Thinkpad X1 Carbon & Windows 8

Just spent the last few hours trying out Windows 8 on my new X1 Carbon. I did this via a full clean reformat. Below are a few tips to help out when going the same route.

Lenovo Windows 8 Drivers (some are beta)

Track pad driver Win 7 version works well, installs fine and makes use of gestures like swipe from edge. The trackpad is still sublime.

Issues-

Ericsson H5321 gw doesn't work though GPS does as evidenced in device manager. Windows 7 drivers are not compatible with Windows 8.

Again, in device manager I'm stuck with an 'Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Embedded Controller' driver not being found and I don't think this is related to the Mobile broadband driver but maybe it is.

No version of Thinkpad Vantage is available rendering the Thinkpad button useless.

Wireless transfer seems a tad slow. I can get an easy 5MBS on every other device in the house.

Battery life has actually been quite good with an easy 5 hours while installing, testing rebooting and mucking around. Please let me know how you all go and post back if you have any tips.

 

Windows 8 drivers are coming pretty soon. I would recommend everyone else waiting for a few more weeks.

 

I'm glad to hear that the battery life remains unchanged with Windows 8 on the x1. While I generally liked Windows 8 on my x220T, battery life noticeably suffered.

 

My biggest curiosity is how much better the trackpad gets with win8 drivers.

What have you noticed as far as boot time differences?

 

Smoothunit: What is the configuration of your X1 carbon? can you please comment on your overall impression and using experience?

 

My unit is a i5/8GB/256GB.

The trackpad feels just as good as it did running windows 7 but now supports edge swiping.

I've also worked out how to get Mobile Broadband working, using this guide and applying the techniques to installing the WAN drivers. Find the guide here..

I've had no crashes, buggy behavior or any usability issues. I just need to get Thinkpad Vantage to work and I'm all set. Boot time is even quicker using UEFI only in the bios then installing Windows 8. I estimate no more than 20 seconds to get a usable browser.

 

THANKS! GREAT! Congrats! I have the same config. But mine won't be shipped until 2 weeks later (ordered Aug 23rd). Do you feel it is running fast besides booting speed... ENJOY!

 

Overall speed feels snappier than Windows 7, my main PC had felt like it had the same boost aswell. I'm loving Windows 8 sync features, makes setup a whole lot faster.

 

Cool undocumented Win8 feature for those that care (too much?) about battery life:
Run "powercfg /batteryreport /output [filename]".

It'll generate very detailed charts about every AC/Battery/Suspend/Resume action, and give stats on usage history, estimates, etc. Without going too much into detail, my overall estimate is 6:35, although I expect in actuality it's probably closer to 6.

 

It will also tell you if a program is screwing with sleep. hibernate and resume states. Awesome little tool.

 

Did you install using UEFI only? I used a thumbdrive to install Windows 8 Release Preview, but could only get it to work using Legacy only. Thereafter, I could start the installation for Windows 8 RP.

If you used Legacy only, did your boot speed increased by using UEFI only? I just tried installing on my X1 Carbon, amazing speed for booting into Windows 8 apps page. 11.5 seconds from pushing the power button, without login.

 

From memory I installed using the default 'legacy first then UEFI'. Realising I stuffed up I then set the bios to UEFI only, wiped all partitions and installed again. Honestly I felt no real speed difference as it boots insanely quick either way.

If you can be bothered give it a go.

 

The fast boot is in part because Windows 8 doesn't completely shut down by default. "Shut down" has been replaced with a hybrid form of hibernation. You can change this setting in control panel somewhere.

 

I just got my X1C Friday and have installed Windows 8 (from Technet). Boot time is insanely fast as has been noted, especially when you power on via fingerprint scanner as there is no login step and you go straight to start screen.

A tip for those wanting to do a UEFI boot: You need to format the USB thumb drive with your windows install media on it using FAT32 or else you will not be able to boot to the USB drive under UEFI as UEFI does not support boot to NTFS. You should also set the boot to UEFI only in the bios to ensure that Windows 8 installs using UEFI boot mode.

I used this to make bootable Windows8 USB media from an ISO: Microsoft Store Online

UEFI seems to pass the boot process over to the OS faster from what I can see and looks a lot nicer than the BIOS boot (no ugly pixelated ThinkPad logo), but a nice crisp Lenovo logo instead.

I'm still missing a few Windows 8 drivers, but most seems to be working from what I can tell, including GPS as tested with Bing Maps under Windows 8.
You can follow Lenovo Windows 8 X1C driver releases here --> Lenovo Support - RSS Feed

 

Next gen UEFI is coming to some of the Thinkpads soon. I haven't seen which machines are going to get Windows 8 logos, support safe boot, connected standby, etc. I assume the clouds will part on or after 10/26.

 

Protip for those having trouble installing some of the drivers... a couple of the Win8 drivers are unsigned (I believe the "HID Radio Switch" driver and one of the WAN drivers), and would only install under the "disable driver signature enforcement" boot option. They now work fine, however. Just a tip if you're having issues.

Also, was having slow hibernate/resume problems, but after switching to UEFI I'm having no issues. Might be a coincidence, but everything works perfectly now.

 

Does EE 3. work in Windows 8?

 

Hi! I also recently installed Win 8 on my Carbon, but i can't seem to get WWAN to work. I tried with the guide, with the guide, the win 8 beta drivers, the win 8 drivers you can find under the regular software downloads and even the win 7 drivers but nothing seems to have made a difference, the device is still unrecognized in the device manager. Could you tell me exactly how you did it?

 

I ran into this and resolved it by making sure all previous WAN drivers were uninstalled before installing the latest Win8 Oct 22 drivers from Lenovo's site. Uninstall both from the Uninstall programs and go to device manager and manually uninstall ALL devices relating to the WAN card: com ports, usb serial devices, gps, other. Then install using the Win 8 drivers and you should be good to go.

 

I installed the newest Intel WLAN drivers form intel.com and it worked perfect, lenovos drivers were kinda funky. Also I cannot get the on screen display to work, as well as power manager. I have tried the beta and non beta drivers. Its almost like something is blocking them to install.

When I did an upgrade instead of a full install, everything was working (almost). Powermanager was crashing, and the on screen display took 3 installs for it to start working.

Now I have UEFI + GPT installed and it seems great, except for the absence of power manager ;(

 

Thinkpad X1 Carbon Windows 8 Clean Install - My Experience

Why a clean install?
I performed a clean install for two reasons:
1. To avoid all the bloatware installed by default in Windows 7.
2. Having the 128GB model, after backing up the restore partition, I wanted to erase it and combine all free space into once nice large partition (after Win 8 install, I have 90GB free).

My goal is to have a working Win 8 notebook with as a little additional installations/utilities as possible.

Here is what I have done so far:
1. After paying my $15 bucks for a Windows 8 Pro upgrade key, I used the Assistant you download to create a bootable USB key with Windows 8 ready to install.
2. Insert USB key, reboot and press Enter key to get startup options.
3. Chose temporary boot device (press F12 I believe) and choose to boot off of USB.
4. Deleted 3 partitions: the first one was named something like SYS_DRV, the main C:\ partition, and the recovery partition (I backed this up first).
5. With unallocated space, instructed install to create new partition. Setup warns it will create more than one partition (recreates the SYS_DRV partition, but smaller than original). I said, okay.
6. Followed instructions, removed USB key and rebooted when prompted.
7. Windows 8 does its thing.
8. Decided to use Microsoft Account versus Local Account.

At this point, Windows boots, trackpoint and trackpad works (but no Win 8 gestures yet), wireless works, sound works, display resolution works. What doesn’t work? Fingerprint reader, gestures (such as swiping from right side to open Charms menu, or two finger scrolling). Also, there were a bunch of unknown devices in Device Manager.

Starting from this page to download drivers:
Device Drivers File Matrices

I first started with ThinkVantage System Update (Windows 8, 64-bit), which is the utility which is supposed to automatically discover and update drivers. It updated the Realtek sound driver, wireless network stuff, something related to storage, and WAN network stuff.

To get touchpad gestures working, I manually downloaded and installed Synaptics UltraNav driver for Windows 8.

To get Fingerprint Reader working, I manually downloaded and installed Fingerprint Software for Windows 7 (64-bit) & Windows 8 (64-bit). (after reboot, system prompts for the installation of .NET Framework 2.0 & 3.0, which I did. Reboot. Then press Win-D to get to the desktop and after a couple of seconds the fingerprint registration process begins.)

At this point, the notebook is quite usable, and I haven’t installed anything else yet. Sweet.

Caveats:
Download all the drivers you think you may need first (Look for anything titled Windows 8, 64-bit). Lenovo's support site has been up and down lately.

Don’t use System Restore. On my first attempt I tried to roll back to an early restore point and the Start screen got broken (empty colored tiles, Mail would not open, etc). Win 8 has a build in utility, Reset/Refresh, which lets you wipe everything and start again fresh (provided you still have the installation USB key).
How to Refresh or Reset Your Windows 8 PC | PCMag.com
Whomever it was in Microsoft who fought to get this feature put in deserves free beers (or cokes) for the rest of their lives.

Also on my first attempt, I did update some firmwares. Not sure if necessary or not:
Intel Management Engine Firmware 8.1 for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit)
Ericsson H5321gw/C5621gw Mobile Broadband Firmware for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit)

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After the above, I still had some unknown devices, I manually installed the following and no more unknown devices. I'm not sure exactly which ones were needed:
Intel Smart Connect Technology (needed)
Ricoch Card Reader (maybe)
HID HW Radio Driver (maybe)
Intel Management Engine Interface 8.0 and Serial Over LAN (SOL) Driver (maybe)
Power Management (maybe)

 

Are those of you who have upgraded to W8 seeing any significant improvements in performance or features? I really haven't come across much in the reviews I've read, apart from discussion of the new interface.

 

Win8 has a lot of little improvements that will be lost on many as they struggle with the "Modern" UI. I ended up buying Start8 to put a Win7 style start menu/taskbar back in and now I can appreciate really appreciate it. Keep in mind this is on my desktop - I don't have an X1 Carbon (yet).

 

Windows 8 boots much faster.

For non-work stuff the Metro UI is really beautiful. Surfing, email, etc.
After turning off the Synaptics settings to prevent accidental swipes, the touchpad works really well for swapping between applications.

 

I have everything working on my Win8 X1C with the exception of the microphone. When I hit fn+f6, I get a message asking me to install the Lenovo settings program. I have installed every settings program available from the drivers page. Any ideas? This is really cramping my ability to use Google Talk for work.


-brit