Acer Aspire 5738G, long post is long.

Hello boards, greetings from Sweden and a somewhat flustered and downhearted guy.
I sincerely hope you can shed some light on my problem and I apologize in advance if there is a topic covering this problem already. I read the "Read before posting" but couldn't find a solution.

I bought an Acer Aspire 5738G in February this year.
Now, I'm a patient man when it comes to computer issues.
It evolved since my computer before this one was a Fujitsu Siemens stationary.

10 year old, Windows ME-booting, 18.6 Gig "large" hard drive, sound routine disabled, unreliable and all kinds of bad piece of [something foul-mouthed] which had around five different ways to [something else foul-mouthed] me on a regular basis.

So in comparison to that, I don't have unreasonable standards when it comes to this laptop.


The thing is, it shuts itself down at times.

I first experienced it when I was trying out my recently bought Star Craft 2.
Adjusted graphic settings to medium, just to give me some margins.
Lo and behold, it shuts itself down mid-game. I felt the underside of the computer and thought:
"Ah, overheating. Well let's set SC2's graphics to low resolution."

Didn't help more than a few more minutes.

Ok, so I'm aware that laptops are notorious for getting warm.
So I buy a cooling lounge from Belkin.

Sure, it gave me more minutes, but the laptop still shut down.

So, to solve this, I had to put a table fan behind my computer, angle it up using a small cardboard box to let the air flow in under it.

This contraption allows me to play SC2.

A while later, I'm at a friends place. I have my computer and my cooling pad, but not the fan. I try to play SC2, but it shuts down very quickly.
I complain that my computer overheats.

My friend, who happens to have an older Acer laptop which get _a lot_ hotter (as in place it on the bed for about 10 minutes and your sheets starts to smell burnt) tells me that's nothing. There's something wrong with my computer.
He fetches his computer, turns it on and starts a game.
Sure enough, it gets very hot very quickly.
So we plug his computer into my cooling pad, to see if it's my pad that's inefficient.
Not at all, his laptop stays perfectly cool.


Ok, so now I'm a bit confused. It gets better.


About a week ago, I'm at the same friends place with my computer. I don't have my cooling pad with me, nor my table fan.
I get to borrow his Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
It's a lot older than SC2 so I think it shouldn't be a problem.

Sure enough, I can play and I do so for about 40 minutes I guess.
Then we're going to walk his dogs, so I leave the computer running, figuring that if it doesn't shut down whilst I'm giving it commands, it really shouldn't do it when I'm not.

When I get back the computer is shut down.
It has been standing on a table, so no soft surface to block the air vent or anything like that.

I touch the underside and it's a bit warm, nowhere near how hot his old laptop got and his laptop didn't shut itself of unless you _really_ overheated it.


Four days ago, the same guy (can you tell that we game together ) and a mutual friend of ours are trying to LAN Neverwinter Nights 2.
I have my computer, my cooling pad but not my table fan.

My computer shuts down as soon as I connect to the actual game.
It's not very warm at all when I touch it. A bit but not much more than usual.

This gets more weird, just you wait.

At times, when I'm using a lot of CPU (as in 85-100%) but not playing a game other than a emulator for NDS games the computer fans goes at full speed but the laptop doesn't shut itself down.

Maybe it would, if I let it run longer, but I try not to use that much CPU so I usually fix it.
Mozilla Firefox have a tendency to sometimes not shut itself of properly so I have to enter the... what's the name... "Activity Handler" and shut it down from there. Otherwise Firefox will steal about 45% of my CPU, hence the above situation about using 85-100% CPU.


Now, is it really reasonable that I have to set up this contraption every time I try to play any game?
It this supposed to be normal, because I don't think so.


I've google'd it and read about an older version of the software causing overheating. So I checked it on Acers homepage but they said I had a recent enough version and that it wouldn't be a problem.
So that's not the solution.

I'm seriously considering calling their customer service, because I don't think it is supposed to shut down this easily.
It's not even that hot when it shuts down, which is the really weird part.

The spec's as far as I can gather are:
Intel Core 2 Duo processor T6600 (2.2 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650
up to 2813 MB HyperMemory.
15.6" HD LCD
4 GB Memory.
640 GB HDD.

First I thought it's the fan, but the laptop isn't particularly warm when it shuts down.
Then I thought about the processor, but if that one was broken, I would suspect that my computer would be slow all the time.
I pondered if it could have been the graphics card, but according to research I did the 4650 should be able to handle Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and Oblivion have higher requirements than both Bloodlines and NWN2.
My energy setting is set at "High performance" so that won't solve it.

...*sigh*

Anyone got any tips or hints how to fix this or is it just time to shuffle everything over on an external hard drive and send it away to Acer?

Note that I'm not tech-savvy at all, so acronyms and less than obvious step-by-steps won't help much.


Well at least my startup sequence don't take between 20 and 30 minutes anymore.
I told my computer not to start MyWinLocker during start-up.
I can't de-install MWL, since my computer forces me to shut down Windows whilst doing it and then freeze around 65%. But I can ignore it.
That's always something, right?

 

Hi there, I would advise downloading GPU-Z, it will allow you to monitor your GPU temperatures. (remember to check the box that will make it monitor in the background or it will pause while you are playing).

Your laptop will also shut down if your GPU is too hot.

It may be that there was a small error in construction and the heatsink is not making proper contact to the GPU core.

There is luckily some other stuff you can do. But lets find out if its your graphics chip.

 

Hi there and welcome to the forums .... I have ur exact same model same specs but with the weaker GPU ....

In a nut shell this model has this problem in all its variances the one with the nvidia GPU or the ones with ATI due to a design flaw where Acer kindda forgot to open the bloody air intake vent so you kindda have 2 options:

1- undervolting is your best friend with that laptop (helps a huge deal since the processor and the gpu share the same fan and everything so the less heat in general benefits both and the reason why your CPU stress doesn't shut the laptop down thats because the GPU emits the bigger amount of heat so if you stress them both the laptop shuts down)

2- there is a thread here try to look for it where me and some other users opened a few holes in the what-was-supposed to be intake vent to give the laptop intake air (but thats the craziest solution and it will void the warranty so I wouldn't recommend it

 

Hello PHON, and welcome to the forums!
When was the last time you opened up your laptop and cleaned out your fan and vents?
If you've owned your machine for a while, dust can accumulate on the copper grille that the heatsink connects to, reducing its ability to transfer heat and properly cool your system.
In some systems (mine, f'rinstance), there's a mesh screen between the fan and the intake vents. This mesh screen keeps dust out of the system, but it too can get clogged, choking off the fan.

 

In order:

All of you:
Thanks for the welcome.

Meaker:
I downloaded CPU-z, checked the box and set so that it would create a log in notepad. According to these notes, my normal temperature is 55-60 °C.
I played some SC2 and had just started building a character in NWN2 when my computer shut down. The log file states that the temperature right before shutdown was 84 °C.

So that would suggest this is a overheating problem, I assume?


MahmoudDewy:
I'll check the undervolting guide, even though I'm a bit hesitant to start fiddling with the settings I can manage to do this.

But drilling holes in my chassi not so much, heh.


TehSuigi:
Not once since I bought it, mostly due to the fact that I'm not sure I can do so without voiding the guarantee and the fact that I'm not sure how to actually do it.

 

I doubt Acer would void your warranty for performing preventative maintenance. As for how to open 'er up, there are a few websites where Acer service manuals are posted. Unfortunately, we can't share them here due to the forum rules; sharing the service manual breaches its EULA.

 

The problem with that machine is that in order to reach the inside where you can clean the vent you will have to dismantle the whole thing .... I dunno why they made it that hard actually but it will void the warranty for sure

 

Really? Shoost.
In that case, I got nothing. :s

 

I have an Aspire 5740G that uses the same chassis as 5738G.
What I do is I use a gas duster (canned air) on the vents on regular basis.
You shouldn't let the dust settle and get compressed between the "leafs" of the radiator. If you clean it every two or three weeks you should be in no need of disassembly.
That said- the problem PHON mentioned seems to be more than just some dust.

BTW- PHON you've been asked by Meaker to use GPU-Z and you've posted results from CPU-Z

 

Sorry, that actually was GPU-Z.0.4.6. I spelled it wrong.
But the notes are the same.

Date:2010-10-14 21:42:45
GPU Core Clock [MHz]:600.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]: 796.5
GPU Temperature [°C]: 84.0
Fan Speed [%]: 30
GPU Load [%] : 45
Fan Speed [RPM]: -
GPU Temp. #1 [°C]: 82.0
GPU Temp. #2 [°C]: 83.5

Worth noticing that the GPU load was 95 just five seconds earlier than the last recording.

Also something interesting I noted when searching through the log is that the fan speed is at constant 30%. Never more, never less.


Yes, I really should have bought some canned air along with everything else earlier. I'm going to track some down, it might even be so that my dad have some already.

I'll try the undervolting after I'm done with my university assignment which is due in 4 days. Just to be on the safe side, even if I do have everything important on my external harddrive, I have had bad experiences with computer fiddling.

 

GPU load doesn't really matter and 84*C is not very hot for a GPU.
As for the fan ATI cards report 30% all the time- it doesn't matter. Mine says the same thing although fan speed changes.
Try to clean the vents and if it doesn't work - RMA the notebooks.
You could open it yourself, clean it and put some new high quality thermal paste but since it's covered by warranty that you would void by doing so, there' no point.

 

At full load, maybe, but PHON's pulling that at about half-load. If that was his idle temp, I'd be even more worried.

 

My idle temperature is between 58 and 60.

The CPU load looked like this during the last 15 seconds:
69
70
78
87
95
93
93
93
95
95
84
74
65
57
45

So it's not like it is shutting down at 45-55 load, even though it is a bit weird that is decreases just before shutting down.

"RMA the notebooks?"
Please explain, acronyms for computer-related issues and me aren't compatible.

 

No, that decrease is probably some last-ditch clock throttling to try and cool the CPU as it's overheating.
95 is officially danger-zone territory.

RMA = Return Merchandise Authorization. In other words, get Acer to fix it!

 

95 for that CPU is quite extreme ... mine heats up to like 75 max with 30 degrees room temp ..... there is something wrong

 

Yeah you are right.

PHON I think it's time to contact Acer support center. You may still try cleaning the vents but I'm pretty sure it won't be enough.
Since the notebook is still new there's no point in DYI- let Acer have a go at it first and only if that doesn't solve the problem you may think of opening the notebook and doing some improvements yourself (new thermal paste or MahmoudDewy's type of chassis mod)

 

Ah, I suspected as much.
*sigh*

Good thing I have a guarantee, just need to contact the webshop I bought it from.
I'm 98% sure they'll just pass me forward to Acers customer service, but on the of 2% chance that they'll give me some number to prove I bought it in February there's no reason not to.
I still have saved both the receipt and the validation mail that I ordered it, so it shouldn't be any problem.
Just got to make sure Acer knows it's covered by my guarantee.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

If you are in the UK do not let them fob you off to Acer. Legally your contract is between the shop and yourself, not acer.

I think Acer America is a bit more reliable.

With the UK I had to wait 10 weeks for a replacement for a DOA laptop.

 

I'm in Sweden and I bought it through the largest Webshop in Scandinavia.

So I'll contact the shop first. I am in no mood to foot the bill when I'm not supposed to.
But if they're the biggest in Scandinavia, they ought to have at least decent customer service.


...yeah.