T61p -- Frequent Freezes, Brand New

I received my T61p about a week ago and just started really using it over the holidays. It has very frequent freezing problems with IE. Typically I will open a page and then click on a link or try to scroll, only to find the page is frozen. The machine did this right from the start but it seems to have gotten worse just in the last day or so. I could not even make this post from the T61p, it kept locking up.

This seems to be a common problem with the T61p, I am guessing there is really no solid fix for it. I have a call in to Service but I am going to send the unit back -- ie refund rather than repair -- as I really do not have time to mess with a faulty product like this. It took me three days off and on to install all of my apps -- now to have to re-start is just not acceptable.

This is a huge disappointment for me. I have had several ThinkPads over the years and otherwise would not have considered another brand. I really like the feature set of the T61p but I just can't deal with intermittent systems like this. Lenovo is really killing off what seems to be a massive amount of brand loyalty. I will probably buy an Apple or Dell machine now.

FWIW I am running XP Pro. I did try a factory restore, which worked fine but did not clear up the issue. It happens with the factory RAM -- one stick of 1GB -- but seems worse with a second added stick of 2GB.

 

I'm pretty sure the type of frequent freezing you're talking about is not a common problem. It certainly has never happened with my T61p.

I'm sorry I can't suggest specific steps to resolve the issue.

 

I have not seen this problem either.

Do your other programs/software work ok?

If so, you may want to eliminate other possibilities.

Try Firefox browser.

Check and see if another PC works well with the router and internet conneciton you are using.

Hope you resolve the problem.

 

Yes, everything else seems OK. I have run a couple of games just to see if the freeze issue is graphics-related -- STALKER and the Halo demo. They seem to run fine. Ditto engineering-related software like proE.

After my first post in this thread I tried un-installing IE7. After I did that IE6 was still on my system, and it also locked up easily. I then disabled all the add-ins and IE6 now seems stable. There were a ton of add-ins including several Lenovo-specific ones. I am going to use this config for a few days and if it seems good I will re-install IE7 and see if it too is solid without the add-ins. After that I will re-enable each add-in one at a time.

Thanks for your interest!

 

Is it just IE freezing or the entire machine freezin? Can you kill the IE process? If the crashes are limited to IE its most likely an application/OS issue and better chance of an 'easy' fix. Worst case scenario is the crashes are totally random. Even then it shouldn't be happening on a brand new machine.

Try a different browser just to see if the problem persists. If it goes away and you still want IE back, maybe a reinstall is in the works.

 

The freezes are known issues on the T61p with Intel Turbo Cache installed. It may also be related to active protection settings for the HD. See this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=43312

 

As for the addins for IE, here's a word of advice - if you had disabled them and it works fine, and you still want the add-ins...instead of enabling them, download them off the sites manually and install them individually.

 

I had same problem. They said IE was a Microsoft issue. Called MSFT and they said Lenovo bought OEM software and it was therefore a Lenovo problem. I had other freezes too. I first asked fr refund after 1 wk but they insisted that it go to service once. It did and was not fixed. Then they said I was over the 21 day refund period. Much stress and yelling to get refund authorization. It got picked up today! I had a bad Dell too so I think I'll now go mac.

 

a31,

I did not have freezing but did have a sluggish IE browser.

Rather than play with the settings and trying to troubleshoot, i downloaded Mozilla Firefox and have never looked back. Great speed and consistentcy.

You can try Firefox and at least know immediately if you have a clear IE7 problem....

And, you can remove the software if it doesn't strike your fancy.

 

I know the answer to this. I too had the same problem before the XP clean install but I found the solution before the clean install:

Open up a blank IE page. Then click on the upper right gear icon (tools) and manage add-ons > disable or enable add-ons.

Disable all the unnecessary ones. It's been awhile since I did this but the culprit for slow IE startup is a ThinkPad add-on. Google each and every thirdparty add-on to find out what it does and if you need it or not.

IE should run much faster after this.

Edit: Disable this, CPwmIEBrowserHelper Object, Lenovo (United States) Inc.

It's the Lenovo Password manager browser add-on. I think it's part of the ThinkVantage Client Security Solution.

I still recommend you go through each third-party add-on and disable the ones you don't need. If it says it's from Microsoft, you should leave it alone. But the ones from Lenovo, messengers, and other programs, you should google them and decide whether to keep it or not.

 

he is running xp so that shouldn't be the issue, only with vista and intel turbo mem installed

 

yha well if anyone is for sure with a solution I'd love to hear about it. Just posting in to get posted

 

Not necessarily true, I think eyecon82 - the presence of the turbo card causes problems in XP - Lenovo has released an update for XP so that it recognizes the presence of the turbo even though it is not using it.

 

Guys, I solved the problem disabling nView Desktop Manager.

 

You need to do a clean install.

When I received my T61p. It froze a few times, not just with IE.

I got fed up with all the bloatware and did the clean install for Windows XP and it havent froze yet!

 

I have a T61p with WXP pro and IE7. IE7 freezed loading pages with ActiveX controls. The only workaround I found was disable nView desktop Manager.

 

For me the solution was to disable the numerous IE add-ins that were enabled. I disabled all of them and have slowly re-enabled only the ones I need. The freezing problem went away. I still have some issues with this slab, but freezing IE is not one of them.