New TP W510 freezing randomly [ Edited ]

[ionelg]

Hello Chatbox,

I read your posting and I have a possible heat issue with my almost new W510 - almost because as soon as I got it and placed it into its docking station I discovered that the docking station connector had a problem transmitting the power from the 135W power supply attached  to the docking station. To make a long story short, I had to send my laptop in to replace my motherboard.

The laptop with its initial motherboard seemed to be very stable, never experienced a freeze or shutdown on its own overnight or other stability issues.

However since I got it back with its new motherboard, it restarted on its own several times. I took a look at some folks who have some stability issues with their W510 and I have discovered that after installing the latest Furmark test and following your recommendations above, my system shuts down automatically at around 75C GPU temperature, one of the active CPU is under 85C and it happens about 10 mins after the test is launched.

I don't usually stress my system as I don't play games on it, the most intensive thing I do is sometimes I watch a Blu-Ray movie and I intend to rip Blu-Ray movies to convert them to AppleTV & iPad 720p formats.

What bothers me most is to lose the stability of my system even when it's not stressed , in idle mode over the night...

Please do you have any suggestion to propose before I call support again? I appreciate your feedback on this matter or anybody else who might contribute with an advice.

Thanks,

PS. I definitely got bad luck with my W510... manufacturing and testing quality appears to be an issue I assume. The folks in support do not really test properly in real life, they just run a routine PC Doctor test before delivering it back.

My system is a 4318-CTO: i7 Quad x920, 16 GB RAM, 1333 MHz FSB, FX880M, FHD and running 7 Ultimate x64.

[Chatbox]

Hi ionelg,

When you were running Furmark, how long did it take your W510's GPU to reach 75c (the longer the better).  Would be helpful if you can post a screenshot, if possible.

I've found that getting the GPU heatsink fitted properly requires either a lot of luck, or a lot of skill.  Luck, because you can try getting Lenovo to send you a thermal unit replacement (the heatsink & fan)...and see if the new one can do a better job.  Skill (and time, and patient), because you can try making sure the GPU heatsink contact is level (getting good contact with the GPU surface, and the GPU memory via the thermal pads), which requires many tries of heatpipe bending, testing.

I've purchased a 3-year, weekdays 9 to 5, 4-hour response, onsite warranty...just so that I can get Lenovo to fix the laptop on the same day.  If your laptop is under similar warranty, I suggest you give Lenovo a call and just get them to fix it onsite.  Hassle free.  Otherwise, it can take up a lot of your time to personally fix it.  My 6-week long failed attempt at fixing it myself was immediately addressed when I got a new thermal unit from Lenovo (via the post), which I then fitted into the laptop by myself. 

Good luck!

[Chatbox]

Here's a link to my W510 running FurMark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJHB4BL39Jg

[ionelg]

Chatbox,

I appreciate your feedback and your short Furmark test movie.

Unfortunately in my case, the problem is persisting and it becomes predicteble and I believe it's heat related but coudn't say if it's the heat sink or something else.

I experience a shutdown after a whil everythime when I try to rip a Blu-Ray movie thought the temperature is not that extreme, less than 75C GPU and around 80-85C fro the CPU's.... I also experience a shutdown when I test the stability with the same settings in Furmark that you setup in the video that you sent me. Again, the GPU is not getting over the 75C and it shuts down after 5, 6 minutes around 85C for the CPU's. Something sends a clean shutdown signal because my machine abruptly shuts down and I suppose that the shutdown command comes from the monitoring system of the CPU and the motherboard.

Definitely the shutdown is predictable and I clearly see a pattern so, back to square one. I have called support and I'm sending back the machine to Depot for a new motherboard replacement. The support believes it might be something going on with the motherboard & CPU assembly and they need to further investigate, test and ultimately change the parts involved.

Support was not suggesting to replace just the heatsink for an option. I was opting for that but he suggested I return the machine so that they test it more thoroughly.

I'll keep you in touch with further testing when I get it back next week...

[Chatbox]

The keywords "abruptly shuts down", "75C GPU", "85C for the CPU's", "predictable" and "after 5, 6 minutes" all points to overheating of the GPU memory.

If you, or Lenovo, open up the laptop, take out the heatsink, you'll see there are some minor black burnt marks around the four GPU memory chips.  The thermal pads (the blue thingy) are not doing their job.

The other thing you can try to do, to isolate the problem that it's not CPU or system memory related is to run memtest (boot CD), then Prime95 in windows (with the display turned off, from the popup menu of the power manager icon on the task bar).  Your laptop should pass both of these tests without issue.

[brmage]

After much argument I had my original W510 replaced with a new unit BUT now after running it for several hours re-installing programs (Microsoft and Adobe don't like/allow you to just keep re-installing the same key) and the unit getting hot it hangs on the ThinkPad screen and the blue Advantage button does zip. Yes you can force a shut down with the power button but then you hit the ThinkPAd screen and can't go any further.

Really pissed off with paying ~$5k for a piece of junk. Never in 25 years have I encountered such a pile of crap!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want my money back!

[Chatbox]

I had that problem as well...hanging on the BIOS Thinkpad logo screen.

If you can, get into the BIOS, and load the default settings.  That fixed my issue.

[yltw510]

I bought W510 2 months back. Initially it had wakeup problem. Sometimes it doesn’t wakeup from standby mode (flashing lights every 4 seconds forever). The Lenovo service replaced motherboard (PLNR?). It worked fine for some time.  Now another problem - it is freezing randomly. Only way to recover is by holding the power button to force it to shut down. After several times it stopped booting. Re-installing to factory default is not possible because it freezes randomly during installation process. I am regretting my purchase.

[yltw510]

I talked to support and they asked me to send it for repair. This is the second time I am sending it to repair. Last time motherboard was replaced (problem - never wakeup from standby).

It is just more than 2 months I owning this machine. I have spent countless hours in debugging. I have lost so much time on this crap and extremely frustrated with this.

I asked support for replacement or take it back. They refused to do any of this. They said - I am not qualified for that. This is a man made machine, problems could happen and it is unfortunate that I got that machine…so on. I am just unfortunate one? By looking at the forum I see that there so many cases like this. In my case within 2 months+ it is out for 2nd time motherboard replacement (probably).

[redblue]

I was experiencing similar issues with my new W510 as i posted in this thread: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/New-w510-crash-during-video-stress-test-benchm... Spoke with lenovo tech support and they agreed to exchange it for a new unit. Waiting for an email with return instructions.