Flak

Hi. I have an Acer Aspire 5672 WLMi, which I just bought a week ago. The first time I used it (it was without the AC adaptor, just running it with its battery) the screen of the laptop just freeze. I reboot it twice, the first time without sucess (still using solely the battery), and then the second time with sucess (using the AC adaptor, I did not remove the battery though).

Everything went well during the next few days, until today. It froze up was I was setting things up in the Acer Power Management. I diminushed a bit the screen brightness and put the speed of the processor from "high" to "medium", and when I pressed apply (the settings) the laptop just froze up again. Again, I was using only the laptop's battery, not the AC adaptor, this was the second time I did so. The laptop wouldn't reboot, the screen would freeze everytime the laptop tried to load the user login screen (I had set up a password, if this helps). I did tried to restore settings using Acer eRecovery Management, but the screen would continue to freeze up. Finally, sent my laptop to the retail store I bought the laptop from, where they did solved the problem, though I lost everything I had in the HD.

My question is: what could be the reason behind this screen freeze? I did called Acer, they said it could be the battery. The laptop is working fine using just the AC adaptor. This is my first laptop. I would be very grateful for any help and hints you guys could provide.

Many thanks.

TheMatt

Hi Flak, and welcome to TSF!
Judging by the fact that it only happened when running on battery, its probably the battery or the connection between the battery and the internal PSU. I don't understand why you lost everything on the hard disk, I don't think that would have had anything to do with it. Sounds like a defect, and it probably won't happen again now that its solved.

Flak

Thanks for the reply, TheMatt. I did a test today. I tried to install Norton Anti Virus using only the battery, the screen indeed froze up after a few minutes. I did system restore and installed the anti-virus without problems using the AC adaptor. Well, Acer is sending a new battery, will check if this continue with the new battery or it is solved, until then I don't think there is much I can do...

---I don't understand why you lost everything on the hard disk, I don't think that would have had anything to do with it.--- Well, I lost everything in C:, when I did the system restore (Acer eRecovery Management). As all the stuff present in D: were installed programs that wouldn't run again, because the newly restored Windows wouldn't recognize them, I just formatted it.

TheMatt

OK, let us know how it goes.

Flak

I did not receive the battery yet :/ Probably it will come tomorrow. But there is something that is strange to my eyes. I had a look over my last battery, the one that is causing the problems to me; there, it is written 14.5V. In the laptop, it is written that its DC rating is 19V. Are they (battery and laptop) compatible with each other?

TheMatt

They should be the same... I will look at my laptop. Also, if you look at the bottom of the laptop, do you see a voltage anywhere there?

Flak

In the bottom of the laptop, is written "DC Rating: 19V, 4.74A". In the bottom of the battery, is written "Rating: 14.5V".

Now I wonder - if this difference in voltage caused that freeze - if the laptop suffered other problems that could affect its perfomance in the future.

TheMatt

That is a big difference. I would get another battery and make sure its the right voltage.

laboye

No, no. A power supply for a laptop is generally 15, 17, or 19 volts. It is designed to power the computer and charge the battery at the same time. When the PC is off, the controller can dedicate the power to charging the battery. I doubt that it is the battery, but there is a rare chance that the lithium cells are not providing steady power to the main board. Variances in input power on a processor can often cause adverse effects on computers. If this is the case, the new battery would solve it. Though, the computer is quite new, so this would be something to complain about. Acer is not known for bad products as I have seen many products and heard of many reviews stating good products and service.

If it is not the battery, it is likely the main board (unfortunately). Both options can be costly. Let me know how this one turns out, as I have not heard of a computer acting so.

I am 100% positive that the battery's voltage is not the problem

Flak

Thanks, TheMatt and Laboye.

I did not receive the new battery yet. However, since I obtained the laptop, everytime I login, after a minute the laptop emits a sound (the same that appears when you use "find" command - ctrl + f - somewhere, and the search in the document ends), but just that. Can this be possibly a symptom of some problem somewhere in the laptop?

Also, can such freeze cause a decrease in perfomance? Apparently, I have less fps while using, for example, Counter-Strike Source (43 to 28.5, same video options), or longer loading times while running heavy applications, after the freeze, than the times before the freeze occurred. I did formated both partitions from FAT32 to NTFS after the freeze.

laboye

That is called the Exclamation sound. It occurs on small errors. I dont think this has enough significance to affect your system. Though, it could be a driver issue. Check your Event Viewer and see what it says for any errors near that time.

Re: Freezes... I dont think they would. That is quite an odd occurance. If I were you, I would simply install windows, blowing out the multiple partitions and making one partition. Format under NTFS and just start fresh. You never know...

Flak

Thanks about the exclamation sound, had no idea how to describe it :(

I received the battery today. I recharged it, and run the laptop with only the battery then. The screen went black after a few minutes, and as I did some tries to execute programs though the mouse and the "start" button and nothing happened, I rebooted the laptop forcefully. I restarted, continuing to use it with only the battery, it froze after a few minutes again. I turned it off, and after ten minutes, turned the laptop on, using now the AC adaptor, without the battery. The screen froze when Windows was starting in (though there was no password now).

--I forgot to mention before, sorry, always when the screen freezes, some thin lines appear. The way those lines appear (they are like a bunch of messed pixels in different colors) are always the same. After 10 seconds, the screen goes black.--

I did not called Acer yet, as it was too late for it. The rating of the new battery is the same as the old one, 14.5V.

laboye

Jeez, if you have a warranty, go for it. This sounds more and more like an overheating problem.

TheMatt

laybote was right there, the voltage on the battery should be a little less. It could be CPU instability from overheating. Download MobileMeter and post the CPU temps.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...ileMeter.shtml

laboye

That MobileMeter really does the trick, it's a nice piece of monitoring software!

Flak

Using the mobilemeter (which seems to show the temperature of the CPUs as one (it is dual-core processor) is:

*Idle: 49-53 C
*Internet and listening music together, 52-57 C
*Playing CS Source, 62-64 C

The HD runs initially at 26 C, and increases gradually up to 45 C.

Overheating would be strange, because I never had problems using the laptop with AC power; I used to play CS Source/Half Life 2 for 1 to 3 straight hours, and then do some internet surfing, listening to music together and wording for some time. While the screen freeze/blackening will occur anytime I use the batteries as the source of energy of the laptop. I decided to run the laptop using the battery, the CPU temperature was 49 C before the screen blacked out.

I went to the retailer store where I bought it, and they stick with the main board problem. The laptop has warranty, fortunately. I hope the new laptop I get from Acer does not have this (or other nasty problem).

TheMatt

Over 60 degrees is a little hot. If it is that way for a while, then you could have some stability issues. Also, your hard disk shouldn't go over 40 degrees. Acers generally tend to have overheating problems, even right out of the box. A cooling pad usually does the trick. Let us know how the new laptop is.

laboye

60 is definitely too hot. Desktops should be off if it reaches 60, let alone a laptop. I wonder why Acer's PCs run so hot?

Flak

I just received the laptop today. It works fine with both batteries :) Thabks about the lap cooler, I bought one, really helps decreasing the laptop temp. Thanks a lot both for your help!

TheMatt

Your welcome.