Freshmen Laptop issues

There are 2 problems that several Freshmen laptops are exhibiting:

1) The unit "forgets" about the Wireless adapter.  If the little blue computer cannot be found on the lower right, the laptop should be restarted and hopefully it "finds" the wireless card and reinstalls it.  If it does not or this "refinding" process persists, see Mr. Hotz to replace the wireless card.

2) When restarting the laptop, it may be very slow to respond for the first few minutes.  It seems that 2 processes, the McAfee Virus Scan and a ThinkPad registry monitor, seems to be fighting each other checking for viruses.  Neither wants to be disabled at startup.  McAfee cannot be stopped ( it assumes any attempt to stop it is evil).  However the registry monitor can be stopped and within seconds the fighting will stop and the laptop will again respond normally.  So... to stop that process if the laptop seems sluggish:

        Ctrl - Alt - Del  to get Task Manager

        Click the processes TAB, then the CPU TAB (maybe several times) to get the "busiest" processes to the top of the list.  Ideally the System Idle Process shows 90 - 99% meaning that  its waiting for you to do stuff.  If Mcshield.exe and tvt_reg_monitor_svc.exe are among you top CPU users, highlight the tvt_reg_monitor_svc.exe (tricky, as it moves around the list), then click end process. (Click Yes to the warning).  Within 10 seconds the fighting should subside and System Idle Process will return to the top and the laptop should respond quickly.