Hi, first thanks for taking the time to read my post.
I recently bought an eMachines m5310 for a really low price, however the seller did state it had an overheating problem. He installed a new heat sink and said it worked fine now.
Well it doesn't work fine. I verified that the heat sink was new, and that the fans and vents were dust free. But the unit still crashes for no reason, and its hard to believe its because of overheating.
Here is what is happening:
I turn on the unit and windows boots fine, and everything works. I'll surf the net for a bit, open some files, and it works fine. But if I try to copy some files from a DVD, or install a program it will crash and reboot.
When it reboots, it freezes as the 'loading bar' on the windows xp screen stops in one spot. It will keep doing the same thing unless I wait 5-10 minutes before I turn it on and then windows will load.
The same thing will happen if I shut down the unit when it is working fine. It will freeze upon restarting unless it has time to cool off. Even though it has only been on for 5-10 minutes, without playing games, or doing anything to stress the processor.
Now when it crashes, a blue screen will flash momentarily. Not enough time to read what it says, but it's a full screen worth of text.
Also there are strange noises coming from the right side of the computer near the bottom. Electronic squeaking sounds as windows boots, and when it freezes upon booting windows, it freezes on a squeak. Thinking it was the hard drive, I replaced it, but that didn't help. The hard drive is on the left side of the laptop, and the squeaks are coming form the right.
I ran Norton WinDoctor right after restoring it with the restore discs, and it had already found 30 errors. I fixed them, but it didn't help the situation.
So I'm finding it hard to believe that it would overheat so fast and crash. Could it be a problem with the motherboard? Or maybe the ram?
I'm not a computer pro, so I would greatly appreciate your help.
I recently bought an eMachines m5310 for a really low price, however the seller did state it had an overheating problem. He installed a new heat sink and said it worked fine now.
Well it doesn't work fine. I verified that the heat sink was new, and that the fans and vents were dust free. But the unit still crashes for no reason, and its hard to believe its because of overheating.
Here is what is happening:
I turn on the unit and windows boots fine, and everything works. I'll surf the net for a bit, open some files, and it works fine. But if I try to copy some files from a DVD, or install a program it will crash and reboot.
When it reboots, it freezes as the 'loading bar' on the windows xp screen stops in one spot. It will keep doing the same thing unless I wait 5-10 minutes before I turn it on and then windows will load.
The same thing will happen if I shut down the unit when it is working fine. It will freeze upon restarting unless it has time to cool off. Even though it has only been on for 5-10 minutes, without playing games, or doing anything to stress the processor.
Now when it crashes, a blue screen will flash momentarily. Not enough time to read what it says, but it's a full screen worth of text.
Also there are strange noises coming from the right side of the computer near the bottom. Electronic squeaking sounds as windows boots, and when it freezes upon booting windows, it freezes on a squeak. Thinking it was the hard drive, I replaced it, but that didn't help. The hard drive is on the left side of the laptop, and the squeaks are coming form the right.
I ran Norton WinDoctor right after restoring it with the restore discs, and it had already found 30 errors. I fixed them, but it didn't help the situation.
So I'm finding it hard to believe that it would overheat so fast and crash. Could it be a problem with the motherboard? Or maybe the ram?
I'm not a computer pro, so I would greatly appreciate your help.
