I have been having some serious problems with my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. I got it in November and immediately removed the OEM and installed Windows XP Pro 64 bit. I had no problems with it for 3 months. Then I started getting the 7A blue screen of death (kernel inpage data error.) I did a memory diagnostic and found that the RAM had problems so I sent it into Acer to get fixed. I got the laptop back (Acer replaced the motherboard and fan) and installed XP 64 again. After about a week of use, the computer would start randomly rebooting and giving my computer a chkdsk upon start up. It would find several problems in files and sectors. After another week, I got the same blue screen of death. I tried replacing the RAM myself. No help. I tried reinstalling Windows. So I have a few questions. 1. The most obvious: is this a hardware or software problem? 2. Does this sound like an incompatibility issue with XP 64? 3. Could this be a particularly nasty virus? 4. Bad hard drive? 5. I HAS A PROBLEMZ. HALP? I've looked around the internets and all the answers have been very vague.

The fact that you had no problems running the x64 version of XP Pro for three months without problems right after removing the OEM copy of XP that came pre-loaded on the system indicates this might not be software oriented, or at least not likely OS or driver related. The chkdsk could be an indication of a failing HDD so I'd suggest running a manufacturer's diagnostic test on it ASAP. Also, the fact that it is shutting down arbitrarily could be related to overheating especially since you've had to have the fan, motherboard & RAM all replaced within six months of procuring the notebook. Your HDD maybe the next on that list & who knows what component is going to follow after that. Seriously, should this be the case you probably need to ask for a new notebook because these symptomps depict a lemon buy.