Netbook freezes randomly

After over a year of flailing away, the following worked for me (or at least my computer hasn't frozen in 8 hours, which has NEVER happened).

I'm running WinXP on a 1+ year old Aspire One. My computer typically freezes many times per day, usually when left idle. I have all power options OFF. No screen saver. Latest BIOS, etc. etc., 1GB of original memory (I would have upgraded to 2GB if I knew it would have solved the problem...as it is, I don't want to dump any $$s into this machine the way it freezes up).

I did two things at the same time so don't know if only one of them would have worked (or possibly it needed both?)


(1) Installed the latest graphics drivers for the GMA 500 from the Intel site:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchR ... erator+500


(2) Downloaded/installed the AA fan program and set the ON setting to 50c and the OFF setting to 48c.

http://www.computentsystems.de/aceraspireonefancontrol/



So far, so good.....praise the Lord.

Hope this might help someone else.

---------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE

UPDATE: It went 12+ straight hours after the above changes (that was yesterday) without a single freeze (that has NEVER happened since I've owned the machine 1+ years). I shut it down last night and turned it on this morning and went another 12 hours.... running many simulateous programs, youtubes, etc. (all on 1GB memory) and it did not freeze for another 12 hours.....BUT THEN: the last three hours it's back to freezing like it was!!!! I've re-booted 5+ times in the last couple of hours, and had to re-boot it to come on here to post this message before going to bed.

Nothing has changed since this a.m. or during the day. If anything I was using less resources. My fan utility reads 51c current temp. I am totally flabbergasted (not easy for me lol). If the solutions yesterday had NEVER WORKED it would make more sense than going almost 2 full days w/ no freeze-up and then out-of-the-blue starting to freeze like old times sake.

Weird, weird, weird. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Makes absolutely no sense. Wow.


---------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE #2 (03-18-2011)


So, I uninstalled the AA fan control. The computer had gone back to its pre-AA freezing mode (i.e., freezing up consistently at least one per hour, all day....).

BUT NOW: I noticed Event ID 7036 in my event log ("Computer browser service has stopped" .... interestingly, there was no event entry for STARTING the service, as with other services in the event log).....so, I googled around and made this change based upon what I found (I'm running XP Home, SP3 btw):


1. Click Start, click Run, type firewall.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Click the Exceptions tab.
3. Click to select the File and Printer Sharing check box, and then click OK.

The Computer Browser service automatically starts after you unblock the ports that are used for file and printer sharing.


=======================> My current status: I made the above change (checking File and Printer Sharing) and, so far, no freezes. Of course it's only been 2 hours, BUT, I was freezing every 15 minutes or so this morning until I made the above change. I mean literally freezing again and again, sometimes just re-starting the computer and letting it sit there at the Win desktop. But so far so good....and no entries in Event Viewer about the Computer Browser service stopping either. I guess it could all be a coincidence---I've been burned so many times on this issue---but wanted to throw out another possible solution for folks still struggling.

btw: if you don't know what, or how to see, Event Viewer logs:

1. Click Start, click Run, type eventvwr.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Click System in the left-hand pane (this is where I was seeing event 7036 for the Computer Browser service STOPPING).


Enjoy...praise the Lord



---------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE #3 (03-18-2011)

Well, it went 3 hours with the above change and just froze. (Can you believe I make a living as an IT guy? Me neither). Nothing in Event Viewer logs either about "Computer Browser service stopping" this time.

My next attempt: I disabled a Crossloop service I saw running that was "uninstalled" a year ago, and I disabled an acer "video conferencing" program I noticed at startup: acervcm.exe (I'm sure it's garbage anyway....maybe that's why video Skype never worked well?). Onward and upward (or downward)!

Next up: dynamite.

 

Updated the BIOS to the latest - 3212 - and haven't had it freeze up on me since I rebooted after the BIOS update. That was last night. Has been on ever since. Not going to turn it off. See how long it goes. It would usually freeze up 20-30 minutes, sometimes sooner, after I powered it on - even in safe mode.

I only have problems with freezes while using a Microsoft OS. I've tried several different flavors of Linux, and it would never freeze up on me.

 

I have an Acer Aspire one with random freezing.

I almost gave up on it..but found it's still in warranty by one month and a few days.

So back to manufacturer it goes! Thanks to all who have input on this thread its one hellva read. Appears it's a Mboard issue.

I started using it for running Astronomy software to drive my telescopes (I grabbed it from one of my kids who wasn't using it...hard not to guess why), run imaging software etc. It is a great small portable unit with great battery life....but...it's unusable with this intermittent freezing.

edit:

froze during boot ...all dead now

 

Hi all,

Not sure how relevant this is or isnt but I have just been helping someone out with a TravelMate which was falling over after around 10 minutes or so.
It turned out to be a lack of thermal paste on the heatsink for the GPU (see here viewtopic.php?f=94&t=25252)

Might be worth a look to see if a similar lack of thermal paste is evident (or not as the case may be ) on this model too.

Hope that maybe helps

Paul :ugeek:

 

Got my AAO, O751h back from Acer repair for freezing. They did the usual clean, re-set!

It froze again within 5 minutes.

Back to Acer again. Sigh!

 

751H freeze fixed up and solved.

I updated bios driver to 3212 from european support page
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads_gd.html

and then instaled video driver intel gma500 version 6.14.11.1012

it works -
NO MORE FREEZE UPS.
GOOD LUCK

 

Finally solve the problem.

Bought a MacPro.

(2 months ago)

 

Got my AAO 0751h back for the 2nd time from Acer. This time the RAM and HDD changed. So it had a new OS I had to enter user details..just completed that..tried to enter wireless network key..."system froze".

So from switch on to system "freeze" around 2.2 minutes (not including boot time). It's on it's way back to Acer as we speak, 3rd time. This time it was posted back in under 1 hr of receipt from repair! Wow a new low!

The warranty runs out 22 this month and I asked the service rep what's the deal if the problem persists out of warranty..he was non committal..as shifty as a sewer rat and down right un-helpful! He kept stating.."is this the problem with non boot"..I nearly screamed out loud as they have it in their heads about this but fail so understand it is a freezing system issue. I think he was deliberately obfuscating the issue to annoy me. It worked.

Well..we have an office of fair trading and if Acer cannot repair it this time then the item is non-merchantable quality and I'll be off to them.

I think I'll have a little lie down for awhile now!

 

Got my A0751h back from its 3rd repair. Acer said the last freeze was a "software issue". They (Acer repair) know its not as it had a clean OS install....nothing, I mean nothing added!

This time it lasted around 2hrs before freezing.

Funny thing they left their repair tools on the lappy desktop: Mem test, Burn-in test etc. Obviously they reckon if it passes these then it's honky dory! Which is not true even by my own measure. I've had computer memory pass mem test and fail moving around large files.

So it's back for the 4th repair. This time I asked for a proper repair, replacement or consumer affairs!

Damn Acer I'm sick of this. :evil: They know there is an issue with this model and are playing stupid games. If they cannot fix it this time...consumer affairs...here I come...un-merchantable goods!

 

I think a Linux netbook OS may be the ultimate answer.

You folks still under warranty: IT DOES NOT GET BETTER, so get them to take it back.

 

Finally......4th repair....Mboard replaced and system has not frozen.

4 hrs running and no system freezes. Never lasted this long before.

Finally.

Edit:
Still running fine are 1 full day of use Guess its fixed.

 

It's obvious that they have devote *zero* engineering resources to figuring out what the actual problem is. Instead, they just send the laptops to their "repair center" where they randomly swap out components and run their diagnostic test. If it happens (usually by chance) to finish the test without freezing, then they ship it back to you as if the problem is solved. Repeat this process over and over until you a) give up or b) get essentially a completely new set of internals parts that no longer has the issue. This process probably costs them more money than figuring out the root cause, but there seems to be zero communication between the repair center and the real engineers at Acer, so chronic problems don't get troubleshooted properly.

You can call and complain about this system, but it's a waste of time. The folks on the phone are getting paid minimal hourly wages in India and work from a script...

 

Just checking in to see if there has been any progress. I see that Acer has not acknowledged that there is a problem and is treating each failure as a one-off issue, first re-imaging the drive (not the issue), and only replacing the motherboard as a last resort. If you are unlucky enough to have one of the failed machines, return it and get something else. If you can't return, exercise the warranty and be prepared for several back-and-forth shipments until it "might" get fixed. If you can't return or use the warranty, you're stuck with a defective product.

I'll never buy Acer again. My netbook is 95% working and is starting to wear out from use by now. Its replacement will be an Apple. No more fooling around with cheap hardware and half-@$$ workmanship.

 

Hi,

I've been suffering with the freezing problem. The issue has been most repeatable when using Skype video, with crashes happening within 30 min. I've sent the netbook back for three repairs with Acer (all have resulted in new software image). After taking the retailer (Catchoftheday) to fair trading and reaching no resolution, my only option was to take them to court. Basically if in Australia, avoid Acer and Catchoftheday as neither will honor warranties.

Anyway, I decided to have a last ditch effort. I'm currently running Windows 7 and updated the Bios to 3212. I installed setfsb (old version ending in .86) and overclocked the FSB to 145 (giving max speed at 10x 1450). This has meant during Skype, make CPU usage peaks at 90% and usually runs in the 70% region. The netbook has been stable and has not yet crashed (after 30mins of Skype). I find it very strange that it seems more stable when overclocked that when not.

 

Hello, I've been experimenting the freezing with a packardbell dotm netbook (which I think is a "clone" of an aspire one).

I found a program that consistently crashes the computer, and that is crucial ram memory scanner (freely available at www.crucial.com, it doesn't make any harm to the computer, just a quick test to check the RAM memory specifications).

After trying xp pro, xp home, windows server 2003 and windows 7 ultimate I've found that it didn't crash under windows 7 safe mode (with networking). This may be a clue to solve the freezing problem.

What I'm asking is if someone can test the crucial memory scanner in his netbook and reproduce this behavior (freeze in normal mode, no freeze in safe mode with networking).

Thanks

 

I can confirm that it locks up the system in normal mode.

The only other time my laptop has hung was when i tried to install windows 7, it hung when formatting my SSD, it also hung yesterday, no idea what i was doing. I'm using the stock laptop with the latest bios, 2GB ram upgrade, SSD upgrade, 65w adapter and intel wireless wifi.

 

Thnak you to all for the support in this forum. I too have been plagued by the freeze. I bought a used AO751h on eBay for my daughter at Uni, after having had a ZG8 for a couple of years that has worked beautifully. Soon she was complaining about freezes and I discovered, through this forum, that there was no easy fix. I bought her a new 753 instead and tried to sort out the 751h.

In the process, I have swapped hard drives, installed XP Pro instead of 7 Ultimate, installed pretty well all the drivers on the Acer website, installed Ubuntu 10.04, played around with power settings, and so on. Sometimes I can run a video or do other work for hours and I think I've finally cracked it, then the next day it'll freeze minutes after starting while doing very little.

That's it really. I was goig to sell it once I fixed the problem but now I think I'll stick with it and try to remember to save my work frequently. It still hasn't - quite - caused me to lose faith with Acer, but I'm not happy.

 

It's a Mboard issue..that only ACER can fix...replace it that is.

My Mboard was replaced (after 4 pathetic repair attempts by ACER) and this fixed the freezing issue...so far 7 months no freezing since replaced. If you purchased it on fleabay then I suspect the previous person knew of the issue and off loaded it.

 

hello. i havent read everyones posts and excuse me if i repeat it, but i have the same problem with my acer aspire one netbook and tried everything. but what i can surely say is that has nothing to do with temperature, or at least it is not the main reason, because some of the (million) times it happened, i had just turned it on and i have not touched it, meaning that i have not opened any window or any app. when it turned on, i moved the mouse, i didnt do anything, and after 2-3 minutes it was frozen. it was impossible to be from high temperature because it was turned off all night and it was still cool when it froze. my bro is a pc specialist and after he made a couple of efforts, he told me that it must be the processor.

for me, acer doesnt exist anymore. because i see that the problem is not just mine or a couple of ppl. the company made a huge mistake and did not care to fix it. i have lost money, time, data and patience with this crappy piece of plastic. i would turn to apple but as long as i prefer windows for now, i use hp and until now its fine.

 

Found cause of freezing for my netbook
I had the freezing issue but was able to find out what was causing it. I noticed that the network adapter appeared to stop responding right before it would freeze. So I disabled the internal wifi adapter and the lan adapter and then I connected a Netgear USB wifi adapter. I have not seen a freeze since doing that. Keep in mind that the netbook would freeze 3 - 4 times in a couple of hours. Next, I will see if I can replace the internal wifi adapter to fix it permanently.

Update: 24 hours running no freezing

Update 2: 36 hours running no freezing

Observation for update 2: One thing that I forgot to mention. Once I started using the Netgear usb wifi Adapter, I started to see an alert that I haven't seen since I bought the netbook. I started to get critical battery alerts, even though it was plugged in, which would then put the netbook into hibernation.

So that got me to thinking that maybe this alert was the cause of the freezing all along since the power settings were configured to put the netbook into hibernation. My theory is that the wifi adapter may have had trouble going into hibernation which caused the freezing.

So here is what I am doing to prove out my theory. I have gone back to using my internal wifi adapter, but I have changed the power setting so that the netbook does nothing but alert me when it see a critical battery alert. I also changed the power management setting on the internal card to maximum performance. Let's see what happens the next 12 hours.

Update 3: Netbook froze 2 hour after switching back to internal wifi card.
So it appears that the freezing has to do with the internal wifi adapter. Going back to the Netgear usb wifi Adapter.

Update 4: 24 hours no freezing.
Internal wifi card is the reason for the freezing!

Update 5: 5 days no freezing.
Internal wifi card is the reason for the freezing!

Update 5: A week and a half with no freezing.
Using the external USB card works for me