Strange T42 Problem

[Jammin_Jim]

2 days ago, out of no where, my laptop(An IBM Thinkpad T42) shut off completely with no warning at all. I was in the middle of looking at blog and it just turned off. It would not turn back on at first so i took out the battery and unplugged it for a while. After about i minute i put the battery back in and plugged it back in and it turned on just fine. But after a while i noticed that when sending messages in aim or windows live messenger my computer would freeze a moment then send the message when they were literally instant before.

Also, and this is the big one, when i use internet explorer, it will eventually freeze and i have to end the not responding task. Then i can no longer open programs made by windows, except office applications, or any media players. I listen to music a bunch and this is really driving me nuts.

does anyone know why the initial sudden turn-off happened? is there any reason this other stuff could be happening? do i have a virus? is my computer just crapping out on me?

[Brad]

Welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately this could be the start of an all to common problem with this particular series.

The on board graphics card could be causing this problem. The best fix is to replace the motherboard. If still under warranty I would make the call to start the process.

Brad

[Jammin_Jim]

how does the graphics card effect the machine's functions this way? sry but even though i been messing around with computers for years i am quite noobish

since it is not under warrenty, how much would a new mother board cost if it does end up needing to be replaced?

[Brad]

I think the GPU has a intermittant connection problem which is causing the freezing. Very simply like unplugging your monitor then plugging it back in.

I may have one available depending on your graphics card.

Brad

[Jammin_Jim]

i have the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500

[ajkula66]

Jammin_Jim wrote:

i have the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500

Exactly the type that has been plagued the most with issues that Brad has been referring to.

I hope you've gotten good use out of your machine, because you're likely looking at motherboard replacement, or "for parts only" sale.

Good luck.

[kyrotech]

i have the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500

That is a discrete graphics card, the chip and memory are soldered in the system board. If you browse many users with T42 and that radeon 7500 had similar problems and It always ended in a faultry video card, requiring a system board change (under warranty or not)

Me, I have changed ~10 of those system boards from different T42s that had video problems (freeze, graphic corruption, system shutdown)

If you want to test if your problem is windows related rather than a hardware failure, boot your T42 using one of the linux live CDs distros you can find in the web (Ubuntu, Gentoo, Fedora, etc)