Loved Acer 8943G Freezes above 25% - Any Advice?

Hi all

After reading a lot about acer laptops and issues on this forum, seeing the modified bioses, people who change their own CPU's, I'm much more optimistic about the future, so thanks for that

I have an Acer 8943G that I really really love, however since the first days I have a CPU issue, anything that uses 100% CPU, Minecraft for example, freezes the machine
Therefore I don't play any games, and keep the laptop at Balanced power setting with 25% max CPU

I didn't have freezes for more than a year, I've recently bumped it up to 35% and increased the RAM from 8GB to 12GB's (about a month ago), and had another freeze just an hour ago, removed the additional 2x2GB sticks too

I really don't want to buy another laptop, I would really prefer to keep on using my 8943G as long as possible (anyone interested in selling theirs to me?

I've previously done many tests on RAM's / the samsung SSD, however they both cleared, I also don't think it's a temp issue, the temps are generally low, the air flow is good, the room is not hot

My theories for the issue:
[1]: The power system can't provide enough power, therefore the CPU's freeze if the CPU tries to pull too much power
[2]: One of the cores are faulty, the CPU freezes when, with 25% chance, that core hits 100%

(If there are any other 8943G owners around, I guess we can eliminate [1] - If they don't experience this issue)

What do you guys think I should do?

Possible options I came up with:
(1): Buying another 740QM - or another CPU and replacing the CPU (or keeping the CPU, in case an emergency replacement is needed, if this one burns)
(I've tried opening the case before, it seemed too challenging, risky)
(2): Update the BIOS to a custom one, disable Hyper Threading, check memory timings etc (Don't think there are any issues with that, I remember checking those areas years ago)
(3): Stress testing individual cores, hoping core 3 or 4 is problematic, setting the core # from msconfig to 2 or 3 to block the problematic one (Couldn't find an easy way to test individual cores)

 

That is not gonna be one of the cores. Computer wouldn't even start with an issue like that. It's not like it could work up to a certain load and then stop.

The power system on the other hand might be an issue. Your PSU might be dying or one of the capacitors might be doing so in which case higher power draw might cause issues.

 

Hmm, thanks for your input

What kind of power systems does laptops have, is it on the motherboard?

One other issue could be voltages, however if other 8943's are running well, it's probably not, since the voltages are on default

Also on the last freeze, the computer froze 2 times more at the initial windows 7 animation
the bios password also full throttles the CPU's/Fan's - heats the laptop up, however the freeze was on the windows 7 animation/startup instead, which is interesting (I've let the laptop cool down a bit, removed the RAM's that I added a month ago, and re-tried, booted up later on, so it's not a very controlled experiment

I've exhaustively researched i7 issues, that might be related to this one, however I found nothing conclusive

 

I skimmed through your post, but this caught my eye. Have you ever cleaned your laptop? If not, then this is your problem. Also a repaste would be a nice addition.

 

The room is mostly dust-free, I also recently blowed air into the laptop with a compressor, there wasn't much dust, however a repaste indeed could be a/the solution

I've recently attempted to remove the bottom compartment of the laptop, but couldn't go through, the volume knob, case buttons, possible delicate connections scared me a bit, I was intending to take a look and do a deeper cleaning
If I had the potential to go that deep, I would probably also try to change the CPU, any guides around that would apply to a 8943 too?

 

You'll never know how clean your room is, until you open-up your laptop Google "8943G service manual" and go ahead. Buy a good quality paste (wont recommend high end stuff, as they are too difficult to deal with, while don't give enough difference to justify it in return) prior the opening, as well as rubbing alcohol. Good luck.

 

Thanks a lot, that's great advice, I'm a bit amazed and ashamed how I didn't come across the content you come across when you google "8943G service" - there are a lot of people who've done this before and posted photos too

I'm not too confident it will fix the freeze issues, as I've previously monitored temps closely (years ago) - and distantly remember freezes occurring at temps like 60-70 - however it's certainly an action in the right direction