Access IBM button does nothing

[emts]

Hello,

I have an IBM Thinkpad R51e computer. I purchased a Windows XP OEM later so I had to download drivers and utilities from the site of IBM.
I went through on relevant topics and found that I should have a so called aibm.exe on my computer. Well, it does not there.

I also read that I need to download hotkey driver and it contains. I downloaded it and tried to install with software installer but it does not pick it up (looks to me that it skips the hotkey driver because the individual componetns are already on my computer such as Full Screen Magnifier and others.

Any help would be appreciated. I spent a couple of days with installation of this commputer and it is almost perfect now and I would not like to crash it somehow with "hacking".

Thank you, indeed.

Best regards,

Sandor

[GomJabbar]

You have more options than I have on my T42. To get the Access IBM button to work in Windows on the T42, you need to install the Access Help Online User's Guide, and the Hotkey features driver. Your R51e has the two above plus Help Center, Message Center, and ThinkVantage Productivity Center. Whether you need all of the above, I am not sure.

Generally if you download software from the Driver Matrix Page, you double-click on the software to extract the files, then you run Setup.exe from the appropriate directory or else launch Software Installer (uncheck box to Retreive latest information on the internet). Tip: When you double-click on a downloaded file to extract the files, stop when you see where the files will be extracted to, then open explorer to navigate to that folder. If the folder exists, delete it, then continue with the install. This way you make sure there are no old files left in the folder from an older version.

Here is the Driver Matrix Page for your R51e: Software and Device Drivers - ThinkPad R51e

[emts]

Thank you very much for your quick response.

What if I re-install an existing driver? I think, it should not cause an issue but I also read in another threads that it is not always the case.

Do you think, that it is a good strategy to remove the driver first with software installer? However, it is difficult because in my case the hotkey driver is not there but its components are there (I suspect that they are part of the hotkey driver).

But again, I really appreciate your helping.

Best regards,

Sandor

[GomJabbar]

Generally I think it is a good strategy to remove the old before installing the new. It certainly would have saved some users a bit of hassle that recently upgraded from PC Doctor 4 to PC Doctor 5.

Regarding the Hotkey driver, you can just uninstall all the components individually using Software Installer. The Hotkey driver has the following components.
- On Screen Display
- Easy Launch Buttons III
- ThinkPad Full Screen Magnifier
- ThinkPad Web navigation keys agent

AFAIK, Easy Launch Buttons III is only on certain older ThinkPads, so you may not see it in the list (I could be wrong). I do not have these on my T42.

[emts]

Hello,

I tried to install the mentioned components but no luck.


I checked list of aleady installed components with software installer. I found there these programs are not there:
Access Help Online User's Guide, and the Hotkey features driver

I also found that I have only 2 components from hotkey support:
- On Screen Display
- Full Screen Magnifier

I removed them then reboot then installed the two new package via software installer. Then I had only these two again:
- On Screen Display
- Full Screen Magnifier

Then reboot and nothing.

I searched for aibm.exe on my C drive but it is not there. I also checked registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\8001

Its value is C:\PROGRA~1\THINKV~1\PrdCtr\LPL1.exe and not aibm.exe.

I think, it substitutes the aibm.exe. It is interesting because the productivity center does not start from the menu too.

Thank you very much for your help. I have an idea how to fix it. If it works then I will update this thread.

Best regards,

Sandor

[dorin]

or check this thread
access ibm botton

[GomJabbar]

First of all, have you installed the Windows Install Supplements and the Power Manager driver? These are necessary and should be installed first.

Try downloading the drivers from the link I posted previously. After downloading, double-click on each file to extract its contents to your hard drive. Next run Software Installer and uncheck box to "Retrieve latest information on the internet".

[emts]

Hello,

I think, the issue is resolved. I had to add this registry entry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"LPManager"="C:\\PROGRA~1\\THINKV~1\\PrdCtr\\LPMGR.exe"

Then my access IBM button works and starts the Lenovo Productivity Center.

I also checked MS hotfixes but the majority was installed and I have localized version of Windows (and not US version).

I also checked power management drivers but I installed the latest one so it is also OK.

Thank you very much for your valuable helping here. I really appreciate it.

Best regards,

Sandor