T60p 2008V2P with ATI 5200 = Black screen / freeze / bsod

[trevize]

BIOS Version 2.01
I've updated to lastest drivers of everything.
Tried Omega ATI drivers as well.

But just normal use (ie reading email with firefox) and my screen will go black/off. However, the notebook is still functioning just fine. Meaning the laptop doesn't necessarily hang/lockup. I cat hit EALT-F4 and close firefox, hit ALT-F4 again and start the shutdown and reboot. After the reboot the video comes back.

Running diags it fails somewhere in the middle, goes black and reboots.

Playing games does the same thing. Game will run for about 5 min then the screen will just go black. I can still here game sounds, I can still here actions I take in the game (ie shoot). I can even quit out of the game and sometimes the video will come back upon exit sometimes not.

I get this from the MS diag thingy:


Error type Windows stop error (A message appears on a blue screen with error code information)
Solution available? Yes
What does this error mean? You received this message because a device driver installed on your computer caused the Windows operating system to stop unexpectedly. This type of error is referred to as a "stop error." A stop error requires you to restart your computer.
Cause A video adapter device driver
Computer symptoms A message appears on a blue screen with error code information:

STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER
- or -
STOP: 0x100000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M

[BillMorrow]

if you have a memory upgrade, start searching there..

got to run, appointment is here..

[Kyocera]

Like bill says remove the memory modules, then remove anything plugged into the machine, usb, dock, etc. See what happens, then get on the horn to tech support.

[trevize]

Has 2gb memory that it came with as ordered from Lenovo.

Hmmm

have nothing but a USB mouse plugged in....

Odd.... Could it be the extra gb of ram?

Find it hard to believe to be the USB mouse that I've used on many other notebooks without issue....

[stephenaron]

IBM is sending me 2 new ram chips as we speak, because mine are part of some bad batch they said. If you can take the chip out, they said that if the FRY # number on the chips is 40Y8403, then you might have a bad chip too. Call IBM if you have that FRU.

[trevize]

Spoke with ibm. Seems I have the same bad batch of memory.

They are sending me 2 1gb chips to swap... We'll see if that fixes all my issues.

[stephenaron]

Just installed the 2 new chips and used CD's to bring T60p back to facotry install. So far so good, though its still early. Side note, the recovery process wasnt as seamless as it used to be on my T23.

[stephenaron]

well i am back. Laptop still freezes sometimes. Yesterday i was battery power...out and about. Using gotomypc and i dimmed the screen. Came back 20 min later, and it was frozen. Did hard reboot, and it froze up with the windows splash screen, which was VERY VERY dim, so i almost couldnt see it. Shut down machine, waited 10 min, rebotted, all is ok. BUt this has happened quite a few times since i owned the machine. IBM has replaced both RAM chips. Thoughts? Could it be gotomypc? Power issues?

[stephenaron]

Been a while since i had this. Used to happen on my t60p and then IBM replaced the board and memory chips and all seemeed much better. Now its starting again. Sometimes when i am using the machine it will freeze during the windows splash screen and appear to have a black sceen, but you can faintly see the windwos status bar frozen. Anyone else? Heat issue?