Why Computrace sucks and why it sucks to no end...

[Smokestoomuch]

Never heard of Computrace until a few weeks ago when a couple of Thinkpads I snagged had the red & white Computrace pop-up, which you must acknowledge before entering bios. Three weeks ago, it looked like something to ignore because everything worked fine... and, of course, it WOULD look fine until the Computrace software decides, on it's own authority, you're thieving their customer's assets. You heard right. No one reported these computers missing. Why would they? These computers haven't been in a corporate environment in YEARS! They're 8-year-old laptops!

I can only guess what triggered the Computrace "help, I've been stolen" software. Was it the strange IPS address? Was it a change in hardware? Was it the upgrade to Win 7 from XP? Who knows. But here's what their viral software did to my laptops:

1) I'm prevented from upgrading my bios software.

2) I loaded Win 7 with the DVD drive but that was before Computrace snitched me off to their "on the job" spiffy theft watching software. Since getting snitched off, no optical drive is recognized by the computer. Don't you think, as a courtesy, Computrace should tell you that it's because of them that your optical drives won't recognize? But noOoOoOo! THAT would be too easy. So, I'm left scratching my melon trying to figure out what's with the optical drives?

3) Windows OS will not register. This little detail caused me the most problems of all because I'm typing in the COA code off of a perfectly good Win 7 certificate. Because Computrace doesn't bother to tell you it's them causing you grief, I'm thinking about the guy who sold me the Win 7 COA's with jaundiced eye. Why that dirty #@$#$%$. How could he sell me a worthless COA's?

Computrace has a website set up for you to mail your problem. This I did. Support Specialist, Christin, mailed me back and said:

"I was unable to find a record of the devices on our system which means that Computrace is not active on the devices".

Am I hearing this right? Their ONLY business is securing assets. If my computer was ever tracked by them, there should still be a record of it 100 years from now. Why wouldn't there be? And why on earth would I be contacting them if their "not active" software was not causing me huge problems? But, wait, it gets better...

I call Computrac. Hodgie from India answers. He wants the serial numbers off the bottoms.

Hodgie: These computers have never been released.
Me: Released? What do you mean, "released"?
Hodgie: I mean, they're still being asset managed by our customer.
Me: What corporation would track an 8-year-old laptop?
Hodgie: I'll have to send a message to our customer and see if they are willing cease tracking.
Me: ...and what if your customer can't be contacted, ignores your requests or is too busy to respond?
Hodgie: :::::: ABSOLUTE DEAD SILENCE:::::::

LOL! You've got to be kidding me! So, Computrac has software that puts the kibosh on anything that THE SOFTWARE believes is stolen. The fact that he laptop in question is not stolen, has never been stolen nor was it ever reported as such, has nothing to do with it. What's important is what the Computrac software believes it's stolen. And. if you're in possession of Computrac computer, you're at the mercy of some long-time-ago original owner. A past owner who never reported their laptop missing and, for all anyone knows, may be deceased or out of business. What genius thought up this system? Look for prices to drop on anything listed as Computraced. I'm never again buying anything Computraced.

[ajkula66]

Interesting story. Having seen Computrace on dozens of ThinkPads that I worked on, I've never encountered any of the issues that you're describing.

Has this happened on one machine or several of them?

[Smokestoomuch]

Interesting story. Having seen Computrace on dozens of ThinkPads that I worked on, I've never encountered any of the issues that you're describing.

Has this happened on one machine or several of them?

I'm 2 for 2.

[ajkula66]

I'm 2 for 2.

Hmm...presuming that there are no unknown Supervisor passwords on the machines, you could try pulling out the CMOS battery out for a few minutes and check whether the media drive gets re-enabled after that.

Other than that - or waiting for the previous owner to "release" the systems - your best bet is parting them out.

There are ways about this but can't be discussed on the forum, and implementing them would require a significant amount of knowledge.

Which ThinkPads are we discussing here, BTW?

[Smokestoomuch]

"There are ways about this but can't be discussed on the forum"

Yes, I know very well. Been there, done that and, occasionally, I still do it. Even with the equipment, that's hours of work. I asked Hodgie about it and he said it wouldn't work. He said their technology is "new and revolutionary" and cannot be defeated like normal. I kind of doubt that. LOL Of course, he's probably required to say that.

[ajkula66]

He said their technology is "new and revolutionary" and cannot be defeated like normal.

Actually, he's close to being correct.

The real question here is how one values their own time.

Personally, unless the machines were something outrageously interesting, they would be parted out in no time. But that's me.

Good luck.

[Brad]

In my experience the offending code phones home when online with the machine specifics. If the OS is reinstalled the BIOS reloads the code and once online the machine specifics again will be checked. So if you know that those machine specifics are causing an issue with the code either don't go online or change the machine specifics. Unfortunately this machine specific has been noted as you mentioned in your previous posts.

I agree that it sucks.

Brad

[rumbero]

Computrace is one of the reasons i became interested in the free BIOS implementation www.libreboot.org, which in turn is based on the coreboot.org project.

Unlike Coreboot, Libreboot is devoid of any such binary blobs as Computrace, but unfortunately is not available for more interesting Thinkpads like the T61. See www.libreboot.org/docs/hcl/index.html#supported_list for a list of supported Thinkpads.

Nonetheless, this is still not an easy drop in replacement for the Lenovo BIOS.

[jayton4]

The BIOS gets the code to reload from the internet. If you install Windows while disconnected, then use a firewall like comodo or something in Custom mode, you will see it as soon as the new OS installation is first connected to the internet. You can block it at that time.

I once moved my computrace subscription from one laptop to another, and didn't have any issues. Once the subscriptions expire, the BIOS prompts went away.

Definitely something screwy going on in this instance.

[RealBlackStuff]

@Smokestoomuch:
what laptop(s) are you talking about?
Giving the exact TYPE might make life easier...
BTW, ever check my signature?

[Smokestoomuch]

@Smokestoomuch:
what laptop(s) are you talking about?
Giving the exact TYPE might make life easier...
BTW, ever check my signature?

One is an X61 Flexview Tablet (pen, no touch). It was just by accident that I picked this up. It came in a box of 4 other computers I had more interest in. I use pen tablets to draw. Turns out, the new LED tablets can't match the color vividness of an old X61T. It's not even close. A blind man could spot the difference. Next to an X61T, the X200T looks faded, the colors are completely different and some colors don't even show up. So, the X61T has been an interesting accidental find.

The other Computrace infected machine is a T400.

[RealBlackStuff]

Before going into any expenses, did you check this? http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=114641

[MisterB]

I just had computrace removed from two X61 Tablets. It took me a while to figure out how to contact Absolute software but once I did and gave them the required information, I heard back from them within a day and Computrace was gone quickly. Got the information from this thread and updated it with my own experience:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86207

BTW, I agree with you about the X61 Flexview display. They are gorgeous. I've been testing one of the X61s with one of my favorite things, reading old comics and magazines in digital form in bed at night.

[Smokestoomuch]

Computrace cares about themselves and the customers who pay them, which is another way of saying they only care about themselves. Did the Computrace designers ever give any consideration to the people trying to re-use the, otherwise, good hardware they brick? I doubt it. Such behavior is ubiquitous in the corporate world but that doesn't change what they are. They're psychopaths. Only a psychopath could come up with software with total disreagard for how it effects others... especially how it effects those who are a disinterested part of their business.

Could they also be sociopaths? Could be. I don't see much difference. A psychopath is incapable social conscious. It's like showing a dog a magic trick. The dog lacks the mental hardware to appreciate your cleverness. The psycho lacks the mental hardware to understand the importance of caring. A sociopath DOES have the mental hardware for social conscience but chooses to ignore it. A sociopath is a person who watches psychopaths and adopts their behavior, often because it gets them what they want. Six one way, a half dozen the other.

[Norway Pad]

I have no experience with Computrace, but from what I see, it must be an excellent tool for protecting a company's assets and information. That's what companies pay Computrace for, and that's what Computrace makes money off of. So of course they care about it.

A different aspect is that a computer with Computrace installed shouldn't be allowed to leave the possession of the owner before the system is released. It should be a part of the written agreement between Computrace and it's customers that any sale of a system with Computrace activated is deemed illegal. I would be pi** if I ever ran into this, but my anger would naturally be directed at the system (Computrace), and less at the person/company selling me the computers. So having lots of Computrace-bricked laptops out and about must create much negativity towards Computrace, plus all the phone calls and wasted (For them) efforts with troubleshooting and deactivating. All which they probably could have done without.

[JohnD.]

Hi Folks,

I bought a T530 machine from an Ebay seller on 2-17-15. Yesterday I went into the BIOS to help someone on forum to get some information about my machine (the person wants to upgrade his cpu to a i7 quad similar to the one I have in my T530).

When I went into the BIOS I saw the Computrace splash screen. I had never seen this before and I remember reading a thread recently on here. I have read various threads on the forum (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=114641 and http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=86207) and I have filled out a contact form to get in touch with Absolute (the company behind Computrace).

A few things that seem strange during the buying aspect of the T530. The seller changed names (Ebay has tracked this) after the sale. Also, the seller's PayPal address (his Business Contact information and/or Customer Service Email) is a yahoo email with .fr at the end of it (the person was in the US that shipped the machine). Also, on the lid of the machine, there is a sqaure area (2" by 2" or so) that used to be a sticker since when you look at the area at an angle you can see the word "VOID" in tiny letters across the area. Mind you, it looks like there was a sticker, then it was pulled off and left something behind that was cleaned off so to speak (I am guessing here). Also his name in PayPal is a strange combination of letters that I don't know what his name was until I asked him and it was not the same as his PayPal name.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts about this, let me know.

Thank you,
John

Update: Absolute got back to me this morning (quickly) and told me that the machine was not stolen (This is a good thing). They had asked for the serial number and I had that on me. They are going to reach out to the owner to get the machine released (my word) and it may take some time.

[Temetka]

Computrace cares about themselves and the customers who pay them, which is another way of saying they only care about themselves. Did the Computrace designers ever give any consideration to the people trying to re-use the, otherwise, good hardware they brick? I doubt it. Such behavior is ubiquitous in the corporate world but that doesn't change what they are. They're psychopaths. Only a psychopath could come up with software with total disreagard for how it effects others... especially how it effects those who are a disinterested part of their business.

Could they also be sociopaths? Could be. I don't see much difference. A psychopath is incapable social conscious. It's like showing a dog a magic trick. The dog lacks the mental hardware to appreciate your cleverness. The psycho lacks the mental hardware to understand the importance of caring. A sociopath DOES have the mental hardware for social conscience but chooses to ignore it. A sociopath is a person who watches psychopaths and adopts their behavior, often because it gets them what they want. Six one way, a half dozen the other.

Um.

Wow.

No Computrace doesn't care about old machines. Why should they? It won't effect their business in any way, in any significant dollar amount. It's not in their interest to have their engineers design in a system to allow people like us to unlock their trace/lock. If it were me running their engineering team, I'd specifically tell them not to do that. We would have better things to worry about. Things that impact to corporate bottom line. So what if a few thousands old laptops get locked and our clients aren't using them anymore. They bought new machines. Millions of laptop are manufactured every year. Worrying about a number of machines that more than likely makes up less than 1% of of the total number of global client machines it just a waste of resources from a corporate standpoint.

Is it sad that a few machines get locked? Maybe, from an individuals point of view.

But let's take a random fortune 500 company such as Adobe. Let's further assume they purchase an annual amount of 30,000 laptops for their staff spread out on a global scale. Let's go even further than that and assume they replace these machines every 3 years. Let's go really far and assume that their IT Team is super top notch and unlocks 99% of those machines before they get sold to liquidators.

So over that 3 year period we have 90,000 laptops. That's 900 machines that didn't get unlocked.

It's so small a number it doesn't even matter compared to the # of active accounts for computrace. So in other words, they aren't going to worry about unlocking every single old machine.

Period.

[RealBlackStuff]

FYI: Adobe has only 13,500 employees. I doubt they each get 3 laptops...

[Temetka]

FYI: Adobe has only 13,500 employees. I doubt they each get 3 laptops...

It was meant as an example global corporation.

If it makes you feel better I could switch it to the Department of Defense.

[ajkula66]

Let's go really far and assume that their IT Team is super top notch and unlocks 99% of those machines before they get sold to liquidators.

The problem/feature - depending on how one looks at it - here is that an IT department can't do anything without Computrace being actively involved. Removing it equals spending time that no one wants to spare and/or can afford to.

Thankfully I've never had to go through the hassles and headaches that the OP did, but the end user experience left a lot to be desired without a doubt, regardless of who in this particular situation one would choose to point the finger at.

[MisterB]

When I consider that I'm getting ex corporate Thinkpads for pennies on the dollar that are usually in really great shape, I can't complain too much about having to deal with Computrace a couple of times. I had much better luck than the OP. Absolute Software was a pain to get in touch with but they were easy to deal with once I did. It is impressive technology for fulfilling its intended purpose but a pain for those of use who repurpose old Thinkpads.

[ajkula66]

When I consider that I'm getting ex corporate Thinkpads for pennies on the dollar that are usually in really great shape, I can't complain too much about having to deal with Computrace a couple of times. I had much better luck than the OP.

I'd venture a guess that most of us who actually owned systems with Computrace installed had better luck than the OP. However, his experience goes to show what *might* happen and therefore one should plan and calculate accordingly, at least IMO.

Personally, I'm down to one machine that still shows it in BIOS, and if it ever were to start acting up I'd simply swap the planar or part the system out. It's old enough to warrant such an approach.

Now, if it were a two-year-old machine and I had to go through what the OP did, heads *would* roll...

My $0.02 only...

[Temetka]

Let's go really far and assume that their IT Team is super top notch and unlocks 99% of those machines before they get sold to liquidators.

The problem/feature - depending on how one looks at it - here is that an IT department can't do anything without Computrace being actively involved. Removing it equals spending time that no one wants to spare and/or can afford to.

Thankfully I've never had to go through the hassles and headaches that the OP did, but the end user experience left a lot to be desired without a doubt, regardless of who in this particular situation one would choose to point the finger at.

Pretty much. No one wants to deal with it when there are plenty of other problems to deal with.