Odd antivirus software problem

Bored

Hi, I have a 2 year old Acer Aspire 2920z running Windows Vista which has started acting up this weekend. It crashed when I was using it on Saturday so I just switched it off and on again, but ever since it's been shutting itself down after presenting me with a blue screen with a lot of white writing about doing a crash dump and an error code - 0x00000F4.

For a while it wouldn't even make it to the desktop on safe mode but eventually it came on for about ten minutes. I first of all consulted my antivirus software (thinking it was a virus) but it shut down during the scan. I tried again, same thing. I tried to do a system restore but it failed because it happened again during that. I remembered my antivirus AVG was updating a few days ago so I thought maybe something had gone wrong there so I uninstalled it which actually helped a lot and now I've managed to get onto the desktop on normal mode and actually use it. However, there's obviously still something wrong because I installed a new antivirus software Avast thinking I'd fixed the problem by uninstalling AVG, but the problem returned immediately with the irritating blue screen appearing every 30 seconds and repeatedly shutting down and restarting until I uninstalled the new antivirus software on safe mode!

I'm not really sure where to go from here, I don't want to play around with it too much, I really need it to last until at least July when I finish my degree or I'm screwed. I have no money in my budget to take it to a shop, and no income because I rely entirely on my loan. Basically I'm asking if anyone has any idea what has gone wrong and if it would be possible for me to fix?

(Oh, and please don't use be overly technical in wording if possible )

Thanks in advance

Bored

It's just shut down with the blue screen again. I've noticed another trigger is when I leave it on but don't use it for about 10 minutes. It's definitely better without antivirus though, when I had either of them installed it would barely stay on for 30 seconds without shutting down, now it sometimes lasts around an hour.

GunJack

firstly, use the avg removal tool (32-bit one) from here

http://www.avg.com/gb-en/download-tools

then use ccleaner from here, both cleaner and registry parts (download latest version top-right of page)

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

then re-boot and take it from there report back how you get on..

GunJack

sounds like the fan and heatsink may well need cleaning out, it could be overheating.

Also, make sure avast IS NOT set to do a boot-time scan every time, if your fan isn't cooling and you're driving the processor hard, you could fry the processor.

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I have ccleaner, but I actually used a freeware registry cleaner a few hours ago (auslogics, I think) which seemed to help quite a bit.

I've had problems with the fan before actually. I accidentally dropped it last year (the lead got caught on the table as I was walking so the laptop flew out of my arms and landed upside down on a wooden table). The hard drive was gone so the computer shop people installed another one, but they mentioned the fan was on it's last legs and they said bring it back if there was any problems. Is this a likely cause?

GunJack

or, try running checkdisk (start > run> cmd > chkdsk)

GunJack

yup, bad fan (lack of proper cooling) often leads to premature death for lappys. People often get them bunged up with carpet/clothes/cushion/duvet fluff from not using them on a hard flat surface.

closed

what does the writing say?

does it consistently crash if you leave it exactly 10 minutes?

have you backed up?

you could put it back to factory settings with erecovery, but that will wipe all your data.

GunJack

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-2920-2920z-60.4X416.001-Heatsink-%20-Fan_W0QQitemZ320632245913QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=208162265506&rvr_id=208162265506&cguid=9ffd295112d0a47a44759845ff6e83c8


this look about right for your model ?? Also need some thermal paste (go see someone in the physics/electonics/computing dept of your college and poss get a bit for nowt), small screwdriver set (prob phillips) and around 20 mins to sort out Would be interesting to know how much your pc repair shop quoted

Bored

GunJack wrote: »

yup, bad fan (lack of proper cooling) often leads to premature death for lappys. People often get them bunged up with carpet/clothes/cushion/duvet fluff from not using them on a hard flat surface.

I admit I took pretty bad care of my laptop for a while, it slept next to me on my bed for about a year without a proper surface but I've been better with it since I had the shock of it breaking when I dropped it. :A

GunJack wrote: »

or, try running checkdisk (start > run> cmd > chkdsk)

Okay, I've done this and it's saying it's verifying files, what does it do and what will it tell me? :rotfl:

Bored

GunJack wrote: »

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-2920-2920z-60.4X416.001-Heatsink-%20-Fan_W0QQitemZ320632245913QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=208162265506&rvr_id=208162265506&cguid=9ffd295112d0a47a44759845ff6e83c8


this look about right for your model ?? Also need some thermal paste (go see someone in the physics/electonics/computing dept of your college and poss get a bit for nowt), small screwdriver set (prob phillips) and around 20 mins to sort out Would be interesting to know how much your pc repair shop quoted

I'm afraid the limit of my computer knowledge would be pushed way to far to even think about doing this. :rotfl:

Damn, I bet it'll be expensive, they charged me £50 for a hard drive and £50 to install it last time I went.