T420 report

I received my new T420 friday 4/8, it was originally ordered on 3/30 so it came pretty quick.

When I first started it up, I noticed one stuck (red) pixel on the screen and was very disappointed. However, I tried physically pressing on the screen and it went away. It came back two more times but it seems to be gone for good.

The first thing I did was install 8GB of RAM and swap out the drive for a 120GB Intel 320 SSD. I followed the instructions in the manual and didnt have much issue. The panel on the bottom seemed a little flimsy. I had trouble getting to the connector to remove the keyboard, so I just left it connected and installed the ram with one hand. The 9mm SSD fit into the HD tray just fine and the rubber side covers fit over snugly.

When I was installing Windows 7 onto the drive, I left it unattended while it was copying files. When I got back, I found that the computer had rebooted itself during the install. The second try seemed to work ok. However, I had the system reboot itself a few times after it was installed. This was before I got all the drivers installed so I figure that may have been the cause. However, last night, I did a "battery gauge" reset using the thinkvantage software. In the morning, it seemed that the computer rebooted itself. After logging in, I immediately went to look at the event viewer and pulled up the battery info screen. Within about 10min the computer rebooted itself. This latest reboot has started to concern me. I've been using the laptop all day today and it has been fine.

Also, I have noticed that Chrome (canary) seems to freeze up alot on windows 7 vs in xp. Other than that, I havent had any other issues though.

 

Have you tried running the laptop with the stock HDD that came with it?
Try that and see if it still does the reboot thing.

 

I'm sorry to hear that you have a troubled start with your T420. You sure it isn't the Windows Update that forces your system to restart on the couple of occasions? I find that very annoying too when it restarts without my permission!

 

I had thought about putting the old HD in, however since I am unable to reproduce the problem, I'll never REALLY know if it makes a difference unless it happens to reboot.

I checked the event log and it says that it rebooted without shutting down cleanly. I've also witnessed it, the screen basically suddenly flickers and goes blank, then I see the thinkpad screen. Not even a blue screen. Maybe its a driver. I've heard that Optimus has caused people some issues, maybe thats the cause.

 

Most likely an issue with the RAM. Can you try using the original RAM that your machine came with? Also, can you run a RAM test from the BIOS to make sure if everything's ok?

 

I did the thinkvantage ram test. I will try the one in the bios.

I had also thought that perhaps the problem may have something to do with the power management. Is it possible the thinkvantage power manager is conflicting with the windows 7 one? On that note, how much of the thinkvantage software is useful? I installed it to try it out, but since I have never used it, I'm not sure if I should just uninstall all of it.

 

I would recommend keeping the System Update app. It is useful in drawing updates etc specific to your ThinkPad. The other things, I guess you can jettison if you think they are useless.

Personally, I keep Power Manager and System Update.

 

Forget those. Test your RAM with memtest86+. Let it complete a couple passes. If there are bad chips, it'll find 'em.

 

i couldnt find a test in the bios but i used the windows one which asks you to reboot and runs a few hours. I assume it is similar to memtest86.

I'm thinking maybe the problem has to do with one of the drivers. maybe the graphics optimus stuff. I've never seen it use the nvidia card even when playing videos and forcing it to use it in the settings. so either its not working or the status tool isnt working.

good news is that I havent had an unexpected reboot since sunday.

 

Had the same problem with another laptop ram did he trick.

 

In my experience it's "similar" in the same way that turning your head and coughing is similar to a chest X-ray. I have seen a couple instances of Windows and vendor tools passing on RAM that was later found to be bad with memtest86+. I have never seen the reverse. I'm not saying that you've got bad RAM, but IMHO you shouldn't rule it out until it's completed a couple passes of memtest86+.

 

Just to be sure, I'll run it tonight, I think I have memtest86+ on laying around somewhere. How many passes do you usually run?

 

2-3 should be good.

 

Will memtest86+ (4.20) automatically stop running and reboot? I thought it ran forever until you stopped it.

I ran it overnight, and this morning I saw the windows login screen. It takes about 1hour per pass and ran for 8hours so 8 passes.

Does this mean it failed on the 8th pass? I had the cover closed, maybe it got too warm? Although, since I did not see the results, it could have had a failure earlier