Video problems with T40p

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Silencer · #1 Post by **Silencer** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:41 pm

I've been using my T40p for 4 month already, and it was all ok before, I've played Doom3, Half Life 2 and World Of Warcraft without any video problems. But last week during WoW game session all the polygons on the screen started flashing, game was unplayable at all.

Now it happens all the time after 5 minutes of play. ATITool "Scan for Artifacts" feature also shows that I can't live one single second without artifacts on the screen

I didn't overlocked video at all.

My questions are following. Has anyone experienced such problems? Is the video card dead? Will system reinstall help? Will service center be able to change video?

firm · #2 Post by **firm** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 3:00 am

Wow Silencer, you're perfectly describing a problem that just cropped for me. I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. World of Warcraft used to run perfectly for hours and hours on end.

I have a T40 w/ the Radeon 9000 chip. A few days ago I massive amounts of screen artifacts and it's been that way ever since - a few minutes and the game become unplayable. I have survived as much as half an hour before it happens. It sure looks like a heat issue but it's weird that it used to NEVER happen. I've not overclocked. I've even tried a notebook cooling pad to no success (which is weird since it used to work fine without a cooling pad!). I've tried upgrading the bios and all drivers. I've tried switching to the Omega drivers. I've tried turning on and off "Graphic Device Power Management". Nothing seems to work.

Did you ever resolve the problem?

Anyone know what to suggest?

I've also been experiencing a different problem that may be related. Suspend used to consumer 2-8% of my battery in about 8 hours. Now when suspended my notebook remains "hot" and 8 hours wipes out about 60% of battery life. After 15 hours I'm down from 100% to 15%!!

Help!

Silencer · #3 Post by **Silencer** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 5:00 am

Well, it seems that video chip is broken. I went to IBM service center and they told that it happens quite often. Now they are waiting for a new mainboard for my T40p to change. God bless warranty.

firm · #4 Post by **firm** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:04 pm

Every cloud has its silver lining! I serviced it and IBM turned it around in 2 hours. New MoBo, CPU and video... here's the clincher: rather than giving me back my Radeon 9000 32MB I got a Radeon 9600 64MB. It must be a lack of stock of older replacement gear! Lucky me!

Now does anyone know how to detect what generation of 1.6 GHz CPU I have? Prehaps I got something more than Bantis

.

sugo · #5 Post by **sugo** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 1:25 am

You can download cpuz. Dothan has 2MB level 2 cache. If you have 9600, chances are you got a Dothan as well.

firm · #6 Post by **firm** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 3:26 am

Thanks Sugo. Cpuz tells me it's a 1600 Mhz Banias. 1024K lvl 2 cache.

I also Centrino Hardware Control to undervolt the CPU. Surprisingly my old Banias could run at lower voltages than this new one - IE my old settings would cause this new system to lock up so I had to reduce the aggresiveness of undervolting. That's surprising given the logic that production processes improve during the production life cycle of a CPU.

Anyway, that's a small price to pay for a better video card. I'm happy!

For anyone else that experiences the kind of problem Silencer and I have described with the video: the diagnosis work order for my system stated: "Video card failed under PC Doctor".... so it appears that one could self diagnose this problem using that software if you were so inclined.

Silencer - when you said IBM service center told you it happens quite often were they specifically referring to Radeon 9000's or could this new 9600 I have be susceptible to the same problems?

This forum's community is top notch. Thanks for all the responses!

Silencer · #7 Post by **Silencer** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 3:37 am

firm wrote:For anyone else that experiences the kind of problem Silencer and I have described with the video: the diagnosis work order for my system stated: "Video card failed under PC Doctor".... so it appears that one could self diagnose this problem using that software if you were so inclined.

Silencer - when you said IBM service center told you it happens quite often were they specifically referring to Radeon 9000's or could this new 9600 I have be susceptible to the same problems?

Hey, I've got my T40p as well, but I have same old 9000, not as lucky as you

Anyway, IBM told me that video overheating problem is in all T4x laptops. The situation with T42 is slightly better, cause they have larger cooler, but still there are lots of broken videos. I guess T series is just not for games.

BTW, I've had some funny experience with my problem. When I went to IBM and tried to show them my video problem, it was working fine without any artefacts on the screen! I was surprised that IBM beleived me and ordered new mainboard anyway.

While waiting for mainboard to arrive I got my T40p back home and did a lot of tests. PC Doctor was showing all fine. Then I ran 3D Mark 2001 to compare my resulsts with the one I found in the Net. Mine was showing 4600 marks, and the default driver supposed to show 7400! I tried to overclock my video a little, and after reboot (back to normal frequencies) I've had 7200 marks and video problems all over again! That was a riddle.

Finally I've found out that when laptop was cold, I had 32MB of memory instead of 64MB. Video was working slow but without any problems. WHen video was overheated a little, I got 32MB more, but with problems.

sloomy · #8 Post by **sloomy** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:02 am

hi

i have also problems like you, but i can not play any games.. I have tried to play Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, and if the game starts, it freezes in max. one minute.

after that i have tried it with Half Life 2, and the main menu even do not start, if freezes before..

And it is also the same with Battlefield 2...

I do not become any artifects, the computer freeze and i have to restart the notebook.

How can i find out, whether my graphic card is also broken or not ?

What software have used to find out for the currently used graphic memory ?

thanks

sloomy

Silencer · #9 Post by **Silencer** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 4:18 am

sloomy wrote:
How can i find out, whether my graphic card is also broken or not ?

What software have used to find out for the currently used graphic memory ?

Try PC Doctor first. You can download on IBM... eh, Lenovo site for free. To check video memory size just go to Video Adapter properties.

Video problems with T40p

Video problems with T40p

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