Thinkpad access connection hangs - crashes system

[sparrowhawk]

I have a T60 with XP.

Recently, my computer has started just turning off spontaneously in the middle of my work, around every 2 weeks.

I figured it was a heat issue, since I've made the mistake of working with the laptop on top of a blanket. So I started making sure that the bottom of the laptop had plenty of airspace when working on it.

Two days ago, I decided I've had it with Norton, so I uninstalled it, rebooted, and installed AVG. Let AVG scan the system. The computer decided to go on standby three times during the scan. Wierdly enough, Thinkpad Access Connection popped up every time, just before each standby. (Maybe AVG was trying to do an update at the same time?)

Finally the T60 did another spontaneous shutdown. I brought it up again, tried to get online, observed that the shutdown would happen after Thinkpad Access Connection would hang on the screen.

Rebooted it again. I killed Thinkpad Access Connection in Task Manager. It came up again. I decided to see what would happen if I left it alone. It tried to make a connection, did a hang, and I decided to click on Firefox to see what would happen. Crunch. Computer off again.

I didn't want to leave my computer without anti-virus protection. I also wanted to see if AVG was the culprit. So I went into safe mode and did a full scan there. Happy computer.

I also found a 1.5 gig file in my userprofile temp folder and deleted it, in case that had anything to do with it. (Temp file folder has to stay cleaned out anyway.)

So back to normal boot... turned off wifi radio, set msconfig services to not let the Thinkpad Access Connection service come on upon booting. Reboot. Computer stayed up this time.

AVG complained that it was damaged. Removed, replaced AVG, turned off ANYTHING in AVG that had to do with automatic scanning and/or updating, just in case it was related. AVG now happy. Computer still happy.

Turned radio back on. Thinkpad Access Connection came up and hung again. I killed it in Task Manager before it had a chance to crash my computer again.

Tried to connect again via windows Wireless Network connection. While the windows connection says it was connected, Firefox did not see google, and ipconfig claimed "media disconnected". Phooey.

So now I am connected to the net via old-fashioned LAN cable.

Possible goals at this point:

- Figure out how to connect without using Thinkpad Access connection. In the process, figure out how to get that utility to where it does not need to not come on again.

- Figure out how to get Thinkpad Access Connection working without it causing my computer to die.

-Determine if there is a conflct between AVG and Thinkpad Access Connection.

-Come up with some other idea of why my computer had to do random shutdowns, besides a possible heat issue.

Thanks in advance.

PS:
Just remembered: the last spontaneous shutdown I with this t-60 (before the current problems began) was in the middle of doing some streaming music (internet radio). My old T42 did a hard crash -and-die when I was listening to streaming music and doing Photoshop at the same time. Do Thinkpads have problems with dealing with streaming music?

[truk]

Have you tried uninstalling and re-installing access connections? I never liked it, so I always used the windows wireless tools, so I don't know much about the program.