Games Crash with T60p video card

[DenTP4rm]

Solved

it was a ram issue , i removed the extra 1 gb ram and it worked just fine .. no more crashes ,, thanx everyone for ur support ..

i love this forum

Hey Qoz3a,
Appreciate the feedback. Was that RAM you removed original with the T60 or did you buy it somewhere else and add it later? It would be interesting to know as I just got the 2623-DDU with an extra 1G of RAM installed by Lenovo. I'd like to know if this is going to give me a problem.

Did you detect the RAM error with Memtest86 or just trial and error?

BTW, which drivers are you now using, Omega, ATI latest or Lenovo/ATI updated?

Thanks for all your help. I'm sure a lot of other guys appreciate it too.
DenTP4rm

[intelbrain]

i would like to know what ram you are using too cause i just ordered gigiram newegg (crucial is just too expensive)

[sergeycentral]

Has anyone been able to mod/install ATI.com's X1600 drivers???

If so, how do they work (compared to Lenovo's or Omega's) and how did you do it?

also, where do I get the ThinkPad FanControl software? I tried google with no luck.

[Qoz3a]

i was trying ot fix that crash many hours and i thought first it was FireGL problem but later i relized it couldn't be a video card problem the game is just freezing and must to force shutdown ..

Was that RAM you removed original with the T60 or did you buy it somewhere else and add it later?

no .. i bought the extra 1 gb ram from newegg (crucial) it worked just fine except it crashs games ..

Did you detect the RAM error with Memtest86 or just trial and error?

nah .. Memtest86 just passed it cuz there is no problem with this chip just in gaming it crashs.. and my last hope was removing the extra chip of ram to fix it and it works

which drivers are you now using, Omega, ATI latest or Lenovo/ATI updated?

the beloved lenovo drivers it works just fine

Thanks for all your help. I'm sure a lot of other guys appreciate it too.

thank u all and i really dont want anyone to face what i faced here ..

Has anyone been able to mod/install ATI.com's X1600 drivers???

just wait for new version of panje's modding

[DenTP4rm]

Hey Qoz3a,
Thanks for all the answers. You've been very helpful. Hope the gaming goes just fine from here on.
Cheers,
DenTP4rm

[kimras]

Solved

it was a ram issue , i removed the extra 1 gb ram and it worked just fine .. no more crashes ,, thanx everyone for ur support ..

Have you tried with other 1gb sticks ?

I wonder if there isn't a real problem with the thinkpad here - I've tried with 3 different 1Gb memory modules (in addition to the samsung one already included).

I tried 2 different kingston modules and 1 crucial so far - all have the same results, after playing world of warcraft for somewhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes the darned thing crashes, either bluescreens or simply turns off the screen and dies.

I tried replacing the samsung module with just one of the other modules and that worked fine, but I can't get it to work with 2*1gb sticks at all.
I wonder if it can be related to the hypermemory thingie on the ATI card since it only (so far) seems to be a problem in graphics intensive apps such as games... anybody have any suggestions on what else to try ?

[sindisil]

Solved

it was a ram issue , i removed the extra 1 gb ram and it worked just fine .. no more crashes ,, thanx everyone for ur support ..

Have you tried with other 1gb sticks ?

I wonder if there isn't a real problem with the thinkpad here - I've tried with 3 different 1Gb memory modules (in addition to the samsung one already included).

I tried 2 different kingston modules and 1 crucial so far - all have the same results, after playing world of warcraft for somewhere between 30 seconds and 5 minutes the darned thing crashes, either bluescreens or simply turns off the screen and dies.

I tried replacing the samsung module with just one of the other modules and that worked fine, but I can't get it to work with 2*1gb sticks at all.
I wonder if it can be related to the hypermemory thingie on the ATI card since it only (so far) seems to be a problem in graphics intensive apps such as games... anybody have any suggestions on what else to try ?

This sucks. Last day of the rebate, and I find out about this.

Sounds to me exactly like there's a problem when the v5200 starts using HyperMemory. Could be a driver issue, could be a BIOS issue, could be hardware -- either TP mainboard or the v5200 itself.

One interresting point is that you all seem to be using matched pairs of memory, I assume for the bonus of dual-channel. That is indeed the right way to go for these "shared" memory situations, However, perhaps either ATI or Lenovo has problems in this case. If someone could report on what happens when two different size SO-DIMMs (say 1GB and 512MB) are plugged in, it might point us in the right direction.

Unfortuanately, this probably won't help me any. I'm about to replace my T41 with a new machine, and I'm torn between the T60p and the ASUS A8jm. The former because of the keyboard, FlexView, DVD burner I could swap into the T41 when necessary (my wife gets it). The A8jm has a much better GPU (NVIDIA 7600 w/512MB dedicated VRAM), better ports (has FireWire, SPDIF, 2 more USB and, most importantly, DVI -- no PCMCIA, though) and a smaller form facter (14.1" wide).

Sounds like the ThinkPad reliability has gone way down hill. I was hoping the two times I needed to get my T41 repaired because of dead video (f'ing ATI ...) was a fluke. I hate to miss out on the FlexView, but it's sounding like I may need to go with the ASUS.

[own6volvos]

ARe any of you guys running notebook hardware control or anything similar in the background while playing games and crashing? On both a z60m and t60 I ran into an issue where NHC would lock the cpu fan at a certain speed. If the thing locked it during a desktop mode, the fan would stay around 10-20%. Then when playing HL2, a few minutes in during heavy gaming sections the game would crash... well basically the entire computer would freeze and reboot. After closing out of those programs, the games went on working just fine, fan would cycle up and down, and all was well. Also, try out HalfLife 2 and see if the crash still exists. HL2 is more friendly and tweaked for ATI cards, and might work better with ATI features like hypermemory and the like.

[own6volvos]

If it is unmatched memory or a driver issue on ATI's side, you can't really blaim it on Lenovo. Matched memory is one of the key things to know these days with dual channel setups, as memory chips can vary slightly, and going with different makers can yield slightly different timings, which could really throw things off.

Also, the dead video on the older T/R series was NOT an ATI issue but a problem with too much case flex cracking the planar boards.

[own6volvos]

One last thing, I have a program that stress tests just the video card, not really cpu or memory much. I can't recall the name right now at work, but when I get home I will upload it. You jsut run it from the desktop, and it has some spinning dropplets and other items 3d rendered. I use it to stress my desktop's video cards cooling setup.

If that doesn't crash, maybe we are looking at a driver issue that effects certain games, over a hardware fault. Not to say mixed dual channel wouldn't be a problem though.

[sindisil]

As long as the memory isn't marginal or faulty, all that should happen in a decent design is that the system will fail back to single channel. And it appears that is exactly the case here -- works fine in single channel mode, fails miserably in dual-channel mode.

Not sure I buy that, not that it matters now. Perhaps the first failure, but the second happend within two days of receiving the repaired machine. During that time the T41's travels were limited to moving from the couch to the table and back. Even Dell's aren't *that* pathetic.

[own6volvos]

Not sure I buy that, not that it matters now. Perhaps the first failure, but the second happend within two days of receiving the repaired machine. During that time the T41's travels were limited to moving from the couch to the table and back. Even Dell's aren't *that* pathetic.

That problem was happening all across the board on many IBM models. Just search here for planar board replacement.

[own6volvos]

http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

Here is the program I was referring to a bit ago. No matter how hard I tried, google nor yahoo could correct the spelling and figure out what I was typing

[agarza]

I've exactly the same problem as you people but with a T42P, with FireGL T2 128MB.

I've played NFS:MW and NFS:PU and both crashes after a few minutes. I will test the memory now and also try to do a clean install on the omega drivers. If both things don't work then I'm done with this thinkpad, I'm dissapointed, I've never had problems with my former T30

[Chronocide]

Is there anyone who has concretly figured out the reason for these crashes.
In my case when i play games the computer freezes and the sound is like stuck in a loop and i have to hold the power button to turn it off.
I have pin-pointed that it is not a heat issue as it happenes sometimes when i have just turned it on and the computer is not very hot. It is not the ram (i guess) i ran Memtest86 and found no errors (i have the standard 1GB ram installed).
It is probably not a Game issue as it happens in like all the games i run and even sometimes when watching videos with media player.

my computer is a T60p 2007-FBG model and i run with all the updated drivers and bios. I use the Graphic drivers from lenovo.

Anyone have a clue what causes the crashes? It's very irretating to get a new laptop and have these random crashes. It's not supposed to happen.

Any help very much appriciated...

[scillyisles]

Is there anyone who has concretly figured out the reason for these crashes.
In my case when i play games the computer freezes and the sound is like stuck in a loop and i have to hold the power button to turn it off.
I have pin-pointed that it is not a heat issue as it happenes sometimes when i have just turned it on and the computer is not very hot. It is not the ram (i guess) i ran Memtest86 and found no errors (i have the standard 1GB ram installed).
It is probably not a Game issue as it happens in like all the games i run and even sometimes when watching videos with media player.

my computer is a T60p 2007-FBG model and i run with all the updated drivers and bios. I use the Graphic drivers from lenovo.

Anyone have a clue what causes the crashes? It's very irretating to get a new laptop and have these random crashes. It's not supposed to happen.

Any help very much appriciated...

These are exactly the same symptoms I was getting when gaming using two 1Gb Lenovo chips - system would randomly crash sometimes very quickly sometimes not. System would freeze completely, sound would seem to be in a loop and the only way out was to hold the power button down to reboot. Memtest did'nt detect any errors and if I used either of the 1gb chips by itself the system would work fine. Since I installed two brand new 1Gb memory chips from Samsumg with more or less sequential serial numbers I have had no crashes whatsoever.

[Daigneault]

These are exactly the same symptoms I was getting when gaming using two 1Gb Lenovo chips - system would randomly crash sometimes very quickly sometimes not. System would freeze completely, sound would seem to be in a loop and the only way out was to hold the power button down to reboot. Memtest did'nt detect any errors and if I used either of the 1gb chips by itself the system would work fine. Since I installed two brand new 1Gb memory chips from Samsumg with more or less sequential serial numbers I have had no crashes whatsoever.

so, would you say you're happy with the FireGL performance on games? What kind of games? I'm a little torn, it's not much more to get the T60p, and I want good game performance for my occasional gamin sessions.

[whakojacko]

Is there anyone who has concretly figured out the reason for these crashes.
In my case when i play games the computer freezes and the sound is like stuck in a loop and i have to hold the power button to turn it off.
I have pin-pointed that it is not a heat issue as it happenes sometimes when i have just turned it on and the computer is not very hot. It is not the ram (i guess) i ran Memtest86 and found no errors (i have the standard 1GB ram installed).
It is probably not a Game issue as it happens in like all the games i run and even sometimes when watching videos with media player.

my computer is a T60p 2007-FBG model and i run with all the updated drivers and bios. I use the Graphic drivers from lenovo.

Anyone have a clue what causes the crashes? It's very irretating to get a new laptop and have these random crashes. It's not supposed to happen.

Any help very much appriciated...

this is also happening to me, I am too running with 1x 1gb ram factory installed from lenovo (with standard gfx drivers)

[christopher_wolf]

Is there anyone who has concretly figured out the reason for these crashes.
In my case when i play games the computer freezes and the sound is like stuck in a loop and i have to hold the power button to turn it off.
I have pin-pointed that it is not a heat issue as it happenes sometimes when i have just turned it on and the computer is not very hot. It is not the ram (i guess) i ran Memtest86 and found no errors (i have the standard 1GB ram installed).
It is probably not a Game issue as it happens in like all the games i run and even sometimes when watching videos with media player.

my computer is a T60p 2007-FBG model and i run with all the updated drivers and bios. I use the Graphic drivers from lenovo.

Anyone have a clue what causes the crashes? It's very irretating to get a new laptop and have these random crashes. It's not supposed to happen.

Any help very much appriciated...

this is also happening to me, I am too running with 1x 1gb ram factory installed from lenovo (with standard gfx drivers)

I have seen that happen on a variety of systems and it has to do with how the drivers handle the memory. GTA Vice City and Far Cry can both exhibit this on certain hardware, especially if they are tweaked to use more or less objects. I tested that on my T43 and found that I could actually tweak the games to eliminate it altogether or cause it to occur frequently at certain points in-game.

Have you updated your drivers and what are the settings in the game? The settings might have to be tweaked off of default to get it to stop doing that.

[Jedacite]

I used to have this problem on a few games. I fixed it by updating directX and the ATI drivers (both were out of date.) I don't know which one fixed the problem, but at least one did.

It was about time too, as I was just too lazy more than anything else to actually update the computers ATI and DirectX driver.

[own6volvos]

Did the memory crash issue ever get fixed with the new bios revsions out recently? The issue was mentioned in the bios fix list from 2.04+

Version 79ETC7WW (2.07)

* (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 model only) Support for up to 224MB video memory.
Note: The video memory size will always show 224MB, however 224MB will only be allocated when required by 3D software.
* (Fix) 1802 error may occur at power-on with some types of USB device.

Version 79ETC6WW (2.06)

* (Fix) Improved battery operation time for models with an ATI M66 graphics chip.

Version 79ETC5WW (2.05)

* (Fix) Enabled ATI PowerPlay feature for models with an ATI M56/M66 graphics chip, that was disabled in BIOS version 2.04. The behavior of the ATI PowerPlay mode on the ATI M66 graphics chip was adjusted. According to these changes, the battery operation time of these models is improved.

Version 79ETC4WW (2.04)

* (Fix) Disabled ATI PowerPlay feature on a model with the ATI M56/M66 graphics chip, to fix M66 model intermittent Windows hang during battery operation. Due to this change, the battery operation time on a model with the ATI M56/M66 graphics chip has decreased.

Version 79ETC3WW (2.03)

* (Fix) Need to enter BIOS supervisor password after updating the BIOS to 79ETC1WW from 79ET67WW (or previous version), if the BIOS supervisor password is set at BIOS update.
Note: This problem does not occur once the system has been booted with BIOS 79ETC1WW. If you successfully updated with 79ETC1WW, you don't need to update with this 79ETC3WW

Version 79ETC1WW (2.01)

* (New) Support for October 2006 models.
* (Fix) Some versions of the EMM386 mistakenly write a hard drive's MBR area. It will not boot up after this. (FDISK /MBR may recover it)
* (Fix) Icons on the desktop will be rearranged by a LCD cover close/open action.
1. This problem occurs only on models with a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator. Machine type is 19xx.
2. Upgrade the display driver to version 6.14.10.4693 or later to fix this problem.

[MaloventEvil]

the memory crash problem that results from using 2 sticks of memory (1x non-Lenovo stick of memory) is most likely user error. To solve this, make SURE that the timings of the memory you are buying from newegg or wherever are the same as the timings from your existing stick of ram; money says that they are running a dual channel ram setup by default when you stick the ram in, and the slightly-off timings are effecting it heavily in a gaming / high memory usage situation.

long story short: check your memory timings, and make sure you have 2 sticks that match.

as for the crashing when having 1 stick of ram, please run memtest86 2-3 times and post your results here, and if that does identify the problem, try running the disk check utility on your hard drive to check for hdd errors (with the filesystem, not the drive itself). it could be hdd corruption causing os problems.

-mEvil

[whakojacko]

GRRRRRRRRRR........
my single stick of ram passed memtest 15 times without a single error. I did a proper (at boot) chkdsk without any errors, bios and graphi drivers are the newest, and im still getting crashes.

[Splaktar]

After getting my replacement RAM for my 2 bad SODIMMs, the machine has been running well in both WoW and SWG. No improvement in benchmarks, but at least it doesn't lock up anymore.

The latest drivers from Windows Update have turned out to be the best for me (via benchmarking). Crashes are completely gone with new RAM.

[wehugheog]

Well, I have the same issue on my t60p. WoW crashing at 1400x1050 resolution. It is better at 1024x768 but I want the detail that my t60p should be able to provide.

I have also read the thread for the t61.... Seems like the same thing.

My mainboard has been replaced recently (different issue), as for my screen and the battery so I will test the 1 stick "solution" first and maybe get some other memory to try that out.

As for the drivers, I have installed http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/ which is quite nice and works very well for me but does not fix the crashing in WoW.

[wehugheog]

Please see my post on the T61p GPU problems.

Go to ATI control center and set PowerPlay to balanced.

That did the trick for me. Ran 3 instances on WoW and no problems. The temperature is lower as well.

Hope it works for you as well.

[archer6]

hey thinkpad gurus we are really facing a big problem here with T60p
plz if anyone knew how to fix this prblem just paste it here .. this is not only for me .. it's for all T60P owners who wants to play games

I believe this may be an incorrect statement. I've put my T60p through its paces since I purchased it new from Lenovo, March 2006, gaming and all. I have yet to have a problem. Nor have any of the 45+ T60p users in my company experienced this, as they are allowed to use their ThinkPads for games at their discretion.

Thus I might suggest that this not be labeled "for all T60p owners who are gamers".

Cheers

[bowspearer]

Having a smilar problem with Star Wars Galaxies and my T43. The game plays for a while then crashes with a BSOD before restarting. When windows reboots and sends off an error message, I get sent to a webpage telling me that I'm not DirectX 9.0 compatible. The irony is that according the SWGs config screen, I'm running DirectX 9.0.

Any ideas? I bought this laptop as a reconditioned unit last year and have made no hardware mods to it.