BLACK SCREEN startup with 3 beeps, FREEZES when power unplugged, IF IT BOOTS splash screen freezes, OVERHEATING REQUIRED TO BOOT - 0x7B, Event 41 kernel-powe

Issue: One day I unplug the power, the screen freezes and I get frozen music sound. I shut down, start up, I get 3 beeps (1 short 2 long), which indicates a Video failure according to the Thinkpad Laptop beep code list.
How I solve the issue day-to-day: I turn the heat up - I disconnect the battery and hard drive and plug in the power then turn it on. I will wait until the underneath is searing hot with a blanket blocking the fan's flow of air, I mean way hot because any cooler and it won't start. Plug stuff back in, Hard drive first, Battery second, turn off with power button hold, unplug power, replug power.

I turn it on, no beeps, it goes past the first Lenovo screen, then gives me a prompt because it "didn't shut down properly" and continue regular startup. What happens next is the Windows logo appears, and just as the animated windows logo starts to move (you see 2 small colored dots on the screen), it freezes. I see this every time, I know naturally that it means that the laptop is still too hot to go past that point, so I shut it down and try again. After about 5 - 10 tries it will go past the splash screen and into the login area, then it's all fine.

Sometimes when I unplug the power from the back by accident it will freeze. By accident I mean that the connector wiggles it's self out easily. This unplug freezing thing started happening about 1 week before the 3 beep black screen problem started rolling, so I'm putting 2 together.

Errors:

I got a Blue Screen of Death the first time I started it up with the overheating ritual, but I never got it since. It was 0X7B. I ended up changing a setting in BIOS from AHCI to Compatibility Mode, and I passed everything without the BSOD again. I have always had it on AHCI.

I got another Blue Screen of Death about a week ago, but came as it was on already and I had been using it, and said something about disabling Cache or Shadowing in BIOS. I never got it since.

BIOS:

Also, the time was set to 1988 or something in the BIOS.

Event Viewer events found:

1. Kernel-Power, Summary page.
There are critical events for a few things like Kernel-Power, Event ID 41, Task Category (63). There are 19 of them, each day 1 or 2 of them but mostly 1, so this maybe corresponds to my daily ritual.
"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
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2. Kernel-Processor-Power - Event ID 37, task category (7)
"The speed of processor 1 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report."
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3. LMS - HCMI - Event ID 2, Task Category: none
"LMS Service cannot connect to HECI driver".
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I came across a very sluggish performing control panel for Nvidia before and after this problem, and I tried installing a newer version, which I had to jump through a few hoops to do, like uninstalling first, not just updating. At first it said that the driver wasnt made for the system, or that it wasnt compatible or something, which was wrong. I made it work somehow, but it was still sluggish after install. I rolled it back to an earlier driver, and now it works fine oddly. No sluggish performance / slight freeze window thing going on. No problem at all.

     MSCONFIG.exe, Boot Advanced Options: I have tried twice to change this 1 setting, check box "Number of processors" and change to 2 processors, because I do have 2 processors. I have been able to change this in the past, but it does not save the setting now, and I believe this option was selected before I started having problems, and settings did not disappear then.

What could this be. The small round BIOS battery? The video card like everyone presumes? (I.E. the entire motherboard replacement), Software? The wiggly power input area? (Not enough power getting in?), Firmware of some sort? The BIOS software being wrong?

SYSTEM INFO:
Thinkpad T61p 6457-A24, Intel core 2 duo (T7700) 2.4GHz, Intel 120GB SSD 6Gb/s, NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256 MB),
Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium (6.1, Build 7601), BIOS Ver 1.00PARTTBLx
Display: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit 60 Hz), Integrated RAMDAC, Main driver: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2,
Version 8.17.12.9688, Date 5/31/2012, DDI version 10, Driver model WDDM 1.1

Sorry to deliver bad news, but your system is exhibiting nVidia GPU failure. The only true remedy is a replacement system board from a known-good machine from the safe date timeframe.

There are several very knowledgable members who will likely see your thread soon and may be able to offer detailed help.

Regards.

My main concern is this item:

2. Kernel-Processor-Power - Event ID 37, task category (7)
"The speed of processor 1 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report."

I would like to know if this is a common occurence, is this a software issue, and does the Kernel-Processor-Power have anything to do with the BIOS being powered.

I would also like to know what happens specifically in the system when the system freezes as the power cord is unplugged.

If you have a T61 with Nvidia Graphics, its dead or close to it.

Laptops of all Brands using Nvidia GPUsmade  from 2007-2008  are faulty.

Steps from here:

Replace Systemboard

You wont get good Nvidia ones on Ebay/forumes anywhere.

If you got a 14" version you may get a Intel-X1300 Graphic board, which is worth as much as your whole machine by now, and also might struggle with HD-Video or Webapplications.

Replace GPU:

Find a shop that has WORKING Nvidia G86 or G84a ( Quadro nvs 140/ FX 570) chips.

Find someone with BGA soldering station

Replace GPU

pay 150$

Might be hard because some chinese relabeld broken GPU-Chips and sold them to repair-shops, and you might get another faulty chip working for one day or two, even if the repair guy is honest and good.

Sell your T61  :(

Moderator Note; profanity / implied profanity edited.

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wrote:

 

Laptops of all Brands using Nvidia GPUsmade  from 2007-2008  are faulty.

 

 

You wont get good Nvidia ones on Ebay/forumes anywhere.

 

 

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I'd beg to differ on both accounts.

*61 series nVidia-based ThinkPads from late January through July of 2008 are a 50/50 shot, since the old chips were mixed with the new ones. Any machine built in August and later can be deemed "safe".

As for the forums (I don't do feebay) there are people who sell genuine, properly-tested planars. However, these do not come at bargain basement prices, and with a good reason if I may add.

Good luck.

By forcing your system to overheat you're expanding the materials used to make the microscopic circuits in the failed GPU chip, when they expand you get momentary contact which is sometimes enough to get it to boot. As mentioned, the only solution is to replace the board but you have to be careful where you source the board from, many people attempt to repair these by reflowing the solder under the chips. This had worked to fix similar symptoms on older thinkpads, but the nVidia chip problem is unique attempting to fix one like this will often appear to work, but the reputable shops no longer do these boards because it was soon realized that the failure rate was virtually 100%, however many of the repairs last long enough that those intent on scamming someone can sell them on the principle of Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware). Most of the popular auction sites claim to have buyer protection to prevent this, but if the board lasts 30 days the buyer has no recourse at all and the sellers can get away with this by quickly replacing or refunding any that fail within the timeframe of leaving feedback. With the demand for these boards being so great there will probably always be someone reflowing the boards in their garage, or baking them in their ovens, so you really need to find a source you can trust. 

Other than a genuine Lenovo refurbished board, I'd never trust any board that has repairs attempted and even with the lenovo boards there is a good chance it will have the same problematic gpu that the original board had. The best solution is to get one of the rare august 2008 boards or one with Intel graphics. I've learned that the only reliable way to source them is to get an original (virgin) board from a corporate laptop that can be tested and examined to confirm it's in good condition. This is also a reasonably cost effective way of repairing them since many of these boards cost upwards or over $1000 from ibm, and even at that price you still cannot be certain it won't have the same old gpu chip when it was refurbished. 

I've also looked into getting the boards reballed with new GPU chips, but the problem is that you have no way of knowing if you're getting a genuine new gpu, or a used one with new date codes etched on it. If you do a google search on the terms "fake chips" and "china", you'll see that even the United States dept of defense was scammed into buying thousands of these fake chips, and they  all came from legitimate sources. The problem is that it's hard to turn down an offer to sell you chips that look genuine at a fraction of the cost so if a defense contractor can be scammed into buying fakes, surely a small reballing shop that struggles to survive will be equally tempted to buy the cheap chips. In addition, I don't believe nVidia even makes these chips anymore unless required to do so by oem contract...   so if lenovo needed some, they would have to retool and produce them even at a loss, but if a 3rd party wanted some, they would have to order them by the millions to make it worthwhile for nVidia to setup a production line and they would much rather make new products...  these manufactures don't really care much about people who repair old equipment...  they only reduce the demand for new sales....   but in my mind these are great machines and well worth the effort to fix.

OK I haven't found out anything new from anyone thus yet, BUT, I did go into MSCONFIG and selected "Boot Log", and also selected Advanced Options and selected number of processors as "2" and selected "Maximum Ram" 4096, which I see only saves as "0" as I see when I start it up again and check the settings. 

It used to be that everything above selected, would not be saved. Some how it is now saving. 

I am possibly experiencing a change in steps I take to get it to turn on. Last night I had changed the boot options to what I stated above, and it froze after I unplugged it about 5 times. The computer was cool to the touch. I unplugged the hard drive and turned it off, replugged in the hard drive and it booted with the beep. I turned it off then back on and it turned on fine. This did not happen before. This is too easy. 

I would like to know what selecting "Use original boot configuration" does to the boot settings. I might just try it if I feel safe enough.

Anyone have any possibilities or tests for me? I'm sorry but "Replace Motherboard" isn't an option for me, but using my imagination is an option, so please do some imagining with me because there is still a slight chance that 1 silly setting or install will change everything.

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t61pa wrote:

 

Anyone have any possibilities or tests for me? I'm sorry but "Replace Motherboard" isn't an option for me, but using my imagination is an option, so please do some imagining with me because there is still a slight chance that 1 silly setting or install will change everything.

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Regardless of what the OS settings are, 3 beeps on boot indicate a hardware failure...so you can use your imagination as much as you like, but at one point the machine will become useless and you will have to deal with hardware-related realities, one way or another.

Good luck.

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wrote:

 there is still a slight chance that 1 silly setting or install will change everything.

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I'm sorry that we don't have the answers you want to hear, but you can not fix hardware by altering software. If you want to try to cripple your operating system to make it somewhat less likely to crash when running on defective hardware,then you can remove the nVidia drivers and run it using the default VGA graphic driver. It may avoid some crashes but it's not going to fix anything, and nothing you change in your software is going to "change everything".