Laptop Woes

[Talulah]

What's the theory behind it and do I leave the battery in or out?

You can Google 'Laptop Freezer Trick'.
It won't make any difference if you leave the battery in or out.
The laptop is dead so you don't have much to loose!

If you're worried about the freezer. Try it in the fridge for an hour first.

 

[maby]

Well, since it's not working, freezing it is unlikely to make it any worse - though i doubt it will make it any better either.

Sounds like you've fried the CPU. In a desktop, that is usually not a big problem since the CPU is usually socketed and easy to replace at a reasonable cost. In a laptop, they tend to be flow-soldered to save space, and that is a totally different ball game.

If you reach the point where you have decided to throw it away (and haven't obtained an expert opinion on the subject), then it may be worth your while opening it up and locating the CPU - should be easy to find since it will be a big chip with a whole lot of circuit tracks leading to it. If it's socketed, there should be some sort of latch or lever that releases it after which you can lift it out. Get the part number and check the price for a replacement on the net. They are not hard to fit, but there are some precautions that you must take in order to avoid blowing the new one up - don't try to do it without reporting back here first!

 

[maby]

P.S. as far as theory goes for the freezing trick, the only rationale I can see is kicking a dry-joint back into life. The CPU chip has literally hundreds of pins on it and every one of them has to be properly connected to the motherboard. As I said before, most desktop computers mount the CPU in a socket on the motherboard, but laptops tend to solder it directly to the board in order to save space. That is hundreds of solder joints on a very closely spaced matrix. The manufacturers use very complex machines to solder the CPU in with jigs to keep it centred up and multiple heat sources to melt the solder in all the connection points simultaneously. Even so, they get a pretty high level of failures.

If the CPU is allowed to overhead significantly, the solder can soften and, coupled with thermal expansion, you may get a dry joint at one or more pins which stops it working. The chip is usually surface mounted and the pins are so closely spaced that it really is not feasible to fix it with a soldering iron. Freezing it will cause some thermal contraction and may (temporarily) resurrect the machine.

Microsoft had a long running production fault on the X-Box which was rather similar. They would work for a while, then suddenly start to misbehave. There were a variety of proposed mechanisms to fix one revolving around either forcing serious overheating for a short period of time, or freezing, or alternating between the two. They would work for a short period of time, but the fault almost always returned later.

 

[elton]

kicking a dry-joint back into life.

Don't give up the day job.

 

[pappaecho]

IF the laptop is majorly broken it will not POST. Usually it will give a number of beeps, which is designed to point as to the cause. For example if the video system is u/s it will beep a number of times. If you can count the beeps may well be able to diagnose . If no beeps then probably the power supply

 

[robmcg]

I have e-mailed Acer UK and will see what they can offer regarding a fix but it's reasonable to expect a bit more longevity from the laptop and it being able to run at an adequate temperature, although I am not holding my breath. In comparison, I am typing this on an intel based laptop which is running at a fraction of the temperature the AMD machine was. Googling around, there seems to be a lot of Acer failures with AMD processors so will be interested to see what Acer have to say - Nowt probably!!!!

 

[CreakyDecks]

I had two problems with my old Acer. The first was an overheating problem because the fan outlet blocked so badly it was like piece of solid felt when I took it apart. I doubt if that is your problem because it generally took about ten minutes to overheat and cut out. It DID cut out, so Acer laptops do have thermal cutouts on the processor.
The second fault, which eventually led to me buying a new laptop was a dry joint on the motherboard (I think). The laptop would not boot up unless I put a pencil on the table underneath it to act as a fulcrum and jammed the front end downwards with a clamp so that the whole laptop bent slightly under the weight of the screen! The chances of yours having the same fault are slim but it might be worth trying.

 

[Ruffles]

I have e-mailed Acer UK and will see what they can offer regarding a fix but it's reasonable to expect a bit more longevity from the laptop and it being able to run at an adequate temperature, although I am not holding my breath. In comparison, I am typing this on an intel based laptop which is running at a fraction of the temperature the AMD machine was. Googling around, there seems to be a lot of Acer failures with AMD processors so will be interested to see what Acer have to say - Nowt probably!!!!

Now if you had bought a laptop from Aldi you would simply ring them up and they would have collected it and returned for repair.

 

[robmcg]

Now if you had bought a laptop from Aldi you would simply ring them up and they would have collected it and returned for repair.

But this one was out of warranty - just my luck :-(

 

[Burnham Bob]

laptop repairs offer a collection service, they are on 0161 248 1611 or click www.ariafix.co.uk

give them a call, after they collect they'll be able to give you a cost for fixing i imagine - if its extortionate then they can scrap it for you - you won't be any worse off although they may charge for the collection if you don't go ahead but that will surely be a small courier fee

 

[Ripster]

You have prob done this by now, but did you try it with the batt completely removed and just the mains lead in? I have had this on several of our Acers at work. New batt in and away they went.

 

[the_branflake]

Ok, Get the screw drivers out and take the back off if its not under warranty anymore. Have a look at the heat sinks to see if they are still attached to the CPU and GPU.

Sometimes they use very cheap thermal compounds, like these little sticky pads and it may be that this has deteriorated. If you have a tiny gap between them, get something called Arctic Silver, remove the heat sinks, clean them (white spirit) and then add a small amount of the compound. Put it all back together and hopefully it may bring it back to life.

Good luck,
Mat

 

[pagoda]

Ok, Get the screw drivers out and take the back off if its not under warranty anymore. Have a look at the heat sinks to see if they are still attached to the CPU and GPU.

Sometimes they use very cheap thermal compounds, like these little sticky pads and it may be that this has deteriorated. If you have a tiny gap between them, get something called Arctic Silver, remove the heat sinks, clean them (white spirit) and then add a small amount of the compound. Put it all back together and hopefully it may bring it back to life.

Good luck,
Mat

One other major consideration - if you take laptops onto boats, is the assorted unplanned shocks they get subjected to. More than living on the table in the study...Nobody treats them badly - but it tends to happen?
Hard drives eventually start to misbehave after a while as a result.
I recently replaced a slightly dodgy laptop drive with a SATA SSD drive. No moving parts. It came with the software to transfer your old system over.
The laptop is now more or less shock-proof (within reason!) , runs considerably quicker and is much improved. No noise either. Sata SSD drives are not exactly cheap - but they are the way forward with portable devices.
For those of you with ATA / IDE laptop drives, the devices still exist- though NOS ones are scarce. There are people making ATA/ IDE versions of SSD drives - which provides the same kind of upgrade as is available for current -more modern laptop SATA devices. Try Ebay.

Graeme

 

[Heckler]

I have a few duff laptops kicking around the workshop, you have probably fried the CPU. BUT could have oheated an mboard component. The MOBOS are in the hundreds of pounds new so not worth going down that route. If you are handy with a screwy, take p[lenty of pix and undo it all to get to the cpu. Find the processor spec EXACTLY! its marked on the face and let me know, I could then send you a shand processor to try.
Stu