Update on my ThinkPad W541: The Intel i7-4810MQ CPU might be a little dead. I’m experiencing a bug where the integrated graphics is buggy, it locks up and crashes Xorg, forcefully logging me out in the process.
Someone else’s solution was in an Arch Linux Forums post, you swap the CPU with a known working one. I’m not sure if that will work, but I’ll explore that option in a bit.
Swapping for a new CPU fixed everything, confirmed for a few days of viewing some Youtube videos. The guy was right.
Probably electrostatic discharge or an erratic silicon stepping busted the old CPU’s integrated graphics, yikes.