Power Manager crashing at startup on z61t Vista 32

[zhenya]

Power manager 2.42 crashes at startup with the following errors on a z61t running Vista 32:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: rundll32.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b0e1
Fault Module Name: PWMTR32V.DLL
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 496e92ff
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00003796
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.6
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: f8d4
Additional Information 2: e7c70cc0a7b9c79c5e92ea1a41b886c6
Additional Information 3: 16d3
Additional Information 4: ba78dd08bde4f88a22b36980609d1f63

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of times with the same error. Any thoughts?

Also, what package do I need to install in order to bring up the Thinkvantage menu when I press the blue button?

Thanks.

[Melvyn]

Try uninstalling, clean the registry with CCleaner or similar, then install again.

[zhenya]

Ok, tried that but having the same problem.

[Marin85]

Have you tried out any different versions of Power Manager?

[zhenya]

No, I haven't. I've only tried what is made available in system update. That's a good suggestion though - I'll give it a try.

[zhenya]

Even on the website there is only one version of Power Manager listed. Is there somewhere you can access older versions of Thinkpad software?

One thing I did notice while I was on the website was that there were a number of patches listed there that were not available in system update - many of them dealing with power management and sleep issues. As I installed Vista from a retail DVD rather than a factory restore disk, I don't think these patches had ever made it on to my system. We'll see if it improves anything. I hope so because sleep and hibernate have so far not been too reliable in Vista - which in the long run will be a deal breaker for me since they were dead reliable in XP, and I came to use them every day.

Would still like to figure out what's up with Power Manager though!

[Marin85]

Maybe you have forgotten some other drivers, here a short list:
1. Intel chipset
2. Intel Matrix Storage Manager (actually optional, not really needed for Power Manager)
3. Lenovo Power Management Driver -> needed for Lenovo Power Manager
4. Lenovo System Inteface Driver
5. Lenovo Hotkey/OSD driver

Do you have Access Connections installed too?

BTW, the patches listed for Vista actually apply not only to the factory Lenovo image but also to clean installs of Vista (unless the patch has been provided somehow by windows update). You may also need some particular update from M$. Does Vista provide any solution to the problem?

Cheers,

Marin

PS: I too am not aware of any Lenovo links where one can download older versions of their software, but the new ones are actually supposed to work as well. Some folks were successful with finding such "remaining" links by lots of googling, but infortunately there doesn´t seem to be any general link covering most Lenovo software/drivers (not to my best knowledge).

[zhenya]

Thanks Marin. I do have all of those drivers installed. I did manage to find a copy of Power Manager 2.2b and it does install, doesn't crash, and I now have a battery icon on my system tray. However, under Plan Name, there are no plans listed, and the New, Edit, and Delete buttons are greyed out. Any ideas?

[Marin85]

So, you mean, when you open Power Manager, you cannot scroll the list under plan name? After installing Power Manager, upon first launch, no profile appears as applied, but the default profiles are actually "hidden" in the scrolling list

If this is not the case though, then my guess is you need an older power management driver too (I believe Power Manager versions and power management driver versions should be matching more or less, i.e. not every version of Lenovo PM can work with every version of their power management driver).

[zhenya]

Yes, that's correct - there are no plans listed under the drop down menu, and the buttons to create, edit, or delete plans are greyed out.

I've tried installing the old driver with the same results.