Thinpad T43 freezing, usb not working

[pkd]

My thinpad is freezing and works only in certain postures. I have to keep the unit in a certain posture to make it work, and as soon as I move, the mouse will freeze. This has been the most terrible machine I ever had. The USB is bad as well, and has stopped recognizing usb devices most of the times.

I am out of warranty on this one, I was wondering what is the best way to fix this ?

[SHoTTa35]

ok a lil more details would help. What model thinkpad you have? I know it's a T43 but that's the family The 7 character code under the bottom gives us lots of info about the system (original configuration). Should be something like 2468-K5U or something. You can tell us what OS you are using and how long has the problem been happening. What have you done to correct it and what have you done that could have caused it to start. (if you can remember)

[BillMorrow]

My thinpad is freezing and works only in certain postures. I have to keep the unit in a certain posture to make it work, and as soon as I move, the mouse will freeze.

what do you mean by "posture"..?

move how..??

more info will help..

[agarza]

I think by posture he means the alignment of the laptop, if it's tilted to one side, when handled and move to another place. I've only had a reboot on my T42p after I picked it up from my desk to my bed, well I did it suddenly, but T4x machines are really fragile

[Puppy]

Isn't it the famous BGA problem ?

[pkd]

Hi,

My machine is 1875DLU.

I am running Windows XP Professional.

I have had this machine for about 2 years now, and it worked fine for about one and half years. I have been seeing this USB problem and freezing problem for about six months. It started first with USB problem abt 6 months ago when I started using a USB harddrive. This USB harddrive would work fine in my other Thinkpad, but it would work intermittently with this particular one. The freezing problem started happening about 2-3 months ago.

I have not been able to fix USB, so I am currently relying on a USB-PCMCIA adapter. One of them (either USB or USB-PCMCIA adapter) works most of the time.

For the freeze problem, If I put this machine on the carpet or on the sofa, most of the time, the mouse will not work, and the machine will freeze. I have to tilt it a little to make it work. One position I have found it to work most of time is when I keep it on my lap, so that the two legs are on the two edges of the laptop, and there is some gap between the legs. I know this is weird, but that is what works for me.

Recently, it has also started kind of freezing in such a way that the only way out would be a hard reboot. This also happens sometimes when I try to standby the system.

Sometime, I also see this problem that when I try to startup, nothing seems to happen, and I just see a cursor (before windows starts up). The only way I have gotten out of this is by removing the battery and power adapter, holding the start key for about 10 secs, and then plugging back in the battery and the power adapter, and then starting up.

Please help.

Thanks
P

[Bompson]

I hope this thread gets updated again, because I've got the exact same problem.

My T43 (2686-DGU) is not a happy camper. The first problem was the USB ports. First they malfunctioned a little (no longer USB 2.0 compatible), then they malfunctioned a lot (not working). At the moment, they will work for a few minutes after startup, at which point they just seem to cut off.

The main problem, however, is that the screen freezes. Essentially, the screen will lock periodically. there is no blinking or flickering; it seems to just stop. Keboard and pointer inputs that are given while frozen are then completed when the screen unfreezes.

I have found the same curious effect of position on the problem. For example, my TP will work(ish) when the front end is propped up on a pen in the center (under the palmrests). It also seems to respond favourably to pressure on the left palmrest. The problem seems to get worse as it heats up, and lately my TP seems to have been running hot.

I had a possibly related problem with an old R40, though in that case the screen would go blank, or multicoloured static. That problem was diagnosed as a crack somewhere that would require motherboard replacement, hence my T43 purchase in August 2005.

The condition of my TP seems to be deteriorating quickly. Any information and/or help would be greatly appreciated.

[Harryc]

Check your event logs. Do you see any errors against the ATI chipset/driver (ati2dvag)? If you don't see that, run TPFancontrol (do a forum search) and report your systems temps here. I'd also run memtest86 to test your RAM.

[Bompson]

No errors are logged for my graphics card in the events log. Here are the readings from TPFancontrol. They seem high, but is it scary high?

Thanks for the help,
dave

CPU 49°C (0x78)
APS 46°C (0x79)
PCM 33°C (0x7a)
GPU 51°C (0x7b)
BAT 29°C (0x7c)
BAT 26°C (0x7e)
BUS 46°C (0xc0)
PCI 46°C (0xc1)
PWR 47°C (0xc2)

[Harryc]

Your temps seem normal. Personally what I'd do is remove the covers and reseat every cable in sight. Also push down on the GPU (Graphics chip) with power on to see if you can reproduce the freezing issue. It almost sounds like a driver problem, but drivers aren't effected by changing positions of the laptop. Something is loose somewhere and it's probably on your system board by your description.

[Bompson]

Last night I stripped the whole thing down, unplugged everything from the system board and then put it all back together. the cooling fan extension was more or less welded to the graphics chip with some sort of polymer, but i got it off and scraped off the residual crap. It's running much cooler now, and the problem is still there, but it seems less bad. If I had to guess, i'd say that it overheated and the graphics chip delaminated from the systems board a little. That would explain the 'positional' dependance, and maybe the temperature effect. I'm using TPFancontrol all the time now to keep the fan on the highest setting, hopefully that will keep it alive until I order a new systems board, which I guess is my only option.

speaking of which, anyone have a suggestion for a reputable online vendor for a new systems board (PN 39T0476)?

thanks for the help,
dave

CPU 43°C (0x78)
APS 43°C (0x79)
PCM 31°C (0x7a)
GPU 46°C (0x7b)
BAT 30°C (0x7c)
BAT 27°C (0x7e)
BUS 40°C (0xc0)
PCI 47°C (0xc1)
PWR 45°C (0xc2)

[pkd]

Hi,

If we need to replace the system board, do you think it would make sense to buy "post maintainance contract" from Lenovo ? I think this contract is worth $169 for one year, and it works like a warranty on your system. So, with $169, we could get the mother board replaced by Lenovo.

Please let me know your thoughts as I am also in the similar situation.

Thanks

[rayxyz]

I have this exact same problem on a 2687-D8U. I believe you can stop Windows from freezing if you disable all the USB controllers in the system hardware profile. I'm also having a hell of a time getting the machine serviced, since the techs can't reproduce the problem due to its intermittent nature.