Tom Austin wrote:

> I have an aspire 5100 that did the same thing for about the 1st year 
> that I had it.

Oh... good. o_O

Nice to know it's well-designed then. :-/

Seriously, I bought my sister a new laptop because hers was lame. This 
new one is really failing to impress me.

> Now it works flawlessly - I don't know what fixed it, and I don't know 
> what was wrong, but it doesn't lock up anymore at all.  I can't remember 
> the last time it froze.
> 
> 
> My guess was the wireless drivers, but I have nothing to substantiate 
> it.  Try using it with the wireless turned off and see if that changes 
> anything.

Well, initially I didn't even *install* the wireless drivers. (I 
couldn't, because I didn't have them to hand.) Made no difference. Ditto 
for sound and video.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> I guess I just *assumed* that a safety-critical feature like "don't burn 
> down my house" would be hard-wired into the device. 

I don't think CPU temperature is safety critical. The CPU basically burns 
out before the heat gets high enough to set anything outside the case on fire.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

Post a reply to this message

>> I guess I just *assumed* that a safety-critical feature like "don't 
>> burn down my house" would be hard-wired into the device. 
> 
> I don't think CPU temperature is safety critical. The CPU basically 
> burns out before the heat gets high enough to set anything outside the 
> case on fire.

Well, perhaps. But CPU temperature is *utterly* critical to being able 
to continue using your laptop. If it gets hot enough, the CPU will burn 
out, and then your laptop is a very expensive paper weight. (!)

I'd be... kind of "upset" if that happened to me. o_O

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> I guess I just *assumed* that a safety-critical feature like "don't 
>>> burn down my house" would be hard-wired into the device. 
>>
>> I don't think CPU temperature is safety critical. The CPU basically 
>> burns out before the heat gets high enough to set anything outside the 
>> case on fire.
> 
> Well, perhaps. But CPU temperature is *utterly* critical to being able 
> to continue using your laptop. If it gets hot enough, the CPU will burn 
> out, and then your laptop is a very expensive paper weight. (!)

Yep. But that's not safety critical. :-) Indeed, that's exactly why it 
*isn't* safety critical.  Unlike say batteries blowing up, which *are* 
safety critical and which therefore have hardware in the charger to keep 
from blowing them up.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> 
> Well, perhaps. But CPU temperature is *utterly* critical to being able
> to continue using your laptop. If it gets hot enough, the CPU will burn
> out, and then your laptop is a very expensive paper weight. (!)

Then they can sell you a new one (naturally you'll buy the same brand as
the one that melted, won't you?).

-Aero

Post a reply to this message

> What confuses me is I can turn on a hard drive that has no activity on it, 
> and it'll sit there making little chuckling noises, seeking around and 
> such. Like, even a USB drive not plugged into a USB cable will click and 
> seek and such.  I'm assuming the firmware is testing the drive or 
> something, looking for sectors to spare out, but it' kind of weird.

Probably some sort of continuous calibration system to account for 
temperature changes etc, I guess the head movement mechanisms need to be 
controlled pretty accurately!

Post a reply to this message

> Well, perhaps. But CPU temperature is *utterly* critical to being able to 
> continue using your laptop. If it gets hot enough, the CPU will burn out, 
> and then your laptop is a very expensive paper weight. (!)

Can this actually happen though, or does the CPU just shut down before it 
knows it is going to melt?

When I built my sister's PC the heat sink clip had snapped without me 
knowing, so the heat sink was hanging off one side.  Every time I tried to 
install Windows it just turned off after about 20 seconds.  It wasn't until 
I took the case off that I realised the problem.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> What confuses me is I can turn on a hard drive that has no activity on 
>> it, and it'll sit there making little chuckling noises, seeking around 
>> and such. Like, even a USB drive not plugged into a USB cable will 
>> click and seek and such.  I'm assuming the firmware is testing the 
>> drive or something, looking for sectors to spare out, but it' kind of 
>> weird.
> 
> Probably some sort of continuous calibration system to account for 
> temperature changes etc, I guess the head movement mechanisms need to be 
> controlled pretty accurately!

Yeah, I always thought the sounds a HD makes when turned on was just the 
drive mechanism trying to find track 0 or something like that.

Post a reply to this message

Eero Ahonen wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> Well, perhaps. But CPU temperature is *utterly* critical to being able
>> to continue using your laptop. If it gets hot enough, the CPU will burn
>> out, and then your laptop is a very expensive paper weight. (!)
> 
> Then they can sell you a new one (naturally you'll buy the same brand as
> the one that melted, won't you?).

Yes, I *will* buy the same CPU brand as the melted one. You know why? 
The rival brand uses a different socket. :-P

OTOH, it would probably be both *cheaper* and more beneficial to just 
buy an entire new laptop! ;-)

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> Well, perhaps. But CPU temperature is *utterly* critical to being able 
>> to continue using your laptop. If it gets hot enough, the CPU will 
>> burn out, and then your laptop is a very expensive paper weight. (!)
> 
> Can this actually happen though, or does the CPU just shut down before 
> it knows it is going to melt?

I am unsure. One would hope that powering down the system if a 
hard-limit temperature is reached *is* in hardware rather than software. 
OTOH, here we have a laptop which got sufficiently hot for the CPU to 
malfunction fairly seriously, yet still the power remains on.

Post a reply to this message