I used to have an Aspire 1600s laptop and I had many problems it and I had to send it back many times, so finally they replaced it with an Aspire 1804WSMI. This is a 3.2 p4 with HT, 1 GB DDR, ati radeon X600 pci express 128mb vram.

I have had many problems since the beggining they send me this laptop. If I leave my laptop on for more than two hours then I am not able to open more than 3 windows on IE. It gets jammed. The last window is missing some graphics and the computer cannot take it any more. I am able to move the mouse and close some windows if I want and then I will be again able to open more. It's like there is a lock from windows that doesn't allow me to open several windows. The cpu will always be in use of min 30% up to 100% with almost nothing major running on the backround. It could be just firefox and winamp or just msn and taskmgr and they would take up 40%. When I open many windows (let's say 4 or 5 for example), the computer becomes extremely slow and it doesn't allow me to even copy and paste any more. Sometimes there will be text missing from toolbars or from the drop down windows. For example when you go to File -> New it is supposed to have an -> on the right side and if you click there it is supposed to give you more options like Window, Message, Post etc. Well the arrow -> will be missing from the right side of New and I will not be able to go through them. Sometimes I will be receiving empty messages on msn instead of text. It really surprises me, it's like something blocks my computer from using more memory. What surprises me more is let's say I said before I am in the situation that I can open up to 3 internet explorer windows and the 4th won't open. Let's say if I open 2 IE windows and then I run 3DMark03 or 3DMark05 the graphics will be smooth and the scores will be not bad. I would get a score of about 3400 on 3DMark03 and about 1600 on 3DMark05.

First thing that I thought that it might be overheating problems but running 3dMark03 and 05 2-3 times in a row should have overheated my pc more but as soon as let's say I ended the test... I was still able to open up to 3 IE windows.. not 4th. Firefox will not have any missing graphics but most times it will start taking up 100% of cpu and it will not stop until I end task from taskmgr. I have checked hdd for bad sectors. I tested ram with memtest86 for more than 6 hours without any errors. I tested the cpu with Sisoft Sandra. I know that it's not a spyware, virus problem because I have formatted several times without using any further software, and I even tried my own version of windows instead of the one that came with the laptop, and I would still experience those problems. I tried disabling HT on the bios which made the performance a bit more stable but it would still be slow. I had a few problems with the ATI drivers that came with the laptop trying to play files with .wmv extension which was solved when I installed ATI omega drivers.
Last thing I would like to mention is that I have this laptop for a bit over two months now and I have almost 24/7 open. Two or three times the laptop shut down by itself and after that happend I wasn't able to boot windows right away. I had to let it for 20 mins to cool off and then I was able again to go back on windows.

I have run out of ideas of what I am supposed to do. I am sure that if I send it back to Acer they will not do anything... they will test it maybe for one hour and they will say it's fine. If you have any suggestions please let me know. It is a really weird and strange issue. I am including two screenshots, One that I have tried to open a 5th IE window with my homepage google and it wouldn't load and there will be text missing from the toolbar, and another one that it wouldn't load again and I took a screenshot and I tried to open mspaint and it would give me the error Failed to create empty document. Usually when I open enough windows and the pc cannot take it any more, it would either beep with the windows error sound or it would give me a similar error.




thanks in advance

"Doctor, doctor when ever I poke myself in the eye it hurts. What should I do?"

Doc:"Stop poking yourself in the eye."

"Thanks doc I feel better already!"

Perhaps instead of going out of your way to overload your laptop you should try to NOT overload your laptop. It sounds to me like you have eliminated virus/spyware as a source of trouble but heat could still be and issue. Also some apps are know for not properly releasing ram. Try not running so many things at once and eliminating suspect programs. Make sure your vents are not blocked and listen for fan noise. If you have a way in bios or with a utiltiy check your temp. Check it when you first start up and again later when you are having problems.

I am not trying to overload it. I am just running winamp and msn and my computer is overloaded. MSN sometimes takes 75% CPU. I cannot open a browser at the same time with them or even solitaire. It's a very fast machine and I feel like I am using a pentium at 166mhz running XP.

Sounds like system limitation to me too, it's not likely to involve the graphics board at all as it sound like the programs aren't starting.

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