DELL utilities on a T43?!

[Keithj]

I recently bought a used T43 to replace my trusty R31 (which never missed a beat in its long life, and has now gone down the family food chain). The T43 came with a DELL manufacturer's icon in the Start Menu (bottom RH corner), where the R31 had "ThinkPad Utilities". The link was to the Dell website, and not much use. I removed it.

The ThinkVantage Utilities weren't on the machine, so I downloaded and installed them. All work except TP98.exe, which causes a BSOD as soon as I run it- every time. That's not a major issue since I don't have any real reason to run TP98.exe, but it worries me that it may indicate a bigger problem lurking.

The screen quotes ati2mtag.sys as the guilty party causing the crash: the version now installed is 6.4.10.6833 which I downloaded and installed because the previous one was causing an EDID error and taking a very long time to boot up.

Has anyone any experience of this particular BSOD or how to deal with it? Should I just remove TP98.exe and forget about it?

[SteveS]

It sounds like the previous owner imaged the drive from the wrong machine.

I would be careful to make sure the Windows install has the correct HAL for a T43.
Check it by looking in(right click) My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager. Expand “Computer” in the list. You should see “ACPI Uniprocessor PC” listed. If not, your windows install has the wrong HAL. You really can’t change it after the fact. If this is the case, see if the seller can correct this by using the right image when they clone the disk. If not, I would recommend using T43 recovery disks.

Operating a T43 with the incorrect Windows HAL results in some of the features not working, including the security chip, and some of the power management control. The latter is more important if you operate your machine on batteries.

[Keithj]

Thanks! I'm reassured - the answer was indeed "ACPI Uniprocessor PC."

I think the previous owner must have wiped the machine and reinstalled everything. It doesn't have a recovery sector on the hard drive, which I prefer.

All the main folders, AUTOEXEC etc are dated 8 July 2008 (or later, if I've touched them).

[killer]

Keith,
It sounds like you need a set of recovery disks. Give the help line (in Greenock) a call and say that your hard drive is knackered and you can't use rescue & recovery. They'll send you a set of disks. It usually takes about 2 days for the disks to arrive as they come from Slovakia.
I hope this helps.