Around a month ago, problems started happening. This was roughly 8 months into the purchase of thls laptop - an IBM T40:.
The original problems were:
- I would be working, and the screen would completely freeze and then drop down to 640x480x16 colors and display the message 'Windows has recovered from a serious device failure. Please reboot to restore full functionality." It would do this within 5 minutes of loading into Windows. In safe mode, it would completely freeze. Running the diagnostics indicated that sme sort of video memory was corrupt.
IBM replaced the motherboard.
After one replacement, the following problems happened:
- the device failure message was gone.
- In place of it, when I turn on the computer, occasionally nothing happens. The fans spin, and some LEDs come on, but there is no power towads anything else - I can just hear the fan spinning at full speed but the LCD panel never gets any sort of backlight.
- The screen totally scrambles in Windows - random lines, shapes, colors all over, no signs of life beyond this.
it seemed like something was loose. But I didn't want to tear ir apart, it's their responsibility.
IBM replaced the motherboard.
Now after the second replacement, the following things have happened:
- Windows has frozen completely three times in about 12 hours of total uptime
- I have gotten the 'device failure' message once, completely as before, even though I didn't get it after the first replacement
- I have still witnessed it powering up with no backlight activity, with fan spinning at full speed. Once it took me four power cycles to get it to boot only to have it hang in Windows.
- When the laptop is powered off, but plugged into the wall, I hear an extremely high-pitched, faint whine coming from what I think is the battery pack. Unplugging it from the wall removes the whine. I'd probably say it's around 12-15 kHz in pitch.
I am going to call IBM on Thursday. I don't know what else to tell them. They replaced the mobo twice, paid for six overnight AM boxes and still it's not fixed. What do I tell them to get this fixed? I'd almost take a complete replacement than deal with this. I've moved across the country and was already inconvenicned by not having a laptop and I really am getting sick of this.
Is it possible the battery is going finicky and a voltage regulating circuit isn't working? And if this is the case, I need a new battery as well as a new motherboard becasue these components are already damaged, right?
Please help
UPDATE:
Here is my letter to IBM, if anyone has any recommendations for it I'll make the changes, it'll go out tomorrow:
June 6, 2004
IBM Technician:
I?d like to give you a brief service history of this machine. This is the third time that it has been RMAed. Please make your best effort to correct the problems stated below, and be aware that it is an intermittent problem and may not be able to be solved in 30 minutes. Replacing the motherboard has obviously not fixed the problem.
As an EE (although not really experienced in this type of work), I?d probably make an assumption that it is some sort of voltage regulating system that is failing and causing an over-voltage to some components ? this would explain the freezing, the blue screens, and the display scrambling. I am not sure if all your control circuitry is built into the motherboard, but if it wasn?t (and instead built into the battery) then that may explain why replacing the motherboard twice has failed to correct the problem. I would assume that since the machine usually boots, I don?t think any power system faults have been enough to blow any of my caps or lead to any excessive interference on the transmission lines on the circuit boards. With the tolerances that these machines are built with, I?d expect that even a small voltage discrepancy may lead to some of the symptoms I have been having, without causing cascading failures that render the machine completely inoperable, i.e by blowing the dielectrics in the caps.
If you read over my descriptions below, you will realize that, on numerous occasions, I have started up the machine and the display has not lit, and the battery drained extremely fast ? within a 5 or 10 minute window. It seems like a short to me. I don?t see how that would be possible, since I would fully expect that a current draw of that magnitude would be protected against.
If it turns out that the voltage regulating circuitry has failed, and an over-voltage has indeed been occurring, I?m pretty sure everything in the system is already damaged ? the hard drives, CD/DVD drive, display, everything, and I?d probably ask to have that replaced, since this is the third time I have returned this and the issues still haven?t been resolved. I have not been able to use any of these components to notice them failing since I can?t even keep Windows from freezing.
Any further issues with this machine after this service call will make me extremely unhappy. I have spent a lot of time cataloguing any of the problems I have been having so that they can be resolved correctly, and not just quickly as has been done in the past.
I am diagramming my complaint history below. This is what I have been having problems with, and I?d hope that your records reflect this, but if not, I would like everything below fixed.
The original problems (early May):
- I would be working, and the screen would completely freeze and then drop down to 640x480x16 colors and display the message 'Windows has recovered from a serious device failure. Please reboot to restore full functionality." It would do this within 5 minutes of loading into Windows.
- In safe mode, it would completely freeze. Running the diagnostics indicated that some sort of video memory was corrupt.
The motherboard was replaced and the BIOS updated.
After one replacement, the following problems happened (late May):
- The device failure message was gone.
- In place of it, when I turn on the computer, occasionally nothing happens. The fans spin, and some LEDs come on, but there is no power towards anything else - I can just hear the fan spinning at full speed but the LCD panel never gets any sort of backlight.
- The screen totally scrambles in Windows - random lines, shapes, colors all over, no signs of life beyond this.
- It seemed like something was loose. But I didn't want to tear it apart
Once again, the motherboard was replaced.
Now after the second replacement, the following things have happened:
- Windows has frozen completely three times in about 12 hours of total uptime
- I have gotten the 'device failure' message once, completely as before, even though I didn't get it after the first replacement
- I have still witnessed it powering up with no backlight activity, with fan spinning at full speed. Once it took me four power cycles to get it to boot only to have it hang in Windows.
- When the laptop is powered off, but plugged into the wall, I hear an extremely high-pitched, faint whine coming from what I think is the battery pack. Unplugging it from the wall removes the whine. I'd probably say it's around 12-15 kHz in pitch. Maybe it?s a faulty transformer of some sort?
On another note, I?d like to mention that, even though I made the complaint in the first service call, another thing still has not been fixed. If you look at my display when viewing a white background, you can see that the brightness isn?t uniform. It is spotty around the left-center part of the screen. I have noticed this on other T40s that my friends have, and I would like this fixed. It is extremely difficult to do any imaging work when I can?t have a uniform backlit screen. Since I haven?t had a working laptop in almost a month, I would like to see this fixed along with everything else. I baby my T40 as if it was my firstborn, and since I have seen this same thing occur on other T40s I would assume it?s a design weakness.
If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to call me on my cell phone listed below. I would rather field questions than have this sent back again unresolved. I have been patient and methodical in these diagnostics, but my patience is wearing thing after three RMAs. Please do your absolute best to fix these issues ? even if it means re-imaging the hard disk and replacing everything if necessary.
Joseph
The original problems were:
- I would be working, and the screen would completely freeze and then drop down to 640x480x16 colors and display the message 'Windows has recovered from a serious device failure. Please reboot to restore full functionality." It would do this within 5 minutes of loading into Windows. In safe mode, it would completely freeze. Running the diagnostics indicated that sme sort of video memory was corrupt.
IBM replaced the motherboard.
After one replacement, the following problems happened:
- the device failure message was gone.
- In place of it, when I turn on the computer, occasionally nothing happens. The fans spin, and some LEDs come on, but there is no power towads anything else - I can just hear the fan spinning at full speed but the LCD panel never gets any sort of backlight.
- The screen totally scrambles in Windows - random lines, shapes, colors all over, no signs of life beyond this.
it seemed like something was loose. But I didn't want to tear ir apart, it's their responsibility.
IBM replaced the motherboard.
Now after the second replacement, the following things have happened:
- Windows has frozen completely three times in about 12 hours of total uptime
- I have gotten the 'device failure' message once, completely as before, even though I didn't get it after the first replacement
- I have still witnessed it powering up with no backlight activity, with fan spinning at full speed. Once it took me four power cycles to get it to boot only to have it hang in Windows.
- When the laptop is powered off, but plugged into the wall, I hear an extremely high-pitched, faint whine coming from what I think is the battery pack. Unplugging it from the wall removes the whine. I'd probably say it's around 12-15 kHz in pitch.
I am going to call IBM on Thursday. I don't know what else to tell them. They replaced the mobo twice, paid for six overnight AM boxes and still it's not fixed. What do I tell them to get this fixed? I'd almost take a complete replacement than deal with this. I've moved across the country and was already inconvenicned by not having a laptop and I really am getting sick of this.
Is it possible the battery is going finicky and a voltage regulating circuit isn't working? And if this is the case, I need a new battery as well as a new motherboard becasue these components are already damaged, right?
Please help
UPDATE:
Here is my letter to IBM, if anyone has any recommendations for it I'll make the changes, it'll go out tomorrow:
June 6, 2004
IBM Technician:
I?d like to give you a brief service history of this machine. This is the third time that it has been RMAed. Please make your best effort to correct the problems stated below, and be aware that it is an intermittent problem and may not be able to be solved in 30 minutes. Replacing the motherboard has obviously not fixed the problem.
As an EE (although not really experienced in this type of work), I?d probably make an assumption that it is some sort of voltage regulating system that is failing and causing an over-voltage to some components ? this would explain the freezing, the blue screens, and the display scrambling. I am not sure if all your control circuitry is built into the motherboard, but if it wasn?t (and instead built into the battery) then that may explain why replacing the motherboard twice has failed to correct the problem. I would assume that since the machine usually boots, I don?t think any power system faults have been enough to blow any of my caps or lead to any excessive interference on the transmission lines on the circuit boards. With the tolerances that these machines are built with, I?d expect that even a small voltage discrepancy may lead to some of the symptoms I have been having, without causing cascading failures that render the machine completely inoperable, i.e by blowing the dielectrics in the caps.
If you read over my descriptions below, you will realize that, on numerous occasions, I have started up the machine and the display has not lit, and the battery drained extremely fast ? within a 5 or 10 minute window. It seems like a short to me. I don?t see how that would be possible, since I would fully expect that a current draw of that magnitude would be protected against.
If it turns out that the voltage regulating circuitry has failed, and an over-voltage has indeed been occurring, I?m pretty sure everything in the system is already damaged ? the hard drives, CD/DVD drive, display, everything, and I?d probably ask to have that replaced, since this is the third time I have returned this and the issues still haven?t been resolved. I have not been able to use any of these components to notice them failing since I can?t even keep Windows from freezing.
Any further issues with this machine after this service call will make me extremely unhappy. I have spent a lot of time cataloguing any of the problems I have been having so that they can be resolved correctly, and not just quickly as has been done in the past.
I am diagramming my complaint history below. This is what I have been having problems with, and I?d hope that your records reflect this, but if not, I would like everything below fixed.
The original problems (early May):
- I would be working, and the screen would completely freeze and then drop down to 640x480x16 colors and display the message 'Windows has recovered from a serious device failure. Please reboot to restore full functionality." It would do this within 5 minutes of loading into Windows.
- In safe mode, it would completely freeze. Running the diagnostics indicated that some sort of video memory was corrupt.
The motherboard was replaced and the BIOS updated.
After one replacement, the following problems happened (late May):
- The device failure message was gone.
- In place of it, when I turn on the computer, occasionally nothing happens. The fans spin, and some LEDs come on, but there is no power towards anything else - I can just hear the fan spinning at full speed but the LCD panel never gets any sort of backlight.
- The screen totally scrambles in Windows - random lines, shapes, colors all over, no signs of life beyond this.
- It seemed like something was loose. But I didn't want to tear it apart
Once again, the motherboard was replaced.
Now after the second replacement, the following things have happened:
- Windows has frozen completely three times in about 12 hours of total uptime
- I have gotten the 'device failure' message once, completely as before, even though I didn't get it after the first replacement
- I have still witnessed it powering up with no backlight activity, with fan spinning at full speed. Once it took me four power cycles to get it to boot only to have it hang in Windows.
- When the laptop is powered off, but plugged into the wall, I hear an extremely high-pitched, faint whine coming from what I think is the battery pack. Unplugging it from the wall removes the whine. I'd probably say it's around 12-15 kHz in pitch. Maybe it?s a faulty transformer of some sort?
On another note, I?d like to mention that, even though I made the complaint in the first service call, another thing still has not been fixed. If you look at my display when viewing a white background, you can see that the brightness isn?t uniform. It is spotty around the left-center part of the screen. I have noticed this on other T40s that my friends have, and I would like this fixed. It is extremely difficult to do any imaging work when I can?t have a uniform backlit screen. Since I haven?t had a working laptop in almost a month, I would like to see this fixed along with everything else. I baby my T40 as if it was my firstborn, and since I have seen this same thing occur on other T40s I would assume it?s a design weakness.
If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to call me on my cell phone listed below. I would rather field questions than have this sent back again unresolved. I have been patient and methodical in these diagnostics, but my patience is wearing thing after three RMAs. Please do your absolute best to fix these issues ? even if it means re-imaging the hard disk and replacing everything if necessary.
Joseph
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