ThinkVantage System Update 4 error "System Update server not available"

[Zaedgy]

Last week bought my new Lenovo E320 thinkpad, loved this model and let me tell you that I am completely satisfied with all its features and functionality.

The only thing is that I am unable to do the system update 4 on the system. When I tried to manage the system update it showed me an error saying “System Update server not available. Please contact the administrator”. Just wanted know whether there is something wrong which I am committing or are the servers generally not available.

[Gopala]

At least yours is a new model and you have tried the system update first time. What about me? It was working fine in my laptop but don’t know why from yesterday onwards the ThinkVantage System Update is not working in my x120e. But the common thing is that whenever even I try the update I get the error message that the system update failed but it tells me to try again later and not to contact the administrator as in your case it shows.

Every time I do the update it starts smoothly and then stops at 15% and starts searching for the Lenovo Help Center.

My hardware configuration is:

• TP x120e 0596-2ru
• Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit

[Chaaruchandra]

Here is the same issue but I guess those are not the outages.
On a preconfigured machine there is this entry in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Lenovo\System Update
"Vendor"="THINK"

But on my 1298-5QG the case was not the same as my system was bought without any OS installed in it. The time when I entered the value into the registry the system server was easily accessible. It was obvious that the system checks for this value.

[HankH]

I guess I have already read about this issue before where the vendor value in the registry use to somehow become "UNDEFINED" and then cause the ThinkVantage System Update to stop looking for updates. I have also been not be able to recreate the things and because of that I was unable to know the root cause.

Just for a trial basis I tried to install the normal plain Windows 7 with SP1 on the thinkpad believing that the issue could be due to the SP installed. And then after the installation I installed the ThinkVantage System Update and guess what? It worked well smoothly.

[V.V.S. Kambli]

Just for a trial basis I tried to install the normal plain Windows 7 with SP1 on the thinkpad believing that the issue could be due to the SP installed. And then after the installation I installed the ThinkVantage System Update and guess what? It worked well smoothly.

I am trying the TVSU version: 4.01.0015 and the Filename: 401-2011-07-25.exe.

Now let me tell you that I already have windows 7 installed on to my system with SP1 64 bit from the time I bought this X120e. then too after reading out your post I believed that maybe reinstalling the plain win 7 OS again with SP1 will at least some changes but nothing changed even after doing so. Still the same error message after the system update.

[Memphis M]

Actually the thing is that once we install the OS completely i.e. win 7 SP1 and the if we install the ThinkVantage System Updates which again completed successfully but immediately after that installation completed before the reboot when I checked the registry what I saw was that it was already “THINK”. I still do not understand if it already comes to “THINK” then how come it comes to be “UNDEFINED”.

[Raj Desai]

I think in my case the issue is something unusual, the problem come only when I format the HDD/SSD and install Windows 7 in UEFI-Only mode with no legacy BIOS. And if I install the win 7 in legacy mode, the vendor is “THINK” but when I install it in UEFI-Only mode the vendor changes to “UNDEFINED” and in this case I am suppose to manually change the registry key in order to get the ThinkVantage System Update 4 to work. Why it is getting so complicate to make the things work.

[Anjan1990]

I think in my case the issue is something unusual, the problem come only when I format the HDD/SSD and install Windows 7 in UEFI-Only mode with no legacy BIOS. And if I install the win 7 in legacy mode, the vendor is “THINK” but when I install it in UEFI-Only mode the vendor changes to “UNDEFINED” and in this case I am suppose to manually change the registry key in order to get the ThinkVantage System Update 4 to work. Why it is getting so complicate to make the things work.

Hey that’s not a big issue I guess. After you reinstall the OS SP1 and then the TVSU, just check out the registry as said above and if you find “UNDEFINED” mentioned over there just change it to “THINK”, I am sure changing it to think should definitely work as it is the only core reason for the issue. The program will work with an ease without having to restart the system.
I would better suggest you download the user manual guide from Lenovo/support and the try the installation manually.