Major Downgrade Problems T61

I can't stand Vista in general, even the Business 64 version shipped with my T61. Anyways, enough of my rant, I have some major problems after downgrading to Windows XP 64:

1) The Intel 4965AGN network card can't find any SSIDs at all. It found them fine on Windows Vista.
2) The Intel 1000 Pro ethernet NIC doesn't work when plugged into my router with a cable. Let me explain something, the NIC doesn't even show up, even after installing the latest drivers from Lenovo. I un-installed those and then installed the drivers directly from Intel's site, still no go.
3) I tried installing my Cisco Aironet PCMIA which I planned on using from the start anyways. Windows doesn't recognize it. This is of course after installing the Aironet drivers and software.

Not sure what to do here, I need this laptop working ASAP since it is my site survey notebook. Hell, I can't even figure out how to do a system restore to Vista because Lenovo's support site only specifies the directions for upto models T60.

EDIT: One reason I am having trouble doing a factory restore is because I get two options from the ThinkVantage bootup:
1) Enter BIOS
2) Choose a temporary startup device

That's it...Not sure what is going on, I didn't delete the partition that had the factory backup stored on it in case you were wondering. I made sure to leave that on there when I downgraded to XP 64.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Brent

 

You restore your system by pressing the blue button upon startup. Of course, this is only possible if you did not delete you hidden recovery partition during XP setup.

If you want to give XP another try, please follow the guide in my signature.

 

Yeah, like I said I get 2 options from the ThinkVantage bootup:

1) BIOs config
2) Temporarily boot from another device

I might try XP again, but I'm not sure if there is any support for the T61 on XP 64 or what. Most of the drivers I found do not support 64 and even if I do reinstall, I will still have my NIC and Wireless problems because none of the drivers are working.

EDIT: I am 110% sure I didn't delete the hidden partition when I installed XP. I deal with IBM computers all the time at work, I'm just not sure what is up with this new T61.

 

XP 64-bit itself is a nightmare on most computers; drivers are very limited. I wouldn't recommend it.

The only Windows x64 I would recommend is Vista, so other than that, XP 32-bit is your only fully functional choice.

 

Alright, I'll try installing XP 32 for now. Still not sure what's up with the factory restore partition not working. It shows up on the Windows partition/format portion of the install still, untouched.

 

Since you formatted the drive and erased ThinkVantage's Rescue & Restore utility, you will have to reinstall it to get into the recovery partition.

 

NM, fixed the problem. Hey thanks a lot for all the help and your awesome tutorial(s), Arkit3kt.