T60p, broken memory slot

[nomissa]

A few weeks ago, my T60p started crashing and blue screening frequently, so I took it to a repair shop to get it checked out. After testing all the hardware on the laptop, the repair guy told me that lower slot for the ram is broken. He said that it has something to do with the graphics card being so close to the memory, and because it's a powerful card, the fact that it tends to run hot can lead to problems with the memory slot. Apparently, it's a common issue with the T60p.

The laptop now runs fine with one stick of ram, but I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to get it repaired other than paying $400+ for a new motherboard (the warranty ran out a few months ago). If it's a common enough issue, is there any chance Lenovo would be nice and replace it for free? Otherwise, I'll have to settle for a single stick of ram for the rest of my computer's life

[Brad]

Sorry to hear of your trouble.

This is the first I have heard on this forum of this problem. And again the first I have heard of the power of our graphics card. Of course everyone wants a 100% working laptop. If you use a 2gb chip you would be missing out on 1gb unless you upgraded your CPU to a Core 2 Duo and are using a 64 bit operating system. In that case you would be missing out on 2gb. I would be concerned that if the memory slot has failed what is going to fail next.

Which GPU or graphics chip does your T60p sport?

Brad

[nomissa]

The graphics card is an ATI FireGL 5250.

I have a 2 GB stick of ram in the remaining good slot so I'm only 1 GB short of the max, but like you said, I want my computer to be fully functional if at all possible.

[tylerwylie]

Sorry to hear of your trouble.

This is the first I have heard on this forum of this problem. And again the first I have heard of the power of our graphics card. Of course everyone wants a 100% working laptop. If you use a 2gb chip you would be missing out on 1gb unless you upgraded your CPU to a Core 2 Duo and are using a 64 bit operating system. In that case you would be missing out on 2gb. I would be concerned that if the memory slot has failed what is going to fail next.

Which GPU or graphics chip does your T60p sport?

Brad

The T60 can only see 3Gb, regardless of 64bit or not, it's a BIOS limitation.

[Troels]

I fear you must have been told a lie, it's not a common fault with the t60p or t60. The memory slots resides right below the touch pad area, the GPU is just near the R-key.

See for example this:
http://bunniestudios.com/blog/images/t60_mb.jpg (Pic warning)
If it was the GPU heat the cmos battery would have exploded earlier, and the I/O controller hub would have been fried too.
Also, if it claims that the GPU is the cause of these heat problems, but that does not explain why the four memory chips 1/10 inch away from the GPU ASIC still works.

Now we need to find a solution.
Do you still have both memory sticks? If yes, test each of the sticks seperately with memtest86 (in each slot.. that is 4 tests), and test them together afterwards.
http://www.memtest.org/

Are they of the same brand and/or speed?
Does the blue-screening happen out of nowhere, or do you have to do something on the computer?
If it's the first, it does sound like a stress point/solder joint related issue.
If it's the second, some memory blocks are not working correctly, so they can't be acessed, and can result in a BSOD or hang.

[richk]

There are 2 different kind of failures I've seen on memory slots, although never on the T60 series. In one kind, you have a failure of a solder connection between the slot and the motherboard. In thise cases, I can usually fix them. In the other kind, there is something busted in the support circuitry. From my point of view, those cannot be fixed. Send me a PM if you want to discuss. (I'm also in San Francisco.)

[archer6]

I fear you must have been told a lie, it's not a common fault with the t60p or t60.

I agree 100%. I have been using both a T60p and T60 since they were released, as well as having deployed 60 of them in my company. We run these hard as the type of work done uses all of the resources, speed and power of this particular model. At no time have we had such an issue appear. In addition, some of my employees are rather hard on their laptops, in terms of physical handling, thus if this was indeed an issue I feel certain that I would have heard about it.