Thinkpads Forum

Hi all, here's a weird one for all of you, my t61 (running xp sp3) goes in to standby ( in mid work) at random times, sometimes it's when I'm using cad application other times it happens while browsing the net, i can't really say there's something that triggers it, what's worst is when i do power up again it usually is in the process of going in to standby mode before I even get to see my desktop, often this requires me to power up 3 - 5 time in a row until i can get back to work.
I've searched this problem and found other t61 users suffer from it, but i couldn't find any workaround.

Please shed some light

Cheers

Ron

Are you using Lenovo's Power Manager? First thing to try would be to try without it if you do or with it if you don't. If that's not helping, try changing the Power Manager's profile or create your custom one and try different settings there.

Thanks Yak.
Ok I removed the power manager, though there still is application in the uninstall list called "power manager driver" i kept that, changed the windows power scheme to maximum performance, i guess now i have to wait, as this problem occurs sporadically i won't be able to confirm this worked for up to few days, if any of you have any other solutions please post.

Thanks

Ron

Hi again, It's been a few days and the same error keeps occurring, now without the power manager...
Please someone, help!

Sorry, I'm not an T61 expert, that was just a sugestion, the thing I would try first.

You may want to remove this driver too.

However, the best way to exclude any software fault would be to reinstall the operating system. Maybe if you have another hard drive you can install a fresh system there, possibly with a minimum set of 3rd party software and see if the issue still happens.

Hello -

It is probably heat-related! Mine was doing the same thing. I downloaded a temp monitor (speedfan) and discovered the laptop was going to sleep to cool down. Open up and clean the vents and fan blades. Make sure you pull the keyboard bezel and clean the fan thoroughly. Then monitor with SpeedFan.

Thanks,

Michel

But if it was heat-related, wouldn´t the laptop then rather power off or decrease cpu speed than suspend to RAM?

Did you install the latest BIOS for your machines? Of it is a well-known problem (and probably BIOS-related), Lenovo might have released a BIOS update in the meanwhile

Good luck and post back

Marin

I am having this exact problem. Lenovo T61p, Window XP, SP3. It's driving me nuts.

I did install SpeedFan, and caught it on a few mysterious standbys that didn't see to happen when the CPU and cores were warmest, as per the logs. So it doesn't seem to be a overheating thing. Besides, doens't seem to happen more often when in a hot place and heavily loaded.

Any addition pointers from folks who have had this problem and overcome it? Any more ideas on how to fix it or identify the source of the problem? Like the first poster said, it comes and goes. It may not resurface for a few weeks, but then it will it me on the road in a time I need the laptop to be working.

Completely re-installing everying and starting from scratch would be pretty painful - so I am still hoping there would be another way to fix this.

Thanks for any help on this,
Chad

Hey as far as I could tell it was an xp sp3 problem i installed vista 64 2 months ago, not having any more problems, nothing else helped including format and fresh xp sp3...
sorry my friend it'sd time to say gb to xp, on hte plus side i'm getting a serious perfomance boost on the 64 bit os, if you dislike vista consider windows 7 or 2008 64 bit

Cheers

Ron

I am using Vista 64-bit Business on my T61p and do not experience any problems. So I was surprised at your post that XP SP3 is having issues on this machine (no issues on my T41 with SP3), but I was pleased to hear that Vista solved your issue. I tuned Vista to make it work for me and I have it working very fast and reliably. ... JDH

I've recently started experiencing the same problem. I'm on XP SP2, so it's not an SP3 issue, unless it's related to a patch I've already got which is bundled in SP3, nor have I recently installed any system drivers, BIOS updates, or made changes to the power management profile.

I've raised a support call at work (it's an employer provided system), but I also searched our internal forums, and found a colleague asking about the same thing. It looks like his problem was temperature related, as per the info here: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-pri ... 872#M35792

And mine does seem inordinately hot right now (it's done the unprompted standby thing 4 times in the last hour or so) - dunno how hot, but I couldn't comfortably use it on my lap if I wanted to.

I'll install speedfan, or something, and see what the temperatures are.

Hi Bill this was a while back and my problem coincided with high cpu temperatures, though I've come to understand that C2D on T61s generally run hot,
Everything was solved once I started running W7 64bit, I supposed it was a driver problem but could never get around it, I also remember trying to run the machine using Vista 64bit but this presented the same problems.

Hope this helps and sorry for the late reply

Cheers

R

hold on you're not Bill, I ment Mike, sorry...

I am having this problem on one of our users T61s, I am going to check the CPU temperature as soon as the user has some free time for me to work on it. I was wondering if anyone seems to notice it happening when there is a lot of data being transferred via the WIFI card because it seems to happen when we are downloading or tranferring data with it. I was reading on another forum that it may be caused by the driver for the wireless card. I am going to try updating that driver as well but was curious if anyone else has noticed this too...
Or if anyone has found a resolution to this without having to reinstall or upgrade the OS I would really appreciate it if you could let me know what the solution was.

Thanks in advance.

While checking some other forums now I see that it may be a faulty battery. I am going to try to swap out the battery for another one. I will let you know if that resolves the issue.

I've been plagued with this issue since February on my T60 XP SP3. I updated everything on April 1st including the BIOS and I'm still having the issues with that. The T60 not only won't sleep/standby or hibernate, it won't turn off. When I select Turn Off it turns off then boots right back up.

So I went out and bought a T61 XP SP3 last week that was factory restored and completely devoid of any software and also deviod of any ThinkVantage software.

I added the recent ThinkVantage software and updated the BIOS on the T61 with the most current Lenovo downloads.
I didn't install any software other than Spybot.

I have been using the T61 for a week with no issues and noticed the Windows XP kept prompting me about 17 windows updates that needed to be installed.

Once I did the 17 updates I noticed my boot up time is now longer and my T61 now is experiencing the same "not going into sleep, hibernate or standby" drama with either the lid closed or with standy/sleep/hibernate clicked on during the windows shut down prompt.


I played with every configuration of Power Manager and no avail. It seems to be something with Windows XP.
Even System Restore did not help in either my T60 and T61.

Hello
I have the same problem with windows 7!! 32bit sp1
I formatted the computer and I had 132new windows updates. didnt want to install them but windows did anyway and I have had this issue since. (about 2weeks ago).

Exact problem is: fn+f12 just gives me a black screen and all the lights in the button (hard drive, wlan, power) are on. I have to press on/off button to shut it down.

Is this the same problem for you?

erikgoranzon wrote:Hello
I have the same problem with windows 7!! 32bit sp1
I formatted the computer and I had 132new windows updates. didnt want to install them but windows did anyway and I have had this issue since. (about 2weeks ago).

Exact problem is: fn+f12 just gives me a black screen and all the lights in the button (hard drive, wlan, power) are on. I have to press on/off button to shut it down.

Is this the same problem for you?

My T61 is now working. I went into the bios and turned off a bunch of stuff that I saw were on.

My T60 is the same. It won't sleep, stand by, or turn off. Whatever I do it will turn off, beep like crazy, and turn back on.

Even if I close the lid to put it to sleep the entire thing will turn completely off, beep like crazy, and then turn back on to the fingerprint log on screen.

Not sure what it is but when I buy my Intel 520 series 480GB SSD for my T61 and I swap in my original T61 harddrive to the T60 to see if it fixes it.

I have a strong feeling the issue is related to one of the Windows XP updates that came out during Winter 2011/2012.

erikgoranzon wrote:Hello
I have the same problem with windows 7!! 32bit sp1
I formatted the computer and I had 132new windows updates. didnt want to install them but windows did anyway and I have had this issue since. (about 2weeks ago).

Exact problem is: fn+f12 just gives me a black screen and all the lights in the button (hard drive, wlan, power) are on. I have to press on/off button to shut it down.

Is this the same problem for you?

I believe so to. do you remember what kind of stuff you disabled in the BIOS on your t61? since I have the same laptop. T61 - 7665 windows 7 32bit, 4gb ram, t9300 2.5Ghz

Stuff for the Intel Wireless card.

There is an option's menu somewhere on the SET UP that allows certain applications and processes to awake the laptop from sleep or turn it on from hibernate. My wifi card and Intel processes was set to allow the computer to awake from sleep or not enter sleep, standby or hibernate.

I also turned off the windows automatic updates as well. That entire software is built on keeping the laptop in a state of ON so updates can be applied. Its so annoying.

erikgoranzon wrote:

I believe so to. do you remember what kind of stuff you disabled in the BIOS on your t61? since I have the same laptop. T61 - 7665 windows 7 32bit, 4gb ram, t9300 2.5Ghz

Delmarco wrote:Stuff for the Intel Wireless card.

There is an option's menu somewhere on the SET UP that allows certain applications and processes to awake the laptop from sleep or turn it on from hibernate. My wifi card and Intel processes was set to allow the computer to awake from sleep or not enter sleep, standby or hibernate.

I also turned off the windows automatic updates as well. That entire software is built on keeping the laptop in a state of ON so updates can be applied. Its so annoying.

I have now uninstalled all Windows updates and hotfixes under installed updates. I also disable the wake on LAN features in bios.
I still have the problem though
Do you have power manager installed? Do you think I need to uninstall the windows security updates as well?

EDIT: I ran Ubuntu from a dvd and sleep mode worked.

SOLVED
it was a windows security update that caused it.
I uninstalled all 63 security updates and now it works. sleep mode and hibernation works great.
Hope I dont need the security updates? any idea if I will be fine without them?

erikgoranzon wrote:SOLVED
it was a windows security update that caused it.
I uninstalled all 63 security updates and now it works. sleep mode and hibernation works great.
Hope I dont need the security updates? any idea if I will be fine without them?

yeah you will be fine. I will try that as well.

I've been using Thinkpads for 10 years collectively since the T30 days without any antiviral software whatsoever and never got a virus in all that time (knock on wood). I only use Spybot and HiJack and those help out with the cookies-type spyware.

I've found in my time with computers that antivirus and security software and hot fixes tend to create more of a mess than actual viruses and malware.

I've also found Thinkvantage software is actually pretty good in terms of keeping the Thinkpad safe and restoring anything that gets infected.

HEELP, PROBLEM IS BACK

After succesfully using sleep and hibernate for two days I now have the same problem again.

I put the computer in the dock and tried to hibernate and nothing happened (the screen turned black, speakers turned off, the wifi, battery, power lights were on).
i tried without the dock and same result, wouldnt hibernate/sleep. =(

What could have happened in two days that made the problem reveal itself again?

Take a look at the Lenovo Support page, Driver Matrix and go to the T61 page. There is a new Power driver (V1.65) and a new Power Manager (V6 now). These are for Windows 7 and I have them installed (just now) so it will take a day or two to determine if all is well.

Look for the XP counterparts for these drivers. ... JDH