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Geek Culture / My laptop freezing upon boot?!!

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GamerDude
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 11:53
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Hi all, I am in need of urgent help now. I start school again in 2 days and I need to get my laptop working properly before monday. I have a very big problem, it wont boot.

The windows XP installation is 9 days old (exactly), and it is fully up-to-date with sp3 and all drivers, nvidia forceware, direct x SDK, latest versions of all software.

Today while I was using crysis, generating a surface texture, it frose my pc almost completely, making text appear about 10-20 secs behind. I had to shut it off with the power button. Then I rebooted it and troed again with a lower res terrain texture, same thing, but text was then 2-3 minutes behind. Next 2 times I tried to boot it up, it loaded, but when I tried to launch firefox or open a folder, it would just freeze up completely, not even CTRL+ALT+DEL would work. The CPU indicator wasnt shining, or flashing. Then when I tried to boot it about 10 times after that, it either froze at the login screen after clicking my name, or on the desktop with the task bar half loaded.

I tried to do things that were suggested by searching google:
-Remove battery and run of AC power
-Remove all acessories
-Remove battery, disks, and accesories

I have tried everything. When I contacted the manufacturer of this laptop (acer), they said they would discuss whether to exhange it or not and the said theyd call us last week, we didnt get the call. It has been in for repairs 4 times, last time they didnt pay ANY attention to my list of errors, just blamed it on my 4gb ram and sent it back. Wheras, I have looked on their site and seen it works. My belief is that the ram or CPU holder in the laptop is faulty. no, this was not caused by overheating.

please help me

thanks

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gamerboots
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 12:51 Edited at: 11th Jul 2009 12:53
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tell them to exchange it for a new pc - its obvious at this point that its full of manufacturer's defects and probably a bundle of recycled parts.
also, I would not buy from them again. I hear that their pc's average life is around 9 months.
if you get a compact or hp , its will usually outlive your favorite pet as compacts & hp's are the most durable on the market , and with a couple small upgrades (graphics card/memory) you wont have to buy another one for a very long time.
hope this has been helpful. and sorry about the posts below but the post button went wacko.

Regards
Emperor Gamerboots~
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 13:07
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Quote: "if you get a compact or hp , its will usually outlive your favorite pet as compacts & hp's are the most durable on the market"


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ARE YOU JOKING?

The cooling on HP/Compaq laptops is embarrasing! Three people I know who bought HP/Compaq laptops (one of them my father on my reccomendation. ); one with a GeForce 7200, one with a GeForce 7400 and the other with a GeForce 7600.

The 7400 died in a year. Warranty didn't cover it. The 7600 died six months later. Warranty didn't cover it. The 7200 died a year later. Warranty didn't cover it.

None of them were ever really put through any stress. Web browsing, music, DVDs and VISI. Most stressful game, probably FlatOut2 which of course even the 7200 rocketed around.

When I disassembled the 7200 for parts, I saw why. The system had one cooling fan. It was tiny. No heatsinks. The RAM wasn't cooled at all.

Oh, yeah, and because of the heat the battery died in the 7400 and 7600 in the first six months.

If you want reliable, go Toshiba, ASUS, IBM or PanaSonic because they seem to be the only people who give a damn about how long something lasts before it melts into a puddle.

@Gamerdude:
It's a HDD failure.

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GamerDude
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 14:28
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Ok. I have done a few tests and I am believing that the error has something to do with the CPU. The computer will only run for about 2-3 minutes before freezing, the mouse will still work though, but the cursor stays the same. The only problem would be backing up all the stuff i put on it (work, mods, etc).

If the HDD failed, this will go much further, I told them about the "Cyclic redundancy check" errors. As I said, it is only 9 days since it was in last. I will remove the HDD and put in another one and see if it will work properly. Thankfully, I should still be able to back it up.

thanks

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prasoc
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 16:37
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Try buying some air and spraying it into the ducts. My GPU was around 90 degrees and started shutting my laptop off, some air fixed it and it works fine now.


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David R
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 16:49 Edited at: 11th Jul 2009 16:51
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Just get a replacement. Not exactly hard.

Quote: "they said they would discuss whether to exhange it or not and the said theyd call us last week, we didnt get the call"


Then phone them. Getting a replacement from any company is extremely easy, you just need to be persistent and slightly irritating. As soon as you become grating, they'll do anything to shut you up - in this case, you'll get a replacement.

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GatorHex
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 22:17 Edited at: 11th Jul 2009 23:17
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Save your work onto a pen drive and run the boot recovery partition to wipe it and start again.

Just done that with my old laptop and it solved a tonne of issues like screen brightness changing and crashing with a solid colour screen, then playing music and CTRL-ALT-DEL not working.

I was also full upgraded with XP, AntiVirus and everything but I guess there is a new hack/virus out there that turns XP laptops into blubber. Also worth noting if you use a dodgy copy of windows microsoft disables updates so the viruses get you.

As for laptop cooling, do clean the CPU and GPU heatsinks as they don't work when full of dust (there's notmally a panel on the bottom you can open to access them).

Try not to cover the holes on the bottom where the air gets sucked in when using it. Lots of people put their laptop falt on their bed and wonder why it overheats and the CPU goes into safty mode and runs slow.

Your hard drive will mess up if it's shut down incorrectly. When you hard power off the heads in the hard drive don't park and if you them move the laptop they flop around and can damage the surface of the disks.

Make sure you are Maximum CPU mode and not energy saver. You change this by clicking the battery/ac power icon in the system tray.

DinoHunter (still no nVidia compo voucher!), CPU/GPU Benchmark, DarkFish Encryption DLL, War MMOG (WIP), 3D Model Viewer
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gamerboots
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Posted: 11th Jul 2009 22:59
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@gamerdude
I aggree with david 200% . Judging from the symtoms your having, I'd say your motherboard is cracked. It might be really small at this point,but it will enlarge with time. send it back while you can and demand they replace it with a new one before its too late
or in a few months it might not work at all and you'll be stuck with a piece of useless junk.
@nex
ARE YOU JOKING?
dont know about their laptops , but their desktops are ok.

Regards
Emperor Gamerboots~
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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 12th Jul 2009 01:00
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Quote: "dont know about their laptops , but their desktops are ok."


Desktop cooling is much easier to design than laptop cooling which is where the problem lies.

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GamerDude
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Posted: 12th Jul 2009 05:10 Edited at: 12th Jul 2009 08:10
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I have managed to boot in safe mode and I can copy my data fine, but how is it then my HDD? I will run a virus scan while im in safe mode and see if there is one thats preventing me from booting.

EDIT: Im going to try a total re-format and see if that helps. I had 2 partitions on it. I think the one with windows on it might be corrupt - starting complete reformat.

EDIT2: XDXD it blacked out while it was copying the windows files!

EDIT3: Ok, I give up, the crappy little thing blacks out while copying the windows files (3 times now).

EDIT4: NVM, got the files to copy after the 20th try.

EDIT5: While doing the 2nd part of the setup, the power AND battery LEDs started flashing. I believe this is the AC Adapter overheating or something.. then it blacked out again.

EDIT6: That is the 2nd ac adaptor this laptop has killed. ROFL

EDIT7: Finally got it working with all updates, it was probably a defective partition.

thanks

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gamerboots
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Posted: 13th Jul 2009 18:59
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Quote: "EDIT4: NVM, got the files to copy after the 20th try.

EDIT5: While doing the 2nd part of the setup, the power AND battery LEDs started flashing. I believe this is the AC Adapter overheating or something.. then it blacked out again.

EDIT6: That is the 2nd ac adaptor this laptop has killed. ROFL"

I dont think this is the last of this. but I realize that your determined to keep it so good luck.

Regards
Emperor Gamerboots~
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David R
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Posted: 13th Jul 2009 19:09
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If you're not going to get it replaced, then you're just attention seeking by continually reiterating its problems.

Get it replaced, or stop posting.

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GamerDude
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Posted: 18th Jul 2009 11:50
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Some news. They said they would call within 48 hours 1 week ago, and again 2 days ago. They still havent called me and now I am hearing they they want to void the warranty because I put windows xp on it. My school needs xp so the settings and programs that the school will put on it work properly. If this is not allowed, howcome on their site there are windows xp drivers.

If this is true, then obviously they are trying to tell me to STFU and that they dont give a crap. So then it will be back to the DFT. They replaced the charger that died which is good.

David R, post something constructive next time please.

thanks

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 18th Jul 2009 12:23
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He had already posted something constructive. You've had 4 repairs, they said they'd phone you about a replacement, they haven't done. Phone them, persist, and keep asking, then they'll replace it. 4 repairs says to me that you've got a faulty model. That's constructive. You've posted on here several times about your laptop problems, 'replacement' has been emphasised several times and you could have gotten your problems fixed a long time ago by demanding for one, or pestering them for it.

Trying to fix it yourself is more likely to void your warrantee, at least that's the case with mine. Read your warrantee and make sure you've not broken it, so then if they claim you've broken the warrantee, you can actually quote it to them.

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GamerDude
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Posted: 20th Jul 2009 13:02
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Ok. The warranty got voided.. Want to know why? Because I installed windows XP. My school needed windows XP for the programs that they use. So it got voided. From my belief it is because they didnt want to bother looking at the problems. Vista requires double the amount of ram, plus the hypermemory which totals out at 1.2gb. So there is only 800mb for the programs I use. So graphics programs wont function fully as some require 1gb of ram.

The store where I bought it from is dealing with it, and I dont know if they are able to do this as it was NOT stated on the warranty papers.

thanks

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Van B
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Posted: 20th Jul 2009 14:06
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It is illegal to void a warranty because you changed the OS, that's bullcrap and you should get on the phone again. What happens when you need to reset to factory settings?, what if you want to upgrade your OS? - they've found a vague excuse and are using it.

The only thing that can legally invalidate the warranty is if you signed something saying that you won't change the OS, or if you disregard a warning label. I would consider going to a lawyer for some advise if they don't smarten up.


Health, Ammo, and bacon and eggs!
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David R
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Posted: 20th Jul 2009 14:10 Edited at: 20th Jul 2009 14:11
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For crying out loud - get it replaced! The warranty is completely irrelevant.

You're in the UK so purchases are protected for six years: you can obtain a replacement with no burden of proof within six months of purchase (which means you don't have to prove it's defective - the seller has to prove it isn't defective). After that, the burden of proof is on you - but it's still possible.

In other words, the mumbo-jumbo they fling at you is irrelevant. The law says you are able to obtain a replacement. Obviously though, they'll claim you damaged the machine by installing XP (breaching warranty etc.) - so tell them it wasn't fit for purpose prior to installing it. You have proof of this (even though it isn't necessary) because you've contacted them previously.

Once again though, get on track obtaining a replacement, otherwise this thread is still just pointless attention seeking

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 20th Jul 2009 14:11
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http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=9832

It happens all the time. These companies are here to make money, not to sell you a working computer.

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GamerDude
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Posted: 21st Jul 2009 10:26
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Thanks for helping. Im going to the site now to go to "Cashback" and put in a complaint about this and this time I will leave it in a clear message. I wont use abuse, but they will refund it.

thanks

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Toasty Fresh
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Posted: 21st Jul 2009 11:26
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Quote: "You're in the UK "


He's in Australia, actually.

"You are not smart! You are very un-smart!"
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 21st Jul 2009 12:17
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Warrantee should only cover hardware only. When reading through my Acer Laptop standard warrantee before sending it off for repair earlier this year, I saw no mention of changing your OS voiding your warrantee. If yours doesn't say it, tell them, tell them that they're wrong because the warrantee you were given, said nothing to that effect and thus it is not void; if they say otherwise, then inform them that they've falsely advertised the warrantee and thus the warrantee that was agreed on purchase is not the warrantee enforced. This would surely make it a legal matter and they're in the wrong.

Because you're completely unsatisfied with repairs and the quality of the model, you demand for a new on and they shouldn't refused. Become an annoyed customer who won't put up with their nonsense, because they'll know not to rip you off, as annoyed customers who are out-spoken about their annoyance can be a real thorn in the side for any company.

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GamerDude
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2009 08:47
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Here is some news..

Contacted DFT, told us to go to the company who sold it to us and exchange/refund it. Company didnt help, told us that they need to have authorisation from the manufacturer to be able ro make action.
This should be taken to court - violation of fair trading agreements.

Went to local (manufacturer's brand) repairer. They said that the extended warranty is different, that it has a $450 maximum repair cost. So it is in a local repairer who has got it to be replaced if the repair cost exceeds $450.

DO NOT BUY FROM Wow "Signt 'n' Sound". THEY ARE MISLEADING AND GIVE FALSE INFORMATION! WE TALKED TO THEM AND THEY BLAMED IT ON WINDOWS XP.

DO NOT BUY ACER. THEY VOID WARRANTY FOR WHAT IS NOT DISCLOSED ON THE WARRANTY PAPERS. THEY FIND CRAPPY OLD EXCUSES FOR EVERYTHING. THEY BLAMED MY RAM BECAUSE IT WASN'T ACER OR SAMSUNG BRANDED!

I will tell you if any legal actions are taken. They broke 3+ conditions on the Fair Trading Agreement:
1 - No misleading information.
2 - If product is faulty, the customer is entitled for a refund.
3 - Did not mention that the extended warranty used a different service.

thanks

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