The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
LaptopGuru, Thanks for your input, your tests shows that the problem exist in different memory configurations. But in my case I can’t get the laptop to shutdown only by utilizing the memory or CPU, as you posted before. I have several VM machines (VMware player) running with multiple applications opened on the host and it runs smoothly. On the other hand, for me Bioshock demo + 4GB = shutdown.
Anyway, I’m going to wait and see if the depot repair fixes the problem on your laptop.
My test that always worked was to have DreamScene going and launch Virtual PC with an XP VM (1GB assigned), Visual Studio 2005, and Lotus Notes 8. I thought it was fine with one 2GB module, but this combination of things did cause a shutdown after about 2-3 minutes. EzServ site still showing ?? in the parts section, hopefully this just means this hasn't updated yet, not that they returned it as "Unable to Reproduce".
Ok, I am back up and running. Picked up the machine from DHL this morning, reinstalled all of my hardware (RAM, DVD, Hard Drive, Battery, etc) that I removed before shipping.
They replaced the planar, and all seems well. I just did the mother of all stress tests -- ran 2 large Virtual Machines and every app I could find -- with DreamScene going in the background -- and it *** worked *** !! No random shutdown. Very encouraging so far, will post if the situation changes. I also ordered the rubber caps for the docking station shutdown issue and those are now installed as well.
I think he is saying that he removed all of the hardware that did not come from the factory (all of the stuff he custom installed himself). After he removed all of that, I'm sure he installed all of the factory hardware to ship it for repair.
Well I would like to know which it is, did you ship it without any hard drive, ram, and dvd player, or did you put back the original parts to ship?
I asked the tech support about this, and they said to definitely ship it WITHOUT my hard drive if I want, even without the DVD drive, both were fine. They were not sure about the RAM though and said I should call the depot and ask them what their preference is. Anyways, he said I could definitely ship without a hard drive because they are going to use their own HDD for testing anyways, they don't want to screw around with my installation of windows.
By the way, I wanted to mention another angle to this problem, my t61p gets significantly lower scores in 3dmark06 when using 2 sticks of 2gb ram, vs. using just 1 stick.
We're talking a difference of 600 points or more, the slower score being with the 4 gigs of RAM.
@ wisdom, the "docking station issue" was that when one would dock his/her laptop a static discharge will occure and the laptop would shutdown. you'll find more information here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-67382.html
My laptop occasionally shocks me...OK it does it constantly. I dunno why. I get up and when I come back and start using it again, the firewire port shocks me every time, or the keyboard, or usb ports, whatever metal is nearest to my skin. I wonder if it has anything to do with the other annoying problems my motherboard has like the ram problem lol... I wonder if I should mention it on the paper when I RMA it...
Ok.. just got back from a convention. Was happy to find that my laptop was back here ready for me to check out. Just reinstalled vista via R&R. I will reinstall FSX and give it one hell of a stress test tomorrow. As for what they replaced the repair action report lists:
Planar Card
Processor (WTF?!)
Bios/Embedded Controller updates prescribed on IBM support page were performced on your machine to ensure reliability and preformance efficiency (hopefully thats firmware stuff.. then again I was up to date on all drivers as far as I could tell).
Anyway I am glad that it was a fast turnaround (went out friday night) and that they actually replaced components which leads me to believe that I should be fine now. The real tests will come tomorrow.
Hey could you tell me more or less what you told them to get them to replace that stuff? Also, what exactly did you ship to them? Everything, or did you ship the laptop without hard drive, ram,etc?
The tech was very easy to work with. took my info then asked me for an explaination of the issue. I told him about the shutdowns and then he just had me read off a couple numbers for him (drivers and what not) and then he suggested I reinstall windows (which i had) and since I had pretty much hit all the bases he suggested that I send it in and then took my info so that he could send me a box. The box was at my door the next day. I shipped it complete sans battery and ac adaptor. Called up DHL and had it in their hands Friday night.. it was back here on Tuesday
I always remove all "accessories" just to be safe. If you think you have bad RAM, I would leave it in and mark the appropriate place on the form. As long as you tell them you sent certain things in, you should be fine. I never feel comfortable sending my data anywhere, so the hard drive always comes out regardless.
There's an electrostatic discharge issue with the T6x series machines an the docks. If you look at the dock, there are four metal prongs that stick up -- two on either side of the docking connector. The rubber caps go on the outer pair of prongs.
The symptom is that when you dock (not always, but for me about 50% of the time), the machine will power off instantly. Very frustrating.
If you think this is your issue, put a piece of electrical tape over the outer pair and see if that resoves your issue -- and then call service and get the real fix (caps).
That good information. Interesting. I would have thought they would want everything to rule out the possibility that it might be one of those pieces of hardware causing the problem.
Well I sent my laptop in for depot repair on this issue. I wrote out a long description of all the steps I have taken to troubleshoot it. I think I have a bad planar and/or GPU too, I hope they replace them and fix this problem for good!
I could be wrong, but I think if they replace the planar you also get a new graphics card. Aren't the graphics card and the motherboard basically inseparable for laptops?
I didn't look but you're probably right, the GPU is probably a BGA chip or something, probably soldered right to the motherboard. I just wasn't sure because I have seen some laptops that have a socketed GPU that can be replaced.
If they don't fix this to my satisfaction then I will just flat out return it and get my money back. It is inexcusable for a laptop not to perform to the stated specifications. Heck, you can BUY one with 4gigs of RAM, it darn sure better be able to support it.
as an update.. games play well now. Just got done playing the Call of Duty 4 demo a couple times over. I did get a vid driver crash before updating to the newest driver which did cause a restart but it wasn't the same old hard reboot but more of a the system is stuck kind of reboot. I have not tested any of the modded inf drivers yet but I just might give them a whirl and report back on how that goes.
Interesting, I have not had any problems either. Have you made any other changes since getting the system back? Wonder if there were some substandard planars early on and this is solely a hardware issue. I noticed instantaneous results when I got mine back and haven't had a lick of problems since.
nope... running fsx at pretty much almost maxxed settings with no issues now. With the stock driver AA would cause a freeze but the newest drive from microsoft update fixed that. I'm much happier now.
Just a general update. All is well and the laptop runs wonderfully. Very pleased overall with the service and handling of my issues. It was repaired very quickly and things are peachy now.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
