Tips for blue screen (BSOD) errors with Windows Vista and Intel Turbo Memory on T61/T61p [ Edited ]

[Tim_Lenovo]

Important note: The symptoms and solutions described below address only a small subset of the possible causes for blue screen errors, aka BSOD. This information can help address blue screen errors specifically related to Turbo Memory, but may not solve errors related to other issues. Please read through the instructions completely, make sure they apply to your system, and after attempting the solutions please post back with your feedback for the community.

Some users may experience random blue screen errors with ThinkPad systems running Windows Vista with Intel Turbo Memory hardware. These blue screens may occur during normal usage on the system or they may occur when booting into Windows Vista. Blue screens related to the Intel Turbo Memory hardware may reference a stop code of 8086 with memory address locations of {0, 0, 0, 0}.

There are two main steps that you can take to help resolve blue screen issues related to Intel Turbo Memory.

Step 1: Update Intel Turbo Memory Driver

If the driver version is before version 1.0.1.1004-7.0.3.1001, please update to this version.

To determine what version of the Intel Turbo Memory driver is installed:

1.    Click Start, then click Control Panel.
2.    Click System and Maintenance.
3.    Click System.
4.    Click Device Manager.
5.    Expand the Storage controllers category.
6.    Double-click Intel Flash Cache Logic Chip.
7.    Click the Driver tab. Then you will see the driver version (for example, 1.0.1.1004).

The new driver and installation instructions can be found here.

Note: The Intel Matrix Storage Driver is updated with this package.

Step 2: BIOS version

If your BIOS version is older than those listed below, please update to the version listed.

How to check your BIOS version:

1. Turn off the system.
2. Turn on the system.
3. While the To interrupt normal startup, press the blue ThinkVantage button message is displayed at the lower-left area of the screen, press the F1 key.
4. The BIOS Setup Utility menu will be displayed. If you have set a supervisor password, the BIOS Setup Utility menu appears after you enter the password.
5. Check BIOS Version and Embedded Controller Version.
6. Turn off the system.

System BIOS versions:

ThinkPad T61/T61p (14.1 inch widescreen with IEEE 1394 model) - BIOS version 1.22 (7LET52WW)

Please remember that these updates do not solve every possible system blue screen, but they do resolve several problems related to the Intel Turbo Memory driver.

Message Edited by Tim_Lenovo on 11-30-2007 07:03 PM

[abarbieri]

Hello,

latest Intel Turbo Memory driver (provided by Intel) is October 2007, Revision 1.5.0.1013.

i.e. 1013 rather than the old 1004.

can this driver be used on T61/T61p models?

many thanks

andrea

[JHEM]

---

abarbieri wrote:
can this driver be used on T61/T61p models?

---

Never use any hardware drivers on your Thinkpads (or Lenovos) other than the ones provided by Lenovo. They have been extensively tested by Lenovo engineers to ensure proper operation with your specific system.

Regards,

James

[abarbieri]

How long will it take for the Lenovo engineers to to ensure proper operation with the T60/T61p model, given that this driver is already a couple of months old?

According to the 1013 Release Notes there are several bug fixes relating to BSOD issues:

- 0x7F BSOD

- 0x9F BSOD

- 8086 (101, x, 1F, x) BSOD

I am just asking because it seems there are still troubling instability issues with the T60/T61p model and this is one of them.

thanks,

andrea

[Tim_Lenovo]

Andrea,
I'd recommend following the steps in the tip, ensuring you have the latest Lenovo drivers & updates. If you are still experiencing instability, try to take careful notes of the circumstances under which it occurs and post back with these notes as well as your full system information. From there the community can help trouble shoot and we'll see where it goes

[abarbieri]

Thanks Tim,

I do have my T61p fully up-to-date to the latest drivers and updates (via System Update and the Drivers&Software web page when the former is not that up-to-date).

At the moment the most recurrent problem is this:

http://forum.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=55

which has been longly speculated here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=47755

My other angst is the boot-time chkdsk hang-up problem:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=52765&highlight=chkdsk

I just wonder if this purely a Vista issue when using NV cache, the disk spinning down at almost exactly 1 hour from the beginning of the chdsk operation seems too much of a coincidence.

This is my T61p configuration:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 2.4GHz
BIOS version 1.26-1.06
4GB RAM 2 SO-DIMMs
nVidia Quadro FX 570m with 512MB VRAM

WUXGA LCD

Seagate 7200.2 160 GB

4GB RAM 2 SO-DIMMs

Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit (waiting to move to 64bit)

thanks,

andrea

Message Edited by abarbieri on 12-05-2007 03:48 PM

[Tim_Lenovo]

Andrea - if you are experiencing blue screens with symptoms similar to those of the 3D freezing, please feel free to continue the discussion in that thread or the existing ones on NBR/TPF. I'd like this thread to focus on Turbo Memory related issues or blue screens that may be related.

Thanks for the link to the chkdsk issue, I hadn't seen that yet. Feel free to post about that on this board in a new thread or continue the discussion on TPF.

[proteus]

Lenovo needs to *quickly* update and test the latest vendor drivers. The Intel 1013 version Turbo memory drivers do in fact resolve the STOP 8086 BSOD, and greatly reduce the incidence of system hangs with Turbomemory enabled. Asking us to use the outdated drivers on the Lenovo website because your test team is slow is a non-starter. Turbo memory still has some instability however, that won't be resolved until SP1. Until then, the 1013 drivers greatly improve system stability, AND eliminate the STOP 0x8086

[abarbieri]

when Lenovo will certify Version 1.5.0.1013?

It has been released to the 'public' several months ago by Intel and Lenovo, I am sure, must have earlier visibility for QA.

thanks,

andrea

[proteus]

Apparently, they weren't tested using standard workloads. Just running WHQL tests is not enough to catch a lot of these bugs. You need specific, real world testing with common applications.

The Turbomemory bug is common and easily reproducable within 24 hours of normal use on an x64 system with 4GB RAM. Note that the "hybrid hard disk power savings" has to be enabled, which means that the bug will usually only occur when the system is running on battery.