T420 Slow network logon with PM enabled

[mcoletti]

We are running T420s in a mixed Novell/MS environment so we have the Novell client installed on XP. In attempting to troubleshoot this problem we have updated to the latest BIOS, ThinkPad PM driver, and NIC driver.

What we have found is that clients are reporting very slow logons when compared to older Thinkpads. A logon to Novell and the MS Domain takes about 90 seconds versus about 20 with older models. After some investigation I have been able to determine that it is something related to the "ThinkPad PM Service". If I disable this service (and make no other change to the T420) the logon time drops to around 15 seconds.

We also tried to eliminate the Novell logon by selecting "Workstation Only".
With "Workstation only" checked and performing a domain logon we see 15s with PM disabled / 30s with PM enabled. Not as dramatic a slow down as when we are doing both a Novell and Windows domain logon but still a doubling of the time.

I have captured Wireshark traces in both instances and there is a load of traffic during logon with the service enabled that is not present at all when the service is disabled. I looked on Lenovo's site, poked around in the registry, and I cannot find any information on configuration of this service that would explain why it is generating all this traffic during logon and (presumably) slowing down the entire process.

Any thoughts on how we can resolve this issue short of disabling the ThinkPad PM Service?

[jayton4]

Would it be possible to block PM from network access with a local firewall on the clients?

Kudos to you for digging into the problem and trying to find an answer. At the company I work for, we have issues of slow log ons that popped up about 6 months ago, and sometimes the system will completely pause for 60 seconds. Our IT department does not give a [censored] as to what is causing the problem or acknowledge that it even is a problem. They are too busy fixing things that aren't broke and causing more problems.

[chumbluzo]

Our IT department does not give a *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** as to what is causing the problem or This is an excellent site I love it acknowledge that it even is a problem.

I bet that annoys you! I understand how frustrating it can be!

[mcoletti]

Would it be possible to block PM from network access with a local firewall on the clients?.

I don't believe so. It looks like most of the traffic is LDAP requests and the logon is being held up while the requests time out. I also tried to call Lenovo but their immediate response was "You aren't using a Lenovo XP image so we can't support you."

[strada]

We have similar trouble:
- Models: T410 and T420
- Novell Client login: during the execution of the login-script we have a waiting period of 60 seconds (seems to wait for a timeout)
- WinXP only (Win7 no problem)
- latest BIOS, NIC-/WLAN-/PM-drivers have no effect
- workstation-only login is as fast as it should (no login script being executed, no timeout)

Uninstalling the Power Management Driver "solves" the problem with the login-timeout. The effect is similar to stopping the Thinkpad PM and related services. The downside: all fn-keys don't work anymore (not only the PM-related ones) which is not acceptable for deployment.

We see this behaviour since we had to update drivers to avoid network-loss-trouble. The timeout is not as annoying as occasional network loss...

Some weeks ago I managed to get rid of the timeout updating to the newest Ethernet-/WIFI-drivers, but unfortunately I'm currently not able to reproduce this. Updating to the newest drivers does not work now

So I would be glad about every hint to get rid of the timeout without uninstalling the PM-driver or deactivating its service.

[mcoletti]

If you perform a workstation-only logon and then logon to Novell once the desktop is displayed, does the Novell logon proceed quickly or do you still see the 60s pause?

We have similar trouble:
- Models: T410 and T420
- Novell Client login: during the execution of the login-script we have a waiting period of 60 seconds (seems to wait for a timeout)
- WinXP only (Win7 no problem)
- latest BIOS, NIC-/WLAN-/PM-drivers have no effect
- workstation-only login is as fast as it should (no login script being executed, no timeout)

Uninstalling the Power Management Driver "solves" the problem with the login-timeout. The effect is similar to stopping the Thinkpad PM and related services. The downside: all fn-keys don't work anymore (not only the PM-related ones) which is not acceptable for deployment.

We see this behaviour since we had to update drivers to avoid network-loss-trouble. The timeout is not as annoying as occasional network loss...

Some weeks ago I managed to get rid of the timeout updating to the newest Ethernet-/WIFI-drivers, but unfortunately I'm currently not able to reproduce this. Updating to the newest drivers does not work now

So I would be glad about every hint to get rid of the timeout without uninstalling the PM-driver or deactivating its service.