Thinkpads Forum

when I start certain games such as fear my computer will randomly shutdown. Sometimes the game will freeze for a second after which (when i ctrl alt delete) and get to the desktop a message displayed say video driver stopped working but has recovered - I can then resume the game. The driver I am running was installed when i did windows update (dated 8/23). When I called lenovo support with the question they said to use their driver (dated in july) which I am installing right now. One more thing to note is I have run multiple hardware diagnostic tests which have come up empty.


Thanks for your help,

~Liam

I got the same thing, and I've posted multiple times about it. It's definitely not a Vista problem, because the problem persists in XP.

try this one

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/ind ... opic=14560
v163.44 XP 32bit | NVIDIA, "BiOSHOCK" - nVision

its the version that works w/ bioshock.

thats the XP version, but im sure u can find the vista one.
its 163.44

that driver is for a 32 bit version of vista - I've tried one of those laptop2vid drivers before with no luck, you have to modify an INF file or something? also - has anyone had any success with lenovo support?

UPDATE:

I installed the 163.33 BIOshock driver for vista - it installed fine but made no difference - the comptuer still shut down after a few seconds of running the game ---- pocket aces, did you install extra RAM?

UPDATE:

ok well I installed this windows 'hotfix' that deals with vRAM and games....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105

I dont know if I just got lucky but the computer does not crash anymore - the video card continually 'freezes up'(giving me the error message that the display driver has stopped working but recovered) making it unplayable still, but it does not shut off the computer which leads me to believe that this problem has something to do with the video card.... ugh.....

Please run tests on your memories via Memtest86 and try to stay away from 3rd party drivers for your gpu other than provided by lenovo or nVidia official website.

I've installed every possible driver, applied every possible hotfix, and I still have the problem. I've also run Memtest, and it came up blank.

do you believe this is a problem with third party RAM? I remember reading a review (I believe notebookreview.com saying they played FEAR in their test) I will exchange my 2x2gb 3rd party RAM with the 1 gb 1dimm that came with my computer and see if I can play FEAR

FWIW, I have not seen your problems. I have only had the system about a day though. I played Oblivion for a couple of hours last night without a problem (for testing purposes only of course . I have 4gb ram and Vista 64 Business ...both sodimms are Transcend 2gb sticks I got from Newegg. I was running them in my T60p for a couple of weeks without a problem too.

It seems as if it is a memory problem - but the memory itself is not compromised, the compatibility is just sketchy. I ordered 2 2gb sticks of crucial memory. Does anyone know if there is any sort of fix in sight? does crucial ever release fixes?

I use the stock RAM

what? XXXX well im using 1gb of the stock and it works fine - maybe it running 2 memory modules that messes it up
I will o more testing and get back to you guys

MOD EDIT: Please watch your language.

OK figured out the problem! This is what I did... First I took out all the ram and just put in the 1 gb 1 dimm stick that came with the computer . FEAR and OS ran fine. I then took out the 1gb stock stick and replaced with 1 2gb stick of crucial. FEAR and OS ran fine. I then tried the other slot with the same stick - again FEAR and OS ran fine. I then repeated this using the other crucial stick (put it in both slots) FEAR and OS ran fine again. Then I tried a 2gb crucial and a 1 gb stock - everything including gmae ran fine. It seems there is only a problem (most likely between the vid card and 4gb RAM, or just the RAM) when there are 2, 2gb sticks (brand doesn't seem to matter.


now... how to fix this problem...?

well iI feel like an idiot - everything runs fine now, it seems it was simply a matter of reinserting the RAM

Liamo0o wrote:well iI feel like an idiot - everything runs fine now, it seems it was simply a matter of reinserting the RAM

I am glad things worked out for you. Imagine the time you would've saved by doing so before.

I think I'll go try that. Can someone point out how I can get access to the RAM (where the slots are, which screws to take out)?

Pocket Aces wrote:I think I'll go try that. Can someone point out how I can get access to the RAM (where the slots are, which screws to take out)?

Here is a Memory removal movie for T60/p, it applies to T61/p as well.

Here is Memory removal and installation instrutions for ThinkPad T61.

Okay everything is fine and dandy when I have just one stick of 1 GB, but when I reinsert the second stick, it all goes to hell again. WTF? Should I buy new RAM? Am I doomed to only use one RAM slot?

UGH!!!! scratch what I said about it working earlier. It works better now but I still get random shutdowns. The game is running smoother and longer than before and I no longer get the message 'display driver has stopped working'. I am goign to try with the lenovo driver and see if it works OK - anyone else try playing games on vista (64 especially) with 4 gigs of ram and having trouble?

I have a NEW 16 day old System Model 64575KU its a nice sexy T61p. it came with 2gb of ram and 100 GB 7200 rpm hard disk drive. screen can do 1900x1200 15.4"

let me tell u its nice. Canada lenovo wants some 3200 for it. but i goto school so she gave it to me for like 2600 tax and shipping incl.

now heres the thing.

On day 14 it shutdown. and NO not windows shut down, i mean the POWER JUST CUT OUT!

It was not that hot, at that time i was doing a download from grabit and working on electronics workbench multisim 10.0.

Then again today it shut down, JUST POWERED OFF NO WARNING!!..

I have check the System event viewer to find some clues as to why, but nothing,

Again after the first time today it shut of again for now a 3'rd time!!


what is this?

I have new drivers and am running vista 32 ultimate,


let me explane the first time it shut down i was on a 6cell and powersupply.


then today it shut down twice in vista bisness 64 and no battery and advanced dock.

so its not the OS, nor is it the "powersupply" cable.

its the hardware.

BTW: i have upgraded the ram, i ordered FRU:40y7735 and they sent me a SAMSUNG chip its 2gb same spec as the 2GB that came with the CPU

now it total im running 4GB ram.


needless to say i called IBM/Lenovo canada tech support and they told me a NEW mother board is needed.


I said, NO WAY! its less then 30 days i want a NEW one, so he told me in 3 days i will get a new one and have to send this back.

so here is what im thinking,

Give back the samsung ram, and keep the ram that it came with to match it with the NEW one.

this way the ram will be same name right, as the new one comeing in 3 days only will have 2GB so i will take that and the 2GB the old one came with, and ship back the old one with the NEW ram FRU stated above..

what do u think guys?

I forgot to say in the previous post:

I have took the cdrom dvd drive and put it in the advanced bay,

and in place of it i have put in the laptop a NEXT 100gb 7200 rpm hard disk.

i know they get hot those drives and i have 2 of them in my laptop.

but can that make enough heat to do this?

maybe not alone right?

but with the GPU and the CPU then maybe ?

No way, that is crazy.

well multiple people are having this problem so I doubt its a hardware issue unless they had a bunch of defective parts. I agree this is not an OS specific problem, nor is it a power supply issue. I also believe it depends on the game you are running - keep in mind these card are not meant to be used for playing games - I think certain games would work fine whereas others run into problems. I am going to try running with a 2gb and a 1gb stick - if this works fine we can safely say this is not a hardware issue (as both slots are being used) nor is it an issue with 3rd party RAM (since 1 third party stick will be used) - I believe the problem lies with vista trying to utilize all 4gb of RAM.

The general consensus is that this is a RAM-related problem, either with the sticks of RAM or with the way the Thinkpad handles RAM. Go figure.

ok well I just finished playing fear for about 40 minutes using 1 stick of 1gb stock and 1 stick of 2gb crucial. FEAR played very well. In the 40 minutes I was playing it did not once crash - as opposed to running with 4gb of RAM and having it crash consistently within the first 5 minutes. however, about every 15 minutes I would get the "the display driver has stopped working but has recovered" message and the game would turn black for a few seconds and freeze (was able to resume). This has lead me to my final conclusion - the thinkpad has some problem dealing with higher amounts of RAM in conjunction with the video card.

Liamo0o wrote:well multiple people are having this problem so I doubt its a hardware issue unless they had a bunch of defective parts. I agree this is not an OS specific problem, nor is it a power supply issue. I also believe it depends on the game you are running - keep in mind these card are not meant to be used for playing games - I think certain games would work fine whereas others run into problems. I am going to try running with a 2gb and a 1gb stick - if this works fine we can safely say this is not a hardware issue (as both slots are being used) nor is it an issue with 3rd party RAM (since 1 third party stick will be used) - I believe the problem lies with vista trying to utilize all 4gb of RAM.

I too would like to blame vista,

However, for me both versions: Vista 32bit Ultimate and Vista 64 Buisness had the same conciquence, they both shut off the cpu NOT SHUT DOWN, and it had nothing to do with playing games both times!

Your just noticeing it dureing game play as that might be the most usage you get from your laptop.

I have had this dureing Video watching (blueray and HD quality) also dureing RAR/ZIPing files as i was CRC checking an archive with Quickpar.

And just now about 20min ago when i was play UT2004 for about 2.5 hours and then when i extited the game and clicked on the desktop and just draged the blue selection encapsilating box for icons did it just shut down.

its nothing to do with Vista, as both versions 64 bit and 32 big did the same thing, and we know they handel RAM difrently (hence: 64bit shows me all 4gb, and 32bit shows me only 3.02)

I think its the FSB and the North Bridge, look at some pics of its heatsink they r way to small, especialy when its gonna run hotter now that WE BOTH HAVE (me and you) upgraded to dule chanel ram.

that is the problem .. i think its heat, and the HIGH Limit is cutting it out.

I want a proper fix NOT DOWN CLOCKING MY CPU!, its a 2.4 4mb cache core 2 duo, im not gonna pay big bucks to down clock it.

there should be a NEW mother board that can run cooler and video and cpu that all run cooler, and if there is not then please for god sake i want my 3000 yes my three thousand dollars back! no re stocking fee, this is stupid!

hmm... interesting point - I too have a 2.4 core 2 duo and do not want to downclock it. As a side note I installed a driver dated 8/23 from windows update - when I tried playing FEAR it shutdown almost instantly (this could just be chance, but with the lenovo driver it had never shutdown -both cases are using 3gb RAM -) I am reinstalling the lenovo driver so maybe there is a software fix to this seemingly hardware problem - I am going to call lenovo software Monday

Liamo0o wrote:hmm... interesting point - I too have a 2.4 core 2 duo and do not want to downclock it. As a side note I installed a driver dated 8/23 from windows update - when I tried playing FEAR it shutdown almost instantly (this could just be chance, but with the lenovo driver it had never shutdown -both cases are using 3gb RAM -) I am reinstalling the lenovo driver so maybe there is a software fix to this seemingly hardware problem - I am going to call lenovo software Monday

sounds like your comp is overheating and powering down

FNAKFHE wrote:

Liamo0o wrote:

what's the ambient temp like? are you blocking the fan inadvertently?

there is nothing within at least a 3 inch perimeter of my computer - it is sitting on my dosk connected to an advanced mini dock -I am not sure how to check ambient temperature. Would running higher amounts of RAM increase the temperature as well?