Netbook freezes randomly

I am Vassilis from Athens, too and experiencing random freezing problems with my 751h, as I have already mentioned in a previous post.

That's a nice tip you describe general_78, but I will not even try it, at least not yet. GPU hardware acceleration is crucial for this weak netbook, since the CPU is not powerful enough to catch up with decoding e.g. video files.I've never heard that it could be a DMA problem with the graphics subsystem, I always thought it was a hardware problem that had to do with overheating or collapsing under heavy pressure.

Anyway, I am still waiting for a reply from Acer, after I provided them my netbook's serial number and they should check out some things (haven't told me though).
Freezing is a fact, unfortunately, and I hope that the tech support will soon find a solution. :evil:

 

I had my 751 freeze (mouse locked on screen) and it never booted again.

sent it back to acer for repair and they swapped out the motherboard. It's been a lot worse since I got it back, freezes multiple times per hour. I've returned it back to them to get another repair. It would certainly look like its hardware related as the software was not switched before/after the fix.

Just thought I would share my experiences

Jim

 

I also had the same opinion...regarding heating issues....but i tried several temperature meters and fan software controllers but with no luck actually....My netbook got freeze even in 45C temperature...so i got convinced that the reason was another and very strange....
Now, with eliminating (actually disabling lets say..) the hardware acceleration, i didn't notice any difference in video decoding or demanding video work as you describe..The only one for the time being, is that i use my netbook for development in, so the only limitation is the speed to build the applications that does not care me since....i had never to power off and start up from annoying freezes...

Hope you have great news for the problem and to come back with a solution, if possible!

 

I suggest everyone send a uniform message to the "Acer Pan American Executive Team" regarding their issues and complaints with 751h line of Netbooks. They can't ignore everyone, can they?

[email protected] - President
[email protected] - Chief Financial Officer
[email protected] - General Manager, Acer America
[email protected] - General Manager, Acer Canada
[email protected] - General Manager, Acer Latin America
[email protected] - Vice President, Pan American Product Marketing
[email protected] - Vice President, Customer Service
[email protected] - Vice President, US Commercial Sales and Marketing
[email protected] - Senior Director, HR & Administration
[email protected] - Senior Director, Sales Operations and Fulfillment
[email protected] - Director, Marketing
[email protected] - Director, U.S. Retail Sales
[email protected] - Director, Pan America Fulfillment
[email protected] - Director, Information Technology
[email protected] - Director, United States Product Marketing

 

I certainly am will to send more of these letters
if anyone has a simular list for the EU it would be helpfull
I have posted up before for the two top guys in Hamburg and would like to do more
since my emailing i have gotton phone responces inquiring abount my netbook
and have had it back to them twice.
Now getting ready for trip #3 its up to them im not paying shipping and UPS is getting rich of them
3 round trip by ups must at least be 50% the cost already
up to you Acer we can send it back as many times as you want til it works as advertised

 

I think, the situatuion now it's critical. The problem its serious, many peoples are buying this Acer without know the problem and after this, they can't be changed for anotther netbook, and when they try send to AER for repair, they dont solve the problem because they cant.

What i wanna say is, its time to us advise the peoples, not just send emails for many ACER employes, but for the big american eletronics reviews site, like CNET or anothers. Many user need send the emails, not just one.

 

It's simple. Return the bad units if you still can. Vote with your feet; don't buy Acer again. Encourage your friends and relatives to look elsewhere for their purchases.

Write The Consumerist (http://consumerist.com/) or CNET or Acer Guy (an employee blog) if you feel that you have been ripped off.

Contrary to what some posts might believe, the problem exists. Given the 59 pages of postings on this forum about this one problem, the numbers are not trivial. However, large numbers or not, for those of us with this constant lockup, the netbook is practically useless.

Plus, at least one of these commentators that denies the existence of a widespread problem is a ringer, i.e., an Acer employee. You are perfectly entitled to your opinion, but you should do the right thing and identify yourself rather than lurking as a disinterested forum member.

 

Did you guys see that Acer AGAIN reduced the 751h line significantly, there are only selling TWO models of the 751h.
A0751h-1196 & A0751h-1401 Are the only two models available on the Acer website currently.. hilarious. Acer is trying to be sneaky and pull them down while leaving current customers in the dust.

I think it's funny they're still trying to sell these at all... worthless Acer.

 

OK, I have exactly same freezing problem.
Interestingly this machine never freeze in Linux.
I installed XP and Xubuntu (smaller version of Ubuntu) for dual-booting.
So, I could compare it directly by being back and forth between two OSs.
XP freezed frequently but it never freeze under Xubuntu!!!!
I tested it during two-three monthes.
Now I have Windows 7 again and freezing problem also comes back....
I just returned Windows to finish my dissertation.
but I will definetly install Linux again.

So, it is not just faulty hardware... something more tricky!!!! I think.

 

What is a good app to test the gpu with??????

 

Acer has replaced a mainboard on one of my netbooks but there is no part number on the repair document
the bios is still 3206.
is there a way for me to see this M/B change though BIOS, sys info or sometype of sofeware or do i have to open her up and physically look

 

I don't think two-three hours is enough to conclude anything. One day (five hours use) my laptop can freeze fifteen times. Some days it runs without any problems.

Could you "up" the "Ubuntu" time to - kets say a weeks use (15+ hours)?

 

Hi all desperate ACER ASPIRE ONE buyers...

I too were fool enough to buy an AO751h, and suffer from the same intermittent "freezes" :-(

Notice that I first saw them with the shipped XP home, BUT, I continue to get them
also when using Ubuntu 9.10 (installed as double boot)

So I can't believe people saying that it "doesn't happen with linux", or, can be fixed with "over/under clocking th GPU", etc... etc....

One thing that I noted, was the fact that I was unable to perform the well known memtest86+ memory checker (shipped with most linux installations)
=> at boot, in the grub menu, when I launch memtest86+, it complains there is not enough free low memory..
So impossible for me to scan the internal RAM for defects, and/or stress the memory controller a bit...

Did anybody manage to perform such a test on the Aspire One 751 ?
Did anybody actually tried to change the internal memory for another model/capacity, and see if it affects the "freezes" ????

 

My 751H came with Vista Basic and the memory diagnostic is built into the OS. I'm running it now. Seems to be running fine.

 

I ran the memtest that came with Parted Magic while I still had the old RAM in my Acer. It did not find any faults with it.
My netbook was next to useless at that time.
After I changed the RAM, everything has been running perfect since. And its been a few months now.

 

I bought two last October, Vista Home, 2GB RAM - they both suffered from random terminal freezes which seemed to be network related, for example it will always freeze on a particular website, but at times it also freezes whilst scrolling - difficult to pin point a trigger.

Tried updating to Windows 7 - issue persisted.
Just updated the BIOS from 3204 to 3210 - issue just reoccurred... within 30 mins of flashing the BIOS.

Today my netbook must have frozen 7 times, whilst using word, mozilla and yahoo (messenger mode only)

 

i use fedora 12 and Kingston 2 gb ram!(from my old aspire 5680)update to last BIOS and no freeze!i have dual boot with windows xp pro sp3 and the last 4 month have freeze 2-4 times.In the windows os i not many times.work every with fedora and work match better than windows

 

Hey everyone,
It looks like a heat problem to me, particularly with the RAM. Using fan speed control software can sometimes help... but the Fan only cools the CPU, not the RAM, so those who say "oh it's not a heat issue at all" in my opinion are wrong. It's a weak fan, and it's designed to only keep the CPU cool. It's very easy for RAM to overheat in this design, and it's typical for a computer to completely freeze up as a result of overheating RAM. Soo.... it looks like we need to get better RAM (with a higher heat rating). I think Acer should cough this up, but in my experience I'd rather just buy some better RAM and install it myself. Sure it's money out of my pocket but I don't have time to waste with Acer. They already know I'll never buy another Acer again.

 

I bought two of these machines at the same time from the same place. One had the freeze issue and the other one did not. As a test I switched the ram in the two units and the machine that had the freeze issue continued to have the freeze issue. A trip to Acer for a motherboard replacement solved the problem.

Lance
www.lancemoreland.com

 

I agree with Lance. I only had one of these machines and RAM didn't seem to make a difference. I tried two different brand modules in my machine and ran with the RAM cover off, with it out in the cold and no matter what I did, it froze. It makes sense to me that quite a handful of the 751h boards are faulty and it could be some time before you get one that isn't by sending it in for service once, twice, or however many times is needed before you get a solid board or if you are lucky and get one off the shelf that doesn't have a faulty board.

I didn't want to take that gamble though and returned it.