X24 sudden death under load

[boffo]

My X24 sometimes dies abruptly. It doesn't blue screen or restart, it just dies as if it has suddenly lost power. It does this once or twice a week.

It seems to happen when under heavy load, e.g. when compiling an application, watching a video, or making heavy use of Google maps.

I ran a memory test using Memtest-86 but it found no errors. There's nothing relevant in the Windows event logs that I can see.

I'm at a loss what else to try. I realise this may not be a ThinkPad-specific problem, but does anyone have any suggestions what might be causing this?

[asiafish]

Perhaps its heat? Is the fan working properly?

[pianowizard]

Yeah, I bet it's the heat because I had a similar problem with an X20 that I used to own. The problem was solved by blowing cool air onto the computer (it was winter so that was done simply by opening a window and putting the X20 right in front of the window!).

[boffo]

So if it's the heat, what's the mechanism? Is it a protection mechanism built into the laptop (which could be adjusted), or is it just some random bad thing happening?

[rwmannco]

Do you have a large 7K disk in the machine? I note that the start-up power draw on these can cause the backlight to dim, suggesting it may be a low voltage sag causing the problem.

[daeojkim]

It sounds like a typical problem due to heat.

When was the last time you have cleaned the fan and heat sink?

First, remove keyboard and try to clean dust build up with air spray. You can use a vacuum cleaner but be very careful.

If you are comfortable disassembling the cooling unit and doing a more thorough cleaning and reapply thermal paste would be a good start.

JK

[boffo]

Thanks for all the responses everyone. It does seem likely that heat is the issue. I don't have the skills or at least the confidence to open up the thinkpad so if the problem becomes critical I will ask a Thinkpad expert to take a look for me.

Meanwhile, the TFT appears to be dying, see my next post.