Acer laptop keeps restarting

Acer laptop keeps restarting

bluezz

Posted November 29, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 29, 2007

My Acer laptop keeps restarting on me in very quick succession.

Here is how it all started. I forgot to shut down my laptop, closed the laptop cover, put it in my neoprene bag and forgot about it. About 2 hours later came home and saw the power light was still on (which I thought was odd). I plugged in the power cable and started off the computer. It ran fine for about 15 minutes but then it restarted. Then it ran for about 8 minutes and restarted abruptly again .

That point onwards, I have not been able to boot into windows. I know its a hardware issue since EVEN BEFORE I can select that I want to boot into safe mode, it restarts. Sometimes it restarts even before letting me go into BIOS.

This is what is confusing me soo much. I thought something is wrong with hardware but once in BIOS, the laptop runs fine !! Keeps running normally in BIOS as long as I want it to run. :huh:

My guess is that the hardware memory is somehow corrupt. Maybe a heat issue (but BIOS runs ok for as long as I want).

I really hope its fixable because my thanksgiving shopping has made me bankrupt. Not to mention that the laptop is not in warranty anymore :cry:

Any help/suggestion. I'd be REAALLYYY thankful !!!

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Acer laptop keeps restarting

AlexMagik

Posted November 29, 2007

AlexMagik

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Posted November 29, 2007

i've the same laptop as you.

turn it off, unplug the battery, open the back. give a clean and make sure the fan can run well. then check how hot is the whole laptop... let cool off.

after when you done, close the bottom, and try to start your laptop...

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bluezz

Posted November 29, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 29, 2007

I did open the back to clean it and to double check if any wires were running loose but all looked normal to me.

I removed the hard-disk and backed-up all my data so that is not an issue at all.

The temperature is pretty normal (like it always is when I regularly use it) and I did try it after letting the laptop cool for a while.. same results :(

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AlexMagik

Posted November 29, 2007

AlexMagik

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Posted November 29, 2007

did you try to disconnect the RAM, clean the contacts and remount it? that can be the issue...

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bluezz

Posted November 29, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 29, 2007

Thank you soo much for helping me Alex.

Trying the RAM now...

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AlexMagik

Posted November 29, 2007

AlexMagik

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Posted November 29, 2007

in our laptop the ram spot is the hottest place ever, and there is a grid for fresh air.. can be that is just dirty connectors... if you have chance, try a new dimm or if you have 2, try just 1 of the 2 at time and see if may 1 is fried...

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bluezz

Posted November 29, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 29, 2007

Ok I un-plugged the RAM and inserted it back in after cleaning the contacts.

It is still doing the same thing. It does run in BIOS so I think both the RAM chips are working fine.

The RAM theory might go well generally but I had a case of complete battery drain. Does that usually damage the hardware?

Is there a way I could hard reset the laptop.. maybe flash the bios?

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AlexMagik

Posted November 29, 2007

AlexMagik

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Posted November 29, 2007

can you try to reinstall windows? maybe it just a software corruption...

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bluezz

Posted November 30, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 30, 2007 (edited)

Latest Update:

1) I took my hard-disk out, backed-up all the data

2) Formatted the hard-disk (using KillDisk)

3) Used Windows Vista to create NTFS partition (format again)

4) Tried installing windows Vista

5) System rebooted during installation.. but I made sure it installed vista successfully

6) EVEN after installing Vista it's giving me the same problem.. keeps rebooting after a while

7) Ran CheckDisk on the hard-disk

8) Used SpinRite (booted from SpinRite disk) to find some surface problems (system reboots during SpinRite operation)

I am totally clueless what the problem is. I was betting my money on the hard-disk bad sector. :cry:

Edited November 30, 2007 by bluezz
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Acer laptop keeps restarting
Acer laptop keeps restarting

RadishTM Veteran

Posted November 30, 2007

RadishTM

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Posted November 30, 2007

^ Before all of that, I would have ran Memtest off a bootable CD.

Hope you've made your recovery media before blanking out the HD.

Radish?

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bluezz

Posted November 30, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 30, 2007
^ Before all of that, I would have ran Memtest off a bootable CD.

Hope you've made your recovery media before blanking out the HD.

Radish?

Thanks Radish.. Good idea !

Running Memtest now..

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bluezz

Posted November 30, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 30, 2007
Thanks Radish.. Good idea !

Running Memtest now..

Finished running MEMTEST also. No problems.. did not reboot during the memtest either (took about 50 minutes for one complete pass)

Any other thoughts/suggestions ?

I really dont want to send it to Acer since laptop is not under warranty anymore :cry:

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Acer laptop keeps restarting

RadishTM Veteran

Posted November 30, 2007

RadishTM

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Posted November 30, 2007

Disconnect the AC adapter and battery, hold down the power button on the laptop for 30 seconds. Re-attach the AC adapter only and attempt to boot the laptop - see how it runs.

Radish?

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bluezz

Posted November 30, 2007

bluezz

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Posted November 30, 2007
Disconnect the AC adapter and battery, hold down the power button on the laptop for 30 seconds. Re-attach the AC adapteonlyb> and attempt to boot the laptop - see how it runs.

Radish?

hhmm.. I will try that.. thanks !

Just to let you know, I did kill the bios once. When I restarted the system the bios was rebuilt. I had to set date and time again.

But I killed it by running a small utility from windows... not this hard reset way..

Will report back after doing it.

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Acer laptop keeps restarting

bobsiegel

Posted October 29, 2009

bobsiegel

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Posted October 29, 2009

I have the same problem, and an Acer5610z. This baby has been with me for two years, never any problems that I didn't cause. I have had xp, vista, every win7 beta, and now final Win7. While on my last win7 beta, before my final upgrade to win7 the pc just started randomly either freezing moments after I open a new app or just restarting. I disabled automatically restarting, and still no luck. Fan is good, I keep it clean, never overheats. I ran memory tests, all check out fine. I've disabled drivers. I've booted in safe mode (only default drivers load..) and still the same problem.

Weirdly enough, I get the idea to stand on my laptop (bare with me) and apply pressure to the keyboard, screen, and other external hardware...and...the computer stops restarting...With this, I can only guess that something was loose inside? I carry my laptop all over campus in my book bag, and so I assumed that this was highly probable.

So far..so good. If the pressure theory doesn't work out..I'll repost with an update.

I will say right before I stood on the laptop, I did disable the DVD drive..so that could be it too?

I checked the DVD drivers..they weren't updated by auto-update any time recently..so I don't think that could be the case, but hey..who knows.

Keep ya posted.

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Acer laptop keeps restarting

Madoshi

Posted October 29, 2009

Madoshi

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Posted October 29, 2009

the fact that it was on when you put it in the bag tells me you probably cooked something

no matter what, laptop motherboards do NOT like extreme heat for long periods of time. components DO fail under such conditions and it CAN keep Windows from running properly

i say get a new laptop and eBay the old one as a "parts/repair, sold AS-IS" type of listing

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RAID 0

Posted October 29, 2009

RAID 0

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Posted October 29, 2009
the fact that it was on when you put it in the bag tells me you probably cooked something

That was my first thought. I'd open up the whole laptop and check heatsinks and caps. I think your MB is fried.

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