T42 System Update looking for missing file during install

[bentlerf]

Having a strange problem with System Update. I have a T40p that is running well. My daughter sent me her T42 which had been running slow. I cleaned things up a bit and found a bunch of old wireless connection profiles in "access connections" which I couldn't delete, so I finally uninstalled "access connections" and selected the option to delete the profiles. Now I needed to re-install "access connections" so I went to System Update, which required installation of the latest version of system update "ThinkVantage Sytem Update 3" Version 3.15.0017. It showed 2 recommended updates and 13 optionals, so I selected the two recommended: UntraNav and Hotkey, which also required the newer Power Management Driver on the optional list, as well as the latest Access Connections. Now the problems began.

System Update downloads the updates and begins installation. But in the installation process, windows throws up an error message saying it "can't find ...\NSW\ESDSTART.exe, make sure you have typed the name correctly and try again." The only option is to click an "ok" button, which allows the installation to continue, but the error is thrown up two more times during installation. At the end of installation, System update shows that all updates were installed, and they all appear on the "installation history," but they are not installed. Rerunning System Update brings up the same list of required updates again, and the control panel shows I still have the old versions of the drivers, and no "access connections" is installed.

The system did have Norton System Works installed, which I had removed during my cleanup. It appears that installation of updated system drivers is looking for a program called ESDSTART during the installation process for some reason. I have tried various things, including cleaning up the registry, in case a reference to NSW was left in the registry after the uninstall. I have tried updating just one update at a time to see where the problem occurs, and the Power Management Driver seems to be the first one to download and install, and it throws up the error and doesn't install.

I tried re-installing NSW but the version that I have, which was originally on the machine will now not reinstall, and it directs me to get an upgrade to a newer version since old versions will no longer install. Sounds like they may have somehow disabled re-installation of older versions to get people to buy up. So anyway, I don't have a copy of ESDSTART.exe on the machine, and wouldn't know where to put it anyway, since the error message gives only a small portion of the full path.

Any ideas?

T42, 2378FZU
Win XP SP3

[Harryc]

Run msconfig and see if NSW is listed in the startup section. If it is, disable it.

[bentlerf]

Run msconfig and see if NSW is listed in the startup section. If it is, disable it.

Thank you, good idea. I tried that but can find no reference to NSW.

I have sort of solved the problem as follows. I interrupted the install process on one attempt, and it provided me a link to install manually. I clicked that link and it threw up the same error.

That gave me an idea though, and I used "search" to find all files modified today, which led me to the "programfiles\lenovo\systemupdate\....folders, where all of the update sessions were downloaded. I went into each update session and double clicked the "setup" files to attempt to manually install each downloaded update.

Worked like a charm. I can now download each update and then go into program file area and update manually. No error messages for NSW\ESDSTART.exe to be seen. What a pain in the neck.