Thinkpads Forum

I've got two minor annoyances that I've been wrestling with for weeks on my T61 running XP SP3. Tried most of the fixes in previous posts here and still haven't resolved either. Can't tell if they are related issues or not, but they started at roughly the same time.

ISSUE 1 - VOLUME INDICATOR BUTTONS

For some reason the on screen volume indicators stopped working. So I:

- ensured in the Nvidia display in properties -> Advanced that "On screen display" is set to on (I have two tabs for "On screen display". Is that normal and just a programming error on Nvidia's part?)

- installed the latest HotKey Features (v 3.87) and insured that the System Interface Driver was included in the update

- installed Presentation Director (v 4.08), and made sure Power Manager (v 5.20) and Access Connections (5.50) are high enough versions for HotKey Features to work according to documentation

- in case the install order was an issue, tried Hotkey, then Presentation Director, then HotKey again. No dice. The volume buttons work but won't display.

I use the same base image for my X61 and it caused the same issue. So it is clearly software related.

ISSUE 2 - BATTERY MONITOR FAILS TO DISPLAY AT STARTUP

Intermittently the battery monitor indicator fails to display but I can see the shape of it in the system tray. When this occurs there is always an error message at startup that the DLL did not run (Pwrmgrtr.dll). This only happens half the time ! So is this related to the start order of the items in the system tray?

When this issue occurs, inevitably at shutdown there is SystemResourceNotifyWindows that doesn't repond at shutdown and has to be shut down manually.

Anyone have any clues? Are these issues related? Should I perhaps remove the Hotkey Features entirely and then try a clean install of the driver? Should I try some previous version?

The specific error message for the battery indicator at startup is:

"An exception occurred while trying to run C:Programs\Thinkpad\UTILITIES\PWRMGRTR.DLL,PwrMgrBkGndMonitor"

This exception error is intermittent and does NOT occur at every bootup.

Surely I can't be the only person to have seen this or have the volume on screen display disappear without explanation when HotKey Features is installed.

No one else has experienced this?

No one knows if there is a possible relation between power manager and the on screen display functions?

No one has any ideas or possible solutions other than what I've tried?

Since all has been working fine for quite some time, I have to believe that this is the result of some update, either from Windows or Lenovo

Could you not simply install Thinkvantage System Update

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS013489

and give it a run through to see if it helps? Might make things easier for you

NOTE: if the option to update your BIOS comes up while using the Thinkvantage System Update- DO NOT UPDATE THE BIOS WITH THIS METHOD! Untick that option and if possible- hide it. I have read too many posts regarding faulty BIOS updates using this method. My advice for the BIOS is if your machine runs satisfactorily now then you do not have to update your BIOS.

emeraldgirl08 wrote:Could you not simply install Thinkvantage System Update

Thanks for that suggestion, emeraldgirl. But of course I've been there, done that. That's how I verified that there are currently NO additional updates to Power Manager, Presentation Director or HotKeys.

Even when I previously had updated Power Manager and another power management update (name escapes me for the moment), it did NOT resolve either problem.

Power Manager won't install some updates on windows.
Check Windows Update, under optional updates I think there should be some more.
There might be an update for the sound driver.
It'll also update your LCD monitor info it you have yet to.

Hope this helps.

Saucey wrote:Power Manager won't install some updates on windows.
Check Windows Update, under optional updates I think there should be some more.
There might be an update for the sound driver.
It'll also update your LCD monitor info it you have yet to.

Hope this helps.

Not sure what you mean, Saucey.

Power Manager doesn't update anything. Do you mean the Lenovo System Update?

To clarify, I'm running System Update version 3.16.0006. So if there were a power, on screen (hot keys) or update for presentation director, it would be indicated.

I've also manually checked the Driver Matrix and confirmed that I am running the latest version of these drivers for the T61.

And I've also re-installed each of them (over the top) in case one was corrupted and that caused this issue.

The sound driver is NOT the problem. Sound IS there. What is NOT there are the on screen displays for the volume controls (the physical buttons for the volume work but there is NO visual indication of the volume level displayed on screen) and the battery gauge in the system tray (it's outline is there but NOT the actual percentage indication). So I have to believe that these two visual indications are linked and due to some Windows or other update.

Having tried all the indicated drivers, I don't know where else to go next. I doubt any Windows update will correct these issues since they are Lenovo software issues.

I would double check msiconfig.exe and see what programs/apps start at boot up and perhaps those two aren't checked to do so.
Sound like you probably tried it, but if not its worth a shot.

Good thought on msconfig. But, yes, I had checked and these are running.

Everything had been working fine until undoutedly some update that has created this issues with the onscreen display.

If I click on the outline of the battery gauge in the sytem tray, power manager opens properly and shows the battery settings. So the only thing that does NOT appear to be working is just the onscreen display for it as well as for the volume. And again the volume does work correctly. It is just the display for the volume that is not working. And that would typically be an issue with HotKey Features. But updates for this have not resolved the issue as of yet.

@blue2. Do you get the onscreen network menu 'Change Power Settings of Wireless Radios' when pressing both Fn+F5?

Maybe it is Microsoft's nail in the coffin for XP support...

I hope you can find a solution.

Sometimes there are ghosts in the machine that cannot be diagnose and fix. At those times, I find the best solution is to save your data and restart with a fresh OS and programs install. I'd also take the opportunity to switch over to Win 7.

emeraldgirl08 wrote:@blue2. Do you get the onscreen network menu 'Change Power Settings of Wireless Radios' when pressing both Fn+F5?

Good thought, emeraldgirl. And yes, it works fine.

But it appears to be a different kind of onscreen message. For example, in Desktop -> Settings -> Advanced, I have the onscreen display color indicated as green. That color only shows in the battery gauge indicator and the volume buttons.

But your question now make me think that perhaps I should try re-installing the display driver. I wonder if that could be causing the issue.

FYI the on-screen display I was referring to is this.

Here is on-screen volume display.

Your situation sounds terribly aggravating! I do agree with Cigarguy in reference to a clean install. Sometimes a clean slate will work wonders on many levels! Not sure how attached you are to XP but W7 in my subjective opinion is not too shabby. Hope you get your T61 up to speed soon

emeraldgirl08 wrote:FYI the on-screen display I was referring to is this.

Here is on-screen volume display.

Your situation sounds terribly aggravating! I do agree with Cigarguy in reference to a clean install. Sometimes a clean slate will work wonders on many levels! Not sure how attached you are to XP but W7 in my subjective opinion is not too shabby. Hope you get your T61 up to speed soon

Yes, emeraldgirl. I understood precisely what you were referring to regarding the radio buttons indicator (for bluetooth and wireless) versus the volume indicator on screen. The radio buttons, controlled by hotkeys, work perfectly.

And as I said, volume and power indications do work. The problem is getting these functions to display properly. The volume buttons now do NOT work on each boot, but the physical buttons do control the volume. The power gauge indication works SOMETIMES on boot, but OFTEN on boot gives the indication that the DLL could not run. So there is obviously a conflict at startup.

Of course, doing a clean install, upgrading to W7 or even 8 is a possibility, but for now it'd be nice to know what is the source of the conflict. Other than this, the T61 works perfectly. And without knowing what has caused this issue, there is no guarantee that it won't happen again.

I have the same issue on x61s after I installed updated Power Manager and Hotkey.

I've tried uninstalling these and reinstalling them, twice, but the only result is that ThinkVantage button as well as Fn + F5 used to work but now they don't.

btw I don't have the OSD services running and I don't have processes running.

No idea what to do next. So sad that they brought the old users down, I was thinking of buying another lenovo, like x1, but now they're shelling the usabillity of the old ones so I won't go for new if they don't update.

There are several posts on the issue on lenovo website but no solution yet.

upd.: solution found on one of lenovo website threads, an older version of Hotley needs be installed http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... vu23ww.exe

Just installed XP on a T400. Having the same problems.

- No on-screen display or volume

- pwrmgrtr.dll error

- Fn+F5 doesn't work

- ThinkVantage button doesn't work

- Can't get rid of a "A network connection is unplugged" in the system tray for firewire


Ever find a solution?

radio303 wrote:upd.: solution found on one of lenovo website threads, an older version of Hotley needs be installed http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... vu23ww.exe

Wow, thanks a lot radio303 for updating with your solution! I downloaded and installed the older Hotkey Features Integration 3.81.0100 from Nov. 1, 2012 (w/OSD 6.62.01), and this fixed my On Screen Display on my T420!

I get OSD indicators for caps lock, numlock, brightness, volume, think light! (Although it seems like it doesn't start working immediately after boot.)

HOWEVER, it didn't fix hotkeys, which now do even less than before (i.e. Fn-F7 previously did BIOS-controlled function of toggling LCD/external, instead of launching Presentation Director. Now it doesn't even do that). I wonder if I need an older version of Presentation Director, too.

I will eagerly try on my T61 soon and see what results I get.

Altekay wrote:HOWEVER, it didn't fix hotkeys

And now this is fixed too, thanks to FryPpy's post - enabling the Terminal Services service got the hotkeys working! I'm thrilled.

And this pair of changes fixed OSD and hotkeys for my T61 as well!

blue2 wrote:The specific error message for the battery indicator at startup is:

"An exception occurred while trying to run C:Programs\Thinkpad\UTILITIES\PWRMGRTR.DLL,PwrMgrBkGndMonitor"

I have seen this many times. But more often on X61t when it is booted with "Maximum battery life" powerplan. I think you right - that at a time where Power Gauge starts up some windows service (Lenovo PM service) didn't finished initialization.

I think we can write script to delay loading Power Gauge. It starts from HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run*

We need some utility like sleep (can be taken from msys or cygwin) and write it and command from registry (*) to a .bat (or .cmd) file. To delay load power gauge this script must be placed in registry (*) instead original startup command.

I have find another glitch on poth T61 and X61. "Power off display" from FnF3 menu didn't work. But when time come to screen saver it can switch off display.

FryPpy wrote:I have find another glitch on poth T61 and X61. "Power off display" from FnF3 menu didn't work. But when time come to screen saver it can switch off display.

With the updates above, Fn-F3->"Power off display" is working fine on my T61. I get a little pop-up in my Windows color scheme that says "Please wait"->"Preparing to turn off monitor", and then the screen turns off.