Problem with Lenovo T500 notebook & external LCD

R

rudirautenbach

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We recently bought a few Lenovo T500 notebooks for myself and others in our firm. These notebooks are all equipped with the ATI Mobility Radeon 3650 GPU's. With all of them, when connected to an external LCD, the display driver stops working and sometimes cause a BSOD. We are struggling to get support from Lenovo :(, and I was hoping someone here has experienced this problem and hopefully found a solution.

We have updated the display drivers, BIOS and all other available updates have been installed.
 
Can't give any input to your problem, but would be interested to hear your comments on the machines in gereral, it was on my list of nice-to-haves. Any comment on the keyboard flex all the review sites go on about?
 
I had a similar problem (not sure if it was display related or not) with my Lenovo PC but it crashed so badly the C drive as inaccessible. Trying to install Vista SP1 there was a conflict with a lenovo system file (cant remember the name). I had to uninstall the lenovo custom tools (their system recovery application etc). Haven't had a problem since.
 
Surv0, yes sir, do have them updated.

Gazer, interesting comment, I will give it a try. I personally hate the "bloatware" that most notebook manufacturers include with their machines.

Kayvee, my observation on the machines are as follows:
LCD - very robust, solid built.
Keyboard - feels like an IBM did 10 years ago. If you like the "jumpy" feel to the keys, great for you. I personally prefer the Sony VAIO keyboards. I have a VAIO as my personal machine and I love it!
Chassis - Very solid again, but heavy as a steel ingot. You drop it on your foot, you go for surgery...

I might be a little biased as we just spend more than 100K on 6 machines (various models) and 5 of them give us problems, and with the non-existing backup from Lenovo it does not make them too attractive.

Rudi
 
Thanks for the feedback. Interesting, I will make sure I play with one first, but your report of non-existing backup is a worry, expecially after spending that much.
 
The Lenovo service woes

Let me put it this way in terms of Lenovo support:

1. When I got the machine a couple of weeks ago, I did the configuration from the pre-installation environment, and it came up with an unusual message. I called the Lenovo support line in SA, the person said eish, I only work with networks, I don't know notebooks very well. I asked to speak to someone else, he said everyone already knocked off and he was alone. It was just after 16h30.

2. When we took one of the machines to the Lenovo/IBM service centre in Jet Park, the service desk reminded me of the Home Affairs Offices in Germiston. Smelly armpits, loads of people drumming around and puzzled looks. When someone finally noticed us, I explained the problem of the display driver that crash when the notebook is connected to an external LCD. The look went from a 100 piece puzzle to one of these 5000 piece ones. I tried again, this time in really layman terms. He said book it in, we'll have an answer in 10 working days. I gave up and took it back with me. We will try the supplier, maybe the know someone who knows someone.

Unfortunately for Lenovo, our IT Manager is at the point of a awarding a new and rather substantial Enterprise Agreement for our whole organization's PC's, which included a rollout of many new PC's for 2009. The contract was going to go to Lenovo. He mumbled something about HP when I asked him about the state of affairs with my PC...

Is someone from Lenovo paying attention
 
Lenovo worldwide support sucks. I like the machines but damn if something goes wrong even with same/next day service agreement you wait weeks/months for replacement parts or ad dons.

However your problem is software problem I would browse ATI forums/ Lenovo forums posting your problems. It will make finding the exact the problem that much more satisfying. Use the internet dude.
http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads

One thing with Lenovo support. You tell them what the problem is, not they you.
 
Update : our firm's IT Manager decided to return all the faulty Lenovo's for a refund and would replace them with HP's. Be that as it may, can I please have some opinions on which HP notebook to consider? Budget is around R20-22K per machine
 
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