I bought two Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 laptops with AMD processors. Both need to run Windows for my use case, so I installed Windows 11 Pro. One laptop works normally, but the other consistently freezes a few minutes after startup. Hardware tests using bootable diagnostic tools appeared clean, and replacing the NVMe drive did not help—the Windows installer also froze repeatedly. As a test, I installed Linux Mint on the same machine, and it has been running for nearly 12 hours without any problems. What could cause Windows 11 to freeze while Linux remains stable? Is this more likely to be faulty RAM or another hardware issue, or could it be related to Windows drivers or updates?
1 Answer
I’d start by checking the RAM and Windows drivers. A hardware problem can sometimes show up only under a particular workload, but driver, firmware, or Windows Update issues can also cause freezes that Linux avoids. Since one memory module is soldered, run an extended memory test rather than relying on a quick diagnostic pass, and verify that the BIOS, chipset, graphics, storage, and power-management drivers are current.
Drivers are definitely worth investigating. A problematic Windows update or vendor driver can cause instability even when the same hardware works perfectly under Linux.
The factory memory is soldered, so I can’t swap that module. I’m not sure which Windows drivers would be the best place to start, but I’ll check the chipset, graphics, and BIOS versions first.