Acer Aspire 9500 powers off (possibly overheats) before windows loads.

I have a very strange problem with my Acer Aspire 9504.

First of all it runs in Windows completely rock solid. I have ran stress utilities for over 24 hours, and the system is completely stable.

My problem is that it is very unstable before windows loads. For example, if I simply leave it in the BIOS setup for 5 minutes the computer will just power off. It is also quite hot underneath. This occurs also if I boot from DOS (or other e.g. XP recovery disk) boot disk to run some utilities - the system will run for 5 minutes or so, and then just power off. The time that I get before it powers off decreases if I immediately switch it on again, suggesting an overheating issue. I did not have this problem when I first got the laptop 3 years ago.

This problem is really annoying as I want to run some low-level utilities to repartition my hard disk and also possibly reinstall windows, but this problem is preventing that.

Any ideas? Perhaps some strange software that I installed? ACPI config? Memory issue? BIOS issue? Computer is hot in several areas under where the CPU / TV tuner / graphics / memory are located .

Paul

My system spec:
- Pentium M 760 2GHz
- Ati X700 256MB graphics
- 2GB crucial RAM (2 x 1 GB DDR2 533 CL4) (upgraded from 1GB over a year ago and fully tested to be working)
- Newest BIOS from Acer installed

From system information:

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Acer
System Model Aspire 9500
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1994 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Acer V1.70, 27/02/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 1.03 GB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.95 GB
Page File Space 3.35 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

 

Well, upon further investigation, it definitely isn't caused by the TV
tuner - I removed it because it felt hot but am still getting the problem of my computer shutting down outside windows (but stable inside windows).

That just leaves the CPU/Chipset/Graphics/Memory...

This thing is driving me barmy! No one has any ideas?

Paul

 

Looks like I'm not the only one!:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=191492

And it's not the BIOS image - I was able to flash to the newest BIOS successfully.

please heeeellllllp

 

I have the same problem except that now I can't even get it to fully boot before it shuts off. Help, please. Thanks.

 

It does sounds like overheating.

FYI when you're into the BIOS or in DOS the CPU is working on 100%,

Try to clean the laptop - fan and heatsink grill/vents. Dust is a killer for the notebooks.

 

Thanks ATG! My problem has now been SOLVED!!!

I previously had unscrewed the panel that covered the processor fan and there really was very little dust there, and therefore decided that it was clean and didn't need any more cleaning.

Upon your suggestion, I took off the panel again and then vacuumed the fan. Very little dust came off, but what came off seemed more like fluff than dust.

After that I have now successfully been able to run low-level CPU-intensive DOS utilities for over 15 hours straight without any problems!! I also notice that the fan is now noticeably quieter under Windows!

It just goes to show how much more sensitive the small laptop fans are to dirt, if compared to their larger desktop fan equivalents. It also surprisingly shows how much more efficiently a modern operating system uses your system's available resources.

Thanks again from a very happy Paul

 

Cool I'm glad you've sorted it out.

By the way, remember to clean it on regular basis from now on. Every 2-3 months is ok if you don't have furry pets. If you do have pets then cut this period in half - 1-1,5 months.

Cheers

 

...in retrospect those West Highland White Terriers did not help my situation either!!