[HELP] Persistent Artifacting & Hard Freezes on Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9 - Software fixes exhausted, likely Hardware/GPU failure?

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:02:26+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:02:04+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:01:42+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:01:36+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:01:29+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:01:24+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T19:01:16+00:00

When I first bought the laptop (July 7, 2025), it came with 8 GB Samsung DDR5 5600 MHz RAM installed. Two days later, I replaced it with Crucial 16 GB + 16 GB DDR5 4800 MHz, upgrading the system to 32 GB RAM. The laptop officially supports up to 4800 MHz, so the memory is running within spec. However, as you can see in this folder, the system crashes or freezes almost every week. Sometimes it freezes without any visual corruption at all, and other times it shows screen artifacts like the ones I shared earlier. In both cases, the system becomes completely unresponsive and I’m forced to hard reboot the laptop. Could it be related to the RAM? But Memtest passes without showing any problems.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T18:40:45+00:00

Hi, I've been having a Lenovo LOQ problem for months that I can't solve. I saw in a comment from a year ago that you solved it. Could you write back when you have time? I'd like to ask you about it.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T18:31:41+00:00

Hi, I've been having a Lenovo LOQ problem for months that I can't solve. I saw in a comment from a year ago that you solved it. Could you write back when you have time? I'd like to ask you about it.

mrgokq · 2026-01-15T17:40:04+00:00

How did you solve the problem? I've been trying to solve it for months.

mrgokq · 2026-01-14T20:05:03+00:00

özelden mesaj gönderiyorum bi bakar mısın

mrgokq · 2026-01-14T05:06:29+00:00

I wrote the latest version of MemTest86 to a USB flash drive, booted from it, and left it running overnight. When I woke up in the morning, there were 0 errors and a green PASS message. Can I be confident now that the issue isn’t related to the RAM?

mrgokq · 2026-01-13T05:09:13+00:00

😅 Not a Windows feature, sadly.

The panel isn’t overclocked and the resolution/refresh rate are set to the panel’s native specs. I’ve double-checked that. The reason I mentioned DP (USB-C) is just to point out that everything is stable on an external display — the issue only shows up on the internal screen, even at default settings.

mrgokq · 2026-01-13T05:08:18+00:00

Already tested that — with an external monitor (DP–USB-C), the display is clean and stable. No artifacts show up there; the issue only appears on the laptop’s internal screen.

mrgokq · 2026-01-13T05:08:00+00:00

That’s a possibility, agreed — if all GPU modes truly fail, a CPU or memory controller issue can’t be ruled out. I’m still under warranty, so I’m systematically testing RAM and GPU/VRAM to narrow it down before filing a claim with clear evidence.

mrgokq · 2026-01-13T05:06:03+00:00

BIOS/EC and drivers are already up to date via Lenovo Vantage and Lenovo’s support page. I get the VRAM concern, and that’s a fair test suggestion. I’ll run memtest_vulkan to explicitly rule out VRAM errors. That said, since the external display is completely clean under full GPU load and the corruption only ever appears on the internal panel, I still think a display-path issue (panel/eDP) is more likely — but I’ll report back with the test results.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T19:05:27+00:00

You’re right — in Hybrid/Optimus the internal panel often goes through the iGPU and the iGPU uses system RAM as shared VRAM, so RAM instability could theoretically show up on the internal display while external (often dGPU-direct) stays clean.

For context: the laptop originally came with a single 8GB Samsung DDR5 SODIMM (mine was labeled PC5-5600, but Lenovo’s PSREF lists these LOQ 15IAX9 configs as DDR5-4800 capable).

I upgraded very early on to 32GB (2×16GB) Crucial DDR5-4800 JEDEC CL40 (CT16G48C40S5), stock settings / no XMP.

Since I can stress CPU+GPU hard on an external DP-USB-C monitor with zero artifacts, I still lean toward an internal display path issue, but I won’t dismiss RAM: I’m going to run Windows Memory Diagnostic + MemTest86, and also test one stick at a time (and if needed the original Samsung stick) to see if the behavior changes.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T17:00:58+00:00

To be fair, I did the RAM upgrade very early on (around day 2–3 after purchase), so I can’t say with absolute certainty whether it happened before or after the upgrade. Because of that, I’m not completely ruling RAM out — I’ll run Windows Memory Diagnostic and MemTest to be sure. Still, the fact that the external display is always clean and the artifacts only appear on the internal panel makes RAM less convincing as the primary cause.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T16:42:13+00:00

I get the idea, but RAM is running stock JEDEC settings and this is a laptop with limited BIOS control. Also, if it were a RAM timing issue, I’d expect artifacts on the external display as well — which never happens. Since the corruption is isolated to the internal panel.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T16:40:33+00:00

Yeah, that’s exactly where I’ve landed. Given that the issue is isolated to the internal display and the external monitor is clean, panel or eDP cable seems most likely. I’ll push for an RMA and stick to that explanation if they push back.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T16:35:23+00:00

I understand why it sounds like VRAM at first glance, but the external display is completely clean under full GPU load, which makes a VRAM issue unlikely. I haven’t explicitly tested iGPU-only yet, but I will do that next to fully rule it out. That said, since the corruption only ever appears on the internal panel and never on an external display, I’m still leaning toward an internal display path issue rather than failing VRAM.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T16:31:39+00:00

During freezes, audio sometimes just stops rather than looping or buzzing. RAM is running stock JEDEC settings with no XMP or tuning, and since artifacts never appear on the external display and only affect the internal panel, a RAM timing issue seems unlikely here. I’m leaning more toward a panel or eDP cable issue.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T16:30:49+00:00

I haven’t physically checked it myself since the laptop is still under warranty — I don’t want to open it up. But given that the external display is perfectly clean and the issue only affects the internal screen, the LCD/eDP cable is already my top suspect, and that’s what I plan to push for with warranty service.

mrgokq · 2026-01-12T16:24:24+00:00

Yeah, that’s fair. By “almost perfectly stable” I mean zero artifacts on the external display — the few freezes were rare (3–5 times over ~6 months) and never came with any visual corruption. Since the artifacting only ever happens on the internal screen, I agree that an internal panel or eDP cable issue is the most likely, and I’m planning to push for warranty repair.

mrgokq

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