2013 Archives

[Jon321]

Hi there,

I bought an Acer Aspire 5551 that is running on windows 7. I've had it for 2 years without a problem but a few months ago started freezing every so often and I would have to turn it off manually by pressing the "off" button on the keyboard. This freezing problem got more and more frequent and now it freeze within minutes of turning on each time. Unfortunatly it has just gone over its warrenty so I am unable to take it back.

My brother who is far more technical than me descided to reboot it and see if that would fix it which it didn't.He tried rebooting it again and now I can't even get the rebooting sequence to complete without it freezing so now I am stuck on the start up screen!

My brother who is far more technical than me says that he believes it is a hardware problem but he doesn't really know. He says I could take it to a laptop repair shop but they charge £30+ just to have a look at it and I don't want to pay that if they just say that It cannot be fixed or if they tell me that repairs will cost £100+

So I would love to know if anyone else has/is having any problems such as this and if there is a solution?

Thanks for looking anyway and I hope to here from some of you soon!

Jon.

[rallyman]

Sounds like your hard drive is failing or has now failed. Has the laptop overheated ? did you make recover discs ? if you made some discs it will just cost you the price of a hard drive. let me know how you do.

[Jon321]

Hey Rallyman

The laptop did get really hot sometimes so that points towards overheating. I did make recovery discs as well. So you think this means I just need a new hard drive? Do you know how expensive they are? Is it worth getting a pro to fit it or is it easy to do yourself?

Thanks for the reply,

Jon.

[rallyman]

Hi Jon, the hard drives are abot $80, they are quite easy to change, jst remove the cover under the laptop and there is a screw that holds the hard drive carrier remove the screw and slide out the drive then transfer the new one into the carrier taking note how the old was fitted. Also i would get a can of compressed air specially made for pc's and blow out the fan vent at the side of the laptop. Once you get the new hard drive installed run the recovery discs again and you should get windows p and running. Let me know how you do with it.

[Jon321]

Hey again Rallyman,

Had it checked out by a pro today and you were right they says its a hard drive failure! I'm going to attempt to try and fix it myself, Never tried anything like this before so wish me luck!

Thanks for your help and I'll keep you informed how I get on!

Jon.

[rallyman]

Your welcome Jon let me know how it goes.

[Jon321]

Hey rallyman,

Bad news, bought a new hard drive for £40, put it in and its still freezing! So the store that diagnosed the problem (PC World) have got it wrong! So frustrating all this. Any idea what to do next or is it a hopeless case?!

Cheers

Jon.

[rallyman]

Hi Jon, try taking the memory cards out and installing one then try the pc, then try the other one to see if one is faulty.If so then you will have to replace the faulty memory.