I bought it, some wacky stuff started happening to my PC.

You should know that I have already sent in my laptop to Acer twice and yet my answer is still not solved. Before I sent my Acer in, I had problems with the video card, as it would crash and show a bunch of garbled lines and what not. When I would turn off the computer, the LCD would not turn on and the little CPU light on the side would be off. This symptom used to be caused by having two of the same sticks of memory, but I have the most current up-to-date BIOS and I don't have two of the same sticks of memory (a 512 Mb stick factory and a 1 Gb stick mad by Connair). So, I sent it in to Acer so that they could replace the graphics card (essentially the motherboard). After I got that laptop back, I had the same problems, but my laptop would constantly get memory management errors (Blue Screen of Death). Now, after having it sent back a second time, I'm not getting any video card problems, but I do have the computer shutting down randomly and memory management errors.

One thing that is constant through all of these errors (video card and memory) is that I was doing some pretty heavy duty stuff (ripping songs to iTunes, listening to songs from iTunes, and having Firefox open). The only thing I don't understand is that this only happened when I got a new hard drive. I did send it back in to Toshiba to have it repaired (it was making some strange noises and it kept freezing my computer). I think it might have something do with the processor because it is constantly hot and at max capacity right before a BSOD. So, I'm not sure if the CPU has something to do with it, but I do notice that whenever I have to restart my computer after a BSOD, the little processor light is always off.

I was considering upgrading the CPU to an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor like the sticky at the top of the forum says because I know that these processors have better performance and can handle more programs open at once. I also know that they don't create as much heat as the current Celeron M does.

So, what do you guys think, is the HD causing my CPU to overheat? Should I replace the CPU? I REALLY do not want to send it back into Acer (it's pretty tough to live without it for 2-3 weeks). If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

I'm counting on you guys to help my out and I would really appreciate your advice!

P.S. Please, don't tell me to buy a new computer!

 

Sounds like overheat for me. Download speedfan and post your temps.

 

Okay, I downloaded SpeedFan and currently my temps are as follows:

CPU: 45 C
Temp1: 54 C
Hard Drive: 31 C

I just turned on my computer after it was on sleep for a couple of hours so I'll repost after I start to feel my computer gets really hot.

 

if i were you,,, i'd run some serious MEMORY TEST diags.... just use the search box in my sig to search for RAM TESTING UTILITY

 

Okay, I've replaced all of the upgraded parts with the factor defaults (512 Mb of RAM and 80 Gb hard drive).

Before I did that, I noticed that the computer would give out at around 55 C degrees, then it would shut down and it would go through the whole no LCD boot thing. Now, I notice that without the equipment that I bought, my computer is running fine (although a little slow w/o the 1 Gb RAM) and right now it is running at 57 C (yeah, my computer is fairly hot right now).

So, I don't think that it's a heat problem or a CPU problem. I think bigozone was right and the RAM stick which I bought might not be working properly (i.e. some static electricity might have shocked it). So, I'm not really sure, but I guess I'll keep running my laptop with the defaults and see how it goes.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=142746

make this CD
turn off machine, remove battery, remove AC cord, press power button to drain power...

then put new ram in.... and boot off this CD you just made.... let it run for a few hours

see if you get any errors..
if so return RAM..

later,
BigO