The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    XP freeze - Thinkpad A31

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by shingo_wiley, May 1, 2007.

  1. shingo_wiley

    shingo_wiley Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    This problem really beats me badly. My friend is thinking about getting a new Mac... I am not giving up yet ;)

    My friend's laptop: Thinkpad A31 (almost four years old), 40GB HDD (half free space), 512M RAM.

    Problem: XP freezes randomly (during IE, Word, Screen saver...); no trackpoint, no keyboard (no ctrl+alt+del), but it does respond to Fn+Home/End, which increases/decreases LCD brightness. Only hard shut-down after all.

    Format hard drive then reinstalled XP, and updated all the drivers, BIOS, etc. from IBM, still freezes randomly.

    Checked the event viewer, nothing wrong shows up in system or application error records...

    Thought might be the hardware. Tested memory (Memtest86+ & PC-Doctor), nothing wrong; Tested harddrive (IBM DFT & PC-Doctor), fine.

    Suspect overheating: let the tortue tests (prime95) run, the only suspicious thing is CPU temp reached 131 F (max), but remaining pretty constant. So not sure whether it is the true problem.

    I googled and did find several years old posts here and there about A31 freezing problem, but never see a solution; saw someone mentioned the ATI card (this one has ATI Mobility Radeon 7500) conflicting with some other drivers, but he did not find a solution...

    Since this is an old model, I wonder if anyone ever met the same problem. Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
     
    shingo_wiley, May 1, 2007
    #1
  2. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    4,982
    Messages:
    34,001
    Likes Received:
    1,415
    Trophy Points:
    581
    If you suspect the video drivers, how about trying a different(s) one? Make sure the vents are unobstructed and/or try a cooling pad. Could try an external mouse and keyboard to eliminate the possibly that the keyboard is the culprit. Also could be it is just getting old.
     
    ZaZ, May 1, 2007
    #2
  3. shingo_wiley

    shingo_wiley Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks! :)

    You mean not using the one from ATI? Actually my friend had the wrong video driver before, and I thought that was the problem causing the lock-up. But after I updated to the latest driver from ATI, the problem still exists...

    I will try these things and let you know how it works out.

    My friend recalled that he had the same problem even before service pack 2 was released, but not as frequently by then. It locked up four times last night again...
     
    shingo_wiley, May 1, 2007
    #3
  4. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

    Reputations:
    4,982
    Messages:
    34,001
    Likes Received:
    1,415
    Trophy Points:
    581
    Try any video driver you can get to work properly. I'd buy cooling pad from somewhere it is easy to return should that not be the problem.
     
    ZaZ, May 1, 2007
    #4