Thinkpads Forum

Ok I think I am getting onto something here;

The problem that I had on my thinkpad was that it would occasionally freeze up completely (I am talking about hard lock when mouse locks up and the whole computer is irresponsive). It would happen once a day or not at all but the next day it would happen again. Occasinally though mouse would WAKE up after it stalls, but that stalling is telling me that something is wrong.

I have a bit strange way of installing XP (home edition). Since I don't have original CD I use Win98 to install it and then use I386 folder to install it from gateway notebook (or sony) which worked fine in the past on all other notebooks or desktops I used. So then I simply have Windows XP Home Edition SP2 installed with nothing else added to it.

Then I found something strange by accident!

I only added US Robotics 7901A adapter for internet access (PCMCIA) and went to comcast.net webpage.

I log in to check the mail and internet explorer immediately closes down on it's own. Then I do this again and Internet Explorer encounters an error and closes. Then finally the third time it might work but the next time it will do one or the other things I mentioned. So this is telling me that something is wrong in the way data is generally being processed with specific request made. I mean if it works elsewhere why does it not work here?

So 4 out of 5 times comcast.net logon will not work. I suspect that there is either;

1. wrong installation of XP OEM
2. hardware defect (likely processor)

Usually when I check the properties I would get information that CPU is running at 499 or 650 Mhz.

All of a sudden (once) I have seen that it's runnnig at 378 Mhz which could be due to a speedstep technology except that it's a really strange number though (378Mhz ?).

So did anyone Ever see anything like this? I can't wait to get home today to do some work on this notebook.

The strange CPU speed makes me guess that you are running Windows 2000. When it enters a "max battery" mode, the front side bus speed is reduced by about one-half. That would account for the ~378Mhz reading. A quirk that I've seen with Win2K is that you need to have the AC adapter plugged into the laptop prior to powering it up in order to get the "full" speed out of the processor.

As far as your other issues, if you can go to other web sites and not encounter any problems, then I would assume that comcast.net is using some sort of feature (ActiveX, Flash, etc.) that is causing your problem.

Hmm, ye'r right I just tested this at work and Latitude C640 pretty much has the same response on the naked Windows XP installation. Page is causing Internet Explorer to crash which I think is caused by Flash Player. The page just looks different on non-updated XP.

So now what's leftover for me is to diagnose the darn Mouse Stall - I'll start with memory since different hard disk (much better Samsung MP4020H had the same occurence.

Maybe this system doesn't like 10/100 NIC's so I'll have to stick the original 10 mbps 3Com card.

I really don't know what else to do - except to ask if there is a way to disable - enable speedstep technlogy for troubleshooting purposes, sort of have the CPU run cooler?

UDX wrote:Maybe this system doesn't like 10/100 NIC's so I'll have to stick the original 10 mbps 3Com card.

600X systems in general will be quite happy with 10/100 NICs. However, it is certainly possible that your network card and/or combination of card + router/ISP connection is causing your system to freeze. I have experienced that kind of thing before with a bad router and also with a bad network card. But if that is the case, then it is not *only* because you are using a 100 mbps card.

UDX wrote:I really don't know what else to do - except to ask if there is a way to disable - enable speedstep technlogy for troubleshooting purposes, sort of have the CPU run cooler?

Have you installed the Intel SpeedStep applet for Win2000?:
Intel SpeedStep Technology Applet - ThinkPad 600X, A2*, T2*, X2*, TransNote.

Well I can't tell for sure yet, however, it appears that after some testing I am getting less mouse stalls after removal of 64 Meg Stick that was placed in. Can't tell if the stick is defective, but with 128 Megs + 32 Megs (replaced) + on board 64 megs unit is now at 224 megs of Ram which is my targeted RAM size at least on any pc. So now I just have to keep using it and will conclude if that was the defect.

And yes as strange as it may sound I did find a 32 Meg Stick that's PC100. I didn't even realize this and I think I pulled it from an old Dell Inspiron 3500.