Thinkpads Forum

I am disappointed to report that after playing Bioshock using 2 DIMMs for 30 minutes, the machine froze requiring a hard reboot. This is after I have the motherboard and both memory replaced by Lenovo. This has been happening many times already. I also using BIOS version 2.09 on my T61p.

generalsu wrote:I am disappointed to report that after playing Bioshock using 2 DIMMs for 30 minutes, the machine froze requiring a hard reboot. This is after I have the motherboard and both memory replaced by Lenovo. This has been happening many times already. I also using BIOS version 2.09 on my T61p.

That is why I hesitate to have my T61p repaired. I still belive that Lenovo will solve this problem by BIOS update. Or at least they will find out what really causes this issue.

generalsu wrote:I am disappointed to report that after playing Bioshock using 2 DIMMs for 30 minutes, the machine froze requiring a hard reboot. This is after I have the motherboard and both memory replaced by Lenovo. This has been happening many times already. I also using BIOS version 2.09 on my T61p.

Well, I don't normally use my T61p for gaming, but tried Crysis.exe in 64 bit folder, and 10 minutes in, died. Specifically, ran full screen but small 800x600 window, upped that to 1920x1200 external monitor resolution, it worked for 10 minutes. But when I went to change it to 1680x1050 (prior to exiting), so that it'd be playable on ThinkPad screen next time around, it crashed, black screen, unresponsive to any keyboard input, had to press power button.

Yeah, I'll watch and wait myself, not particularly worried that it won't get figured out, and far happier with this machine since Aug 30 2007 than I ever was with my T41 before it...although it does kind of remind me of the T30s with the continually-going-bad 2nd DIMM slot, oh well...

so i fixed the issue myself. and my laptop works great. wile waiting for my replacement mobo to come in i just put 1 2gig stick in and the laptop works GREAT!!. PROBLEM SOLVED. only use 1 stick

imnotahippie wrote:so i fixed the issue myself. and my laptop works great. wile waiting for my replacement mobo to come in i just put 1 2gig stick in and the laptop works GREAT!!. PROBLEM SOLVED. only use 1 stick

We all know this but it is just a workaround.

i know i was just messing around. my motherboard is on back order and so insted of sending it in waiting for the new mobo its only an hour away from my house. so as soon as it gets in ill see if that fixes the issue.

Who knows, let's imagine the best case scenario: a BIOS fix and/or video driver update gets us all past this, no mainboard swap needed (I have 3 T61p machines in my house). Then, maybe someday next year, 4GB SODIMMs are affordable, and perhaps another BIOS update supports 8GB memory (64 bit Vista), if the memory controller Lenovo used supports it. Finally, perhaps Penryn CPUs become affordable to buy and self-install (from discussions in this forum, should work with T61p).

If all this came true, say ~18 months from now, and the graphics issue a distant memory, with a faster CPU (same or less heat and watt burn), with 8GB of memory, and say a total outlay of under $300, that'd be a good thing. But if somebody has a dose of reality to share (like, perhaps the memory controller limits us to 4GB), please do share, thanks!

So i dropped off my laptop to the repaire shop on monday. and i got it back today. i'm running the 1gig ram chip that i got with the laptop and a 2gig chip i bought off the net for 46 bucks. before sending it in. games would only stay on for maybe 5 or so minutes. now that i got the new MOBO everything works just GREAT!!!

i ran 3Dmarks 06 with both the test as well as the demo and they both ran fine. i played bioshock for about 45 minutes and it also ran just great. as well as Counter Strike for a good 2 hours or so. and well it would seem that a motherboard replacement is the best way to go.

i will run some more games and tests and if anything is wrong i'll let you all know.
later dudes.

Congratulations!

You must be a happy camper.

Now enjoy your laptop.


Alacrity

Oh yes i am. thank you.

ive played a lot of games in the last few days, most of them for several hours and not had one lockup.

and the new mobo fixed a lot of other problems i was having. such as about every other time i turned on the laptop the wireless card was off and the only way to turn it back on again was to reboot. and it also would not go into standby. and if it ever did it would not come back on. i would have to do a hard shut off.

never spoke of this before cause this is thread is for graphics issue.

imnotahippie wrote:So i dropped off my laptop to the repaire shop on monday. and i got it back today. i'm running the 1gig ram chip that i got with the laptop and a 2gig chip i bought off the net for 46 bucks. before sending it in. games would only stay on for maybe 5 or so minutes. now that i got the new MOBO everything works just GREAT!!!

Good to see a new MOBO fixed your T61p graphics issues. Hopefully the other older T61p's can be fixed the same way, and the newer units already containing the updated MOBO will no longer have these problems.

Look forward to SnakeJW's report (and success) with the 3 new T61p's he is testing.

Sorry about the delay on the update folks, I have been extremely busy lately.

Ok, I tested all three brand new T61Ps using just 3Dmark06. Since I don't want to install any games on company's laptop. Two of them passed the test without any problems, but the 3rd one just failed. Random shutdown, etc. You got the picture.

As a result, it's being replaced instead of depot repairs. I guess corporate custumers get more attention than regular consumers.

Many thanks for your update.

Amazing to hear there are still problems with the T61p, even with a standard test like 3Dmark06 (vs stress testing with Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, and Crysis).

New T61p's CAN have a graphics problem, and still should be tested to check for problems (using 3Dmark06 as the minimum test, or 3D games as better test).

having 2 two Gb stick in the machine I'm not ale to get the machine to crash or freeze.

before I used the burnintest demo and i did get strange artifacts and freeze. However, now after the most recent bios update (2.0.9), and changin the PCI Express option in the BIOS graphic card options I'm unable to have the machine freeze up whilst running Crysis demo (1024 x 768, high settings) and various GPU stress tests.
3dmark 06 also completes without a problem.

Anyone who has a good set of steps to recreate this issue with a piece of software?

Mine doesn't bother even to start Crysis when in 'Maximum Performance' settings. I manage to play quite a period if there are some kind of power savings. So, the new BIOS and the newest drivers do not solve the problem.

To confirm what Florian said, the BIOS update willd not fix the problem.

I had my t61p serviced by IBM Romania. I have spoken by phone with a guy named George a few weeks ago to let him know about our problems here. I decided to wait a bit and keep an eye on this helpful thread hoping we will find a way to avoid planar replacement. Bad choice for me because after my email George ordered the mobo and it took only a few days to arrive. Today I took the laptop by myself and in 45 minutes they replaced the planar. Nice guys and super-service.

Now, it looks I am a happy person; everything runs without a hitch. I will keep you posted after intensive testing.

It seems Lenovo can not explain what was wrong. I am still waiting to find out the cause of our problems.

Any peeps out there with recently delivered T61(p)'s without the high-stress lockups/crashes?

a lot of us.

Really? So the situation has been resolved?? No more sudden lockups/crashes/BSOD's with either the Fx570m or NVS 140m?

Well, 1 out of 3 new T61p's received by SnakeJW's company on January 17, 2008 failed the graphics test -

SnakeJW wrote:Ok, I tested all three brand new T61Ps using just 3Dmark06. Since I don't want to install any games on company's laptop. Two of them passed the test without any problems, but the 3rd one just failed. Random shutdown, etc. You got the picture.

As a result, it's being replaced instead of depot repairs.

Maybe no more bad units after, say February 1st?

I have 3 T61p laptops with 64 bit Vista Ultimate installed.

One has Crysis for testing this problem, and within a minute or two of starting gameplay, using the 64 bit executable, it hung solid, black screen, nothing worked other than pushing and holding power switch.

Today, applied Vista SP1. Now I play for one or two minutes, then get some warning about the video driver not responding (I'm using Lenovo's NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 6/25/2007 7.15.11.145), but can't find that error in the logs. I do find this application error though, and fyi, didn't need to reboot:

Faulting application crysis.exe, version 1.0.0.1, time stamp 0x4718b76d, faulting module kernel32.dll, version 6.0.6001.18000, time stamp 0x4791ada5, exception code 0x0000087a, fault offset 0x000000000002649d, process id 0x19e8, application start time 0x01c870e495a48260.

tinkererguy wrote:I have 3 T61p laptops with 64 bit Vista Ultimate installed.

One has Crysis for testing this problem, and within a minute or two of starting gameplay, using the 64 bit executable, it hung solid, black screen, nothing worked other than pushing and holding power switch.

I take it your other two T61p's do not have this problem. Would there be anyway to identify the differences between the good and bad units (mfgr date, hardware, etc)?

rbena wrote:

tinkererguy wrote:I have 3 T61p laptops with 64 bit Vista Ultimate installed.

One has Crysis for testing this problem, and within a minute or two of starting gameplay, using the 64 bit executable, it hung solid, black screen, nothing worked other than pushing and holding power switch.

I take it your other two T61p's do not have this problem. Would there be anyway to identify the differences between the good and bad units (mfgr date, hardware, etc)?

Well, I only have Crysis on one of the 3 machines, just for testing this issue. I too wish there were a simple/quick way to test and repeat this issue. Frankly, day to day use, no issues really, it's just knowing that games can crash that bothers me a bit.

I commonly beat up on my T61p with a lot of CPU and disk load, for example, cloning a VM in VMware Workstation, move a large file to a NAS, and opening many large pdfs and many websites, all simultaneously, without worries of a crash.

But I would still like to know the root cause of the ability to crash my ThinkPad with a game, although recovery without a reboot under SP1 is hardly a big deal. And I haven't repeated this enough to know for sure if SP1 affected it for sure, just putting the info out there in case others find Vista SP1 makes a difference on their systems.

still waiting for them to give us the replacement T61p. They said the new one is on backorder. Geese

Has this issue been resolved yet at all? I mean generally the problem of spontaneous reboots, BSODs, stalling, crashing, etc on the T61's?

Haven't seen too many people post anything on here for a little while now... or elsewhere for that matter. Wonder what the problem was in the first place... huh....

icantux,

I think the thread had the cause pretty well nailed down to poor manufacturing of the motherboard that showed up under high temp thru intensive 3D gaming. Typically, a cold solder joint or poor solder joint would react as described in the thread.

I read the thread every once in a while with my fingers crossed hoping everyone will post back with good news when they receive new mobos from Lenovo. This has got to be frustrating to all those affected.

Alacrity

alacrityathome wrote:icantux,

I think the thread had the cause pretty well nailed down to poor manufacturing of the motherboard that showed up under high temp thru intensive 3D gaming. Typically, a cold solder joint or poor solder joint would react as described in the thread.

Alacrity

Ah! I see. I held off with a purchase for over a month because of the issue presented in this thread - hence the question, just to see if this issue still poses a problem for users of newly-delivered T61's. The month gave me time to consider other options such as the smaller x61 as well, but I'll stick with a T.

icantux,

Good decision.

Lenovo is well aware of the issue and now will readily replace the mobo for those PCs affected.

I think only 2007 PCs were affected and hopefully Lenovo has tightened up their mobo manufacturing techniques.

There are pretty good techniques (primarily proposed and developed by this thread by the way) that can check pretty quickly if there is any graphics issue.

let us know how you like your new T61p when you get it.

alacrity

Played Bioshock and CoD4 on my T61p received 2/22/08. T9300 and @x1GB of RAM. If my machine is a reliable indicator, they've fixed the problem.