[SOLVED] Laptop Turns off completely unexpectedly

[T6]

i kept searching about this

the problem is terribly common, a very bad line of laptops that should be recalled

[horusfalcon]

I have add System Moniter Widget, installed gkrellm. The heat guages read high, no exact temp.

Click on another of the items in the widget besides temperature monitoring (e.g., CPU Load) and then turn it off - the temp gauges should expand to fill the space left by the one you just turned off, and should also start displaying numbers...  It's a bug that's really a feature.

I have loaded a module to preload at boot, this is p4-clockmod. [cpufreq-info] I have gone to acer website and downloaded acer empowering technology framework and I am running it in wine. Not sure if to any avail. Although on reboot the temperature appears to have dropped 50% and is staying there.

A drop of 50%?  Wow... is the CPU still running at full speed?
 

I have ordered a laptop cooler, I have read about BIOS upgrades and obtained a product specific version from acer website. I'm not prepared to upgrade the BIOS at this point. I last week I cleaned the area of the laptop underneath, removing a square black plastic panel, I expected there to be more dust. Maybe I have not cleaned the right spot.

Trepidations or concerns about BIOS upgrades are not misplaced - they are not trivial operations, and can leave you with a non-functional machine if done incorrectly.  You are right, indeed, to take your time and do the research if you have questions yet unanswered.

If you cleaned out the fan already, make sure you inspect all areas of the heatsink.  Look closely at any heatpipes for dents, kinks, or cracks.  If any of these are evident, replace the heatsink assembly and any thermal medium coupling it to the chip or chips it serves.  (I won't even get into the different types of heat media available - everybody usually has differing opinions...)

Hope this will help you get this thing going again.

Later On,
Dave

Tags:  {PCLOS 2010.12 KDE-4 Netbook BIOS Temperature}

[dylan420]

cpufreq-info would have brought up the module p4-clockmod loaded, as i read from this forum, . I have downloaded a BIOS update from the manufacturer website, the zip file contains BIOS_v1.45.exe and a readme which states to execute this file under windows mode to update the bios, so now I am reinstalling windows to the computer to update the bios, and then installing pclinuxos kde2010.12 .  Im going to inspect the inside of this laptop once more before attempting this.

[T6]

before doing this dangerous task be sure to be fully charged and connected to the charger

also try to do it fast, minutes after you boot to windows, less than 5 minutes, the process itself only takes a couple of seconds but if a hard shutdown happens you will end buying a new laptop

[dylan420]

I will be sure to do that, the original OS was vista home basic, ive installed xp , i'm not using the exact original OS. Any last minute thoughts are certainly appreciated.

[dylan420]

The heatsink is clogged like a wool blanket. I have blown it all out. I will now be steering away from the BIOS upgrade to try an install of KDE 2010.12. I will post back the output of acpi -t and cpufreq-info when the install is completed and upgraded.

[dylan420]

I have successfully upgraded the laptops bios. I do not see anything different in the menu when I tap f2 at startup. The only difference is the version number of the bios. I am going to reinstall KDE 2010.12 on this machine immediately.

[dylan420]

KDE 2010.12 is working problem free with the new bios, It has not crashed since the upgrade.
[hollow45@Destroyer ~]$ acpi -t
Thermal 0: ok, 54.0 degrees C
Thank-You All!

[ElCuervo]

dylan420

Good!  Have a cigar.  

Yes, do that! It's bound to be 4:20 somewhere!

I have seen those wooly blankets on the heat sink often - glad you went there first. The last one I removed only a few weeks ago made that Sony Vaio light up like a race car, whereas before the heat slowed it to a caterpillar crawl.

[T6]

those are great news!

will try that in those netbooks next week then!

first will make the owners sign something releasing any responsibility for any bad result with the procedure 

[horusfalcon]

@dylan420 - It's good to hear that you are back up and running.  I wonder, though, if you were doing a lot of other stuff on the machine when you read temp with acpi -t?  54 deg C seems a bit warm (that's about 129-130 deg F).  Keep an eye on it for a while and make sure system temperatures are controlling well before you go about your business just yet.

By contrast, my Dell's CPU, (a Core Duo) also runs at 1.86 GHz, but it only reads about 38.5 deg C from acpi -t. System Monitor shows about 105 deg F (40.5 deg C), but it generally runs a bit higher than acpi so I'm not surprised.

@T6 - Good luck with those other netbooks... jot back and let us all know how you make out, man.  It's a dangerous job being the laptop/netbook repair guy - be careful.  (I know:  I do this at work in addition to my "regular" job.)

Later On,
D

Tags:  {PCLOS 2010.12 KDE-4 Netbook BIOS Temperature}