Handful of problems with T500 2055-3AG

I've had this laptop for around two years. Just one or two weeks ago, I had the harddrive replaced, after it failed.

To see if it would solve anything, I've run a suite of of full scans with MalwareBytes, Windows Security Essentials, chkdsk, and Spybot S&D. The problems persist.

I think a new Intel Storage Matrix driver was recently installed---possibly by Windows. Again, everything after the harddrive has taken place in such a short span of time that it's hard to tell what, if anything, has caused these problems.

Here are the problems:

USB Ports
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The computer (usually) doesn't detect when USB devices are connected. However, if you start up the computer with the devices connected beforehand, they will be detected just fine. If you disconnect the device while running Windows, it won't be detected when reconnected during the same session.

I don't know if this is hardware- or software-related.

Battery
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I began wondering why my maximum battery life on Maximum Battery settings on a 9-cell battery with all the drivers and software installed was only capable of giving me a battery life of a little over an hour. This seems like an incredible rate of battery capacity deterioration considering how many hours it should be capable of.

I'm considering asking customer support about this (and use my extended warranty) to see if I'm entitled to a new battery considering how poor its capacity is.

I read that there's a battery firmware download, but it doesn't seem to apply to the T500.

Shutdown
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The laptop usually stalls at shutdown. When I press the power button to hold and shut off, the screen turns black. If I let go, the screen is black, but the computer is still stalling at shutdown.

I've experienced this before a couple of years ago on another computer, but I can't remember the root cause.

iTunes
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Sometimes, when I open it, it starts the whole "Welcome to iTunes" set-up dialogue. Something makes it think that it's being run for the first time. Maybe it's because I'm running it off the files from my defective harddrive, and some kind of data corruption is screwing things up.

BSODs
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I've had two: one when the laptop was set to run something overnight, and once when I just booted my computer.

NAS drive
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My backup client is having problems, too. I didn't use it before the harddrive failure, but the client is crashing without any interaction from my side.

Conclusion
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I have no idea if these things are related in any way at all. If you have any suggestions for any of the problems, please let me know; there might not be a root cause.

 

Most of the issues you're having sound Windows-related. Did you reinstall windows once you got the new hard drive, or did you restore a backup of your old one?

"Maybe it's because I'm running it off the files from my defective harddrive, and some kind of data corruption is screwing things up." <- that could be causing many of these issues.

 

While I stand to be corrected, it would appear that the OP was only referring to iTunes when he made the quoted statement.

@OP: If these problems are reproducible at will, then I think you should contact the Service Center. That is a long list of problems.

You could also reinstall Windows and see if the problems are at least to some extent resolved.

Good luck!

 

Can we assume you’re running WinXP (2 yrs old PC)?

All your issues sound like a corrupted installation. Did you perform a clean install or imaged back your old HD?

If you imaged, maybe this fix will help:
1) Search the registry for “FactoryPreInstallInProgress=dword:00000001” and delete any of the occurrences.
2) Remove HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Factory key.

Thing is your PC may have been left in Factory Mode after imaging rather than in User Mode- if you find no such key in the registry, this is not the problem causing the malfunction.

Regarding the USB problem in particular:
1) Make sure you’re not connecting USB devices requiring power in a non-powered USB device (you never know, so I’m just mentioning the obvious! )
2) Check device manager to confirm that all drivers for your USB (root hubs, etc.) are properly installed. Don’t rely on whether there are exclamation marks or not. Click on the properties and verify the driver.

Let us know if any of these fixes work.

 

Most of the problems sound software related to me, though not ruling out any potential rogue hardware issues. Since you mentioned you had to replace the hard drive can you mention which OS you reinstalled back on the system and how was it done (clean install, cloning software, recovery discs etc.)?

Battery

As for battery health you should be able to see the current status from the Power Manager. Switch to Advanced Mode and compare the Full Charge Capacity (what it can hold now) to the Design Capacity (the original capacity when it was brand new). Also factor in the Cycle Count and Age, obviously the more you use it over time then it will eventually wear out which is normal. Consider changing the battery charge thresholds (don't set it to charge up 100% all the time and choose a minimum limit before the system sets to charge). Also try doing a battery reset for a more accurate reading of its current status.

iTunes

I can’t tell how much I loathe this software, bloaty, slow and buggy. Unfortunately being an iPod and iPhone owner I don’t have much choice on this aspect. It heavily relies on the iTunes Music Library XML file and if that is corrupted then it will restart again from scratch losing all your playlists and such. I had this happened a couple of times and it wasn’t fun.

Overall I would actually recommend starting from scratch (reformat) which should iron out most of the corrupted issues such as the hanging shut downs. Also try using newer drivers, use Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology (RST) drivers instead of the Intel’s Matrix Storage drivers for instance.

 

After the first year, the battery can go at any time.

 

To clarify:

* I'm running Windows 7 x64.
* Some files are transferred directly from the old harddrive (with the obvious risk of data corruption), which includes the iTunes files. In the case of iTunes, I only copied the Music folder and not the \Program Files\ files, so I would imagine that I'd still be able to avoid said weird problem. (And yes, iTunes is terrible.)
* I did a complete reinstall with a Windows 7 x64 DVD using none of the recovery/preload DVDs, as they hadn't arrived in the mail at the time. No images were use, nor were any system files copied. The Windows 7 x64 DVD was burnt from an .iso from an external drive, which, to me, seems to be working. I don't think that there's anything wrong with said .iso - and I've used it before. It's provided by MSDNAA, so it's not some shady installation.

I have (already) tried to check the devices in my Device Manager to see if I could fix the problem by updating any devices, but all of them seem to be up to date.

Thanks for all the great comments so far.

 

Discovering some new problems.

Uninstalling and installing software takes forever
At first, I thought it stalled, but given enough time, it eventually completes. Takes forever, though.

Unmounting a drive also takes forever

So, all in all, this sounds like something pretty weird is going on. Can't put my finger on it, and I can't seem to find any program in Windows (Windows itself, update center, Device Manager, System Update, etc.) raising any flags. I can't download the most recent BIOS update in System Update, though.

I'll try to see if the USB problem is reproducible in Ubuntu shortly.

UPDATE: The USB problem is not present on Ubuntu.