System Freeze & M.board swap question

[hoT60]

Hi, I have been banging a T60 for 5 years lots of travel different climates, heavy use etc
basically the best laptop I've ever had.

I recently purchased another one as the 1st was screen fading then keyboard issues.
The replacement I got has windows 7, every time I booted it up it freezes, tried safe mode
several times but keeps freezing ?
I swapped the Hard Drive over & re-boot but again FREEZE the other HD is windows XP !

Now i assumed it must be a Mother Board ? And thus wondering if I swap mother boards,
is this likely to resolve the freeze ? Or am I guessing too hard & there is another fix ?

Ultimately I would like to run XP on it then acclimate to Linux of which is new to me also
so would appreciate some options on making the most of parts from both Machines & any advice on the best
version of Linux to run on a T60 that's easy for a nube ?

cheers
H

[Neil]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

You may well have a faulty motherboard, but before you swap it out, let's make sure the problem isn't somewhere else. Other likely candidates are:

1. Overheating CPU. Make sure the fan is working. Might even want to remove the fan and renew it's thermal paste.

2. Faulty RAM. Boot up a live Linux CD, and run Memtest86+ to rule out (or confirm) memory errors.

[ajkula66]

Another thing: how's the battery on the "freezing" unit?

Try running the laptop without the battery inserted and see whether the freezing occurs then.

Good luck.

[hoT60]

Hey thanks for the welcome

I dropped out the battery & it looked as if the same thing was happening
until I plugged in a USB mouse & it works, so I am thinking it is something to do with
mouse/touch pad ?

My issue is a bit messy as my Tech spanish sux not to mention a deep hate for windows 7
so now i will try and swap the hard drives again & see how it goes & repost results/more questions soon.

Whats your advice RE: a user friendly version of linux for a T60 & is it better to acclimate to linux with 2 opp systems
XP with Linux on another USER ? just concerned with capacity of T60 running both & poss complications.

learning

cheers & thanx
H

[hoT60]

OK this is an update,
1. removing the battery resolved the freezing but wondering what's the fix for the battery ?if 1 exists ?
2. replaced hard drive (with win 7) in new unit with old hard drive (running xp SP3) despite a few missing device drivers
it appears stable !!!
3. downloading a list of device drivers I may need to install to have all devices up to date, then after the drivers prove to be working I'm planning to reformat the 160gb Hard Drive & remove Windows 7, then clone older 60gb hard drive with XP SP3 & all my progs & data onto the reformatted 160gb HD.....?

So, I am on the right path with my plan to clone Hard drive ?
Is there anything I am missing or that I should be aware of in reformatting then cloning Drive, first time for me
so step by step advice.

Cheers
H

[mpcook]

You should have no problem cloning from the older 60GB to newer 160GB drive. Install the 160GB in the HDD bay, the 60GB in an external enclosure and boot from a clone software CD (e.g., Acronis) in D:. Acronis will allow you to clone from smaller E: to larger C: drive and use the total amount of space on the larger drive for the boot partition if you like. As to the battery problem, I do not have a solution.

[ajkula66]

OK this is an update,
1. removing the battery resolved the freezing but wondering what's the fix for the battery ?if 1 exists ?

Replacing the existing battery with a genuine Lenovo one, even lightly used, would be my preferred course of action...

[hoT60]

Well I cloned using another software, but went from 60gb HDisk in the bay to the new 160 i dropped in external case via USB, now it seemed to be all there op system, with all my files etc but when dis assembled & dropped it in the bay NADA just had black screen with flashing DOS cursor ? & no cigar ?

I will try what you suggested above with acronis migrate easy, not sure what you mean by boot from CD but assume after download of Acronis it will be step by step guide to burn a CD & then follow prompts ?

Thanks again will update soon let you know how it goes
cheers
H

[mpcook]

I will try what you suggested above with acronis migrate easy, not sure what you mean by boot from CD but assume after download of Acronis it will be step by step guide to burn a CD & then follow prompts ?

Thanks again will update soon let you know how it goes
cheers
H

Yes, burn a CD with Acronis (or another clone software), boot from that CD with the new blank wiped drive installed in the laptop, the old drive in the external case.

[hoT60]

Wow, I had issues so much so that I ended up clonning and reclonning several times
but the drive never booted, I used Acronis, Clonezilla & Easy Clone.
I bought the full version of Acronis ME only to have the same result.
A black screen upon boot.
I loaded the CD and selected Windows & finally it loaded & has done ever since
so THANX for the help
NOW I am getting errors on start up, LAN error in boot sector corrupted ?
but I esc and it loads will go updated BIOS for this soon.

And post more feedfback
Chjeers
H

[RealBlackStuff]

The instructions you got were clear enough, but you blatantly ignored them!

Install the 160GB in the HDD bay, the 60GB in an external enclosure and boot from a clone software CD

[hoT60]

@RealBlackStuff

Yeh you are so right, I know & now I feel like such an idiot
& now I have to tackle the BIOS error I am getting