Hi, the problem is not the AC adapter, the problem is a terrible design. Your machine problem is overheating (as everyone else). The reason why your machine is working fine on the battery mode is that another problem of the SmartPC 250N is than on battery mode the processor operates at half-speed (Dissapointing!!!). You can check this fact out at http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20021101/, so, the computer working at half-speed do not loads the CPU at 100%, so it does not heat enough to restart your machine. So you can´t take advantage of your computer full capabilities... for example the 512Kb of L2 cache.(Real shame!!!)
I bought from a friend who just came back from Germany a Smart Step 250N (purchase there by the way). So i have to buy a new adapter because the original adapter of my computer is for an european outlet, i has the same shut down problem with the new adapter, i noticed that with the battery the problem was gone, so i fixed the original adapter to be used on an outlet i can use...... same problem..........., so you can tell is not the AC adapter.
My Smart Step shutdowns whenever i use Warcraft 3, AutoCad, Flash MX, OrCAD, Matlab....... in others words is a very expensive typing machine. I´ve upgrade the FlashBios, cleaned the fan, replace the fan and the cooper dissipator..... still doesn´t work. Its a design failure.
I haven´t try yet the solution of nfn 15037, because i live in Costa Rica (excuse me if my English is not very good) and is very difficult to find good thermal compounds, well its difficult to find any thermal compound and my computer begin shutting down 3 days ago.
I hope this review is helpful and i hope you have better luck with your "Smart" step than mine.
Actually, I don't think it is overheating; it may be Windows itself. Why? Because, about a week ago, the situation reversed itself...now, the laptop starts up fine with the AC adaptor and it will continuously reset when running on battery power instead (boggles my mind too). I will have to reformat and see if that makes a difference.
I did happen to buy a new AC adaptor and yeah, the laptop reset with that as well. However, like I said, it's now reversed; it starts up fine with either adaptor.
Knock on wood, I haven't experienced the shutting down problem like most users, even after several hours of playing CPU games and working in high-memory applications like Photoshop; this whole mess started when the computer automatically reset itself (it was doing that about once a month) and when I chose to restart the computer to run the scandisk, that's when the endless resets began. A friend of mine ran Knoppix (name?), a UNIX based program to diagnose the computer, and apparently, none of the hardware was malfunctioning, so I've been led to believe it's software related.
Hi. First i wanted to thank you, your last post kept me thinking and i found a software-related problem that was partially the cause of my SmartPC shuting down....... updating the driver of the video adapter. I use the thermal compound and a lot of applications worked well, with the exception of Warcraft 3, once i updated the driver, my problems are over.(At least for now)
My only advice for now is that you update the Bios, update the drivers. If that fails, make a back up of your hard drive and re -install windows....... but for the description that you give it seems that your computer restarts randomly, usually on software-related problems thats no the case but maybe in your case it is a windows configuration problem.
If after doing all that, your problem persists, you should consider making some modifications on the cooling system (just in case)
I hope that you find the problem and inform us to document it!!
Peter Sutherlan
4 Posts
0
March 13th, 2004 21:00
As a start. On battery, sign in and go to System Restore and go back to a date when the computer was operating ok. That's all I can suggest.
P.
MrMN
3 Posts
0
March 13th, 2004 23:00
Unfortunately, system restore has been turned off long ago, so I can't restore the computer.
I'm thinking I should replace the AC adaptor, because that seems to be the problem.
James2004
4 Posts
0
April 6th, 2004 17:00
Hi, the problem is not the AC adapter, the problem is a terrible design. Your machine problem is overheating (as everyone else). The reason why your machine is working fine on the battery mode is that another problem of the SmartPC 250N is than on battery mode the processor operates at half-speed (Dissapointing!!!). You can check this fact out at http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20021101/, so, the computer working at half-speed do not loads the CPU at 100%, so it does not heat enough to restart your machine. So you can´t take advantage of your computer full capabilities... for example the 512Kb of L2 cache.(Real shame!!!)
I bought from a friend who just came back from Germany a Smart Step 250N (purchase there by the way). So i have to buy a new adapter because the original adapter of my computer is for an european outlet, i has the same shut down problem with the new adapter, i noticed that with the battery the problem was gone, so i fixed the original adapter to be used on an outlet i can use...... same problem..........., so you can tell is not the AC adapter.
My Smart Step shutdowns whenever i use Warcraft 3, AutoCad, Flash MX, OrCAD, Matlab....... in others words is a very expensive typing machine. I´ve upgrade the FlashBios, cleaned the fan, replace the fan and the cooper dissipator..... still doesn´t work. Its a design failure.
I haven´t try yet the solution of nfn 15037, because i live in Costa Rica (excuse me if my English is not very good) and is very difficult to find good thermal compounds, well its difficult to find any thermal compound and my computer begin shutting down 3 days ago.
I hope this review is helpful and i hope you have better luck with your "Smart" step than mine.
James
MrMN
3 Posts
0
April 6th, 2004 18:00
Thanks for your post.
Actually, I don't think it is overheating; it may be Windows itself. Why? Because, about a week ago, the situation reversed itself...now, the laptop starts up fine with the AC adaptor and it will continuously reset when running on battery power instead (boggles my mind too). I will have to reformat and see if that makes a difference.
I did happen to buy a new AC adaptor and yeah, the laptop reset with that as well. However, like I said, it's now reversed; it starts up fine with either adaptor.
Knock on wood, I haven't experienced the shutting down problem like most users, even after several hours of playing CPU games and working in high-memory applications like Photoshop; this whole mess started when the computer automatically reset itself (it was doing that about once a month) and when I chose to restart the computer to run the scandisk, that's when the endless resets began. A friend of mine ran Knoppix (name?), a UNIX based program to diagnose the computer, and apparently, none of the hardware was malfunctioning, so I've been led to believe it's software related.
Thanks again for your response.
James2004
4 Posts
0
April 8th, 2004 06:00
Hi. First i wanted to thank you, your last post kept me thinking and i found a software-related problem that was partially the cause of my SmartPC shuting down....... updating the driver of the video adapter. I use the thermal compound and a lot of applications worked well, with the exception of Warcraft 3, once i updated the driver, my problems are over.(At least for now
)
My only advice for now is that you update the Bios, update the drivers. If that fails, make a back up of your hard drive and re -install windows....... but for the description that you give it seems that your computer restarts randomly, usually on software-related problems thats no the case but maybe in your case it is a windows configuration problem.
If after doing all that, your problem persists, you should consider making some modifications on the cooling system (just in case)
I hope that you find the problem and inform us to document it!!
Good luck!!!