Lenovo software or Vista?

OK - I've had my T400 for a week now and for the 2nd time, Vista totally hung on me. After the first time, new programs wouldn't install and I reset it back to the factory install and started reinstalling everything, with the intention of making a backup after I had everything necessary reinstalled.

So now I've got everything installed and it hangs (most likely due to an Adobe Air app that I was trying out for the first time). I have noticed that the last few times I started up that the hard drive ran almost continually, which made me wary. Now curiously I can't open the Lenovo app to turn my wlan & bluetooth on/off.

So I'm wondering if the problem is one of the Lenovo apps or Vista. I did have wifi connectivity problems, with constant dropped connections (and the inability to see any networks after that), but that might be solved by the latest wireless driver. I can't help but think that it's something with Vista since XP never did anything like that. Of course, when I ordered I forgot to get the XP downgrade option. Should I try optimizing Vista before trying anything else?

 

I don't know for sure but it sounds like it might be a Lenovo Apps issue. Your Vista experience should be relatively smooth since SP1. I would try doing a Clean Install of Vista w/out the Lenovo apps, if possible, and see if that changes things.

Oh and regarding your hard drive activity. that's normal when you first start using Vista. It learning the programs you use most and preloads them to memory, so they start faster. Also, it indexes the hard disk to let you search for things faster. It will subside in a week or two.

Good Luck

 

I had another episode this morning where after providing my password, startup = a black screen with constant disk activity. After 15 min I powercycled, booted into safe mode and surprisingly got a good tip from Windows help: selective startup. When I turned off all services & startup apps, reboot was normal! So I turned on all MS services and a couple of Lenovo services and ... same startup problem. So it's a Lenovo service (most likely). Right now I have all MS services on, a couple of startup programs and things are smooth.

Now I just need to figure out how to turn Bluetooth on without a Lenovo app. I dunno if this selective startup action exists on XP (never heard of it), but it's actually a smart idea.

ps thanks for the tip on hd activity! Vista's search is one thing I REALLY dig.

 

No prob.

As for Bluetooth-Start, Control Panel, Bluetooth Devices should do the trick.

 

That actually didn't work - when I finally turned both Thinkpad Access Connections services back on & restarted, I was able to Fn-F5 and turn the Bluetooth radio back on. I'd still like to know how to turn Bluetooth on without the Lenovo shizzy, but I'll ignore it for now.

And once I tried my Bluetooth mouse (a nice Targus oem I got a good deal on) I ... preferred the Synaptics pad I have a Synaptics pad for an old Clevo and loved it. I'm keeping the mouse for occasional use and loaning it out to the Mrs. for the rest of the time.

Overall, this experience ended up being fruitful, with learning about selectively choosing processes to boot. Great little learning experience, and definitely makes me think more positively about Vista.