T60 Problem - Freezing when starting up

[ntneko]

Hi,

I'm a new member to this forum (so glad I found this place!) and I just got my T60 on 30 June. This is my first ThinkPad and I am really happy with it

Unfortunately I've encountered a problem where the T60 doesn't startup properly when it's restarted after installing updates etc. or after doing changes that require the laptop to be restarted.

All I've done so far with the T60 is:

1. Uninstalling some programs that were preinstalled for me (like Symantec Antivirus)

2. Configuring programs to not auto-start during start-up

3. Using Power Manager to set the battery charge start and stop % to preserve my battery life

4. Installing NOD32 and Sygate Firewall

5. Updating WinXP SP2 via Windows Update site


What happens is that after the laptop shuts down and restarts, I only get to the screen which says 'Windows XP' as you startup (after the notice about using the ThinkVantage button to interrupt normal startup). It freezes at that point, and I can only faintly see the image of 'Windows XP'. It seems that the system hangs just as that image comes up.

I waited but nothing happens, the power and battery lights are on but the HD is not running. After waiting awhile I manually power down by pressing and holding the power button. I then tried to startup again but it still freezes the same way.

I then tried again but this time pressed F8, started up using last known settings that worked, and it starts up ok. But after I shut down and try to startup again, it still freezes.

At that point, all I had done was items 2 and 3 listed above. It was late and I couldn't solve it so I went to bed, next morning I start the T60 and it's fine. I then went on to do items 1, 4 and 5 and again when I restarted after that the system freezes.

After pondering this awhile I noticed that this happens when I'm on AC power and the battery is charging. After unplugging it from AC power it started up with no problems. If the the battery is at a higher charge % than what I set in Power Manager for it to start charging, it starts normally. However, when it went below that and the battery starts charging, restarting will result in a freeze.

I've managed to replicate this situation several times by changing the settings on Power Manager and having the battery charging/not charging, and so I now know what triggers this freeze. But I've not been able to get rid of this problem, and I can't say if that's the only trigger but it's the only one I've noticed.

Anyone experience this before? Any advice would be really great! Thanks!

[ntneko]

Just a quick update, it looks like whether the battery is charging or not doesn't matter. As long as I do any adjustments to the settings or do any updates and then restart while connected to AC power, the laptop will fail to startup properly and freeze. Once I disconnect AC power, it will startup fine.

Did it 3 times to test it, once after updating the bios for the X1400, twice more after adjusting my display settings. The first two times startup freeze while on AC power, the last one I disconnected then restarted after adjusting the display setting. No problems encountered.

The best I can do now is to make sure I'm off AC power when I am about to restart, but hopefully someone can point out to me how I can fix this problem

[Anthony S]

What happens is that after the laptop shuts down and restarts, I only get to the screen which says 'Windows XP' as you startup... It freezes at that point, and I can only faintly see the image of 'Windows XP'. It seems that the system hangs just as that image comes up.

I recently had exactly that effect, except that sometimes I got a BSOD after which the TP would boot normally. Lenovo replaced the system board, but that didn't solve it. Eventually, I had to do a full recovery and re-install everything and that did solve it.

My experience before and since that incident is that an update of a ThinkVantage utility can cause another utility to malfunction, presumably due to incompatibility between versions of different utilities. I now try to resist any update unless it contains a fix or enhancement that I really need. In truth that is rarely the case!

[ntneko]

I recently had exactly that effect, except that sometimes I got a BSOD after which the TP would boot normally. Lenovo replaced the system board, but that didn't solve it. Eventually, I had to do a full recovery and re-install everything and that did solve it.

My experience before and since that incident is that an update of a ThinkVantage utility can cause another utility to malfunction, presumably due to incompatibility between versions of different utilities. I now try to resist any update unless it contains a fix or enhancement that I really need. In truth that is rarely the case!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess a full recovery and reinstall is something I'll do if nothing else solves this problem. Hopefully it doesn't have to come to that.

[SteveHeckler]

I found that the latest update to the Power Manager driver caused boot problems with both my T61 and my wife's T43.

On my T61, the solution is easy: when I get prompted to log on, I just wait 60 seconds before logging on and all is fine. If I don't, startup stalls after loading a few icons in the system tray, and the Task Manager reveals that Explorer is taking close to 100% of CPU in perpetuity.

On my wife's T43, waiting made no difference and it wouldn't boot all the way. My solution was to reboot into safe mode, then use System Restore to roll back the the update to the Power Management driver.

I hope this helps. Your mileage may vary.