X220: 8Gb RAM Windows 7 Memory Diagnostic problems

[lev]

Hello everyone.

Long time, no see: I was last on these forums about 5 years ago with my X60s, but that's finally ready to retire and now I have a new X220 4286-CTO. Lovely IPS screen and glad to see the red stripes back on the buttons again....

I have 8GB of RAM in my machine (4GB per slot). I tested the RAM fairly exhaustively with memtest86+ so I am pretty sure there is no problem with the RAM itself, but when I try to run the windows 7 (64 bit professional edition) memory diagnostic I just get a black screen (no cursor) and I can only exit with the power switch. It works fine (diagnostics start and pass) with only 4GB installed (in all 4 permutations of SODIMMs and slots), but gives the black screen with 8GB installed (in either of the 2 possible permutations).

Everything else seems to be working fine for this machine, including the ThinkVantage toolbox tests, so I'm inclined to think this is some problem with the windows 7 memory diagnostic program, rather than a hardware fault, but can anyone else with an X220 and 8GB of RAM test for me whether they can run the memory diagnostic, please.

[The Spirit of X21]

I can't speak to the Win 7 memory diagnostic, but memtest86+ has worked quite well for me in the past in identifying bad memory modules. If it doesn't find anything, I would feel pretty confident that there wasn't a problem with the RAM. How many passes did you run?

[lev]

I can't speak to the Win 7 memory diagnostic, but memtest86+ has worked quite well for me in the past in identifying bad memory modules. If it doesn't find anything, I would feel pretty confident that there wasn't a problem with the RAM. How many passes did you run?

I ran 3 passes of memtest86+ so far. I'll let it run a few more overnight just to be sure.

[bmanau]

I have the same problem with my X220 as well. It has 2 x 8GB of RAM. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit with UEFI BIOS. I had this problem earlier and guessed it may be the BIOS and I also wanted to change to UEFI BIOS.

I have checked it with both BIOS modes, still.. same issue. Have you guys had any updates?

[andmed]

If I can renovate this thread....

Can anyone confirm this? I was experiencing casual reboots recently and -- when I tried to enter memory diagnostic -- I could not. I also have Windows 64 bit on X220 and 8Gb of memory. With one 4Gb module it runs OK. So it looks absolutely the same to me.


Is it still a software issue (unrelated to reboots I have) ?

[djlooka]

Hi everyone,

my X220 does the same. Random reboots, now BSODs: every time I check for memory errors with the integrated tool, I just get a black screen

I'm going to format it next w/e, hoping there are no hardware faults!

[Summilux]

Ow, all of this is weird.
Maybe Windows is at fault here, if the hardware seems to function correctly?

Also, when did these issues appear? After upgrading the RAM modules? Can't be out of the box - or more people would have heard about that I guess.

[Cigarguy]

Download and run a live Linux distribution for a while and see if you have the same problem. If you do then it's most likely a hardware problem.

[djlooka]

The reboots have started almost a year ago.
I usually disable both disk cache and error reporting in windows, so I get reboots instead of bsods.
The first times, if I removed the battery while the power cord was still plugged (I've always been doing that, since I had my first X32), some minutes later the pc rebooted. I just thought the new TPs didn't like that, so I stopped doing it and the reboots seemed to have gone.
I was wrong. They weren't frequent at all, and they were totally random, but they continued.
I even reinstalled windows a couple of times since then, but they're still here.
In the last month they have become more frequent, though: most of the times the pc was idle, once I was playing AoE II HD, some times it had been resumed from standby minutes before.

My laptop came with 4GB on a single stick, I added the second 4GB stick one week later (september 2011).
This weekend I'm going to reinstall Windows, hoping these reboots/bsods are just caused by some sort of sw corruption.
I also added an SSD (MyDigitalSSD BP uSATA 128GB) in december 2011.

If it's a hw problem, the ram seems fine to me anyway (tested with both memtest86 and the integrated tool in Lenovo Solution Center).
The culprit might be the SSD or, even worse, the mainboard.
I have read about a lot of faulted mainboard which have been replaced by Lenovo (made between september and december 2011 I think), but my pc was made on august (I've already checked the S/N).


Any idea anyone?

[lukemike]

Hi guys.
Same problem here. Brand new computer, BSOD, when I add RAM winows diagnostic does not work. Does anybody has contacted lenovo about this? My computer is under warranty and I am considering doing so.

[Mark@Lenovo]

All,

I scanned this discussion and it sounds like you are having trouble with (2) 4 GB dimms on X220 running Windows. So couple of questions on this....

1) What version BIOS is everyone running?

2) Are both memory modules the same manufacturer and speed?

3) What happens if you run with just a single memory module as a test. First try with the factory module to get a baseline of "normal" operation, then swap the factory with the new module you purchased and see if the system will run ok with just the other module.

So from the results of this test, we can try to narrow down the problem.

Mark

[djlooka]

Hi everyone,
This weekend I have reinstalled Windows and so far I have experienced no reboots or bsods. I'm going to try with some stress tests asap.

@Mark
1) Last version (1.24);
2) No, the original is made by Samsung, the other Corsair (all the other parameters match)
- 1st (original module):
http://imageshack.us/a/img809/8800/module1.png
- 2nd (new module):
http://imageshack.us/a/img41/8839/module2f.png
3) Will try and report.

Thank you

[djlooka]

Hi, still me with sad news.

Today, 15 days since I reinstalled Windows, I had another BSOD, out of the blue.
Now I get another BCCode (109 today instead of 124 I got last time) - still not sure what that means.
I understand the problem may be caused by either the Intel Video driver or faulty RAM.

Today I also discovered that there has been a BIOS update since I last wrote here (Mark@Lenovo, was that you?).
The changelog mentioned a fix in Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool in case of 2 RAM modules.
I upgraded it (I am on UEFI), and now the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool works fine and says my RAM modules are OK (both tests passed).
I am currently going to start a Memtest86+ session overnight, just to be sure...