Laptop shuts down when booting

[Seelöwe]

Hello. This problem is rather complicated. I'll try ti explain it the best I can. This problem started 4 years ago and I haven't used my laptop ever since but now times change I can't carry my PC with me anymore and I really want to fix this laptop.

The problem started a few years ago. I was minding my own business and it shut down all of a sudden. And that's it. I couldn't get it to boot. It's an Acer Aspire 5742G. Everytime I tried to turn it on, it'll shut down when getting to the booting part, usually after the Acer logo disappears.
BUT, if I enter the BIOS it DOESN'T NOT SHUT DOWN ANYMORE LIKE WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM. I even let it idle in BIOS and everything was fine.

I tried to reinstall the Windows several times. I can install it without any problem, it won't shutdown or anything. Only after the instalation is complete, it'll run like 30 minutes and shut down. I always checked its temeperatures. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's not anything overheat related. This time I managed to get it to work 3 days straight without ANY SINGLE PROBLEM. I did nothing, literraly. I just installed Windows again. And it worked, like a charm. But only for 3 days. These 3 days I checked temperatures, I even played a few games on it. EVERYTHING WAS FINE. Today it decided to not work again. I tried to get it to boot a few times and now it shows Windows Error Recovery. If I let it like this, it won't shutdown. Unless I choose one of the 2 options: Launch startup repair or Start windows normally. Basically, if I let it boot, it'll shutdown.

So far I tried:
1. Booting without the HDD and with a different HDD - same thing happened. I even connected it to my pc and it works just fine, boots without any problem. HDD is fine. Not the issue.
2. I checked for overheating - not a problem.
3. Switched RAM modules - This one was quite funny. First, I switched the RAM, I powerd it on. No video signal, screen was black. But it didn't shut down. Then I switched them back, the way they were, and the screen was fine but it'll still shutdown. I don't remeber trying to power it up with one module at a time, I should give it a try.
So far, I don't know what to say. If it was a problem, a normal, it shouldn't have worked at all. But sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't really get what's wrong with this laptop. But one thing is sure. It won't shut down if don't let it boot up the Windows. But if I try the HDD on my PC, it boots up without any problem.

I just want to know if anyone had similar problems and if you've managed to fix it.

PS: As I wrote this I had the laptop idling at the Windows Error Recovery screen and this took like 20-30 minutes to write. Now I chose Start Windows Normally and it WORKED WHAT THE ACTUAL ♥♥♥♥. I don't get it i'm gonna kill myself Jesus have mercy on my soul

[Viper]

Yout memory description leads me to think one of the Ram modules is bad.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Try using only 1x RAM module and test each one.
See if one of them is faulty.

[Seelöwe]

To be honest, I thought about that 1 RAM might be faulty. I don't know why I didn't really test it. Thanks a lot guys.

I'm starting to think that this laptop is possed or something. I tried to power it up with one RAM at a time. Worked just fine with both of them. I wish it had a normal problem, like a faulty HDD or something, that can be easily fixed... Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesnt. Thanks for your suggestions guys. I really appreciate it.

[Viper]

Sounds like its not a hard failure. Makes it hard to troubleshoot and fix. The memory module might be just flaky. Works sometimes and fails others.

[Viper]

Try runnning MemTest86.

https://www.memtest86.com/


or run the WIndows Memory Diagnostics by typing mdsched.exe in the search box and pressing enter

Also with memory if a certain section of the memory is bad your only going to get an issue when the PC uses that section of memory so you could possibly get the behavior you describe.

[Seelöwe]

It is indeed a very strange behaviour and like you said very hard to troubleshoot. And that seems the most reasonable problem. Because it's not always happening, so there could be bad sections of the memory and it might happen when it tries to access that part of the memory. I'll try your advice. Thank you very much for your reply. I really appreciate the help.

Viper님이 먼저 게시:

Try runnning MemTest86.

I tried running MemTest86. My laptop worked fine before that, restarted it a couple of times to see if it works. All good so I decided to give MemTest86 a try. After 3-4 minutes of testing it shut down. I tried again and it shutdown one more time, this time after 1 minute of testing. Now I can't get it to work again, shuts down after Acer logo. Could this mean that the test got to the bad sections of the memory? Or this wasn't supposed to happen. Like, should it have completed the test and then show me a log file with the results?

Viper님이 먼저 게시:

or run the WIndows Memory Diagnostics.

Haven't tried yet the Windows Memory Diagnostics tool. I'll try it as soon as I get the laptop to work again.

[Viper]

The only other thing I can think of is you have a bad battery. The Laptop will shutdown if it is getting insufficient power.

[Seelöwe]

Viper님이 먼저 게시:

The only other thing I can think of is you have a bad battery. The Laptop will shutdown if it is getting insufficient power.

I thought about that too. But I rarely use the battery. I remove the battery and I keep it plugged in. I tried running mdsched and same thing happened. It shut down after a while. I think it's overheating when running the memory tests. It gets hotter than usual. I've been using the laptop for the last 5 hours and the temps are fine.