Acer crashes and stripes appear on screen (picture)

So my friend has an acer laptop, and starting today, it's been doing this roughly every 5 minutes:



It's completly frozen, and needs to be rebooted to "fix"
Have any of you heard of this happening before, suggested fixes, etc?

 

Something wrong with the video driver perhaps ?

 

Nice pattern - could i have that for my curtain? Just kidding

I am missing some information:
Which Notebook Modell?
Will the Notebook get hot before doing that pattern?
How old is that notebook?
Have something happened to the notebook?

So i ask my cristall ball :wub: :It could be the graphic card, processor, display electronic. If the graphic card is sitting on the mainboard - yes it is the mainboard .

So getting logical - The graphic corrupted and the notebook freezes - So it could be a missing interrupt from the graphic card because it is crashing and we would see a BSOD if the graphic is not corrupted ;-). Otherwise the processor hit a bad memory block of the memory. On that block there is the I/O for the graphic card so the graphic gets corrupted and everything freezed.

I think - check all plugs inside the notebook ( if you can reach them) - perhaps just the graphic card and/or the display connector slipped out of the plug a little bit. Oh - by saying that i suppose he did not changed any drivers ... . If you have two memory modules - get one out - checking for bad memory. If it still happens - change the memory module with the other one. And be sure not to be staticly charged otherwise perhaps you have one more probleme!
Or - just meet the computer doctor you trust ;-)

I hope i could help

Tom

 

System instability? I get that when I undervolted too low.

 

As I'm posting this for a friend, I've emailed him the link and when he gets home to his working PC I'll get him to post all the specs on his laptop. Thanks for the speedy replies guys

 

Last time I saw something like that, the video card died on my Fujitsu N5010

 

Tom,
It's an Acer Aspire 5000, purchased and used since May 2005. Since then, I've sent it back to Acer for repairs twice, with unrelated issues to this. I tested this some more and found that it's not a heating/cooling issue, because I let it sit for a good hour and a half in a cool place and tried it again, with the same results. I'm running Vista Ultimate on it, which could very well be the problem, but this is very strange because it ran Vista perfectly well for a week and a half. I haven't installed any new software (or hardware) recently. Also worth noting that there is no BSOD before the acid trip, and it takes a few reboots in order for Windows to boot up again afterward.

I ran some memory diagnostics, and both of my DIMMs came out clean (I have 2x512 sticks). I haven't installed or uninstalled any drivers recently to cause this to happen.

Right now I'm going to check the mainboard for any loose connections. I'll post again with my results from that soon, but, based on what I know now, any suggestions?

Much appreciated, thanks.

-Kevin

 

And I thought my problem was abnormal. I've sent it in 3 times. I'm still waiting for the 3rd time to come back from repairs. 1st time they replaced LCD screen and panel. 2nd time, hard drive. 3rd time.........we'll have to see. Been in repair (including shipping times) since I installed Vista on January 30th. According to the Acer Support people, Vista corrupted my hard drive during the 2nd time I sent it in for repairs. I got a new hard drive after that (w/o stupid partitions!), and I ignorantly installed Vista Business again. Guess what, same problem. This time it comes back home, I'm sticking to XP. I'm not gambling a whole month of repairs just to get Vista to work. Mind you, the Vista I have is legit genuine version. "Vista Capable" my ass, either that or Microsoft has a freaking monopoly (as we all know) to give us crap and force us to keep "upgrading".

 

O, and btw, the "Total Notebook Protection" 3-Year warranty I bought for $250 CAD is totally worth it. I did the math.

LCD Screen + Panel: $600
SATA Hard Drive: $200
CPU Module: $200
Shipping both ways (express/air/next day for me): $50/way * 6 = $300

Total repair costs: $1300
Value of warranty: 1300/250 = 5.2
Time wasted w/o a laptop : Since Februrary 1st

 

I would try a new bios, if there is one! Vista is known for its bios related problems - and Acer is known for its not so well programed bios. For my notebook (5101awlmi) there is a bios especialy for vista. Please do not try to flash the bios under windows - if the computer freezes in flashing you have to send in the whole notebook for mainboard exchange! So get a usb floppy and try flashing under dos.
I have not tried Vista yet on my notebook. Acer did not send it to me yet - am i know happy?
Try another run - install XP (if possible) and check if the notebook keeps freezing!

Tom

 

Here's an update. My computer now won't even post the BIOS. I turn it on, the fan revs up, and then turns off, and the screen is black. I have had so many problems with this laptop that I'm sure I'll never buy another Acer ever again.

Any ideas now? I can't use a USB floppy, or do anything really, since it won't even post the BIOS, I can't reset it or fix it.

 

Another update: Okay, so after about 3 hours of trying and trying to get it to boot, it finally posts the BIOS. Very random. So, I formatted, and now I have a single empty NTFS partition, but that still didn't fix the problem. I'll give Acer a call tomorrow, see what I can do about getting some sort of replacement, because honestly, I am fed up with this company.

Thanks guys, if anyone has anything that they can think of, please don't hesitate.

 

This happens to me on my Acer 5102 maybe once every two months ONLY when on battery power. It is exactly how your picture shows. I just take the battery out in put back in, Power back on and it doesn't happen again for another month or two. I have no idea what causes it, but as long as it only happens once in a while and I can easily reboot by taking Battery out, then it really doesn't bother me.

I have also heard some people going thru the exact same situation as me on Acer laptops. But never heard a story about it being permanent yet.

 

I have the same experience as livefrmnyc on my Acer 5050. Again it only happens on pattery power and I cannot reproduce the problem, it happens randomly. This probably won't help the OP, but i'll post it here anyways.

I cannot confirm that I have 'solved' the problem, however it has not happened since the last step (see below)

After the first time, I checked my event viewer for any messages out of the ordinary. I saw an error message related to the microsoft fax printer which was timestamped close enough to the system freezing. I promptly disabled the modem.

After the second time, I became suspicious that it was only happening on battery power. Event viewer this time revealed nothing (or nothing I understood to be a problem). The only thing that came to my mind, that dealt with battery power/schemes, was the recently installed program Notebook Hardware Control. I removed NHC.

After the next crash, I wondered why I didn't try updating the video drivers. It seemed like a video problem. I downloaded the latest VGA drivers from Acer Canada and uninstalled the existing version. While I was installing the new VGA drivers on AC power, it froze with the same screen pattern as before. Oh great.

Did some research and I think I read that the Omega drivers set supported the ATI xpress1100. I installed the Omega set and they seem to work fine. It hasn't frozen up since.

 

Not that I can tell you why it does it but I can tell you that my Aspire 5672WLMI does that as well, randomly, when plugged in. Happened about 3 times and I've had this laptop for about 1 year now.

 

I am having the same problem as well with an Acer 5000. I am running Windows XP, and this started happening suddenly after the laptop had been working trouble-free for several months. My theory is that I may have dropped it and some connector became loose.

Edit: A further clue in my situation is that with the hard drive completely removed, I can get the computer to crash while in the BIOS by simply moving it or jiggling it. This also happens when in Windows. I have tried running it both with and without the battery, with no noticeable change. I am going to open it up this evening and see if I can find a loose connector somewhere.

It sounds as if we may all be chasing different problems which result in a similar symptom.

 

The first time this occured on my laptop, I was turning it to show something to a friend, and the rubber feet on the bottom of the base stuttered/vibrated because of the friction. Maybe you're on to something.

I tried taking everything apart, and I can't seem to get at the screws underneath the screen. How do you get at those?

In the meantime, I'm awaiting my new Macbook Pro .

 

Hyall... I have an Aspire 1642Z and I have had something like you say, only that my screen just got single coloured (once purple and once white) but it didn't crash, the audio kept playing in the background somewhere.... also it happened twice when I was watching some trailers on the apple site, not in any other application....

Also, I have a friend who bought a 5101 and has the same issue, dunno how he fixed it or if he fixed it, I haven't talked to him in a while... Have any of you noticed that most of the models that have the stripe issue are 5000 something?! Just saying....

 

My girlfriend has a Acer Aspire 5050. It also freezes randomly, and stripes appear on the screen.

Recently, it started crashing every 10 minutes or so, on battery power and off, and in both linux and windows xp. Finally it wouldn't boot at all. Then I booted from a CD, restored the master boot record from backup, and now it boots again. But it still crashes exactly as in the picture, although only once every few hours.

I have no idea if what I did affected the frequency of the crashes, or if the reduction was just a coincidence.


Clifton

 

I also have the same experience with my new aspire 5100-5830 (should be the same as 5102). It happened twice during the last 5 weeks that I own this lappy. It is also not colorful pattern but a white-grey one. I didn't use battery and haven't notice this other then this two times.

I also runned memorytest+86 v1.65 to test memory and it gives me 6 errors on address 00000000 (mine comes with 2*1GB ddr2 533 made by Samsung), I am not sure if that's normal? Maybe the freeze is caused by memory compatibility?

 

I have had this occur only a couple of times since owning an acer. This only occurs for me when I am running on battery power. I have upgraded the video device drivers, yet encountered the issue once more afterwards. HOWEVER, when holding the computer upside down, on the bottom of the lappy I noticed an additional locking device for the battery. With the comp off, I lightly tugged/slid at the battery pack and noticed that the battery pack pretty much fully disengages from the contacts. I said to myself "dumbo, lock the friggin' pack in." So, needless to say, I engaged the second battery pack lock, and have yet to experience the lock-up/pretty-colored screen.

It is quite possible that the notebook is getting slid, or otherwise moved and the battery pack is temporarily disengaging from the computer, therefore....shorting out.....freezing....or just plain confusing the system. Not sure if it will help you, however, like I said, it's helped me, as I have not had that problem since. (couple months now)

 

i got my aspire 5050 on november 16, 2006 , within a week i was back at the store where it was bought trying to get an answer why my nice, new laptop was always freezing up with no other way to fix it other than shut down with the power button(at least the colored strips were pretty,right? ) i had 2 new computers within a month cause no one knew what the *@#! was wrong with it. this one has done it just a few times in about 6 months and i think it might have something to do with the e technology cause if i change a few things around in there it wont do it ,and then i'll start messing around with it and changing things around and then, freeze...pinstrips!! but thats my ramble about it very aggravating!

 

I have had this happen on my 5684 too. Straight after I installed NHC. I ran 3D Mark 2003 and it did the same as some of the pics on the link above. So I rebooted and tried again. Still lines. Ran 3DMark 2006 no problem. Ran 3D Mark 2001SE no problem. Tried 3D Mark 2003 again. Still lines. The computer was never moved or had any kind of flexing. Now what?

I unistalled NHC and rebooted the Notebook. Tried 3D Mark 2003 again. Problem gone. Reinstalled NHC and rebooted. Till this day (problem was 2 Months ago) never had another hassle with any graphics. 3D Mark 2003 runs fine. NHC runs happily and I believe the problem is solved.

I think that it has something to do with rebooting the computer straight after installing NHC. Must do this. Don't run anything until you have rebooted.

Try it and let me know.

--------------------------------------------

I posted this a while back. All is still O.K. Problem is solved IMHO.

 

Happened to my Compaq, too. I fear it was because of the extended use of Notebook Hardware Control.

 

Many months later and never another problem. Strange.