/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.755729]

So the laptop has some kind of connection issues. Sometimes it'll get into this phase where everything freezes for a fraction of a second every second or so. Makes moving the mouse or doing pretty much anything a chore. Also occasionally it will completely lock up, power cycling being the only way out.

I'm cleaning and reseating all the connectors, but what I would like to know is what the wax-like substance was on the solderings of the hard disk connector? I didn't see it elsewhere. I'm trying to clean it off with some IPA and a brush. Surely they don't wax these parts, I've last seen it on some 80s clock radio or something.

[HP tech here No.755741]

> not posting a pic of the HDD

HDD's vibrate.
Vibrations fatigue solder joints.
Solder joints on hard disks are reinforced to prevent fatigue failures.
Stop what you are doing immediately.
You do not know better than hard disk manufacturers.

[HP tech here No.755743]

Unless you are talking about the center spindle, which is required to be airtight so shit does not get into the bearings of the spindle motor.

Either way, stop for the love of god.

[Anonymous No.755751]

>>755743
>Hewlett Packard
>Techie

lol

[Anonymous No.755756]

>>755729
flux/burnt conformal coating
its normal. meant to be there.
go read your event log. or run a self diagnostic from the bios. probably a dead hard drive crashing and trying to seek and failing again.
or maybe too much porn and you have internet herpes.

[Anonymous No.755758]

>>755729
I have seen that kind of stuttering come back to bad USB and/or graphics drivers, did you make sure everything was up to date (including BIOS) before you started ripping shit apart?

>>755751
10/10 contribution you fucklord. gb2/b/

[Anonymous No.755760]

>computer problem
>assume it's a bad connection and go in there with a soldering iron
jesus fuck how old are you. what the fuck are you doing. stop

[Anonymous No.755765]

>>755743
No, I meant the sata connector on the motherboard. Or rather, in this case it's the smaller board that's loose in the picture. Anyway that probably wasn't the cause, just curious.

>>755756
The hdd is a new Samsung SSD, though the laptop itself is a couple years old.

>>755758
>>755760
My apologies for not being specific enough in the OP. Whacking the computer has always made the problem go away and this is why I think it's mechanical. And I'm not soldering anything, I just disconnected all connectors, cleaned a bit and reconnected.

However this didn't fix the problem. When I put it back together and started it up, the stuttering was still there. Bending the laptop from various places made it go away and reappear, so I'm thinking the motherboard has hairline cracks somewhere. Surely the processor and everything is soldered on?

Anyway it's probably beyond my skills.

[Anonymous No.755771]

Why on earth would you think it's a connection problem? When it does this again, open task manager and look at the cpu/ram usage. 99% of the time, it's software related if you're getting slowdowns, usually a background process or 50, and is a direct result of an update (or cumulative updates and background software that's built up over time because every program "must run at startup"), because your computer is aging and can't handle another task without adding it to the page file. Disable nonessential services, check your startup configuration and disable programs you don't use multiple times per day, use a registry cleanup utility, defrag your hdd, run a FULL virus scan, and download more RAM. I'm willing to bet your CPU usage is getting to 80%+ when it's stuttering like that and disabling startup programs that you don't need 24/7 will cure that.

[Anonymous No.755775]

>>755771
See >>755765

[Anonymous No.755777]

>>755765
>>755771
Posted right after you posted the percussive maintenance bit. It's possible that a connector is loose somewhere. Don't defrag a SSD, either. Did this start happening after you installed that drive?

[Anonymous No.755785]

>>755777
I bought this used and immediately threw in the SSD. Everything was fine for a while, I had a couple full lockups very occasionally and then the stutterings started. It doesn't always do it, more when it's used in the cold (like in a car).

It has Intel HD graphics too so there's no discrete GPU (I think). I've had some laptops with graphic chip soldering issues.

[Anonymous No.755787]

>>755777
The reason I'm asking is because sometimes you need to set up your OS to work properly with a SSD. You also may need a bios update (even if your computer says it can use SSDs) turn off ecomode if you have it enabled. In short, there might be an OS solution, or a BIOS setting that's causing this, and you might be hitting it at the right time for whatever it's doing to stop happening and it's merely coincidental. Your disc defragmenter might be set to automatically run at set intervals. Window 7 has this by default and does not alert you to it.

Rule out software entirely first because fixing hardware is a long arduous task.

[Anonymous No.755788]

>>755787
It stuttered in Linux Mint too. It's dual boot.

[Anonymous No.755790]

>>755785
That's entirely possible. The integrated graphics might have come loose due to expansion from heat. If that's the case, it maybe had an overheating problem, or it's just run of the mill card creep.

[Anonymous No.755791]

>>755787
Oh, and the BIOS is the latest version.

[Anonymous No.755795]

>>755785
>Everything was fine for a while, I had a couple full lockups very occasionally and then the stutterings started.
sounds like you might need to turn on TRIM

[Anonymous No.755814]

>>755765
>Whacking the computer has always made the problem go away
Confirmed for stupid old man.

[Anonymous No.755836]

http://z9.io/2013/11/26/yes-finally-fixed-ssd-freezing-computer/
>If your computer is freezing after installing an SSD change from AHCI to IDE mode in the BIOS.
Have you tried that? I was installing XP on a machine designed for Windows 8 (for work) and this mode stopped the computer from bluescreening during the driver loading process in setup. New versions of mint and windows 7 should both have TRIM turned on by default.

[Anonymous No.755839]

>>755836
Do a little research for mint before you do this. You may get bluescreens if you change this without reinstalling the OS. Disabling the ssd from going to sleep might fix your problem too.

[Anonymous No.755849]

>>755785
Did you update the firmware and install the management software for the ssd? Because they're important

[Anonymous No.755861]

>>755836
>>755839
It is a Samsung 840 so that part fits. But changing that setting causes windows to bluescreen while booting and I'm not ready for a reinstall just yet.

Also it POSTed slowly and like half the boot attempts just sat at the bios splash screen forever. It all still points me to a hardware problem, because I remember this laptop being very snappy at boot and it's been sluggish lately.

[Anonymous No.755875]

>>755861
If you improperly manage an ssd it won't work right. its not a hard disk and if you told any os you have on there it was you'll have problems eventually. Eventually has come and fucking with the hardware can't help you.

[Anonymous No.755877]

>>755875
These aren't some 1990s tier operating systems, they are SSD aware. And my other machines have been running Intel and Kingston SSDs and windows 7 / linux perfectly fine for much longer than I've even had this laptop.

Maybe Samsung is actually just crap. I'm going to try an old hdd in this once I have the time to reinstall, but if that doesn't help then what?

[Anonymous No.755880]

>>755765
>Bending the laptop from various places made it go away and reappear

Sounds like a hardware problem to me. How cheap did you get it for?

[Anonymous No.755886]

>>755877
Honestly I'm not experienced with SSDs personally, just remember some of what I've read on /g/ and other sources. It may be that the drive is crap, even if it's brand new. You get that even with HDDs. You might try updating the drives firmware and go from there. The stuttering problem seems matched by that site I posted, though, and there was a comment about how you may not have to reinstall the os to use IDE mode by changing a registry entry (not sure about mint). Hopefully you find a fix rather than having to RMA it.

[Anonymous No.755925]

>>755729
You're chasing the wrong thing. If it were an electrical issue then it would lock up and STAY locked up, not stutter. You probably have a device driver fucking up somewhere, boot it into safe-mode and see if it still does it.

[Anonymous No.755928]

>>755925
It happens in linux mint as well, totally different drivers. Read the fucking thread before shitposting faggot.

[Anonymous No.756080]

>>755928
>Read the fucking thread before shitposting faggot.
Eat shit and die faggot, go back to /v/

[Anonymous No.756314]

>>755925
It does occasionally stay locked too. It's only done that two or three times.

As I write this, everything is fine. But in seven or so hours I'll be booting it up from about 0 Celsius, we'll see what happens then.

[Anonymous No.756343]

>>756080

[Anonymous No.756357]

>>755729
the "ticking lag" you describe has nothing to do with the physical quality of your laptop. cleaning the inside is going to do nothing except allow better airflow if it was dusty (ie wont get so hot after being on for a while)

ticking lag is due to cpu/ram performance issues. clean your system (as in remove programs, virus removal, optimization, etc) or reformat your computer completely.

While you have your laptop open you can look into upgrading the CPU, also look into upgrading memory

[Anonymous No.756359]

>>756357
to dive a bit further on the topic:

since youve booted into linux and still see the issue, I'm willing to bet you either have slightly incompatible ram, or failing RAM/CPU. you can use a diagnostic software (I like eurosoft PC Check) to verify if something is failing or not.

I used to have a funny tick occur with the occasional bluescreen on a system back years ago, after 2 years of frustration I found out the memory sticks I was using weren't fully compatible with my mobo, voltage was off. they ran, but randomly bluescreened and gave me the same type of lag you describe (and I'm a pc tech...)

[Anonymous No.756441]

>>756359
Interesting/5

I did run memtest86 on it, since Mint installs that too. It found no problems. Upgrading the RAM is a thing I might do anyway.

I think (but am not sure) that the RAM in there is what Lenovo put in there originally. I'd think they would use the most compatible stuff they can. Also I'm pretty sure the bending had an effect, but of course it might have just been accidental?

Booted from the cold just fine btw. I fucking hate these intermittent problems, finding and fixing them is so difficult.

[Anonymous No.756635]

>>755771
Taskman can't actually see the processor going into thermal shutdown, nor the PCI bus locking up, because it uses the processor to see if the processor is busy, and the processor's non-responsive during these events.

[Anonymous No.756642]

>>756441
>>756357
There's no way an intermittent connection anywhere important could permit the computer to pause, and then resume operations successfully.

One option is thermal shutdown on the CPU or Northbridge: the chip detects it's overtemperature, and suspends operation until it's not. This can happen if the thermal interface material is wrong or degraded; it can't happen if the fan's failed without it being really obvious.

Option two is a bad connection on a SATA link. The link will eventually time out, and the controller will eventually reset it, but until this happens the machine locks up. This is generally OS-independent, because pretty-much every OS will lock up if a disk operation suddenly takes several seconds. On a laptop, this is going to be a PITA to diagnose. Get another laptop, and known-good the SSD (it very well might not be). If the SSD is good, your next bet is the daughterboard, and the next the motherboard.

The good news is that daughterboards are cheap, and you can known-good the motherboard by using an MSATA/SATA adapter and a SATA power extension. The bad news is that if it is the motherboard, a T420S motherboard is ~$150.

[Anonymous No.756643]

>>755729
If I found waxy gunk inside a Thinkpad, I'd assume it was part of the waterproofing.

[Anonymous No.756647]

>>755729
>>756643

Yeah, OP you're pretty stupid if you're seriously stripping the waterproofing out of your laptop, especially using a brush.

I hope you break your laptop dumbass.

[Anonymous No.756678]

>>756642
my laptop wakes up from sleep all the time with a loose hdd, wake and login a-ok, as soon as you do anything it pauses until you reseat the drive.

[Anonymous No.756697]

>>755729
You think wax just appears out of no where? It was there for a reason you nugget

[Anonymous No.756777]

>>756678
I'd put a blob of clear sensor-safe RTV from the auto store to adhere the drive in place so it won't loosen. RTV is easy to peel off if you don't get silly with it.

[Anonymous No.756943]

>>756647
You shouldn't wish ill on someone. We are all brothers. When he fails, you do too.

[Anonymous No.756957]

>>756642
Re. option one: It has done this from the cold more often. When it gets warm it has run fine (outside of the two or three times it's locked up completely).

Re. option two. This was my first suspicion (as I've seen the same in years past) and the 'whacking' I described in OP was actually a sharpish tap to the area where the SATA connector is inside the laptop. This is also why I inspected the daughterboard more carefully and found the waxy looking solder joints. Now I did try yanking the drive out completely while the comp is running to see what happens and it didn't freeze at all, just the explorer window stood there waiting. Sooo I'm not sure about this.

>>756643
It wasn't wax, just kind of looked like it. And nowhere else but the solder joints on the SATA connection daughter board. It almost looked like the solder was deteriorating somehow.

>>756647
>>756697
Thanks for the support guise it's really appreciated :D

[Anonymous No.756984]

>>756957
If you yank the drive, the SATA link will go down, and requests will fail fast.

The problem comes about when it's attached, but the link is dodgy, in which case requests fail slow.