Sigh...New Lenovo T61P > Depot Repair

Well I just received my Lenovo T61P on Friday and I must admit it is by far the best Laptop I've owned. (My previous Laptop which I finally got refunded for the purchase price was an HP DV9500T which caused nothing but problems)

However whenever I attempt to play any type of graphically intensive game, such as Half Life 2: Episode Two after playing it for around thirty minutes it will completely lock up the computer forcing me to manually shut down the computer and restart it.

The LCD Screen also appears to be defective, that or perhaps I'm just not used to Matte Screens. It has moderate light leakage on the bottom in addition to the horizontal lines of the monitor sticking out. (Very apparent when playing Half Life 2: Episode Two as the images clash with the horizontal lines)

I've tried everything:

- Clean Windows XP Installation
- Latest BIOS
- Latest Drivers
- Tried 169.01 Nvidia Forceware Drivers
- Ran Memtest 86+ 1.70 on my Retail RAM I purchased seperately with no errors

Does anyone have any ideas? I've already sent for the box because I have a feeling its a motherboard issue, either the motherboard itself or the GPU/CPU.

Should I remove my Retail RAM and re-insert the 1GB that came with it standard or leave it in the machine? I'm tempted to remove it but then again I'm worried if they don't test the machine with 4GB of RAM the error may not show up, based on previous forum posts in this section.

Thanks,

Hackez

 

well, its my understanding they dont warranty after market parts so i would guess u must return as purchased including software.
I might be wrong, and there is athread somewhere about 4gbs in t61 somewhere.
good luck

 

For repair, remove your RAM and you can send without or without the factory RAM. They will test with RAM there. If you are having the same lockup and/or shutdown problems that I was having, you/they will see the issue regardless of the memory configuration. I had 2x2GB in mine, I ordered 1+2, tested/shutdown with 1, 2, 1+2, and 2+2, so I know mine was not memory related. The planar swap cleared everything up.

 

Alright thanks, my Laptop is acting odd so hopefully this will clear it up once and for all!

 

Man new car that hasnt even been washed yet and Lenovo replaces the engine. Errant shipping dates, people trying to decide whether they got a good screen. Parts list dont match order. I'm sick of Lenovo.

 

They shipped via UPS, to be honest I doubt it is Lenovo's fault. On the slight chance it is, problems happen its not that terrible really.

Thats the only disadvantage to ordering online is that when your forced to use a horrid carrier like UPS or DHL you pay the consequences sometimes.

 

Just of interest did you try running your games with just the original 1 gig of ram and was there any problems?

 

Yeah I did, the hard lockups seemed to have ceased however there are still a large amount of other anomolies when playing any video game.

I'll just send it in and let them double check everything, though I'm 99% sure something is defective or is having issues.

I'm working with Mushkin right now to get my 4GB of RAM replaced. (Even though it passed Memtest I noticed a few dents/damage to the contacts on the RAM)