Would anyone like to help me fix/upgrade my Aspire 7520?

Been considering this for while since I saw an old thread on here.

I've got a TK-55 Turion 1.8Ghz CPU in my laptop, and I understand I can upgrade it all the way up to a TL-68.

I've seen a TL-66 on Ebay for around £40/$60


However, last night, my laptop blackscreened and died completely. Came back this afternoon and got it back on, and re-created the load (VLC player, and an old Football Manager game that grabs 50% of the CPU, as well as a poker app and firefox).
Lo and behold, same thing happened.

So, what's changed recently?

1 - About 2 weeks ago I noticed the fan was kicking in a lot - last time it did this I cleaned out the fan and it was fine. Opened the back up and had a look - I cleaned it, but it wasn't bad at all this time.

2 - About 2 hours before it crashed, I updated the chipset and graphics card drivers from the Acer website (Win 7 64)


I've install HWMonitor, and I can see that the GPU is up to about 80C when I re-create the situation above - although it hasn't crashed yet.
I've rolled back the GPU driver, but there's no reduction in temps.



So I've got a bit of a project here - I'm a moderately skilled IT bod - I used to build my own desktops around 98-04, but stopped when I didn't have a load of spare parts to mess around with.
I installed the extra RAM and the 2nd HDD on this laptop - so I'm not totally clueless - but I'm no expert!


First of all, can anyone suggest what is causing the crashing, and how to fix that?

I've already ordered some artic 5 thermal paste & was planning on applying this to the chipset and CPU.
Is that a good starting point, or am I jumping the gun?


If the temps come right donw, I'd be interested in overclocking the setup - I've seen some forum posts that indicate I can push the clock from 200Mhz to 250Mhz (X9) which is a HUGE leap & would make my CPU purchase pointless, effectively.

Appreciate and and all advice.

 

Well, the first thing I'd do would be to backup everything. If your system's going kaka, the last thing you need is all your data going poof.

Next step - running System Restore to before the crash happened. Does it still occur?
After that, I'd bust out the old Acer recovery DVDs and reset the system back to factory default and see if the problem persists.
Beyond that, I'd look to hardware issues.

 

Hi,

My data is fine, thanks. System Restore isn't a bad idea, will give that a try.

The restore discs are Vista - I've been running Win 7 for ages now. I'm sure its not OS related.


What do you think about the temps?

 

I've just remembered another thing that has changed.

The laptop is now being used with the lid closed - Its attached to a large monitor with a proper keyboard and mouse.


I imagine that this will cause heating issues, as heat can't get out of the top as easily?

 

I don't think the vents go through the laptop so it shouldn't make a difference but you can always monitor the temperatures for w couple of weeks to make sure it stays near what it used to be.

 

I know there's no deliberate vents, but there are of course gaps in the keyboard and heat will always radiate off any hot surface.

I mentioned this because when it crashed, I had to hit the power button, and I noticed that the keyboard area, especially towards the back, was much hotter than usual.


I'm running another test right now - going to try to get the temps up around 80C again, then open the lid and see what happens.


Although oddly, the temps are holding at about 73C at the moment - hmmmm.

 

I hope this helps

The amount of laptops I see with overheating problems is quite a lot, especially ones for kids in their teens which lay laptops on the bed.
It's not just the fan you have to check as the air intake radiator/veins (as I call them), as I have seen them chocked with dust etc.
The heatsink takes heat away from the cpu up to the radiator/veins which are copper mostly to draw the heat away.
I have just did a dell 4 weeks ago which was crashing all the time, it had 2mm of dust/crap stuck to the copper radiator/veins and now the guy phoned me to say it's running great and hasn't crashed once.
I also did a clean install of windows on it at the same time as it hadn't been done for 3yrs which sorted out some other problems which weren’t related to overheating problems..

I wouldn't overclock a laptop as i think thats asking for trouble. pc's ok as you can always upgrade the heatsink & fan to cope with the cpu running hotter..

 

You can also improve efficiency of the built-in cooling system by placing the notebook on a notebook cooler if you find it to get hotter when used closed.
Bigger airflow should limit the effect.

 

Hi,
I think I already said I've had the back off, and I've cleaned out all the dust.

About 6 months ago, I noticed the fan was on almost constantly - and in the end I opened it up - and yes - it was badly clogged up.
This time, the fan was starting to get as bad - but when I opened it up there was only a small amout of dust/lint in there. So unlikely to be the problem.

As for OC'ing, I'm only considering this after I see the effect of the Artic Silver 5 paste. I'm hoping to see temps go down by 5-10C after this & a deep clean of the inside with compressed air (just waiting for deliveries to arrive).

 

I have been looking into that.

Is it normal for temps to increase when the lid is closed?

 

Yes it is normal because whatever you put on the keyboard will isolate it better than air so it's bound to get a bit warmer than it was. That said what matters is how much hotter is it going to get.
If it's let's say 5-6*C cooling pad will most likely make up for this.

 

I'm running the same apps right now with the lid open (but laptop display turned off so as not to add an extra load on the GPU).

CPU temp is 58C
GPU temp is 73C

I'll close the lid and come give it 15 mins.

 

So, shut the lid for a while - no change in temps.

Although the system does seem to be struggling a tiny bit - the sound is "blipping" on the video I'm watching.

 

It may be video-related. I would expect temps to go slightly up in the long run but it shouldn't be dangerous to the computer.
I would be tempted to use aluminum foil on the keyboard before closing the lid.
The heat itself isn't dangerous for the components of the chassis as these are built to handle high temperatures but LCD panel not so much.
I'm not saying it's dangerous for LCD but aluminum foil wouldn't do any harm and could help containing the heat inside the main unit.
Once again- I'm not saying it's a solution not that it's needed so don't laugh at me- I'm merely suggesting a test.

 

No, that makes a lot of sense. The screen does get hot when the lid is closed, as does the mousepad.

Going to wait until I re-apply the thermal paste and give the insides a thorough cleaning before trying anything else though.

 

Also, are there any more powerful (and quieter) fans that I can use to replace the stock fan?

 

That's not a good idea- the fan controller is meant to work with this particular fan (or at least the fan with the same parameters) so it uses voltage regulation to make the fan rotate at the rpm it wants hence achieving the airflow intended.
You'd have to find a fan that fits and that has similar or identical max airflow at max rpm otherwise the temps may go up and throttling may occur under full load. Cooling pad would be easier and safer way of achieving the same goal.

 

Cool, thanks.

Compressed air and artic silver 5 have now arrived - will do the deed tomorrow. Wish me luck!

 

There's something very wrong here.

All of a sudden, I can't get iTunes to play a track without it skipping constantly.

I've re-downloaded and installed the nvidea chipset and video drivers, but no change.

If its of any interest. Temperatures:

CPU: 45
GPU: 64
HDD: 38


Anyone got any idea?

 

Well, its fixed.

Would you believe I needed to re-installed the IDE/ATA drivers? Apparently its quite common for Windows to put HDDs into a low speed mode.

Not once in all my years of IT have I heard of that one!

 

Congrats

The stuttering DVD drive or the lame hard disk This is something that gets forgotten in these days when AHCI-enabled storage controllers are common...

Michael

 

That was the EXACT link I found elsewhere to a "music skipping" type search.

The script didn't work - but I guessed it might be a Win7 thing, so I simply uninstalled all 4 drivers for the HDD controllers and rebooted. Everything feels much much snappier now.



Still don't know if this was what is/was causing my crashing issue though - can you see any link???

 

Well, that's one thing cleared up - the HDD setup had nothing to do with the crashes - Its just happened again, here's the info:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 2057

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 124
BCP1: 0000000000000000
BCP2: FFFFFA8004E6B038
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\112210-17877-01.dmp
C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-120027-0.sysdata.xml

 

I've attached 2 dmp files, both from around the same time (one is much bigger?)
and the xml file, incase anyone knows what to do with them???

 

Been reading about the crashes, and its a graphics card driver causing TDR ( ? ) errors.

Possibly thermo-related.


Just to add, I ran memcheck86 last night, and I've just ran a full chkdsk /f against my HDDs - no errors found.

Currently running FurMark and tracking GPU temps to see if the issue returns.

 

Ok, big update:

1 - I found out what caused the HDD controllers to go into a different mode - Installing HWMonitor.
No idea why, but it does & its repeatable.



2 - Use compressed air to fully clean out everything on the inside of the casing. Its pristine in there now. Even disassembled the fan to get inside of it to make sure it was perfectly clear of dust - quick squirt of WD40 as well.


3 - Removed the old thermal paste from CPU and the heat pad from the chipset. Replaced with Artic Silver 5.

Had major issues with the chipset - I just couldn't get the paste thick enough to cover the ~2mm gap - so had to put the heat pad back on - I did leave a smear of AS5 on both sides though - can't hurt!

Temps were about 1C lower than previous - but AS5 takes a while to "go off" properly anyway.
Also, I don't have any temp monitoring software installed at the moment, so not tracking it.



HOWEVER....
While I was trying to get the paste to work on the chipset, I found the GPU sensor was going to approx 100C.

This means that it can run 20C higher than I've ever recorded it in the past - and so I can rule out GPU thermo issues as a cause for the crashing.


Of course, this means I now have absolutely no idea what is causing it, but I know it isn't heat - at least not on anthing I can check.

 

Uh, yes it can. Now heat has to go through THREE interfaces between northbridge and heatsink, actually reducing efficiency - chip to AS5, AS5 to heatpad, heatpad to AS5, AS5 to heatsink.
I'd ditch the heatpad and get a new one, keeping it and the heatsink free of AS5.

 

Hmmm, I considered that - but decided that the amount I put on, a smear i.e. what is left when you wipe it off once, would help to fill the inevitable gaps between that pad and the 2 surfaces it contacts with.
Looking at the temps, its made no difference (if anything, its slightly cooler now). I'll run some GPU tests shortly to make sure its ok - I don't have HWMonitor anymore, as I mentioned - but the other GPU tester seemed to have a temp sensor built in.
If it is a prob, I'll pick up a new heatpad though, for sure.




Either way, temperatures are not the issue here, as mentioned above. The only issue now is this BSOD problem

 

GPU temps may not have been the problem but now we won't be able to tell what's causing it to reboot. You have to try to lower GPU temps back to some reasonable numbers.
What about the drivers though- have you tested older versions of video drivers?
I'd recommend using the previous one and something rather ancient but known to be stable.

 

After I rolled back the system to get rid of the HWMonitor/HDD speed issue, I checked the temps, and they were in-line with what they were before I changed the paste/pad system.

I tried the original drivers that I'd been running with for over a year and the crash still happened.


I should probably mention that the 2 apps that seem to make this happen are VLC player and Championship Manager 03/04.
The thing with this game is that it runs the CPU at 50% constantly, even when its idling. I do remember when this game first came out that it was usually a full screen app that took the entire CPU - must be some deliberate programming to prioritise itself?
50% is of course because I have a dual core CPU. I did set the affinity to a single CPU and it went right to 98-100% on that CPU.

Again though, it only seems to die after about 4 hours of constant use.



Update:

The laptop has just crashed, leaving the isometric patter across the screen on the Win7 Login Screen. My partner had been using it, and had logged off.

This dispells any notion that this is due to heavy loading on the system. Now I'm utterly lost!

On the other hand, Prime95 torture test ran from midnight to 11am without a single problem.

CPU maxed out at 59C and is sitting at 43C as I type this.

 

So, is there anyone on here who's able to read those crash dumps? Otherwise this is going nowhere