How I repaired my T61's bluescreen issue

I received my T61 yesterday and posted on here about how pissed I was at Lenovo's incompetence. My machine BSOD'd 3 times over a few hours. I've finally managed to repair that and thought I would share what I did with other users.

It took me a total of 9 hours from out of the box to fully repaired (no BSODs yet!) mainly due to an incredibly slow boot and shutdown time, thanks to Lenovo's fu<ktwisted sofware. Before reformat I had 115 processes running, after I had 55.

(MASSIVE shout-out to colm who helped me through it. Also to jstigall for his guide available here: http://jstigall.googlepages.com/t61clean.html )

I basically followed jstigall's guide, with a few exceptions (different driver locations)

- Reformat with Windows Vista Enterprise (a personal copy, not the one sent out by Lenovo)
- Installed the following drivers:

*See Edit 2 Below* 1) Intel Chipset - I used the one from Lenovo's driver matrix site: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67853

2) Installed the Intel Pro Wireless 4965abgn driver available here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...3&DwnldID=13001&strOSs=162&OSFullName=Windows Vista* Ultimate, 64-bit version&lang=eng

3) Installed the Turbo Memory driver: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...3&DwnldID=13232&strOSs=150&OSFullName=Windows Vista* 64&lang=eng

4) Installed the NVIDIA drivers for the Quadro 140M available on Lenovo's site: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67853

*See Edit below*5) Lenovo's power management software, also available at the website above, "Power Manager"

6) Installed the UltraNav software for the touchpad etc... also available on the above site "UltraNav only Systems"

I rebooted after each driver installation.
I had to update my windows experience index because it was 1.0 pre-drivers.
And then to boost my run speed, I manually set my virtual memory to 3000mb;3000mb so that it's always using 3gigs for virtual memory.

And then I just let windows update & vista do the rest (ie driver for Hitachi hard drive).

So far, that seems to have repaired the problem.

Oh and my specs are:
1Gb RAM
1Gb Turbo Memory
120 gig 5400 hitachi harddrive
14.1 " WS
T7300; 2Ghz

*EDIT* -- ThinkPad Power Management is slowing down my boot a bunch and causing explorer.exe to crash. I've uninstalled it and am just using the vista power management. This has solved the slow boot issue.

*EDIT 2* -- I had to do another reformat; this time I left out the chipset drivers. So far, everything works fine. Try to install as few drivers from Lenovo as possible - I just let windows update do everything it could and then filled in the drivers of things it didn't recognize (and left out Bluetooth and fingerprint reader).

 

:confused2: Why are you all using 64-bit vista instead of the 32-bit version? Does this T61 support the 64-bit version? What is the difference? The reason I ask is because I have the Retail Version of Vista Ultimate. I will use it to reinstall my T61 when I get it. The retail dvd came with both a 32-bit and 64 bit disk.

 

Good post!

 

T61 surely support 64 bit OS. The advantage of 64bit OS is that it can recogonize more RAM,(up to 8GB?), while the 32-bit OS has a 4GB limit meaning you will see only around 3.2-3.5gb even with 4GB ram installed.

 

32bit applications will work on the 64bit version of Windows without any issues as well.

 

this is definitely NOT true. there are a handful of 16 bit installer programs out there that vista will not be able to run.

 

notice that I said 32bit...not 16bit...

 

Actually microsoft released a fix for the 4gb issue and now 32 bit can see the full 4 gigs.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929580

 

Yeah if I weren't so lazy I'd fix my guide with new information, a lot of the drivers can be installed right from Lenovo's Software Update now.

 

When mine blue screened several times on the first day (just kept starting and shutting down), I restalled everything with their recovery software. Mostly worked okay later but a few strange things and I called support. They had me run diagnostics (pcdoc?) that showed a problem with the bios (failed). It booted kind of slowly (but there was a lot in the startup tray) and disconnecting a usb took noticeably longer than my regular computer.

Can you run any diagnostics on your computer to test the bios?

 

I wasn't using a 64-bit version. I'm 32-bit.

 

Just DO IT!!!

 

I saw a bunch more posts that I think are answered by this thread so I'm bumping it.

 

This is definitely new to me.

 

It can SEE it. But it still can only USE 3gb. Typical MS workaround, acccomplishes nothing but more confusion lol.