R40 - big problems!

[Rax]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has a little hardware advice for me here.

I've got a R40 that's not quite two-years old - it's a 2722-GCU and was working great up to a month ago.

At that point, the enitre laptop started freezing for several seconds, then would pick up exactly where it left off. It was exactly like someone pressed 'PAUSE' on a VCR or something. Windows never crashed, no blue screens, nothing. This was annoying, but livable.

Then, the pauses started getting longer. This was when I discovered that pressing on the case to the left of the touchpad, and just below the keyboard brought the laptop out of the pause and got everything running again. Seriously - applying pressure there gets things running again; nowhere else has the same effect. I even lifted the keyboard out to try and isolate the problem, and it still needed light pressure on the case to get running again.

The pressure trick works most of the time, but occasionally the laptop won't even boot. No beeps, no noise. The power icon lights up, but that's it - the backlight doesn't even come on. And now it's also sometimes crashing hard when I'm working - right out to black and a reboot.

I'm thinking it's a cold-joint in the system board. Occasionally it gaps out, freezing the system, and when I press down, it makes the connection again. Has anyone else had this or a similar problem? Any other ideas?

Unfortuately, the pad is out of warranty.

Thanks!