transarchitecture

[transarchitecture]

Streamlining the T430s

After a clean install of my Lenovo T430s laptop with Windows 7 the card reader didn't work. I've managed to fix this by installing the Ricoh driver. The error in the device manager for the Base System Device is gone as well.

To reclaim the 17 Gig recovery partition:

open up Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management

Delete the recovery volume

Extend c: volume with the available 17 Gigs

This procedure does not work for the 8 gig hibernation partition, which - surprisingly - appears to be invisible to the Diskpart utility. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here...

[transarchitecture]

Knock on wood for my ol' T430s

Seems like replacing the motherboard (which includes - according to the field engineer - a new CPU and new video chipset) did the trick.

Already ran a number of consecutive burn-in tests with Prime95 and BurnInTest without running into trouble, without the system overheating (but definitely running hotter, as expected) and while still being able to browse and do some small admin tasks like setting up my Dropbox account on the new machine.

Still feeling a bit uncomfortable in starting to do actual work for clients with this laptop in fear of losing or corrupting stuff, but it's a step I'll have to take eventually. Just.. not.. yet..

Some open issues still:

- No recovery disks. I'd like to receive those for free from Lenovo support, but they are not available yet. Not at LenovoRecovery.com, at least. - The Device Manager reports an error on the Base System Device and the SD card reader does not detect cards inserted in the reader. Maybe those two isses are related. - The laptop is set up from an official Windows 7 Enterprise Edition disk, so there is some extra install-work to do: Lenovo tools, productivity and other work-related software. - I want to reclaim the disk space of the now defunct recovery partition (17 Gb out of a total of 170 Gb). This seems an easy enough job to do, since it is visible from Windows Explorer - Disk management reports an 8 Gig hibernation partition, not visible from Windows Explorer. I'll look into that whether it's safe to reclaim that disk space too. Disk management does not allow for the deletion of the partition now, but maybe GParted can do that for me. There's a 1,5 Gig system partition as well, but I think I'll let that one sit where it is.

[transarchitecture]

Continued adventures in recovering my new Lenovo T430s Thinkpad

Who would have guessed? Received an email today from Lenovo support that they now have a hunch that the problem might be related to the motherboard. They've concluded this by examining the minidump files that are created when a system crashes with a BSOD. 

So, instead of sending me the Lenovo Thinkpad recovery media(*) they will send over a field engineer to replace the motherboard. If only I had a system that actually boots. Once I have Windows up-and-running I know how to bring it down on its knees... unless a new motherboard is the fix we've all been waiting for. The Lenovo support guy confirmed the field engineer will bring along something (the T430s recovery disks which do not exist, yet? a set of tools on CD of his own?) to test the new motherboard, but last week's engineer told me they're only dealing with hardware, so I'm a tad skepical.

But, hey! We can't say all hope is lost, can we?

(*this time the support person I rang confirmed that the disks for the T430 weren't ready for shipping to customers, yet)

[transarchitecture]

Waiting for Thinkpad T430s recovery disks

Currently, the recovery disks for the T430s cannot be ordered from http://www.LenovoRecovery.com, but Lenovo Support will send me the set of disks free of charge.

The next visit of a field engineer will not happen before remote support runs out of suggestions to get my system up-and-running. The field engineers - IBM Global Services personnel, btw - focus solely on the hardware. So I guess, that if they replace a motherboard for example that their job is done if the system does not start to beep erratically when turned on.

I'd like to try a clean Windows install, but I think I'd better wait for the recovery disks to arrive.

[transarchitecture]

T430s horror story

Well, this is great. As mentioned on Notebookreview.com's T430s-owner's forum I'm waiting for Lenovo to get back to me to agree on the next steps.

The field engineer didn't bring a new motherboard because he was told that my system was coping with a blue screen (literally), instead of so-called blue screen issues (the crashes). The new LCD panel he brought along wasn't very helpful in my case... He stayed with me over an hour taking parts out of the system making sure everything was fitted correctly, to no avail.

Currently the laptop is non-usable because on Friday morning (before the field engineer arrived) reverting to the thinkpad factory settings failed with a blue screen. Every time the laptop is launched, the Windows Recovery menu is shown, but starting Windows (even in safe mode) results in a blue screen, this time with error

Booted the machine with a Knoppix live cd. Works, but didn't do any thorough tests with it. Ran Memtest 86+ for nearly 8 hours: no problems there. Tried booting a non-OEM Windows install-DVD and recover from there: some changes where made (or so the logs of the repair tool claims), but nothing was fixed.

Now I'm going to try to thoroughly test CPU and motherboard and make an attempt at booting the Thinkpad Recovery partition using the Ultimate Boot CD

[transarchitecture]

Still trying to fix my T430s' stability issues

My 6-day-old Lenovo Thinkpad T430s is able to cope with a lot of load generating quite some heat on the components for about 10 minutes, but eventually a blue screen appears. I use the PassMark BurnInTest now, since installing MS Office 10 no longer necessarily results in a blue screen.

I ran a 1 hour, 2-pass memory check with MemTest86+ (booted from USB), but no errors were reported.

The T430s maintenance manual pointed out that some extra diagnostics tools are available at http://www.lenovo.com/diags. Tried installing the hardware and memory tests, with little hope of finding anything.. It broke my Lenovo Solution Center (with the diagnostics panels) with no way of bringing it up and running again. Since I wanted to enable system restore (and disabled it because it is one of the steps for optimizing an SSD-based system) and that didn't work either, I opted for a restoring the Lenovo factory system image for a second time. (Let's say this is a dress-rehearsal for when the the Lenovo engineer pays me a visit, next Friday).

Once the system was re-initialized with the factory image I started tuning it and installing all updates. Here's what happened:

As always, decided against installing all bloatware (Norton, etc).

Noticed that of the 140 GB available on the primary disk, over 12 GB is already taken up by software and 18 GB by the OS. That's a lot, no?

Uninstalled Office  (I have a more complete version than the pre-installed image)

Attempted to uninstalled Norton Internet Security --> a blue screen + reboot

After reboot and logon, walked up to the TV to watch a news item. Came back in time to notice a new blue screen while nothing was happening on the machine. (we're getting used to this)

Managed to uninstall Norton Internet Security (requires a reboot)

Downloaded Firefox via IE9, chose to "Run" the installer --> a blue screen + reboot (decided to install FF later on..)

Installed SpeedFan and configured logging of the ACPI temperature (there is also a feature to have the current temperature shown at all times in the taskbar)

Started Lenovo System Update 4 (took a very long time to load + requires an update to the program itself, first) and launched the download and installation of all available updates (ACPI temperature peaking at 66°C at some point). As experienced previously, System Update forces a reboot of the machine after installing the critical and recommended updates. Launched System Update again to process the optional updates. (ACPI temperature stays in the 55-65°C range most of the time). This time, System Update asks if it is OK to reboot (we say, yes). Startup is slow (updates happening in the background, for sure) and after logon, Windows Assesment Tool is briefly seen in cmd-window.

Started Windows Update, changed scheduling settings to 'always download, but let me choose when to install'.  ("Check for updates" requires an update to the tool itself). As seen previously, when installing the available system updates, a blue screen appears but before the Windows logon screen is shown there is some Windows Update activity going on.

Launched SpeedFan and noticed ACPI temperature was close to 70°C and the two processor core temperatures slightly over 50°C (SpeedFan calls this "hot") Lots of CPU usage going on according to SpeedFan while no other programs are started. Only after a few minutes CPU usage flatlines and temperatures drop (--> what is this? nothing remarkable to see in the Processes tab of the Windows Task Manager)

Windows Update claims nothing has ever been installed so we launch the procedure again: it continues with "installing update 18 of 38"... with ACPI temperature mostly over 60C. During update 31 and 37 the processor core temperatures go over 50C. Windows Update finishes with 38 succeeded updates (no failures in the update history) and requests a restart. Before logon the update progress is shown. After logon it takes a very long time before the desktop appears... (this is new). Eventually I decide on shutting down the machine, starting in safe mode and restart in normal mode.

Windows Update amazingly reports succesful updates only. I launch the procedure to install the optional updates. (ACPI temperature breaches 70°C barrier and processor core temperatures go well above 50°C at certain points in time.)  Eventually I restart the machine to have the optional updates take effect. (it's been awhile since we had a blue screen, btw)

Meanwhile I decide also to log the processor core temperatures to a file with SpeedFan. I'm still not sure what temperatures are acceptable, btw. A quick search on google seems to reveal to 50°C is half of what a processor should be able to take. (This needs more looking into).

Installed Firefox. Installed Windows Security Essentials. Performed a quick virus scan which took about 12 minutes to complete. In the meantime processor core temperature stayed remarkebly cool (< 30°C). Installed three new updates in Windows Update.

Installed the Intel SSD Toolbox and ran the features System Tuner, Intel SSD Optimizer (intel recommends to run this on a weekly basis) and Quick Diagnostic Scan.  (I forgot where on the web I learned about this program..)

Ran a succesful BurnItTest for 15 minutes with all tests enabled except for Optical Drives, Printer, Video and 3D Graphics (I will try these later). ACPI and process core temperatures stayed very low.

So with all the updates and optimizations completed, the system becomes a lot more stable. Out-of-the-box it is very unreliable and requires quite some effort to fix.

[transarchitecture]

Blue screen on T430s during Office 10 install (possibly because of cooling issues)

The stability issues I encounter on my new Lenovo Thinkpad T430s are not solved.

Launching the installer for MS Office Professional Plus 2010 quickly ends with a blue screen. In the event viewer an error with source WHEA-logger and event ID 18 was logged at the time the system crashed: "a fatal hardware error has occurred".

(In the meantime I'm already looking at what steps I need to take to return the machine, as suggested to me on notebookreview.com, especially since this is not the only issue I have with the machine: the laptop cannot rest on the table in a stable position)

Lenovo Assisted Search gives me these things to look at in the event of a Blue Screen (after selecting "no, it's not true that I want help with Bluetooth" and "yes, I want help with the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)")

Look for lenovo system updates and windows updates --> there aren't any, except for the optional Bing desktop

Try scanning the hardware with PC Doctor --> good idea, I'll try this asap (from what I understand, it's no longer a download but an option at boot-time)

Check the system event log for an event with source "bugcheck"  and id "1001" --> yep, it's there and the bugcheck is equal to 0x00000124.

(three other possible causes for blue screens that do not seem relevant or that can be fixed with a driver update)

This post pointed me to a tool called BlueScreenView. I'll try that first.

(most of the pages that show up in google results for the given event id and bugcheck mention faulty RAM or cooling issues).

So, BlueScreenView reports the same source of the error as mentioned in the post where I learned about BlueScreenView: driver hal.dll (Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer), which, from what I understand is called by ntoskrnl.exe, the kernel image of the Windows OS. (I'm starting to get the hang of this).

What did we learn so far: nothing new. It's a hardware problem, most likely.

(made an appointment with a lenovo engineer in the meantime)

Tried the Lenovo and Windows built-in hardware check tools for memory and hard drives but they didn't find any malfunctions. Since the laptop is so quiet I started to wonder wether the fan is working correctly.

Speedfan is a tool that can monitor the temperature of some of the components of a machine. In my case the numbers look OK, especially since the ambient temperature in the room today is rather high: HD1 = 35C, Temp1 = 41C, Core0: 19C, Core1: 17C. But this is when the machine is idle. When the machine is doing actual work (I tried installing Office again), "Temp1" goes well over 50C, almost 55C... and then there's that bluescreen again!  Interesting!

Maybe you remember from my first post that I found the fan to be "non-audible". This of course was largely exaggerated, but still the machine is very silent.... until you enable Lenovo Turbo Boost+ (in the Power Manager). This feature (according to the tooltip that comes with the enable button) "maximizes fan speed for the best processor performance". At that point there is no way of ignoring the fan. A loud hiss does a good job at making the point that the fan is operational.

It should come to no surprise that with the fan at max speed, installing MS Office works without a blue screen in sight. And when I move the laptop to a cooler room, disable turbo boost and try installing MS Office.. there's no blue screen, either!

Hurray! On to new adventures!

[transarchitecture]

Ongoing T430s stability issues (fixed?)

(In the Lenovo US web shop you can currently order a T430s with a 320GB HDD for $861.52. That's less than half the amount that I payed in Europe for the same model with an 180GB SSD. What global economy?!)

A full system recovery of my 3-day old T430s notebook did not fix the stability issues I was experiencing.

After the last blue screen which happened while I was documenting the system recovery, I went through the following process again: opened up Control Panel > Troubleshooting > System and security > Fix problems with Windows Update and launched the diagnostics. The report said “Problems found: Repair Windows Update components .. Fixed”

The shutdown button in Windows does not mention any pending updates anymore. Windows Updates has these .NET framework-related updates, which I chose to install one by one:

security update KB2656356  --> succes

security update KB2656368 --> succes

security update KB2656405 --> succes

regular update KB2468871 --> succes

The Windows Update history does not report any failed installs.

I let the machine stay on for a few hours and no blue screens happened. During shutdown, unexpectedly pending updates still were made to the OS. 

I'll continue installing software on the system and see what happens.

[transarchitecture]

System recovery on the Lenovo T430s

Day 3 as a Lenovo Thinkpad T430s notebook owner and I'm already performing a system recovery, hoping to get rid of the blue screens that occur during Windows Updates.

It took less than 15 minutes to go from booting up the notebook, pressing enter on the Thinkpad splash screen, selecting F11 to do the system recovery, going through the recovery wizard, and watching the recovery happening to launching the clean Windows install. Remember this is a machine with an 180GB SSD.  (which makes it probably also faster than your average notebook to serve up blue screens..)

Launched the Lenovo System Update tool (which needed an upgrade) and selected critical, recommended and optional updates. At one point the machine reboots without asking (not nice). Going back to the system update tool the optional updates were not installed, so I launched that process again.

(FYI: After all Lenovo updates are installed, the boot time stays under 20 seconds.)

Launched Windows Update which notifies me of 46 important updates and 2 optional. I launch the update process and wait... for a blue screen which appears somewhere in the neighbourhood of update number 35. After the blue screen the machine reboots automatically and before the login dialog some mention is made of updates being installed.

(After the events described here and while I'm writing up this report on my T520, the T430s next to me - not busy doing anything - goes into blue screen mode again. Oh dear..) Windows Update still reports 46 + 2 updates. Some rollback happened?

Opened up Control Panel > Troubleshooting > System and security > Fix problems with Windows Update and launched the diagnostics. The report says "Problems found: Repair Windows Update components .. Fixed"

I ask Windows Update to install the optional updates which appears to work. Moreover, Windows Update reports that only 15 of the 46 important updates still need to be installed. The update history confirms this.

I decide to install the import updates in small chunks, instead of all at once:

install four "updates for windows 7 for x64-based systems" --> succes

install four "security updates for windows 7 for x64-based systems" (requires restart) --> succes

install one security and one regular update form MS XML Core Services 4.0 --> succes at first sight...

... and then a blue screen again and an automatic reboot.

Windows Update reports a succesful installation of both the security and the  regular update for MS XML Core Services 4.0. The shutdown button reports some pending updates, though...   So I click restart. No indications during the restart procedure that an update script had been launched, but maybe it has under the hood.... Nope: shutdown still mentions pending updates...

At this point there are four important updates available, the shutdown button mentions pending updates and there was a blue screen while I was not working on the machine.

I wonder what's next.

[transarchitecture]

Blue screens? Already?!

Well, yes, after one day of ownership (and maybe 4 hours of actual "use"), I'm having issues updating the Windows 7 Professional on my new T430s model Thinkpad.

A blue screen during the first time Windows Update went through a batch of security updates and the lot (not my fault!). And then another after going into recovery mode (my bad: I tried a "start windows manually" after the first blue screen).

Now there appears to be some corruption (my fault for not going into safe mode the first time around, most likely) because a fairly large number of updates fail to install.

After some reboots and new launches of Windows Update I decided to look into one of the error codes. The help for error 800B0100 explains "that a file needed (...) is corrupted or missing". Then it says that "the System Update Readiness Tool can help fix problems that might prevent Windows Updates from installing".

So ahead I went with downloading the tool for Windows7x64 and executing the file. It launches a rather bland dialog box, mentioning the installation of hot fix KB947821. As it is mentioned in the help for error 800B0100 the installation takes a while, appears to "hang" for while, but eventually finishes nicely.

The summary in c:\windows\logs\cbs\CheckSUR.log does not look promising: only 34 out of 93 found were fixed. So I launch Windows Update again.. and the problem persists. So I launch the "automatic troubleshooter" mentioned in the help for the error. This leads me to a page with a "run now" button for Microsoft Fix It.

I ask MS FixIt (a god-awfull name that reminds me of nineties shareware) to do a diagnosis first instead of applying the fixes directly. Unexpectedly, almost immediately after that FixIt asks me to try Windows Update again... which fails with the same all-too-well-known error.  (Lenovo recovery disk, here I come). Pressing "next" in MS FixIt results in an announcement that a) troubleshooting is complete, b) no problems were detected and thus c) no fixes were applied. Thanks for nothing! (yeah, I know, it's probably my fault...)

(I did launch MS Fixit again with the request to look for fixes and apply them directly, but the result was the same. Conclusion: MS Fixit is simply a frontend for Windows Update?)

It's getting late so I click the shutdown button which has an exclamation point on it. (oh dear). Shutdown is in progress and the installation of 5 updates is launched. It's been 5 minutes now and we're still at update 3 of 5...

[transarchitecture]

Bought the new Lenovo Thinkpad T430s

Part number = N1RGCMB Configuration = ThinkPad T430s, 2356 - Core i7 3520M / 2.9 GHz - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 4 GB RAM - 180 GB SSD - DVD-Writer - 14" wide 1600 x 900 / HD+ - Intel HD Graphics 4000 - 3G + 3yr on-site warranty

My reasons for buying this model:

Long-time Thinkpad user and fan

No use for a "work-horse" type of machine (development, image/video-editing...)

Wanted a more portable model. Previously owned T520: great machine but heavy and bulky to tote around to meetings and such. (Tried the ipad for meetings but that didn't work for me)

Not particulary in need of extreme long battery life

First impressions

Definitely easier to carry around: half a kilo lighter than the T520, and then of course less wide and more slim. Still need to test if it is indeed more manageable when at the office.

Fan non-audible (as long as "Lenovo Turbo Boost" is not enabled) and fast boot-up. The SSD plays a big role in that, of course. Instead of just closing the lid of my laptop and put it to sleep before storing it into my back-pack, like I'm used to do, I might consider doing a proper shutdown each time and save on battery and heat dissipation.

The B-key on the azerty-keyboard is sitting right below the trackpointer, where it should be. The engraving on the key, though, is positioned considerably lower than the engravings on the neighbouring keys, unlike on the T520. Oh well..

No complaints about the chicklet-style keyboard yet, btw, but no heavy duting typing done up until down (most of the time I use a laptop stand and a separate keyboard and mouse anyway) 

The widescreen 14" is doing it for me (I was a bit worried about the "downgrade" after 3 or 4 years with a 15.6"), but I did specifically shop for a 1600x900 resolution-capable model.

The vertical viewing angle of the screen is - as mentioned in most reviews on the web - not good, but nor was it on my T520. Simply position the screen until all colors show as intended.

Lenovo puts status indicators for the wireless connection and battery life in the Windows taskbar. On some occassions after a reboot the indicators reappeared, while I explicitly chose to "not show them" in their respective Lenovo configuration tools.