Lenovo Thinkpad W510 hangs at Windows 7 boot screen

[danbwbr]

Having a really aggrivating issue with our new W510 Thinkpads we bought that I am having a hard time figuring out how to fix.

Here are the specs:

- W510

- Core i7-720QM 1.6

- 8GB RAM

- Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit

- Intel 80GB X25-M 2nd Gen SSD with latest firmware

The problem I keep seeing:

Sometimes while booting the system will stop during the Windows 7 boot animation (the assembling windows logo).  The only way to get out of it is to hard power off the machine.

On next boot it usually suggests running startup repair.  I run it - it finds nothing.  It shuts the laptop down. 

Generally on the next boot it works fine.  Sometimes it doesn't.

I have 20 of these laptops built off of a sysprepped image of the same format/size SSD. 

If the system boots everything works perfectly fine from then on, until some random point during a subsequent shutdown or restart it does it again.

What I've tried to fix it:

- Installed latest W510 bios (it wasnt showing up in system update so I grabbed it from the site)

Anyone else have any ideas?  This is incredibly frustrating as we just bought 20 of these and I am seeing this issue on every single one of them intermittently.

Thanks!

[Davidvf]

Have you got the Thinkpad connected to an external monitor? I had the same problem, with my W510 connected via the dock to an external monitor. The only way I could get it to boot without locking/hanging at the Windows logo was to have the external monitor unplugged at boot time.

I installed the latest Nvidia drivers 8.17.11.9716 (from the Nvidia website) and this resolved the issue for me.  

[funks]

This also happens to me when I have an external monitor plugged in.  In this case, through a Display Port -> DVI Adapter plugged directly onto the laptop - no docking station.

It only happens from time to time when the external monitor is plugged in, never when it's not.

[funks]

It's probably an NVIDIA video driver issue which hopefully will get fixed soon as it's annoying and seems to be a common problem (20 of yours have the same problem)

[funks]

---

Davidvf wrote:

Have you got the Thinkpad connected to an external monitor? I had the same problem, with my W510 connected via the dock to an external monitor. The only way I could get it to boot without locking/hanging at the Windows logo was to have the external monitor unplugged at boot time.

I installed the latest Nvidia drivers 8.17.11.9716 (from the Nvidia website) and this resolved the issue for me.  

---

Any problems using the NVIDIA drivers directly?  No issues with power management, heat and etc?

[danbwbr]

Yes, they are connected to the dock and a monitor over DVI.  Interesting that it is the video card - so you can install the drivers from Nvidia's site and it fixes it?

[funks]

The Verde drivers install from Nvidia site - only problem is that some people reported one loses AUDIO over Display Port/HDMI - and the other being some sort of power management issue which may not be a good thing.

Verde Drivers - Power Mgmt Issue

[Occam]

Hi

Has anyone found a solution to this problem?

Thanks

[danbwbr]

I put a ticket in at lenovo about it and they acted as if they were unaware of the problem.  Have not heard anything from them in a week.  Frustrating.

[Calamari]

Upgrade to Windows XP Pro from 7?