Another guy with computer problems

[Devalaous]

I was going to post this earlier, but there was a similar thread and I didn't want to get in the way.

Since all the repair guys around here ive been to have no fucking clue whats wrong with my computer, or are foreign asians that don't speak english well enough to be understood clearly, I wonder if the experts here can tell me what my problem is

My computer is a two year old Asus V1S laptop, with a history of power problems. This year ive had the fan replaced, multiple power adaptors replaced, and recently, the lid by the hinge crack open at the same time a big power problem reared its ugly head.

At the beginning of its time in my hands, it would always randomly turn itself off playing games. At first this was a sign telling me that its uber stats for the time were a lie, as advanced games like C&C3 and any game in too high a resolution would kill it (Overheating was the generally accepted answer). Then when I got Sims 2, the problems went out of control, shutting off despite the program not being THAT intensive. This is what lead to replacing the fan, at the same time as replacing the power adaptor which randomly up and died. No other problems were found.

Much later I managed to get Sims 2 working better by destroying my graphics drivers and reinstalling them with Driver Sweeper, which made it shutoff less, but it still did after long periods of play. Or days when it just got fickle and killed the laptop within half an hour. Then my new adaptor died. Fastforward many months of searching for a an official Asus adaptor instead of a universal one, and I partially succeed, getting a Toshiba one with the same voltage and plug, Tech guy assures me it'll work perfectly, and it does..or seems to. Weeks later my laptop's lid suddenly develops huge cracks by the left hinge at the same time I develop another power situation. This time the adaptor gets blazing hoy, with the plug literally at a temperature that can burn you, with the battery hardly able to charge (Charge light flickers on and off while sounds can be heard from the plug and the adaptor box). While this is happening if I look at Task Manager my CPU usage is going haywire at 50% or more at all times, and the computer goes sluggish

By putting the laptop and cables in certain positions (Which are always random) it starts working normally again, mostly, the plug will still be burning hot but the CPU goes back to normal and the battery will charge for a short while, then sit in a limbo state where the computer gets power from the adaptor, but wont charge. I dont know whats going on, as im not a computer hardware kind of guy, any idea whats going on, and if it can be fixed? (Along with the terrible cracks, which have since spread to the point I cannot close the lid without risking breaking the screen, I am sure these cracks are linked to the power problem)

I'm considering saying "fuck it" and buying a new one especially since theres an Alienware laptop going for just a bit more than the price I got this for two years ago.

[Mr. T]

Sounds like your laptop is overheating, get a real PC if you want to play games at a "high resolution"

[Devalaous]

Mr. T said:

Sounds like your laptop is overheating, get a real PC if you want to play games at a "high resolution"

It doesn't overheat or go crazy when the power adaptor isnt plugged in. Two years ago it was top calibur for a laptop and made EVERYONE I knew, even the techgeeks green with envy. So much so in facxt it was more powerful than any computer, desktop or laptop, I had ever seen on sale here in New Zealand. My friend had the same laptop as me, but with a slighter weaker CPU, and it could play Crysis well, so I think I just had driver problems or so on originally. I don't play new games on my PCs anyway because I'm a Doomer and stuck in the past ;]

[Aliotroph?]

It's that faulty and you never called Asus about it?

Why would you waste money on Alienware?

[GreyGhost]

Ragnor said:

At the beginning of its time in my hands, it would always randomly turn itself off playing games.

This time the adaptor gets blazing hoy, with the plug literally at a temperature that can burn you, with the battery hardly able to charge (Charge light flickers on and off while sounds can be heard from the plug and the adaptor box).

Sounds like a faulty DC power socket - they tend to be rubbish regardless of brand.

While this is happening if I look at Task Manager my CPU usage is going haywire at 50% or more at all times, and the computer goes sluggish

What anti-virus software and utilities do you have running in the background?

[Devalaous]

Would the power socket be the one in the laptop itself? I know nearly nothing about the hardware side of computing :D

As for antivirus, I have Malwarebytes and Avast. The CPU will stop going haywire as soon as the plug is taken out

Whenever I call any company for support, I ALWAYS get dicked around endlessly, I tend to not bother anymore and save myself the hassle, since the end result throughout my life has always been the same: Get fucking NOWHERE. Actual people are more reliable.

Is there some problem with Alienware? As far as I know their one of the best brands, if a little overhyped. Ive seen that their desktops can be something like 12000 USD, but I dont want a desktop. I have no room for one, and I need a portable computer. I got this laptop for uni actually, its other features were a huge bonus. The laptop I'm looking at costs $3400 NZD and crushes this one into the dust in stats, and would surely be more reliable....I would hope.

[spicyjack]

Ragnor said:

Much later I managed to get Sims 2 working better by destroying my graphics drivers and reinstalling them with Driver Sweeper, which made it shutoff less, but it still did after long periods of play. Or days when it just got fickle and killed the laptop within half an hour. Then my new adaptor died. Fastforward many months of searching for a an official Asus adaptor instead of a universal one, and I partially succeed, getting a Toshiba one with the same voltage and plug, Tech guy assures me it'll work perfectly, and it does..or seems to. Weeks later my laptop's lid suddenly develops huge cracks by the left hinge at the same time I develop another power situation. This time the adaptor gets blazing hoy, with the plug literally at a temperature that can burn you, with the battery hardly able to charge (Charge light flickers on and off while sounds can be heard from the plug and the adaptor box). While this is happening if I look at Task Manager my CPU usage is going haywire at 50% or more at all times, and the computer goes sluggish

By putting the laptop and cables in certain positions (Which are always random) it starts working normally again, mostly, the plug will still be burning hot but the CPU goes back to normal and the battery will charge for a short while, then sit in a limbo state where the computer gets power from the adaptor, but wont charge. I dont know whats going on, as im not a computer hardware kind of guy, any idea whats going on, and if it can be fixed? (Along with the terrible cracks, which have since spread to the point I cannot close the lid without risking breaking the screen, I am sure these cracks are linked to the power problem)

Any time any something electrical gets hot, it means that there's resistance to the flow of electricity. Resistance == heat, that's basically how an electric heater or a hair dryer works, it's just a giant resistor built to radiate heat. Examples:

1. If you feel the cord on a portable heater or hair dryer where the size of the wire is too small for the load the appliance is drawing, that's too much resistance (the size of the wire in the cord is too small for the electrical load you're trying to use), and the cord gets hot.
   
2. The connection between your power supply and the laptop sounds like it's loose and/or bad. Any time power has to cross a shitty connection, it will cause the area surrounding the connection to get hotter, as the power from the power supply has to overcome a higher resistance from the shitty connection to complete a circuit.
   

I'd say in your case, your Toshiba plug was "not as good as advertised", and cooked the plastic around your plug input in your laptop. Also, the fluctuations in CPU speed could be because the power to your laptop is fluctuating, and your CPU is scaling speed up and down accordingly. You did say playing with your cords fixes this, so this only confirms it for me, when you move the wire around you come up with a good connection and the laptop is supplied with the amount power it's asking for and power is not being lost due to a poor electrical connection.

I have used a Dell power adapter with an HP laptop (HP Mini 2133) with no issues, so I know this is possible. I tried using a different power adapter for the same laptop (same voltage and amperage ratings, but I forget the vendor), and it it didn't work. YMMV.

As far as new laptops and specs, I'm a big fan of putting my hands on something before I drop a couple of grand on new hardware. If you can't touch it, you'll never know if it's utter crap until after it shows up. This is one of the reasons why I buy Macs, I can go down to the apple store and beat on their hardware for a bit before I decide to bring one home. Another reason I buy macs is that if the hardware dies, I take it down to the apple store and make the genius tech my bitch until it works again. I'm up to 3 free replacement batteries now on my current MacBook Pro, all replaced under warranty. If I need a new plug because I shut mine in a door, or the dog ate it or whatever, apple store usually has 'em in stock, I walk out with it right there.

On a somewhat related note, yes, I do buy the manufacturer's extended warranties for laptops, because laptops are meant to be moved by design, and therefore are more prone to being broken (dropped, sat on, whatever). Every laptop I've owned I've bought the manufacturer's extended warranty on (Applecare for Macs), and it's always paid for itself.

[Devalaous]

Thanks, so it must be the power input hole thing? (Insert technical term here)

Judging by my past experiences with repair guys, you need to know EXACTLY whats wrong or they wont do shit. When the problem first appeared, I assumed I had yet another faulty power adaptor, and the problem would not happen at the computer place, likely because as you say, the wires and plug must have been in a good position. He gave me a replacement power adaptor and the problem continued, so its definitely the computer itself.

Hopefully the huge fracture in the lid can be fixed, no point fixing a power supply if the screen itself breaks entirely. I have no idea how it broke, since I'm extremely careful with my belongings and get depressed over the smallest scratch on a screen. Maybe someone used my laptop while I wasnt around and dropped it, cracking it and messing up the power thing? Who knows.

[GreyGhost]

Ragnor said:

Would the power socket be the one in the laptop itself?

That's the one I had in mind. The problems with them are usually dry solder joints or a worn spring contact, either of which will result in a resistive connection which will cause the socket to heat up. Dry joints are also a source of intermittent connections.

As for antivirus, I have Malwarebytes and Avast. The CPU will stop going haywire as soon as the plug is taken out

That's weird! I wonder if the CPU's being starved for power, prompting it to switch to a low-power mode?

Beaten to the post by spicyjack - I REALLY must learn to compose my posts quicker.

[Planky]

What happens when you remove the battery, but leave it plugged in?

[Xeros612]

Not enough room for a desktop? Desktops aren't even that large. Mine could easily fit into one of those old stereo carts (the ones that about perfectly fit an old 13 inch CRT TV in the top), and it's a full-size. Actually, with that a/v cart idea it could be relatively portable....

Seeing your point about being used for uni cements the "need" for a laptop idea though. Don't bother with Alienware, overpriced pile of garbage. Lot of the cost is just aesthetics. Custom build a Dell (insert Dell jokes here) or something, you're more likely to get a good laptop at a much, much better price.

[Devalaous]

You guys are far more helpful than any of the technicians ive asked to look at it :p

Mainly because they want money and lie and pretend nothings wrong till they get paid for a full-on examination, haha

So the general opinion is, my power socket is fucked in some way. Now I can go ask them to look at that and bypass the bullshit :D

I don't particularly want to remove the battery right now, as Ive got the thing in a position where it hasn't gone back to the screwy power (Its actually lying on its lid). It took about two hours to stop it last time, each time it gets harder to stop, so

Another thing about the adaptor I forgot, was that when I switched wall sockets to see if the wall was the problem, I got a large electric lightshow from the adaptor's wall end plug. Same happens if I unplug the box from the wire. Maybe with the "resistance" its trying to suck up more power or something? This is NOT something im good with, so sorry if I sound like a dumb idiot :p

About the custom build thing, I wouldnt even know where to begin with that kind of thing. Thats why Im thinking of the Alienware, from what I know its a good brand, albeit extremely gaudy and overhyped. The price its going for brand new is amazing too, considering how much ive seen them going for. I guess it depends on how screwed my laptop is and whether its worth keeping it alive. (Extra bonus for new laptop: Getting Windows 7 without paying SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS for a fucking OS)

[Use]

I've had the displeasure of working on several Alienware laptops, they're total junk. My brother in-law himself has been through at least two of them with almost the exact same problems you describe. Without one of those super-cooling underbelly fan gizmos his Alienware is practically useless, since it overheats in a matter of minutes. Not to mention the flakey Crossfire system which barely works. I can say this though, they have a good warranty, and you'll need it. I'm against laptops almost completely and think an investment in a desktop is a much better idea.

Xeros612 said:

Custom build a Dell (insert Dell jokes here) or something, you're more likely to get a good laptop at a much, much better price.

Dude Dell and Alienware are the same thing, as Dell owns the company. Both are ripoff junk made from refurbished parts, then marketed to computer illiterates who want flashy lights and buzzwords.

[Devalaous]

Is there ANY reliable brand then? :p

[Use]

Ragnor said:

Is there ANY reliable brand then? :p

Like I said, I don't care for laptops in general, but I've had surprisingly good runs with HP and Toshiba. Everyone's going to have their two cents on what's good and what isn't and horror stories to match. I guess the best advice is get in there and try some out at at the store, read feedback online, and get the best freakin warranty you can.

[Xeros612]

Dell's worked perfectly fine for me in my experience, and neither PC from them has cost more than it should in comparison to other brands.

[Aliotroph?]

I see Alienware's website is now just a page or six on Dell's website. The layouts and purchasing methods are now the same too. So Alienware has become overpriced Dell. Makes me wonder what the difference is between those machines and the XPS ones aside from the case.

Gaming and high-performance laptops are often dodgy crap. Aside from heat problems it seems in order to have some margin on them the companies often let the workmanship get worse. Those shiny XPS laptops Dell sells seem to break in interesting ways more often than their business-oriented ones.

All the advice here about getting your hands on a laptop before buying it is good. Just about every company makes a few extremely good computers and a few lawsuit-losing piles of shit.

Another factor to consider is the support the company provides. I know how to get stuff from Dell, so I tend to go with them unless I'm building something. Apple's support is extremely good in most cases, but you pay a fortune for their stuff. I like HP's support less than Dell's. Toshiba's isn't bad. I can't say anything about Lenovo. then there's Sony. They told my friend he'd have to reinstall Windows before they would even try to diagnose his hardware problem.

[Planky]

I had a Dell XPS laptop - died three times before I threw the towel in. The motherboard would overheat and the GPU would cook itself. Their support was useless.

The thing that pissed me off most was this media button they had which would boot the laptop into a fast boot movie/picture/dvd player OS. If you removed said OS (it was installed into its own partition) and pressed the button, it would try to boot and fail. Then you couldnt boot back to Windows. Why? It had wiped the partitions. Dell told me it wasn't a design flaw and no one has had this problem before (lies). I blogged about it.

After that, I switched to a HP Pavilion, which has not had a single problem since I got it 2 years ago. I did invest in a cooling pad, which I feel is necessary if you are using beyond business (email/internet/office).

[Maes]

The only laptop I had that kinda overheated is an old Compaq Presario 910EA -an Athlon XP-based laptop, if you can believe it.

It had excellent CPU and even graphics performance for its time (and it easily beat Centrino-based laptops in the graphics department years later), but the damn thing sucked so much power that the CPU became a toaster and the DVD-ROM would lock up after 20 minutes of operation, regardless of use.

However, downloading a new BIOS and a "Heat map" ROM upgrade from Compaq solved most overheating problems.

A friend of mine had a "VIsta ready" (yeah, right) HP that was always blowing hot air, even idling. I guess the OS had something to do it, and I think XP still has an edge when it comes to energy management on netbooks and even most laptops *RAISES FLAME SHIELDS AGAINST WINDOWS 7 ZEALOTS*.

Well, you can always get a MacBook and have a Quad-OS capable machine ;-)

Also, I can vouch for Dells: my Inspiron 1720 has proven excellent value of money and great heat management for a laptop of its power class (17" laptop with T8300 and nVidia 8600M), at least when using Windows XP and Ubuntu 64-bit on it. I'm sure Vista and 7 would stress it more no matter what.

[Devalaous]

Yeah, Vista makes my laptop blast heat just by running. I only use it these days for GFWL, which doesnt do anything on XP but lock the computer up. Even then I'm just playing the arcade PC games like Osmos and World of Goo.

What are these cooling pads everyones talking about? Ive never heard of them.

[Planky]

Ragnor said:

What are these cooling pads everyones talking about? Ive never heard of them.

They are either plastic or metal pads that the laptop sits on top of, with one or more fans that pull air in and blow out the top where the laptop is sitting.

You will find all laptops have various vents on the underside. When they are sitting on a flat surface, they only typically have a few millimeters of space for the fans to pull air from. When its sitting on someones lap or blanket/whatever, there is next to no airflow. As a result, laptops run hot due to lack of air.

Cooling pads alleviate the airflow problem, by allowing the laptop to pull in a large amount of cool air and vent it out easily.

I have a Deepcool N8. Not as good as my last one (that had variable speed, larger cooling area), as the hdd area (palmrest) still gets hot but does the job.

[spicyjack]

Ragnor said:

Is there ANY reliable brand then? :p

I've mentioned Macs before, they're not any more or less reliable than PC's, but being able to go in to the Apple Store and speak to a live human to get shit done, it pays for itself in my opinion.

My $WORK gave me a Dell D630, which I hated, I wanted to toss it out of my 4th floor office window to see how far it bounced off the pavement. I was more than happy to give that thing back after I got my new HP Z400 workstation.

I inherited an HP 6910p because an outside vendor spilled a soda on the keyboard... After much application of isopropyl alcohol and QTips, I have a nice laptop that I was able to get all of the hardware bits working under Ubuntu, including the fingerprint reader (!).

When people ask me "which laptop should I buy", I basically tell them that for the most part, PC laptops are pretty much all the same, and that they should buy whatever is comfortable for them to use i.e. type on, insert CD's/DVD's, adjust the sound volume/display, etc., and whatever fits their budget. This also goes for cell phones, buy whatever you can afford and whatever doesn't want to make you toss it off of tall buildings or float test (throw it into the water to see if it floats) when you're trying to use it.

[Devalaous]

I have my laptop on its lid (To avoid spreading the cracks) as well as because in this position the resistance is low enough for the thing to be powered, with a fan blowing up its vents to make sure it doesn't overheat while its doing the stuff I need. I'm probably damaging it further, but it seems to be working.

Is there anywhere to find these cooling pads, or will I have to do the dreaded online browsing? They obviously arent sold in general computer stores, since Ive somehow never heard of them until now.

[Mr. T]

Ragnor said:

I have my laptop on its lid (To avoid spreading the cracks) as well as because in this position the resistance is low enough for the thing to be powered, with a fan blowing up its vents to make sure it doesn't overheat while its doing the stuff I need. I'm probably damaging it further, but it seems to be working.

Is there anywhere to find these cooling pads, or will I have to do the dreaded online browsing? They obviously arent sold in general computer stores, since Ive somehow never heard of them until now.

LOL@U

http://search.dse.co.nz/search?w=heat+pad+laptop&submit.x=0&submit.y=0&sessionid=4d199f1702f016302742c0a87f3b068c

[Technician]

Ragnor said:

I have my laptop on its lid (To avoid spreading the cracks) as well as because in this position the resistance is low enough for the thing to be powered, with a fan blowing up its vents to make sure it doesn't overheat while its doing the stuff I need. I'm probably damaging it further, but it seems to be working.

Is there anywhere to find these cooling pads, or will I have to do the dreaded online browsing? They obviously arent sold in general computer stores, since Ive somehow never heard of them until now.

My Mac Book's battery exploded, has a broken disk drive and can't be moved without it shutting down. What's sad is one of my colleagues has a worse Mac Book then I.

I'd should have boughten a cooling pad for my Mac Book. The heat that would radiate from that little machine would burn my legs. Oddly enough the cooling fan has never once turned on. I keep it on bottle caps to help it cool.

[Aliotroph?]

My MacBook has a broken optical drive (won't eject) and broken plastic on the case. The plastic was falling apart when I got it secondhand. The optical drive was likely killed by the textbooks in my bag last year. Those things really do make a lot of heat. It's scary how warm it gets.

[Planky]

Dick smiths have cooling pads, but tend to have limited options.

I got my last one at a pbtech store in Wellington

[Devalaous]

Your a New Zealander?

PBTech is the place that wouldn't give me a straight answer about my problem until I paid them for an unnecessary full examination. Guess I should ask around there next time I go in.

[Devalaous]

Incase anyone's intersted, heres a copy/paste from Speccy. I really dont like those temperatures.

Operating System
MS Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7700 @ 2.40GHz 56 °C
Merom 65nm Technology
RAM
2.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. V1S (Socket 478)
Graphics
Default Monitor @ 1680x1050
512MB GeForce 8600M GT (ASUStek Computer Inc) 60 °C
Hard Drives
244GB Hitachi Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00 (SATA) 30 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T20L
EFM WTARGTE SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

[Csonicgo]

Aliotroph? said:

Gaming and high-performance laptops are often dodgy crap. Aside from heat problems it seems in order to have some margin on them the companies often let the workmanship get worse. Those shiny XPS laptops Dell sells seem to break in interesting ways more often than their business-oriented ones.

XPS 1210s were so bad they had to stop making them due to motherboard issues. the graphics chip would literally fry itself. 70 degrees idling. Horrible machine.