My Acer 5672 died on me after 2 years

I bought an Acer 5672 WLMI a little over 2 years ago. I thought the Acer offered good value for the money. The specs were Intel Core Duo processor T2300, 2GB RAm, X1400 ATI Video card, 120gb HDD, 15.4" screen, winXp Pro -cost of the system was $1800 + tax (Canadian dollars).

The 5672 always ran hot. It was almost hard to keep it on my lap it sometimes got so hot. I was not even gaming. I was just doing standard web browsing/word processing. The bottom of the latop got so hot that is basically disintegrated most of the Microsoft WinXP Certification sticker. I pulled the bottom cover off and there was nothing obstructing the CPU Fan. I also would intermittently get a green/blue? line about 3-4 inches wide down the middle of the screen. This green/blue line was intermittent. Generally, the screen problem and the heat problem became worse as the 5672 became older.

After 15 months the hard drive failed. I put in a new 160gb HDD. Acer never gave me the original winXP CD and the Win XP Certification Sticker had burned itself off. I reinstalled another copy of winXP Pro that I had. The laptop ran ok for a bit, but then the wireless starting acting up...I would get dropped wireless connections and sometimes it could not detect wireless signals that I knew were there. I stopped using the wireless completely.
After about 18 months the CPU fan started to make an intermittent noise. At approx 2 years, the CPU fan failed completely. I thought I could replace the CPU fan, but realized the CPU was an intergrated unit with cooling tubes and cooled the CPU chip in addition to some other chips on the motherboard. I checked the Acer web site and did not see this part listed (not many parts were listed). I checked on ebay saw a few posting for a new fan/cooling unit -cost was approx $170. I debated whether or not I wanted to spend $200 and time fixing a 2 year laptop...that always ran hot and had some potential screen issues.

For a few days I ran the latop with no CPU fan and used an external fan to try and keep everything cool. I had motherboard monitor and could see this was not working and temps were getting high. I was debating what to do, when the laptop just died. The screen displayed a bunch of funky colours and then it just died. I was able to power it up again, but a few minutes later it did the same thing (funky colours on the display and shutdown by itself). I tried rebooting and nothing..it was dead. I pulled the hard drive and checked that it was ok.

My speculation was that the severe heat contributed to the many problems??...though I have no evidence.

Anyway, my opinion of Acer and the quality of their laptops is obviously not that great. This was a higher end laptop that I thought would last 4-5 years. It lasted 2 years. Not the end of the world but not what I expected. I have previously owned Dell and Toshiba laptops that provided much better long term durability. My initial attraction to the Acer 5672 was the value (good prices for nice specs)...but for me the quality/durability turned out very poor. I am looking for a new laptop and it won't be an Acer.

 

BTW, I took my Acer 5672 apart and tried to do more troubleshooting. I could not determine what was wrong. It looks like a used Acer 5672 is only worth about $300-400? I am thinking of selling my entire Acer 5672 (now in parts), less hard drive - but everything else (screen, 2gb ram, battery, ac adpater, motherboard with intel T2300 core dup cpu, atiX1400 video, intel pro wireless card, etc etc). If I do sell, I will post an ad in proper section.

 

If you want to sell an Item on NBR, you have to comply with the BST rules(along with posting in the correct forum). Also, make sure that you know the forum rules because the thread you posting in the 'what notebook should I buy forum' was deleted since it was off topic and cross posting is against the forum rules.

 

I edited the post. If i decide to sell, I will post in the correct forum.

 

Ws6formula, the heat definitely contributed to your system's early demise.
Those older generic Acer models didn't exactly have the best reliability, but I've heard nothing but good things about the newer TravelMates - the ones with the ProFile design.

 

Might have been an idea to re-apply new thermal paste. Blow out the heatsink with compressed air.

 

Yes if you knew fan was dieing you shound just got replacment stoped useing blow fan on bottom laptop what did you expect I am not surpised it died after that

If you reply apply themal pasted and change fan before go the fan died complete and you ran it problay be still go good

 

Yes, I agree I should likely have bitten the bullet and got a new fan. But, problem was that (i) It is not like you plug in a simple fan (like on a desktop), (ii) the fan system on the Acer 5672 is pretty complicated and expensive,
a new fan setup was almost $200 and not readily available (iii) I would have had to order it new fan setup.
.
So, even with a new $200 fan, the system would still run super hot. I had already replaced the hard drive and now the fan system was gone and the wireless was flaky. I don't think the hard drive should fail so soon and neither should the fan. The laptop was only 2 years old.

 

You totally blew your mother board by doing that. Smart move right?

 

Well, your notebook has moved on to a better place.
Everyone, please rise.
*plays Amazing Grace on bagpipes*

 

I know the fan model I am sure you cound have got for less then 200 bucks anyways at least i wound stoped ues it till you got repaired

I used to own that model but with x1600 It was great little machine And yes i had mine fore more 2 yrs IF recall change fan is just under bottom acess panel on that model I can,nt rember it was along time ago

Anyways that laptop is died I wound,nt blame acer on this isse they just buy the fan from anythey company design to specs

If you stop use laptop and got fan fix am sure you wound got more 2 yr out of it But you did,nt so it was you lose as for hard disk die It happen does.nt matter who make laptop they all pretty much use the disk from same place ie brand like haitachi seagate wd etc

I also sold the 5670 one with same spec to few people they still go good

It all depend on enviroment how you take care you stuff

as for quailty of acer I find it gernaly good value for you dollar

Yes they do have some model that where not the best of quailty but new model are pretty good

as for acer not give you disk you had choice burn set recovery disk when you got machine Yes some people don,nt

and if you think the toshiba and dell will last long I think you have to check fourms cause it seem alot them faily pretty quickly



anyways you chound always just phone acer order replacment set of recovery disk anyways but that beside point

 

You take care of your sh!t and it lasts (what a concept I know).

I've been using my 5672 for over 2 years now every day and the keyboard is still solid and I still game on it (mainly WoW and BF2). No dead pixils / complains / QQ'ing / or puling dumb@ss moves like running it without a heatsink fan enabled. It's like running your car without oil and blaming ford for a sh!tty product.

You shot yourself in the foot, who would have thunk...

 

My feelings exactly....

I remember you SSX and a couple of other guys who posted here waaaaay back.

Still happy as expected......sigh.

My 5680 still running as well as the first day I booted it. And I game too with the Go 7600 in my lappie. Without problems. Ever.

Lucky = No. I just take care of my stuff. Like you.

See my post in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=30960&page=14

Cheers,
Theo

 

Maybe I did screw up by running the laptop with no cpu fan. But, I did leave the bottom cover off and had a decent size fan blowing on the laptop. I was also running motherboard monitor and the cpu temp did not get that high. Motherboard monitor did not tell me that temp of the ATI X1400 video chip. So, it sounds like (from what u guys r saying) I may have inadvertently overcooked/fried this ATI X1400 video chip??
.
Would an overcooked/fried ATI X1400 chip cause the symtpoms I encountered?..ie. laptop appeared totally dead, would not power up at all, no beeps, or any sign of life ?

I agree maybe I am being a bit hard on Acer and other laptops can have the same issues (just read about dell and all there problems with the nvidia 8400/8600 video chips). Just was kinda peeved on the multiple issues that I had with the laptop (ie. hard drive failure, laptop ran super hot all the time, green/blue line in display, wireless problems, fan failing) and the fact it died. If I did cause the ultimate failure then I am a dumbass. I was thinking maybe alot of the laptops problems were related to running super hot for so long. I never did determine why I would intermittently get a blue/green line up the middle of the screen..maybe the ATI X1400 chip was getting hot and intermittently having issues...and then I finally killed it...by running with no cpu fan??

 

Well, the CPU fan is actually the exhaust fan - the CPU, northbridge and GPU heatsinks lead to a metal grill in front of the fan which blows air on it to cool them.
If that thing goes belly-up, that means trouble BIG TIME. Your CPU can downclock and throttle itself to prevent permanent damage. The GPU can do the same to a lesser extent, and might explain some of the graphics glitches you ran into.
The northbridge...less much. That's the bit on your motherboard that connects your CPU to the rest of the components, so if it croaks, your system does too.
Actually, the excess heat from the notebook might have been responsible for the HDD failure and WiFi wonkiness early on.

And notebooks do run hot, but shouldn't get to the point of burning your lap like a spilled cup of McDonald's coffee. Had you contacted Acer support and notified them of your laptop running a fever, they might have repaired it.

Don't feel bad about causing the "ultimate failure" - we all make mistakes from dicking around with computers. I haven't told the full story here, but I did successfully white-screen-freeze my old TravelMate 3252 when I tried to overclock its FSB. We learn and move on, and if we're lucky it'll be with the same computer.

 

Yup Just figure lession learn and move on new better stuff :>

but serisoly don,nt count acer out brand they product line has change they do make very good laptop for dollar value

also most them odm acautly same laptop chaisis that other company use they just brand them to they self


they ether quanta winston clevo anatel am problay missing one the odm name at moment

what the laptop do now ?
does it show power get to broad when you plug in power adapter?

light on laptop turn on

 

Right now the laptop is totally disassembled (see my 2nd post in this thread for pics). Before I took it apart the symtpoms were:
(i) plug in ac adpater and press the power button on top right and I would get a brief green light (maybe lasted 1 second), then nothing...nothing on the screen, no beeps from bios...nothing
(ii) i also tried with just the battery (no ac adpater) and symtpoms were the same..so, battery appeared to be fine

I took out the hard drive and tested it, and it was fine. Before the laptop died, it displayed some wierd colours on the screen (kind of like a bunch of straight lines with a rainbow of colours) and then powered down. I did successfully boot once last time...display again showed funky colours and it powered down again...and was dead...never able to reboot...

 

I was able to find a new heatsink/fan unit for my sister's 5672wlmi and replaced it for her last christmas. The fan was making nasty noises. At the same time I replaced the cooling... pads... if you can call them that... with arctic silver. Her laptop is still running nicely and certainly cooler than it was (she has the X1600 version). It was a hot running laptop with a cheap cpu fan I think.

If I remember correctly the fan/heatsink part was about $50. You don't have to buy it from acer, you know.

 

Hi

I have an Acer Aspire 5672 WLMi

I am told the main board is damaged. I am in South Africa. What would you charge for yours main, if your is in good working order?

Regards

Immo2009