Thinkpad x40, used [edited] overheating and crashing

[blakekr]

OK, I am brand-new to thinkpads so this could be a longish process figuring out the problem, but would love some feedback.

I just bought this thinkpad used off ebay, and loaded it up with a little software in preparation for giving it as a gift. Getting a lot of bluescreen crashes and freezes, "recovered from serious error" warnings and checkdisk runs. I'm not sure yet whether it's a hardware or OS problem. I think I've ruled out viruses.

I ran the hitachi disk fitness scan and got this result:
PROBLEM DETECTED ON A NON-HITACHI DISK DRIVE: 0x70

But it is a hitachi drive, number DK13FA-40B, 40 GB (I think this comes stock with this model?)

Very unspecific error, would prefer to find out if the disk really has a physical problem before I go run to replace it.

Can someone suggest another diagnostics program that might provide more feedback? Any idea why Hitachi says this drive is not theirs? Thanks for reading!

[Harryc]

Try Pc-Doctor hard drive tests. It's the IBM/Lenovo diagnostic for your machine.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 56222.html

[tim S]

Using PC-Doctor is always good advice. However it seems that sector 70 has been corrupted on your drive, so you may have to do a format to get it back into shape. Hopefully the recovery partition is still in one piece so you'll be able to get everything back, athough only as it was when new.
Tim S

[blakekr]

Thanks for the tips, I'll give it a try. Not much is on the machine, so having to wipe it won't be much of a loss.

But, I'm concerned the problem could be worse than a disk error, because PC Doctor freezes during its tests (off the bootable CD) and Memtest halts with "Unexpected interrupt - halting" message (same, bootable) which apparently is not much of a good sign. Typically PC Doctor freezes during the memory test but it's frozen at other points also.

[tim S]

Could be the memory module then. Take it out and let the machine run on the built-in 256 or 512 and see what happens.
Tim S

[blakekr]

Terrific, will try, thanks for the idea.

[blakekr]

Hi, it's me again

I finally gave up (every diagnostic I tried would freeze) and took the computer to a repair tech. The problem seems to be overheating. It seems the fan does not speed up adequately in response to the high temperatures reached whenever the processor does something demanding, like virus scans. The tech has cleaned out everything and refreshed the thermal paste which improved the overheating issue but didn't solve it. I think from what I've read this is a fairly common issue with older thinkpads or laptops in general. He was going to try to update the bios to see if that offered more control over the fan. Any other advice come to mind? I would really like to save this laptop before the constant overheating screws up the mobo.

Appreciate your thoughts