T60 roaming profile issues

[curnz]

Hi all,

I have done a quick search but was unable to find anything on this issue.

I have noticed an issue with our Lenovo T60's and was hoping someone might have experienced the same thing. To summarise, the roaming profile is not updating when the user logs off. The error only occurs after the initial login. For example, if you restart the laptop, log on and off, the roaming profile updates. If the user then logs in again, makes more changes, then logs off again, the roaming profile does not update!

I could only find this which mentions the same issue, but no fix: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthr ... ?p=1817119



Here is the tests I did, if any other domain users out there with roaming profiles would like to test this it would be very appreciated.

1. Logon. Create new documents on desktop. Log Off.
2. Check roaming profile. Desktop folder is empty.
3. Logon, files on desktop are present. Log Off
4. Still nothing in roaming profile desktop folder.
5. Restart. Logon and off.
6. Roaming profile now contains the files which were missing.
7. Logon. Create new document. Log Off.
8. Roaming profile has not updated with new document.
9. Restart. Logon and Off. Roaming profile updated.
10. Logon, create new document. Log Off.
11. Roaming profile has not updated.
12. Restart, Logon and Off.
13. Again, roaming profile updated.



Hmm anyone else seeing a pattern here? So far I have tested 3 and all have the same issue. All our users are set-up to have roaming profiles. This does not occur with other laptops I have tested.

I am using a T60 Type 2008-DK3.

Any help appreciated

Thanks,
Dave.

[NathanA]

I dunno, but I have a really hard time believing that this is a ThinkPad-specific problem. It's not like ThinkPads come with a different version of Windows than other OEMs' PCs or anything like that. About the only thing I can think of that might be ThinkPad-specific would possibly be some preloaded software preventing the roaming profile from updating for some reason.

Have you tried performing any searches while leaving "ThinkPad" out of your search query?

You could try to uninstall some of the preloaded software and ThinkVantage software piece-by-piece until the problem is fixed; the most obvious one to start with might be Access Connections, or the Symantec security suite. If you have a spare hard drive kicking around, it might be interesting to do a clean Windows install, verify that roaming profiles are working as expected (can't see any reason why they wouldn't at this point), and then install ThinkVantage apps one by one until it breaks.

-- Nathan

[em kay]

Unfortunately it is a problem with the T60, it is caused by the ATI video driver.

You may also experience problems printing with HP print drivers and certain 'remote control' systems management applications don’t work as expected.

We drop the video acceleration down to 'none' on these machines to cure the problem in our corporate environment.

Don’t blame Lenovo though, we have a number of desktop systems with the ATI video chipset that experience exactly the same issue.

[curnz]

NathanA - Thanks for your suggestion but I know its nothing to do with preloaded software because I've done a plain install of WinXP on the T60 and seeing the same issue.

em kay - Thankyou! I dropped the Hardware acceleration to None and rebooted. Ran a few tests and sure enough the problem was gone! I'm amazed that a profile/networking type issue is affected by video chipset/drivers!

The T60 I have uses the ATI Mobility Radeon X1300. I'll be following this up with ATI.

Thanks.

[NathanA]

Wow, that's crazy! A video driver causing networking and printing problems?!

Kudos to em kay for supplying the answer.

I'm guessing that since em kay says it happens with other desktops that have ATI video that trying to use video drivers other than the ones that IBM/Lenovo supplies does not fix the issue (such as the latest Mobility Catalyst drivers off of ati.amd.com?)

-- Nathan

[The Spirit of X21]

That is definitely one of the wackier causes of networking problems I've heard recently!

[curnz]

Definitely a strange one. I've just updated the video driver from 8.293.1.0 to 8.362.0.0 (downloaded from the Lenovo website). The new driver has reset hardware acceleration to Full. Testing I have done so far is looking promising, I have not been able to reproduce the problem I was previously having.

Fingers crossed...

edit: I should note that the issue is not listed in the 'bugs fixed' when reviewing the documentation for release 8.362.0.0

[Marie-Anne]

I'm not sure, but may be Micorosft's utility "User Profile Hive Cleanup Service" could help solving your problem?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

[curnz]

Marie-Anne - Thanks for the suggestion, we already use the profile cleanup tool on all our builds.

I'm fairly certain now that the new video driver has resolved the issue. I did a driver roll back and was able to produce the problem again. Then updated to the newer video driver and the problem no longer occurred.