Dropped my T42. Now acting weird

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wonderdogger · #1 Post by **wonderdogger** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 4:53 am

My T42 fell off a height of about 2.5 feet off the side of a couch. It landed on its back on a wooden floor where the screen meets the base. Seemed to be fine at first but when I put it down in certain angles, it dies and reboots. If I leave it in the same place (after it reboots itself), it starts up and can't find the operating system. When I put it on the arm of the chair (so that the top of the arm runs along the base from the centre of the screen to the mousepad , it reboots for example. But sitting on my lap, or on a flat surface, it is fine.

I am thinking something related to the harddrive has gone wrong.
Anything I can look at ? Loose connections inside etc?

christopher_wolf · #2 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:04 am

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forum

You make a good connection between the "Operating System Not Found" error on boot and problems with the HDD. In nearly all the cases I have seen this error in, it has been the HDD or the IDE connector as the culprit part.

If possible, can you run a surface scan and check the SMART attributes of the HDD with HDTune and report the results?

The other, probably related, issue is the rebooting and freezing once you leave it alone for awhile; this correlates with similar symptoms I have seen on other dropped laptops which resulted in HDD problems. Although this can't rule out a planar problem for certain given that it is affected by physical forces on the chassis itself. It might be that the connector for the HDD got damaged during the fall or that the HDD underwent a minor headcrash, highly unlikely due to the HDAPS, and you have a large amount of bad sectors.

kookaburra · #3 Post by **kookaburra** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:08 am

I think it is a good idea to shake it gently and see what will happen.....

joke..

wonderdogger · #4 Post by **wonderdogger** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:36 am

christopher, thanks. I'm running the error scan of HDTune now. Where do I find the SMART attributes?

By the way, it doesn't reboot itself after leaving it for a while. It is only if I place it on some uneven surfaces that it reboots immediately.

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:42 am

For the selected drive in the drop-down box, select the "Health" tab and look at the Threshold, Worst, and Current fields for each of the attributes.

Also, does it reboot itself spontaneously while under heavy loading?

Sorry I missed that part about rebooting spontaneously only on uneven surfaces.

wonderdogger · #6 Post by **wonderdogger** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:54 am

chris, it doesn't appears to reboot under heavy loading (i.e. intensive CPU usage?)

OK the results of the error scan of HDTune is nothing at all damaged. SMART attributes are all OK according to Health tab. The only one where "current" differed from "worst" was spin retry count - 115 v 100 but the threshold is only 30.

christopher_wolf · #7 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:08 am

Well, if the surface scan checks out OK, then I would lean towards it being a problem with the connection. Either that or the planar itself.

If you flex it gently at the lower right hand corner, does it reboot?

#8 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:59 am

did you pull and replace the HDD..?
it might be making a bad connection..
also, in older thinkpads, the IDE connector is on a sub assembly and that could have shaken slightly loose..

wonderdogger · #9 Post by **wonderdogger** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 2:12 am

christopher : no it doesnt really.

Bill : How do I pull the HD safely?

vlyne · #10 Post by **vlyne** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 8:25 am

older thinkpads indeed! Bill's obviously having fun with younger thinkpads!

I'm not sure this is a simple case of a loose IDE/HD connector as the machine reboots when subjected to light structural stress. I'd be tempted to reseat all connectors and devices.
Cheers

Dropped my T42. Now acting weird

Dropped my T42. Now acting weird

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