AAO 1GB XP random crashing / reboots - Help!

Hey all. Just got my AAO 1GB XP model yesterday. I have had it randomly "crash" on me twice so far. Both times I was just sitting there looking at a webpage, the 2nd time I wasn't even touching the thing.

Both times it was on AC power and just "bam" turned off, black screen, only the orange charge light is lit. When I turn it back on Windows wants to run a disk check on the FAT32 C: drive.

Checked the event log. No errors, but I have a few hundred Warnings like the one below:

PS: I have installed A1ctl if that makes a difference. (also uninstalled most bundled bloatware, and installed FF, Avast! and Live Messanger)

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: ACPIEC
Event Category: None
Event ID: 3
Date: 1/2/2009
Time: 7:44:49 AM
User: N/A
Computer: DAX-NETBOOK
Description:
\Device\ACPIEC: The embedded controller (EC) hardware returned data when none was requested. This may indicate that the BIOS is incorectly trying to access the EC without syncronizing with the OS. The data is being ignored.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:<snip>

CPU temp is only reading 55c right now, so I don't think it's heat related. I don't really want to return this, as I just spent the last 24 hours getting it setup the way I like, but I also don't want a machine that randomly crashes!

Any advice would be appreciated, and feel free to get technical on me, I do IT support for a living! You would think I could figure this out myself!

I'm wondering if it could be related to the A1ctl and the "patch ACPIEC" setting. I originally chose to Patch it during installation, but later clicked the Un-Patch button in the config because I wasn't getting battery life displayed by Windows after installing A1ctl. After Un-Patching I now get battery life and CPU temp readings on A1ctl and on the Windows Power Options screen.

 

Sorry to reply to my own post, I am on my PC now. The AAO just crashed/rebooted again!

I rebooted and clicked the Patch ACPIEC option again in A1ctl as I think that is causing the hundreds of errors in the Event Viewer. I am currently installing all available Windows Updates to see if that helps...

Anyone else seen this problem before (I searched, looks like no) or has any advice to offer?

If it crashes again I will probably return it, I would hate to find out the problem was user inflicted though!

 

So after Patching the ACPIEC driver with A1ctl and rebooting I am not getting the warnings in the Event log, but I don't get to see the battery life remaining in Power Options and A1ctl isn't showing CPU temp anymore.

I also got this in my Error Log at startup:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7026
Date: 1/2/2009
Time: 8:37:43 AM
User: N/A
Computer: DAX-NETBOOK
Description:
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
ACPIEC

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I am thinking I should just un-patch APCIEC and un-install A1ctl... but I want to run like this for a while to see if the crashing stops after patching that driver. Anyone else running A1ctl on XP? Any advice?

EDIT:

Now I am getting a CPU temp in A1ctl, but no power/battery life from Windows. It always shows On AC Power, even when unplugged and I can't see remaining battery life...

EDIT 2: I had to un-patch the APCIEC driver because the AAO was getting way too warm and the fan was not kicking in (due to not being able to read the CPU temp from the APCIEC driver I think)

EDIT 3: As per post #46 on http://nodadev.wordpress.com/pc-projects/a1ctl/ I suspect the APCIEC errors in the Event Viewer are caused by my model having an embedded "EC" chip. After un-patching and disabling A1ctl from running at start-up I am no longer getting errors in the Event Viewer. I would still like to know why it is/was crashing. So far so good. I will let you all know if it happens again. Maybe a BIOS update would resolve the APCIEC errors?

 

I'm starting to wonder if the whole ACPIEC/Event Log thing is a red herring. I realized that every time it has crashed I had my USB dongle for my wireless mouse plugged into the AAO. Not sure if that could be the cause, but I suppose it is possible. Anyone else ever hear of a wireless mouse dongle causing random crashing? I am thinking something like RF interference causing it to send "bad" data to the Windows HID driver which could cause a crash? Long shot?

I will keep using it for the next few days without a wireless mouse and see if the problem goes away, then try again for a few days with the dongle plugged in. That's the only real way to test.

 

try disabling the "automatic restart when OS encountered error" option in the advanced boot option. Also, updating the bios to the latest revision might help a lot.

 

User frandu posted the same issue in this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6063&start=80

Might be an issue with the models with an EC chip and A1ctl. I hope there is a fix, as I would like to use that program.

 

Hello Dax, indeed it appear that we got the same problem with the fan soft. Without running it, the One runs quite well, so I quit trying to install it again. Still, the left side of the netbook seens hotter than I expect, after hours of usage. Even the table "receives" the temperature. I hope this is normal.

Happy 2009

 

why don't you use AA1fancontrol. It's an alternative to a1ctl and it doesn't crash your computer.

 

The only thing that a1ctl is doing that could possibly cause the computer to crash, is setting the fan management mode (which is the only thing part accessing some kernel mode code). If you disable it (just set it to auto), you can really check whether a1ctl is the cause of your crashes or not.

It seems that some newer aspire one have different EC chips that prevents a1ctl from running correctly, but if that was the case you could not see the CPU t° nor change the fan mode.

Those kind of crashes are usually symptomatic of a bad (or badly recognized) ram module. I had the same problem when I added a 512GB Kingston ram module in my A1, then it disappeared when I switched to a different ram module (and the 512MB module causing crashes was perfectly good on another laptop as tested 100% error free with memtest86). The fact that you seems to experience crashes only with a1ctl may just be caused by the fact it use ram frequently which is constantly readressed depending of what you're doing on your A1, causing the chance to hit a "bad" (crashy) ram sector to be bigger.