Hardware, software, or what?

[vass]

I'm having a problem, and I'm having trouble even finding the right search string to google it, and I don't even know if it's hardware, software, or a weird interaction of the two.

My recently bought Acer Aspire One D255E netbook has been acting up. It started out when I'd leave it on overnight (yeah, my bad) and find that I couldn't wake it from sleep mode. I'd have to hold the power button down. It'd start up fine after that.

Then tonight it did the same thing while I was using it. I was reading a webpage, scrolling down - in other words, I hadn't left it alone long enough for it to hibernate - and suddenly the screen went black. I pressed ctr-alt-del, and I heard the hard drive start whirring in response, but the screen was still dark. After a minute of waiting, I powered it down again.

So, it's an Acer Aspire One D255E, running an up to date installation of Ubuntu Natty Narwhal. I would not put this past Natty at all - it's as buggy as the Little Surrey With The Fringe On Top - but I haven't heard of this particular problem.

Anyone have any suggestions, anecdotes, pointers on where to look for solutions? Thank you!

Comments

[siliconshaman]

How hot is it getting? Because that sounds more like a thermal shutdown..

[vass]

Thanks, that's a good point. I wouldn't think it's getting very hot - it's winter, and the netbook is sitting on a wooden table without any coverings - but it doesn't cost much to get a cooling pad, so I'll try that.

[siliconshaman]

Eh, it;s the internal temperature that counts, if the fan's a bit blocked by fluff, or the cooling fins on the heat sink for that matter, then that would decrease the air flow and the CPU overheats and shuts down.

If you goto system>admin>system monitor it should tell you what the core temp is. Normal is between 50 and 60 degrees C, anything over 80 and you've trouble.

[siliconshaman]

Oh, I forgot to say, if you can get the back off and expose the fan, cleaning it with a make-up brush and a good strong blow though a straw does the job.

But some laptops you have to practically strip down to bare metal to access the fan.

[owlectomy]

Just want to say, if it's a heat issue, I'm running Peppermint OS (which is a Ubuntu variant specifically optimized to run on low-power/low-memory computers) and it runs much cooler than Narwhal did. I wasn't getting shutdowns on my Narwhal netbook, but I was getting what seemed like heat-related problems, and they're better under Peppermint. Even when I leave it on all night!