ThinkVantage Power Management will not start

[ady]

I have a fully updated ThinkPad W510 (ThinkVantage system update) for all firmware/bios, drivers and Windows updates.

When I run  the Power Management (from the ThinkVantage Toolbox or Windows Control Panel), it DOESN'T START - nothing happens!

I can start the :
C:\Program Files (x86)\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMOSDV.exe
but the :
C:\Program Files (x86)\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMUI.exe or
C:\Program Files (x86)\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMRUN.exe
DOES NOT START...

What can I do to fix this problem ?

Best regards
allan dystrup

[fwilson]

ady,

Thinkvantage Toolbox is simply a convenient place to launch the Power Management Applet from, it does not controll or modify the application in any way. The Power Management Applet is made by Microsoft not Lenovo or PC-Doctor. 

If you can not launch it from Controll Panel, there is something wrong with the Windows Power Management applet.  Thinkvantage Toolbox can't launch a program that won't run.  The first order of business is to get the Windows Power Management Application running again.

As to what is going on with Windows and the it's Power Management application I can only guess.  My first thought is a permissions thing but I assume you are trying to run it with an administrator equivalent account. Here are a few links that might help:

XP:
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-security/1114936.htm

Win 7:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/23b15f1d-d26a-4bff-b392-75f1288af220

Hope this helps.

-Fred

 

[ady]

fred - thank you for answering!

I can launch the Windows power management from the control panel, but not the Lenovo power management (which is the latest ThinkVantage installation).

I am logged on with admin rights, - and i've checked the BIOS battery settings, which doesn't seem to block anything;

Interesting tho', the launching of the Lenovo power functions did work before last time I performed a driver update (including BIOS update, via the TV Toolbox) - so I suspect that this has somehow blocked the Lenovo Power Manager from starting.

Don't know how to fix that tho' 

Best regards
allan (ThinkPad W510, Win7)

[fwilson]

ady,

Ok, I understood from your first post that you were unable to launch any power management at all.

Let me look into this.  I know you have a ThinkPad W510, what OS are you running? Win 7 - Home, Pro, Ultimate, 32 or 64 bit?

We may want to reinstall Thinkvantage toolbox, the latest build can be found on the Lenovo Site.  The installation process will first uninstall the original build then install itself.  Hopefully this will restore the functionality.

-Fred

[ady]

Tnx Fred -

Some sysinfo : Win7 Prof SP1 (Danish language), 64Bit.
I have reinstalled the ThinkVantage Toolbox from the Lenovo site.
- Unfortunately, that did not help.

I find it interesting that I can start :
   C:\Program Files (x86)\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMOSDV.exe
but that the following programs will not start :
   C:\Program Files (x86)\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMUI.exe or
   C:\Program Files (x86)\ThinkPad\Utilities\PWMRUN.exe
Maybe that is insignificant though...

Best regards
allan

[fwilson]

Allan,

These programs are Lenovo created. The same rules apply,  Pc-Doctor - ThinkVantage Toolbox simply launches it.  Considering we can't get it to launch from the Control Panel either, I think it's a pretty safe bet that it's the problem.  It is not part of thinkVantage Toolbox, sorry for giving you false hope.

I did a little looking around and there are some issues with the Lenovo Power Management program, especially on 64 bit systems.

Here is a link to a discussion:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVantage-Technologies/Power-Manager-Problem-V-3-05-can-t-open-it/td-p/184780

Here is a link to the latest Power Management driver for your system:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-4gxpeg.html

I would try updating the power management driver and if that doesn't work un-install the whole works and reinstall new.

I hope this helps a little. 

-Fred

[ady]

Right Fred, i agree this must be a Lenovo created issue.

And the link you provided seems to address that (i.e. : by installing an older version (1.55) of the pwr.mgm. driver).

I'll try that, when i eventually dig out the location of older drivers on the Lenovo support site - that seems to be somewhat of a treasure hunt . . . 
Maybe Lenovo provides a fix, before i reach the X on the map...

Thanks for your help in troubleshooting this issue!

Best regards
allan

[fwilson]

Allan,

You are most welcome.  When you get it working again please let us all know what the fix was.  Maybe we can save others some time.

-Fred

[ady]

For the record :
This post from another user fixed my problem
__________________________________________________________
MrGroover - Location: Germany

Yesterday I had the same problem. After tweaking the charging thresholds, the power manager didn't want to start any more. Too bad, I disabled the thresholds and I wanted to get them back. The working solutin was to uninstall both the Power Manager and the Power Manager Driver, reboot Windows and running System Update. Afterwards Power Manager was running fine again and I was able to tweak the thresholds again. Maybe this will help you as well...
___________________________________________________________

[fwilson]

Allan,

Thank you for posting this fix.  Hopefully it will save others some frustration.

-Fred