Elliot Lee

I have a new Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad Z61t. I close the lid often when done working, to put the system into standby (suspend) or sleep mode. Recently, the ThinkPad was failing to resume from standby. Instead, I’d just get a blank desktop.

Although the wireless utility would pop-up with the Fn key combo, nothing else worked, not even Ctrl+Alt+Del. So I had to force the computer to turn off by holding down the power button.

I spent a few hours experimenting with the cause, almost resorting to an R&R (Rescue and Recovery) restore from backup. The ThinkPad would work when I disabled all startup items using msconfig, so the problem was caused by a startup item, not a operating system configuration.

I also installed SpyBot, on recommendation of a friend, to try out its startup utility. I ended up not using it because it showed a lot of startup options (more detail than I need), and I would have to check them off and test it individually (there’s no way to automate the process, which is what I was hoping for).

Eventually, I decided to check the ones I thought were okay (in msconfig). That didn’t work. So I did the opposite, and checked the ones I didn’t know.

For the ones I did know, I typed in the paths manually, into the Run box, and then did a sleep/resume after each one. Eventually, I found that the problem was Symantec Client Security (specifically, ccApp.exe).

Dang! Symantec sucks! Uninstalling it seems to have fixed things, so I’ll keep it that way. It’s weird, though: this was pre-installed software, and it was working fine for a couple weeks. Maybe a recent update broke it.
So now I’m on the Windows Firewall, and I’m trying out AOL Active Virus Shield. Seems pretty cool so far! Originally, when I tried getting it for my grandpa’s computer, it took a super long time to send the activation code, so I gave up. Today, though, it was almost instantaneous.