W510 lockup on startup

[hahnebalboa]

Frequently when I start my W510, the start up never gets past the ThinkPad screen that says press Thinkvantage button. This can happen with a cold start, restart or start from Hibernation.

I cannot say this for certain, but it appears to have something to do with having something plugged into the USB port. When working at my desk, I have a monitor and USB printer hooked up. The monitor has a KVM switch attached to switch the keyboard, mouse and monitor between 2 computers. If I unplug this and the printer then the computer will start. It also will start if I have these connected and press F1 to go through BIOS setting (I don't have to change any settings).

Has anyone else had this problem?

[funks]

same problem here, especially when my iphone is attached during startup.

Sometimes, even Windows 7 itself just seems to hang when booting up (the splash screen with the windows pieces merging).

[jumboloan]

Mine is due to USB transmitter for Logitech wireless mouse Performance MX. I have to unplug and then start windows, then plug in.

[Confederate]

To all:

What USB port is being used at boot? The USB 3.0 ports on the left side or the USB 2.0 port on the back?

If the USB 3.0 ports,  does moving the device to the USB 2.0 port make a difference?

Terry

LESE

[ThinkpadT400s]

You can do this:

Power on the computer with holding the F1 key, so you could get into the bootup setting.

Move boot from hard drive to the top, instead of boot from USB, then problem solved!

I had this issue when I installed Intel rapid storage software, but after I changed the boot sequence, I don't have this problem anymore.

[cliffhan61]

Has anyone found a solution to this? I tried to use the changing boot order method but it still locks up at startup. Currently have a mouse and a cooling fan plugged into the USB ports of the laptop.

[AuxMax001]

I got my W510 about 3 weeks ago and added a docking station recently.  Everytime I dock the Thinkpad, it will hang on the Thinkpad BIOS screen.

The only way workaround is undocking the laptop, pulling all USB connected devices from the docking station, redock the laptop, power on and wait until Windows 7 loads.  Then plug in your USB devices.

Needless to say, this is a pain in the.....

I have the latest drivers and BIOS (before it was pulled).  I have a feeling this is BIOS bug.

[hahnebalboa]

---

Confederate wrote:

What USB port is being used at boot? The USB 3.0 ports on the left side or the USB 2.0 port on the back?

If the USB 3.0 ports,  does moving the device to the USB 2.0 port make a difference?

---

There appear to be 2 different problems:

1. When I have a KVM switch (with monitor and keyboard) plugged into a USB 3 port, the computer locks up at the Thinkpad screen. Windows never starts. This is fixed by using the USB 2 port.

2. When I put the computer on hibernate or standby with an external monitor attached and then restart the computer on batteries without the external monitor attached, I get a totally blank screen once Windows starts. The hard disk light blinks about once a second. I cannot log on, change the display to internal screen or do anything. Even resetting the computer does not work to get the display back. It appears to be trying to use the external monitor which is no longer attached.

[Jimbo]

---

hahnebalboa wrote: 

 2. When I put the computer on hibernate or standby with an external monitor attached and then restart the computer on batteries without the external monitor attached, I get a totally blank screen once Windows starts... I cannot log on, change the display to internal screen or do anything.

---

That part is not at all surprising. That's like if you're happily walking down the sidewalk one moment, then with your next step you're suddenly about to walk off the edge of a cliff. You'll probably end up mangled at the bottom of the cliff after that.

That's what happens when you put the computer into a suspended state, then change certain equipment that's attached to it before waking it up. In that case, the system doesn't receive any of its normal hardware-generated interrupt events that occur when peripherals are plugged-in or unplugged while the computer is turned on. If you're very lucky, the computer will adapt. Otherwise, it'll be lying at the bottom of the cliff wiggling its legs, thinking it's still walking down the street.

The programmers would have had to specifically plan for such an occurrence, writing code to adapt to that. I'm a software developer, and given all the bugs surfacing in these computers nowadays, I wouldn't count on that. Try switching the display BEFORE putting the computer into any sort of suspended state, not WHILE it's suspended. Or instead just do a normal shutdown.

This falls under the category of practicing good juju. It doesn't matter if some other laptop, that you used to have, adapted to this situation. Juju is what matters. Practice good juju, or suffer.

[hahnebalboa]

---

Jimbo wrote:

---

hahnebalboa wrote: 

 2. When I put the computer on hibernate or standby with an external monitor attached and then restart the computer on batteries without the external monitor attached, I get a totally blank screen once Windows starts... I cannot log on, change the display to internal screen or do anything.

---

That part is not at all surprising. That's like if you're happily walking down the sidewalk one moment, then with your next step you're suddenly about to walk off the edge of a cliff. You'll probably end up mangled at the bottom of the cliff after that.

That's what happens when you put the computer into a suspended state, then change certain equipment that's attached to it before waking it up. In that case, the system doesn't receive any of its normal hardware-generated interrupt events that occur when peripherals are plugged-in or unplugged while the computer is turned on. If you're very lucky, the computer will adapt. Otherwise, it'll be lying at the bottom of the cliff wiggling its legs, thinking it's still walking down the street.

The programmers would have had to specifically plan for such an occurrence, writing code to adapt to that. I'm a software developer, and given all the bugs surfacing in these computers nowadays, I wouldn't count on that. Try switching the display BEFORE putting the computer into any sort of suspended state, not WHILE it's suspended. Or instead just do a normal shutdown.

This falls under the category of practicing good juju. It doesn't matter if some other laptop, that you used to have, adapted to this situation. Juju is what matters. Practice good juju, or suffer.

---

I have no such problem with laptops from Dell or even older thinkpads. Normally when I and running with an external display I have the lid closed. If I hibernate and later open the lid to turn it on, it switches to the internal display, until I shut the lid.

There is no way out other than to connect to an external monitor. Even hard resetting the computer does not get it out of this state of looking for a non-existent external display. Clean design would return to the internal display if no external display is connected and the lid is open.

What is more annoying is that I often run both internal and external display when doing presentations. If I hibernate and restart with no external display I get nothing on the internal display.