Netbook freezes randomly

TO ALL: ABOVE IS THE BEST MESSAGE POSTED IN THIS 60 PAGE STRING. EVERYBODY START SENDING THESE ACER GUYS EMAILS (USE SOME PRESSURE) AND THEY WONT BE ABLE TO IGNORE SO MANY DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS.I GUESS THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO HAVE OUR PROBLEMS SOLVED. NEXT STEP WILL BE TO INFORM ALL (ONLINE) ICT MAGAZINES ABOUT THE SHIT SERVICE ACER GIVES TO CUSTOMERS. SEE IF THEY LIKE THAT.

 

I've just got mine back from it's 2nd repair due to freezing

All they did was 'reinstall the system software'. So I played along and have not touched any drivers or messed about with it and guess what. Locked up after about two hours. Back on the phone again tomorrow I think.

:x

 

OK, finally I can say that I am out of freezing problem.
I am running my 751h for three days (everyday +6hours) without any problem and now it is much faster than ever.
Usually It froze 100% when I scrolled MS-Word fast and web surfed with Google Chrome.
Now, I can opened three or four MS-word windows, CorelDraw, Firefox and MS-dictionary…

What I did is below.
1. update Bios 3210
2. Install Windows 7
3. Upgrade ram 1Gb -> 2Gb
4. Change IRQ priority
IRQ8 top priority
IRQ16 is second and IRQ17 is third.

Howto : Create DWord value (named ‘IRQ#Priority) in ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl’
‘#’ is IRQA number. Ex) IRQ8Priority
5. Disable performance mode in video card driver.
6. Uninstall Synaptic touchpad driver
Up to this point, I still had freezing problem.

7. Update video card driver (intel GMA 500)
Latest version : 8.14.10.2020 (for Windows 7)
Intel download center : http://downloadcenter.intel.com

After updating video card driver, I could feel differences right away.
Now, I installed Synaptic touchpad driver back and enabled performance mode in video card again.
No freezing!!!!! I can edit document of 160 pages in MS-Word without any fear and hassling..

Good luck!!!!

 

Good info kbhdog.

Maybe an idea to try to start a new clean technical only freezing thread again?
This one is getting too big to search through for those looking for technical solutions.

 

Hi Pytheas,

It's Thanasis from Athens too. I bought mine from e-shop and you can see my story in greek here http://www.adslgr.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3187358#post3187358. E-shop exchanged the netbook with a new one which is luckily working fine with no freezes. I have some things to note:

1) Gsearle here says it must be a DMA access problem http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=87&t=16164&hilit=freeze&start=390#p107502, that's why skype video calls and other graphic related procedures caused a freeze.
2) I found that the program piriform speccy always freezed in the old netbook http://www.piriform.com/speccy. I also installed it in the new netbook since it's a nice monitoring tool.
3) The mobo revision of the new netbook is HLZ-ZA3(B). The old mobo revision was ZA3 as well which is strange, since in new netbook I have no freezes
4) Acer USA knows there is a problem with these netbooks since there is a message in ACER USA support check here:http://netbooks-us.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/278/kw/freeze/p/1/r_id/166
5) I didn't update BIOS or graphic drivers in new netbook, since it works fine from day 1. So BIOS must be 3206.

Hope the problems are solved for everybody :roll:

 

For the last month I kept getting occasional "freezes", 1-2 times a day with almost the same configuration (I have installed Windows 7, updated BIOS to v.3210, updated the video driver to v.2020). Since I disabled Hardware Acceleration of the GMA500 (a couple of days ago) I didn't face any freezings so I keep my fingers crossed. Good thing is that it seems that this acceleration does not make any difference in performance (at least not to me). You're (at least) the 2nd to report this change in settings, so I think it makes a difference.

If this fails, I will follow your advice on changing the IRQ priority. Btw, how did you decide to do such thing?
Could you please tell us exactly the part number and type of the memory module (2GB) you use without problems?

Thank you in advance and good luck, too!

 

I cannot disable hardware acceleration (Win7 and .2020). The button is grayed out . Any idea what is wrong or what to do?

 

What I did was disable 3D acceleration of Direct X, this is directly tied to the video card and memory. This was XP though. I'm not sure if the option is there in windows 7. to get the option type "dxdiag" in the run dialogue.

As I stated in an earlier post. I believe it is memory related (at least when heat is not an issue) and I found that in XP I will get a Blue Screen of Death (BSD) when I try decode an h.264 HD video in media player classic using the GMA500 Hardware acceleration... but with good memory it player HD video fine...and the memory is good, no lockups.

Not sure how this will work in windows Vista or 7 though.

Anyone running Vista or 7 with the freeze problem care to try an h.264 video using media player classic?

 

My GMA is a 2019

can someone put the 2010 for windows 7 to download? i cant find...

the link pleasy

thx
-----------------

just download

---------------

how i disable the hardware accelerator?

another thing, i created the document in Regedit about the IRQPrioriry. I dont know if i did right, i named IRQ8Priority, and the Heximal or Deximal values? I dont put anything? And i need creat one for 16 and 17 priority?

 

IRQ8Priority must be give 1. The next highest must be given 2. Etc.

My driverversion is .2020 not .2010

 

Hi all,

I have experience with this crap aspire one 751, freezing every 15 minutes.. and what i do is, change my ram module from ddr2-667 (333Mhz) to ddr2-533 (266Mhz). guess what?? that crap netbook never freeze even you run 8 hours directly. never freeze if scroll it faster..never freeze while using skype. finally I can say that I am out of freezing problem.

i also try to use the ddr2-800(400Mhz), the result is really bad (freezing every 5 minutes with some thick line at my screen )..

 

Wait, doesn't this thing ship with ddr2-533?

 

Not for my AO751, maybe AO751 for Malaysian version used ddr2-667. I already try to replace the RAM module so many times and the best result is ddr2-533, never freeze until now.

 

I'm in the UK and bought two Aspire AO751's for my children at Christmas.

Both are faulty and keep locking up. The kids thought that was normal ( not having had a computer before ), so never said anything to me until a few days ago. I bought them back in late December, so its going to be touch and go if I can return them back to the store for an exchange as I've had then for around 36 days ( its normally 28-30 days for return in the UK ).

Ideally I just want rid and replace them with something that's designed to work.

I'm aware of two other people who own this model of laptop and also had the same issues. However they were lucky and noticed within the first week, so got refunded.

 

The idea of changing the IRQ is an interesting one, but IRQ8 is already used on my system for the high percision event timer. Then I remembered writing this...

then I got a list of the conflicts on my machine;

I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Direct memory access controller

I/O Port 0x00000070-0x00000070 Motherboard resources
I/O Port 0x00000070-0x00000070 System CMOS/real time clock

Memory Address 0xFED00000-0xFED003FF High precision event timer
Memory Address 0xFED00000-0xFED003FF Motherboard resources

IRQ 16 Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 500
IRQ 16 Intel(R) SCH Family PCI Express Root Port 3 - 8112

IRQ 17 Intel(R) SCH Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 8110
IRQ 17 Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter

Memory Address 0x3F800000-0xFEBFFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0x3F800000-0xFEBFFFFF Motherboard resources

Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 500

To my absolute non-surprise gma500 is having both irq and memory address conflicts, and the system is having count em three memory conflicts. I'm still investigating.

Would also like to inform that the freezes have become more common since the last ie security update, which could be a coincidence but you never know...

 

I'm fInally free of that piece of S#@t the Acer Aspire AO751h. Both were returned and replaced with Samsungs.

The look on my kids face's when they switch on their new laptops and they're still working after 5 minutes (and twice has fast) is amazing !

Acer's online support response was " There are no known problems with this laptop. They are just scare storys and lie's spread across the internet".


My response back. I wouldn't touch another Acer product with a poo stick :roll:

 

Memory also seems to be my problem!!!

I have been able to reproduce the freezing just by using Google Earth for one minute (reproduced about 30 times). The current module is DDR2-800 (400 MHz) Just mounted some old DDR2-553 (266 MHz) Memory and haven't been able to reproduce the problem since! I have just used Google Earth for more than 30 minutes really driving it to the edge!

Just to make sure, I just fitted the DDR2-800 memory again - it froze within 30 seconds in Google Earth again.

Hmm... Maybe there is hope!

 

I trying update my bios, and ZA3_3210.exe bricked my netbook =(.. anybody have a solution for this dark screen?

 

I tried to gather (at least) the latest actions that are supposed to solve the freezing problem. They can be found in an online list that I created here: http://www.fishmemory.net/list.php?lid=2256

If anyone wishes to add any actions or comment on the existing ones (please provide the relevant link), I can be contacted via PM and it will be my pleasure to update the list as frequently as I have to!

Thank you all for the updated info, so far the freezings form me seem to have stopped after I disabled the hardware acceleration. However, it is always nice to read new tips that may eliminate the problem, since it seems unstoppable in may cases.

 

Hi Everyone,

I spent much of the last three days reading this entire thread. Wow. I'm impressed with this discussion and the tenacity of some of you guys.

I don't own an Acer of any sort so I apologize if I am adding noise to an otherwise fine discussion. A google search pointed me to this thread because I own a Dell Mini 12 that freezes frequently. In some ways the dell mini is similar, including an Atom processor and the GMA500 video chipset. I found a way to prevent freezing and I thought I'd just mention it here in case it might be helpful.

I can prevent lockups on my dell mini 12 be disabling Intel Speedstep in the BIOS. Does the Acer bios have such a setting?

I don't offer this as a solution, only a workaround. I don't consider it a solution because when Speedstep is disabled, the processor speed is fixed at something significantly less than full speed, making the unit too slow. This may be equivalent to using setFSB to underclock the unit. My thought is that the problem is related to DMA.

I thought the IRQ information added to the discussion a few days ago might be worth a shot on my dell. I may also try installing setFSB to see if that helps.

Good luck to you all!
Will