Thinkpads Forum

I have a T60p that came with Win XP home, I did a HD format and clean vista ulitmate install. I ran System update and it picked up about 20 or so updates, I chose what I wanted and installed them so I know that System Update works, however, whenever I run system updates it does not pick up new ones. For example, system update did not pick up the BIOS update, the mibility center update or SATA update I had to go to the Lenovo update webpage and download those. Has anyone been succesfull obtaning these updates via system update? I looked at the XML files in the SU directory and they list the OS as Vista Ultimate, is there anything I need to modify to make SU see that the OS is really Vista and download the approperiate dirves and updates when I run SU?

It should not care what flavor of Vista.

They take sometime two weeks to package updates for system update.... so if the ones on the web are fairly new.... give it another week or so.

Thanks, so I am not crazy, I thought it was just me. I am an update type of person, whenever a new update is out I am first to install it so I can't wait on SU

I have a T41, no longer under warranty. When it was, I had lots of calls to tech service for a variety of software problems. I was always told by official tech service that the updating program (it has had two names) that is part of the thinkvantage package is totally unreliable and that only the manual update process using the driver matrix should be used. This agreed with my experience for a number of years. Software updater seems to be more reliable now, but how do we really know what updates it misses (without hunting through the driver matrix constantly)? I just picked up a hardware update for my LAN card from microsoft update- it was missed by software installer. Do people really trust this think vantage stuff? As I mentioned elsewhere, I just rode next to an IBM employee on a plane. I noticed his thinkpad, and I asked him if he liked it (my T41 was under my seat because there was no power plug and I don't get much battery life, never really did, and now the battery is old). So he said he loved the TP, and I said I loved mine from a hardware perspective, but I had problems with all the software "extras". His response was,"Oh, I work for IBM. I always wipe the disk and just install XP- that other stuff is no good." So what is the deal? Is the installer useless all the time, some of the time, or really reliable? My experience says it didn't work at all in some versions (confirmed by tech support- access connections didn't work either & I uninstalled it permanently), it hasn't actually crashed my computer in years, but it still misses things. It drives me crazy.

Chem rat....

1st... you shouldn't install driver updates from MS Windows update.... bad move potentially.

So while WU showed an update and System Update did not, you need to consider the following. When Intel released that new driver, Lenovo had to look at it and decide if they were going to publish it or not, which means Lenovo putting their wrapper on it.... and that's even before they package it for System update. WU does not show you Lenovo/Dell/Hp driver updates, just the chipset updates ie; intel, ati, etc.... Chipset being various wireless, video, modem, etc.

Moral of the story is -just because a new driver is issued by a chipset vendor doesn't mean you'll see it issued by the PC vendor.

Thanks for the advice. I guess it would have been nice for the IBM or Lenovo people to mention this during one of my dozens of conversations with them- they gave me the impression that ThinkVantage automatic updating was the least reliable source of drivers and told me not to use it. They didn't tell me to use MS's site, they just told me to use the Lenovo driver matrix, but I haven't even been able to find every driver I needed there. Maybe the reason is I didn't really need them (though I had devices failing at various times, especially wireless for a while). So, anyway, your comments were certainly news to me, and thanks again.

Can you shed any light on why the Software Installer frequently fails because it can't locate the files it downloaded? I find this to be very bizarre. It isn't just Lenovo- I had to reinstall my logitech webcam about 5 times (the first 5 times I plugged it in) because the installer did not write the drivers to the correct place. Finally, I just copied them all to the directory that the driver thought they were in (they were actually in C:\WINDOWS\system32 or a subfolder). Again, I don't understand how an installer can't keep track of where it puts files. Thanks

I only use System Update now, which has worked fairly well for me...

Software installer is in effect, a discontinued tool though you can still get packages from it.

I'd use SU... as that seems to be where lenovo's focus is going forward.