T41 Freeze problem

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#1 Post by **bill bolton** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 9:17 pm

I have one out of warrantly T41 2374 config which has suddenly started to "freeze" at various times. The system goes totally non-responsive at OS level and the only action it responds to is powering off.

After powering off, and powering on again, the power and battery lights come up and it sounds like the fan is running but nothing else happens.

By doing the "remove the battery and pushing the power button 10 times etc" hard reset, I can get the T41 out of its fugue state immediately and it will boot until it experiences another random freeze event.

There is no pattern to the freezing and sometimes the machine will run for hours without a problem while at other times it will freeze early in the boot up cycle.

I have tried swapping-in a known good hard drive and OS image from another T41 and get the same results. Similarly the drive and OS image from the problem machine runs consistently without any problems in another T41.

PC Doctor 5 system tests (when the complete) report no evident problems with any components.

Any clue as to what the problem might be would be welcome.... if I can't fix it, it will become a parts machine as I can't justify a planar board replacement.

Cheers,

Bill B.

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 9:29 pm

Bill, how are the system temps per a utility like mobmeter?

#3 Post by **bill bolton** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:36 am

Harryc wrote:Bill, how are the system temps per a utility like mobmeter?

I haven't been monitoring température as sometimes it will freeze at start up from stone cold, while at others it will run for hours doing tests without any problem, which would seem to largely discount a temperature related problem.'

Anyway, I'll see about putting a temperature sensing utility on it.

Cheers,

Bill

#4 Post by **jdhurst** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:03 am

I though T41's were 2373's but anyway, a number of T41's were afflicted with cold solder joints on the motherboard, and they would quit at inopportune moments. In my case, the display with wriggle a bit and then the machine would die. The only solution for the problem I describe is a new motherboard.

Your problem, however, may be different.
Cheers, ... JDH

Brad · #5 Post by **Brad** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 10:36 am

I am afraid that I have to concur there may be a new motherboard in your future.

Brad

jclengkeek · #6 Post by **jclengkeek** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 4:35 pm

I think they preconfigured thinkpad T41's for freezing from oktober 2007 on... Last wednesday (oktober 10th) my T41 (2373 sa1) started to act just as you described. At sudden moments it freezes, there seems to be no pattern at all. Sometimes it freezes while I'm in the middle of something, sometimes it freezes while it is idle, just waiting for me to take it from the couch and use it, sometimes it freezes when it's starting up. I formatted the harddiskdrive and tried to install Windows XP again, but even during setup it freezed.
I tried to use the memorymodules from a T43, but they are a bit different so they won't fit.
I already tried to startup the computer with the two memorymodules changed (I placed the one from the bottomslot in the slot under the keyboard and the other way around) but that did not have any success. Also I tried to use only one of the memorymodules and leave the other one out, to see if one of the memorymodules was corrupt, but also without any result.
The next thing I tried was booting Gentoo Linux live CD. Same problem occured, during startup the computer freezes. It never made it to the desktop.
A memorytest with memtest86 did run smoothly and gave no problems at all. It could run for almost an hour, then it finished the memorytest. Without freezing.... So I guess there must be something wrong with the motherboard. Anyone any suggestions?

wshnlc · #7 Post by **wshnlc** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:13 pm

I am experiencing the exact same problem with my old T41 (why I recently purchased the X61). I would like to salvage it and give it to my wife.

Is it possible that it could be the video card? My understanding of the motherboard is that I would not even get to boot Windows if it is a motherboard problem (perhaps this is my ignorance

).

If it is the motherboard, how do I go about acquiring a new one

ajkula66 · #8 Post by **ajkula66** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:21 am

It does very much sound like a motherboard problem. I'd try to boot a "live" Linux CD and see how that flies... keep it running as long as possible if it boots in the first place.

To answer the question in this thread, the motherboard with the GPU issue will still boot in at least 8 out of 10 cases in my experience, but will randomly freeze, give out "garbled screen" and so forth and so on...on where I would source out one for T4 series, my answer would be "no clue". When I've had machines with those issues, I've chosen to part them out.

Mucho Maze · #9 Post by **Mucho Maze** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:13 am

Have you tried another RAM module? I've experienced that my T41 wouldn't boot as I tried some different RAM modules in different locations (one slot under the keyboard, another under the bottom). So I'm quiet sure that some RAM failure could prevent the computer even getting to the IBM-logo screen. Maybe you could try a RAM-test, f.x using the linux rescue cd:

http://www.sysresccd.org/

JFB · #10 Post by **JFB** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:05 pm

I had various issues with my t41 (using XP pro). Often it froze. No BSOD, no pointer/keyboard function. nothing. Less often, but still not infrequently it would BSOD with various "IRQ not less or equal" errors. I tried everything. Eventually reset to factory defaults. That didn't help either. What DID help (believe it or not) was deactivating the ethernet lan. I've got an Intel 82540EM based network connection and an Intel PRO/wireless LAN 2100 3B mini PCI adapter. If I disable the ethernet adapter, but not the wireless then everything works fine. I've been going a month with no freeze's and no BSOD's. I think there is a bad connection or something with the ethernet adapter because before disconnecting it, its operation was intermittent and would frequently drop an otherwise fine connection.

Maybe this helps other folks?

JohnB

yak · #11 Post by **yak** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:42 am

jdhurst wrote:I though T41's were 2373's (...)

Well, mine is a 2374 too.

pianowizard · #12 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:04 am

I had a T41 that froze whenever the GPU reached 39 deg C (as measured by NHC). If I used the laptop right next to an air conditioner to keep the GPU cool, it could run for hours. That particular unit had a short fan; replacing it with a long fan could have helped.

#13 Post by **bill bolton** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:05 pm

Just to close this out.... I never got to the bottom of the problem, but was able to get hold of a planar from a T40 which was problematic for other reasons, so I installed that in place of the T41 plannar.

That particular transplanted ThinkPad is now doing sterling duty in Papua New Guinea, running translation batch jobs for a group of scripture translators there.

Cheers,

Bill

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