Laptop freezes when I take it somewhere.

June 15, 2007 1:32 PM

Otherwise well behaved laptop sometimes freezes when I move it or take it somewhere. I leave it running, and sometimes on the trip from my desk to my car it freezes up.

Some details:

Windows XP Pro SP2
Lenovo T60, about 2 months old

The thing doesn't freeze up when I'm just using it somewhere. It's just when I carry it from my desk to my car. I used to wonder if it had anything to do with static (sliding it into my bag/briefcase) but that's not it because it's happened when I carried it out in my hands...

Taking it outside involves: unplug an external VGA monitor (for extended desktop), unplug ethernet, unplug USB hub (with printer, mouse, keyboard attached), unplug power, close the thing up and go.

I open it up once I'm in my car and it's sometimes frozen -- maybe 1 in 20 times this happens. There's maybe the remnants of the normal Windows screens showing (maybe an open application or something), but sometimes part of the screen is dark. Once or twice the screen has looked like everything is fine, but I found out it was frozen by trying to move the mouse.

Any ideas are much appreciated.

Thanks!

posted by powpow to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, I should add that my old laptop did this on occasion too. Perhaps I notice it more because I have a new computer and think it should be perfect...
posted by powpow at 1:41 PM on June 15, 2007

Perhaps it's activating drop-protection circuitry? (parking the drive heads, etc.)
posted by aramaic at 1:43 PM on June 15, 2007

Do you turn off the extended desktop before you unplug the external monitor? I've had a freezing problem with my laptop when I didn't do that. You might also want to think about putting it into hibernation before going anywhere. My friend has had to replace 2 hard drives on her laptop, which she blames on closing the lid and then moving the laptop (i.e., shoving it in a backpack and going somewhere). For her, I'm assuming closing the lid didn't automatically put the laptop into hibernation mode or shut down the hard disk.
posted by puritycontrol at 1:47 PM on June 15, 2007

Another vote here for putting your laptop in hibernate mode whenever you close it (or at least before you move/jostle it around) - I may not know a ton about hard drives, but I know they don't like to be bumped around while they're spinning.
posted by Zephyrial at 1:54 PM on June 15, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for the ideas.

I don't turn off extended desktop or hibernate/sleep before moving it.

aramaic: I thought that was it but now I don't think so. It does the protection thing but only freezes for 30 seconds or so. It gives me a message telling me that it's in protection mode for 30 seconds. I've seen this happen plenty of times (doing the same thing - carrying it) without it freezing. However, it could be that the drop-protection fails and causes the crash?

Anyway, I keep it on constantly and just shut the lid to take it to my car. There, I keep it running on a little laptop stand like the cops have (I do a lot of work in my car and drive a fair amount).
posted by powpow at 2:56 PM on June 15, 2007

I believe the new Lenovo/IBM ThinkPads have a technology that protects the hard drive if the laptop moves a certain degree in a certain period of time. It's designed to protect the hard drive and the data in the event you drop the machine, but it does the same thing if you're just jostling it as you walk, shifting it quickly on your lap while reclining, swinging it under your arm if it's in your hand or a shoulder bag, etc... A great way to see this is to wait until your screen saver sets in, and then quickly move the machine. The stars (or whatever) freeze and then start moving again.

As to why it doesn't come back quickly from this, I don't know. It should, and mine usually does.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:13 PM on June 15, 2007

I have a new T61 and I had to turn off the Active Protection System because it was causing crashes. It wouldn't crash every time it parked the drive heads, but it was crashing pretty regularly and I haven't had any crashes since disabling APS, so it seems that was the culprit in my case. I'd try disabling it and seeing if things improve.

If it's a problem with a buggy driver, Lenovo may have released an update so you might want to check that too.
posted by benign at 8:42 PM on June 15, 2007

You really, really, really want to either hibernate it or turn off your notebook before moving it.

Think about it. The hard disk head is moving back and forth, even when you're not actively using the computer (it's caching data etc).

When you move it, the force of the direction in which you move the notebook is added to the movement of the head. These are ultra precise instruments.

Now people are going to post here that they regularly move their laptops while switched on and nothing bad happens. Good for you. But they're not designed for it, and the chances of something going wrong are higher than you might like for a $1000 piece of computing equipment.

Smaller hard disks like those in larger iPods can take some movement, but not much, which is why it's recommended you use a flash-memory based MP3 player if you jog or work out while wearing your iPod.

So the answer is that the head is probably missing its data block, and the system is crashing because it's being fed bad data.
posted by humblepigeon at 3:36 AM on June 16, 2007

Is WiFi enabled? Is it going out of range from it's network connection?
posted by Dub at 5:46 PM on June 16, 2007

Response by poster: All: thank you for your input. I'll see if disabling APS does anything, and it sounds like I should be more careful anyway (but I'm stubborn and will most likely fail to hibernate every time I move it).

I'll look for ways to make a habit out of stopping the drive before moving it.

FYI Dub, wifi is enabled. I don't think that's it though because it sometimes freezes still within range of my home signal.

Again, thank you all.
posted by powpow at 5:34 PM on June 17, 2007