Netbook freezes randomly

I don't want to be pessimistic, but before I sent back my 751 for repair I tried /noexecute=alwaysoff and it didn't solve my freezing problem. Although others my be more lucky...

 

"/noexecute= alwaysoff", for whatever reason, does not seem to have the same effect on the 751 as "/execute" (see above).

For me, I can say: It seems my 751 is finally stable now

Although, to safely say it does completely fix the problem, longer tests are required, of course. ( I've been using my 751 for about ten hours now without anything even close to a freeze; it used to freeze about twice on one battery charge.)

I will post again in two days and keep you guys and gals informed should anything unusual happen in the meantime.

For those of you not sure wether or not to try disabling DEP because of a possible threat to the system: If you have any effective anti-virus software installed, the additional vulnerability caused by not using DEP is rather negligible. But i strongly recommend not to use the system both without DEP and without anti-virus software :!:
You may want to search the web for an AV-program that best suits your needs (there is more than one freeware-antivirus-suite available, not all are equally good).

If any of you encounter any problems while trying to disable DEP, be sure to post here.

If required, I could also post more detailed step-by-step instructions.

That's it for now

 

Good news :mrgreen:
My 751h has recently started to be much more stabile lately, without me doing anything. Monday it even run 6 hours without any problems usually it frezzes twice an hour.

will try this trick when i get home.

 

Can you still do this if you have updated the BIOS to 3206?

And PLEASE post the Detailed step by step instruction.
I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!

 

are you the one who sent his/her for repair twice?
What do you mean you didn't do anything?

can you tell us more about it? like if you changed the bios, reinstalled the OS and what OS are you currently using?
Thanks!

 

DrNo's /execute solution did not work for me. I tested by running firefox with youtube video and acer crystal eye webcam simultaneously. froze within 30 minutes before and after solution. i signed up for a warranty repair but have a feeling they won't fix it. :cry:

 

Hi,

one guy from acer service told me that about 1/3rd of 751h's has the same problem. You should replace your netbooks by warranty.

 

They should replace them or refund your money. Sounds like a class action to me

 

First of all: You can still disable the Data Execution Prevention after upgrading to 3306 (most recent BIOS version) as it is an OS feature.

Secondly: Here go the step-by-step instructions. As I am currently not using an English OS, I'll have to take a wild guess about some descriptions, but you should still be able to follow. Again, this is only valid for Windows XP. The procedure may be similar on Vista / Win7, but I cannot guarantee that.

The steps are:

1.) Open "My Computer"

2.) Open the hard drive partition containing your OS (in most cases this will be c:\)

3.) CLick on the "Tools" tab and herein open "Folder Options"

4.) Click on the "View" tab

5.) Make sure the following box is checked: "Show hidden files and folders"

6.) Make sure the following boxes are unchecked: "Hide extensions for known fle types" & "Mask protected system files" (not sure about the wording, should be the sixth box)

[All this is just so that you can definitely see the required file]

7.) In the root section of your partition containing the OS, find a file named "boot.ini" (usually c:\boot.ini). Make a copy of this file.

8.) Right click on the file and select "Properties"

9.) Uncheck the box saying "Write protected"

10.) Click on "Apply", then on "Ok"

11.) Double click the boot.ini

12.) You are now viewing the file's content; Look for a line containing "/NOEXECUTE=OPTIN" (the part after /NOEXECUTE= is not important)

13.) Replace "/NOEXECUTE=OPTIN" with "/EXECUTE"

14.) Save changes and reenable the write protection (similar to steps 8,9 and 10)

15.) Reboot your system

Hope this will solve some of your 751's problems,

Regards,

DrNo

Concerning stability: After I switched the DEP off, I did actually get a frozen system once (that is within about three days of using it). Still, this is quite an improvement as my system used to freeze about twice a day. The frozen system occured while watching 720p video with the battery at a very low level (<6%), so I'm not actually sure wether that had anything to do with it...

 

Hi

I also joined the club of 751h owners who have the problem of random freezing. I bought mine about ten weeks ago, one week before I started a trip to Europe. I experienced already the problem in the first week but thought it was because of software installations. Well, now I know better. I am using WinXP Pro and have all software/driver updates what windows is concerned as well as the aspire one itself. I think I have tried everything that was suggested in this thread but nothing improved my situation.
Especially when doing a Skype call (even without webcam) my computer freezes extremely often, sometimes 4-5 times within an hour. However, during the day when using the computer in my office (and also Skype chat) it runs rather well and it only freezes maybe once (mostly when using Chrome). So to me it seems 90% of freezing occurs when doing Skype call or using chrome.
I did not experience any difference when switching the DEP off, however, I want to show you an easier way to edit the boot.ini file:

- Right click on "My Computer" then click properties
- Go to the "Advance" tab and click "Settings" under "Startup and Recovery"
- Once you click Edit under "System Startup" the boot.ini file opens and you can do changes there!

Hopefully it helps for some of you. I guess once I am back in the US I will try to send mine to Acer for repair. Please to you who have done that already keep us up-to-date whether that solved the issue and what they did/what they replaced.

Thanks
blix

 

hello,i had same problem with freezing,but it stop now whn i put new graphic ddriver from intel page and disable diredraw and direct3d acceleration in graphic propertis,hardware accelartion.
When enable full hardvare acceleration hapend again,so i think it may be solution of problem
I hopes it would work with you also

 

That's not a solution, just a work around.... your computer SHOULD work with 3d acceleration enabled. Try the drivers found in the ACER website. I had problems before with drivers from INTEL with my ACER Timeline 3810T, but was solved by installing the ones from ACER instead. Cheers.

 

Still, Acer SHOULD just provide information about this problem. I still don't have a clue if it's software or hardware related. I don't want to send my device to Acer if it's not physically broken. Than I'd rather wait for a patch or something.

They can't even awnser my email within 10 days. How long will a repair take :cry:

 

There is a chat support specifically for netbook owners on the acer support website.
I sent mine for repair since I had no other solution and after going through 3 replacements.

I just shipped mine for repair lat Saturday and they said it would take 7-10 days minus the days of shipping back and forth.
I was lucky not to pay shipping costs because I've owned my netbook for less than a month only so they took care of it.

I suggest you send it in for repair since its under warranty. Who knows, they might fix it or change some parts since a lot of people are sending theirs too.
I believe its a hardware problem. I read that someone here had his motherboard replaced and it worked for him.
I am alarmed to see many netbook owners with this particular model have the freezing issues. Acer must do something!!
The only notice I saw from their website is the battery problem which they would replace. I will never buy any acer again.

 

Don't let 1 product turn you away from ACER. The company has produced very good products as of late... And is the benchmark for performance/value for money. The only problem with ACER is that in the race to get the 1st products out, they don't fully test the hardware for glitches. Too bad that this freezing problem seems to be a major pain for you guys. The Timeline Series also has this 100% CPU usage problem out of the box, the price for getting the 1st CULV notebooks out. Anyway our problem was fixed via a BIOS update.

If it's hardware related, they will announce a recall soon.... for now, just try to install the latest updates. Or if you guys have time, another OS. Vista, Win7 or Linux. In some instances those bugs won't show up on a different OS. Cheers.

 

I promised to keep this thread updated, but I kind of forgot about it. Here I go:

So I contacted Acer about my problem and they said that I had to send it in for repair, which I did and it was a fairly painless procedure. As a matter of fact, I was pleasantly surprised when I got my netbook back exactly 5 working days after I sent it in. I was actually counting on three weeks or so and I didn't have to pay anything. I contacted Acer directly because the people of the shop I bought the netbook at, kept insisting that it was a software related problem, which I knew it was not so I did not get very far that way.

In the box there was a rundown of which tests they ran, and what they fixed. The fan was replaced, so apparently there was something wrong with it. They also said that if the problem persists, I should put Windows XP back on, because maybe the beta of windows 7 was causing the problems. They failed to notice that I wrote on the "what did you already do"-form that I had the problem under XP as well as Windows 7 -which is a release client and not a beta.

 

The problem persists on windows 7. Linux is not an option because the Intel GMA 500 chipset is hardly supported under linux.

 

Hi, my 751h freezes ramdomly too.
I installed the newest Intel GMA500 drivers on XP to have full DXVA H.264 Hardware acceleration.
Often it freezes when HD or Youtube-videos are played, then the display freezes and the sound is stuck and i'm hearing "Rrrrrrrrrr...."
Once the display suddenly showed only a black screen.
I believe the GMA500 Chipset gets too hot when rendering graphics or working hard, so the "not directly" fan cooled onboard chipset may quit working under certain circumstances. Maybe a bios/driver update or deactivating D3D or other graphic functions may avoid from freezing.
I hope Acer will find a solution soon.
It's not funny when the netbook freezes and the work of the last hour is gone.

 

While I am no particular fan of the GMA 500, partially because I had hoped to do some Linux programming and partially because I watch a lot of Hulu (and how little it does for that experience), but I would note one thing. Users of the Asus Eee PC 1101HA do not seem to be reporting enough lockups with the same chip set to even warrant a thread about it on their forum. And that with a machine that has an optional built-in 30+% overclock cooked into the BIOS.

I have heard the evil Z520 theory, the evil US15W theory, the evil driver theory, the evil Microsoft theory (pick an OS, any OS for that one), the evil memory theory, the evil heat theory; and yet Asus with access to the same silicon and drivers didn't fall into the hole. We can try to "figure this out", or discover the golden work-around, and I have great admiration for those who are making the effort, but it seems to me that a machine that can crash 15 mins after it is turned on and is a shambling zombie after two weeks might deserve a quick trip back to Acer-land and let them complete the engineering of the machine that it deserved before it was shipped. Not really bitter here so much as have the feeling that a product that was not properly engineered from the start doesn't deserve the blood, sweat, and tears that we are putting into it. To paraphrase Douglas Adams: "The feeling of accomplishment you get from figuring your way around all of the minor flaws in the products of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation distracts you from the fact that they are fundamentally and hugely flawed."

This looks like Acer's problem and they should man-up to it.

 

I don't think it's overheating since some of us have "freezing" while in sleep mode! I had to enable hibernation because I couldn't trust the computer to wake from normal standby. The chipset should be idle in sleep mode - certainly not hot.

Nobody has produced a solution that actually works. And it's probably just luck when somebody's system gets better for a while. And sadly, Acer support has no answers. You can only send it in for repair and hope for the best. Sometimes they fix it. Sometimes they don't. I don't think they really know what the problem is.