R40 - 2681W1E - Need advise on problem determination

[Chris001]

Hello,

First post so please bear with me.

I need some advise on a problem a user is having with his R40 (2681-W1E, 1.8GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 20GB HDD).

The user is complaining the the laptop will shut down without warning. The laptop has a custom software image of WinXP PRO SP1, MS Office2k Standard, Symantec Anti-Virus and the OEM ThinkPad drivers and software.

The user is trying to use the laptop to run Graphic design and animation software, specifically Photoshop 7, Macromedia Director, Macromedia Design, Adobe Illustrator. The user states he runs the programs from CDs to save on disk space.

Now after the laptop has been imaged with the custom software image (none of the graphic design and animation software installed), RAM is reported as 256MB Total and 30.49MB Free.

I think the laptop is shutting down because there is not enough RAM to run the programs and when the laptop is overloaded it just turns off.

The user has had this problem before and was sent an indentical 2681-W1E laptop. The problem of shutting down is the same with both laptops.

Any advise or recommendations will be appreciated.

Also, the laptop is reported to have 16MB of video RAM, is this shared system RAM or dedicated VRAM that is seperate form the system RAM?

Thanks,
Chris

[AbsoluteRaleigh]

Hello,

First post so please bear with me.

I need some advise on a problem a user is having with his R40 (2681-W1E, 1.8GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 20GB HDD).

The user is complaining the the laptop will shut down without warning. The laptop has a custom software image of WinXP PRO SP1, MS Office2k Standard, Symantec Anti-Virus and the OEM ThinkPad drivers and software.

The user is trying to use the laptop to run Graphic design and animation software, specifically Photoshop 7, Macromedia Director, Macromedia Design, Adobe Illustrator. The user states he runs the programs from CDs to save on disk space.

Now after the laptop has been imaged with the custom software image (none of the graphic design and animation software installed), RAM is reported as 256MB Total and 30.49MB Free.

I think the laptop is shutting down because there is not enough RAM to run the programs and when the laptop is overloaded it just turns off.

The user has had this problem before and was sent an indentical 2681-W1E laptop. The problem of shutting down is the same with both laptops.

Any advise or recommendations will be appreciated.

Also, the laptop is reported to have 16MB of video RAM, is this shared system RAM or dedicated VRAM that is seperate form the system RAM?

Thanks,
Chris

I doubt it is possible to run Photoshop from a CD. Maybe it is possible but it is unheard of... He needs a bigger drive if he is really attempting this. Again, i highly doubt it woul even work.

It is not shutting down due to excessive memory usage. If the memory were filled up the unit would just run slow or possibly crash or something.

I do not beleive the memory is shared on that unit.

First off, he needs more memory. Running w/ 256MB is possible but it is going to be a mjor bottleneck in his performance. He needs to add 512MB to run photoshop nicely...

He needs a larger HD. 40GB minimum but i would spring for a high performance (high RPM) 60 or 80GB.

If the unit is shutting down and it is under warratnee have him get it serviced by calling 1-800-IBM-SERV.

The animation programs are going to hog up a lot of his resources, especially w/ that 16MB video... I don't know... If he must run these types of programs on his laptop he may just want to get a new unit all together.

[MobileGuru]

Check out the suspend switch tab on the keyboard bezel. You might find that when you tap on it the machine wakes up or shuts down, depending on it's present state. Replacing the keyboard bezel alleviates this problem.