T43 freezing - hardware or software problem?

[reaver221]

I recently bought a T43. It's a great machine much of the time, but once a week or so, it locks up. When it locks up, the screen just freezes, and most things - Capslock, numlock, most of the Fn keys, etc - don't respond. However, the following things do still work:

- holding the power button down for ~5 seconds turns the machine off
- Fn+Home/End (screen brightness) works, but without any onscreen indicators
- the machine still beeps when I take it on/off of AC
- the light on top of the screen (Fn+PgUp) works

I've tried reinstalling Windows, and that didn't seem to help. I've updated the BIOS. I've run the preinstalled diagnosics. I've run memtest86 for long periods of time with no problem. Also, it freezes on both AC and on battery.

I can't decide whether to try to devise some more tests, or assume that's it's probably a hardware problem (maybe bad power hardware of some sort) and send the machine back to IBM. Thoughts?

[christopher_wolf]

Well, I would run a PC-Doctor test on the System Board as the "Final Test." Just to make sure; then I would call IBM Support and see what they have to say.

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

[mysbca]

I've had a similar problem to yours. My T43 would just freeze for no apparent reason. I've tried the diagnostics and memtest and found no problems. I finally took the RAM out and reseated them and that seemed to have done the trick. I haven't had a freeze for a couple of months now.

[reaver221]

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

Thanks.

I tried the system board test - it said that everything was fine.

I've had a similar problem to yours. My T43 would just freeze for no apparent reason. I've tried the diagnostics and memtest and found no problems. I finally took the RAM out and reseated them and that seemed to have done the trick. I haven't had a freeze for a couple of months now.

That's a good idea. I just got done reseating both sticks of RAM. Of course, now we have no way of knowing if that helped... *crosses fingers*

[davidspalding]

Ram problems can be a common cause for unexplained lock ups.

If it's a new TP, do a burn test -- leave it on for 3-5 days (plugged in). Many problems that show up in new computers show up in the first 96 hours of operation, or at least back in the day that was the case. If you don't have a lock up after it's been on all night, first few days, you're probably cool.