T410S w/switchable -> lots of System freezes and screen going blank issues.

[Larswa]

I have had my T410S for a couple weeks now. It's a model with switchable graphics and the i520 cpu with 8 GB memory. BIOS version is the latest from may - version 1.14-1.09The graphichs card is set to "switchable" in the BIOS.

I did a clean reinstall of Windows 7 on the 128GB SSD that came with the machine. In the bay I have an additional 256 GB SSD for running virtual machines off. (Works like a charm btw :-)

Once in a while it starts to freeze, and I need do a hard shutdown (keep the power button pressed).The machine runs hot, but not THAT hot, and not any warmer than it did a couple hours before the freezes. And I haven't been pressing the CPU in any way.. it will freeze on idle just fine ... :-/  

After the shutdown I regularly get another freeze and then after hard shutdown another one ... and so on. Until suddenly it just works and no more freezes. I don't wait for it to cool down ... suddenly it just works again. This has happened both on battery power where I am using the Intel graphics card, or on the discrete graphics card on power, or on discrete in the docking bay, running two external 24" monitors.So ... pretty random, although the machine usually is pretty hot at the top left bottom. Fan is audible and blowing fairly warm air out, so fan is working just fine.

And the screen ... oh boy ... every now and then when I am resuming it from standby or hibernate (I use standby a lot) it just refuses to resume, and just shows me a blank screen. Another hard reset is needed ...       None of my other thinkpads I currently have running windows 7 give me this behaviour. They are ROCK solid on resuming.
The freezes worry me the most. Does anyone else have any experience with this on the T410S ??I have seen some posts, but some ppl claim to have this remedied by bios updates. Not so for me ...
The screen .. I am putting that down to early faulty drivers.   Am I the only one getting this??

I have had a LOT of thinkpads but this one is REALLY a dud.  Sure ... bios updates and later drivers give greater stability later in the lifecycle, but usually a higher level of stability is to be expected when buying at Thinkpad!!  
Thoughts anyone??

[muskie49]

Sorry to hear about your experience with this Thinkpad.  I too have owned a number of Thinkpads, and I too have the 410s with switchable graphics. I am running the 32 bit preload still, with its hooks into Thinkvantage and everything else. I have all key driver updates implemented.  I do not run multiple monitors off this laptop.

This is probably not what you wanted to hear, but I have never experienced a single freeze or screen drop or anything requiring a hard re-boot. The machine has been quite stable. I do have occasional hotspotting on the bottom back left of the unit, particularly when utilizing video playback,  but performance remains consistently good. 

I note that you are driving two external monitors. I have experienced problems on other laptops when connected to multiple external monitors. It creates a lot of demand on system resources.  If you experience freezing when in laptop mode only, then I would recommend (1) contacting support, and/or (2) trying the preload configuration for awhile to see if the issues may be software related.

I will be re-building to my own 64 bit configuration soon, and I will be curious if this changes the stability of the unit.

[trekuhl]

i have definitely had it black screen coming up from hibernation. often i will leave music streaming and batt goes low and by time i plug in it hibs. when i resume it the music will come back up streaming and ive left it for running like that for a couple hours so the music kept playing for a party. its not just when the batt runs low. had it do it when i manually put into hib to travel. trying to remember if it does it in sleep mode though...

[Larswa]

Hi Muskie,

Thanks for your feedback and glad to hear you don't have any problem with yours. 

I have been running a couple days with the discrete graphics turned completely off, and just one external screen using the VGA cable.  That worked really well, and the system was running nice and cool. As for the screen going dark - that was not a problem either. This seems to have somerthing to do with the graphics switching from discrete to internal and back. 

I definitely think that most of my problems are due to the discrete graphics overheating the system when running 2 external screens. It would be nice if it was possible to downclock the graphics driver a little to cool the system down while still being able to drive two external screens ... after all .. this is 2010 and this should be a scenario that many will have. Right??

And I haven't even gotten to play a game om my discrete card yet ... I wonder if it will melt if I try that :-D

[Larswa]

Hi Trekuhl, Nice to hear I am the only one with strange switching problems.  As I wrote above ... after sticking with discrete graphics for a few days I have gotten a completely different and more positive experience. I think the "display gone missing" problem is due to the graphics switching.  

Hope they get it fixed with drivers and bios updates ...  

Are you not experiencing any overheating problems when running in discrete?

[trekuhl]

oh sorry to muddle the waters but i DO NOT have discrete graphics only the intel HD adapter. but i do get the black screen from resume issue.

[Larswa]

Hi Trekuhl,

No worries :-)     I do not seem to be getting those switching  errors when just running under integrated grahics (which I am doing most of the time right now).  But more testing is needed.

[Larswa]

Okay ... more testing has shown me that it is DEFINITELY the discrete graphics card giving me these freeze problems.

I can run just fine on integrated graphics, but within 5 minutes after switching to discrete, the temperature goes up from around 45 to 55, then 60+ degrees (Celsius   Sometimes it even climbs into the 70's. 

All I am doing is watching a divx encoded film, not even fullscreen.  I am wathvhing this on an external 24" screen through the displayport.

A few minutes after switching to discrete, the movie starts running choppy with sound out of sync.  It helps (runs more smooth) if I make the window really small, and gets a LOT worse when maximizing the movie. I have tried different movies, and different decoder packs, ang gotten the same result. Eventually my system WILL freeze, sometimes even at lower temperatures (55-60 degrees).   the CPU is not working very hard - <10% utilization, and I am running on AC, NOT battery.  I am not using sw to limit the fan or anything like that.

Is this a faulty T410S or are other ppl experiencing the same thing when running on discrete graphics?

[DangerMouse]

Yeah I've got a T410s and its just done it for the first time, not had it long though . . .

If it happens again I'll be on the phone, oh well, lol.

[muskie49]

This issue is now apparently becoming quite a problem. The switchable graphics function is crap on this machine and a total waste of money. I have MAJOR overheating issues when using the discrete chip to drive heavy video, like slingbox. The Thinkvantage drivers are not doing the job.  This is only one of a number of issues I am discovering with this flakey (!hybrid!)  machine. I definitely have buyer's remorse...