Maddening Random Lockup - T61

[CYoung234]

Machine in my sig, running XP SP2. I have had this happen 4 or 5 times now, where the T61 will simply freeze - it seems like it could have something to do with sleep mode, or it might have something to do with Fortinet VPN software on the machine, but it is maddening, in that there is never a clue as to what happened. I cannot find any events that correlate. I suspect a driver, which I have seen cause these types of problems in other systems before, but I do not know how to get it to do this so that I can get a pointer where to look for the problem. And, yes, like a dummy, I let System Update do it's thing, although I can certainly start from scract again, and will if I have to. Help!!!

[truk]

Does it resume from the freeze, or do you need to restart? Also, is there any error or hint that it had happened after the freeze?

[CYoung234]

and, no "your system has recovered from a serious error" message or anything like that. Nothing. One time, I got a message indicating it MIGHT have been a device driver, but no hint as to what device driver.

If I cannot figure it out shortly, I will try backing out the video card driver first.

[LouK]

and, no "your system has recovered from a serious error" message or anything like that. Nothing. One time, I got a message indicating it MIGHT have been a device driver, but no hint as to what device driver.

If I cannot figure it out shortly, I will try backing out the video card driver first.

There was a recent BIOS upgrade. I was shutting down when the Thinkpad went to sleep. The BIOS upgrade fixed that. FYI, I am running VISTA Ultimate, so this could be related. Hope that helps.

[eecon]

Machine in my sig, running XP SP2. I have had this happen 4 or 5 times now, where the T61 will simply freeze - it seems like it could have something to do with sleep mode, or it might have something to do with Fortinet VPN software on the machine, but it is maddening, in that there is never a clue as to what happened. I cannot find any events that correlate. I suspect a driver, which I have seen cause these types of problems in other systems before, but I do not know how to get it to do this so that I can get a pointer where to look for the problem. And, yes, like a dummy, I let System Update do it's thing, although I can certainly start from scract again, and will if I have to. Help!!!

Any clues from your Temp folders?

[truk]

Try disabling sleep and hibernate modes, and re-install the drivers from the IBM website to make sure windows did not overwrite them.

[CYoung234]

and used the MS Debugger to analyze it. It was from January 29, and pointed to DLAIFS_M.SYS as the culprit driver, which is part of Sonic DLA. Anyone else been having problems of this type?

I am also zeroing in on a way to replicate the problem, but so far, all the hangs are total lockups with no dumpfiles created. The way I am doing this requires using my VPN connection into my office and starting Outlook. If I let the machine sit for a while, it locks up. I will keep tying this to see if I can get a dumpfile.

[eecon]

and used the MS Debugger to analyze it. It was from January 29, and pointed to DLAIFS_M.SYS as the culprit driver, which is part of Sonic DLA. Anyone else been having problems of this type?

I am also zeroing in on a way to replicate the problem, but so far, all the hangs are total lockups with no dumpfiles created. The way I am doing this requires using my VPN connection into my office and starting Outlook. If I let the machine sit for a while, it locks up. I will keep tying this to see if I can get a dumpfile.

Check this link .... I have disabled DLA:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... =sonic+dla

[CYoung234]

Removed DLA, but was still able to replicate the hangup. So, I am recoviering from Maintenance Partition right now. I will test it with that, and, assuming this works correctly, I will add drivers one at a time to figure out which one it was. I will report back.

[CYoung234]

Removed DLA, but was still able to replicate the hangup. So, I am recoviering from Maintenance Partition right now. I will test it with that, and, assuming this works correctly, I will add drivers one at a time to figure out which one it was. I will report back.

Okay, I recovered the system from the maintenance partition, reinstalled my apps, only installed the System Update stuff that was not drivers, etc. I did take most of the items from Microsoft Update, including a new NVidia graphics driver. The crashes are gone. Cannot say for sure what the bad driver was. Lesson Learned - do not blindly assume that new drivers are better (I have learned that one over and over - just need occasional reminders!).

[CYoung234]

Removed DLA, but was still able to replicate the hangup. So, I am recoviering from Maintenance Partition right now. I will test it with that, and, assuming this works correctly, I will add drivers one at a time to figure out which one it was. I will report back.

Okay, I recovered the system from the maintenance partition, reinstalled my apps, only installed the System Update stuff that was not drivers, etc. I did take most of the items from Microsoft Update, including a new NVidia graphics driver. The crashes are gone. Cannot say for sure what the bad driver was. Lesson Learned - do not blindly assume that new drivers are better (I have learned that one over and over - just need occasional reminders!).

Well, I spoke too fast. It crashed while I was typing . Back to the drawing board.