Left handed palm rest pressure relieves screen freeze lockup

[baertracks]

My T43 laptop (see signature) suddenly began locking up / freezing. Rebooting was only somtimes successful, taking perhaps a dozen tries to even get to a safe mode reboot.

I tried putting the hard drive into another laptop (T40). Same problem.

I tried accessing the data on my hard drive by putting it into an ultrabay caddy in a T40 laptop. The drive was not recognized.

Today, I managed to get it to boot, but the screen still locks up. Now, I have discovered that putting slight pressure on the left side of the palm rest (above the PCMCIA slot) relieves the lockup. Applying a bit of pressure, and the hard drive light goes on and the screen unlocks. As soon as I take my hand off the palm rest, the hard drive stops and the cursor locks.

Any suggestions as to what might be causing this problem? I have, BTW, removed and reinstalled the hard drive, with the same results.

Regards,

FRANK

[LtTPfan]

It might be a bad mainboard. It sounds to me like a cold solder joint or broken/bad connection at the HDD connector, or bad HDD connector, any of which would require the replacement of the mainboard.

Do you pick the machine up with one hand, perhaps on one corner or the other? Newer/lighter Thinkpad models seem to flex much more than earlier models, and I suspect this flex is the cause for many a mainboard problem. I cringe a little bit everytime I pick my T30 up as I hear it creak as it flexes. My 770s don't do that.

[baertracks]

It might be a bad mainboard. It sounds to me like a cold solder joint or broken/bad connection at the HDD connector, or bad HDD connector, any of which would require the replacement of the mainboard.

Do you pick the machine up with one hand, perhaps on one corner or the other?

Ineteresting observations which I suspect are right on target.

Yes, I'm an habitual one-hander.

FRANK

[LtTPfan]

Yes, I'm an habitual one-hander.

I used to be before getting my T30. I just don't feel comfortable with the flex so I try using two hands but still use one in some instances; when I do, I slip my one hand under the middle front and spread my fingers to better spread the load. Unfortunately this doesn't work with my preferred resting position, open and resting on its side. When using two hands I place them on opposing corners, i.e. one on the front and one on the back.

In 10 years I've never had a problem from setting down or picking up my 770s one-handed; however, once, while visiting relatives, I went to pick up my machine and found someone had put their thumb thru the keyboard bezel. I guess I'm just more careful to put most of the load onto the bottom instead of the top.

[thawkins]

I think I am experiencing the effects of the flex problem. I purchased a T43 (2668C5U) about a year ago and it began freezing up soon after. I took it in for repair and IBM ended up sending a replacement because there were major problems with the motherboard. This one had trouble several months later, again the motherboard. After more hassle this time IBM replaced it. Recently my machine was freezing up, again a problem with the motherboard (loose connection).

Does anyone know if there are many similar cases? What resolution does IBM offer?

[baertracks]

Does anyone know if there are many similar cases? What resolution does IBM offer?

It sounds like you may also be an habitual one-hander when it comes to toting your Thinkpad around.

My Thinkpad starting freezing up just at the beginning of a trip overseas. For the next two weeks I had to put more and more pressure on the left side of the palm rest to make it work. By the end of two weeks this required a two liter jar of water to keep things going! It was actually pretty comical.

As soon as I got back to the U.S. I called IBM and they had me send in the laptop for a sysems board replacement. Thank goodness for the three year year warranty and great/prompt EasyServ service. That's the only resolution that I know of.

Regards,

FRANK

[sircorey]

!!!
Hi

I also have to press on the left palmrest of my T43 to get the laptop to work.

This just started happening and I'm way out of support for the T43 since it's 2010. Hopefully there is a do it yourselfer fix and don't have to replace parts.

I opened up the T43 to look what's under the palm rest and it's just a PCMCIA slot so I'm a bit skeptical about this being a mainboard problem. I suppose it's there is a bad connection but has anyone been able to repair this problem without replacing parts?

Thanks for your time

Corey

[RealBlackStuff]

Read all the "stickies" at the top of this page about GPU problems, resoldering/reflowing/reballing etc.
And check out the links in my signature.

[sircorey]

There are a lot of knowledgeable people out here so hopefully someone has seen this one before.

I have a spare T43 that became a spare after I set the bios password and then forgot it. Dumb Dumb Dumb I know. I'm getting old and have bad case of CRS.

I was hoping to use the system board/motherboard whatever parts are on this locked T43 and swap out with the one I'm using now that has a stack of post it notes under the left palm rest.

Given that I've tried everything to kill the memory of the BIOS (took out CMOS battery, left unplugged etc etc )

Is it possible to salvage this board since it has a locked bios on it and use it on my T43 with the bad GPU??

Thanks,

Corey

[ajkula66]

The short answer is "no".

You'll have to fix the existing board (my guess would be a failing Southbridge chip), remember the password for the other one and then swap it in, or buy a replacement board.

Good luck.

[RealBlackStuff]

@sircorey:
check your PM