T22 laptop, only works while refrigerated!

[crazy k]

thats right. I am typing on a T22 resting inside a refrigerator in an hotel room.
This so majorly sucks!

During the last week the laptop finally only works for a few minutes until it has warmed up, at which point it freezes up, and window will not start in normal mode but will start in safe mode. after reloading windows, it did the same


where have i been so far with this demented machine?
my history with this:

I purchased my T22 laptop last year off of e-bay and it seems to have gotten worse and worse. It has always had a habit of crashing but always seems to have had explainable reasons for it's failure.

The first reason was a dying harddrive that was developing artifacts in the data. it crashed and windows had to be restored to get it running a few times, until the harddrive was replaced with a free used one a friend gave me.

the second time it was attributed to firefox hogging up all the memory the machine had. solution? open less tabs.

the third time the boot.ini file became damaged. a reload of windows and a chckdsk scan indicated something wrong with the harddrive or it's data (assumably the used harddrive) so I replace the harddrive.

I also ordered memory chips for the machine but they do not work. the "reliable data" I had said that 2 144 pin pc133 256 chips would work, but a techie checked my laptop and says it is hardcoded in the bios to only be able to use PC100 cast 3 chips, with a max of 256 each per slot.

but all this is in the past.

my problem TODAY...is to figure out why my laptop freezes at room temperature. ...So I can get out of the refrigerator
suggested is that I have is a bad solder joint, it sounds probable, any tips on what to look for and how to find it?

[Andersonjoe711]

that can't be too good for the screen...............

[AlphaKilo470]

Make sure the fan is spinning freely and that there's no dust in the fan or vent. Also make sure the intake vent (located on left side next to pcmcia slots) isn't obstructed. After that, make sure the cpu has cooling compound on it and is making direct contact with the heatsink/fan assembly.

On a side note, this is actually funny because last week I encountered a T21 that I had to heat up before use or the screen wouldn't work.

[ronbo613]

If it is not a CPU overheating problem(which some utility should be able to detect), it's probably the hard drive.
It's a fairly well known last resort for dying hard drives; stick it in the freezer(in a baggie) until it's ice cold, shlap it back in the computer and start unloading your data. As the drive heats up, it will start to choke.

[truk]

Can you go to
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
and download speedfan It should report the temperature of the hard drive and the cpu. Try to see if one of them has a common (within a few degrees) temperature that it hits before it dies.

Also, does it just power off as if you had removed the battery and adaptor, or does it become buggy and then die (possibly even with an error).

[crazy k]

I'll try the speedfan thing.

If it is not a CPU overheating problem(which some utility should be able to detect), it's probably the hard drive.

well I am on my third hard drive, this one a new 70 GB western digital.

it just freezes, the screen image is just on and frozen. usually the mouse pointer or curser just stops moving. and I have to hold the power button for a few seconds to shut it off.

[ronbo613]

When you have unrelated and random problems, in my experience, odds are it is either the hard drive or power supply. New or not, hard drives fail all the time. CPUs shut down if they overheat, get a utility and rule that out. Since you're burning through hard drives, you should know when one fails. Why do you think they are dying on a regular basis? Any chance you could have a defective drive? I think WD has diagnostic software for their drives.
Power supply, I don't have much experience with Thinkpad PSUs. Perhaps someone else can offer some advice.

[crazy k]

keep in mind that the first two harddrives were old, from 2001. only the first one was confirmed to be bad, the second I was suspicious of but did not fully test.

I suppose it could be an issue of even the new harddrive being bad, but I don't know.

I tested the 1st harddrive with MEMTEST86. I need to obtain a copy and check the new and the second harddrives to see if it finds problems. Would this be a good program? or do you have other harddrive testing recomendations?

p.s. yesterday the laptop in the fridge ran better than ever in the fridge.

right now I have it running out of the fridge, (was not stored in the fridge) and running speedfan for the last little while results:
temp1 (which is what???) rising from 36 to 38 to 40 degrees C
harddrive constant at 40 degreesC

[rkawakami]

memtest86 only checks your laptop's memory modules and not any other hardware. Well... you do have to have a power supply, and your CPU must be working and whatever you are using for a boot drive for memtest86 (floppy or CD)... other than that, it does not verify anything else. Specifically, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the hard drive.

I would recommend running memtest86 or memtest86+ on one module at a time and see if you get any failures. Let it execute for a couple of hours, in which time the system should heat up a little bit. If you find no errors, then download PC Doctor for DOS from here:

Lenovo Support (floppy-based)

or here:

.ISO image of same program (hosted on my site)

and execute both the CPU/coprocessor and systemboard diagnostics for an hour or so. After you have booted PC Doctor and selected the appropriate test from the menu, press the F2 key and change the "Set Pass Count" figure from "1" to "100". That tells the programs to loop the selected test that many times. Quite useful for "burning in" a system.

PC133 modules can be used in the T22 but they must be of the "low-density" type. This means for a 256MB module, there should be 16 chips on the board; 8 on each side.

[crazy k]

The point is mute. The laptop has died and is now gone back to the hell from which it was released. I have no more interest in fixing it.

time to look for something new.

[ronbo613]

Bummer. What do you think it was? Did you smell anything burning?
From what I've read here, you can get another T-twenty-something at a pretty reasonable price, maybe you can swap out some of the parts that are still good.

[tfflivemb2]

The point is mute. The laptop has died and is now gone back to the hell from which it was released. I have no more interest in fixing it.

time to look for something new.

Don't just toss it....you can sell it here for parts...

[AlphaKilo470]

Before tossing, have you followed the advice in my post that talks about the CPU and fan? I have a friend who's A21m had similar issues until I did some work on the heatsink.

Well, if you do decide to toss the thing, let me know. I'm always after parts and systems.