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    Need help with some odd problems with my T61

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by kkSlider, Dec 27, 2008.

  1. kkSlider

    kkSlider Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey all,

    I've had my ThinkPad T61 since August and have experienced some recurring problems that put me at unease.

    1. Sometimes when I boot, my screen has this weird problem of being a grid display. I see the screen as a grid of pixels. When I leave my computer at my desktop for a few moments, and then open up Firefox or some program, I can see the wallpaper burned into the screen. I have to shutdown or standby, then reboot the computer and it's fine again.

    2. I have Windows XP Pro, and when I boot, the icons on my desktop will load. Sometimes though, they will refresh, and the bottom icons will inexplicably go beneath the taskbar, leaving a gap between that row of icons and the row of icons that used to be above. I have to drag them to their normal positions. Odd.

    3. Then there's the hard drive failures. I'll boot up my ThinkPad, and then the XP logo shows up but instantly changes to a black screen saying that the hard drive could not load, or something along those lines. Then it tells me which device to boot from. I have to restart the computer (by holding the power button), and then it works. Still, I am very discomforted that this problem occurs at all, given that I've only had the laptop for a few months.

    These are the main problems I've experienced with my T61. I have a base 1 year limited warranty, and I'm going to call customer service and see what they can do.

    Are these serious problems? What do you guys think?
     
    kkSlider, Dec 27, 2008
    #1
  2. The Fire Snake

    The Fire Snake Notebook Virtuoso

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    What I would do first is to backup all the critical data off of your drive. Then I would wipe the machine and reinstall XP however you want(i.e clean install or with recovery discs). If this does not fix all the problems then I would contact Lenovo and send in the machine immediately. However, I am a believer of trying to solve my own problems as much as I can before getting involved with customer support from any company.
     
    The Fire Snake, Dec 27, 2008
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  3. kkSlider

    kkSlider Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hmm, Problem #1 first occurred a few days after I got my laptop. I actually did a few reformats with the recovery discs (tried to do a clean install once, but it didn't work). I don't have any external hard drives or anything, so it would be hard for me to save all my data.
     
    kkSlider, Dec 27, 2008
    #3
  4. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    defragment the HDD and see if there are bad sectors on it.

    run anti-virus

    get external HDD to back up stuff

    do a clean XP install, it can be a pain but at the end is well worth it.
     
    miro_gt, Dec 27, 2008
    #4