T420S Crashing into TV like fuzzy screen [ Edited ]

[vaclav_ryc]

Dear Lenovo,

Lenovo T420s is randomly crashing. There is nothing special in the Event Viewer. Only that the PC was not turned off properly. Not exactly BSOD.

Error video on YouTube

Usually happening under some load (eg. game) but I have seen the same  running only MS Office. No Macros or special calculations.

I would say this happens due to overheating. This is my second T420s I have same problem with. I work as 2nd. lvl IT so I know other colleagues are experiencing the same.

Frequency decreased once performance settings in power management were switched to balanced mode. Not solved though.

All drivers are updated from Lenovo.com

Kindly advise.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

donwload HWinfo32 and check out the CPU and GPU temp, you maybe experiencing heat related shutdowns.

Also, are you running the laptop with battery in or out.

[vaclav_ryc]

- Normal work > 39/40°C

- CPU on 25%  > 85°C just running some updates etc.

- Gaming > 85°C but I have seen even 95°C or more.. but that usually = Crash or throtling (SWTOR on low settings)

- Battery in 

- Latest Lenovo drivers for everything

- Thats on Balanced settings in Power management 

- When I was on Max Turbo usually the CPU temp is high even on MS Word

- But like I have already mentioned this is happening to more users in our company not just me. And they are usually just MS Office users plus IE8

- For me this is a second shell 

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ThinkPad T420s (4173-AM4)

i5-2520M(2.5GHz), 4GB RAM, 160GB Solid State Drive, 14in 1600x900 LCD, Intel HD Graphics, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11agn wireless, WWAN, Bluetooth, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure Chip, Camera, 6c Li-Ion, Win7 Pro 32

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

sounds a bit high for Intel HD graphic mode of the T410s.

Do you have warranty still?

[vaclav_ryc]

It's a corporate machine. Two months old. 

So guess we are covered. 

But thing is the scale. We have aprox. 15.000 employees. Of course few different models but this is becoming very common issue with T420s

[ThorsHammer]

I don't think the T420s or many other ThinkPads were designed with gaming in mind.

[vaclav_ryc]

Very helpful post. Thank you for your advice

Becasue as I mentioned at least twice here already, this crash will happen even with just MS Word open. 

[sfritzinger]

My wife's laptop is experiencing the exact same issue. She will be working and all of the sudden the screen turns into static and she has to reboot.

Here is a picture of the crash: http://i.imgur.com/xoKsH.jpg

Is this what you are experiencing as well?

On top of this, her sound card has been malfunctioning as well. The laptop will freeze and her sound card will play a loud, buzzing noise for 30 seconds to a minute before stopping, waiting a bit, and playing it again.

The laptop is only 6 months old. This has happened with the laptop sitting on a tile counter so circulation isn't a big issue (compared to using it on her lap or on a blanket). It has happened when she is working in MS Word, Firefox, Outlook, and even just organizing files.

Have you had any fix for this issue?

I haven't written Lenovo yet. I wanted to try to fix it first.

[lentils]

Hello,

I have just experienced exactly the same problems with a brand new T420s:

When the computer is computing for:

- either playing movie

- running any benchmark or memory test (memtest, prime95, furmark, etc.)

- lauching any, even the old game

it suddenly, after some time of  - usually 5-15 mins of running particular application goes into the fuzzy screen mode (as presesented in the clip and screencap above), and then simply switches off. I recently changed after being a Toshiba user for more than 12 years and I already think I made a wrong choice.

Tried to monitor the temperatures via HW Monitor - the temperatures rose steadily from idle (38-40C) to 80C+ when under stress. The same happened without and with Lenovo Turbo Boost (Max Fan enabled) as well as with the laptop placed on the external cooling pad. All drivers have been updated through lenovo systems update. Looked through the web searching for answers yet didn't find anything yet.

Any solutions or suggestions? 

[Mark_Lenovo Former Administrator]

All,

Have you run any memory diagnostics yet?   What is the memory config - one or two Dimms installed?

If two dimms, as a test, can you remove one dimm and run with that configu to see if this occurs?  If so, swap the memory for the other piece and retest to see if you can determine if one of the modules is the fault.

I would be interested to see what memory diagnostics report

Mark