Acer 1522WLMI shutdown problems

Recently my Acer 1522wmli has started shutting sown of it's own accord. When the problem first started I would be using the laptop for anything up to 3 or 4 hours and it would suddenly just shutdown with no warning. The problem has got progressively worse to the point where the machine will only power up for 5 minutes at most then shutdown.

Since the machine is almost 3 years old I decided I would have a root around inside and partially dismantled it to get at the fan and processor etc. and cleaned out a large amount of dust in the process. I have also applied some fresh thermal paste between the processor and the fan/heatsink unit.

Unfortunately, this appears to have made little difference.

I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar problem and managed to identify the cause and a cure.

If needs be I will buy a new laptop, but I am loathe to do so when this one is more than adequate for my needs (wireless net access and doing a little web authoring for work).

Hope someone can help.

Cheers,
Babbler

 

shutdown problems - update

I've finally solved the problem. It seems dust wasn't the problem after all, though obviously it wouldn't help.

The main problem was installing Vista and not having the full range of drivers. More specifically, the fan controller software. I've reverted back to the factory default of XP home edition and everything seems fine and dandy for now (48 hour burn in test and no shutdown).

I'm a bit disappointed that I'll have to stick with XP home, but then again, it does everything I need it to do and I'm not really missing the aero interface, saying as how it my 64mb graphics card wasn't suffiicient to run it anyway...though I suppose progress will dictate I have to upgrade sooner or later.