ThinPad T400 BSOD Right out of the Box

I just purchased a T400 and got it last week. Actually I live in Madagsacar and my family in the US received the laptop and will hand carry it to me soon.

Anyhow, the person who is checking over the laptop to make sure all is well was quite surprised to note that upon power up it gave the BSOD and rebooted. This could not be cured with a restore through the restore facilities, and the diagnostics reported that the hardware was in order.

The call to Lenovo tech support resolved the issue -- they claim a possible static hit during transit. A series of 11 presses of the power button with everything unplugged and the battery out was prescribed. The final press of the power button was prolonged for 30 seconds. From what has been communicated to me, all is well now with the laptop.

I am curious if others have had this same issue, and also what the series of power button presses does. Any clarification on this would be helpful.

Thanks.

The actual solution to this issue I had was given by Lenovo support -- it is detailed in post #6 below.

 

My T61 does not do that out of the box. But recently some BSOD happened.

 

Bear in mind that this is just a GUESS, but I wonder if, with all the foam in the box and the bit of rubbing that takes place as the laptop shifts in the package during transit, it can build up a static charge. Maybe some components in the system store this charge like a capacitor, and the power button presses with everything disconnected allow the charge to dissipate.

I actually just got an X61T in the mail yesterday (used, from California), and it's been doing some funny things -- no BSODS, but I did get some weird image-noise, among other symptoms... don't know if it could be related to what you say, but I'm going to try it just in case (though, between the ultrabase and the machine, the X61T's got three power buttons, so, lots of pressing). I also updated Windows and the AV, and will run some diagnostics on it in a few days, once I have some time and figure out what to run and how.

Anyway, good luck!

 

what was the error code on the BSOD?

 

Some one gave me a Sony notebook a while back to look at, which had BSOD out of the box. I just wiped it and started fresh, which seemed to solve the problem. I think my T41 froze out of the box as well, though it did not BSOD.

 

Sorry, I don't have the error code -- the person doing all this helped with the call to Lenovo. Evidently their first plan of action was to do a low level reset of the hardware (using their terminology). I am oldschool, and this sounds like the old clearing the PR (???) on Macs years ago. Regardless, it worked and all is fine now -- from what I am told.

 

Can you elaborate on "clearing the PR"? What is it? What was it supposed to accomplish and how? It might be that the problems I'm having are unrelated to this, but I tried the power-button presses-press&hold late last night, just in case.

 

I was referring to the procedure of clearing the PRAM in my old Mac. Sometimes the PRAM would get corrupted and need to be "zapped". Not being an expert, I only know that it is probably an area of memory that stored information of devices and certain configuration about the computer. All I remember is that sometimes that old Mac would start acting weird and "zapping" the PRAM would clear the problem up.

As for my T400 that arrived and would not boot out of the box, tech support gave a similar solution which indeed worked. I am pasting that part of the email from the person working with my laptop right now.

I called tech support and explained all the troubleshooting procedures I had already run. She said the laptop might have been affected by static during shipment, so she had me simply turn off the laptop, remove the battery, unplug the AC cord then press the On/Off button 11 times and then hold it down for 30 seconds on the 11th time. When I plugged it back in it booted up successfully!

 

Almost every 'BSOD right out of the box' situation that I've read is related to a bad motherboard. If all other possible solutions fail, then you might want to contact Lenovo and ask for a new one. Keep in mind, this is just my guess. I don't know if there is, indeed, anything wrong with your motherboard. There just always seems to be a correlation.

 

This is exactly what happes, when a laptop is constantly rubbed along a negative surface static buildup can occur. This can happen during shipping and a lot of static buildup can affect the laptop and lead to such things as BSOD or other weird behavior.

The tech just provided a way to safely discharge the laptop (holding a strongly positive object nearby would have done the trick and also created a nice little spark). If it's working now, you're fine and no damage was done, static buildups are usually harmless. Enjoy the T400 once it reaches you!

 

Thanks for all the input folks.

I too read many posts describing my symptoms, and all of those posts pointed to a bad system board that needed to be replaced. However, I was blessed with it being a simple problem which had a simple solution not requiring any hardware replacements.

For now, I am impressed with Lenovo's support -- and I do realized that this can be hit or miss. I am glad the call was made to Lenovo and the problem resolved quickly. Honestly, as a veteran hardware person, I am hesitant to call tech support after years of inexperienced techs, or people from another country who couldn't speak English well. I will not be so hesitant to call Lenovos support in the future, but I know very well that my next call to tech support could be just as frustrating as many such calls in the past.

My intention of posting is informational for the purpose of giving hope to anyone who might be in the same situation. As always, lots of good input from this forum -- thanks!