Vista T400 Clean Install Mini-Guide w/ Switchable Graphics

wow 30 seconds
who cares

 

I don't think he's showboating..... his point was that someone else has their vista install loading much quicker than his and he's trying to pin down why.

Relax.

 

Yes, I've already done all those things. I've done everything in the NBR vista speed-up guide and more (including disabling a few more services that I personally don't need, removing fonts [which helped a few secs]).
Yes, janko10 is right. I just want to speed up my boot because I need to shut down my laptop all the time instead of sleep because I move around a lot.

I want to reduce it from 42 seconds to 30 or less.

My guess it's possibly all the hardware drivers loading, but I have no unnecessary drivers or software starting up.

 

Well if you've defragged, disabled unecessary startup programs, disabled unecessary sevices, set the processor for max performance, have readyboost and 4GB of ram, I'm not sure what else you can do with a standard install.

You could try a reinstall with Vlite to trim some of the bloat out.
http://www.vlite.net/about.html

And upgrade to a SSD...

 

Yeah, a SSD or 7200rpm drive. Mine is only 5400rpm, but I don't think that alone would get me under 30 seconds. SSD has its drawbacks because it's too expensive and write speeds are slower than most/many conventional hard drives. I guess I can live with it. I was hoping there was something I could fix on the software side.

 

Would someone be kind enough to upload the 64 bit version of the Authentec fingerprint software? I still can't get mine to work after resuming from sleep mode so I want to try reinstalling it.

 

Well newer SSD's are much faster, just make sure it's an SLC one, not MLC. Also MS is supposedly working on a patch to improve SSD performance in Vista.

 

It's on Lenovo.com, follow the link in the first post to the driver section for the T400.

 

Thanks a lot, just performed a clean install. No hassles all thanks to following this guide as it said !

Thanks again.

 

No prob, glad to help.

 

Thanks for the guide.

Just had some questions:

Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Thanks for the guide.

-Josh

 

umm.......What do I do with the SERVICE Drive and the LENOVO drive?Can I format them or do I need to back up anything from them thats really necessary?

 

Hey, I set up my computer using this guide, but I did it slightly differently.

I left the BIOS set to switchable graphics & OS discovery turned on.

Everything installed perfectly fine, and the process took less time. Additionally, I had an issue with your method where the catalyst taskbar object was on even when in integrated graphics mode... but if you installed it keeping the switchable graphics and OS discovery turned on through the whole process, then everything would work perfectly.

You should update the guide with this information. Faster & better to just leave it enabled in the bios. It appears that it was their intention anyway.

Thanks for writing this up for all of us

 

If you don't want them anymore, you can format them. They're only useful if you want to ever return your laptop to it's original factory install state.

 

I appreciate that. When you first booted into your clean install, pre-driver installation, was Vista running on the ATI card or the Intel card?

My problem was it was booting on the Intel card and when I tried to install the ATI driver, it kept telling me it could not find a vaild ATI GPU. So I had to force it load on the ATI GPU via the bios to install the driver.

Can anyone else confirm this? If so, I'll update the guide. I'm not sure why I could only boot on the Intel GPU after a fresh install.

 

I don’t recall which video card was initially used with my clean install, but I can confirm Zshazz’s results as this worked for me similarly. I didn’t chime in earlier in as I’m running Windows 2008.

 

Well, I'm almost 100% sure it was booting with the ATI card running. I'm not sure what would cause it to boot differently, unless it saves the previously selected card. So, I guess... as a precaution, the user should switch to the high performance graphics card before clean installing.

 

is there any way to switch the card in the power mananger settings. this is because sometimes the bar on the bottom with the black plug sometimes goes away. even when in the settings i selected it to be in the taskbar. it really frustrates me that i need to log off/on to switch the graphics

 

just so i don't have t create a new thread for this, could someone answer:

(for all thinkpads)

will doing a clean install disable the functionality of the thinkvantage button while in windows?

will system update work after doing a clean install?

thanks

 

Problem is, Lenovo didn't send me the Vista installation disc, although I've checked that option. Can I get it somewhere? Or what should I do?

 

Hi everyone,
I just got a T400 and I did a clean Vista 64bit install. Everything went fine with the switchable graphics install, but I still have two 'base system devices' in the device manager that windows can't identify. I am pretty sure i installed all the device drivers from the SWTOOLS directory, but there are still two unknowns left. Any ideas on how to figure out what these could be?

I have the T400, no turbo memory and no finger print reader. I installed the modem, ethernet, OSD, chipset driver, AMT, Ultranav, powermanager driver, system interface, sound, camera, video, 4-1 card reader... any ideas what I missed?? Thanks.

 

I just wanted to thank Janko10 for this guide. I used it along with Stallen's to get a nice clean install.

The only hitch I had was getting the stupid Ricoh card reader installed.

 

Hi everyone

I played with some linux distributions. Result was that in XP two graphic devices
couldnt be installed anymore. Solution (for T500, 2082-5BG, with ATI 3650)

Reload your Windows XP with the following setting (or try it with the current one and deinstall all display drivers).

Boot into bios via F1, select config -> display and set the following parameters:
* Default Primary Video Device [Internal]
* Boot display device [Thinkpad LCD] *
* Graphics Device [Discrete Graphics] **
* OS detection for switchable [Disable]

* Change this setting to VGA or DVI if the machine will be used on a Advanced Dock
** Switchable Graphics is a Windows Vista feature only. Set the Serial ATA setting from AHCI to Compatability mode (this will prevent the BSOD 0x7B error on booting the XP media.

Install ATI Driver with ISSETUP.EXE in \swtools\drivers\video folder

Hopefully you are also happy as me

 

Thanks for the guide.. I just received my T500 and are downloading the drivers from the webpage. A question though, do I need to install both the ATI graphics pack (80mb) and the switchable graphics driver (132mb)?

It seems the switchable graphics driver includes everything needed. Confirmation?

 

I only installed the switchable driver. That contains the entire driver pack for the ATI card and the intel card.

I would like to report some of my experiences performing a clean format with Vista x64 on a new T500.

I was fortunate enough to have a Vista x64 DVD. I purchased Vista Home Premium a while back for my main system, and I recently ordered the 64-bit DVD for it. What's nice about Vista, is that unlike XP, the DVD contains all the editions. Also, unlike XP, it doesn't make a distinction between retail and OEM (you can install Vista with a retail disc even if you have an OEM license).

The installation of Vista Ultimate x64 went very smoothly. Upon arriving at the desktop, the resolution was awful, and nothing really worked. That was to be expected.

I then followed the advice of the OP in installing the Intel chipset drivers first. Once that was completed, I then installed the switchable graphics drivers. Unlike the OP, I did not go into the BIOS to change any settings. I simply left everything as default, and it worked fine.

I then continued on to downloaded and install the remaining drivers. (**Note: I would highly recommend using the driver matrix page. For the T500, here is the link: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-70443.html)

However, I still have two devices remaining in Device Manager. These two devices are simply listed as "Base System Device". I honestly don't know what they are for. I remember installing most of the drivers, even the obscure ones, like the Intel AMT drivers.

Despite those two unknown devices, the system is awesome. It runs fast and is an absolute joy to use. I'm very glad I chose the T500.

 

I feel stupid, the smaller of the two packages were aimed towards Windows XP, while the other is for Vista. I installed it yesterday and everything works perfectly, thanks for your reply though

 

The T500 matrix is organized better than that for the T400?


T500 - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-70443.html

T400 - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/s...ind=0&operatingsystemind=343518&validate=true


Another question...for the T400, there are numerous "Window update modules" do ALL of these need to be installed one by one from the Lenovo site, or will a "windows update" get those straight from Microsoft?

 

I did the windows update modules from Windows Update, that worked for me.

 

Many of these Windows updates do not yet have a corresponding update from Microsoft’s official Windows Update as most of them are “hotfixes” that are designed to address specific issues that have not been fully regression tested for general release by Microsoft.

 

Made some edits to the procedure, let people know it's not necessary to disable GPU's in the BIOS prior to installing the graphics. I left those steps in however for troubleshooting purposes if you get stuck.

 

I haven't been able to get the ATI driver installed. If I don't change the BIOS, the ATI installer doesn't detect the video card. If I change the BIOS to discrete graphics, the screen goes blank after I save the update to the BIOS and reboot. I then have to blindly walk through the BIOS steps to switch back to either integrated or switchable graphics mode. Any ideas?

 

removed dupe

 

Hmm. So if you set the graphics to discrete only in BIOS, you get a blank screen... even if you try to just access the BIOS?

1. Have you updated to the latest T400 BIOS?

2. May seem like a dumb question, but you definetly have a T400 with the switchable graphics option?

Make sure when your in the BIOS, your primary display is set to the internal LCD, not an external monitor.

Outside of that, your ATI GPU may be faulty I would suggest calling Lenovo if none of the above works.

 

1. I have
2. I believe so. That is what we ordered. Is there any way to physically check? I'm not the owner of the laptop. Its actually a T500.

Primary display is set to the Internal LCD. I will be calling Lenovo today. Thanks

 

Check your T500 model number on the bottom of the laptop and look in this PDF. If your model says GMA, it only has the Intel GPU.

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf

If your model number says CTO (custom built to order), then I'm not sure how else you could check (Packing slip?). If you have the option in the BIOS shipped from the factory, I would think you have the switchable then (I suppose Lenovo could have loaded the wrong BIOS but that seems unlikely).

That would lead me to believe the GPU is in fact faulty (or something else on the mobo).

 

It is 2081-CTO.

 

I think you'll have to call then unless someone else has a suggestion

 

I have the exact same problem. Lenovo is going to replace my discreet graphics card. However, I cant see anything to go back into the bios and reset from discreet to onboard or switchable.

Can someone post a walkthrough of the options to navigate to switchable graphics in the bios and enable either switchable graphics and/or onboard graphics.

Thanks,

Josh

 

When I click on the battery icon and then choose "high performance", I get the message: "System cannot enable High-Performance Graphics. Close any 3d or video applications and disconnect external displays. Then switch Graphic Processors."

I am not running any video problems, and I have disconnected external display.

I reinstalled the harddrive on my T500. I had my bios set to to:
Graphic Device: Switchable
OS Detect ... : enabled

After I had expereince that error message. I followed step 11-14. I restarted my laptop. Changed Switchable to integrated, & disabled OS detect. It installed a device. Restarted to desktop. Restarted, went to bios and changed back to switchable and enabled os detect. Restarted. Still got the same error. Restarted once more, got the error and now I am posting this.

Before replacing the harddrive, I tested switchable graphics and it has worked in the past.

My device manager:

 

Did you install SP1 for Vista? When I did a clean install on my T500 over the weekend, I skipped SP1 while I waited for it to download. Switchable graphics didn't work for me until I installed SP1.

 

Thanks. That worked.

 

Bolded that step so others will remember to install SP1.

 

How can you keep the brightness at max on battery? I have already set everything to max on the power plans and power manager. I wiped my hard drive and then installed windows vista. Then I used system update to update everything. Now it is impossible to keep max brightness on battery. On a clean vista install prior to lenovo power manager and and power driver, I can get max brightness on battery. There are no longer any max brightness options in the BIOS.

 

think it's due to the Lenovo Power Manager program

 

I'm bumping this thread because a lot of people can't get switchable graphics going with W7. I followed these steps and switchable is working great on my T400.