Laptop freezing 10 minutes after start-up

[PeterJB]

I've owned an Acer Aspire V3-571 running Windows 7 for just short of two years. In the past few weeks it's begun freezing up 5-10 minutes after start-up. The cursor still works, but everything becomes unresponsive and task manager can't open, so I have to force it to shut down. Normally after this it will run fine for several hours before freezing again. Occasionally it asks to check the HDD for consistency, or it fails to start-up and runs a check but finds no problems. I've done a full virus scan, did nothing, ran an 11-hour disk defragment, did nothing. Every few days the start-up can causes it to freeze as well. I return to university in less than a fortnight and have no idea how to fix this.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I've owned an Acer Aspire V3-571 running Windows 7 for just short of two years. In the past few weeks it's begun freezing up 5-10 minutes after start-up. The cursor still works, but everything becomes unresponsive and task manager can't open, so I have to force it to shut down. Normally after this it will run fine for several hours before freezing again. Occasionally it asks to check the HDD for consistency, or it fails to start-up and runs a check but finds no problems. I've done a full virus scan, did nothing, ran an 11-hour disk defragment, did nothing. Every few days the start-up can causes it to freeze as well. I return to university in less than a fortnight and have no idea how to fix this.

I knew it would be an Acer before I opened the thread They're good machines but the motherboards can be a little flaky. Literally, sometimes.

Try this power fix, see if that makes a difference? I doubt it though from what you describe.

Are you using McAfee? If so boot in safe mode and remove that - a primary culprit in lots of freezes.

 

[PeterJB]

I'm using ESET Smart Security.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Do you have any way you can remove the HDD, place it in a caddy and virus-scan/integrity-check it on another machine? That's something you should do.

Get an application that measures board temperatures, see if the CPU is overheating (or thinks it is) causing suspensions. Under-clocking can be a short term fix for this if supported.

Type [WIN]+[R] then eventvwr, is there anything interesting in the log? You're looking in Critical and Error (top pane).

 

[CBH]

If I were you just take your laptop to a computer shop and get it tested before it is to late for university. 👍

 

[PeterJB]

Do you have any way you can remove the HDD, place it in a caddy and virus-scan/integrity-check it on another machine? That's something you should do.

Get an application that measures board temperatures, see if the CPU is overheating (or thinks it is) causing suspensions. Under-clocking can be a short term fix for this if supported.

Type [WIN]+[R] then eventvwr, is there anything interesting in the log? You're looking in Critical and Error (top pane).

I haven't got a clue how to remove the HDD, or at least safely. I downloaded something earlier called SpeedFan. It says the HDD is around 35C and Core 0 and Core 1 are both over 60C. I opened that log but it induced the problems I've been having!

 

[PeterJB]

And because of that this bloody thing's decided to post the same message five times...

 

[TenEightyOne]

That's way hot. Did you do the power settings check?

60 seems too high!

THere's a little panel underneath which, when you remove the retaining screw, should allow you to slide the harddrive away from the socket. I'd consider going further, remove the entire lower case, take a deep breath and blow. Before trying to fix the components clean it out, no point paying a computer shop to do that.

 

[PeterJB]

It gets up to over 90C when I use Google Earth!

I've had 3 critical and 23 error in the past 24 hours. In the past week that becomes 16 and 165 respectively. The critical one was something called "Kernel-Power". And the error list included Kernel-General, iaStor, WMI, volsnap, SideBySide, Ntfs, Print Service, Application Error, Dhcp-Client, Event Log and Service Control Manager. God knows what any of that means.

EDIT: Realised that Kernel-Power refers to me force shutting it down. From the log I can see this freezing problem started July 24th.

 

[TenEightyOne]

@PeterJB, So the freezes are caused by CPU over-temps.

That's most likely, in order, to do with power management, blocked/faulty fan or dodgy motherboard.

#1 is a software setting (see early link), #2 can be examined in the "remove entire lower case" link (much easier than you think), #3 is something we don't want to think about yet

EDIT: Power Fix, Open Case

 

[Danoff]

@PeterJB, So the freezes are caused by CPU over-temps.

This was my first thought when reading the thread title. I'm guessing fan, but if there is a a common problem with this motherboard, that'd be the place to start.

 

[TenEightyOne]

This was my first thought when reading the thread title. I'm guessing fan, but if there is a a common problem with this motherboard, that'd be the place to start.

But the power fix is a quick check as is the dust check, after that you're into computer-shop witchcraft (and pounds-sterling).

I'd hope that one of the first two is true; unfortunately my gut instinct thinks it could be the MB.

 

[PeterJB]

Is it normal for startup repair to take over eighteen hours, the thing wont even complete the startup procedure and Im currently on my second attempt at startup repair both of which have taken over eighteen hours...

 

[TenEightyOne]

Is it normal for startup repair to take over eighteen hours, the thing wont even complete the startup procedure and Im currently on my second attempt at startup repair both of which have taken over eighteen hours...

No, it isn't.

How is the core temperature now? If that isn't corrected then little else will work correctly.

 

[PeterJB]

I cant measure it at the moment but it feels completely normal

 

[TenEightyOne]

I cant measure it at the moment but it feels completely normal

And did it feel normal when you WERE able to measure it? What steps have you taken to reduce it? I ask because my instinct is that there's still something very amiss in the deep-withins.

An over-temp CPU is not usually caused by anything other than the BIOS/jumper settings themselves, it goes on to cause other symptoms however (such as the ones you describe).

Now that you seem a little happier dissembling the computer there's a possibility you could remove the drive, slave it onto someone else's machine (ie plug it in as a second HDD) and install the OS that way.

Another option is to use someone else's computer to make a bootable flash drive with a light Ubuntu or similar on board (@Danoff may know a nice once, I actually use vanilla Ubuntu but I'm sure much lighter ones are available), use the computer from that. Then, if it fails, you have your computer on a memory pen

If I were you just take your laptop to a computer shop and get it tested before it is to late for university. 👍

We might be at this point now, personally I think they'd "fix this by selling you a new one" though.

 

[CBH]

And did it feel normal when you WERE able to measure it? What steps have you taken to reduce it? I ask because my instinct is that there's still something very amiss in the deep-withins.

An over-temp CPU is not usually caused by anything other than the BIOS/jumper settings themselves, it goes on to cause other symptoms however (such as the ones you describe).

Now that you seem a little happier dissembling the computer there's a possibility you could remove the drive, slave it onto someone else's machine (ie plug it in as a second HDD) and install the OS that way.

Another option is to use someone else's computer to make a bootable flash drive with a light Ubuntu or similar on board (@Danoff may know a nice once, I actually use vanilla Ubuntu but I'm sure much lighter ones are available), use the computer from that. Then, if it fails, you have your computer on a memory pen



We might be at this point now, personally I think they'd "fix this by selling you a new one" though.

When you take it to a computer shop at lease you might know what the problem was.

 

[TenEightyOne]

@hall90, did you last post work as anticipated?

 

[PeterJB]

When I could measure it it was around fifty degrees, it would get to over ninety if I used any games or Google Earth

 

[CBH]

@hall90, did you last post work as anticipated?

Sorry my keypad fell on the floor.

 

[TenEightyOne]

When I could measure it it was around fifty degrees, it would get to over ninety if I used any games or Google Earth

They're CPU-heavy (naturally), and so is the OS installation. If you're at the limit of what you feel confident doing then you need to take it to someone who may be able to look at the other install options.

If the mem-pen things suits then here's what you do;

Option 1:

Get a mempen of over 64Gb and install the OS directly to that (so Win 7 is the root operating system).
Boot up your PC from that memory stick rather than the primary hard drive.

Option 2:

Get a mempen of over 64Gb and install an Ubuntu-style OS to that (so that it is the root operating system).

Install Oracle VirtualBox into that image.
Use your Win 7 setup discs/serial number to install Win 7 as a virtual machine inside VirtualBox.
Boot up your PC from that mempen rather than the primary hard drive.


In either case you have a portable OS that will boot on USB-boot supported machines (much more common now, just make sure it's okay with the owner).

I prefer the second option (and have several mempens that work exactly that way, great for booting poorly PCs). If the above is all "a bit much" then see if you can find someone local to give you a hand.

If you can get a cheap diagnosis done at your local store then go for that. Much as I hate PC World I've normally found the droids on the techdesk to be very good, but only when I'm billing a customer for the cost

 

[PeterJB]

I will probably have to take it in somewhere, at this point my main priority is getting it to a stage where I can backup my HDD data to an external hard drive so I dont lose it all

 

[TenEightyOne]

I will probably have to take it in somewhere, at this point my main priority is getting it to a stage where I can backup my HDD data to an external hard drive so I dont lose it all

Ohhhh dear, ouch. Sounds like you're learning a lesson about backups too Get into the habit of saving/archiving into a SkyDrive or similar!

You're able to boot it up from the CD right? Can't you boot it from the CD and just get the critical stuff out to a pen-drive? I hadn't realised you were in Disaster Recovery mode!

 

[PeterJB]

how do you do thatk?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Put the CD in the drive, boot from it by pressing C during boot-up.

You should be able to run Windows directly from the CD and get to a working desktop. Hopefully from there it will recognise your USB drivers (even if it doesn't give them the fastest driver) and allow you to access your HDD and copy files to a USB stick.

It may even support internet in which case you can mail the files out to somewhere (providing you don't have a 60Gb PDMS model you need out of there or something )

 

[jtv90069]

I've setup a fan(normal one, plugs into wall) facing my laptop, and have been able to keep my cpu 20°c+ cooler when under heavy load. Maybe try something like this as a test.
Also if you can, do a system restore to just before you started having issues to possibly rule out software issues.

 

[PeterJB]

The CD option seems simple enough, though I dont remember having to install rhe OS when I bought the laptop nor do I remember any CDs coming with it...

 

[TenEightyOne]

The CD option seems simple enough, though I dont remember having to install rhe OS when I bought the laptop nor do I remember any CDs coming with it...

Ask around friends, see if you can borrow one. Alternately use someone else's computer to download an Ubuntu Installation CD (or similar Linux) and boot the computer from that. Remember you don't need to install it, just have the computer stable for long enough to recover your work.

 

[Grayfox]

Many OEM computers come with a recovery parition.

These are the keys for the common OEM makes.

Toshiba: hold the 0 key then power the machine on, hold 0 till you see HDD recovery.
HP/Compaq: tap F11 during POST
Acer: tap Alt+F10 during POST
Asus: tap F9 during POST

 

[jtv90069]

POST = Pre Operating Startup Test
Many computers hide the test these days, so after turning the power on repeatedly tap the appropriate button ie: hold Alt and tap F10. No need to tap any faster than about 1 to 2 second intervals.