a21m shut down (probably overheating)

[joeymolloy]

A year ago i purchused an ibm a21m thinkpad. after about 4 months the laptop started to shud down after being on for a few hours, and wouldn't restart properly for an hour or so. eventually i took the laptop back to the guy who sold it to me, who sent it in te be fixed, but when i got it back, i stil had the same exact problem, so the guy offered me another a21m model.

now some 3-4 months later i am starting to experience similar problems again. my laptop shuts down, or sometimes freezes up without warning, and usualy i will have to let it sit for a half hour before it wil start up again.
however the problem is not exactly the same. with the other laptop, after locking up, the laptop would constantly freeze in the windows start up screen. Now, usually I get a black screen right from the start and my laptop won't start up anything. That, and sometimes my laptop shuts down a couple times a day, and sometimes it won't for a few days

from looking around on the internet i figure this is probably some sort of overheating problem. but what can i do to prevent this. Did the guy just give me a laptop with improper cooling system (twice!!) and should i go back to him again, or is this something normal that i can fix myself. i notice that the fan in the back isn't broken, but most of the time it isn't spinning, don't know if that's of any significance but oh well.

i hope some of you know how i can fix this or what i should do

[Deb Suran]

This is a known issue. Do the following. First, re-seat the RAM chip(s). If that doesn't work, replace the CMOS battery. If that doesn't work, re-seat the CPU chip. And if that doesn't work, your motherboard is toast.

[joeymolloy]

alright i'll try do do this. I also get the blie screen errors a lot when my computer locks up (not always, but most of the time), and the blue screen then reports an error with a code, but this is a different one each time. today i got

Page Fault in Non paged area
STOP: 0x00000050 (0xA0817502, 0x00000001, 0x8055A25C, 0x00000000)

Driver IRQL not Less or Equal
STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x92F9CD53, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x82F9CD53)

but I'm getting blue screen errors left and right, different ones each time mostly. Sometimes i get errors that say there's a damaged/missing file when I start up, while other times it'll start up just fine. I honestly have no idee what al this means, do you think it has something with the software on the laptop (conflicting programs etc) or that it has something to do with 'physical things' like temperature etc.

[jjackson02]

Good luck with your problem, I've an a22m which has some of the same issues (& more).

[a31pguy]

PIIIs and PIII-Ms were notoriously hot and I'd bet dollars to donuts that your motherboard is "cooked". logic circuits and capacitors fried out of spec, cracked chips, resistance too high on connections. Literally - it's been baked. Toast, as another user put it. You can find them on the internet for $$. But since your laptop is this old - you may want to think about a new one.

Sometimes - this is because a CPU fan wore out - sometimes - it's just faulty cooling and laptop design.

Good luck.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[joeymolloy]

ok i thought i had the laptop fixed, because it didn't shut down on me for two days, but today again it shutdown. i'm about to take it back to the guy who sold it to me to see what he can do, but before i go there and make an [censored] out of myself, you guys don't think this is a software related problem is it? that would look pretty stupid if i go there and the problem seems to be a program or something that i could've just deleted.

[Deb Suran]

Take it back for refund or exchange. I have an A22m that'll work for as long as two weeks without shutting down, other times it won't turn on, or won't boot completely. These intermittent problems are an indication of the motherboard issue many of us have experienced.