T61 random freezeups

Hey everyone,
my sister got a T61 computer as a gift and she asked me to format it for her.

but then the computer started to freeze up right after reboot\startup - it wouldnt even let me move the mouse once.
now she is reporting that it happends more and more, the freeze can be random like in the middle of working or right after reboot and sometimes even a hardboot doesnt work, it will close the computer. but when you open it back up it will be frozen again.

i did a search on this subject in the forum and i havent found a solution suitable for it...

it has no turbo memory.
running windows xp.
any idea what could cause this?

 

run the hdd diagnostic in the bios menu, and see what result comes up.
By the way what is the full model number of your T61? xxxx-xxx

 

Im running the hdd diag right now

is there anyway to know the T61 model without exiting the diagnostics program?
gonna take a while to finish it i guess

 

the sticker under the laptop?

 

7664-18g =]

 

I had the same problems before and it was a motherboard issue.
I had random hard lock-ups all the time

 

Specs from the Type Model you've provided us:

Original description: T7300(2GHz), 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1440x900 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 4c Li-Ion, WinVista Business

I check the RAM first to see if its OK, I use Memtest for this. The next thing that caught my eye is that it's using the NVIDIA Quadro 140M, unfortunately the 140M is a defective chip that can randomly play up. It's not the fault of Lenovo as it is widespread for all manufacturers with this particular NVIDIA card. You can try and see if the new drivers can stabilise things by downloading their latest driver from NVIDIA directly.

 

edit:
ok so the problem comes down to this:
right after the computer loads and windows start

either the mouse doesnt work and all other things work (keyboard etc works fine)
or the mouse works but everything else doesnt (cant right click either)

 

Maybe its something to do with the ultra nav driver?

 

Have you got an external mouse that you can connect to the system? If that runs fine then there could be a problem with your UltraNav device. As b1ueflame mentioned, try updating the UltraNav driver.

 

I will try it tomorrow thank you for ur help ill report back with results.

 

No good, i tried re installing the nav point drivers with the latest driver i could find (from the official site).
worked fine a few times , at the 3rd restart its frozen again.

is this a known problem with T61?
and btw the specs that Hearst555 posted are pretty much right except for this comp has 2GB of ram and windows XP

 

This isn't a common problem on the T61, I had T61's running in XP, Linux and Windows 7 and all worked fine with the mouse.

There may be a chance that the touchpad itself is defective but you can't tell unless you plug in an external mouse and try it for a while. If you have been using the trackpad before, then you can attempt to try and use the Trackpoint instead and see how that goes. Of course if you find it difficult to use then just use the external mouse method.

The fact that it keeps freezing suggest to me something else is playing up and not the mouse. May I ask when the system freezes can you still navigate the system using the keyboard or is it completely unworkable? If it's completely frozen that you need to hard reset it, then I do the following:

- If you upgraded some RAMs recently, I do a memory test (Memtest as mentioned before) to make sure it's all 100% fine. Bad memory can lock up the system and cause BSODs.

- Check the CPU and GPU temperatures of the system. TPFancontrol (System Temperature), Core Temp (CPU Core) and GPU-Z (GPU Temps) can tell the temperatures of your system. If it's too high then this can throttle or crash the system. In this case, give your system a good clean br removing dust from the vents, even adding good quality thermal paste can help keep the temperatures down.

- Also I would update the Quadro driver using the generic ones provided by NVIDIA rather than the Lenovo version. Newer revisions from the vendor tend to be more stable than the Lenovo release which is now comparatively out of date.

- Do a disk check to make sure the disk integrity is intact and not strewn with errors.