Geek Question
By Mitch Berg
All I want for Christmas (that I haven’t already gotten) is this:
Why does my Thinkpad T60’s monitor turn off within 1-3 minutes of booting or coming out of sleep/hibernation? And how can I get it to stop?
If I put it into sleep or hibernation, it’ll usually turn back on, but only for a few minutes at most – then it’ll turn off again.
I have a hunch it’s one of those stupid inscrutable Thinkpad config settings that someone at Lenovo needs to get pummeled over. But I can rarely get it to stay on long enough to get the stupid Thinkpad config screen to come up.
Anyone have any ideas?
(And “switch to Linux” is tempting, but I really really have to do my post-Christmas balancing of the checkbook in Quicken…)
December 25th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Buy a Mac.
December 25th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Update the video drivers, if that doesnt work do a power management update, if that doesnt work do a bios update, if that doesnt work leave another message on your blog.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/migr-62928.html
December 25th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Run it with an external monitor. Then you can isolate the problem to the monitor and settings or the CPU itself.
December 25th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I hate Quicken. I used it from Version 1.0 until around 2003 before I finally gave up. It’d gotten far too concerned with forcing you to buy yet another version or to push their own credit card or to push too many features on you to be worth the time.
These days I used GnuCash, even on Windows. It’s more like using Quickbooks to balance your checkbook, but it works and it’s not trying to drive you nuts with solicitations and upgrades.
As to the Stinkpad, if it’s recent, roll back to a config that from a date that you didn’t have this problem. If you don’t have restore points, choco got it right: drivers, then bios update. I doubt the drivers will work, but you can never tell.
December 25th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
When it comes to thinkpads it is I that am the guy with the necktie-end pointing jauntily upwards.
If you are not plugged in when it happens your battery is low or shot.
If it really is just the monitor that is turning off, and it turns on again when you press a key or move the mouse, check your power settings in windows control panel.
If you are plugged into a power source and the T60 actually shuts down after 2-3 minutes it is probably hardware.
December 27th, 2010 at 6:38 am
I second terry’s suggestions.
Starting the analysis process by doing a bunch of re-installs seems a bit extreme to me – a common malady of many IT support centers who seem to assume that software somehow “breaks” after it has been used for a few months and start their “analysis” by shotgunning.
My wife had a problem switching her laptop from the internal monitor to the LCD projector that she needed to use when in class. I looked at the problem and told her I believed it was hardware-based and that she should tell that to the IT support folks (at a MNSCU university). Only after they had re-installed, uninstalled, remodified, re-configured, lost her email, messed up her desktop, screwed up her network shares, etc. did they actually listen to her. The young support specialist then called upon his boss and discovered that this was a common hardware problem for her particular model of laptop and they gave her a different computer.
So…if you are worried about the “drivers” and the “bios” just give them a little 3&1 oil. It will do about as much good as upgrading a bios that has worked just fine for x-number of months.
Terry, on the other hand, is on to something.
December 28th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Terry and Dave both offer good suggestions to isolate the problem. Which is important because shotgunning is too damn expensive.
The battery test should be your first.
Then figure out if it’s the monitor.
If you get to the point that you find out it’s the hardware, you’re in trouble. As hardware gets expensive quickly with any non-desktop. Although it could be something as simple as a bad fan.