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W530 locking up sometimes

W530/W540/W541/W550 Series
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atagunov
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W530 locking up sometimes

#1 Post by atagunov » Sun Sep 29, 2024 4:31 pm

Hi, using W530 as daily driver. Sadly never bothered to open and repaste. Recently dropped my backpack with it inside bad enough to crack plastic bottom shell in rear left part, hot air exhaust is now partially missing etc. Not opened for repairs yet. May need a new bottom part btw, in London.

So the issue: W530 is sitting docked at my desk with external monitor attached, there's an external USB dac (sound card) connected to a USB hub connected to the docking station. Sometimes after watching Youtube for a long time

- the picture freezes
- the mouse stops moving
- pressing anything on keyboard has no effect
- the sound continues for a while and then cuts out - via that external DAC

In several tens of seconds the machine comes back alive. I'm using software to remote into my work, and W530 is on WiFi. This software tells me it needs to re-establish connection, so it looks like it wasn't able to function either in this space of time.

Any ideas? I still sometimes carry this striken bird in my backpack around and take it out on the train etc. Could be purely a software issue, don't know. I'm on Windows 10. But I don't think I'd seen this before dropping the machine.
X220, 2 *T520

JBUK
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Location: Oxford UK

Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#2 Post by JBUK » Mon Sep 30, 2024 6:18 am

What does the event manager say when it freezes.
Where to begin......
390e FOR SALE : GONE
1 x T20 : SOLD
1 X T23 + 3 breaking for parts
1 X T23 with Samsung 840 SSD and XP Great combination !: SOLD
1 X T60
3 X T61
1 X T601 15"
1 X T520
2 X T530

atagunov
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Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#3 Post by atagunov » Mon Sep 30, 2024 3:48 pm

JBUK wrote:
Mon Sep 30, 2024 6:18 am
What does the event manager say when it freezes.
Thx for suggestion! Will check the next time it happens. Just by looking it there's an alarmingly high number of
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR1.
events but right now I don't know if they're linked to freezes
X220, 2 *T520

JBUK
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Posts: 246
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:29 am
Location: Oxford UK

Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#4 Post by JBUK » Mon Sep 30, 2024 4:37 pm

Could be a disk nearing end of life. Does the disk SMART data show any problems. If theres any doubt you could try another known good disk.
Where to begin......
390e FOR SALE : GONE
1 x T20 : SOLD
1 X T23 + 3 breaking for parts
1 X T23 with Samsung 840 SSD and XP Great combination !: SOLD
1 X T60
3 X T61
1 X T601 15"
1 X T520
2 X T530

RealBlackStuff
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Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Sep 30, 2024 11:49 pm

First thing to do would be to open the darn thing and check that the HDD/SSD is maybe dislocated.
If it still is a HDD, replace it with an SSD.
Then clean the fan and replace the thermal paste with PMT7950 thermal pads.

Check eBay for: lenovo w530 base, easier (and cheaper) to find than FRU 04W6914.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
But I actually prefer Murphy's from Cork!

atagunov
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Location: London, UK

Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#6 Post by atagunov » Tue Oct 01, 2024 3:56 am

Thx for suggestions. No, nothing in event viewer around the time of another short lockup up (10 seconds?). It's an SSD but slightly old and dodgy, Kingston or smth like that, 0.5Tb probably. Will check on it being dislodged. Repasting is a bigger demand on time :) Interesting idea about thermal pads.
X220, 2 *T520

atagunov
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Posts: 927
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 3:11 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#7 Post by atagunov » Tue Oct 01, 2024 5:29 pm

After this lockup the main thing I could find in event veiwer was
The network interface "Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection" has begun resetting. There will be a momentary disruption in network connectivity while the hardware resets. Reason: The network driver detected that its hardware has stopped responding to commands. This network interface has reset 4 time(s) since it was last initialized.
I'm on WiFi, not sure if that interface comes into the picture, some I am somewhat confused with
Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection Network link is disconnected.
Name resolution for the name pub-ent-dewc-14-t.trouter.teams.microsoft.com timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.
Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection Network link has been established at 100Mbps full duplex.
Time between "has begun resetting" and "link has been established" is roughly when the machine was frozen.
So I guess I now also have the theory about a dislodged WiFi card..
X220, 2 *T520

atagunov
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2020 3:11 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: W530 locking up sometimes

#8 Post by atagunov » Mon Oct 21, 2024 7:29 pm

Hi, a minor update, the locking up has been resolved. I had an SD card inserted into SD card reader all the time. Apaprently something went wrong with the card reader or the card itself, but that SD card was not readable and very occasionally giving me errors on D: drive. Once I removed the card the lock-ups stopped. Go figure. Looks like they were related to the card. Still need to replace the plastic case and put some new thermal grease or pads.. But this W530 still got life in it :-D

That T520 under Ubuntu in daily service for online browsing and playing online radio is remarkably resilient as well. I haven't repasted that one either (and think that may be difficult due to me having stripeed the head on one of the screws in the bottom much earlier...) and it has probably clocked even more hours that W530 - with the screen on btw - but it is just refusing to give up. Something is wrong with Ubuntu so it looks like even at night when the lid gets closed it doesn't go to sleep, so the machine is literally running 24/7 for years and years and years..

..my projects re 15" T60 restorations haven't gone very far, just sitting as a large pile of parts and full machines, no time to play with Frankepading or anothing. Though sometimes I keep thinking it'd be nice. Even the X2100 is sitting completely unused! So W530 and T520 are the only machines in my fleet that are really being run hard.
X220, 2 *T520

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