T60 with 2GB (2 x 1GB SODIMMs from Lenovo) Locks Up

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Conmee · #1 Post by **Conmee** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:42 pm

Anyone having intermittent lockups (no blue screen, just complete freeze, no mouse/keyboard response, no HD activity, just frozen screen) with T60 and 2GB of RAM (2 x 1GB Lenovo SODIMMs)?

I've tried running one SODIMM at a time, in both the upper and lower RAM slots. Works fine. PC Doctor tests complete, even ran them overnight. Each SODIMM also works with the 512MB SODIMM that came with the system. Also ran PC Doctor tests, and stress memory tests overnight. All passed.

Ran the memory tests with both 1GB SODIMMs in and both passed (also have extended memory test in BIOS turned on). But when running the stress test 100 times and leaving it on overnight, system is locked up (screen saver activates and at some point just freezes). Sometimes it locks up at logon, others during regular computing/browsing. Again, the overnight stress tests pass when using 1 1GB and 1 512MB SODIMM or just 1 1GB SODIMM by itself. I've also turned the virtualization and dual core settings on and off, but either way, the same lockups occur with the 2 1GB SODIMMs installed.

Not sure if this is SODIMM related or memory/bus/T60 related, and will be RMAing the 1GB SODIMMs before doing the same with the T60.

Just wondered if anyone else is having weird issues with 2GB on a T60 (2623-D7U).

My best (and hopeful) guess is that one or the other SODIMMs has some sort of timing issue/problem. Worst case is that the system chokes on 2GB for some reason, manufacturing or otherwise.

Any thoughts?

Daniel.

sethypoo26 · #2 Post by **sethypoo26** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:21 pm

I have a T60p 2Gb of ram 2623-D8U and I've never had the lock-up youve talked about.

foodle · #3 Post by **foodle** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:59 pm

So far my T60p with 2GB is fine (1GB from factory, 1GB from Crucial). I ran Memtest86+ through 4 cycles and there were no errors. Only lockup so far has been on the Quake4 intro, but I believe that is a ATI FireGL heat/power problem, not a DRAM problem (although one user on a games thread tracked his problem to a DRAM issue).

#4 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 12:41 am

That same thing was reported in this thread.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=24893

#5 Post by **BillMorrow** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:17 am

i had the same problem..

on my 200794U T60p..

two 1gig parts and it would lock up with some sort of error message relating to the video drivers..

finally have 2 gig and no lockups..
just changed memory until it worked without trouble..

kimras · #6 Post by **kimras** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:22 am

I have the exact same problem - lockups and the occational bluescreen if I stress the CPU/video card with 2 x 1gb ram.

I've tried with 3 different 1gb sticks, 2 kingstong and a crucial - all works fine standalone (with just 1 stick installed) but all combinations of 2 sticks fail.

My model number is 2007 - I think it might be problem with the thinkpad and not the memory....

Conmee · #7 Post by **Conmee** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:40 am

Thanks for the replies... it may very well be the ThinkPad, but I'll give different memory a shot first.

Also, I'm using a clean install of Windows XP SP2, all latest drivers, etc. Doom3 and Cossacks II runs great with 1 1GB and 1 512MB and heat hasn't been a problem at all, nor has the fan.

So I'm pretty sure I've narrowed it down to memory.

One last bit: My USB Bootkey which has EMM386.EXE NOEMS in config.sys (Win98 SE2 boot) hangs if I try to load it. Doesn't hang if I bypass that driver. Anyone else want to give that a try and see if it will load on a T60 or not. I can live without it, but just curious why it won't load (or it could be part of my memory problem). It didn't work with the factory installed 512MB or with my two 1GB memory. Just another mystery...

Daniel.

yves · #8 Post by **yves** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:41 am

I have 2 x 1 Go

One from Kingston

Everything is working fine from the first day

lars_diehl · #9 Post by **lars_diehl** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:01 am

I also use a T60p with 2x1GB from Lenovo.

The system worked fine until I rececently upgraded to BIOS version 1.06. I got the same symptoms that you describe (system freezes completely). I first considered thermal problems but then I downgraded to 1.04 BIOS an now the system is stable again.

--Lars

Anthony S · #10 Post by **Anthony S** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 4:13 pm

I have a T60p with 2GB factory-installed. I upgraded to BIOS 1.06 10 days ago and have not experienced any problems.

Conmee · #11 Post by **Conmee** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 4:30 pm

Problem solved!!!

So I revved my BIOS back to 1.04 and sure enough, no more lockups. I've been running a loop of 3DMark05 with Powerplay Off and all settings to highest quality in the Catalyst Control Panel, and despite the workout, still running cool.. well, very warm, but not hot, and the fan is at an acceptable level.

Bigger picture, I'm wondering if the BIOS may/may not have caused problems with Hypermemory when using 2GB? And perhaps the BIOS altered/changed dedicated memory addresses or something for the GPU. I'm very curious about how this affects system performance and how Hypermemory in general works, and why it isn't an option to disable it. I believe that Hypermemory or not, the combination of T60, Lenovo 1GB SODIMMs, and BIOS 1.06 interfer somehow with the GPU and/or Hypermemory.

And last but not least, based on the "Display Problems with 1.06" in this forum, I also noticed that certain screen elements are no longer pixelated, shadings using the default WinXP theme (the toolbar in IE6 for instance) looks MUCH smoother. And for that matter, my wallpaper. In fact, I have a screenshot of my old TI-99/4a that I'm using as a backdrop and I thought the pixelation was just a result of the capture, but it's crystal clear now.

I'm sending my feedback to Lenovo, as there is definitely something wrong with 1.06, at least for certain T60's using 2GB.

Thanks all!

Daniel.

Conmee · #12 Post by **Conmee** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 4:57 pm

Well.. short-lived success.... lol

Received a couple of crashes in 3DMark05, exiting out, and one lockup... not sure if it's heat-related since I've been looping 3DMark01 and 3DMark05 for half an hour, and I noticed the 1GB SODIMM are getting very hot. Wonder if two of them are generating just enough heat to cause problems, since 1GB+512MB doesn't cause lockups. I'll probably run some measurements on heat to see if anything looks out of the ordinary.

Daniel.

kimras · #13 Post by **kimras** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:42 am

I had the same display problems with the 1.06 bios - reinstalling the newest display drivers seems to fix it though - downloaded them off the website instead of using the software updater as I usually do, but it looks like its the same version.

Anyhow, I'm up to 4 different 1gb sticks now - all of them work when they are the only one installed in the machine, but as soon as I put 2 in there, I start getting crashes once I put lots of load on the CPU/Graphics card (usually easiest to do by running World of Warcraft for a couple of minutes).

If I don't pressure the system too much, 2 x 1gb works just fine, its only when its stressed that I start to get problems.

kimras · #14 Post by **kimras** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:20 am

I spoke too soon about BIOS 1.06 I guess.... I didn't have problems with 1.06 for the first 3 or 4 reboots, but then it started occuring again - I've downgraded to 1.04 now, and so far it works.
Still got the memory problems though...

Mtrack · #15 Post by **Mtrack** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:27 am

sethypoo26 wrote:I have a T60p 2Gb of ram 2623-D8U and I've never had the lock-up youve talked about.

I have a 2623-D8U and had lock-up issues on 1.06. The extra 1GB was purchased through IBM/Lenovo and the P/N's matched. I did extensive trial and errors and no luck. Each RAM worked flawlessly by themselves but locked up when together on 1.06.

Called Lenovo, and they told me to send it back or go to one of the local service centers. Thanks to this forum, I downgraded to 1.04 yesterday and everything has been working perfectly. FYI- I have noticed that everything runs faster with the 2GB of RAM.

jake · #16 Post by **jake** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:19 pm

FYI
I have been running into the same system lock-up issues with my new T60p (2x1GB of Lenovo installed SoDimm DDR2.)

There is no Blue Screen, just a dead hang with all input unresponsive. A power off hard boot will bring the system back. The Event Viewer does not log any Errors, Warnings or Info before the dead hang. It only hangs when I am doing something memory intensive like video or compiling an app. Puzzling!

Chipset and all drivers have been updated, however, I recently downgraded my BIOS from v1.06 to v1.04 at the suggestion of the forum. So far so good with 1.04.

Thanks for the help,
jake

dr72 · #17 Post by **dr72** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:21 pm

jake wrote:FYI
I have been running into the same system lock-up issues with my new T60p (2x1GB of Lenovo installed SoDimm DDR2.)

There is no Blue Screen, just a dead hang with all input unresponsive. A power off hard boot will bring the system back. The Event Viewer does not log any Errors, Warnings or Info before the dead hang. It only hangs when I am doing something memory intensive like video or compiling an app. Puzzling!

Chipset and all drivers have been updated, however, I recently downgraded my BIOS from v1.06 to v1.04 at the suggestion of the forum. So far so good with 1.04.

Thanks for the help,
jake

I just received 2623-DDU - with 2 gig of Lenovo installed SoDimm DRR2. I was able to boot the system twice, before it exhibits the same problems above.

I'm currently in a support queue, and I'm going to attempt to remove one sim myself to see if it solves the problem.

Fairly disappointing to spend as much as I did, only have to it basically not work out of the box.

I'll post my experiences in this thread.

dr72 · #18 Post by **dr72** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:50 pm

Interestingly the two SoDimms are NOT matched

SoDimm #1 - Samsung - 1GB 2Rx8 PC2-5300S-555-12-E3

SoDimm #2 - Lenovo Badged, but Micron? (M with circle around it logo) - 1 GB 2RX8 PC2-5300S-555-12-E0

rtos8260 · #19 Post by **rtos8260** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:44 pm

I'm seeing the same system freezes on my 2007-92U (15" 2.16GHz) when two 1GB DIMMS are installed. One DIMM was shipped with the TP and the other was purchased from Lenovo.

Rolling back to BIOS 1.04 didn't help--the freezes still occurred.

Just to rule out a possible problem with the second DIMM, I've been running with it and BIOS 1.06 for several hours with no freezes.

I sure hope this can be fixed with BIOS update. I've already had to return one defective T60p for rampant blue screen panics.

We'll see what Lenovo support says tommorow when I call them.

erozsolt · #20 Post by **erozsolt** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:50 am

Is there any conclusion for that problem? What's causing lockups?

1. 2x1 gb RAM from specific brands?
2. ATI video card driver version?
3. BIOS version?

BTW, does anybody have any strong suggestion to go with Kingston ($160) and not with any cheaper ones, like Crucial ($80-90) or A.Data, etc.?

And if I choose to use the factory 512 ram + 1 gig purchased, will I have to worry about any of these problems?

jake · #21 Post by **jake** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:56 pm

erozsolt wrote:Is there any conclusion for that problem? What's causing lockups?

1. 2x1 gb RAM from specific brands?
2. ATI video card driver version?
3. BIOS version?

I updated the chipset and ATI driver and downgraded the BIOS. I also had to defrag my harddisk after the initial FAT32 to NTFS install conversion (which could be it's own lengthy thread on this forum). My drive and MFT were severely fragmented post conversion... which would make any system prime for reliability problems, boot stalls, etc. Unfortunately, my MFT is still partially fragmented.

The BIOS downgrade was the last thing I did and it did the trick... nearly a full day without a hang.

Although expensive, this machine is extremely quiet at max performance and amazingly fast. After my initial problems, my confidence in this new rig is almost at a 100%!

jake

Mtrack · #22 Post by **Mtrack** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:58 pm

dr72 wrote:Interestingly the two SoDimms are NOT matched

SoDimm #1 - Samsung - 1GB 2Rx8 PC2-5300S-555-12-E3

SoDimm #2 - Lenovo Badged, but Micron? (M with circle around it logo) - 1 GB 2RX8 PC2-5300S-555-12-E0

I just noticed that I have the exact 2 SoDimms as you and they are not matched.

It's strange and I cant figure out what the problem is. Everything worked fine for about a day when I downgraded to bios 1.04 and it ran fine, now I'm having the same lock up problems again. The main reason I went with IBM/Lenovo for the additional RAM is not to run into problems like these.

I'm probably going to try one of the certified IBM/Lenovo local services centers since I use my laptop for work and cant afford to send it back.

Anyone have any other sugguestions?

Conmee · #23 Post by **Conmee** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:50 pm

I have sequentially numbered SODIMMs purchased separately, both are the same manufacturer (I don't have them in front of me, but both were made in Singapore).

I used a clean install and tried both the Preload ATI drivers and the latest ATI drivers. The 1.04 BIOS solved the screen pixelation that showed up after I upgraded to 1.06, so I revved back to 1.04. The lockups weren't nearly as frequent, but still locking. If I take just one 1GB SODIMM out and run with 1GB and 512MB that came preinstalled, I have zero problems. I've run stress tests and benchmarks overnight with no hangs. Even running the bootable CD with memtest on it will run overnight with both 1GB SODIMM installed and pass error-free. But as soon as I run a 3DMark bench, it will freeze (no blue screen, just a complete lock, no cursor/mouse/keyboard) and only a full power cycle will re-boot the system.

My hunch is that it has something to do with Hypermemory and perhaps timing on the SODIMMs. If the memory runs in dual channel only when two identically sized SODIMMS are installed, that might also be a clue, and somehow impact the way Hypermemory operates. It could also point to perhaps some different timings or tolerance/variance in the memory chips, causing timing issues. I'm no engineer, but these are some basic things Lenovo/IBM/Any OEM should be testing for. I can't imagine that they never uncovered a 2GB problem in the T60 during development, given it's running rampant now. At any rate, I've ordered two Kingston with 30-day money back guarantee from MemoryKing or some such outfit and will test with them and will mix and match with my Lenovo branded SODIMMs.

Depending on if I find a fix or not, look for my sales advertisement showcasing two brand new Lenovo 1GB parts.

Daniel.

kimras · #24 Post by **kimras** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:01 pm

Conmee wrote:At any rate, I've ordered two Kingston with 30-day money back guarantee from MemoryKing or some such outfit and will test with them and will mix and match with my Lenovo branded SODIMMs.

Depending on if I find a fix or not, look for my sales advertisement showcasing two brand new Lenovo 1GB parts.

Daniel.

Good luck with it

- I tried with 2x kingston 1gb and 2x crucial 1gb and any combination with the 1x samsung that came preinstalled - each work on its own, but none work together

jenss · #25 Post by **jenss** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:34 pm

I purchased a Transcend 1 GB 666 MHz memory chip to add to the Lenovo 1 GB chip, which came with my T60p.
The system locks up within a few seconds to a few minutes after startup.
Both memory chips run fine on their own (real loner they are).

I previously had the 1 GB Lenovo chip with a 1 GB 533 MHz chip from my old notebook in my T60p - no lockups.

I'm running BIOS 1.06 and haven't tried fixing the lockup problem by reverting to BIOS 1.04, yet.

Just thought my input might help tracking down the problem. The fact that 2 GB running on low clock speed (533 MHz) do not cause lockups might give some support for the 'overheating hypothesis' as a cause for the lcokups.

whitney · #26 Post by **whitney** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:04 am

jenss wrote:I purchased a Transcend 1 GB 666 MHz memory chip to add to the Lenovo 1 GB chip, which came with my T60p.
The system locks up within a few seconds to a few minutes after startup.
Both memory chips run fine on their own (real loner they are).

I previously had the 1 GB Lenovo chip with a 1 GB 533 MHz chip from my old notebook in my T60p - no lockups.

I'm running BIOS 1.06 and haven't tried fixing the lockup problem by reverting to BIOS 1.04, yet.

Just thought my input might help tracking down the problem. The fact that 2 GB running on low clock speed (533 MHz) do not cause lockups might give some support for the 'overheating hypothesis' as a cause for the lcokups.

I'll go with that one as a possible culprit;

BTW, any EE/programmer-types in the readership: have you looked at the BIOS 1.04 v. 1.06 and deciphered whether/how it affects the resident RAM?

Thanks in advance if you can solve this issue, because it doesn't seem like the crew at Lenovo (or I haven't seen it yet...apology if it's been solved) has this on their radar...thank goodness, Lenovo hasn't farmed their CSR/techs to the India-n sub-continent as MikeyD has...) has this one on its radar yet. Cruising this forum, it's obviously pervasive.

Thanks-forward.

christopher_wolf · #27 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:39 am

whitney wrote:BTW, any EE/programmer-types in the readership: have you looked at the BIOS 1.04 v. 1.06 and deciphered whether/how it affects the resident RAM?

Good luck.

Even for the "EE/Programmer types," that is going to take quite a bit of doing and a load of work. I am already looking over the firmware for the H8S EC in the T43. You would first have to disassemble/decompile it, then understand any little quirks with the assembly language it had to go through, then weed out the buggy part from code that either appears to be a quick hack or simple shortcuts.

whitney · #28 Post by **whitney** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:31 am

christopher_wolf wrote:
whitney wrote:BTW, any EE/programmer-types in the readership: have you looked at the BIOS 1.04 v. 1.06 and deciphered whether/how it affects the resident RAM?

Good luck.

Even for the "EE/Programmer types," that is going to take quite a bit of doing and a load of work. I am already looking over the firmware for the H8S EC in the T43. You would first have to disassemble/decompile it, then understand any little quirks with the assembly language it had to go through, then weed out the buggy part from code that either appears to be a quick hack or simple shortcuts.

Crap...I know it's a pathetic response, but I donna know a solution...(I'm buying one of these and don't wanna have the problem)...thanks for the smiley face

whitney · #29 Post by **whitney** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:38 am

whitney wrote:
christopher_wolf wrote:
Good luck.

Even for the "EE/Programmer types," that is going to take quite a bit of doing and a load of work. I am already looking over the firmware for the H8S EC in the T43. You would first have to disassemble/decompile it, then understand any little quirks with the assembly language it had to go through, then weed out the buggy part from code that either appears to be a quick hack or simple shortcuts.
Crap...I know it's a pathetic response, but I donna know a solution...(I'm buying one of these and don't wanna have the problem)...thanks for the smiley face

If christopher_wolf and that level has that comment; here's a thought: wait another 2 months and look for the "refresh" models...think that's a good tought..."

kimras · #30 Post by **kimras** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 3:28 pm

Any news with this ? Have anyone managed to get it to work with 2 x 1gb ram modules while running graphics intensive apps such as games or 3Dmark ?

I tried mailing IBM/Lenovo's support a week ago, but I haven't heard anything from them at all

T60 with 2GB (2 x 1GB SODIMMs from Lenovo) Locks Up

T60 with 2GB (2 x 1GB SODIMMs from Lenovo) Locks Up

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