Log-in fails after October 2009 ThinkVantage updates [ Edited ]

[TabletTyro]

Yeesh. So, I hadn't upgraded my X200 tablet for 2 months, and I did it today. Just went with all the updates recommended.  Now after shutting down the tablet and restarting it, the tablet doesn't log-in fully. It just sits there with a black screen and a movable cursor and nothing else.

It boots up fine. Screen is in the proper orientation when in laptop mode at the start of the bootup when the log-in first appears but then immediately rotates 90 degrees. Not exactly an auspicious sign of an update.

I can actually log-in, but after the authentication works, I get a 60-120 seconds of hard drive activity and then just a black screen with the white mouse cursor on it. I can move the mouse, but that's it.

I can ctrl-alt-delete and log-off or bring up the task-manager, but that's all I can do. Restarting and rebooting doesn't work. Logging off and logging back in doesn't work.

Those updates have totally fubar'd my laptop. Any suggestions on how to correct this outside of a full re-install? I'm using Vista 64 Business.

[TabletTyro]

Booting up in Safe mode doesn't get me anything. The only difference is that  the tablet PC input panel loads, but ti's still just a black screen with a moving mouse cursor with nothing else. I have noticed that at least the McAfee protection banner does load up, but that's it.

[VEJ]

How log did you wait before restarting your laptop.

I  had the same (Completely black screen with only the mouse  showing) happening to me last time I updated.

I just let the laptop sit and waited.

At one point the desktop appeared and everything was fine.

I think there is an update that needs configuring and thats why it takes a long time before the desktop appears.

So what I would suggest is start it up and get yourself a coffee and wait a15 minutes or so.

[TabletTyro]

I've waited 40+ minutes. What usually happens is that it eventually just goes to sleep and/or boots me back into the log-in screen (when the laptop does its auto-lock after enough inactivity). Sometimes there's a surprisingly large amount of drive activity throughout the waiting period. There's no evidence that my windows environment is actually active.

I'm guessing that a re-install is in my future unless someone can offer a better solution.

<rant>

I'm not sure how much of it is Lenovo vs. Microsoft vs. just my particular laptop, but I've got to say that my X200 Tablet + Vista Business 64 is easily my worst computing experience in...10 years?

• Tablet doesn't always go into sleep mode when the lid is closed which generates a lot of heat until I realize it's not actually asleep
• The sound driver mess that was covered here extensively which took months for Lenovo to fix.
• It seems like 5-10% of the time, the tablet will just freeze on log-in. You can enter your password, delete characters, move your mouse, but hitting enter or clicking the password submission doesn't start the log-in process. Basically you have do a hard reboot.
• 5% of the time the screen becomes unresponsive to the stylus and needs a reboot.
• And of course this...

</rant>

[mshafe01]

I just left, what I believe, is a description of the same issue I'm having with my X200 Tablet....I even tried the "go back to the previous successful configuration" option, still nothing

[TabletTyro]

Ah. Good. It's not just me. Sorry, misery loves company. 

It's a nice machine when it's working properly. It's sort of like a high-end sports car. Great performance, not-so-great reliability. I'm going to be a touch nervous about applying updates in the future.

Cmon Lenovo, help us out here.

[TabletTyro]

So as a short-term hack, you can bring up the Task Manager and bring up your desktop environment.

For instance, Ctrl-Alt-Del -> Task Manager -> File -> New Task (Run...) and then enter in the application name or the path.So, for instance, you can type in "explorer", and it brings up your desktop environment like your desktop, windows task bar, etc. It's doesn't quite seem like 100% functionality, but it might tide you over until there's a proper fix for this.

My ThinkPad can still recognize my wired and wireless network and log-in in the black-screen state. I can still use the stylus in tablet mode. Can still run OneNote and so on.

Thanks to mm144 for the idea.

[mshafe01]

left my X200T overnight, still black screen with a moving mouse arrow....I'm hating going back to my paper notebook.....ahhhhh....I want my one notes back

[mshafe01]

Still having to use the "hack" to manually start explorer each time I turn up my system.....help.......

[VEJ]

If you have not found it jet try reading next topic. It seems the same problem.

X200 Tablet blank screen after Vista 64 initial startup symbol appears

Good luck.