Acer 8943G Freezes

audiobiker

I just bought this a couple weeks ago from a lady. It freezes randomly. It has done this while in Word, using the interent, going through files in explorer, etc. I upgraded the memory to 16GB of 1333Mhz GSkill DDR3 stuff. I also replaced the old 500GB platter drive with a Samsung 250GB SSD drive and after modding the drive door, threw in a Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid drive into the second slot. I also installed a fresh version of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and re-installed all the latest drivers. I even went as far as drilling some holes in the bottom to give the fan underneath access to more air. My idle temps have been hovering around 42-50c and run temps are around 55-68c. So I am at a loss as to what could be freezing my system. Please let me know what you think and is there a free number I can call Acer to troubleshoot this thing? Thanks for any help!!!

 

Jared

Vince53

Audio, you already know that your warranty is expired and voided. However:

 

1) Your laptop shuts down because it believes that it is too hot, and it is.

2) Run your finger along the fan's exit vent. If you don't feel a breeze, your fan is not working. There are several free programs that control fan speed. None of them works on every rig, but you could try installing some of those.

3) On another tech forum, a writer suggested that the screws holding your rig's internal hardware could be loose.

4) I have a problem believing this one, but one poster says that there are rootkits that can survive upgrades. I doubt that, especially since you replaced your hard drive, but there are free rootkit scanners available on the web.

5) I'm sure you checked the heat sink, vents, and parts for dust.

6) You might have a Bios problem with your fans.

7) The next time you run your computer, put your hand on the battery pack. If the battery is hot, you have an internal leak, and your battery can ignite or even explode. Regardless, try running your machine without the battery and see what happens.

audiobiker

Thanks for the response! Let me answer in the order you wrote them.

 

1. The laptop doesn't shut down, it just freezes. There is no BSOD, just the mouse and keybord dont work.

2. The fan is working. That's one of the first things I checked. Any suggestions on third party fan software?

3. I checked the screws when I had it apart to drill the holes and everything is pretty tight.

4. I dont know what a rootkit is but I will google it.

5. I blew out and cleaned the fans and heatskinks when I had it apart and they are good to go.

6. According to Acer, I am running the latest BIOS so not sure if that's the issue.

7. I haven't tried that yet, but I will give it a try.

I checked the slots where I installed the ram and I had some questions on that. 1 and 4 are blue slots and 2 and 3 are green slots. If I am running two 8GB sticks, Do I throw the two in the same color? I did have them in different colors but I just swapped them into the same color so I guess I will give that a try. Again, thanks for some suggestions!

 

Jared

 

Edit: Even after the memory swap into the same color, it just froze up again. The battery is actually a bit cool but I run it with it plugged in 99% of the time anyway.

Vince53

Jared, I can't recommend any of the fan speed programs, because none of them work on every computer. You can find them easily on the web and try them out. Also, merely elevating your rig will lower the temperature about 10F. And this is a serious question: what is the temperature in the room your laptop is in?  As stupid as this sounds, the hotter the room is, the hotter your cooling air will be.

audiobiker

I have a good cooling pad underneath it. Like I mentioned, idle temps are around 42-50c and running temps are roughly 55-68c which according to Intel is not that hot and certainly not overheating. So, I have concluded it is not a heat issue.

What I have figured out thus far is that the problem I believe lies with Google Chrome. It seeems that whenever I have Chrome opened or even minimized, it will eventually freeze the whole system. It does so almost immediately when watching something on YouTube. I have googled the problem in question and it seems that Google is having issues with cetain machines. I ran the very same YouTube videos on Internet Exploder and it ran just fine with no freezing issues.

Vince53

I was going to suggest that you are dealing with two different problems. Freezing usually occurs because the system is overwhelmed. You might be getting unwanted downloads. It's possible that someone has hacked into your rig and is using you to send mass mailings.

 

You might have solved the problem, but why would Google Chrome be causing that on different hardware and different OS's? I would change my passwords.

audiobiker

After doing some reading, it seems the latest version of Google Chrome has had some major conflicts with certain hardware to include the audio hardware in this laptop. It has been something like 3 weeks since I stopped using Chrome and I have not had a single freeze up issue. I dont have any viruses and I have not only a great anti-virus program, I also have an anti-malware program that works great. So, if you are having freezing issues with this laptop, uninstall Chrome and wait for a newer version to come out.