Thinkpad screen going black, programs disappearing, page file errors.

[DrKrepz]

I bought a dock for my thinkpad without realising that the dock was only supposed to work with up to a 90W adapter, but my thinkpad requires a 135W adapter. When I connected my thinkpad and adapter to the dock, it seemed to work, but occasionally when the thinkpad was under load, the screen would go black, it would disconnect itself from the dock and when the screen came back on, the program i was using would have disappeared. additionally, sometimes it would kick me out to the windows login screen. before this, i had also installed a new HDD, and had one or two page file errors, which i haven't had before. i set the page file to the system default. since all of this, i've found that the black screen and programs disappearing etc has persisted, even when not connected ot the dock. i've done smart tests on both HDDs and a 24h memory diagnostic with memtest86 - both turned up fine; no errors. i have a new set of ram in the mail.

 

I'm at a loss as to whether this is likely a software or hardware issue - I guess reinstalling windows would tell me that, but I want to avoid that if possible, as it'll take me 2 days to get all my software up and running again!

 

what else can i try?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

8 hours ago, DrKrepz said:

I'm at a loss as to whether this is likely a software or hardware issue - I guess reinstalling windows would tell me that, but I want to avoid that if possible, as it'll take me 2 days to get all my software up and running again!

got another hard-drive laying around? take our your current drive and pop in a different one and reinstall windows to play around for awhile and see if the issues persist.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

You may wish to run Lenovo's diagnostics against the drive.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[DrKrepz]

On 8/2/2018 at 6:15 PM, Brandon H said:

got another hard-drive laying around? take our your current drive and pop in a different one and reinstall windows to play around for awhile and see if the issues persist.

That's a really good idea. I may try that! Cheers

 

13 hours ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

You may wish to run Lenovo's diagnostics against the drive.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

I've done this and it turned up nothing. Also run Intel burn test on max settings and a 24h, 10 pass memory diagnostic in memtest86. All clear.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

On 8/2/2018 at 3:59 AM, DrKrepz said:

I bought a dock for my thinkpad without realising that the dock was only supposed to work with up to a 90W adapter, but my thinkpad requires a 135W adapter. When I connected my thinkpad and adapter to the dock, it seemed to work, but occasionally when the thinkpad was under load, the screen would go black, it would disconnect itself from the dock and when the screen came back on, the program i was using would have disappeared. additionally, sometimes it would kick me out to the windows login screen. before this, i had also installed a new HDD, and had one or two page file errors, which i haven't had before. i set the page file to the system default. since all of this, i've found that the black screen and programs disappearing etc has persisted, even when not connected ot the dock. i've done smart tests on both HDDs and a 24h memory diagnostic with memtest86 - both turned up fine; no errors. i have a new set of ram in the mail.

 

I'm at a loss as to whether this is likely a software or hardware issue - I guess reinstalling windows would tell me that, but I want to avoid that if possible, as it'll take me 2 days to get all my software up and running again!

 

what else can i try?

Purchase the right dock for the right wattage? Sounds like something's fried. Tried using it without the dock? Do you see the same problems then? If it's rated at 90W, and you push 135W through it, well then OBVIOUSLY, something's got to give up. My bet would be the dock. It cannot handle too much wattage, by the sounds of it. Try using the machine without the dock and see if you get the same results. And next time, READ WHAT YOU ARE BUYING before you risk bricking a machine by under/over voltage. If it says it's rated for 90, then that means you can only run 90 through it. If you crank in more, it's going to fry something, or make a nice camp fire!