T43 hanging problem (2687-D4U)

[bing]

Ordered this baby back in early June and it started hanging pretty much out of the box. Within five to ten minutes after booting, computer would freeze up without error message and from what I tried, the only things that produced a response were adjusting the contract and the hard-shutdown by holding the power button. I got it to last forty minutes once, but besides that, nothing. PC-doctor diagnostics came back negative, reseated RAM, HD, and battery without improvement. Since I barely had time to tweak it, virus/spyware/old drivers seemed unlikely (but I checked anyway).

So I sent it to hardware support. They replaced the systemboard and sent it back (sans the HD and cd-bay screws, thank you very much).

And it was working better. It hung a couple times after an hour, but it was infrequent enough that I figured I could work with it. After having it for about a week and a half, however, it started hanging with more regularity. Again, about 50 to 75% of the time, it would freeze within ten minutes, exactly the same as before. The last time, it was running only spider solitaire, so I ruled out non-preloaded software. Again, I ran PC-Doctor, scandisk, virus/spyware check, updated drivers and BIOS, reseated the hardware. Nothing helped.

Sent it back again, except this time, they can't replicate the problem. They sent it through the system a bunch of times until just now when I relented to their sending it back to me, undiagnosed and unfixed.

From what I've read, this problem isn't unique to the T43, despite its buggy reputation. Regardless, I still wish I had found this forum during my laptop research; maybe the T42 would've actually worked.

So I guess I have two questions: First, what possibly could be causing the problem considering efforts already taken/is there anything else I can do about it? Second, if the problem persists, does anyone have experience with IBM customer service to know if I have any recourse outside my service plan? The guy at tech support seemed doubtful of my getting a return/refund after 30 days.

[Kyocera]

What a bummer, I had a similar situation but responded in about two weeks after three tech support calls. I was fed up and they sent me a new one right away. If you made your first call referencing the problem within the 30 day window maybe you can talk them into cutting you some slack. You can order a screw kit for those screws, about 5 bucks, plus shipping of course.

[rpad]

I am having a similar issue, it started after 3 days.
the t43 (2686-DFU) hangs, freezes. I am so fed up, the hardware
support thinks it is a HD failure. I am shipping this
one back to get a new one, hopefully my experience
will not be so sour with the new unit.

[bing]

I am having a similar issue, it started after 3 days.
the t43 (2686-DFU) hangs, freezes. I am so fed up, the hardware
support thinks it is a HD failure. I am shipping this
one back to get a new one, hopefully my experience
will not be so sour with the new unit.

Unfortunately, I only learned of this option during my last service call. I'm currently on hold with sales to see if I can [censored] myself a new computer.

[bing]

So I just reimaged the HD, and they're sending me new HD and RAM to swap out. The lesson, kids, is to get your refund within 30 days.