a22m hangs after a few minutes

[corvettegreg]

My a22m has worked flawlessly until about a week ago. Now it hangs after it has been running for 10 or 15 minutes. I tried some of the obvious like switching battery, AC adapter, RAM, HDD. The problem seems to occur sooner if under AC power. I fear it is the system board but am hoping for a simple fix. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[edelrc]

What I would do first is to run the laptop without loading Windows.
Restart the laptop with a bootable CD (be careful not to install anything) or better yet, run the PC Doctor Diagnostics for DOS that came with the laptop (if needed, download it from IBM).

If you can go 30min or so under these conditions, that will indicate that it is a software issue, not hardware. If still, turns off, PC Doctor Diagnostics may helpyou identify what causes the problem. Also, try by reseting the BIOS settings.

[ctcheung]

My A22m has the symptom like yours. Later I tried to re-seat the CPU once but still have the problem. I took out the CPU and carefully clean the pins and firmly seated on the cpu socket. It works for the whole month without further problem. Worth to try, it is easy to open the keyboard and then the fan and then the cpu.
Be careful not to screw to tight the screw otherwise it is difficult to unscrew it later.

CT

[corvettegreg]

I tried your advice and removed the cpu and cleaned the pins with denatured alcohol.

Prior to this I could not keep the machine running long enought to even complete a Windows install. I cleaned the pins after dinner last night and reassembled the unit. Total working time about 20 minutes.

I completed the Windows install, then office, McAfee, and on and on, and then listened to mp3's for about 4 hours with no problems.

Today I installed the balance of my software, Windows updates, etc while listening to music for several hours. It sure seems like it is fixed. I will keep everyone updated with the ststus.

Thanks ctcheung!

[ctcheung]

Hi, everybody,
My A22m works for more than 3 months since July and is still OK without the hanging problem. DO the cpu reseat if you face the similar problem. I would suggest to use extra fine sand paper to touch clean with little force the CPU pins, row-by-row, and column by column, not individual pins. The poor contact may not be the pins but may be the socket itself. Use a worn tooth brush then to clean it after sanding. Also try to re-seat the cpu several times to ensure the pins have a good contact with the socket. At the same time, replenish the heat sink gel with the good quality one to ensure the cpu fan have a good contact with the cpu. The old gel may dry up and harden. Dont use too much, a very small amount is enough. The gel acts as the conductor to draw the cpu temperature out through the heat sink and the fan.
Good luck!