Problems with an Acer Aspire 3000

Hi!

I have had an Acer Aspire 3000 for almost 2 years now. I've been really happy with the performance (except battery, but that's expected with a lower-end laptop). Anyway, starting a while back, the laptop will shut down for no reason during the middle of a heavy processing job. (usually CADing or animating). Lately however, the problem has been only getting worse - to the point of seriously limiting my actions. If the processor kicks to 100% for more than 3 minutes - it shuts down. I haven't overclocked or changed anything internally. I believe the problem is related to heat - so I'm wondering if:

A. If I am correct at all - and if I'm not, what the heck is causing this to happen.

or B. If heat IS the issue - what can I do to solve it? (Yes, I have tried those fan things that slide under - it only improves performance a little bit). Is this a known problem? Have I somehow deactivated a fan when using the CPU?

Anyway help would be appreciated - Thanks in advance.

 

The fan should certainly be running when the processor is stressed 100% and you should be able to hear the noise or feel the hot air from the vents on the side/back of the laptop. The AS3000 never had good cooling in the first place. Only the cpu was cooled with a fan while the GPU/chipset were cooled passively.

Check the temperature of the cpu when the system shuts down using a program like Core Temp. I would suggest cleaning up the heatsink and reapplying the thermal compound on the cpu and hope this fixes your problem. If this doesnt then its most likely a hardware issue.

 

I had a similar problem with my Acer Aspire 3000 notebook. It was an over heating issue, but I fixed it by simply opening the fan access panel and blowing the dust out. Compressed air would be better, but I didn't care enough to go buy a can, and I was just trying that option. However, after that it's had no problems since. Hope that helps.