T420: Can't get hotkeys or on screen display working (XP)

[Altekay]

• I've installed the "Hotkey Features Integration 3.89.0000 6/18/14" (which includes Lenovo System Interface Driver 1.05, On Screen Display 6.73.00, and Thinkpad FullScreen Magnifier 2.41).
• I installed Presentation Director, and under "Fn+F7 Settings," it's "Show me the Choose Display Scheme menu."
• Under Display properties->Advanced->On Screen Display, "Enable on-screen display" is checked.
• Fn/Ctrl swap is not enabled in BIOS.
• BIOS version is most recent (1.46 7/17/13).

But:

• I never get an OSD for any event (i.e. change brightness, change/mute volume, num lock, thinklight, etc. doesn't add a green indicator on the screen).
• Windows-configured Hotkeys don't work (i.e. despite setting in Presentation Director, Fn-F7 doesn't bring up the Choose Display Scheme menu, but merely tries to toggle between LCD and external, i.e. the default behavior without Presentation Director running).

I.e. All the keys do what the BIOS already lets them do (such as change brightness), but these helpful Lenovo Windows apps get to have no involvement.

I can see that various relevant services are running: tpfnf7sp.exe, hkcmd.exe, pdirect.exe, tponscr.exe.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled all of the above. No change. This is a fresh XP SP3 install with nothing else installed except other T420 drivers (chipset, video, audio, SATA, power, mouse).

In trying to figure out what could be wrong, I've taken a stab that the "Human Interface Device Access" service might be important (perhaps without it, nothing in Windows can see any of the non-standard keys, i.e. the Fn key?), and gotten that running successfully (hidserv.dll was originally missing). But it has made no difference.

(Keyboard in Device Manager is "Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard. I've found no way to add a more specific keyboard driver.)

I've searched online extensively. I found one legit mention of someone else not getting it working. For everyone else, it was just that they never installed the above drivers.

FWIW, I never got hotkey or OSD working on T61's, either. But they worked fine on T41's.

Anyone have any clues, or success stories?

[jhullin]

If I recall mine didnt work either until I installed the power manager driver and Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributables. Just guessing from mem though. Good luck...................

[Altekay]

Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributables, hmm! I'll try that. (Power manager driver is already installed.)

I also notice that on both computers where OSD and Hotkey Features don't work (T61/T420), there is always this process running SCHTASK.EXE, which is a scheduled task wrapper for the Thinkpad process PWMIDTSK.EXE (named PMTask in the task list), launched immediately "when idle," and always hanging and needing to be force quit at OS shutdown (the process SCHTASK is not responding...). There's no such apparently stuck process on the T41, where the features do work.

I wonder if I should hunt online for old versions of Hotkey Features, in case they work (even though the T420 itself isn't very old).

[Altekay]

Fixed! Two parts to the solution:
1) Get older version of Hotkey Features. (3.81.0100, 11/1/12.) Even though the current versions claim to work with XP, they don't. This enables OSD.
2) Enable Terminal Services service. This enables hotkeys.

See also: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 37#p738944

Thanks to forum members FryPry and radio303!

[emeraldgirl08]

This was certainly a big help!!!

In my case it was on an X201 Tablet w/a freshly installed W7 64bit SP1. This is the first time I've run into this and it was not enjoyable to say the least!

@Altekay. I installed the version you linked and the OSD appeared after a reboot. In my case I did not have to adjust the 'Terminal Services' service.

Major thanks to all who contributed!!!

[redart]

Fixed! Two parts to the solution:
1) Get older version of Hotkey Features. (3.81.0100, 11/1/12.) Even though the current versions claim to work with XP, they don't. This enables OSD.
2) Enable Terminal Services service. This enables hotkeys.

See also: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 37#p738944

Thanks to forum members FryPry and radio303!

Hi - just want to add my thanks to Altekay for posting the link to the older version of Hotkeys. I've been trying to get OSD working on my 'new' T400s since I bought it. The older version of Hotkeys did the trick, well almost....OSD works for volume, mute, mic, etc, but not for brightness. Happy enough with it the way it is now though as brightness is something you can see anyway. Thanks again.

[muonic]

Fixed! Two parts to the solution:
1) Get older version of Hotkey Features. (3.81.0100, 11/1/12.) Even though the current versions claim to work with XP, they don't. This enables OSD.
2) Enable Terminal Services service. This enables hotkeys.

See also: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 37#p738944

Thanks to forum members FryPry and radio303!

Wonderful. I've been all over the place for weeks chasing this problem and this is the only solution I've found. Thanks very very much.