Screen goes blank randomly (Lenovo 3000 N100)

[steamroller16]

I am having a problem with a laptop that goes blank randomly. It usually happens either right before the login screen or about 10 after logging in or when I open a program (anything ranging from explorer to prime95). It seems to happen more often when on battery power. Once this starts happening, it happens repeatedly when powering up the computer. The power LED stays lit even when the screen goes blank but the hdd led gets stuck (either on or off).

Also, if this doesn't happen in the first few seconds of windows loading, it doesn't happen until I have to restart. I can even run something as stressful as prime95 for a few hours and its fine. When it happens, I can log in on safe mode and I don't experience this problem.

I am running windows 7 (relatively new install) with only a few programs installed.


Things I have tried:
Updated all my drivers (from versions on Lenovo's website).
Checked my temperatures.
Disabled all startup items
Started up with diagnostic startup in msconfig
Disabled all drivers not essential windows to load (video, audio, network, etc)
Tried the three available power schemes
Ran few different antivirus (didn't find anything)

Things I am not willing to do:
Format hard drive and reinstall windows


Please let me know if there is something I can try to narrow down this problem.

 

[Feldmarschall]

Can't find link on lennovo forums anymore.
One guy had perfectly stable configuration with 1Gb Kingston + 512 original memory. 2*1 did not work.

Other guy had the other way arround issue. Could not get one stick 1Gb kingston to work, but dual channel worked (did managed to boot)

Some guys had unsupported memory notification when tried 2*1 Kingston.

Lenovo 3000 n100 (some number) works with Kingston without problems.
But bootom line says that you should go with memory upgrade provided by some scanners online and stuff.
Samsung, Crucial, Infenion works normally. Corsair should work...

For HP and Toshiba kingston works without any problem, in every possible combination.

So it may be that your bios or mobo don't like Kingston memory in dual channel mode. It would be superb if you can find one DIMM of old rams to test it with one Kingston in dual channel mode.

 

[steamroller16]

You got it. It is a compatibility issue. I found the original ram (Samsung m470T6554cz3-ce6 2x512MB) and it works. Thanks for all your help once again.

What works:
2x512 original ram
1x1G Kingston
1x512 original and 1x1G Kingston

What doesn't work:
2x1G Kingston


So I guess I will live with 1.5 GB for now. Maybe buy a Samsung or some other 2GB kit later.

 

[steamroller16]

I am still curious why memtest would run but not windows? Isn't it supposed to stress the ram (more than windows would).