# IBM thinkpad freezes



## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

:4-dontkno My thinkpad will all of a sudden freeze. I can't move the mouse, ctrl-shift-delete or anything. I have to power off. When I try to restart it usually takes several attempts because it freezes during startup. Some days it works fine. I have defragmented, cleaned out spyware, reset the checkpoint. I am not very literate in this stuff so codes and things won't help me. Can anyone tell me why this happens and/or how to fix it? The only other thing i can think of is that the bottom gets very hot. Thank you if you know anything about this.


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

Do you hear the fan? Have you tried cleaning the cooling vents? 

This does sound like a overheating computer.


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## Stu_computer (Jul 7, 2005)

What is the model? (tp600, 380, etc)
How old is it?

Take the battery out and run it awhile to see if this is better, it may be the battery has depleted and is causing the overheating and system stalls.


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## Kevin374 (Sep 7, 2005)

Hi what model Thinkpad is it? I have a T21 and it does the exact same thing. Still don't know whats wrong with it. Everything i have tried has been a dead end. I even tried using the recovery disk to reformat the HDD, it didn't work froze up about halfway though the process. Not sure what to do? Just wanted to put the word out there that you don't have the only Thinkpad doing this???


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## JamesO (Mar 30, 2005)

Ctrl, Alt, Del, Task Manager.

Under the Performance tab, what does the bottom the of the box show for:
Processes?
CPU Usage?

Look at the Physical Memory area:
Total?
Available?

JamesO


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*thanks but . . .*



Terrister said:


> Do you hear the fan? Have you tried cleaning the cooling vents?
> 
> This does sound like a overheating computer.


How do I clean? :heartlove


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*and yes i can hear the fan*



Terrister said:


> Do you hear the fan? Have you tried cleaning the cooling vents?
> 
> This does sound like a overheating computer.


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*Hpw do I take the battery out?*



Stu_computer said:


> What is the model? (tp600, 380, etc)
> How old is it?
> 
> Take the battery out and run it awhile to see if this is better, it may be the battery has depleted and is causing the overheating and system stalls.


 :4-dontkno 
Like I said - not good at this at all


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*Oh man*



JamesO said:


> Ctrl, Alt, Del, Task Manager.
> 
> Under the Performance tab, what does the bottom the of the box show for:
> Processes?
> ...


lololol - where is the performance tab? and the physical memory area. I am a woman although that shouldn't matter but in this case it does.


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*and how do i know*



Kevin374 said:


> Hi what model Thinkpad is it? I have a T21 and it does the exact same thing. Still don't know whats wrong with it. Everything i have tried has been a dead end. I even tried using the recovery disk to reformat the HDD, it didn't work froze up about halfway though the process. Not sure what to do? Just wanted to put the word out there that you don't have the only Thinkpad doing this???


Where do I look to find the model? If you look at all my replies you will see just how illiterate I am. I am starting to feel totally incompetent. But I thank all of you for your assistance. :heartlove


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*What is this?*



JamesO said:


> Ctrl, Alt, Del, Task Manager.
> 
> Under the Performance tab, what does the bottom the of the box show for:
> Processes?
> ...


Today it did it right after starting si I don't think it was hot. Whhat is the little icon at the top that looks like a barrel with a two way arrow in the side of ot? And is it supposed to flash, be on or off?


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*Ok found it*



JamesO said:


> Ctrl, Alt, Del, Task Manager.
> 
> Under the Performance tab, what does the bottom the of the box show for:
> Processes?
> ...


Duh - I see you told me how at the beginning - slow but eventually I get it.
CPU usage 33-46%, PF usage 351 mb, processes 48, commit charge 358700k/6333
Physical memory - total 261616, available 35008, system cache 766750
Kernel memory - total 28460, paged 22956, nonpaged 5504

Does that tell you anything? And please see my repley to the other person about what that little barrel icon is. Thanks


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*To Terrister, James, Kevin and Stu*

Thank you all for your help. As you can see from my responses it is going to take me a while to figure this out. But I will - or go crazy trying!


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

If it locked up right after a boot, I think you can rule out heat. But to answer your cleaning question, I use canned compressed air and blow out all the vents and keyboard. Could not hurt it to do this.

Try booting into safe mode and see if it locks up.

To do this, hit the f8 key right when it starts to boot. choose safe mode.


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## JamesO (Mar 30, 2005)

My take is your machine is short on RAM (Random Access Memory). My findings are WinXP with any sort of Anti-Virus program needs at least 512 MB of RAM to run smoothly without delays. 

Looks like you only have around 256 MB of RAM.

Running low on RAM can cause the machine to slow down and lock up. If you see the display draw from top to bottom, this is almost always a issue of low RAM.

I am a little concerned about the CPU usage of 33-46%, this may be due to low RAM and the CPU is swapping to memory locations on the HD?? Once everything has fully loaded in a "idle" state, the CPU should only be 1-5% typically. If the CPU usage does not idle down, you will also need to look into this under the Task Manager Processes tab, Click the CPU column and it will sort the Processes in order. Look to see what process is using the CPU load.

Number of Processes overall looks typical, see no issues here.

Go this web link and click on "Check My Computer".

http://www.memoryx.net/

This link will tell you everything about your memory configuration and what the machine can hold. RAM upgrade for a laptop may be around $100 depending on what is needed. You may actually need to pull out what is in the machine to upgrade depending on how many RAM expansion slots are available.

JamesO


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*Terrister*

Ok, I will try that next time - I wondered what would happen if I chose that


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*James - YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

It does that slow fade thing from top to bottom sometimes! I copied your info so I can try it. Thanks.


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*This is what it said*

YOUR COMPUTER CHECK RESULTS 

Computer Make: IBM 
Computer Model: 26284SU 
Computer Version: 
Motherboard Model: 26284SU 
Motherboard Version: 
CPU: Intel Pentium III 700Mhz 
Installed Memory: 2 slots: 128 MB, 128 MB 
Match - Model: http://www.memoryx.net/ibmtha226me4.html 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MEMORY THAT MATCHES YOUR COMPUTER

IBM ThinkPad A20m 2628-xxx Memory 
Maximum Memory 512MB 
Memory Slots 2 (2 banks of 1) 
non-removable base memory 0MB 



32MB IBM PC100 144-pin SDRAM SODIMM (p/n 20L0253)
$8.98 


64MB IBM 144pin PC100 SODIMM (p/n 20L0254)
$18.98 


128MB IBM Thinkpad PC100 SODIMM (p/n 20L0255)
$36.98 


256MB IBM Thinkpad 144p PC100 SDRAM SODIMM (p/n 33L3069)
$79.98 

And in processes . . . the biggest are
IExplore.exe 60k
winword.exe 28k
swdoctor 13k
svchost.exe 9k
msmin.exe 9k
mcshield.exe 8k
explorer.exe 11k

haha it was hard to do - they kept jumping around


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*also . . .*

unmcshield.exe andder CPU itt varies from about 20 - 70 for mcshield.exe and 55-70 for system idle process. Any others are only 1 or 2


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## JamesO (Mar 30, 2005)

I think I am correct about your machine being low on memory. 

Here's your situation.

Your computer appears to be an IBM ThinkPad A20m with a 700 MHz Pentium III processor and 2 RAM expansion slots capable of supporting 512 MB of RAM.

The good news is your machine will support 512 MB of RAM and a 700 MHz PIII machine has reasonable performance, not a rocket ship with Windows XP and Anti-Virus, but should work ok with enough RAM. I have a 500 MHz PIII that I run Windows 2000 with reasonable success.

The issue here is you will need to abandon both of the current 128 MB RAM modules and upgrade to 512 MB of RAM using 2 - 256 MB RAM modules. If you buy from MemoryX it looks like about $160. Not a cheap proposition, but cheaper than a new laptop. This appears to be a good price on RAM, only other way is to buy used on e-bay, but there may be some risks. You may be able to sell the 128 MB RAM modules to regain some of your capital investment? Again, ebay is a good place to sell used RAM.

To increase your machines RAM:

You will need 2 of these module - 256MB IBM Thinkpad 144p PC100 SDRAM SODIMM (p/n 33L3069) $79.98 

RAM is not hard to install, you just need to use care when handling and installing it. The hardest part is finding where it is installed getting access to it. It appears that the RAM is located on the underside of the laptop. IBM's support site has this useful link about your machine:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-46015

As for your process using the CPU, it appears to legitimate. Do not know if it is supposed to behave in that manner. Maybe additional RAM will cause this process to settle down.

mcshield - mcshield.exe - Process Information

Process File: mcshield or mcshield.exe
Process Name: McAfee VirusScan

Description:
mcshield.exe this process is associated with McAfee's Internet Security suite. More specifically, it is essential to the Antivirus software and should not be removed.
Author: Network Associates, Inc
Part Of: McAfee's Internet Security suite

Good luck!

JamesO


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*Hi guys*

I think you must be right about the RAM. I think I will also clean the fans. Today it booted fine but froze after an hour or so. After about 10 tries I've got it up again. The CPU usage is running from 8 - 16% which is better than yesterday but still not as low as you say it should be. 

Under the processes:
system idle - 84
mcshield.exe - 8
taskmgr.exe - 2
iexplore.exe - 6
swdoctor.exe - 1

so that is alot different too. I wonder why it is different but I will check into getting the RAM. I know some people that I'm sure will be able to install it. Thanks.


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*It seems to be ok now*

I talked to a friend about more RAM and he suggested removing McAffee virushield first to see how that would work. I did and installed what he suggested (a free AVG one off the web) and I haven't had a freeze since. So I'm going to go with this for now. It was the RAM. :sayyes:


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## JamesO (Mar 30, 2005)

Most Virus software is rather bloaty. Do know about McAffee, but Norton is a real resource killer. AVG free is not bad, I run it on this machine and it appears it only uses about 16 MB of RAM. 

You still should see how much free RAM you have available currently, it still may be worth the investment in the long run if you start opening up multiple program windows.

Not enough RAM still seems to be the #1 performance problem I run across on most machines I deal with. Machines with Celeron processors are a real candidates for a RAM upgrades as well! You have a Pentium III, so you have a slight be more breathing room.

JamesO


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## JamesO (Mar 30, 2005)

Interesting utility I ran into that might be useful for "memory leaks".

Memory Leak = programs that do not effectively release memory resources, thereby causing your machine to come to a crawl!

It appears this utilty will work on most OS, the name is a bit misleading.

FreeRAM 

JamesO


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## xfire (Sep 12, 2005)

*Thanks*

I will try that


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