T61/P hang under Vista..multiple laptops

[Proteus]

This is a serious defect that Lenovo needs to address ASAP. Problem occurs on 2 T61, and 1 T61p models under vista. Problem as follows:

Under standard desktop usage, application being run will "hang". Could be outlook, ie, Notes. Common thread is wireless network use.

Upon hang, the following symptoms ALWAYS occur. CTRL-ALT-DELETE will work ONE time, but attempting to start task manager does nothing.

Alt-Tab and Winkey-Tab work to cycle windows. Mouse moves, however clicking anywhere does nothing. Keyboard does not respond..UI is completely hung.

This occurs on both T61 with Vista 32, and T61p with Vista x64. All have latest drivers and firmware from Lenovo website. All have 3-4GB RAM. Vista SP1 beta does not fix the problem. The other common thread is that all affected systems use Robson cache.
Note that disabling APS doesn't affect the problem either.

I know of 2 other people who have the same symptoms..anyone else see this problem?

[Hellbore]

I wonder if this could be related or the same issue as what I have run into with my T61P.

I was having issues with any graphics-intensive program, especially games. The machine would hang or crash with a blue screen, or crash back to Windows. I THINK there were some times when Explorer locked up too like you describe.

Since you say this happens with 3-4 gigs of RAM, could you try something? Try removing 1 of the memory sticks so there is only 1 stick of RAM in the machine. If your problem magically disappears, then you might have the same problem I have had.

I have talked to several other people who had hardware issues with 4 gigs of RAM and had to have the machine repaired at the depot. In their cases, replacing the motherboard fixed it.

In my case, my laptop is AT the depot as we speak. They told me today that they have tried replacing the motherboard TWICE already and they still haven't solved the problem, and it's getting escalated to a higher level tech. Crazy stuff.

I really think there is a hardware flaw with the motherboards on T61's.

[SLoweCSL]

I agree with you about the possible board defects. My first t61 was replaced with a new unit within the 30 days of initial purchase.

Since then it has been back to the depot for repair, currently on it's 3rd visit. The first time they had to replace the motherboard to fix the issues it was having (took 4 weeks to get it back from repair), the second time they replaced the memory, interestingly they replaced the 2-1gig modules with 1-2gig module.

It Bluescreened and had pre-boot issues right out of the return repair box. I have no idea what they'll do to it this time as it was escalated and sent to a specific person to look at this time.

[Hellbore]

snipped

Wow, scary stuff there.

At one point they replaced your 2 sticks with 1 stick. I think I know why they did this. A big part of the problem with the T61 motherboards seems to be that it doesn't work properly when there are 2 sticks of RAM installed. In my case, specifically, I could make the problems go away just by removing 1 of my sticks of RAM, it seemed to work fine with only 1 stick but with 2, it woudl have lots of issues, usually with 3D graphics programs (which unfortunately includes Windows if you are using Vista Aero Glass, the OS is fairly graphics intensive compared to XP).

[Proteus]

Update:
Updating Robson cache from 1.0.1.1004 (Lenovo) to 1.1.0.1007 (Intel) fixed MANY stability problems in general usage. I still have lots of problems with 3d Games, but the hang on resume, random lockups, etc seem to be fixed. Note that the Intel update also flashs the "OROM" onboard the cache.
Get it from the Intel website.