My e1705 that I've had for about four years has recently begun crashing. I was listening to music when suddenly the screen went blank with a rows of thin gray lines moving from the bottom to the top of the screen. I could still hear the audio but it was looping over the last few sounds before the crash. The system remained on but was unresponsive, so I shut it off right away.
I thought the laptop might be overheating so I let it cool down for a few hours before turning it on again. I was greeted upon booting with a message I'd never seen before: "AC Power Adapter type cannot be determined.". I skipped this message for now because I wanted to check the idle temperatures. What I noticed after running ik8fangui was that the CPU which normally idles at ~40C was at 65C. The GPU temps were around what they had always been at ~58C. After 5 minutes or so the CPU fan brought the temp down to 60C. Less than 30 minutes later when I was searching solutions for the AC Adapter error message, the laptop suddenly crashed again with the same symptoms, except slightly different patterns on the screen.
Since the CPU temps were higher than normal, I thought it was the heat that was causing the crashes. I opened up the laptop, removed the fans, and the dusted the heat sinks and the inside of the computer. I then applied AS5 to the CPU chip and replaced a worn out thermal pad for the northbridge chip. When I booted my computer again, the CPU temps were around 45C after 10 minutes and the GPU was 59C. The fans were quieter than they had been before. At these temperatures around 25 minutes later the system suddenly crashed again. This time, I was watching a video and the sound didn't loop as it did before. There were still weird patterns on the screen on a blank background. What's odd is that the crashes seem to happen independently of any stress on the system. It is worth noting that there were no longer AC Adapter error messages. Since I didn't do anything to fix it, though, it struck me as kind of strange.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I was afraid of leaving out details. The crashes persist and I have no idea what's wrong. The system is running under good temps, has never been overclocked, and has never crashed before these incidents. I'd be very grateful for any insights or recommendations.
System Specs:
Inspiron e1705
1.83 Ghz T2400
4 GB Ram
60 GB 7200 RPM HDD
Geforce 7800 Go
I thought the laptop might be overheating so I let it cool down for a few hours before turning it on again. I was greeted upon booting with a message I'd never seen before: "AC Power Adapter type cannot be determined.". I skipped this message for now because I wanted to check the idle temperatures. What I noticed after running ik8fangui was that the CPU which normally idles at ~40C was at 65C. The GPU temps were around what they had always been at ~58C. After 5 minutes or so the CPU fan brought the temp down to 60C. Less than 30 minutes later when I was searching solutions for the AC Adapter error message, the laptop suddenly crashed again with the same symptoms, except slightly different patterns on the screen.
Since the CPU temps were higher than normal, I thought it was the heat that was causing the crashes. I opened up the laptop, removed the fans, and the dusted the heat sinks and the inside of the computer. I then applied AS5 to the CPU chip and replaced a worn out thermal pad for the northbridge chip. When I booted my computer again, the CPU temps were around 45C after 10 minutes and the GPU was 59C. The fans were quieter than they had been before. At these temperatures around 25 minutes later the system suddenly crashed again. This time, I was watching a video and the sound didn't loop as it did before. There were still weird patterns on the screen on a blank background. What's odd is that the crashes seem to happen independently of any stress on the system. It is worth noting that there were no longer AC Adapter error messages. Since I didn't do anything to fix it, though, it struck me as kind of strange.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I was afraid of leaving out details. The crashes persist and I have no idea what's wrong. The system is running under good temps, has never been overclocked, and has never crashed before these incidents. I'd be very grateful for any insights or recommendations.
System Specs:
Inspiron e1705
1.83 Ghz T2400
4 GB Ram
60 GB 7200 RPM HDD
Geforce 7800 Go
PM for more details on it. i dont want to take over this thread.
