My thinkpad seems to have died

[taiwwa]

T61p.

I recently installed Fuduntu. Was quite pleased with it.

Booted up fuduntu. Suddenly, system completely froze.

Force shutoff.

Now doesn't even post. What's going on?

[Johan]

What's the specific model/type-number of your T61p (e.g. 6460-67U)? It is stated at the label at the bottom, and is also visible in the BIOS (although the latter obviously require that the machine will get as far as to allowing you to inspect the BIOS!).

Have you changed anything recently (hardware)? What happens if you remove the battery and try boot off A/C mains power adapter?

Johan

[Neil]

From another recent thread:

I have a T61p with the Nvidia Quadro GFX processor.

Still would be good if you could give us the type number like Johan asked about, and the date of manufacture.

[taiwwa]

T61p

quadro 570

2gb ram

2.2ghz c2d

Installed fuduntu.

I can get it to run for a while but oftentimes in the middle of a task it will completely freeze. Happens typically about 10 minutes in.

I suspect what is happening is the hard drive is damaged.

[ajkula66]

Two things to try:

a) Run the machine with no battery installed, on AC only. Does the freezing occur as well?

b) Remove the hard drive and run from a "live" CD for a few hours? Any freezing now?

[taiwwa]

why would removing the battery matter?

[ajkula66]

why would removing the battery matter?

A bad battery can freeze the machine, especially the *6x generation...

[taiwwa]

well, I removed the battery and it still happens.

[ajkula66]

How about the hard drive?

[taiwwa]

hard drive removal is a bit more involved.

My current theory actually is that it overheats and that triggers some sort of shutoff that freezes it.

[ajkula66]

hard drive removal is a bit more involved.

Unscrewing one screw and pulling the drive out?

My current theory actually is that it overheats and that triggers some sort of shutoff that freezes it.

A machine that overheats will shut down before it freezes...in my not-so-limited experience, at least...

[TuuS]

You were asked to remove the hdd and boot from an optical disc to rule out both software and hdd errors. It's not difficult or complecated, it's the easiest way to progress in a scientific diagnosis of your problem.

Also, a thermal shutdown will power off with no warning in a process that takes about 2 seconds, it won't freeze, but there are some thermal errors that can cause freezing, anything from a bad memory chip to a fried cpu chip or system board, but you can't sort this out if you're not willing to do a simple test involving removing the hdd.

Good Luck