Netbook freezes randomly

After restoring my Blue 751h (with Seagate 250GB HDD) to original factory setting, my netbook is now working (both on AC and on battery)
for 3 days with only one lockup when I connected an USB mouse to play Solitaire while IE7 was still running

- Display driver was updated (manually) to version 7.14.10.1005 (may 21 2009)
- Atheros Wireless : 7.7.0.343 (june 22 2009) (using Windows Update)
- Chipset driver: 8.8.0.1001 (factory setting)

Windows Automatic Update is OFF
I did not update IE7 to IE8
McAffe, Google Desktop are removed, then AVG antivirus installed

Today, I will test the netbook running Yahoo Messenger with Webcam

 

I have the seagate 160GB (XP) and have not updated any drivers. No freezes yet. The 1st thing I did is uninstall ALL the games, Mcafee, G desktop and mounds of other garbage that was on it. I also uninstalled the webcam because I don't use it. I updated the ram and installed AVG is all I have added. Oh and I did update to IE8 and I do download the Windows updates but it is ask me first.

 

A few minutes after I started using the yahoo webcam, instead of the usual freeze, I got a blue screen with

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

*** STOP: 0X0000000A (0XFFFFFFFC, 0X0000001C, 0X00000000, 0X804E1456)

Anybody get anything out of this?

 

Nah...generally means hardware or driver error. Which webcam-driver are you on?

 

Webcam Driver: Sonix 5.8.48.702

Did not find anything useful in the eventlog, though the last logged event was under security.
I guess when a freeze/BSOD happens, it happens too quick to log anything.

 

OK - I completely restored my system to the factory settings (BIOS 3204, Vista, No Windows Update, generic everything, games and all). This is what Acer told me to do.

The system locked with the screen sitting at the very first Vista configuration page (timezone, etc.). I did nothing but flash the BIOS and run eRecovery. It may have done this once when I first booted my system but so did my new Dell desktop so I discounted it as a fluke. Now it is just a clear indication that this system is essentially a piece of junk.

Has anybody actually fixed a system by adjusting system options????

Someone mentioned disabling GMA500 acceleration but there's no control panel that I can find to do that on Vista --
Someone mentioned disabling ASCPI but what does that do to battery behavior & life, etc ???
Would dropping the clock from 1.33GHz to 1.24GHz fix the system -- heck 7% for a stable system is "acceptable".

I'm waiting for the rebuild discs, but that's just going to be a waste of time.

 

After I installed "TouchPad_Synaptics_12.2.4.1_XPx86_A.zip" and the new sound drivers "Audio_Realtek_6.0.1.5817_XPx86_A.zip", my system freezed two times. It never had freezed before, only by trying to watch HD videos on MPC HC with wrong codecs, so I removed the Touchpad drivers to see if is that.

 

COMPUTATIONAL DEVICE REMAINS LUKE WARM AND HIGHLY MOBILE!

THE PROLETARIAT REVOLUTION OF RETIRED PUGILISTS MARCHES ON, FREE OF TINY MONKEYBUNKING ITALIAN STALLIONS MADE OF 1'S AND 0'S, CREATED BY RUNNING CAPITALIST DOGS TO DEFEAT ME!

/DRAGO

 

Let's try this: the failure is either hardware or software(drivers and some specific programs) or both... Let's ignore the specific immediate software failures (Messenger, Skype, Chrome and others) since they will probably be a special case of the following more basic problems.

If it is hardware, then a quick trip back to Acer Central ought to fix it, assuming they have more than clue=0. Face it, there are only four major pieces to replace. And the result of the Acer trip has usually not been successful for the failing units people talk about here.

If it is a driver failure, it is either the Intel drivers (which means the Eee PC 1101 should also fail and it doesn't) or it's another driver fail. People have disabled the camera driver and the machine freezes up anyway, people have reported that it doesn't lock up in Safe mode, which says there are a number of drivers that could be the problem, or that the sum of the drivers sends something else over the edge.

Over the edge... if there is a combined software timing problem (especially BIOS routines which, as the name implies has to do with input/output timing like accessing the hard drive) and hardware that has some response time issues, then some machines would work, some would immediately fail for timing, and some would almost work and croak some of the time. The "Insta-Croaks" would go back to the store, but the couple-of-times-a-day croaks wouldn't necessarily show all of their teeth immediately and might not make it back to the store in time. Notice two things, 1) the state (and brand for that matter) of the hard drive might(?) influence the likelihood of COTAD croaks but the experience of the people so far doesn't make that a convincing case since more than one type of drive fails, also notice that the SATA drive has to be converted to PATA spec before it can be fed to the US15W and I wonder what magic that works on the bus timing and, 2) as an experiment, replacement of the HDD with a SSD might so much alter the response timing that all of the problems of this sort might magically go away. At least one person on the thread has tried the SSD route and I am really hoping that they tell us of their adventures. I am not suggesting that everyone should rush out and buy an SSD, only that until Acer can bang the BIOS into shape, it may be an alternative (especially if you have an SSD kicking around somewhere) that you could try. There is no guarantee that this will do anything useful and YMMV, it is a pure science experiment.

A variation on the above experiment might be to insert an SDHC card in the slot and configure it as a booster, assuming you are running Vista or W7. I have no idea what will happen, but if there is a data pipeline issue, the added drive bandwidth might make certain types of failures less likely (I know I am reaching here, but I don't WANT to wait for BIOS 3254...)

Good luck

 

I have never, through three months of use, experienced a lockup...so I can't really help out here. The only good approach I can think of is to use elimination. Go into the Device Manager, and disable as many devices as possible : ACPI and battery, webcam, sound, WLAN etc. Also, under "Primary IDE Channel" in the Device manager, set the disk to Programmed I/O (PIO mode) instead of Ultra DMA mode 5. It is not impossible that it is the combination of motherboard and Ultra DMA timing which causes the problem...it seems there are more problems for those who have the Seagate disks?

Now, hook the laptop up through a regular ethernet (wired internet) cable, and see if surfing around a few hours causes it too lock up. If it does not, enable one or two devices, and try again.

 

How is this compared to the Eee PC 1101? Do they use different hardware here?

 

After changing quite a few settings and (mostly manually) updating all drivers I have been running my 751 without a single freeze for the past four days.

The settings I changed are:

a) Hardware acceleration (completely off, except "Write Combining")

b) Data Execution Prevention --> "=execute" (boot.ini; see a few pages earlier for detailed descriptions)

c) System Swap File --> let Windows manage the actual size

d) Visual Effects --> deactivated most, except "Visual Styles" (or whatever it's called, can't check right now)

e) Touchpad --> completely disabled all extended touchpad functions (via the touchpad-software) and installed a multi-touch scrolling solution

Regards,

DrNo

 

WHAT A HASSLE!!!

I'm thinking of selling my netbook, but I don't want another person to be a victim here
and go through all these hassles.

 

I have exactly the same problem. I got one freeze while surfing with expolorer and other two while scrolling in word 2007.

I can still give it back to the vendor, but I like this notebook over the other models, and I don't want to waste more time selecting and configuring other one. But i use it for writting and programming, so hangups become really annoying.

Have anyone had any hangup after restarting it, without any sleeping or hibernating in the middle? I have the impression that it could be related, but I havent thoroughly tested it yet.

 

I have a 751h, purchased new from Amazon.com a month or two ago, and have just recently experienced several freezes, much to my dismay. The system completely locks up, unresponsive to ctrl-alt-del, nothing works except holding down the power button & shutting it off.

Couple questions for you guys:

1) Dr. No, I downloaded the chipset drivers from Acer's website and have a very noobish question: in the device manager, what device do I choose to update? The Processor? When I right-click on my CPU in Device Mgr. it tells me the drivers are version 6.0.6001.18000 and when I try to manually update to 8.8.0.1011 as you suggest, it tells me the drivers are already up-to-date. What gives? I'm probably trying to update the wrong device....

2) I have been very unhappy with Vista's performance on this system anyway and these new system freezes I'm encountering have ensured that I am going to do a clean install of XP within the next few days. My question is, does a clean install (not factory restore/reset or whatever) solve the issue? It seems that some people are having issues regardless of whether they are running Vista or XP, so I wonder if that will help me in this regard or not.


Thanks!

 

The Eee PC 1101 uses the Intel US15W, just like the 751h, so they have to have a PATA interface to their hard drive. They use a PATA to SATA interface circuit, just like the 751, although I cannot say that they use exactly the same circuit. The major difference is that the BIOS of the two units is definitely not the same, and the Basic Input Output System sets the timing.

 

Thanks DrNo for your information - unfortunately some of the items you have changed (e.g., disabling graphics acceleration) are not available on Vista and I could not detect any improvement using the Intel configuration applet. One interesting thing is that yesterday I loaded setFSB with the expectation of lowering my clock speed and hopefully stabilizing my system. On a whim, I tried to see just how fast I could push it and settled on 1.47GHz. So far (~24hrs) I have not had any lockups and the system ran all day long without a screen saver kicking in. I will run this until the recovery disks arrive. If the elevate speed doesn't help, I'll try lowering it to see how that works.

 

I have a 751 and have been tracking this thread for a while, but this is my first time posting.

My 751 would hang occasionally, on the order of once every 10 hours or so. At points I would be able to drain the battery, charge, and drain it again without a freeze. It has hung on battery and AC power in the past.

Last night, however, was a different story. I experienced three freezes within five minutes. There are two things I was doing last night which were atypical. I was using Word 2007 for an extended period of time, and I was using the device in my lap.

On the second point, the device was running substantially hotter than normal, as perceived by touching the bottom of the device. Putting the device up to a fan seemingly eliminated the freezing.

The freezing was as others have described here; the screen would be lit, and the only function that would work was turning the display on and off. Holding the power button for five seconds turned the device off.

It has 2 GB memory, a 250 GB Western Digital hard drive, and is equipped with Bluetooth.

I am seriously wondering if the PATA to SATA bridge could be causing the problems. I have considered trying to take the device apart and drop in a SATA hard drive, eliminating the bridge, part due to this problem, and part due to the fact that I would rather have a SATA drive. Has anyone tried this?


*Edit* Sorry, I realize I confused that. The hard drive is SATA, and the motherboard only supports PATA. In that case, is it possible to swap in a PATA drive?

 

The Pata to Sata interface is built into the system. Replacing the Sata drive with a Pata drive would not be a good idea. I must admit that I have wondered if the PCIe port next to the WiFi card might be available for a Pata PCIe solid state drive, but it didn't seem like a good use of time and money to experiment.

 

First of all, I have to apologize for some confusion I may have caused concerning the latest drivers available. Although the driver package as distributed by Acer is version 8.8.0.1011, the actual drivers included are version 8.8.0.1001.

@ Drjones (fellow doctor, huh? )--> Allow me to quote myself:

You may have to look around for these devices, they should be located under "system devices". Hope they will at least partially solve your problem...

Regards,

DrNo

Oh, and BTW: 751 still running like a charm; please let me know if your 751s ( if you're actually running XP) still have problems after following my instructions; if that's the case I'll have to take a closer look at all the changes I made, maybe I missed some essential part... for those of you running Vista: I'm sorry, but I neither have Vista Installed nor plan on ever installing it...