T500 crashing, ATI GPU problem?

So recently my T500 at work has been randomly crashing with KERNAL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR and related type problems. Usually it seems to be happening when in a docking station, or when I dock it.

I was originally thinking it was either SSD related or the connection to it. I decided to run memtest on it though since I know it could be bad ram as well. The first time I ran Memtest, it immediately halted on error. So I removed one ram chip and tried again, halted. Swapped the ram chips tired again, it immediately halted again.

So hmm, not good. The laptop had been running in discrete graphics only mode in the BIOS, so I decided to swap to the intel graphics only.

I reboot into memtest and it starts running fine. I turn it off and throw in the other stick of ram and boot back in, so far memtest has been running for 10min with no problems.

So I guess there is an issue with the ATI GPU... at least on mine it seems. Are there typically problems with them? Sometimes I wonder if there's an issue with the mobo that the docking station brings up...

Speaking of which I'm gonna retest in memtest out of the docking station. I have multiple docking stations so I know that's not the problem.

 

I tested it out of the docking station in discrete mode and Memtest halted immediately, but fine in integrated mode.

So looks like this one's stuck in integrated forever.

 

That is pretty strange since you would think that the GPU wouldn't have any effect on the system memory. I run the T500 in discreet mode constantly since that is the only way to get displayport out with the dual graphics. It is very rare, but sometimes I get glitches on my external monitor. I thought the problem was my displayport to DVI adapter, but a couple of times when it happened, there were glitches on the laptop's own display as well! It all went away by itself after mere seconds or a minute or two, and it is very rare, so whatever. It didn't matter if the GPU was running at stock speeds or if it was running highly overclocked, or if the load was high or low, or if it was running hot or cool. I still feel like it is caused by the displayport to DVI adapter since it has only ever happened when it was connected.

 

Yeah it is strange...

Well after running in 7 again with integrated, it blue screened on me twice and with the KERNAL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR once... so this one might be done for.

I rebooted it into memtest and it ran for 2min with no errors but it locked up I think when I took out and back in of the docking station to feel how warm it was on the bottom (did feel warm but not hot).
Might try another HD to make sure though.

 

For now, I put a few layers of electrical tape on topside of drive to tighten up the fit into the drive bay.

This M500 is thinner than normal and requires the use of that plastic spacer, however it never felt like it fit tight enough into the bay and I've been wondering if there's been a bad connection at times. The crash always seems to happen when either sitting in a docking station for a while (which is dif from sitting out of one), or right after placing it into one. That could possibly cause some movement of the HD.

I did an entire scan of the drive in HD Tune and found no problems so far and it has been stable..for now.

Still odd about the Memtest error w/ ATI GPU though.

 

I've bumped into this aspect of Memtest some years ago testing a Z61m. Sure enough, the system was throwing errors regardless of RAM that was installed in it and after all it turned out to be a flaky GPU.

It is my - possibly incorrect - understanding that this whole scenario has something to so with ATi GPUs (from T43 on) "sharing" the system memory, although they maintain their own VRAM.

My experiences only.

 

Yeah, might be just a weird glitch between the two. I think after a week of stability I will switch this laptop back over to the ATI gpu. I just want the display port/DVI output lol. So far so good though.

 

Ugh, just had a KERNAL PAGE ERROR bluescreen.

 

So damn, still getting the crashes. AND I have a second T500 here that is blue screening as well. Well that sucks. Kinda at a loss.

 

After using Memtest86+ version 5.01, it worked fine with ATI GPU. I ran it for 15 hours and had no errors.

I did some further testing using the driver verifier and found the fingerprint and Daemon tools drivers to be crashy, I've since removed them.

On further investigation. I have looked at Bluescreen history for 3 T500s and one T400. They all had a regular BS history average of around once a month (Windows 7). The T400 did not have switchable gfx but the crashes were intel driver related, but on old drivers. I've since updated those.

In comparison I looked at 3 T510s at work and only one had one BS over a span of an entire year (and may have been caused by a human doing something wrong). The other two have been in service for at least 6 months.

I also looked at a T60 with a 7 install date of 11-2012 and it had zero BS history.

Kinda sucks that the T400/T500 from what I can tell is more prone to BS than other models on Windows 7 (from what I have observed). I'm hoping it's driver related and can be resolved once figured out. I could swear my T500 never BSed when I was running 8.1 on it.

Just some interesting findings.

 

Between a T400 with Intel and a T500 with ATI for over a year, neither have bluescreened. Well, my T500 has, but only during testing different clock speeds and voltages.

 

Well I have since re-installed 7 with just basic drivers and let it sit in the docking station.

I have found it twice in a state where it had locked up and had to do the 4 sec power hold to recover it. The first time it was in sleep mode, I couldn't bring it out. I disabled sleep so that it was on all the time. I then just found it in a screen off state where I had to do the 4sec hold to get it to do anything.

I'm now going to let it sit off of the docking station to see how it does.

 

I left it on out of a docking station and it was fine idling for 15 days. So I then put 8.1 back on it since i wanted to use the RSAT tools anyway and I'll just use my T510 for docking, CAD, and Windows 7 needs while the T500 can be my out there in the plant 8.1 machine.

So far so good. I really like this 1680x1050 screen and aspect ratio a lot more than the 1600x900 on the T510 for sure as there's definitely more room to work in.