Vista Boot Time Issue
There have been reports on various forums and blog entries on the web of a problem with Windows Vista and ThinkPads. (One example) They are true. Here is what happened, and here is how we are going to fix it:
During our testing of Vista on ThinkPad offerings, we learned it may take the operating system approximately an additional 10 seconds to boot vs. a similar WinXP configuration. This problem only occurred on ThinkPad systems with an Ultrabay (our brand name for a swappable modular bay) when hot swapping optical and hard drives.
Initially, the Vista beta code had a problem on hotswap drives. They were not recognized when they were inserted into the system. This happened because an optical drive takes a few seconds to be ready at power up, and the Vista drive recognition logic could not handle the device insertion in time.
The Microsoft team fixed the problem by adding a 10 second wait for optical drive insertion, but the change also affected cold boot time — the system simply waits 10 seconds. We noticed this problem after Vista release to manufacturing and opened a service request with Microsoft to fix the problem.
Lenovo and Microsoft have defined a fix which fixes this problem and eliminates the extra time needed for the drive to be recognized.
Plans to fix this issue will be addressed in following manner:
1) We will refresh our system preload images shipped by Lenovo starting next month.
2) Our ThinkVantage system update as well as our system support site will provide and deliver this fix to ThinkPad users when it is available.
So for ThinkPad systems shipped prior to March (which will not have the updated driver in the preload), we recommend customers download the software update to update your system after Vista has been installed.
This update is not required for Lenovo 3000 notebooks as they currently don't ship with Ultrabay drives.
January 13th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
So what is the fastest boot time among thinkpad users?
I think 50 seconds I think
(I keep my thinkpad suspended or hibernated while being unused anyway)
Anyone with lower than 20 seconds boot time? And how do you do that?
January 17th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Can I install Vista Ultimate on my new Lenovo N100 without any driver problems? I want everything working like it does in XP. This means, all keyboard buttons, WLAN, Fingerprint reader plus all drivers?
I had a look on the lenovo site but they only have drivers for XP, when will vista ones be available?
Thanks.
January 26th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Hi, i have tried the Vista Ultimate on my lenove n100, but i have 3 devices that i can´t find drivers for. The fingerprint reader, the bluetooth adapter and another who does not say it’s name. I have used the sounddriver for xp it seems to work. But i hope that ther will be a driver for the n100.
January 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Hi,
I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day
February 18th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
I have a Thinkpad T43p with 2 GB RAM and after installing Vista Business the boot time is measured in several minutes (at least 3 and probably more) – most of it with no hard drive access – just sitting there.
Is this patch out yet? I keep looking under system update 3 but so far nothing has shown up that sounds like a fix?
May 17th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I’m looking for this patch, system update does not show it for download and on the lenovo support site i could not find it.
is this patch out and if it was, where can i find it ?
the boot delay is very annoying !
i started a support call to lenovo but they did not answer …
May 18th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Same thing – I can’t find a patch/fix/.. anywhere. Has this been made available yet?
May 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
I was looking for some advice here. I recently got a Lenovo 3000 N100 machine with vista pre-loaded. I must admit that I haven’t tested it completely, but rather, I would like to stick with XP. Is this machine compatible for XP => can I find all the drivers on the Lenovo website. Has anyone experimented with changing over from vista to XP.
All coments and advice appreciated,
Thanks
Max
May 26th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Hello lenovo !
Do you read this blog ???
I´m still looking for this patch, system update still doesn´t show it …
Your good customer service would be great if you will answer this questions.
My support call did not give a solution, very sad about this.
So here´s your chance, i know that there are many users out there waiting for this patch. Please take this chance!
May 28th, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Hello Lenovo -
I really hope that this blog is read, beacuse I am not getting any response from customer service. The boot time on my T60 running VISTA Business (purchased in March 07) is about 4 minutes. Can someone help? This is really terrible product performance!. If I would have known this, I would not have paid the extra money for VISTA.
Please reposnd – I really must get this problem fixed
July 19th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
The hotfix is now available from Lenovo, but when I try to install it I get an error message “The update does not apply to your system”
My Vista-64 installation does not come from a preload image. Other T6x users I’ve been in contact with are receiving the same message.
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Ron/anyone: where is this hotfix posted?
August 6th, 2007 at 11:43 am
I can’t find this hotfix from Lenovo either (it doesn’t show up under system update 3) – it’s really annoying having such a long boot time – if anyone can point me in the right direction I’d be very grateful.
August 11th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
still waiting for an answer by lenovo …
i’m not sure if the customer service was better in IBM days …
why does this patch not show in system update as they promised a long time ago ???
lenovo, why are ignoring this ???
August 30th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
See this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/vie.....ight=vista
It was written up Microsoft KB article 929191. The hotfix was up for a while, but MS took it down.
October 27th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
My school purchased 130 T61’s from Lenovo that take longer than 5 minutes to boot up, with more problems than those listed on this blog’s comments. They informed our school’s IT that there is still no “fix” yet after 14 weeks. Anyone else still having problems getting Lenovo to adequately address problems?
November 24th, 2007 at 4:03 am
The boot time on my T61 is about 4x longer than I expected. I’m not getting an answer from Lenovo yet. The performance on benchmarks is 60% slower than on a T60 with Windows XP. With shameful products like the T61, Lenovo will be sure to be out of business soon.
January 4th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
hey lenovo,
your service is really really bad !!!
why don´t you adress this issue ???
selling your (good) products to your customers is not all… if you want them to buy more or again…
maybe you want to think about this ???
maybe this was my last thinkpad …
who knows …