So last Saturday, I was working and Windows froze on me. It hung, and then it dropped me into 640x480x 16 colors with the error message, "Windows has recovered from a device failure. Please reboot to restore full fuctionality." Ever since then, I haven't been able to keep Windows going for more than couple of hours without crashing.
Usually, it gives me the error message I just described to you. It doesn't take a definite amount of time to happen - sometimes it crashes before I can logon, other times it takes 45 minutes. In addition, it also sometimes just scrambles the screen and hangs entirely. This happens in normal Windows about 1/3 of the time. Also, when I stay in safe mode, it does this 100% of the time.
I've kept my virus definitions up to date. This happens on multiple networks, with and without power connections, etc. It also happens in Windows as well as Safe Mode. Now, the T40 uses an ATI Radeon 7500 driver, and ATI doesn't release a reference driver, so I have to use IBM's driver. I've tried reinstalling their driver a couple of times, but it hasn't changed anything.
So I decided to go ahead and run IBM's built-in PC diagnostics, since when I call to replace it they will ask me to anyway. I pass all the video adapter tests, but the 'Video Memory' seems to be running strangely. This is where anyone with a T40 can prove extraordinarily helpful to me!
To run the video tests, I boot the machine and press the "Access IBM" button at startup. From the menu, I choose 'run diagnostics.' This launches the PC Doctor diagnostic software. From the top right menu, you can choose individual diagnostics, and there should be a category for 'Video.' A list of about 10 tests will be displayed on the screen. When I run the 'Video Memory' test, the screen immediately scrambles just like it does when Windows crashes. The test takes between 2 and 3 mintues to run, and the whole time the screen is flickering random colors and random lines, with no indication that this is normal. Does this happen to anyone with a working video adapter?
I still cannot determine if this is a software driver failure or a broken hardware failure. I initially suspected a corrupt driver, seeing as how I've never had a solid-state device fail on me before. However, the fact that the crashing is repetative, arbitrary, and happens both in safe mode and normal windows makes me suspect. The fact that the 'Video Memory' test seems broken leads me to believe I have some sort of corrupt video memory. However, only someone that can run a Video Memory test on their T40 can verify this for me - are my results normal, with the flickering and random lines and random boxes for the duration of only the video memory test (all others appear to run fine), or is somethign really screwed up and IBM needs to replace the whole system?
Usually, it gives me the error message I just described to you. It doesn't take a definite amount of time to happen - sometimes it crashes before I can logon, other times it takes 45 minutes. In addition, it also sometimes just scrambles the screen and hangs entirely. This happens in normal Windows about 1/3 of the time. Also, when I stay in safe mode, it does this 100% of the time.
I've kept my virus definitions up to date. This happens on multiple networks, with and without power connections, etc. It also happens in Windows as well as Safe Mode. Now, the T40 uses an ATI Radeon 7500 driver, and ATI doesn't release a reference driver, so I have to use IBM's driver. I've tried reinstalling their driver a couple of times, but it hasn't changed anything.
So I decided to go ahead and run IBM's built-in PC diagnostics, since when I call to replace it they will ask me to anyway. I pass all the video adapter tests, but the 'Video Memory' seems to be running strangely. This is where anyone with a T40 can prove extraordinarily helpful to me!
To run the video tests, I boot the machine and press the "Access IBM" button at startup. From the menu, I choose 'run diagnostics.' This launches the PC Doctor diagnostic software. From the top right menu, you can choose individual diagnostics, and there should be a category for 'Video.' A list of about 10 tests will be displayed on the screen. When I run the 'Video Memory' test, the screen immediately scrambles just like it does when Windows crashes. The test takes between 2 and 3 mintues to run, and the whole time the screen is flickering random colors and random lines, with no indication that this is normal. Does this happen to anyone with a working video adapter?
I still cannot determine if this is a software driver failure or a broken hardware failure. I initially suspected a corrupt driver, seeing as how I've never had a solid-state device fail on me before. However, the fact that the crashing is repetative, arbitrary, and happens both in safe mode and normal windows makes me suspect. The fact that the 'Video Memory' test seems broken leads me to believe I have some sort of corrupt video memory. However, only someone that can run a Video Memory test on their T40 can verify this for me - are my results normal, with the flickering and random lines and random boxes for the duration of only the video memory test (all others appear to run fine), or is somethign really screwed up and IBM needs to replace the whole system?
