Random freezes with T41

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Jeff85 · #1 Post by **Jeff85** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:18 pm

I received my refurbished T41 2373-xjx a few months ago, and I've been experiencing random freezes. By random, I mean I cannot recreate any of the freezes on demand, whenever I want to. I've updated all the drivers for my computer through the IBM website, but that did not fix the freezes.

To briefly describe what happens when it freezes, the screen turns either a solid color or displays vertical stripes of solid colors. Usually there is a small square that's a different color, but not always. The keyboard becomes unresponsive and my only option is to hold the power button down to shut down. There's no error message, nor is there anything obvious about the crashes in the event viewer.

Here are some photos that I've taken of the freezes:
Edit: Okay well apparently my host doesn't like remote referrers, so I made a page with 9 pictures.
http://jeff85.netfirms.com/freeze.html

The freezes have consistently occured while I'm playing games with which my laptop easily exceeds minimal / recommended requirements, namely Warcraft 3 and Tribes 2. However, the freezes have also occured outside of games, either after running for a little while or even right after booting up (after windows loads / during it loading stuff into the system tray). However, it should be noted that freezes occur more often while playing the two games mentioned before. Freezes seems to definitely occur if I play either of the games long enough, though it doesn't necessarily take a long time for the freeze to occur.

I'm led to either believe that this is caused by a RAM problem or the video chip (the Mobility Radeon 7500 32 MB), but I don't have that much experience with laptop crashes / freezes or freezes like this, so I was hoping maybe someone here knows what the problem with my laptop is.

Oh and another non-freeze related problem I've had is that sometimes when I'm attempting to turn on the laptop, the power light (I assume that's what the circle with a Z in it is) comes on, but the system doesn't boot up. The LCD becomes illuminated, but it remains black. I think a workaround may be to hold down the power button longer when turning it on, though I'm not sure how long I need to hold it down. This is also annoying because sometimes when I'm attempting to return from hibernation this occurs and I lose whatever I had running at the time.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

johnson5001 · #2 Post by **johnson5001** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:38 pm

I think there's some heating problem with your laptop. I can play Warcraft 3 just fine on my T41.

Jeff85 · #3 Post by **Jeff85** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 1:28 am

Heating, eh? Is there any way to be sure or determine if it is in fact an overheating problem?

johnson5001 · #4 Post by **johnson5001** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 5:29 pm

Well, you can download some program to display/log your computer's temperatures.

rgrosz · #5 Post by **rgrosz** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:37 pm

Mobile Meter - FREE - Show CPU speed, CPU temperature, hard disk temperature

Discussion of program here:
http://dssc3031.ece.cmu.edu/~tamaru/mob ... adme-e.htm

Download program here:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValle ... mm0310.zip

This small utility is great for laptop owners. If your fan runs all the time, this will help you see why. The program is easy to configure, and I use it all the time.

Jeff85 · #6 Post by **Jeff85** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:50 pm

Hmm is there a program that can keep a log of the temperature? That way I'd be able to tell what it was at after it crashes instead of having to keep an eye on the meter.

The problem with the MobileMeter is that I can't seem to get it to stay on top (even with always on top enabled) when I run a full screen application like Warcraft 3, so I can't tell how hot my laptop is running when it's most likely to freeze up on me.

Oh and also, what temperature is considered "too hot" for the T41?

After some further testing (by running Warcraft 3 and letting it crash a lot), the bottom of the laptop does seem to be pretty hot. What do I do now? Is it abnormal for it to overheat? How can I prevent it from overheating?

rgrosz · #7 Post by **rgrosz** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 2:33 pm

I Googled up some alternatives, which appear to provide logging.

Hardware Sensors Monitor
$30 Shareware with 30 day evaluation

http://hmonitor.net/product.html

PC Wizard 2004
FREE

http://www.cpuid.com/pcw.php

mdarnton · #8 Post by **mdarnton** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 2:41 pm

This won't be much help, but, FYI, I think that little square is where the cursor was when she went belly-up.

bootleg2go · #9 Post by **bootleg2go** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 5:18 pm

If it's not out of warranty get it in ASAP so they can fix it. For that matter it needs to go in either way for repair, I would not even waste time doing temperature tests. It is failing and unless your going to keep it in an air-conditioned room and not play games on it, it will need to go in.

One thing you can do is if it is not under warranty any longer, open it up and see if there is a large collection of dust. Blow the dust out as it could be blocking airflow.

Jack

Jeff85 · #10 Post by **Jeff85** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 6:48 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. It's still under warranty, so I can send it in to IBM to get it fixed?

JHEM · #11 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Aug 28, 2004 8:29 pm

Jeff85 wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. It's still under warranty, so I can send it in to IBM to get it fixed?

Jeff, your problem is exactly the same as the one I was having, send your unit in to EZServe. Your pictures look exactly the same as my display did and yes, the white rectangle is the cursor.

I resolved the problem by disassembling my unit completely and reseating and resecuring everything. Not for the faint of heart.

Regards,

James

johnson5001 · #12 Post by **johnson5001** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 9:39 pm

I am getting this problem now. I tried to send in for fix, they ran an 18 hr diagnostic test and couldn't find any hardware problem. Anyone running into this problem and able to resolve it?

I tried to load 2 games (Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft), both have the exact same problem as described by the original poster. It doesn't look like it's heating problem.

I am not sure if this has anything to do with SP2. Please help

johnson5001 · #13 Post by **johnson5001** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 1:06 pm

Hmm....oddly enough, if I unplug the AC adapter (ie. using battery power), the problem goes away. My firmware and bios are updated (along with other drivers), any clue what may be causing the problem?

steveho · #14 Post by **steveho** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:48 pm

I have a similar problem with my refurb T30 (2366-xxj). My T30 locks up with no reproducability. Sometimes 3x per day, sometimes 1x per 3 weeks. My laptop freezes on the current screen and the keyboard and mouse do not respond. The fan goes to high speed and it just stays there until I power off.

My computer freezes on battery or a/c, but never while playing games. Only while not running at full power (web browsing, or Word, or Excel, etc.)

I've tried killing all running processes, reloading all drivers, reloading the OS from scratch, reseated every hardware component, but my T30 is out of warranty.

I'll tell you that I won't buy a refurb again. Maybe this is a common problem with refurbs?

RS_003 · #15 Post by **RS_003** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:34 pm

Had the same problem here (exactly the same screen)

My VGA card was fried. Even @ booting i some times got it.
And afther 1 month i not even could boot anymore...

But after waiting like 1 week it worked fine for like 2 hours... and then i came back and took my while laptop down

(btw, this was on an Acer Travelmate 800LCi, but that thing has almost (R9000) the same vga card. And i repair laptops so i have seen this problem before

)

Random freezes with T41

Random freezes with T41

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