Lenovo Thinkpad W510 hangs at Windows 7 boot screen

[chrigi75]

Hi all!

I now reinstalled the system completely with the recovery and rescue software from Lenovo (including formating the drive). The system work finde unless I attach it to the Mini Docking and an external Monitor! Every now and then, the system hangs at the windows startup screen.

Does sombody know a solution to that?

[danbwbr]

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chrigi75 wrote:

Hi all!

I now reinstalled the system completely with the recovery and rescue software from Lenovo (including formating the drive). The system work finde unless I attach it to the Mini Docking and an external Monitor! Every now and then, the system hangs at the windows startup screen.

Does sombody know a solution to that?

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I think the only solution right now is to install the Quadro FX Notebook Driver from nvidia's site.  I am testing them on a few workstations right now and have not had any reports of glitches yet from the people I've had try it.  Frankly I am frustrated at Lenovo's lack of any initiative to do anything about this despite multiple calls and posts on this forum.  Guess it's up to the end user to fix their issues for them, yet again.

Driver page: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

[unidisk]

Any update when we can get the driver update from Lenovo? My W510 hang every other reboot.

[chrigi75]

I can confirm that the problem doesn't occur when the verde driver is installed. However, I cannot report on any other problems like overheating, etc. Therefor, if someone from Lenovo reads this post: PLEASE FIX THAT BUG IN YOUR DRIVER A.S.A.P.!!!!!!

[danbwbr]

Just an update - I have installed the Nvidia-branded driver on probably 20-25 W510's now, have not had the problem happen since.  Seems like a much more stable driver.  I have not seen any negative side effects of using this driver as of yet on any of these workstations.

[don820]

Thanks for the updates danbwbr!  Do you happen to have any more specific steps you took  to install the drivers?  I know you provided a link a couple posts back, but do you have anything more specific for others looking to do this as well?  I've hear of significant (i.e., 20-50%) performance improvements to some games using these drivers, and am tempted to give it a shot myself.

Also -- do you know what BIOS you have your 20-25 systems running at?

[irq4]

I've got the exact same problem with my W510 only when connected to a mini dock with two monitors, one on DVI and the other on the display port.

[jellyfruit]

I updated driver from NVDIA which indicae for Fx880 "graphic driver." (There are some other options like performance driver, 3d MAX performace driver...)

Sadly, the freeze problem still happens...

For the one who has filed the request to lenovo, what happen to the machine next? What's the reason to cause random freezing?

[danbwbr]

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jellyfruit wrote:

I updated driver from NVDIA which indicae for Fx880 "graphic driver." (There are some other options like performance driver, 3d MAX performace driver...)

Sadly, the freeze problem still happens...

For the one who has filed the request to lenovo, what happen to the machine next? What's the reason to cause random freezing?

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As far as the one from the nvidia site I still have not had any problems to report with using it on all 35 of our W510 laptops. Kind of surprising that you still have the issue after installing it.

Lenovo posted another driver recently as well, but it doesn't solve the issue and is a way older version than even the driver from March from Nvidia.

[danbwbr]

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don820 wrote:

Thanks for the updates danbwbr!  Do you happen to have any more specific steps you took  to install the drivers?  I know you provided a link a couple posts back, but do you have anything more specific for others looking to do this as well?  I've hear of significant (i.e., 20-50%) performance improvements to some games using these drivers, and am tempted to give it a shot myself.

Also -- do you know what BIOS you have your 20-25 systems running at?

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No specific instructions - just run the installer and go.  197.16_notebook_winvista_win7_64bit_international_whql.exe is the filename I have been using.  I don't run games on these as they are business laptops, but installed this to solve the issue in the thread title.

Our computers are all on BIOS 1.17 or newer.  Some on 1.19, some on 1.24.