Thinkpads Forum

Received a T60WS with Vista a couple of weeks ago and have lots of questions. Does IBM have a place to ask these? Or are user forums the best place?

First, I have two mini docking stations. One at work, the other at home. When I dock at either, I have to open the computer to set the display mode to work on the external monitor. Then when I close the laptop, it shuts down. How can this all be done automatically?

Second, how do I set the computer up to not display on the laptop but only display on the external monitor?

Third, I have a USB hard drive. When I push the button to undock it never shows "ready." When I try to shut down the USB hard drive via the "Safely remove hardware" button, it says that the generic hard drive is still running and not ready to shut down. But it never shuts down. I end up having to just disconnect it and then I get errors. Any ideas?

Welcome to the forums, you have come to the best place for thinkpad support.

1. The system is not shutting down when you close the lid of the laptop, but is going to sleep. To disable this, click on the power meter of your taskbar and go to Global Power settings. Change the status ot the 'Lid Closed' option to No action.

2. You don't have to open the laptop and change the resolution setting everytime you use the laptop in the dock. Hit Fn+F7 and launch the presentation manager. Press 'manage schemes' and create a new profile with all the settings you need. This is faily simple and you should be able to do what you are looking for.

3. You have to close all open application/files/folders running from the USB HDD before you try to disconnect. Otherwise it will not shut down. I have no trouble disconnecting any USB HDD when I use my T60.

If you need more help regarding the presentation manager, please let us know hereand I will guide you through it.

Enjoy your T60!

Thanks for the great help Gator. Your answers lead to more detailed questions.

About disabling sleep mode when the lid is closed, is there a way to be more specific about this so that when it is in the docking station, it does not go into sleep mode but when the laptop is used apart from the docking station, it will go into sleep mode when closing the lid?

In your answer to #3 (USB hard drive). All programs appear to be ended (when I check the applications tab in task manager). But the HD still doesn't want to shut down. The hard drive is a Maxtor OneTouch I bought a few years ago. Maybe it isn't set up for this. Do I need any special software or drivers or should Vista handle it?

Another question -- When I open the ThinkVantage Productivity Center screen, it shows that I have 9 new messages in Message Center. It even shows the subjects of these messages. But when I try to click on a single message, the mouse pointer does not change shape (like the message can't be selected). When I select "View All Messages," the screen that opens reads,

"Messages For This Machine Only
There are no messages to display."

I don't understand. In Message Center, I did choose Preferences and checked only to get "Downloads and Drivers" and "Alerts." Could these nine messages be "Upgrades and Accessories" and "New Products?"


Question --it seems like there are some similar but different programs in the ThinkVantage menus versus Vista. For example, I can choose backups via ThinkVantage or I can choose them through Vista. Different programs that achieve a similar goal -- backing the system up. I've found that the Vista program allows me to save to the USB hard drive while the ThinkVantage option does not. Is there any reason that I should favor one approach versus the other?

Question --inally, I'd like for the computer to check the system time from an internet time site. I can't find this option in the Vista time setting screen. Did they remove it? What options exist?

Question -- on the right side of the computer there is a green light next to the two USB ports. What is it for? It's always lit solid when the computer is on.

Finally, for now, when I tried to connect wirelessly to my home router, the wifi indicator was flashing green, but a screen came up that said I wasn't connected and did I want to turn wifi on? Shouldn't the indicator be indicating "off" if this were the case? I chose "yes," and it worked fine but the indicator light confuses me.

I hope I'm not going overboard with questions, but I'm going to take you up on your offer.

Thanks again,

Tabasco

I beleive this is your first thinkpad

1. The green light near the side of the machine is for your optical drive. I hope you know that it is hot swappable (meaning you can remove it when the computer is switched on) and the green light shows that it is inserted into tha machine. The optical drive sits in a bay called the 'Ultraslim bay' and is removable. You can replace it with a secondary battery or a 2nd HDD adapter with an additional HDD for extra storage.

2. As regarding the sleep function of the laptop on closing the lid, I dont know of any way to change this behavior automatically between docked and undocked cases. I beleive that you can leave it in sleep mode permanently after you set up the proper docking setup you want as regarding to the screen resolution. I use a mini-dock at my workplace often and I have had no trouble docing and undocking it.

3. Try using the Fn+F9 combination to launch the easyeject utility for removing your USB harddrive if the default windows one doesnt work properly. Choose "USB storage" in the program and run easyeject actions. This has always worked for me.

4. I don't know about time settings in windows vista since I run XP pro ... maybe someone else can help you there.

5. I don't use the IBM message center at all. I disable it from running and use the Thinkvantage System Update periodically to see if any updates are available. (This is found under Start-->Thinkvantage). System Update is a fantastic tool to keep your laptop upto date and I suggest you reply on it than IBM message center.

6. Don't be bothered about the indicator light, sometimes that happens.

7. Regarding seting up a new profile in the presentation director, do the following steps: (dont dock the machine while doing this)

a. Press Fn+F7 to launch the presentation manager, Choose more schemes and press 'New' in the next dialogue.
b. Press next on the first screen, and on the 2nd screen choose your monitor type (Analog/Digital). Uncheck the Thinkpad LCD option in the top of the screen and press next.
c. Choose the resolution you want in this screen, and press test to check the display (you have to have your monitor connected to the laptop for this ... if you are using a monitor with a DVI input, ignore this step). You will see a screen on your external display and your thinkpad display will go blank. Press close on the external monitor
using your laptop mouse and you will get back the display on your laptop.
d. Ignore all options in next two screens (press next on both without checking any options)
e. Give a name for your setup and press OK.
f. You will come back to the presentation director. Now check the 'Immediately apply this scheme' when thinkpad is docked and choose the shceme you just created.
g. you dont' have to bother with sleep settings on your laptop, but I strongly suggest you keep it under sleep mode while the lid is closed.

h. Close your laptop and your machine will go to sleep. Power your dock, connect the monitor to the docking station. Dock your laptop and press the power button on the dock - if all went well, the external monitor sshould work fine now. If there is no dispaly or anything, simply undock the machine by pressing the 2nd button on the docking station, wait till it turns green and then unlock and remove your machine and check all steps again.

If this does not work, let me kno what problem you are having and I'll try to see what went wrong.

I tried to adapt the display profile. There are several choices that are grayed out, though. For example, I can't choose "Immediately apply this scheme when thinkpad is docked" because it is grayed out. What do I need to do to access this choice?

tabasco