It's a Puzzlement: Frankenpad shutdown in Win 7
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 1:51 pm
Like the King of Siam, I am in a bit of confusion.
I recently picked up a very nice T60p/T61 Frankenpad on eBay. The lid and plastic are 95% mint, no scratches or scuffs, except a tiny 1 mm nick on the lid. The screen is brand new Flexview SXGA+, it has a 256 GB Samsung SSD and an external Western Digital 750GB HD with Ultrabay adapter, a new Ultrabay battery, new 4C3924 motherboard, late Penryn, X9000 CPU, NV S140 Graphics, new 8GB RAM, dock and new keyboard, came with a fresh install of Win7 Pro 64 (could be Ultimate 64, not certain), and MS Office 2013. There is also a late production 3 antenna lid for the OEM Wireless n. The above details are from the seller's page and messages. I am not as knowledgeable about hardware as many of you, so if I have made a mistake, please correct me, or let me know. I did not think of noting the MTM number on the T60p chassis, since this is a Frankenpad, but I can find that out from the seller fairly quickly if needed.
When I received it, it looked gorgeous, the appearance was lovely and the screen was perfect. I started it up and everything went swimmingly until, while trying to play Youtube, the entire system just shut down, no lights at all, would not restart. So I used the trick I have heard about for doing static discharges (10 repeated presses of the power button with no power connection or battery present, then hold down the switch for 30 secs, and reinstall battery and power cable, then start) and this worked fine, and the computer was back in action. Shortly thereafter it shut down again, but before that there were some problems with speakers -- it did not produce sound very well, and this turned out to be a problem with a capacitor that was later rectified. I talked to the seller, sent it back and he replaced various components including the bad capacitor. He also checked the fan and heatsink, thinking the X9000 might be causing overheating. He reinstalled Win 7, and ran it continuously for three days without problems, then sent it back. I started it up at a different outlet, and after about an hour or so it shut down again in the middle of downloading MS Security Essentials. I revived it a third time, and then it worked for a while, although Windows 7 kept giving me some strange messages about security. It also downloaded 55 updates, which was strange because the seller had installed all of the updates just a couple days earlier. The next day, I installed Linux Mint 17, and it ran for five hours or so without problems. I also used a different power adapter, thinking that might help, and raised the computer up a bit for better airflow. The next day, I ran Linux again for about four hours, without a problem. Later, I switched to Win7 and in about an hour it shut down again. It only seems to crash in Win 7, never in Linux. The machine is back at the seller's now and he is going to replace most of the components and reinstall a new Win7 from a different disk. By the way,the seller has shown exemplary courtesy and is determined to make things work. But I thought a posting here would be useful, just in case others have encountered anything similar.
I am intrigued by this problem. Here is my logic, correct me if it is faulty: If it is purely a hardware glitch or malfunction, it should produce shutdowns in both Win7 and Linux with roughly equal frequency. In this case, I have not observed a shutdown in the two Linux sessions, each lasting four or five hours (I was doing web browsing and listening to Pandora, mostly, neither of which seems like an arduous task for this machine). But doing the same tasks, I have observed repeated crashes in Win 7 within the hour, a total of four times. So that leads me to think that there is some signal that Win7 is sending in error that is effectively telling the system to shut down, much as it would if the X9000 was actually causing overheating ( I am aware from reading up on this forum, that the X9000 does generate a fair bit of heat ). I repeatedly tested the bottom of the unit, but based entirely on subjective feel, and while it seemed pretty warm, it was not extremely hot. I did not know if there was a way to check for CPU temperatures in Win 7 without special software that checked the fans, heat levels, etc. My ignorance, but I have never had heat problems before, and I'm no gamer, I don't stress my systems - perhaps the most is when they are doing mathematical or statistical calculations!
If this reasoning is correct, then what could be causing Win 7 to have the system shut down? Is there a way to check temperatures right after a shutdown to see if in fact, the system is overheating? Is this all caused by something else entirely?
So there is my puzzle. Any thoughts or suggestions from any of you would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps someone else has encountered this sort of issue.
Baffled,
Sudevan
I recently picked up a very nice T60p/T61 Frankenpad on eBay. The lid and plastic are 95% mint, no scratches or scuffs, except a tiny 1 mm nick on the lid. The screen is brand new Flexview SXGA+, it has a 256 GB Samsung SSD and an external Western Digital 750GB HD with Ultrabay adapter, a new Ultrabay battery, new 4C3924 motherboard, late Penryn, X9000 CPU, NV S140 Graphics, new 8GB RAM, dock and new keyboard, came with a fresh install of Win7 Pro 64 (could be Ultimate 64, not certain), and MS Office 2013. There is also a late production 3 antenna lid for the OEM Wireless n. The above details are from the seller's page and messages. I am not as knowledgeable about hardware as many of you, so if I have made a mistake, please correct me, or let me know. I did not think of noting the MTM number on the T60p chassis, since this is a Frankenpad, but I can find that out from the seller fairly quickly if needed.
When I received it, it looked gorgeous, the appearance was lovely and the screen was perfect. I started it up and everything went swimmingly until, while trying to play Youtube, the entire system just shut down, no lights at all, would not restart. So I used the trick I have heard about for doing static discharges (10 repeated presses of the power button with no power connection or battery present, then hold down the switch for 30 secs, and reinstall battery and power cable, then start) and this worked fine, and the computer was back in action. Shortly thereafter it shut down again, but before that there were some problems with speakers -- it did not produce sound very well, and this turned out to be a problem with a capacitor that was later rectified. I talked to the seller, sent it back and he replaced various components including the bad capacitor. He also checked the fan and heatsink, thinking the X9000 might be causing overheating. He reinstalled Win 7, and ran it continuously for three days without problems, then sent it back. I started it up at a different outlet, and after about an hour or so it shut down again in the middle of downloading MS Security Essentials. I revived it a third time, and then it worked for a while, although Windows 7 kept giving me some strange messages about security. It also downloaded 55 updates, which was strange because the seller had installed all of the updates just a couple days earlier. The next day, I installed Linux Mint 17, and it ran for five hours or so without problems. I also used a different power adapter, thinking that might help, and raised the computer up a bit for better airflow. The next day, I ran Linux again for about four hours, without a problem. Later, I switched to Win7 and in about an hour it shut down again. It only seems to crash in Win 7, never in Linux. The machine is back at the seller's now and he is going to replace most of the components and reinstall a new Win7 from a different disk. By the way,the seller has shown exemplary courtesy and is determined to make things work. But I thought a posting here would be useful, just in case others have encountered anything similar.
I am intrigued by this problem. Here is my logic, correct me if it is faulty: If it is purely a hardware glitch or malfunction, it should produce shutdowns in both Win7 and Linux with roughly equal frequency. In this case, I have not observed a shutdown in the two Linux sessions, each lasting four or five hours (I was doing web browsing and listening to Pandora, mostly, neither of which seems like an arduous task for this machine). But doing the same tasks, I have observed repeated crashes in Win 7 within the hour, a total of four times. So that leads me to think that there is some signal that Win7 is sending in error that is effectively telling the system to shut down, much as it would if the X9000 was actually causing overheating ( I am aware from reading up on this forum, that the X9000 does generate a fair bit of heat ). I repeatedly tested the bottom of the unit, but based entirely on subjective feel, and while it seemed pretty warm, it was not extremely hot. I did not know if there was a way to check for CPU temperatures in Win 7 without special software that checked the fans, heat levels, etc. My ignorance, but I have never had heat problems before, and I'm no gamer, I don't stress my systems - perhaps the most is when they are doing mathematical or statistical calculations!
If this reasoning is correct, then what could be causing Win 7 to have the system shut down? Is there a way to check temperatures right after a shutdown to see if in fact, the system is overheating? Is this all caused by something else entirely?
So there is my puzzle. Any thoughts or suggestions from any of you would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps someone else has encountered this sort of issue.
Baffled,
Sudevan
