Acer 5738z keeps stalling, extremely frustrating.

Legfend · 23-12-2009 08:36PM #1

I bought this cheap but relatively powerful laptop about 2 months ago and while its mostly fine every now and again for no reason whatsoever, it stalls for a few seconds to five minutes. It doesnt matter what I'm doing but the more programs I'm running, the longer the recovery time. Its more likely to happen if I'm running multiple programs (just happened there now, 2 minute stall and all I have running is Google Chrome with 3 tabs open and malware bytes which is not scanning atm). I have Windows 7 Home Premium, 3GB RAM, integrated graphics and 2.1GHz dual core processor. Its driving me cracked but I dont wanna return to manufacturer just yet coz it could be a month before I get it back. Is there anything I can do? All my drivers are up to date and working properly, I uninstalled my avast coz I thought that might be the problem but no dice. I have Ubuntu on a partition and that doesnt freeze at all but I'm not very schooled on Linux and dont fancy learning a new OS just to use my PC day to day.

I gave my old Packard Bell Easynote to my brother, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate and gave it a service and its running like a dream on just 1GB RAM, so I doubt its a Windows 7 issue. Any ideas tech heads?

Edit: Just a few more specifics: When the freeze occurs (bear in mind I have very little knowledge of hardware) any noise coming from the CPU/motherboard etc suddenly stops like its seized up or something. I could understand this if RAM was low but 3GB should be plenty right?

Also I'm using a third party charger (its the right voltage) but the problems were there with the original charger too.

zenno · 24-12-2009 01:07AM

looks like you might have incompatable software on the system that is not compatable with windows 7. have a look in control panel/programs and features just to see what you have there check the programs you have on google to see the compatability of them with windows 7 premium. I had a simular problem before with windows 7 release candidate and it was a program that was causing the problem. worth a try though.

if that doesn't work try this...
put in your windows 7 disc. then click the windows start button then click all programs then click accessories and then right click command prompt and click run as administrator. on the black screen type in CHKDSK then click enter. let it scan the system. when it is done type EXIT and click the enter button. try the computer for a while and see how it goes.

Legfend · 24-12-2009 09:09PM

Turns out, after uninstalling and re-installing multiple programs and running them in multiple compatablility modes, it wasnt a compatablility problem at all despite bearing all the hallmarks. I looked at Resource Manager for the first time ever and it turns out, after synching my XBox to the laptop it put a service in my startup: Windows Media Network Sharing or somethin. It was frequently using up half my processor and RAM space. Even worse it doesnt show in task manager for some reason, at least nowhere obvious to me. I used the control panel to disable it and that SEEMS to have solved the problem! Thanks for your help anyway.

And also apologies for jumping to the conclusion that it was an Acer issue. The computer is silky smooth and I would recommend it to anyone (as long as you're not looking for a gaming machine!). Once again Microsoft has buggered me and sent me on a treasure trail to find the solution to a very simple problem. Dont sync your XBox to your machine unless you've got a serious amount of memory and processing power to spare.

Acer 5738z keeps stalling, extremely frustrating.

Comments