Hope you are at the best of your health while reading this There is strange problem happening in my laptop ill describe it in steps below ---First I noticed a blue screen error happening that happens when there is extensive usage is happening like playing game. Error was something like PHYSICAL ADDRESS (something like that) ---Then it started showing fixed disc error with a small beep at the bootup and press f1 to resume. So when I press F1 it shows me some realtec semiconductor line after some time this line gets typed repeatedly. So to make it boot proper I had to put some pencil or a pendrive below the laptops body and press it then turn the laptop on. Some times it loads windows luckily and sometime it doesnt ---Suddenly one day my laptop started really very smoothly without the above pencil thing showed no errors. So i tested it extensively on games with heavy settings which causes it to go blue screen for hours and seriously it was running smoothly. So i was happy like anything. After this I tried to play one mp3 but it didn't played at all then i come to know that my audio is not working and bluetooth also wasnt working.It worked for one more day though i had to sacrifice audio but it is like OK to me (as i can go in an interview taking that machine atleast) --- Now the situation is This machine has totally become "pain in the ass" as i have to do the same tricks to make its windows load and after logon it starts popping up "new hardware found" for every hardware device installed in it like audio display bluetooth lan all though they are already installed. I just install the device drivers again and again and it keeps on showing "new hardware found" even for the just installed driver I have taken it to repair in the market but first of all they ask for huge money to make it work they say no guarantee and some repair guys even say that it is better to dump the machine and buy a new one. Now what i want from anyone here if he can suggest some remedy kind of thing like what i believe that my systems realtek audio chip is preventing the motherboard work but i dont know how to disable this. Or may be some one here had the same problem and he solved it here too. Thanks for your patience Any help is appreciated Regards
To be honest it sounds to me like your machine is ready for the scrap heap. By the time you add up the cost of parts you just as well buy a new machine.
I dunno how old this post is, but I figure I'll give my two cents anyways, just to help. I currently own TWO Acer Aspire 5100 Laptops. The most common reason for the problem you're having (as I've had it on both of my models) is your ATI graphics chip has slowly but surely pried itself away from the mainboard. To the left of your mousepad there's an AMD decal. Apply steady pressure just to the right of that decal the next time you get an error, and reboot. Viola! System should start just fine while you have that pressure applied. I went to the local Home Depot and bought a 10 pack of rubber washers and stuck one physically on top of the chip under the case cover and it's worked fine ever since! I hope that helped.
Thank You Cyko Ur reply is making a lot of sense to me and ill do as you say and let you know if it works or not. Thanks again
Acer 5100 - southbridge shot. What next? Thank You guys for having such a wonderful forum - I have found here info I never dreamt existed. I bought an used laptop (5100). It booted up nicely into the great desktop of win XP, everything worked - but froze completely after about half a minute. I tried to reinstall, but the installation froze after 2 minutes, when the screen said that windows will start. THen, I tried to install an old SuSE 7.1 Linux - it formatted the disk, installed 18 parts and froze when istalling glibc, The Shared Libraries. I tried to boot - it shows a nice picture of a penquin, starts booting, checks the disk... and freezes later on again. After lots of research and dismantling, days, I have found that ATI IXP 460 must have gotten hot at some point - the clear plastic above it is partially melted/glued to it and there is even a small melted dent at the bottom edge of the keyboard, to the left of the touchpad. So, the chip is the culprit. I spent all my money on this laptop... is it really GONE?? is there any way how to make it work?? If not - can I make the laptop work partially at least? (with some very old system, or external keyboard, etc...) THanks a lot Petr