Freeze fix or should I reformat T60?

[ej2012]

Hi all. I have a T60, 2623-D7U with XP Professional. It served me well for many years, but in the past year it began to freeze up when I try to come out of sleep mode. i.e., when I close the laptop and then reopen it later, I see only the wallpaper image, but nothing else. (Normally I would see the fingerprint prompt.) The laptop also freezes the same way when I hit Control+Alt+Delete, so I can't even get to Task Manager. I am forced to reboot in the situations. The computer is also much slower than it used to be.

I've done defragging, multiple disk error checks, scan disks, adjusted the power management, etc...but nothing helps. I only use the laptop to write and surf the web, so I'm hoping to get it working like new again and ride it into the sunset. If the above issues can't be fixed, I'm even willing to reformat everything, but the Create Recovery Disk function doesn't work, and I don't have a recovery disk set (and prefer not to buy a new one if I can avoid it).

Can my freeze-up issues be fixed? Any advice?
If not, is there a way to reformat without having to buy a $55 recovery disk set from Lenovo?
If I do reformat, do I have to put back XP, or can I install Windows 7?

The only other notable thing about the laptop is that I run Kaspersky Internet Security on it, in case that matters. I don't have any other crazy software installed on it. Oh yeah, I also have the fingerprint access set on both the BIOS and the OS (probably redundant.)

I'd be grateful for any help.

Thanks,
Eric

[davidgurvich]

Do you have the same issue with the battery out? You can test if the problem is something connected to the hard drive by using a Linux livecd. Many will support suspend/resume from the live environment. I suggest either Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS for that test.

[TuuS]

Eric, if your problem is software, then you really should reformat because cleaning up a windows installation that performs slowly isn't a simple matter. You don't need to buy discs, you can get someone to make you a copy, or if your system still has the recovery partition, you can burn a set yourself, or you can simply install from a windows setup disc, either XP, Vista or Seven. You might want to consider Vista, it's underrated and you can buy a used copy very cheap.

I prefer to install from a windows setup disc because it the factory setup discs will install 5year old software that all needs to be updated, and it wastes considerable harddrive space that can be put to much better use. Instead of a recovery partition, I make a partition and install windows twice, that way if my system isn't working I can reboot into the other installation and I'm up and running in seconds... then can fix the problems in my own timing.


ps. If you need help finding a windows disc send me a PM, or if you want to upgrade your windows I have some listed in the marketplace for sale or trade, very reasonable too.

[ej2012]

Tuus,

If I simply install Windows Vista on my laptop, does that accomplish the same thing as reformatting (returning to factory freshness)? And is it a simple process, i.e. do I need to remove XP or anything else beforehand?

Also, how do I know if Vista is okay to install on my 5-year-old+ machine? I think I only have 80GB HD space.

I like Vista too. I have it on my desktop and have never had any problems with it.

[TuuS]

During install, or before install you can reformat your harddrive, then XP will be completely removed, or if you want to keep the XP, you can resize your harddrive partition and make a new one, then install vista in the second partition. Vista will setup a boot manager and you can select which operating system you want to use during boot.

I agree, although vista got a bad reputation when it first launched, it was mostly because people didn't understand the user account controls, but for the most part, Vista is about equal to Windows Seven, and far superior to XP (in my opinion). I've run vista on a Pentium 3, 700mhz with 256mb ram, which is well below recommended spec but it ran ok, so there is no reason why a T60 would have a problem running it. I'd stick with a 32bit version since you can only install 3gb of ram on a T60.

ps. I replied to your PM, and I can ship the disc tomorrow if you like.

[davidgurvich]

I disagree that Vista is maligned. With a lot of configuration Vista is acceptable but out of the box Vista is pretty bad. Any general install will still require installing drivers for the hardware.

You can test Windows 8 for free by downloading from the microsoft website. I've found 8 to be a major improvement, almost as responsive as XP without anti-virus and much better than Vista.

Before doing anything irrevocable, TEST the hardware. Confirm that the issue is actually a software instead of hardware problem.

[ej2012]

David, is there a way to test my hardware without running Linux? Maybe a free program off the net that will alert me to something physical being wrong instead of software?

[davidgurvich]

The simplest way to test is with a liveusb or cd. You could also download the manufacturers test software for the hard drive. If you are actually able to run that it should give a good idea of the hard drives health.

Try turning off Windows Update for now.