Lenovo T400 / T500 :: T420i Takes About 2-5 Minutes To Switch On / Screen Freezes Every 15 Seconds Or So
Jul 11, 2014
Just to clarify, my laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad T420i, Type 4178. It is about 2 years old. I have Windows 7 64bit.
My laptop takes about 2-5 minutes to switch on, sometimes it doesn't turn on at all. The screen freezes every 15 seconds or so, but I am still able to move my cursor around. It also lags quite a bit. For example, typing 'how to download google chrome' will take me sometimes an entire minute, because only parts of the sentence will show up on the screen at a time. My keyboard is responding fine. The problem is not with the wireless internet, because even when the wireless is off the laptop is still unbelievably slow. Watching videos is impossible, because the screen freezes so much.
I have been having this problem with my laptop's performance speed for about 2 months now. I had it completed wiped back to factory settings, downloaded every malware and virus scanner known to man (none of them found any problems with it) and updated all my drivers.
My T420 takes about 20 seconds from pushing the power on button to the Lenovo POST screen. After that boot takes about 30 seconds to Desktop. What bothers me is this long wait until I see the POST screen. It doesn't seem normal to me.
My System is setup with Windows 7 64bit booting from UEFI on a mSATA Crucial M500 SSD. It has 16GB of Ram and a i7 CPU. I have the newest BIOS (1.46) installed.
I've updated the BIOS on my t500 Monday. Followed all directions. Now when I power on the t500, it takes 10 minutes before it begins to boot. I see the lights, I hear the fans, but not video for 10 minutes.
For the first week or two it worked fine and everything was going really well. Then about a week or two ago it started acting up. It is freezing programs(firefox, IE, Chrome, explorer, Flash CC, blender, and a few other programs I needed to install for school. It sometimes freezes on startup and I have to hold the power button down to restart it. Sometimes when it restarts it takes 10-15 mins to fully boot up and load up to the login screen.
This computer originally had an issue with the 2100 Detection Error. This computer was previously built with no issues when it was imaged with our company's Windows 8 configuration in which I am highly sure our IT engineers have worked closely with Lenovo on. Also out of the tens of thousand computers that were imaged this way this is the only system I have dealt with that has this issue. I luckily had a good T440 I could test this system's SSD in. The hard drive appears to be fine with no issues. So that rules out to be the SSD. I ordered a system board under warranty and installed it. Everything so far responded fine with the system board replacement until I performed the model type/serial number and UUID update using my 1.86 maintenance update USB thumb drive. After that completed the computer froze on the Thinkpad Logo screen. I verified again for my piece of mind that the memory module and SSD was fine. Sure enough those components were tested fine in a known working T440. So I submitted the system board as a DOA with an explanation. I received another system board to replace with the DOA. I installed that system board to once again update the Model Type/Serial Number and UUID using my USB maintenance disk 1.86 thumbdrive to once again end up with a locked computer at the Thinkpad Logo screen. I have replaced a couple of other T440 and T540 system boards during this time also with using the same USB maintenance disk thumbdrive used for updating those system's model type/serial number and UUID. So I know the issue is not with the USB thumb drive. I am very frustrated with this system. I hate to keep submitting DOAs for the same system.
Since the BIOS is part of the system board and I have not had these issues with the many T440 system boards I have replaced successfully that performing a BIOS update is not a good excuse why this doesn't work on this particular T440 and since after replacing a system board under "DOA" and updating with the maintenance disk and froze there is not a way I can run a BIOs update on this system now right?
I have multiple T430's at my company that are slow to shutdown. It takes approximately 10 minutes to shutdown. It is also consistant, as soon as you login and shut down it will take that long. These are all installed using an image. Running windows 7 64 bit. Looked in event log, but no indication of abnormal errors. Using Kaspersky, Office 2010, Mozy. Checked some registery settings on microsofts website but that didn't fix the issue either. Not sure if this is a lenovo problem, or a windows problem or a conflict with other software.
I think my attempt to update BIOS with a "BIOS update bootable CD" method has failed!
My laptop: Lenovo Thinkpad T420, i5 @ 2.5GHz, 4 GB RAM. My old BIOS infos (taken from Setup before update attempt): UEFI BIOS Version 83ET52WW (1.22) UEFI BIOS Date (Year-Month-Day) 2011-03-24 Embedded Controller Version 83HT27WW (1.11)
I intended to update my BIOS to version 1.46 using "BIOS Update Bootable CD" from this link: [URL] .....
Steps: 1) I downloaded this ISO image: [URL] .... and burned it on a DVD-RW(DVD rewritable) medium. 2) I placed the DVD in my T420 and turned it off, then turned it on, select F12 (boot menu), selected DVD to boot from, and the BIOS update utility started. 3) In BIOS update utility I pressed "1" to read the instructions, then press "2" to update BIOS. I clicked "Y" to confirm and the update operation started. First it said " Now updating... ", then afer about 2 minutes, it said "Still updating ..." and it stuck like this.
So, right now, this message stays on my screen for about 1,5 hours(!!!):
"Still updating... It may take about a few minutes. <<< CAUTION >>> Do not turn off the computer during the update. Do not remove the CD during the update."
Other details (on system setup and current behaviour): AC was continously plugged in before&during BIOS update, battery is OK, no hard disk activity at all, keyboard is(seems) unresponsive, system's temperature is pretty high, but not dangerously high...
I bought this laptop of your company pavilion p077tx 3 weeks ago........... in the starting it worked fine but now every time when I switch it on it freezes after 5 mins, I have to use the power button to turn it off....... what should I do??
Ever since i've wiped the machine, i've been having these two problems. When I close the lid, it used to go to sleep straight away, but now I can see the sleep light (and the power button) flash and flash, then it goes to sleep. When waking up it goes through the lenovo startup screen and resuming windows, then it asks for a password, before I used to open the lid and it would ask me for the password straight away. I know it was going to sleep because I could hear the beep straight away when I closed and opened it, but now it just takes too long.
Also, everytime I boot up into windows or resume into windows from a sleep state, I can hear the device noise, like something is being plugged in/out. But there is nothing being plugged in or out at the time. I can't get to device manager quick enough to see what it is that is causing it. But all drivers seem okay.
Also noticed, when the lid is closed, randomly the laptop turns off (hear the beep) an then turns back off again.
T420 model number: 4180-PR1 with OS: Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
I have a t420s and so far I'm happy with it.Recently I purchased a MC7700 card from ebay with lenovo FRU. Everything looks smooth except that I found there is no way to turn on the mobile broadband switch.i believe I have a whitelist-removed bios otherwise it won't boot. The driver downloaded from lenovo website is installed fine, I can see the card working in device manager. I could read the iccid in windows network settings. Everything looks good, but I just can't turn mobile broadband on.
My laptop runs windows 8.1, I heard there is a thinkvantage connectivity tool that might work for windows 7 but not windows 8. I have quite a few files on my laptop and going back to windows 7 is the last option I would like to try.
First is while I'm docked in at work I use a normal key board and it has a right click botton on it. When I go home I do not have that button and know for previous models there is a short cut that you can do to "right click" rather than going to the track pad and right clicking.
Second is for the F1, F2, F3, etc... to work I have to hold down the Fn button. Is there a way to turn around the keys to where when I hold down the Fn key and press F1 it actually mutes the sound. I guess im trying to say is there a way to switch the primary function of the F row?
How I assume the switch between headphones and speakers should work: I turn on music or anything esle and if no headphones are plugged in, every sound comes from the internal speakers. Now if I plug in headphones then the sound comes exclusively from the headphones. If I pull then out again the sound comes from the speakers and so on.
In my case the situation is the following: If I have no headphones plugged in and turn on music, then I hear if via speakers. If I decide to continue listening to that music via headphones and plug them in, then the music continues to come from the speakers, but for example the notification sound from outlook comes from the headphones. This works vice versa.
If I open, say youtube to watch a video, while having the headphones plugged in, I will hear the sound via them. If I now unplugg them, the speakers will stay silent.
What can I do that if there are no external speakers plugged in (headphones etc.) every sound will be played by the internal speakers, if I plug in some sort of external speaker it comes from them and if I unplugg it it switches back to the internal speakers?
I have a Lenovo t420s with dualboot win7 and Ubuntu. I never had any problems until now and could switch on/off my wireless and bluetooth connections via the Hardware Switch (right bottom left of the notebook) or via FN + F5.
However, without any specific reason the wireless and bluetooth was switched off and the the system tells me that I have to switch on WIFI via the Wireless Radio Switch. However, although I can move it, it doesn't make any difference for the Switch.
I tried to reset the BIOS to Default and changed the network settings, and also rebooted several times. I won't work with any of the two systems.
When I "restart" my Y500 using windows 8.0, it takes a minimum of 15 minutes. Sometimes, if I have time to wait, it takes more than one hour. 90% of the time, I restart it using the on/off button. No problems at all using the button, but the software takes a VERY long time or won't restart at all--just the green screen with the word "restart."
It's been a year I've been using Lenovo p500. It works great, but recently the startup has been really slow. it takes around 3-4 minutes sometimes. Is there any way to improvise the performance?
I have an Inspiron 15R Windows 7. Set default power setting "Ballanced" but screen goes blank after 1 minute and 5 seconds not moving my mouse or depressing keyboard key on both battery power and plugged in. Screen should remain on 5 minutes on battery and 10 minutes plugged in. Tried resetting default power settings without success. Very distracting when trying to read anything that takes longer than 65 seconds.
I updated the BIOS to 2.26 a while ago and ever since then there's no on-screen indication of caps lock on/off, screen brightness or volume when I change it. Since it seemed to be affected by BIOS, I updated again to 2.27 just now, but the problem persists. I needed to update the Hotkeys Feature Integration by downloading the utility thingy from this page. Probably wasn't a BIOS thing after all.
I rarely use this machine but a couple of months ago I went to boot it up and found that I was not able to get past the Windows splash screen. Sometimes I don't even get the Windows splash screen, I just get a black screen. Rarely I get a Windows screen saying that it is diagnosing a system problem or something to that effect and I can even get to where it will allow me to do some Windows diagnostics but nothing ever comes of it and the process is extremely slow.
I called Lenovo, but of course my machine is out of waranty so the tech just gave me a few pointers and said I could send it in to the depo but the potential repair cost could range up to about 75% of what I paid for the machine in the first place. Anyways, after having me try a few things in the BIOS he suggested that it was likely the hard drive. I mistakenly thought from the time that I bought this machine that the OS was installed on the 24 GB SSD so I ordered a new SSD and swapped it in. This made no difference at all as I have now learned that the mSATA SSD drive is merely for cache to speed up booting.
I am afraid that this means the main HDD is at fault, and quite frankly, if I replace it I am going to do a fresh install of Windows 7. But I do have pictures and docs that I would like to salvage if possible.
I have a problem with two T400 thinkpads. The first T400 was dead when I bought it ( suspected graphics card ) . Well I managed to get this laptop to boot up. The screen was black but I found by chance that if shine a lamp or light on the screen it is working. Now being able to see what I was dooing on the screen faintly. So I updated the bios & that did not fix the problem but I was well happy about finding out this trick. I then added 8Gb kingston ram which works with my other T400 laptops. I installed Win 7 ultimate. The laptop is working fine. No issues just extreamley dark screen almost black "but working" Very strange indeed.
T400 - TWO
Now the second laptop was working fine. But I was swapping the parts with the non working laptop to determine the problem. Now I have two T400 laptops with a dark almost black screen. But over about a month working on them I am making progress. I am determind not to give up on these computers. This is not like fixing or repairing a computer. More like rezerecting a computer. I did not intend to spend so much time on these laptops but I have found a common problem that effects a lot of people. I would love to know why a working laptop when re- assembled gives an almost black screen & still works. Normally I would just buy a new motherboard & bin the defekt one. What I need is some command codes to try to make the screen brighter. Is this planned obsiletion or just a graphic defekt myth. Because after throwing away more supposidly dead motherboards with a graphic defekt than I can count. I am starting to think that if I get the brightness back on my computers I will have sloved a major black screen problem. It is not the graphic processor. I have been playing fifa 14 with a lamp shining on the screen. It played fine, not jumpy ,no colour stripes just very dark.
I have had my Ideapad U410 for about 18 months now.
Recently my bluetooth mouse has stopped working after a few minutes of use. If I switch the mouse off and then on again it works again. I assumed that it was a problem with the mouse so I purchased a new one.
Guess what. The same problem.
Now with two blutooth mice displaying the same problem I am guessing that the trouble lies within the laptop, but what to do to identify whats going wrong.
Today I was surfing the internet on my Lenovo t500 ubuntu. After a Kernel Panic ( i'm not sure it was that some text on my screen ). I shutdown the computer and restart it but the screen stayed black. Not even Thinkpad logo at boot. The fan is working the lid are working, the keyboard too. So after trying to fix it i went on a walk while the computer was on and when I got back I heard the ubuntu noise when it start. So i try but terminal to run music and it works but the screen stay black. I tried to remove RAM, 10 times shutdown without battery or plug. Nothings worked. I cannot try without another screen yet..
Lenovo T400 to install Windows XP on it..It previously worked fine with windows 7 and 8.1.so it boots in windows XP preinstall screen, it formats hdd and like usual installation automatically restarts after that BUT its black screen, lights and sounds show that it works and goes to next screen BUT the screen is still black. Powering down and turn on again is not showing any screen picture. Opened it removed Bios battery, turned up after few on and off it starts it reset bios.
So now there is picture and it goes on the next screen of windows instalation like normal, after installing devices and stuff it automatically restarts like usual BUT it has NO screen again, black screen, lights and sounds again show that its loading windows end instalation screen but no picture on the screen. Reset BIOS again, it starts normaly and this time it shows BSoD with code 0x7B, after BSOD Black screen again..Maybe its a BIOS setting?!? tried installing with drivers for AHCI and tried installing without drivers for Compatible , what else can it be? Updated the bios to latest version, same result. To say it again - it works fine with other windows, but XP must be installed
I've purchased this ram from the lenovo site for my T440p laptop and they said its compatible with the original 4gb RAM which it has. but when I install it in the other free slot and turn it on it cames with a black screen and stucks in it!! When I take it out everything is ok and it turns on normally.
I just recently received my first lenovo laptop, the T440s. The overall built quality is excellent and performance is great. However, I realized there is a dead pixel on the screen. I am stilI within the 21 days return limit. I am wondering if I am able to get an exchange for one without such defect and not subject to the restocking fee?l
My T540p with Window 7 is experiencing problems starting and shutting down. After booting up I often get a blank screen where just the moused pointer is displayed. I have to hold the power button down to shut down and then try again. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 goes to boot-up. Quite often when I shut down Win 7 The desktop icons disappear but the desktop background continues to be displayed and the notebook doesn't shut down.
I have a T420s that I bought a couple weeks earlier, it's a used one, so there's no warranty with it, I used it several days without any issue, I don't use it very frequently as I use my corporate one most of the time.
Someday when I wanted to turn it on, it stacks on a black screen and it beeps one beep then two other, nothing showing on the screen not even the thinkpad logo at startup, I thought it was a RAM related issue so I put the one from my corporate PC but without any luck, so I wanted to see if its graphic controller issue, I plug the VGA cable on the laptop and my TV and here I can see the thinkpad startup logo but after that I see a message on the screen telling :
"Real Time Clock Error - Check Date and Time settings. Press Esc to continue or F1 to enter setup" and when I press either one nothing happen at all, still stacks there.
I have a 3-yr old Thinkpad T500 laptop w/ XP. My on-screen volume and brightness displays have recently disappeared. Spoke with customer support and was advised to download all the machine updates....did that, but still not working.
