t30 freezes and will not boot. diagnosis?

[pablonice]

hi all,

I've got a T30 that I love. It will boot up, load Windows and work fine for a while (5-30 minutes), but then it freezes. If you shut it down, it will not restart (you don't get IBM Thinkpad screen even). However if you let it sit for week it will boot up and load Windows again (until it once again freezes).

How do I diagnosis what's wrong here? Ram? Motherboard? Something else?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Neil]

First thing to suspect is overheating. Make sure the CPU fan is clean and working properly, then once you get it booted up again, run an application like CPUID HWmonitor, TPFC or IBM_ECW to check your temps and see what happens just before the next "freeze".

You can also run Memtest86+ on the RAM, and HDD diagnostics with the drive manufacturers testing software. Errors with either can cause system lock-ups, but are not as likely as over heating.

Of course, it could be something else entirely, but let's eliminate these things first.

[T30alive]

Could be that 2nd memory slot. Remove the DIMM in there and see if it eliminates the problem. The slot can be fixed but that is dangerous. Use a low temp soldering iron to reflow the existing solder, just enough heat to reflow otherwise the heat will desolder the other side of the motherboard.