Thinkpads Forum

First post! Glad to have found these forums.

I have a new t60p with XP SP2.

Lately it's been unable to resume from standby. It worked OK when I first got it, so something I've changed has munged it up.

When resuming it will ask for my fingerprint, but after I swipe it, I don't get the "cylon" authenticating popup, just my blank desktop wallpaper. It's not totally locked up - the mouse still moves, and if I use the radio switch a popup will appear, but it never restarts my Windows session. Ctrl-alt-delete does nothing, so I have to hold down the power button for 5s to do a hard shutdown to recover.

If I turn off the "ask for a password when returning from standby" checkbox, it resumes perfectly, but I'd prefer to have it more secure than that.

I've been installing software (nothing dodgy AFAIK) and tweaking the system to my liking, but as far as I can recall the only major things I've done to the base setup have been uninstalling Google Desktop and some defragmenting suite that came with the system, and removed some minor items from startup in the registry (Quicktime and installshield update checkers - I hate those things).

I'm not expecting anyone to know exactly what's wrong, but I'd appreciate any advice on how to go about troubleshooting this problem or any utilities you've found that can help out. (Don't be afraid to get technical, this is my first Thinkpad but I've been around computers for a while).

Thanks very much! -Mike G.

These sorts of issues are hard to ferret out. Last fall, my wife's T42 would no longer go into Standby. Standby was greyed out. Using Fn + F4, Start > Standby, closing the display lid, or low battery level would not bring the T42 into Standby. I was at a loss because I had done a number of Lenovo driver & software updates, as well as Windows Updates, shortly before I left home a couple of months before. I was unaware of any problem with Standby then.

I decided to try System Restore. I booted into SAFE MODE and chose a restore point from before the latest round of updates about 2 months previous. Worked great. Standby again was working properly. I reapplied the updates and checked Standby after each one, and everything was fine.

Finally, I realized that the Epson C60 (fallback) printer that my daughter had bought at a garage sale a couple of months previous, was no longer installed. I reinstalled the printer driver and the Standby problem returned. I uninstalled the printer driver and Standby again was working. I searched on Epson's site for an updated driver, which there was, and installed that without a hitch.
-------------

Perhaps you should try uninstalling the Fingerprint Reader software, reboot, then reinstall the software and see how things go. Otherwise, perhaps System Restore will work for you as it did for me.

P.S. One other thing, in case you are unaware of it; there was a problem with the PC Doctor 5 for Windows installation on some machines last Nov. & Dec. Check Add or Remove Programs for missing entries (esp. Windows Updates) or erroneous programs listed. It will be pretty obvious in Add or Remove Programs if this happened to you. System Restore from SAFE MODE fixed this on my T42.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try rolling back a bit and see if that fixes it, then move forward slowly. I had read about a windows utility for tracing startups and shutdowns, but I guess that since then it's been removed from Microsoft's site.

I also see that some people here are uninstalling "client security solution". Do you know what the ramifications are for this? (I'd like to keep my private info somewhat secure if the machine gets lost or stolen).

EDIT: Another question, I've been using the "repair" option for the Thinkpad utilities rather than uninstall/reinstall because I'm not sure where I can get the install files later... Can you reinstall individual utilities from the recovery discs I made, or download from Lenovo's website or ?

Thanks for the help! -Mike G.

I had the same problem. It appears to be an interaction between The ThinkVantage Client Security Solution and the Symantec Client Firewall. Disabling the firewall fixed it.

mgrusin wrote:Another question, I've been using the "repair" option for the Thinkpad utilities rather than uninstall/reinstall because I'm not sure where I can get the install files later... Can you reinstall individual utilities from the recovery discs I made, or download from Lenovo's website or ?

You cannot reinstall individual utilities from the Product Recovery Disc set. That set repartitions and reformats your hard drive, then installs the original factory OS, drivers, and software.

You should have all the original installation programs in a folder on your hard drive. On my T42, they are located in subfolders of C:\IBMTOOLS\. You can also download the Lenovo drivers and software from their website. You cannot download commercial software from Lenovo such as WinDVD or RecordNow! - you can only download upgrade patches.

Software and Device Drivers - ThinkPad T60, T60p

You can also use ThinkVantage System Update, and for the time being Software Installer (SI is being phased out) to download software, drivers, and updates from Lenovo.

GomJabbar wrote: You should have all the original installation programs in a folder on your hard drive. On my T42, they are located in subfolders of C:\IBMTOOLS\. You can also download the Lenovo drivers and software from their website....

Software and Device Drivers - ThinkPad T60, T60p

You can also use ThinkVantage System Update, and for the time being Software Installer (SI is being phased out) to download software, drivers, and updates from Lenovo.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of 'stuff' that the Lenovo comes with, and I'm still trying to come to terms with it. I have avoided uninstalling anything to date, because I'm scared I may never be able to reinstall it!

I see the folder C:\IBMTOOLS with subfolders APPS, DRIVERS, OSFIXES. In 'apps', I see folders (eg) ALRN, AMSG, ... RNR, SCS, etc etc. I don't see any 'master list' of what apps are contained in what folders (obviously, some can be guessed from the folder names, but some are less obvious). If I run 'software installer', I see it scanning the IBMTOOLS folder (and others), then it lists stuff. I presume this is the tool I'm looking for. If I were to lose the IBMTOOLS folder, I presume I can download most things (except WinDVD, etc?) from the web - so I should make sure I have a backup of this IBMTOOLS folder for those things at least.

If they are phasing out software installer, is system update offering me the same features? I don't see anything like the list of software in system update. System Update seems geared entirely to updating stuff. However, since I have yet to uninstall anything, maybe system update would also offer to re-install things I uninstalled? That would be ok, I guess.

I should have mentioned that you can double-click on the .XML file in each subfolder of C:\IBMTOOLS\ and this will tell you what the program is in that folder and which version it is.

I have not used System Update for some time. I manually download the packages from Lenovo's site, execute them to extract the contents to the hard drive, then run Software Installer to actually install the program. You still should read the .txt file for each download, because a couple of them install when you first execute them. I believe Rescue & Recovery and Client Security Software is among them.

I think the issue is with the standby mode with new Intel chipsets. I have a T60 and can't put it into standby/sleep, as it doesn't wake up. My system was reimaged from the company. I don't believe the device drivers are still baked yet for sleep, as with the new Intel chipsets since 2H 06, the support a mode called "Deep Sleep Power Down". If it goes in this state, it won't wake back up.

I don't think VIsta has resolved it either.
Good luck.
John.

Mabbas, I'm not sure what you are saying. Does yours NEVER wake up, or not all the time?

After years of relying on 'hibernate' instead of standby due to unreliable standby on my old Dell latitude, I've started using standby at least twice a day now on my new T60 and it's proving to be pretty reliable. I start work in the morning at home, then 'standby', go to the office; dock; wake up and work; then in the evening, I go back to 'standby', undock, go home, then wake from standby again at home undocked, and so the cycle continues. I only shutdown or reboot when absolutely unavoidable.

Now, I am chasing some instability issues with recovery from standby - once it a while it won't recover. But after applying all known patches, I'm seeing some pretty reliable behavior.

It doesn't always wake up from standby. Sometimes I have to power down/powercycle the system. If I hibernate it is fine, no problems. I used to used standby all the time for trips between the wifi cafe and work, and/or home. With my T60, (used to have a T43, T42, T40) Standby hasn't worked. Since the machine was reimaged, I think the problem is with ACPI and/or drivers. I have read tons of issues with the Standby/sleep mode, as the newer power management from Intel "Deep Sleep Power Down" is supposed to save you even more battery life when it is in sleep mode. I initially had problems as this new mode would power down the wired ethernet, when a level of inactivity was detected, but the network card wouldn't wake back up. I had to upgrade drivers, and turn off the power saving mode on the ethernet card.

With some of the new power management, new issues are created. Vista Power management is quirky at best, it will take a while before that is all figured out. I test both Lenovo and HP products, and neither is perfected for Vista. I assume that isn't a surprise to anybody.

Years ago, I had a coworker tell me that he believes Standby/Suspend was just asking for trouble, as it lead to OS deteriation (SP). I think my previous loads of 2000 and XP didn't have any issues, but with XP on the newer Intel Chipsets and even with Vista we are in a new frontier, and I know believe his words.


Good luck,
John.