My Thoughts on the T61p

Got my t61p today. First off, the laptop is amazing. Excellent build quality, the screen a razor sharp, and the speakers are quite nice for a laptop.

I only have 2 complaints about the laptop, and they are both regarding the software. Lenovo puts way too many utilities on it. Took me a few hours to uninstall them(mainly vistas annoying popups slowing me down); only kept the one that protects the hard drive from falls. The second complaint, which is my fault for choosing, is Vista. It is garbage. It is a resource hog. I only got 1 GB ram and it is taking up 50% of that. Tried to install XP, however the cd did not have SATA drivers on it, so I'm stuck with vista. If you know how to go about installing XP on a sata drive from the T61, let me know.

I got time to install Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter 2, and the game works amazing, better than I would expect from a 15" laptop. Playing the game on the highest res, 1920x1200 is no fun. There are many hiccups, and you get between 15-25 fps. 1650x1080 plays well, few hiccups, 25-35 fps. Then theres 1280x800 (I think), game worked great. I was getting 30-40 fps, average was probably like 35. The lower resolution did not seem to bother me as much as it does on larger screens.

Ill get bioshock next week when it comes out, let you guys know how it is.

 

Great info .
I got mine few days ago and I love it , we almost have the same spec and plans , i am getting 2 gb memory too , there is a clean instal thread here ,i think it tells you how to instal xp

 

I have 2GB and my RAM usage is 56%. Vista's memory usage is more aggressive than XP's. Just remember, memory not in use is wasted memory.

 

I will get a 2gb stick as soon as fatwallet sends me my rebate. I can wait a few months. I'll probably switch to XP when as soon as I find out how.

 

Ordered on 8/6 and it shipped on 8/9? That's amazing? How come it shipped so quickly? Even the ESD was only 10 days away from the order date.

 

ESD was actually 9/6. Scheduled delivery is when UPS told me it would be here.

 

does your config have UWB/WUSB?

 

highly doubt it. UWB Wasn't an option when i configured and there is only my wireless nic under the wireless utility.
Also, this light that comes with the laptop is awsome. Beats having a useless camera there.

 

Most laptops have an option in bios under the sata drive, Its usually called enhanced, compatiability, IDE, Sata, Ect.

Basically change it from whatever it is now to the other option, It makes the computer think you have an IDE drive instead of a sata drive, then you install XP , Install the Sata driver, And then put it back into true Sata mode.

 

I hope this will help you
Option D: Installing any copy of Windows XP


1. Download ThinkVantage System Update and save it to an external storage device.
2. Insert Windows disk and reboot.
3. Press F1 when restarting to enter the BIOS.
4. Change the SATA option from AHCI to Compatible. Also, change boot order so that CD-ROM is loaded first and then exit BIOS. Don't forget to change these settings back when the clean install is over!
5. Windows setup will load. Proceed through install menus until setup is finished.
6. Install ThinkVantage System Update.
7. Run ThinkVantage System Update to install drivers. Not all the ThinkVantage software offered in the System Update program is necessary. To find out what each one does and which ones you want, check out the ThinkVantage Software Guide.
8. If you have the fingerprint reader, download and install fingerprint reader software.
9. If you have the webcam, download and install webcam drivers.


For additional ThinkVantage programs, click here and select "ThinkVantage Technologies" in the first drop-down box.

For the original Lenovo factory-installed wallpapers, download and extract the files from here.

For additional drivers, click here.

you can find it here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144349

 

Nice. You order 3 weeks after me and now I have an EST of 9/19. That's more than two months after my order date.

<--Lenblowvo sux.

As to installing XP, there's another thread kicking around on that, way to do it is go into the bios and make a change to the drive type (legacy or something) then XP will install.

As to Vista being slow and bloated - no doubt. However, you can get it to run quite a bit cleaner and quicker by doing a clean install and getting rid of the pre installed bloatware.

 

Question: I'm about to order the T61p, and going with the XP option. Does that mean they will give me a XP CD that would already have the SATA drivers, so I wouldn't have problem re-installing XP when I receive the computer? (since I plan to do a clean re-install so I can get rid of any useless software and also partition the HD the way I want)