Lenovo Thinkpad L420, random freezing

bDrive

Posts: 8   +0
Hey guys!

I've had my Thinkpad for a little over a year now (warranty expired) and I've been lately experiencing the dreaded "random freeze".

I have had the hard drive replaced 2 times (with their warranty) in response to the random freezing in the past but nothing has changed.

I'm at my wit's end now and I'm ready to run any diagnostics tests you guys to help me fix my machine :D

Side note: the touch pad is water-damaged (but the freezings happened before the water damage).

Cheers!
 
Are you able to replicate the freezing? (Force it to freeze)**

One thing you can check which may give us more information is Event Viewer:
To access event viewer, go to Start, Right click My Computer, and select Manage. When the new window loads select Event Viewer on the left hand side.

Expand the Event Viewer:

Windows Vista/7

Expand Windows Logs

Look within the System, and Applications sections for Yellow Exclamation marks, Red Exclamation Marks, and Red X's, Report back with things you have found.



** If you are able to replicate the freezing, try going into Safe Mode and trying to get it to freeze

To enter Safe Mode:
Shut down the computer. Power it on, as it is starting repeatedly hit F8, select to load into Safe Mode With Networking

If while hitting F8 it asks to select which boot device, select Hard Drive and start pressing F8 again emidiatly after.
 
Unable to replicate freezing - it is random.

I ran the event viewer and I found A LOT of Red X's for Application and Warnings & Red X's in System.

There are so many that I would have to take a least 10 screenshots to cover all the Red X's for Application.

How would you like me to proceed?

I have the restore CDs from Lenovo but I am worried about freezing in the middle of a re-installation and corrupting the BIOS.
 
If the majority of the errors are the same error then just state the error. Is this error saying there is an issue reading from ideport# or something?
 
There are a lot of errors from Bonjour Service.
I am getting a lot of "Task Scheduling Error: Continuously busy for more than a second".

Should I save the Events in Custom view and upload them here?
 
Sure, do it for both System and Applications.

Do you use an iPod? or does someone? Bonjour Service is related to iTunes installation usually.. If you do not use this service you are able to uninstall/disabled it.

Task scheduling error is also related to Bonjour service.. You should reinstall iTunes if you use it, otherwise just uninstall the software.

I will wait to view the System event viewer file when you upload it.
 
Yes I own an iPod but I will uninstall/disable it to troubleshoot the source.

How should I upload the file? It is a .evtx and TechSpot does not support it.
 
I have saved it as .txt. Let me know if you would like me to upload it in a different format.
 

Attachments

  • System.txt
    664.1 KB · Views: 1
What is the model number of your Thinkpad?

Are you able to test the computer in Safe Mode and see if the freezing happens? This is more likely to tell us if it is software/driver related over Hardware.

Have you ever updated the drivers for your system?
 
bDriver, I see one error you are having is related to this forum: http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/58271-event-viewer-7000-dgivecp-service-error.html

But the poster did not seem to have issues with freezing, however, you can attempt to apply this fix now to see if it resolves the freezing., or at a later time (if we resolve the freezing)

Hm, the event viewer does have a lot of errors but I don't see any connection between when the computer freezes compared to the errors showing up except this line "Skipping: Eap method DLL path name validation failed. Error: typeId=17, authorId=9, vendorId=0, vendorType=0" Do you have any issues with your Wireless?

Another error showing up is the FingerPrint scanner has issues.. are you able to download and install the newest driver/software for this to see if the issue is resolved?

There are a lot of things for you to try if you want before the next post.

List of things:
Try Safemode
Download and install all Newest Drivers
Uninstall / Reinstall Bonjour Software
The link I posted above.
 
Thank you very much for your help ComputerGuy5!

Couldn't back to you earlier because I was busy but I'll defnitely try out things now.

(no issues with wireless)
 
Have you had this issue resolved? I have the same model and originally thought it may have been my HDD or memory but changing them has made no difference.
 
Have you had this issue resolved? I have the same model and originally thought it may have been my HDD or memory but changing them has made no difference.
Have you ran any software to check the temperatures of your CPU to see if it is in any way overheating?

What software are you running, have you tried disabling things on startup (or run in safemode) to see if the issue persists?
 
Same issue under both Windows and Linux (currently has lubuntu on it). CPU is quite cool. The issue never happens under battery power. Tested the voltage from the power adapter and it's showing 22.5V when it should be only 20V. While it's possible that it's within variance allowances, I think it's too high. I'm going to bring it to a supplier I use (I'm a tech) to check if happens with a new adapter and hope that there's been no damage done to the board. Have stripped it down and did not notice any damage to the DC jack or caps on the motherboard.
 
If it never happens with the battery running on it then it would be a good idea to stick to looking towards the Power Adapter (what voltage is it giving? and what does the laptop say it needs on the bottom?) also, are you able to check amperage?

Hard to see damage to the DC jack, could be a wire overheating, hard to say.
 
Back