I’ve had my Acer Aspire 5 for 6 years now. Recently, it has been crashing repeatedly, especially when I use the laptop unplugged, although sometimes I get away with just working in Word. Sometimes it crashes even when plugged in, though this is rare.

There is a boost function that increases processing power to 4.0Ghz which I assume is what helps it to not crash as much when plugged in. The laptop crashes even when there isn’t much heat coming out of it, nor is the fan in use, indicating the machine is working hard.

In the past months, I’ve gotten into torrenting films using UTorrent. I do have Windows Defender and Firewall active on my computer, but it is possible that something from this activity may be causing the issue.

It is also simply an old laptop, and there is probably maintenance I haven’t done that could extend its lifespan. If you can recommend some steps, that would be great.

Can anyone help diagnose the issue? Thank you.