Laptop Issues
My old laptop was having more and more issues, so I went ahead and purchased the Lenovo ThinkPad P14s that I wrote about in the New Laptop Options blog post. I have had two significant issues with the new laptop, but thankfully I have been able to mitigate one and resolve the other.
I received the new laptop in January 2022. The SSD size was insufficient, so I ordered a larger SSD and installed it upon receiving the new laptop. I usually remove Windows by formatting the drive, and this was the first time I removed Windows from a new laptop by completely removing the drive!
I installed and configured the new laptop, but I was very busy and decided to wait to migrate my data. I got a new job a bit sooner than planned, and I ended up using the new laptop like a server. I used my old laptop to run my UI, while development was done on the new laptop via SSH. One benefit of this setup was that I was able to perform experiments on my old laptop without worrying about messing up the (Nix) environment that I use for work.
The old laptop continued to work until late November, but then it refused to boot again. I migrated my data to the new laptop and (finally) retired the old one. Since then, I have had two significant issues with the new laptop.
System Freezes With Blinking Lights
Sometimes the new laptop would freeze when I was not using it. Blinking keyboard lights indicated a problem, the system would not respond, I was unable to SSH in through the network, and I had to power down. There were no clues to the issue in the system logs.
Searching online, I was unable to find any definitive information, but I read about issues related to HDMI. The laptop never froze until I started using it with my external display, and it would only freeze when I was away from the computer, so this is a plausible cause.
I created a new habit of switching off my external display whenever I am away from my computer (for more than a few minutes). I have not had the issue since I have started doing this! It is a bit annoying to do so, but the issue is mitigated.
Thankfully, my window manager makes it very easy to manage multiple
workspaces (virtual screens) and screens. I use ten workspaces and
configure four of them to display on my external display by default. My
XF86Display key runs a script that toggles the external
display. When I am using both displays, pressing that key switches off
the external display and moves all workspaces to my laptop display. When
I press that key to switch the external display back on, those
workspaces go back to the external display automatically. I can of
course move workspaces using keyboard shortcuts when desired:
Super+< moves a workspace to my laptop display, and
Super+> moves a workspace to my external display.
Out-Of-Memory System Freezes
The new laptop came with 16GB of RAM, but part of the RAM was used for graphics. It was barely enough for development. My system tends to be very lean since I avoid heavy window managers and GUI software, but my current development work requires a fair about of memory. After switching to the new laptop, I would often exhaust memory and freeze the system.
Thankfully, the laptop supports up to 48GB of RAM! Even the 32GB DIMM was inexpensive, so I ended up getting it and maxing out the system. A part of the 48GB is used for graphics, but I now have plenty and this issue is resolved. With excessive memory, I am now able to use it extravagantly: I can run tests and build other software while the development server is still running! It is nice!