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I am currently working overseas, and have been dealing with a hardware failure on my laptop. The IT people suggest that it's probably the motherboard, but there are several variables I would like to explore:

First computer: Lenovo T430, bought refurbished, tested for over 3 months and no issue.

Several potential causes: 1. Before I left for traveling, I upgraded one of the RAM from 1333Mhz 4GB stick to a 1600Mhz 8GB stick(tested for 1 week, no issue).

  1. Eversince I landed at one airport, my laptop crashed as I was attempting to connect the laptop to a power outlet. The crash happened before I could plug in the power.

  2. Now, the power supply (which is rated for 110-230V, 50-60Hz) whistles on load.

  3. The failure is extremely random, but it usually happens while I fall asleep while watching a movie off of my external HDD(external HDD is NOT the cause, I know because the first instance was without the external HDD).

The crash looks like this exactly, the screen freezes with vertical "broken" parts

The broken screen

The speakers make static sound with random oscillations.

I have opened this laptop up, and and did not find issues with connections anywhere. The IT suggests motherboard, but I want to test the power supply, battery and RAM before concluding to it.

Weirdly enough, there is no data loss. It's the terrible crash that I really dislike.

I've been recently reading about different RAM speed potentially causing issues on a computer The two RAM sticks are:

(the new one) f3-1600c11s-8gsl DDR3L, 1600MhZ, 1.35V

[cannot post link] (the old one) hmt351s6bfr8c-h9 [cannot post link] DDR3, 1333MhZ, 1.5V

I should also describe that other than the first time, the crash ONLY happens when the computer is at idle, and I am not paying attention to the screen, and often while the screen is closed.

Please let me know what you think. What do you think is the cause?

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  • Looks classic graphics card or motherboard failing.... if the GPU is at fault then it is most likely soldered directly to the board which would mean a replacement motherboard anyway... you're probably best off backing your stuff up onto your USB HDD and replacing the machine as you'll waste more money on repairing than what the laptop's worth.
    – Kinnectus
    Jun 14, 2017 at 13:07
  • Graphics is Intel Integrated 4000, so it's not a separate board. I hope this is just RAM sticks incompatibility issue.
    – user231192
    Jun 14, 2017 at 13:13
  • My concern is "bought refurbished"... It's like buying a house and only having a basic survey. You don't know the original reason why the laptop was refurbished or given to be refurbished.
    – Kinnectus
    Jun 14, 2017 at 13:38
  • That is a very valid point. I was actually going to bring my T420(used for 2+ years without a problem) and T430 both to this trip, but unfortunately the airlines wanted me to lose 5kg of luggage and I couldn't let go of the T430 because it had the most recent data
    – user231192
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:57

3 Answers 3

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Some questions (should be a comment, cannot comment on this site yet):

  • Does it happen after a fresh boot (that is, you turned on the computer from zero), or only after having it put to sleep?

  • If you turn on the computer from scratch, having it powered all the time, does the crash happen?

There are some tests that would rule out a power/video driver cause:

  • Boot the computer using a "live" Linux distribution like Ubuntu o Linux Mint (for both distributions I propose the latest version, but simpler no-fuzz graphics desktop). You can put these on a USB stick or DVD and boot the from there without touching your actual operating system.

    Then, use it for some time performing activities as close as you can to those you have been doing when experiencing the crashes.

  • Download SysRescueCD* and use the option to test your RAM. Leave it overnight, you may get an idea if your RAM has some major trouble that may cause what you see.

  • Search in google for "sysrescuecd", cannot post more than 2 links yet

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    Hello, I actually have a somewhat of a complex setup, It's "hard-dual boot". Meaning, I tell BIOS to load different modules at different times, and there is an SSD that holds Windows 7, and one SSD that holds Linux(OpenSUSE), and a data platter HDD. I never set my computer to sleep, so this happens over a long time while at idle, and most frequently when I'm not paying attention to the screen. I did test my RAM several different times, and they seem not to be the issue
    – user231192
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:45
  • Oh, I see. If you are already dual-booting and the issue appears no matter the running OS, then it is a strong sign of a hardware issue. I guess you just had bad luck: I have had many refurb IBM/Lenovo so far, all performed flawlessly for years. Some even were passed along to parents/kids and are still working.
    – Pablo
    Jun 14, 2017 at 16:26
  • Right now, I only have one RAM stick in, and so far, the MB is having a real hard time maintaining communications with the Wifi card.
    – user231192
    Jun 14, 2017 at 16:31
  • Other two "low hanging fruit" tests could be: Make sure you are using the latest firmware version (these usually add support to newer CPUs and memory sitcks); Perform a BIOS "reset" by choosing "safe settings" (to make sure some obscure RAM timing setting inherited by previous harware configs is the culprit)
    – Pablo
    Jun 14, 2017 at 16:36
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This problem will occur if the the RAM or harddisk is not connected properly. If you can, I suggest you to open the computer and re-insert the RAM and connect the cables to Hard disk properly.

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  • Hello, I did do that several times. In fact, I even opened up the entire laptop to visually inspect the MB and reconnect every port.
    – user231192
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:44
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It was the new RAM. Defective, removed by IT people at my work, and everything is working fine.

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