Thinkpad T42 problems

[bergamerjones]

I have had my laptop for almost 2 years and it has been working perfectly, until 3 days ago. It began to freeze ( I noticed that before it froze the screen became a little fuzy.. I did a hard shut down and restarted, within a few minutes it did the same thing again.
I shut down again and this time when I restarted, it wouldn't restart. It seems the harddrive would not start. I can sometimes get the harddrive to start, but then it will eventually freeze.

I reformatted the harddrive, but it didn't resolve the problem. My original thought was that it was a bad Harddrive, but all the internal tests on the drive seem fine.

it also freezes in safe mode

any thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks

[V0lt]

How are the temperatures? Does it feel hot to the touch?

If so, you might have to crack open the case and blow the dust out of the heatsinks and components.

Other than that, I would think that the hard drive is probably not the culprit, because it shouldn't cause the screen glitching that you mentioned.

[bergamerjones]

it's not hot at all.

it is strange, that this all started when I went to a website and it began scanning my computer for viruses. I immediatly closed the webpage and then about 20 minutes later, this all started.

could this be a virus?
and if so, could it survive a reformat?

[V0lt]

Viruses that live in the master boot record can survive reformats of the windows partition, but they're not that common.

One thing you could try is a livecd of some sort- linux even. Basically it's just a cd-rom that your computer can boot from to give you a graphical linux distribution without touching the hard drive. That way, you can see if the system stays stable for long enough to rule out a hardware issue.

From there, if linux or whatever livecd you try works properly, I would look at drivers, spyware, etc. If you don't care about the stuff on this machine, you could then just reformat it (or zero it out completely if you feel like it) and try a fresh install.

[bergamerjones]

I already did an internal reformatt, there is an option to restore the computer to when it left the factory (deletes all info) this also reinstalls windows. Could the virus survive this type of reformat?
or is it better to use CD's?

[V0lt]

It's really not possible to know without knowing exactly what the factory disk does. If it really does format the drive, then in most cases a virus would not survive.

[jeffdogg]

My T42 is doing the exact same thing!!! What did you end up figuring out? I know it is not the hard drive. I took it out and stuck it in my T40 and works perfectly. Please let me know!

[TriggerFinger]

May be it is not the hard drive at all. I have read some cases that it is the video chip that becomes loose eventually for T4x laptops. In those cases, the remedy is a reflow soldering procedure, where they 'cook' the mobo trying to melt the solders of the video chip to make it attach again to the board. Video chips for thinkpads commonly are soldered into the motherboard. You can see them as little metallic balls between the chip and the board forming a grid. As per the cases that I read, these become loose in time and could be caused also by how the Thinkpad is handled.

Unfortunately you have to open up the laptop to check. In another forum they said you will know if it is a loose GPU (graphics processing unit = video chip) problem if it freezes when laptop is moved in any way. A little movement could cause a freeze but this is not limited to this alone. Sad to say all the symptoms you have listed are the very same symptoms of a loose GPU as per the cases I encountered.

Do a low level format and reinstall Windows or better yet another OS like Linux to see if it's a driver problem or not. You can also try plugging in a different HDD just to remove all doubts of an HDD failure. Sad to say if these all result to the same symptoms, it may be a GPU problem after all.

[whiterabbittttt]

this is terrible! my T42 didn't make it through a plane flight. Can hear a rattle. Eventually on a whim I tried putting pressure on the metal plate above the battery (right now the battery is disconnected), and this sufficiently stabilized things to allow the machine to turn on.

This is not a long term solution!

Is there a service experienced performing this fix? if this is a "known" issue (known meaning this website is the very first hit on google for "thinkpad t42 problem"), Then wouldn't particular known fix-it shops be well versed in performing the corrective action?

help! who can fix this?

[TriggerFinger]

when you say you hear a rattle do you mean it sounds like there is something loose and moving inside? if that is the case, i doubt if it is GPU. it can be anything but the GPU, it can be a loose screw or something.

have it checked in a repair shop. if it something metallic and loosely moving around the motherboard, you might end up with a fried mobo. so have it removed totally or have it attached back to its place.

[whiterabbittttt]

welp, my problem is "solved", a little embarrasing. Looks like there is a failure of sorts with either the memory expansion port under the laptop or with the memory itself.

With this knowledge, if my problem came back tomorrow I would buy a new module and replace the one under the keyboard before I troubleshot the video chip.

as it is, that one seems to work just fine. Where only the one under the motherboard causes problems when installed.

Havent tried using the suspect memory under the keyboard.

[TriggerFinger]

hmmm does your T42 suffer from video problems or intermittent freezes when used in high graphic applications. if it does, then you can say it could be the video chip. unfortunately the video chip is soldered on the board so it is a motherboard replacement just in case.

you can test the suspected RAM with Memtest86+. you can make a floppy or a CD copy of Memtest86+. you can boot from the floppy or CD drive. the test automatically starts. i suggest you run the test for 2 passes just to be sure. remove the good RAM and just use the suspected RAM. run the test for each (only one installed at a time).

[balldontlie11]

I am having the exact same problem. What was the end result?

[whiterabbittttt]

no end result yet. Playing musical chairs with the RAM chips helped, but did not definitively solve my problem. I will be taking it in to the shop asap, found a local place that appears to be reputable.

Best I can figure at the moment is a particular compression of the keyboard (caused by a tightening of the kbd screw closest to the backside RAM slot) causes a tweak in a particular way that faults out the laptop.

But I can't nail it down to a root cause. Heat is DEFINITELY not an issue. laptop will show instant problems or stability after long periods of run time. not dependent on heat

Anytime I have a fault condition I can pull the keyboard and it is enough to stabilize the computer and let it start up. However two weeks ago I was able to stress the laptop body and do the same thing for awhile. Later I was able to remove ram chips and accomplish the same. I'm still not at the root cause.

While stable, I can pull the kbd (more specifically I can not reinstall and start the machine up) and inspect the board. using pressure to wiggle the video or processor chips will not cause the machine to enter a fault state. with the keyboard not in place the computer seems to be permanently stable, however I can not operate the machine on the long term without the keyboard in place so it may be another false road. Ultimately I will snap the keyboard back in place and the machine continues to run find for several hours before entering the fault state again.

this isnt an easy issue to deal with, certainly. wish I had a better answer, but the end is nowhere near yet.

[TriggerFinger]

have you tried placing a piece of cardboard between keyboard and RAM?

[karennhs]

Hello,

I've experienced an horrible problem with my 3 years old t42. After installing a new 1GB RAM (It has 512 MB) and reboot the XP System, my laptop freezes :|. Sometimes inmediately, sometimes after 5 minutes, etc. I've read about this problem and some people say that the solution is to buy a new motherboard mmm in that case it would be better a new pc |(.

I updated the BIOS but nothing happened. Now I will try to clean it with canned air but I'm not sure that this will resolve my problem :(

Finally, when I take out the 1GB RAM, the problem just dissapears. But I really need to increase the RAM :S

Help please!!! if anyone knows about it...

[TriggerFinger]

it could be a faulty RAM. run Memtest86+ diagnostics to be sure. d/load link on my sig. get the ISO.ZIP version and extract the ISO into your desktop or any folder. burn the image into a blank CD media. boot from your CD drive using this CD.

[karennhs]

Hello,

Thanks I'll do that, but I've probed with 2 different memories, furthermore I've made a lot of memory tests and It doesn't show any anomaly with the RAM.

[TriggerFinger]

if you have tried another memory module/s or your RAM modules successfully tested with tools like Memtest86+ and still the problem remains, then there could be a problem with the RAM slot/s. the sad thing about having problems with the RAM slots is that, they are soldered into the motherboard.... may need mobo replacement or repair.

[whiterabbittttt]

I used laptop rescuer of Santa Clara. They advertise on Ebay and on their own website. Professional and very good at what they do. Component level troubleshooting means they will not shotgun your motherboard, rather figure out which part is faulty and replace/repair just that.

They fixed my laptop (GPU BGA failure) for half my understood price of a brand new motherboard.

If you get tired of searching online for answers or can't find a straight one, give them a shot.