Who has 4 gigs of RAM in their T61P?

Did they give you the same thing? Or is the newer one better in some way? What did they do to fix this on the new one???

 

SO just an update on my exp. I have been running with only 1 stick of memory for about 2-3 weeks now. I did have to set all the video settings to low but i am able to play wow with no issues. jus for fun i put the other stick back in giving me 4 gigs and within 2 minutes the game crashed, i pulled out the stick again and played for another 3 hours after no issues.

 

So if I send it in will they fix this? How will they fix it? I have 2 (2) Gig sticks of ram and want to use them both...

 

They ordered me a new laptop just like the old one, I don't know if it will have the same problem because I don't konw if the problem is a defect in the design or only in some units.

No fix yet but they are working on it. One thing to remember, complaining on this forum doesn't do much, make sure LENOVO knows about your problem, make sure you contact them. The more people tell Lenovo about this problem the higher a priority it will be. Talking about your problem on the forums IS NOT enough!

 

Just an update on my issue, I end up sending my laptop back for an exchange but that will take weeks before getting a new one. Since lenovo is doing some kind of adjustment to their system. What I'm still wondering if people on this forum are those who got a bad batch or the problem is in nvidia fx 570m or motherboard that can't handle 4gb of ram properly or the combination of those 3?

Can anyone confirm that they have t61p with nvidia fx 570m and 4gb of ram that plays gfx demanding games w/o any issues?

Thanks

 

Hi all, a bit distressed to hear this issue crop up as I was dead set in
purchasing this configuration at the end of the day.
I was wondering if any of you have used this machine in scientific
computation. Particularly very large and intensive matrix manipulations
(MATLAB), as well as taxing imaging programs (METAMORPH).

cheers,

alex

 

i have 4gb in my T61p and it plays Gears of War just fine. I am using a 32-bit OS so that might have something to do with it. It froze once but that's only because it overheated. Once i raised the laptop so cool air could flow under the laptop, no problems whatsoever.

 

I'm sorta doing something like that.

I have been using a couple T61P's for number crunching where I'm running a multithreaded program that does floating-point math for DAYS at a time at 100% CPU utilization the whole time. NO problems whatsoever.

The issue only appears to occur if you do 3D graphics like games. Straight-up CPU number crunching works fine.

To give you an example, right now I have a T61P running a program where I have a graph with around 136,192 nodes and about 2,500,000 edges, and it is using Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm with a Fibonacci heap to calculate the shortest path from every node to every other node. It has been running for about 18 hours so far, but it won't be done for a bit yet.

This same laptop that can run full-tilt 100% CPU utilization for days without problems crashes quickly if you try to play games on it or run 3D graphics tests.

 

Hi hellbore, thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I wanted to hear.
Have you found the turbo memory to be helpful at all? Also, any noticeable
performance gains from the 7200 RPM drive?

 

I also have ( had) 4gb in my t61p. I removed the second stick and was able to run the Bioshock demo beautifully. I had called Lenovo tech support and rep said he had never heard of the issue, even though I mentioned this forum. I wonder is a laptop cooling pad would help. Still though I think it is an engineering issue, since the ram is seated on top of each other. I get the feeling that lenovo only promotes it's business use instead of 3d gaming.

BTW the Bio shock demo looked awesome on the laptop

 

I was all ready to place my order for a 4 gig T61p this weekend when I found this thread. Well...I'm a little nervous now...

My plan for the notebook doesn't really involve gaming, but does involve graphic intensive applications. I'll be doing video editing with Premeire, some motion graphics work with After Effects, and some 3d work in Cinema 4D.

Most of the posts I've read involve specific games but just quote general "3d apps" as sparking the problem. From your experience, do you think I will/could see any BSODs or shutdowns while working in these programs?

Anyone using any these programs with 4 gigs successfully?

 

I could be wrong, but I think that if you do buy a new T61P, there is only a chance that it MIGHT have this problem, because apparently only some have it. For example, my T61P had this problem and Lenovo gave me a replacement, and the replacement doesn't appear to have this problem.

You know what it reminds me of? The Xbox 360 flashing red light problem that so many people had. You know what I mean? Not all had it, nobody seemed to know what the problem was, etc...

Then someone one the Internet found out that heating the PCB up with a heat gun solved the problem, so the issue must have been poor solder joints!

Wouldn't that be funny if that turned out being the same problem with the T61P's? LOL...

It wouldn't surprised me, with the new crapph ROHS-compliant lead-free solder they are using now. Shame on whatever environmentalist whackos pushed that whole idea...

 

Well, I was hoping that they addressed this problem with units shipping soon. Thanks for the reply Hellbore, I'm glad you've gotten the issue taken care of (it's reassuring). I think I'll be placing the order tonight, wish me luck!

 

Well last I heard, Lenovo is still trying to figure out exactly what the cause of the problem is, BUT they are aware of the problem at least so if you have it, they are likely to replace your motherboard in order to fix the problem, so no worries.

They might come up with a fix that doesn't require replacing parts, but who knows... They haven't gotten that far on it yet. Right now, the fix is a new motherboard. That could change who knows. I doubt it though.

Things are much better now though, there was a time there when Lenovo wasn't fully aware of this issue so if you called about it, you were likely to not get any help, or if you sent it in to the depot, they might not do anything to fix it, just send it back saying "couldn't reproduce problem". That happened to a few people. That probably won't happen any more, they seem to know this is a real issue now.

 

Hey anybody want to look into an interesting possibility?

Now this is a long shot but... hear me out...

OK I have had 2 T61P's in my hands that had this graphics issue.

Both of them have a little rubbery pad under the keyboard that was off center. Here is a picture showing what I mean:

Ignore the red circle, look where the pink arrow is pointing:



OK see how the purple rubbery pad is the same shape as the metal object it sits on, but it's not centered? It's shifted to the right.

Well, both the "bad" laptops I have seen had this pad shifted just like that. However, when I got a NEW T61P that appears to NOT have this problem, I took off the keyboard and guess what? The pad is not shifted, it is perfectly centered!

So, if anyone is not afraid to take off the keyboard and check this (it's pretty easy, if you have accessed your RAM before, to take the keyboard off only requires unscrewing 1 extra screw on the bottom, the one with the keyboard picture by it, near the middle of the bottom).

I would be very curious to hear from those of you who have this issue, whether your pad is offset or not, and those of you who don't have this problem as well.

Those who had the problem fixed at the depot, you don't count, because the depot guys might have straightened the pad, which means nothing.

The only reason I'm curious about this is because I just wonder if there was some issue with the assembly line that has been since corrected, or something like that, just wondering if there is any correlation between the shifted pad and the graphics issues. If there was a correlation, it might give an easy way to identify those laptops that have the problem.

EDIT: Removing the palm rest and / or keyboard does NOT void your warranty. I am 100% sure of that.

 

In my laptop the rubber pad is aligned perfectly and I still have that problem.

 

Has your laptop been to the repair depot?

Anyways it was just a long shot sorry

 

No, but I am getting a replacement laptop, due to some issues with my original laptop order. I hope the new machine won't have this problem

 

Hello all! I recently bought a T61p from thinkpadworld in NY, however i reside in Sweden. trying to play some C&C3 and COD4 i got the 'driver has restarted' error in the beginning. Also one BSOD (mem. related)before i installed the Windowsupdate advised Chipset fix.

Mostly i don't run things tougher than Excel, Reuters First and some financial performance backtesing. However the problems disturbed me since i do not want it to crash while i have a presentation or such.(and every reliability below 100% is totally unacceptable for a 4k USD notebook)

After consultning a fried of mine with an MSc in Computer Architecture i decided to install Windows Vista 64b (shipped with Ultimate 32b) since he said something about the memory ****ing itself up on 32b (apart from the apparent 3GBdetect issue) and I have been able of running the Burnintest on page 1 of this thread continously (untill i got bored from reading magazines)

I Don't have time to install and play games, however if you could link a more brutal 3D-test i will happilly run it.

****ing windows still only detects 4030 mb of RAM...

Pardon my rusty english...

 

I would try the same games you played before and see if they crash now.

 

I will run them as soon as i have time left over for it, in the meantime 3DMark will do. Ran successfully 10 times with an average of 3877 3DMarks...i guess i'm happy again, for the moment at least.

Anyway, thanks everyone in here who has been of help! I'll post any updates.

 

hi there, i just run burnin test mentioned in page 1 for about 8 minutes without error.

i m using t61p , 14.1" , c2d 2.6ghz, 4gb ram, fx570 128mb . Running with ac and stupidly, without built in bluetooth (forgot to choose that option basically)

 

So those of you who are running 4gigs, what brand of RAM are you using? I'm going to buy some soon, but can't decide between the Crucial, the Mushkin, and the Corsair sets...

2 of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148087

1 of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146697

or 2 of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172

???

Thanks for your responses!

 

don't get the Corsair VS, i'd go for the mushkin or crucial.

 

manini: I too am looking for 4GB and trying to figure out what brand.
wuzertheloser: Just curious why you said no to the Corsair VS?

Will any 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM Laptop Memory work or do you know of some problematic brands / models? I've seen Mushkin mentioned in this forum - is this a favored brand around here? What about Transcend, Patriot, GeIL, G.SKILL, and OCZ?

What about this OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) at NewEgg, only $89.99 after rebate seems like a nice deal.

 

Ok, here is something new.
I ran the system update today and one of the updates is a newer version of PC Doctor 5 for windows. So I gave it a try, and about 20 or so mins into the video card test, the thing power off again. I would like to hear what the tech suporrt will say this time. They can't use that " if you passed the PC doctor test then it's not a hardware issue" as excuse anymore I guess.

I don't quite catch which part of the test cause the machine to shutdown, I think it's the "GPU Pipeline data test". All I remember it's a test with two pipes at the end and in the middle there were some green lines flashing, then it went dark. The whole thing just died. It has become somewhat unstable during the lighting test already.

I hope this could be helpful to Lenovo engineers in pin pointing the problem and finding a solution. But if it's indeed a hardware issue, I guess me and those unlucky ones will have no choice but have it fixed by lenovo.

 

I ordered the G.SKILL


Just can't wait for it all to get here.

 

i have the 4gigs of gskill on my T61p, it works perfect in vista 64 ult.
No problems so far, about a week now.

 

Do you get that crash everyones talking about when playing games? Maybe I'll go with the gskill if it works fine, its a lot cheaper...

 

i don't generally use my computer for gaming, i do have bioshock installed. i haven't experienced the crashes that people have been mentioning, but i played the game less than 3 hrs on my laptop without crashing.

I have had gskill ram on my desktop for about 2 years now without any problems. That was the reason I bought it for the thinkpad.

 

Not everybody has this problem, so I have to say it again that you are among the lucky ones. For those of us who do have this problem, we are pulling the hair out.

 

Ahhhhh, I can't decide!!!

One of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146697

or 2 of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148087

Both the same price...

 

manini: the mushkin is cheaper after the rebate and it has free shipping.

 

I do not know what RAM brand is in my T61p, however on Vista 64-bit it is completely stable in application that it can run. Some games, like CnC 3 will just not start, and BF2 states "only tested on 32bit on install, then refuses to start. These issues seem to be 32/64bit issues and not computer-related as it shows 100% stability in Burn-in and COD:4.

The only application that is unstable to the absurd is IE7 32bit...why i do not know. However IE7 64bit works fine. The latter hasn't got a flashplayer avail. yet so i'll stick with Firefox in the meantime.

I'll report if i get stability issues again! Cheers

 

Eh, I have both CnC 3 as well as Battlefield 2, both of them work perfectly on my Vista Business 64 Bit.

If they don't work for you then it's more likely a software or driver issue causing the problem.

However, here's a good test: If you don't have PC Doctor 5 from Lenovo, get it through Thinkvantage update or here's a link:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67520

This version has a cool video test that will test your 3D graphics! If you can run this test a few times without crashing, you probably are in the clear.

 

How just wondering about the compatibility of vista 64bit. Can this one runs cygwin, gnuplot and some old software?

 

I am not a developer and have no need for cygwin, so my knowledge of it is quite limited. As for gnuplot, i have no experience with it either. However, I produce contour plots and graphs of varying complexity all the time. I use a program from OriginLabs called Origin 8. The companies dime affords me a few luxuries in this area... Sorry, I could not be of more help. My guess is that if the programs are 32 bit and not 16 bit you should be able to get them to run. Worse case scenario, you could run a copy of the 32 bit version of Vista or XP using a Virtual PC specifically for your otherwise incompatible software.

 

I finally got my replacement laptop and this laptop doesn’t seem to have the shutdown problem. I ran Bioshock for at least an hour without a problem. I wonder if Lenovo fixed this problem or I just got lucky.

On another note, it seems that Lenovo also improved the armrest plastic, it seems to have has less flex and doesn’t squeak as my old T61p used to.

 

i just bought 2 stick of this, if you sign up google checkout, final price is 34.99 each. ...

nice brand kingston, ok speed 5300
http://www.buy.com/prod/kingston-2g...n-sodimm-ddr2-laptop/q/loc/101/206341199.html

 

ive got a t61p too. i recently upgraded from 2gb to 4gb, and i am experiencing this problem on vista x64, xp x64, and xp x32. What surprised me the most however, was the fact that i also had problems playing graphics-intensive games on Linux. It is my belief that this is hardware or bios problem because i have never had a machine crash while running linux.

 

would i experience any of these problems with 3gb of ram? ordered the laptop with 1 gb and ordered a 2gb stick

 

libertx what problem are you running into? and jaxxx 3gb of ram in 1gb/2gb configuration will be fine

 

I've read some of the posts here and couldn't see if someone found a solution, since I am having the same problem .

Setup:
- T61p (6457-B68)
- 4 GB RAM (Stock RAM 2GB + Corsair ValueSelect 2GB)
- Windows XP Pro 32Bit

I can run nearly all games without any problems (including UT3, Bioshock, Doom 3) but today as I installed and played UT2004 it crashed after around 30 seconds ingame. I was pretty surprised, because I couldnt even reboot without removing the Battery and the AC-Adapter. After I did that I was able to reboot again.

 

is this only T61p related, or it goes for T61 too (with nVidia) ?

 

Update your BIOS recently Iridium?

 

Is there an issue with the recent BIOS revision?

 

I have a Thinkpad T61p with Xubuntu 64bit. The BIOS saw 4 gb of ram and the OS sees it too (since it's 64 bit). When I had 32 bit Xubuntu, it only saw 3.1gb.

I have the latest BIOS that is out now (I think it's 2.10 off the top of my head).

BTW it works perfectly fine, I played TF2, Counter Strike Source, and Day of Defeat Source by using Wine...everything is good, no issues whatsoever

 

I'm running BIOS Version 2.09 (7LETA9WW), which I updated as I did a clean XP installation. I'll update to the latest version (2.10) and report back if there is any change...

EDIT: Ok, I updated to BIOS Version 2.10 and launched UT2004 again. This time it took around 3 minutes before the laptop turned off. So the BIOS Version doesnt solve anything.

 

has anyone with a 32bit system switched over from a 3gb to 4gb?

I have a few questions..
even if the computer sees it has only 3 gb with a 4 gb ..did it decrease the ram usage of your PC?

 

Hm, that is interesting, how hot is your laptop running prior to shut down?