Random lock-ups, believe it has to do with videocard

[Zwaf]

Good morning everyone,

I have been experiencing a problem with my laptop lately (Acer 5920G).
Since the summer (or better temperatures if you will) started over here in Europe (and in America as well btw :doh:) my computer is prone to random lock-ups.

These lock-ups most of the time occur on some sort of computer startup. Why some sort? Because it happens during normal boot, but also on wake from sleep, etc..
It stays on for about 5 minutes after this time and completely locks-up at a certain moment. It happens more often when I give the order to open multiple programs right after login.
The lock-up features a frozen screen, static lights (hard disk light freezing), etc.. It does not show a blue screen or auto restart.

Now here comes the tricky part...
When I then hold the power button to forcefully turn it off and restart it afterwards, it does not get past BIOS. In fact, it does not even show the BIOS. It shows a black screen, followed by a restart in the BIOS after 3 seconds. This keeps happening until I turn it off and leave it off for 30 seconds or so.
The moment of lock-up seems to be related to the time I leave it off. If it was too short, it would lock itself up during Windows boot.

I've tried several things like removing the power cable (adapter) and USB devices but this does not seem to have helped.

RAM diagnostic test was done but no results, and besides, BIOS would have showed it was corrupt on startup if it was the cause, right?

Mainly because of the time I had to 'wait' after restarting the system, I suspected it had something to do with temperature. However, my computer does not lock-up on gaming or heavy duty operations. Speedfan reports temperatures (CPU and GPU) pushing up to about 90 degrees and remaining there for a certain amount of time.
I believe it has something to do with the GPU inside. I don't know if some of you remember but the 8600M GT was reported 'faulty'. The exact problem appeared to be:

"It does not mean they are overheating as such (though heat is a factor which makes early failure more likely), rather there is a fundamental manufacturing fault with them all which means they are all doomed to fail after a much shorter than normal thermal-cycles (power-on and rise to full temperature then power-off and cool-down). These chips are failing despite operating within the temperature-range they are designed for, because of this defect."

I've tried different drivers and even 'stock(?)' drivers that are installed after you remove the nVidia ones. Nothing helped.

Is the GPU inside this laptop starting to give up? Or could it have an other explanation?

Thanks for your help in advance,
Zwaf


Acer Aspire 5920G (age: 1 year 10 months)
T7300, 2 gig RAM
GeForce 8600M GT
Vista 32-bit SP1

 

[RHochstenbach]

Welcome to HWF :)

The only thing I can think of at the moment would be a buildup of dust inside the cooler of your laptop. In that case it's best to get it cleaned at a computer service station OR you could open the casing and get rid of all the dust in the fans if you are able to do so. Be aware that the last option could void your warranty.

 

[Zwaf]

Could be, but this does not describe why it can easily keep running on high temperature.

Also, I would like to add that it is also vulnerable to lockups when I MOVE the laptop around, like when I lift it or turn it around fast.