Thinkpad X220 - Hotkey Buttons Problem

SOLVED


Hey guys,

I'm nearly completely happy with my new x220, but I'm having a problem with my hotkey buttons.

Although I installed (couple of times already..) the Hotkey Utility, they don't work properly. So I'm not seeing any screen information when pressing them, and some of the buttons are without function, although the software for them is installed (for example the webcam and microphone F6 buton..)

For half an hour yesterday the buttons worked properly but I don't know exactly at which time and why they stopped working.
Normally they should work when I have installed the hotkey utility?!

I have already read that there were some people who had troubles in 2009 with the hotkey driver on their Thinkpads, but I didnt' find a solution. Can't install an older version of the hotkey utility, because it wasn't supported yet. Am I right?



Please help me, that's really getting annoying.. And I'm sure that the buttons aren't broken, because they already worked and some of them (f4, thinklight button, and so on..) are still working. BUT without any screen information.


Thank you very much

 

could be that the process/services aren't running in the background / auto starting, check if they're running when you use the hotkey, if not make sure you add it to the auto start list.
if that's not the issue, try reinstalling the thinkvantage suite and then run the update. sometimes older versions doesn't work properly after window updates, so you have to update the hotkey software.

 

What's the name of the process? There are many .exe files in the "hotkey" drivers directory :-S

I don't know the thinkvantage suite, I also cannot find it at the drivers page. Do you mean the Thinkvantage Toolbox?

Does anybody else know something about this? :/

 

You might not get the onscreen display if you are not using Lenovo's Intel video drivers.

Lenovo Support - Drivers and software - ThinkPad X220, X220 Tablet, X220i, X220i Tablet

 

Hmm, good idea. Since I'm using the newer not certified drivers from intel directly, this could have been the problem..

But good news, I just fixed it.

I uninstalled every thinkpad software (but not the drivers) and rebooted. Then I installed the System update and picked all of the software except of autolock and amt things...
rebooted, and the problem was solved. Now I uninstalled the software I don't want to use (screen magnification, ultranav utility, access connections, and so on..) and interestingly everything still works properly, although I had the same configuration before.

Only the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 x64 Redistributable thing was installed automatically with the system update thing. Maybe this was the problem?! If not I don't know what has been responsible for this. Anyway, I'm glad that everything works again, although I don't like the way i solved it... I want to know what's going on inside.

So thanks for your efforts, I hope this thread can help anybody who's got the same problem like me.


Ps: I don't like the lenovo software.^^

 

the visual C++ redistriutable is part of the .net framework, so yet, that might've been the issue. I know for a fact that the thinkvantage software depends on it.