Thinkpads Forum

My T43p is intermittently and completely freezing in Ubuntu 14.04, 14.10 and in Fedora 21 Workstation. Sometimes it happens accidentally, sometimes per user's invoke, ie. Fn+F3 (switch off the LCD). I thought this is a sign of the known southbridge issue so typical for T4x series. However, I cannot reproduce the problem in Windows XP. USB devices are running at full 2.0 speed as well. I ran some performance-intensive apps on XP today using also 3DMark and I cannot make the laptop frozen in Windows. I think the problem also might be a defective RAM module, correct? Is there some way how to test every RAM's cell? Note: only way how I can get from that frozen state is hard shutdown. Thanks.

Memtest86+ is an excellent tool for checking RAM for errors. If you don't have the option to run Memtest86+ from the GRUB menu of an installed OS, it is included in the LiveDVD of Ubuntu.

If you can't invoke the freezing in XP, the chances are that the hardware is fine.

Test the GPU with Freestone in XP - make sure to run TPFC and at maximum fan - for a few hours and if the system doesn't freeze there, you might just have to look at another distro/kernel.

http://freestone-group.com/video-card-s ... y-test.htm

Good luck.

I have installed Memtest86+ into my Fedora's GRUB, then run it and the test passed. Then I switched HDD and I am running the VideoCard Stability test for ~2 hours now and nothing happens - ThinkPad runs just fine, tpfancontrol shows ~90deg Celsius for CPU and GPU, fan is running at 5500rpm. I have also tried to move and gently flex the laptop few times during the test and there is no freezing at all. I can't believe that such robust GNU/Linux system may freeze so easily...

IMHO 90 degrees Celsius is way toooooooo hot. I know the "p" models run hot but this is asking for problems

Good luck

shawross wrote:IMHO 90 degrees Celsius is way toooooooo hot. I know the "p" models run hot but this is asking for problems

Good luck

That's actually OK under Freestone which stresses the living daylight out of the GPU. I got 96 on my past T43p machines more than once.

Problem probably found. It is GPU issue for 99%. Yesterday I have noticed few flickering lines at the bottom of the screen. I took the laptop from table to my hands and gently flex it - flickering disappeared. I have already discussed with friend of mine (PhD. from Electronics) and he is able to reflow it using the reflow station in his job. I need to prepare the planar for him and remove all the plastic stickers from it. Pray for me the planar will get repaired, otherwise I will need to look around for a spare one.

lukee wrote: Pray for me the planar will get repaired, otherwise I will need to look around for a spare one.

You may as well start looking for one right now.

T43/p as well as late T42/p "red dot" boards must be re-balled - not reflown - due to epoxy that holds the BGAs in place on both GPU and SouthBridge, and these are a royal PITA to remove.

Otherwise, you may just take the planar out and bake it in your own oven. Seriously.

The problem was caused by deffective motherboard. Reflow baking of the old motherboard did not help.
I have obtained new motherboard from T43 (with ATI Radeon X300) and it works pretty well, driving the UXGA fabulously.