[SOLVED] T60 keyboard+ultranav freeze after XP-SP3 update

[singbad]

Hi,
I've got a T60 with a properly activated Windows XP that apparently had not been used for years. I allowed to install all the automatic updates from Microsoft and after a day or two and several dozens of restarts it resulted in a completely up-to-date XP-SP3 OS. At least that's what I expected. On every restart I was asked to allow more updates which were effectuated during the next shutdown. Suddenly a warning appeared, something like 'The Synaptics Ultranav driver could not be updated' and after the next restart the keyboard, the trackpoint and the touchpad are frozen. I booted in safe mode and installed the Ultranav driver and the Ultranav utility manually but nothing changed. Version: 7.2.3.10 of 06/24/2003

Strange observations:

with the frozen keyboard I can still switch the Thinklight on and off

I booted a live Linux - everything works

Windows again - everything works for 10 minutes, then the Ultranav freezes again, keyboard keeps working.

a USB mouse works

connecting and disconnecting a USB keyboard brings the internal keyboard back to life

I am writing this on the internal keyboard using an external mouse (which I'm no longer used to since the invention of touchpads)

Any ideas?

Best regards,
singbad

[RealBlackStuff]

Bad main battery most likely. Remove and try without.

[singbad]

Sounds somewhat like 'your engine won't start 'cause your spare tire's flat' SCNR

OK, we're in computing, nothing's too bizarre to exclude. I pulled out the battery and restarted but I had to leave office before I could see the result. Will report later. I just remember the screen suddenly dimmed in AC-only mode.

[RealBlackStuff]

That's correct, the machine works only under full steam when with both battery AND adapter.

[singbad]

Rebooted. Ultranav shows same symptoms w/o battery. Keyboard initially worked for Thinklight and Fn-F8 Ultranav setup but is completely dead now. USB plug-in/plug-out doesn't change anything.

BTW, battery is reported OK, 73% capacity, 15 cycles

EDIT:
After leaving the system in standby mode for a few hours Ultranav and keyboard work. Wondering for how long...

[singbad]

I've found that reproducibly after every resume from standby both keyboard and Ultranav are locked and can only be re-activated by connecting/disconnecting a USB keyboard.

I don't know how to handle this. I could clone a working XP SP3 system from another T60 and see what it does on this machine. However, the other machine has got an ATI X1400 video chipset while mine has the X1300. Will this be a problem?

Best regards,
singbad

[singbad]

SOLVED: BIOS update