Netbook freezes randomly

i dont thing it is a harddisk problem mine come with a toshiba HDD and it still freezes, im going to send it to repair tomorrow.

 

acer they has just uploaded a new bios update za3-3208 on there website. i think ill try this before sending it for repair,

 

WTF u see this bios update? I don't see it.
BTW I switched my ram for the 2GB kingston in my gf's asus s6f we bought a few months ago when her crappy ass ram that it came with corrupted her HD.
SOB ran fine for almost 2 hours afterward and I thought I was home free. Started using google chrome and I'd be damned I started scrolling down on the right bar and it froze. Seems chrome is a real bad instigator of this problem as I had the exact same issue on the Vista Basic it came with before I installed Windows 7 Enterprise yesterday morning. I did however suspect it could be the wifi for some reason. I've disabled it and put a usb wifi stick on to see if that changed anything for the better, guess I'll find out tonight sometime. Regardless I'm taking this F'er back. I'm taking TrackSmarts advise. And with the mention of the 1410 issue I'll be sure to steer clear of Acer. Damnit I know for the most part you get what you pay for but I was really hoping this would be one good buy. Wow how many new customers they've burnt they'll never get back. Way to go Acer.

 

I wish Acer would give some indication of what their BIOS changes are. I flashed the new 3208 with high hopes that Acer had got a fix but unfortunatly, my pc froze within minutes of using the webcam. :cry: :cry: :cry:

Anyone with better luck?

EDIT: I was still on the old Graphics and Wifi drivers because I had done another system restore. I updated the drivers now and so far the webcam has been ok awhile.

 

I have the Packard Bell Dot m NCD 70 with a Toshiba MK1655GSX disk and I experience this freeze behavior (the number 2 problem as listed up by Nick_in_Wash) quite frequently. It always occurs when when I'm scrolling through web pages.

 

Thanks for the hint with the 3208 Bios. Just installed, no changes so far. Still boots with the CPU clocked to 1240mhz and no better overclocking experience so far, 1450mhz works fine as before. I have no freeze issues at all, but maybe its the Hitachi HDD in my 751?

 

Scrolling through web pages pretty much uses only one resource: 2D graphics. Which video driver are you using?

 

I'll also try 3208 when I get back home, but thought this was interesting from the Acer support site:

http://netbooks-us.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/278/page/7/r_id/166

Perhaps they are trying to fix the freezing with BIOS updates. FYI, mine has stopped freezing. Didn't do anything (I think) that could have stopped it. Also, my Costco 751h never had a freeze problem, but this one did. Hmmm...

 

the 3208 update dont change anything for my 751 it still freezes, last time it freezes the harddisk was spinning loud and it sounds like a old fan but it was the harddisk toshiba

 

Updated all the drivers and BIOS (3206) to the latest available on 9/16 but still have the lockup problem. I will try the 3208 but doubt that will work either. I am also running the latest GMA 500 driver from Intel (7.14.10.1006 -- yes I know the version looks older but based on Intel's website (http://downloadmirror.intel.com/17995/e ... ta_gfx.htm) this is the latest driver for the 751's graphic chipset. FWIW, I actually had a one-time BSoD after flashing the bios and doing some serious scrolling. I have had also had sporadic lockups when NOT scrolling, but the lion's share have been when the vertical scroll cursor is displayed. This is suspiciously pointing to the graphics driver.

Nothing has worked so far and this is EXTREMELY frustrating.

 

**Another Update:

Okay so this morning when I turned on my netbook and used skype, the video froze after 2 mins. of use.
Acer didn't do anything about it. So frustrating. I am just puzzled why Acer puts webcams that don't work.

Then, while skype was opened and a google chrome browser was also opened, my machine froze. 3 times this morning.

So I guess its not the HDD after all.
Last night was ok, never had any freeze. My windows system just automatically updated this morning and after that it started freezing.
Could it be the new drivers too? If I remember it right I installed the Atheros wireless lan, realtek USB card reader and the family controller etc.

I am so frustrated already and don't want to send it back for another repair. Is there any way they can fix this issue?
I wanted a functional brand new netbook. But all I get is crap. =(

One more thing, when I tried to update my BIOS to 3208, i got an arror message.
It said "Failed to create service". How do I flash it right? I appreciate and want to thank all the inputs of all those who post here.

 

Nope. Acer scratched up my laptop when it was out for repair. It was pristine when I mailed it (and packed it really well with about 6" of bubble wrap on all sides). It came back with small scratches all over the top and one decent gash. They clearly man-handle these things when they are "repairing" them. "Repair" is in quotes because all they did was update my BIOS.

Also, WE HAVE NOT FIGURED IT OUT. Mine has a different model HDD from the one's mentioned here (250 GB Hitachi model). And it had the same freezing problem. I think the BIOS update helps some people (makes freezing less common) but doesn't fully solve the issue. If yours freezes, and you can still return it to the store, you should do that.

 

I'm sorry to hear that tracksmart.
Mine came alright, looks the same, without any scratches but stupid me, I shipped it with my retail box and they shipped it back with a small brown box.
They didn't even put a bubble wrap, just a small piece of brown cardboard to hold the netbook and wrapped it with clear plastic. Good thing, it didn't suffer any damage.
I've read in some forums when they got their machines, they either get a broken LCD or hinges were misplaced.

 

That's exactly how they ship it. No padding. Just on a t-shaped piece of cardboard in the middle of the box. If the box were compromised in any way (dropped, put under heavy boxes, etc) the netbook would likely sustain damage. It's kind of shocking they can ship them that way. Not to mention that they can scratch them up so badly while in the repair shop...

 

Day 2 .. no lock up or crash yet.. have ym and webcam going for 18hrs+ and its still going .. i even have the computer clocked to 1450mhz via setfsb. BTW one cannot retain stepping using setfsb yeah?

Thanks,
Jon

 

FWIW - mine is running 24 straight now w/the SSD drive. It had been freezing several times per day. I think a big part of the problem is the OEM Segate drive.

 

I've got a white one (from WalMart), with a Western Digital 250GB drive. It has 2GB RAM, stock Vista Basic installed, and McAfee replaced with Avast! Home edition. It ran fine for about a month. Then...My 751h freezes frequently when scrolling a web page in Google Chrome. I've abandonded Chrome for IE, and although my browsing experience is slower, I haven't experienced a lock-up during the last three evenings while using the netbook. In fact one day, I left the netbook running overnight, and while I was away from the house at work the following day. Upon my return that evening, the netbook was exactly as I had left it the night before.

I'm not really a webcam user, so I haven't experienced the lock-up trouble with the webcam.

The lock-ups/freezes are as Nick-in-Wash described in #2, and they would occur whether the Z520 was over-clocked via setFSB or not. The lock-ups/freezes would occur with both wireless and wired network connections. Lock-ups did seem to be more frequent and would occur sooner after a restart when the CPU was OC'ed to even just the specified 1.33GHz of the Atom CPU. Anywhere from about 2 to 15 seconds after the lockup, the netbook would make a loud click, which I figure is the hard drive heads parking. The netbook is completely unresponsive, except for the ability to toggle the display's backlighting, and a power cycle is the only resolution, as other owners have commented, causing a loss of data or the ability to print a receipt from a web site.

I've tried the different BIOS releases except for 3208, with no relief. I might download and apply 3208 to see what happens with that release, but I won't hold my breath.

To me, I think the problem could be two-fold. Poor graphics drivers, combined with a faulty BIOS and/or a hard drive interface. It might also be related to faulty RAM. Has anyone run a MemTest 86+ on their 751h? What brand of RAM is in your 751h? Mine came with hynix RAM, which, to the best of my understanding, is supposed to be pretty decent.

I'm also concerned about the factory under-clock of a large portion of these devices. The box states Intel Atom Z520 CPU, which is specified to be 1.33GHz, but I kind of feel like I got cheated with the CPU being under-clocked.

 

I updated to BIOS 3208 and guess what? My system still locks up -- only now it locks up without having to scroll the browser window(!) I do not recall this happening nearly as often with the original system configuration (prior to Windows update running - but that started happening almost as soon as I connected to the internet).

 

Hi i just send my in for repair and i just got an idea have anyone try to run the 751h without the batteri mountet, maybe it can be a corrupt batteri. i can remember that my aspire 3000 had a bad batteri and i have problem with the keyboard didnt work,so i try taking the batteri of and that soved the problem. can anyone try this and se if that helps...

 

I'm using Win7 Home Premium RTM with the latest GMA 500 drivers (7.14.10.1006). Have also updated the BIOS to 3208.