Thinkpads Forum

So...right to the topic...I got my new T500 for a week or two now...at the beginning...EVERYTHING worked perfectly well...then a couple of days ago...I've got tons of "important" updates from MS(I am not quite sure if that was the SP1 update...my T500 comes with VISTA ULTIMATE)...and also some updates for my newly installed MS OFFICE 07...I installed all of them...then things started to go wrong...now almost non of my hot keys( u know...those blue ones...like Fn+F5 for connection and everything) works...and my little green bar for the power management is not in the tool bar anymore...I am now stuck with that crappy Intel Graphics Accelerator...and cant do anything about it...
Any suggestions? I've seen a lot of threads talking about the all these Lenovo drivers...but then...couldn't find the solution I wanted...so...hmmm...any sort of help would be appreciated...

Have you tried updating the system with Lenovo System Update?

Welcome to the forum! I don´t believe it was SP1 as all new machines come with SP1 already installed. Those were the "regular" bunch of updates from M$ for a new machine. It has probably installed "its" Lenovo drivers, which are in most cases pretty outdated compared the current versions. It also seems to have installed its ATI driver, which has messed up the switchable graphics. Since your laptop is only 2 weeks old, I assume you don´t have much programs and data to back up, so the easiest way to "fix the problem" would be to restore the factory contents of the laptop. After this you should take more care what updates you install from M$ (change settings in windows update to manually choose the updates to download). You could also try uninstalling the problematic updates/drivers and installing the current Lenovo ones, you will have to download them all from Lenovo website (that would be the manual way). As YW-Slayer suggests, you may also try to update your system using Lenovo System Update, which may or may not fix some of the problems, it may also cause new ones, but at least I think it´s worth a try. If it doesn´t solve some problems, you will have to try the other two ways.

Good luck

Marin

...and just a side note: for compatibility reasons it´s always a good idea to firstly apply any updates from Lenovo and then the windows updates from M$ since the first ones refer are mostly drivers, Lenovo app updates and (compatibility) patches/fixes.

OMG...that really hurts...I guess then I have to...uninstall a lot of updates...or simply restore the system...but then...can we even know which updates would screw up the Leonovo drivers???I mean...I really dont want this to happen again...after I restore the entire system...

if you take a look at the update history, among the "regular" M$ updates you will see something like "update for Lenovo CXT modem" etc. All updates that refer to some hardware component or include the name Lenovo are unwanted in this context

Marin

...and BTW how about trying to fix these problems via Lenovo System Update? It will probably find the mismatching/outdated versions, will download the latest updates from its repository (which btw are not really the very latest, the very latest can be found on Lenovo website for manual download, later some time they get available via System Update) and overwrite the old ones. If you are lucky, it may fix some of the problems

Marin

I've tried the system update thing...but got no luck...I also went to WINDOWS update history...surprisingly...none of them had a title under Lenovo or whatsoever...guess I am just running out of luck...

Well, then this makes things much simpler - you will have to either restore to factory contents or reinstall/manually update the things that don´t work. Actually, you may be able to save the situation with little effort. I think I know what exactly you will have to reinstall:
1. Lenovo System Interface Driver
2. Power Management Driver
3. Hotkey/onscreen display
4. Video driver (for switchable graphics)

You can find all these on Lenovo website (for your particular model). So, as of now, try this and see if it works.

Marin

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to mention that it´s important to keep more or less that order. You will also have to uninstall these drivers. 1-3 can be found under Ad/Remove software, 4 can be uninstalled from within Device Manager.

THANX SO MUCH BUDDY....i am gonna go and try it out now...

The problem with restoring to factory content in such situations is that you actually don´t know exactly which M$ update screwed up your setup. Since you will have to update again, the same problem may happen again. For the manual install of these drivers you will anyway have to download them manually from Lenovo, which means they will be the latest versions. This at least makes it less probable that some other future updates from M$ will screw up your system.

BTW, here you can see the advantage of a clean install: in the general case it implies that you will install some recent versions of Lenovo drivers and software, which reduces the chance for future problems with windows updates.

It´s always a good idea to first update Lenovo drivers/software (from Lenovo, not from M$) and then update windows


Marin

for some kinda reason...I cant really find the "video driver" for switchable graphics..I only found the driver for the INTEL GPU...

Hm, uninstall that one too. The "new" Intel driver should be able to see it. Also, the "new" ATI driver should be able to find the ATI card. You may have to switch the cards from within BIOS before that (to make possible for the corresponding driver setup to see its card), for instance, switch to the ATI card, boot and try to install the Lenovo ATI driver. Then do the same for the Intel card.