Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I just received my first thinkpad and a W500(T9400, 4GB Ram) with Vista Business 64. But when I select to restart from Windows, it shutsdown but doesn't restart. I have to keep pressing down the power button for a few seconds and then press it again to start booting and after displaying the bios Thinkpad screen, the cursor blinks on top right of a black screen. Now I hard shutdown again using power key, and then press power key to start. Only then it boots.

None of this problem happens if I select 'Shutdown' option from Windows, instead of 'restart'.

I have called Lenovo/IBM support and the guy said it is Vista problem so call Microsoft. But Microsoft website says if Vista came preloaded, call your laptop supplier.

I was going to call again Lenovo, but has any of you experienced this problem?

I have done a system update from Thinkvantage but it doesn't go away.

Thanks,
Bulu

I don't have your machine (mine is a T61p with Vista Business 64). I don't have that problem with Vista, and so I would say keep pushing on Lenovo. You can try F11 and completely re-image to make sure somehow the image wasn't the problem. And I am assuming you haven't loaded too much yet. So try that and then call Lenovo again. ... JDH

Thanks for your reply.

Actually i have discovered that even with Shutdown, it doesn't start the first time.

I had done a recovery from image in HDD. That didn't help. Lenovo finally agreed that the image might be bad and sending me a vista recover disc. I will try that once I get.

It is quite annoying. But I like the laptop otherwise.

For another issue with TPM chip, the service rep asked me to disable the TPM chip in Bios. He said, 'Since you don't have finger print reader you don't need TPM'. Haven't bothered to look so far if that is true. Does anybody have a quick answer for this?

Thanks,
bulu.

Unless you have a fingerprint reader, or use other software that takes advantage of the TPM, it's really not needed.

Thanks for the answer on TPM chip.

The latest update is I tried the recovery DVDs sent by Lenovo. The restart problem happens during install as well. So it doesn't look like OS issue. I eventually gave up installing as for every restart I had to hard shutdown 2-3 times before it would start.

Lenovo is now sending me a box to send the laptop to them.

But just I hung up the phone after talking to support, I found the installation had failed too and it won't boot even from DVD and says 'Hard drive initialization error", and 'no boot device found' and lists a series of devices to boot from. I think HDD crashed.

Probably it was a bad HDD. Who knows, I will send it in the box and wait.

I am a little disappointed though with Thinkpad since they are expected to have such high quality and I expect it to last many years. I know HDDs crash and are unpredictable but still...My 9 year old sony vaio still works with no problem and its HDD failed only after 3 years. Lets see how long w500 lasts.

Have you tried reseating the HDD?

No, I didn't try anything with HDD. Its under warranty so don't want to do anything unless suport guys ask me to.

Another unrelated observation is that left side of keyboard has flex. Doesn't bother me much but nothing like i read about thinkpad keyboards. And right side of palm rest feels like it needs some screw tighening of the plastic. Screen feels very solid though.