hi :) I have an acer aspire 1672WLMi model. 3Ghz / 512 / 80Gb Recently the thing has started cutting out as if i had pressed the power button or pulled the cord. I am pretty sure that it is a hardware fault as I even went as far as re-installing from the disks that came with the machine. Sometimes it will stay on for an hour or so ,, sometimes all day ,, BUT, sometimes I have seen me trying 20 or so times to get the thing to bootup and then cutting out seconds after that. It is exctremely intermittent, I have tried with the battery fully charged , not in place , power only, power with batery, none of this seems to make any difference. I have tried another HD in the machine ,, but still the same prob. I have no worries pulling any of my towers apart, but there is not much in the way of parts to take out or unscrew on the case of the laptop. I have never opened up a laptop before and am rather worried about doing so, does anyone know of any pitfalls to look out for when trying to dis-assemble the machine and has anyone seen this before with this or any other model of laptop, is it a common problem? Any help on this problem would be appreciated thanx Auldy ps:typing this msg out in notepad on the laptop, just incase it goes before I finish typing and posting said msg. any help would be appreciated thanx in advance Auldy

Does this happen only on battery power? Have you removed the battery and tried using only the A/C power? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Is the laptop under warranty? If so, don't open it up. Boot to the BIOS and check system temperatures. Download and run from a boot disk, memtest86 & the drive fitness test for your brand hard drive. If you don't know the brand drive download SIW.exe. Get the stand alone version. Get SIW at the link below. http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download...

Connect an external Monitor to the Laptop. If the external works you probably have a bad LCD inverter or LCD fluorescent tube.(Back Light) If the Laptop is totally shutting off you may have temperature problems caused by dust buildup inside the cooling fan ducts. Either of these repairs requires disassembly of the unit and may best be left for a shop, if you are unfamiliar with disassembling a Laptop. There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.

dumbob, you are a genious ,, took the drive out ,, re-seated it ,, (just to make sure it was seated correctly. doner the same with the ram module. then when I opened up the section with the fans attached ,, had to take out a few screws to take the covers off the fans and heatsinks. and the 2 heatsinks had an inch off dust/fluff attached, out with the wee vacuum cleaner for computer , an old xmas gift I thought I would never use and removed all the crap from inside the heatsink area. It is now silent , where before it was quite whirry ( whirry is that an adjective?) and it has been on the net and stable rendering in 3ds max now for around 45 mins. so hopefully you both were right, dirty heatsinks AND overheating as a direct cause of this. THANK YOU VERY MUCH aULDY any help would be appreciated thanx in advance Auldy