Issues with laptop - want to do a system reinstallation

[SonOfCrusader76]

The laptop is running very slowly and thorough defragment refuses to complete, so I want to start all over again from scratch. I'm pretty sure I know what to do, but just to be sure: formatting the drive (it's only got one partition - C:\ ) and then running the Acer recovery disk should get it back to exactly how it was when it left the factory?

Edit: I have done system reinstallations before, but not one that involves formatting the drives first and starting completely from scratch.

Ideally, I'd prefer not to have to install all the Acer bloatware, but of course it didn't come with an actual Win 7 disk.

[karamazovmm]

yes you can do that and it would work fine

[SonOfCrusader76]

Couple of other things: the laptop has taken to turning itself off occasionally even when plugged in - no BSOD, no crash, just turns itself off. Also, the battery is not holding its charge at all - we've only had it since Christmas. Why would Defrag fail to complete? It always hangs at around 50%.

Note that I regularly maintain my PCs - defrag, disk check and so on every month.

[karamazovmm]

there are other issues affecting it. I would do a clean install

do as per these instructions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wind...ta-before.html

install the drivers from the acer page. if that doesnt work, you should make a call to acer and ask for the proper measures for replacement/repair

btw be warned that there are some acers specially the new timelineX series arent holding the charge due to the battery being faulty. However there are people that go overboard on battery, they expect that it would hold the same amount of hours as per the panflets, they wont. Apple currently is the only OEM that actually advertises the right amount of battery, and I can get more of it, due to some measures taken.

For example, people want the backlight while on battery, thats going to drastically lwer the battery life, on my mbp I can get 2 hours more because I turn it off.
I dont surf flash heavy sites nor watch too many stream videos, only videos that I hold in the HD
I lower the brightness to half (usually thats pretty standard otherwise the screen is just too bright for me)

Doing this I can get 9-10h out of it, while the ad says 7h

Regarding the sudden shut downs, its either overheating due to something being quite wrong with it

May I ask what model is your laptop?

[eisenkopf]

Concerning the battery issues, there's Battery Bar:

http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/

The free version does all that's needed. Especially interesting is the "battery wear", which indicates how damaged a battery is.

I know of a sure way to kill you battery quickly, because it worked for me :

If you set the level at which the laptop shuts down very low (say, 5%), and then drain the battery often to this level. I managed to immediately damage a new battery by doing this...

Other good ways to kill you battery quickly are to leave it in when gaming - high temperatures are the second most reliable battery killer.

Otherwise, under normal use (don't discharge lower than 15%, remove while gaming), it should still have it full capacity after a little more than half a year. Nevertheless, even if you treat you battery with care and sing it to sleep each night, it will degrade over time, with a capacity loss of 10-20% per year being normal. (If you're lucky, like my wife who've never heard of the word "battery wear", you'll still have full capacity after two and a half years. But don't count on it...).

[SonOfCrusader76]

there are other issues affecting it. I would do a clean install

do as per these instructions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wind...ta-before.html

install the drivers from the acer page. if that doesnt work, you should make a call to acer and ask for the proper measures for replacement/repair

btw be warned that there are some acers specially the new timelineX series arent holding the charge due to the battery being faulty. However there are people that go overboard on battery, they expect that it would hold the same amount of hours as per the panflets, they wont. Apple currently is the only OEM that actually advertises the right amount of battery, and I can get more of it, due to some measures taken.

For example, people want the backlight while on battery, thats going to drastically lwer the battery life, on my mbp I can get 2 hours more because I turn it off.
I dont surf flash heavy sites nor watch too many stream videos, only videos that I hold in the HD
I lower the brightness to half (usually thats pretty standard otherwise the screen is just too bright for me)

Doing this I can get 9-10h out of it, while the ad says 7h

Regarding the sudden shut downs, its either overheating due to something being quite wrong with it

May I ask what model is your laptop?

Yes, it's an Acer Aspire 5741-A. Thanks for your advice - I wanted to try a clean install before having to go through the fun and games of a return; it's not actually my laptop - it's my nephew's and he won't want to be without it for however long the return takes. I'll try the clean install first off.

Regarding the battery, I don't think it's actually charging to capacity somehow - the battery light stays orange no matter how long you charge: it's supposed to turn blue when done. Is it true that the batteries that come with laptops are often a bit rubbish - in which case would it be a better idea to get a better one from somewhere?

As to the shutdowns - my money is on overheating. Nephew often has the laptop on his bed, instead of putting it on the laptop tray I gave him. I keep telling him!!

[StealthFox]

Regarding the battery, I don't think it's actually charging to capacity somehow - the battery light stays orange no matter how long you charge: it's supposed to turn blue when done. Is it true that the batteries that come with laptops are often a bit rubbish - in which case would it be a better idea to get a better one from somewhere?

Sounds like a bad battery. When my laptop battery went out, the same thing happened to me. Battery light would always stay orange and it would sometimes shut down even if it was plugged in. My battery lasted a good four years though. Are you still under warranty? If you've only had it since Christmas you should try to get a new battery under warranty.

[karamazovmm]

Yes, it's an Acer Aspire 5741-A. Thanks for your advice - I wanted to try a clean install before having to go through the fun and games of a return; it's not actually my laptop - it's my nephew's and he won't want to be without it for however long the return takes. I'll try the clean install first off.

Regarding the battery, I don't think it's actually charging to capacity somehow - the battery light stays orange no matter how long you charge: it's supposed to turn blue when done. Is it true that the batteries that come with laptops are often a bit rubbish - in which case would it be a better idea to get a better one from somewhere?

As to the shutdowns - my money is on overheating. Nephew often has the laptop on his bed, instead of putting it on the laptop tray I gave him. I keep telling him!!

I would also bet on overheating. if there are no stickers you can opne the laptop, disassemble the heatsink and fan and clean the copper fins (its where the dust gets accumulated, not in the fans, in the fins!)

regarding the battery how many hours have you let it charge? the mbp takes 3h for a full charge, my latter laptop took 2h, and the other before that took 3h

[SonOfCrusader76]

Sounds like a bad battery. When my laptop battery went out, the same thing happened to me. Battery light would always stay orange and it would sometimes shut down even if it was plugged in. My battery lasted a good four years though. Are you still under warranty? If you've only had it since Christmas you should try to get a new battery under warranty.

It's definitely still in warranty, so I think I'll go for that and maybe a system reinstall. That should sort out all the problems without the need for a return. Assuming there's no overheating going on, but it's my guess there is. I need to get some of the software I have on my PC installed on his PC so I can check what those temperatures are doing...

I would also bet on overheating. if there are no stickers you can opne the laptop, disassemble the heatsink and fan and clean the copper fins (its where the dust gets accumulated, not in the fans, in the fins!)

regarding the battery how many hours have you let it charge? the mbp takes 3h for a full charge, my latter laptop took 2h, and the other before that took 3h

I let it charge overnight once - same result. As to opening it, I won't be going there. If it was a desktop PC, sure I know how to open that and get rid of the dust, but I'm not comfortable at all doing that with a laptop.

[karamazovmm]

believe me until you have repasted a mbp, you are a wuss. You have to disassemble the entire laptop for that. since the heatsink is facing the keyboard instead of the backplate, so you have to disconnect all the wires, all the possible and impossible screws, and the most tricky ones are the fan wire and the sound wire.

its quite easy for those acer laptops, you just have to open the bottom, look at the heatsink remove the heatsink, repaste and you are done. its extremely easy.

If the battery is like that I wouldnt attempt to open the laptop, just send it for repairs and complain about the sudden shutdowns and the battery.