Shoutbox

Well here's the problem.

I am fixing an acer laptop (Ferrari 4000 Series) and there seems to be some weird problems.

At random times but very close to the start up the computer just freezes. It's not at any stage. The mouse, keyboard and LCD just freeze and nothing happens. If i boot from a disk and try to reformat it happens there to.

• It's not an OS problem because it happens when I'm booting from a CD or in the BIOS.
  
• It's not graphics, as sound also stops.

After thinking installing a new OS would help it would still freeze. So I took out the HDD and connected it to my laptop. I tried to install windows 7 to it from windows but it said it cannot install to external hard drives. (this is not a problem as i know the problem is not the OS)

Any ideas?

Are you sure it's not just the screen freezing?

I recently fixed a laptop that they thought had crashed, but the screen would simply stick (meaning you cannot see mouse movements or keystrokes)

I think the problem turned out to be the graphics card in that case. Good point to start though.

Always remember my number 1 rule for laptop repairs:

Acer are shit.

My GF had one (she chose it) and had nothing but problems. She's doing much better now with the Compaq Presario that I picked for her

quote:

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Originally posted by Spunky
Are you sure it's not just the screen freezing?

I recently fixed a laptop that they thought had crashed, but the screen would simply stick (meaning you cannot see mouse movements or keystrokes)

I think the problem turned out to be the graphics card in that case. Good point to start though.

Always remember my number 1 rule for laptop repairs:

Acer are shit.

My GF had one (she chose it) and had nothing but problems. She's doing much better now with the Compaq Presario that I picked for her

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Thanks, I've stripped it down now. I'll have a look at that first, also it may be a overheat as I saw ALOT of dust.

quote:

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Originally posted by pista05
a reformat should fix it

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quote:

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Originally posted by krissy-afc

• It's not an OS problem because it happens when I'm booting from a CD or in the BIOS.

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Also, download memtest86 and test for faulty RAM.

I have memtest86 and was going to check but I forgot

Ill go do that now.

Also, it's heating up WAY to high. I've fixed more than 200 laptops/pc's and this ones being a cock

just run a full diag and test all of the hardware.

Ok, I've cleaned out all the dust and it's defo not over heating. Although it's still sticking

Bump

I have installed a new HDD, finally it's detecting it. The main problem is still here though, at random points the whole system just freezes. In BIOS, in a boot up from CD or even, the OS itself.

Any ideas?

Edit: It's not graphics, as sound stops as well!

I didn't see you post any results from memtest86. How did that go?

The first stick did not complete because it froze. It got to about 70% with no problems. Weird thing is, then it froze (the % and time) the little + was still flashing.

I'm testing the second stick now.

Edit: It freezes on both sticks, so the test cannot complete.