Thinkpads Forum

The latest round of summer 2008 Lenovo updates cause problems!

First, you'll get a dim screen on shutdown, that changes illumination level. That MIGHT be caused by the power management update, which has other options, or something else I didn't figure out.

Second, the On Screen Display will not work (this is from the Hot Key Customizer).

The Presentation Director still causes a dim screen after changing back to your prior setting.

And, of course, NONE of the earlier versions are available on the Lenovo site once the new version is posted.

Is this for a T61 or a T60?

I just looked up the driver matrix for my T60 (2613-CTO) and the only "new" driver I can see is the Active Protection System.

I bought this laptop mid-June so I have downloaded everything off there as of June 2008 and have kept a few of the more useful ones on CD, but the APS is the only thing I see released after that point.

Lenovo seems to be having issues. Have you noticed that most weekends the support site is down, if not for the weekend then for part of it? Lenovo's Help Center doesn't seem to have the correct permissions to install correctly on Vista 64 bit with a non-OEM load.

I had to adjust permissions to get Help Center up, What can I say I happen to like the Lenovo branding of Vista and want the experience.

I'm not seeing what you are. Are you using an OEM OS?

DarkScythe wrote:Is this for a T61 or a T60?

I just looked up the driver matrix for my T60 (2613-CTO) and the only "new" driver I can see is the Active Protection System.

I bought this laptop mid-June so I have downloaded everything off there as of June 2008 and have kept a few of the more useful ones on CD, but the APS is the only thing I see released after that point.

It's not clear what you are calling *new* but I see fifteen files newer than the Active Protective System released on June 10, 2008 on this, page.

Oh, yeah I don't normally look through there. It's a huge ton of links and just too confusing, so I only go to the driver matrix - that part probably hasn't been updated yet with all those programs/drivers.

JML wrote:The latest round of summer 2008 Lenovo updates cause problems!

First, you'll get a dim screen on shutdown, that changes illumination level. That MIGHT be caused by the power management update, which has other options, or something else I didn't figure out.

The new version of the power manager have an option for "Dynamic Brightness Control" where you can choose to dim the screen when logoff, screen lock, screensaver etc. It can be disabled though. I'll guess this is the reason for the dim screen on shutdown. Some of these settings is enabled by default after installing the new power manager.

T60, 2613-CTO, runnning XP Pro, SP2.

The problems are incredibly hard to trace if you use the Thinkpad Productivity Center to update. I had updated my system in June, and there were about four or five new updates in July.

The current video driver has been buggy since it was released in the fall, and continues to be offered despite many reports, so nothing has been done to fix the serious problems it causes. The Presentation Director has, for two or three versions, caused a dim main screen after use. And yes, the power management setting probably caused the brightness changes at logoff (they should NOT have enabled them by default, IMO).

The Lenovo updating system still shows two items that have been installed on my system at least three times: the WAN update and the R&R update.

The network card drivers are still unsigned, which can cause problems with enabling/disabling them, due to an unfixed flaw in MS Windows XP that took me a day to track down.

This is my fifth ThinkPad. And probably my last, I'm afraid to say. I'm fed up with the poor software QC, the lousy updating, and lack of support.

[sigh]

Well, all I can say is:

do not let Thinkvantage system update download and install updates automatically.

If you want to use Thinkvantage system update at all, make it just scan for updates and display them to you. Then, decide manually if you really need them by reading the what's new/what was fixed sections in the changelogs.
There aren't too many updates, so this should be a manageable task.
If you don't have a problem that is reportedly fixed by an update or if the update doesn't contain critical security fixes, do not install it and keep the version that proved to work properly.

I know it's tempting to always go for the latest versions, but I found most of the latest versions to be completely irrelevant for my system (no bugfixes, disputable new features in power manager, support for new Thinkpad models which I don't own).

The computer is a tool which is required to just work. Stop the hunt for new versions just for the higher version numbers' sake, and your life will be less frustrating.

Another thing that irritates me is the "Package Index Server is unavailable..." message. I don´t know if this is a problem with Vista only or my new T60p or just some server error of late. I never encountered this problem previously with T41p.

I agree with Quagmyre: Don´t fix if it aint broken.

Also concurring with Quagmyre. Has anyone else noticed, though, that the changelog info is pretty painful to get at in Lenovo updates? It often takes more doing than it should to find out what exactly the update adds/fixes.

james2008 wrote:It often takes more doing than it should to find out what exactly the update adds/fixes.

Absolutely. I have had ThinkPads since 1996, and since the sale to Lenovo, the information about the updates has been minimal at best, and grossly incomplete at worst. And unless you can roll back a driver (which does NOT always do what you want, because of associated files that aren't the drivers themselves), or did a manual download of the updater and kept them (which is what I used to do), it has become Lenovo's practice to remove the prior update when the new one is posted. So it's very difficult to cleanly remove a problematic update and fully restore the prior one.

And I believe the quality control over the updates has become spottier, and the corrections take far longer to appear (if they ever do). The hardware is superb, but the software isn't keeping pace.

JML wrote:Absolutely. I have had ThinkPads since 1996, and since the sale to Lenovo, the information about the updates has been minimal at best, and grossly incomplete at worst. And unless you can roll back a driver (which does NOT always do what you want, because of associated files that aren't the drivers themselves), or did a manual download of the updater and kept them (which is what I used to do), it has become Lenovo's practice to remove the prior update when the new one is posted. So it's very difficult to cleanly remove a problematic update and fully restore the prior one. The Toshiba used to be a big mess as well, but that's a long time ago so might be better now. So even if you are not very happy with lenovo they are for sure not the worst.

And I believe the quality control over the updates has become spottier, and the corrections take far longer to appear (if they ever do). The hardware is superb, but the software isn't keeping pace.

I had several Thinkpads as well and currently own a T61p. I also had a couple of Toshiba's a long time ago and a HP a few months ago. Even if Lenovo might not be perfect it's great compared to HP. Using HP you really have to spend a lot of time finding the updates and the software update tool from HP never find anything so it's basically just a waste of diskspace. Also if you think you can find all the updates listed under your current model you have to think again. If you find a update the version listed might be an old version even if listed as the latest. I find HP to be the worst so far, but the only thing that is nice is that you can download the previous versions which Lenovo and previously IBM never understood why this is a good idea.

Regarding the buggy video driver i had lot of issues with the HP and a ATI video adapter. I also read a lot of other people with a HP laptop had the same problem, but they never released a new driver to fix this problem. Not sure who to blame, but i belive ATI create the driver. The T61p have a nVIDIA video adapter that i find to be a lot better then ATI. I had so many issues with ATI for my previous laptop so i will try to avoid ATI in the future. I'm very happy with the nVIDIA. I cannot say for sure, but i feel that ATI is to blame for the video drivers and all the problems people had.

I'm not sure if this is the same problem i had, but using presentation director you have an option to capture your current settings which solved some problems i had with the screen being dimmed after the use of presentation director.

Just yesterday I went to install updates because I was having a hard time configuring my bluetooth. It installed 13 packages, I'm not sure of the names, but it included a bios and an Access Connetions update. When my computer started back up after the restart it loaded windows fine but when I logged in the screen stayed black and I only saw an Access Connections progress bar appear briefly. I restarted my computer but now It won't even bring me to the log in screen, It just goes black after the Windows XP loading screen.

I'm stuck running Knoppix on this computer, can anybody help me out? I'm running XP Pro. I had an issue with the MBR on one these before.

Specific information:
The Hotkey 2.08.2008 update, which installs the On-Screen Magnifier, and the On Screen Display, is flawed on XP SP2, on my T60. The Hotkey Display driver it installs, 5.12, won't permit the On Screen Display to work from the ThinkPad Configuration utility! I had to dig up and install the earlier version, 5.06, which, of course, is no longer available from Lenovo. I had to grab it from another site.