Fix for Lenovo ThinkPad T61 Hibernation Issue where Laptop Restarts Immediately after Hibernating
Posted At : May 2, 2008 12:08 PM | Posted By : Rob Brooks-Bilson
Related Categories: Misc

I had an issue with my new T-61 recently where I would put the laptop in hibernate mode, only to have it start back up about 5 seconds after shutting down. At first I thought there was something defective with my docking station, but trying the laptop on a separate on yielded the same problem.

After a little more digging, it turns out that the problem was the result of BIOS and driver settings. You see, for some reason the Network setting in my BIOS had Wake on LAN set to Yes. This meant that when my laptop was connected by cable to a network (such is the case with my docking station), any network traffic coming to my machine would cause the laptop to wake up from hibernation. Simply turning Wake on LAN off, however, didn't solve my problem entirely. I also needed to go in to the properties for my network adapter (via Window's Device Manager) and turn off Wake on LAN there as well (for me, it was under the Power Management tab). Once I took care of this, my hibernation restart problem went away.

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Alan's Gravatar Rob - I have the opposite problem. Sometimes when my T61 is OFF and I put it in the docking station, it will not power up. The only fix I found to work some of the time is to undock it, take the battery off and re-seat it and try it again.
You think this might be something is settings or just a bad piece of connector hardware between the laptop and the docking station?
# Posted By Alan | 5/9/08 9:55 AM
Rob Brooks-Bilson's Gravatar Alan,

Funny you mention that. That is the 2nd problem I'm having with my T61. I'm currently researching the issue and will post back to my blog when I've found a solution. It's really irritating as it doesn't happen every time, but it happens often enough.

Since we're both seeing the same issue, I'm going to go with a software problem.
# Posted By Rob Brooks-Bilson | 5/9/08 11:15 AM
elena's Gravatar Hi, i having the simmilar problem with my brand new T61 running XP. But i have these issues without using a docking station. The notebook just starts over in a second after hibernate - the battary LED becomes yellow, then green, and then - T61 starts booting again. It happens not every time, too, and It is very, very irritating. I've already updated all drivers - network card, power management, Lenovo power center, BIOS. The WOL checkmarks are off. Still no luck...
# Posted By elena | 6/7/08 5:16 PM
Alan's Gravatar Here's my latest update on this. Hasn't done anything with the docking station involved since the last post. Now the only problem is when I close the lid and open it back up later, the screen pops up, then goes black. All the lights stay on, including the drive light and you can hear the drive doing things. If you hit buttons, eventually you get a beep like there is a dialog box that is waiting for a response, but since the screen is staying black you have no idea what to do. (Except hold down the power button for a hard reboot)
# Posted By Alan | 6/9/08 8:54 AM
Dave's Gravatar I have a problem with both T61's that I have. When they come out of
Hibernation, I get a 'Windows has recovered from an unexpected
shutdown' message. The 'check for solutions' says that I need a new driver
for Intel Pro/1000 Gigabit Adapter. However I have the latest driver
version 9.7.255.0. Can anyone help ?.
# Posted By Dave | 8/21/08 9:51 AM
jddotman's Gravatar Had some issues with the T61 not powering up or rather it would start to power up then die. Called tech support and they had me remove battery and power cord, push the power button 10 times then hold it for 30 seconds to bleed off the capacitors. That did the trick for about 4 months. Then same symptom, tried the fix didn't work. Opened a ticket they replaced the MB, but told be there was an issue with the battery (local repair shop). The laptop will work on A/C only, but put in a battery or try to power it on with the battery in it (new battery by the way) and it crashes each time. It does get to the XP splash screen and will boot in Safe Mode. Don't know if it's hardware or software as it works fine with No battery and just A/C. Taking it back to the repair shop to see what they say next.
# Posted By jddotman | 9/11/08 8:28 PM
Alex C's Gravatar One additional bug with the Lenovo T61: Sometimes when you come out of hibernation or boot up, your desktop background shows, but you don't see any icons or the taskbar -- basically a blank desktop. Solutions: You can always reboot, but an easier answer is to follow these steps,

1. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager.
2. Go to File > New Task (Run...).
3. Type "explorer" without the quotes and hit Enter or click OK.

This will force the explorer process to come up which will load the icons and the taskbar. Why this happens, I've not figured out.
# Posted By Alex C | 9/18/08 7:53 AM
jansen's Gravatar Hi all,

I think i have ALL the above problems. The one that is most problematic for me is when it does the sudden unexpected shutdown when docking and then only powers back up if you reset the battery. Lenovo doesn't have anything on their support site that admits to a general defect and they won't admit to it over the phone either. However, i've seen at least a handful of these instances on blogs when i search this problem. Anyone find a resolution to this??? Should we band together to force them to address this?
# Posted By jansen | 9/19/08 11:42 AM
David P.'s Gravatar One of the users that I support also has the problem where the Laptop goes into a strange state after it is re-docked, and it cannot be brought up again unless the Battery is removed. I'd really appreciate any additional information about this issue that anyone finds. Thanks.
# Posted By David P. | 9/29/08 10:11 AM
Picoid3s's Gravatar Rob, Thanks so much for your original post. My new T61 was having the same problem with waking from hibernation that you described. I went into my network card via the device manager and unchecked "allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" and it appears to be functioning now. Thanks for your help!
# Posted By Picoid3s | 10/8/08 3:07 PM
Bjorn Kassoe Andersen's Gravatar Great - thanks for the help. The change of bios setting plus network card worked for me. I'm pretty sure I didn't have the problem when the computer was new so something must have turned it on without my knowledge.
# Posted By Bjorn Kassoe Andersen | 10/16/08 3:43 AM
Karsten's Gravatar Hi there,
I have the sudden shut down issue as well.
When I re-dock my t61p, regardless if it's running or on standby, it simply shuts down.
If it was running before, I can't restart it unless I reset the battery. If it was on standby, I can restart it.
Would be great to hear if anyone has any suggestions.
Thx!
# Posted By Karsten | 11/28/08 10:39 AM
Thomas Powell's Gravatar Familiar refrains from the other T61 users here. Seems like everyone at the office who's gotten a T61 has had significantly more problems than our T43 and T42 users.
# Posted By Thomas Powell | 12/5/08 3:26 PM
Denis's Gravatar Go to the same section in device managed and enable the allow only management stations to wake it up. That way only WOL traffic (Magic Packets and such) was up your machine, not every packet.
# Posted By Denis | 12/9/08 4:49 PM
GaryJ's Gravatar I had the same battery problem with the T60p. It would boot up outside the
docking station but it would not boot in the docking station with the battery.
It would boot without the battery in the docking station. What seems to have caused this
was my ejecting the laptop using the thinkvantage software gui to stop the docking station
so I could pull it out and go somewhere. This did not work very well as it caused this no boot problem.

Trying to boot with the battery in would get to the WindowsXP initial startup and stop the laptop as if
it had a power problem. I tried booting and hibernating and putting it in the docking station and
booting out of hibernation. A restart from this mode however would cause lots of beeps and a dead stop.

I suspected power scheme may have been corrupted so I just change it in the power manager to an old
setting (while outside the docking station)and it booted in the docking station.

As a further note for those of you who may stumble upon this because your machine seems to shutdown when
try to boot. I had an issue with my fan and replaced it without using thermal grease between it and the processor
mating/heat transfer points. This cause the same kind of behavior. It would get to the initial screen and then just
power off. Or it would boot to a darkened startup screen that would go nowhere.

I hope this helps.
# Posted By GaryJ | 3/7/09 5:24 PM
Lisa's Gravatar Hi. I've had my laptop for a year now (T61 widescreen). Two weeks ago the
powercord began to show exposed wire from the base where it plugs into
the laptop. This morning I got up and the laptop refused to power on. I
reseated the battery, held down the power button and it came on. Later on
same thing. This time I just held down the power button, released then
pressed it again and it came on...anyone with similar probelms?
# Posted By Lisa | 9/18/09 4:30 PM
Mark's Gravatar Hello,

I have had my T61 for just about 2 years and the battery crapped out, is this common with this Lenovo/s. My Dell is 5 years old and still working. The bigger question/issue is: with or without the a/c power cord installed intermittently my computer will reboot without notice. The level of the battery charge is irrelevant. It may go weeks without incident and then it will happen several times in the same day. Any direction would be appreciated-Mark
# Posted By Mark | 11/14/09 4:46 PM
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