Thinkpads Forum

I use a w510 at 3 locations....2 different office buildings, and a home. At one of these locations (the only one of the office locations that has a pc in the room hooked to a network), the w510 locks up 3 or 4 times a day...but not at the other 2 locations. After it locks up, the hard drive light keeps blinking. Even when it's not locked up...but the screen blanker has deployed after 15 minutes of nonuse... the HDD light blinks constantly. Questions:

1. Why would the w510 lock up at only 1 of the 3 locations (the only 1 of the 3 with a networked pc running in the same room (the bluetooth radio is turned off at all times)?

2. What could be going on with the hard drive to keep it blinking when I'm not using it?

Can I assume that at all three locations your W510 is connected to a local network via ethernet or WiFi? Or is the one work location that has the networked PC the ONLY place where your system is connecting to a LAN? Or am I missing something and that your laptop is not supposed to be connecting at all in all three locations?

When your system locks up, I'm assuming that the cursor does not move in response to Trackpoint/Trackpad/mouse inputs. Nor does the keyboard work. If the screen remains active, what happens with the system time display in the Taskbar? Does it also stop counting? If the screen blanks out during these lockups, what have you tried to do to get the system running again? Do you do a CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot or do you have to hold the power button down?

There's a whole bunch of reasons why the HDD LED would be blinking even if you're "not using" the system; everything from an operating system or program update, to somebody or something accessing your data.

Thanks for the reply.

The w510 is NEVER connected to any network via any means,and never has been. The network in the one office (of the 3) is hooked to a pc sitting on the floor which, in turn, is hooked to a monitor on my desk.

Yes...when the lockup occurs...the curstor freezes and the keyboard is unresponsive. Three finger salute (control/alt/delete) has no effect. The only way I can get back to work is to disconnect the power cord and remove the battery. AFter that, by the way, does win7pro do a behind-the-scene chkdsk/f automatically..or do I need to be doing those after such lockups like in the old dos & xp days?

I haven't noticed if the clock continues counting at the bottom right of the screen. I'll look at that next time it locks up.

"There's a whole bunch of reasons why the HDD LED would be blinking even if you're "not using" the system; everything from an operating system or program update, to somebody or something accessing your data."

There are no system updates, as I have and will never allow the machine to hook to the net or any other network for any reason...at least not knowingly. I have no way of knowing if some network or person can access my system even when the physical bluetooth switch is turned off.
I have no reason to believe there is any spyware or virus code on the system. All such checks turn up nothing.

The w510 HDD light blinks incessantly from the time I turn the system on to the time I turn the system off...whether it is frozen or not. I find it very strange the flashing continues even when the system freezes.

DLDavis wrote:I use a w510 at 3 locations....2 different office buildings, and a home. At one of these locations (the only one of the office locations that has a pc in the room hooked to a network), the w510 locks up 3 or 4 times a day...but not at the other 2 locations. After it locks up, the hard drive light keeps blinking. Even when it's not locked up...but the screen blanker has deployed after 15 minutes of nonuse... the HDD light blinks constantly. Questions:

1. Why would the w510 lock up at only 1 of the 3 locations (the only 1 of the 3 with a networked pc running in the same room (the bluetooth radio is turned off at all times)?

2. What could be going on with the hard drive to keep it blinking when I'm not using it?

When do you use the laptop in the office that causes problems? is it during the same time of the day? Right when the laptop is powered on in the office does it freeze? When the laptop does freeze, what is happening right before it? Is it idle?

Try checking the event log for any relavant errors or warnings. Does disk defragmenter run in the background?
Also, try disabling all networking devices via BIOS to make absolutely sure that no network access occurs on the system (though I doubt that would solve the issue).

Quoting you...answering your questions:

When do you use the laptop in the office that causes problems, is it during the same time of the day?
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Work day is 8:30 to 4:30. The lock ups start within 1 to 2 hours of startup, though at no systematic time I've been able to see. It continues to happen 3 or 4 times by the end of the day. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but it seems to happen far less if the networked desktop is turned off. I haven't specifically tested that theory yet.
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Right when the laptop is powered on in the office does it freeze?
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No. It takes awhile...maybe an hour or so of work.
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When the laptop does freeze, what is happening right before it? Is it idle?
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No...I'll just be using it as normal...and suddenly realize it's not responding to any input from any device...keyboard, mouse, etc. You asked me last week to see if the clock freezes. It does.
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Try checking the event log for any relavant errors or warnings
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How do I access the event log? I'll google that.
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Does disk defragmenter run in the background?
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I don't know. I'll have to check that. In never set it to do so, but it may by default. I do know each time I've checked to see it the disc is fragmented, the system tells me 0%.
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Also, try disabling all networking devices via BIOS to make absolutely sure that no network access occurs on the system (though I doubt that would solve the issue)
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I'll have to muck around with that. I used to access bios all the time in my desktop machines, but haven't thus far with the w510. I do know I have the radio turned off via the switch at the left front side of the keyboard. The little green signal light is off...supposedly indicating the wifi is off.

Also, try booting of of a Linux live USB and see if you get the same issue.

brchan wrote:Also, try booting of of a Linux live USB and see if you get the same issue.

I've had absolutely NO experience with Linux, and haven't a clue where to start. I did boot into the cmos and turned off all LAN and radios. That should help a lot. I will be at the suspect office tomorrow. Should be interesting to see if I get any lockups.

I may have found the culprit. The problem behaviors returned the other day after I got back from lunch. Prior to lunch, instead of backing out and powering down, I put the machine into sleep mode (i.e., closed the lid, waited for the beep, and locked it in a vault.) The problems returned when I did. So, I unloaded all running programs, backed out of the operating system, and powered down. After turning the machine on again, there were no more problems. I've read here and there that some Lenovos get goofy after waking up from sleep or hibernation mode. At the other two offices, I generally just turn the machine off.

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rkawakami wrote:Can I assume that at all three locations your W510 is connected to a local network via ethernet or WiFi? Or is the one work location that has the networked PC the ONLY place where your system is connecting to a LAN? Or am I missing something and that your laptop is not supposed to be connecting at all in all three locations?

When your system locks up, I'm assuming that the cursor does not move in response to Trackpoint/Trackpad/mouse inputs. Nor does the keyboard work. If the screen remains active, what happens with the system time display in the Taskbar? Does it also stop counting? If the screen blanks out during these lockups, what have you tried to do to get the system running again? Do you do a CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot or do you have to hold the power button down?

There's a whole bunch of reasons why the HDD LED would be blinking even if you're "not using" the system; everything from an operating system or program update, to somebody or something accessing your data.

Not. It locked up twice this morning for no apparent reason, and this after fresh start first thing this morning. I give up.

DLDavis wrote:I may have found the culprit. The problem behaviors returned the other day after I got back from lunch. Prior to lunch, instead of backing out and powering down, I put the machine into sleep mode (i.e., closed the lid, waited for the beep, and locked it in a vault.) The problems returned when I did. So, I unloaded all running programs, backed out of the operating system, and powered down. After turning the machine on again, there were no more problems. I've read here and there that some Lenovos get goofy after waking up from sleep or hibernation mode. At the other two offices, I generally just turn the machine off.

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rkawakami wrote:Can I assume that at all three locations your W510 is connected to a local network via ethernet or WiFi? Or is the one work location that has the networked PC the ONLY place where your system is connecting to a LAN? Or am I missing something and that your laptop is not supposed to be connecting at all in all three locations?

When your system locks up, I'm assuming that the cursor does not move in response to Trackpoint/Trackpad/mouse inputs. Nor does the keyboard work. If the screen remains active, what happens with the system time display in the Taskbar? Does it also stop counting? If the screen blanks out during these lockups, what have you tried to do to get the system running again? Do you do a CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot or do you have to hold the power button down?

There's a whole bunch of reasons why the HDD LED would be blinking even if you're "not using" the system; everything from an operating system or program update, to somebody or something accessing your data.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... on-windows Boot off of the USB stick afterwards.

Try that, and if everything is fine, the problem is probably not hardware. I would also run some HDD tests while you are at it.