Windows 7 (Experience & Drivers)

Do you have a first-gen T400, or a second-gen?

I have a second-gen, and while it might just be me, I can unequivocally say that my keyboard is better than the T61 I had before it. Of course, mine has the reinforcing plate under the keyboard, so that may make the difference.

 

Has anyone been succesful installing Active Protection System on the RTM x86 version of W7? I installed it from Lenovo's page but there's no icon and no executable in C:\Program Files\Thinkpad\TP Shocks.

 

I actually upgraded from a fresh install of Vista, and all of the programs that I use, which included APS and 2 additional ThinkVantage tools. I am running 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and it's working great.

Quick disclaimer: I am a big fan of wipe everything clean, install fresh from scratch, and the only reason I decided to do it this way (and also the first time) was because 7 is fairly close to Vista "under the hood", and it even looks like Vista.

It was also just a trial for me, so I uninstalled everything that the Win 7 Upgrade Advisor told me to, and subsequently a few more apps that the Installer was not too happy about. Co-incidentally, they were apps I did not like, so Windows forced my lazy *** to get rid of 'em.

This was on 8/16. Everything went great and has been working flawlessly. I have no reason to re-install anything, including Active Protection System, although it will be discontinued because Windows 7 has a similar feature built in. Do you know about the beta drivers site from Lenovo? If not, check it out here and make sure to read which version of Windows 7 they are for (mostly RTM, tho), and also remember the whole 32/64-bit.

Sorry for the long post. I was answering two people at the same time lol...

 

The original T400 without the reinforcements. I can’t compare to the fixed T400, but the T61 keyboard they sent makes this rock solid—so I don’t know what could be better.

 

What feature is this? This is the first I’ve heard of it.

 

Hey guys,

VERY informative thread! Using a T400 with switchable graphics.

I have been withholding installing Win 7 for several weeks as I'm worried about the switchable graphics drivers and Presentation Director not working well.

I have read a similar thread about Win 7 at Lenovo's own forums, and the discussion sort of indicate the switchable graphics drivers and Presentation Director is not completely solid yet.

Anyone have any issues with regards to these 2 areas? It's rather critical for me as I use the switchable graphics and Presentation Director at school / home everyday.

Thanks in advance!

 

So could anyone give me a link of the installer you used to install Active Protection System? I'm using RTM x86 Spanish

 

EDIT: It works now, oddly enough. Testing now if all my applications on XP SP3 work in W7.

 

how did u get it to work.....i installed it but nothing shows up.....

 

Someone asked about presentation director...

Lenovo isn't continuing its support! However, I was pleased to discover that Fn+F7 is the exact same as WinKey+P.

 

Hey, thanks for the info!

But how about the switchable graphics? Is there issues with win 7 on this one?

Another thing...I remembered the lenovo sales person telling me not to remove the 2 partitions set aside for recovery. If I reformat and remove those partitions for Win 7, will there be any issues?

Thanks in advance!

 

Most (including myself - T400) state that it does not work yet, while others got it to work with several limitations (only one switch per boot etc.). Read the last some pages of this thread and you will be up to date

Greetz!
M.T.

 

Alright! Thanks M.T.!

 

i did a clean install on my t400 and i lost all thinkvantage software. anyone know where i can download power manager? i used to get about 6 hours after full recharge on vista but now on win7 im only gettting about 3 hours

 

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/WIN7-BETA.html

all windows 7 beta drivers including power manager are there

ur battery life is cut down because your battery is feeding power to your integrated and discrete graphics......you need to disable one in the bios

 

so any updates on switchable graphics?

i have a u330 so there is no bios option to make it discrete only (which is pretty silly)

 

thank you! got it back to 6 hours

 

for some reason my red rubber pointer in the middle of my keyboard works on my T61p but my touchpad has stopped.

I looked all over the BIOS and nothing. Everything looks enabled by default.

I have taken very good care of my PC. i wonder if blowing canned air would have messed it up?

I am on Windows x64 final RC.

Everything else works fine with my Fn keys.

Thanks

 

For those who are ready to pull their hair out over activating or whatever, here is your (completely legal) chance of a copy of Windows 7 Enterprise (Ultimate basically). You have 10 days to activate it after installing, and 90 days should be more than enough to get your legitimate key...right?

Check it out.

 

I've got a T61 14.1 with the discrete video card only. I installed our MSDN version of Win 7 Pro 64bit. I also at the same time upgraded my hard drive to a WD black 320gb. I replaced the Original 6cell batter with a Non-Lenovo 6cell battery. Only thing I noticed is that I can have my battery at 100%, use it for a while, go to sleep at like 30%, and then when I use it again the next morning it was dead. I have to recharge it. BatteryMon, Windows Battery Status, and Lenovo Battery manager state it was 30% before the computer went to sleep. I have turned off the mouse movement wake. Could it be a bad battery, or driver management software? Other than that, the battery has been perfect.

 

Backlight Hotkey no longer working in windows 7... anyone have fix?
I have 3000 G530..

 

Yes. I'm sorry. I guess I missed your post.

I have 4500 model.

 

i just install Windows 7 on my Thinkpad SL400 & R61.. both working fine.. fantastic.. all driver working fine..

except SL400 FN+F5 button still got missing driver.. but anyway both machine running Win7 very well.. smoothly better then Vista..

i also installed most of the WinXP software on Win7 and to be surprise 95% of the application running smoothly on Win7..

i think i will stick to Win7 for a while though..

 

You can run Win XP within Win 7.

 

Had a strange morning with Win7. I can't boot the OS. I haven't installed anything recently and this morning it jsut fails to boot. I can get into safe mode where I have restored to various restore points to no avail. Very weird to say the least. To those who want more info:
I booted this morning and the computer gets to the windows log in screen where I swipe my finger and then the destop appears after a while. That's where all heck breaks loose. If I try to do anything the computer freezes immediately. If I let it go uninterrupted, it eventually freezes on its on. I'm stymied! Guess I'll be trying the 90 day Enterprise Edition sooner than I thought. If anyone has any insight it would be appreciated, in case this happens again. LOL!

 

noob question....
about to purchase either
-T400
or
T-400S
Not sure what OS to order..(although definately will be upgrading to 7 later)
I do not want Vista but I hear for adding Win7....it's easier transition going from vista then it would be from XP. Is this true?

 

You can do an upgrade install from Vista to Win7 and not reinstall all your programs and stuff.

Better to do a clean install though in which case it's essentially the same either way.

If you don't absolutely need the laptop in the next six weeks or so the best option might be to wait for the release and get it preloaded.

 

hey guys, I need your help. I am dual booting vista x86 and 7 pro x64, but in 7 my wireless is not working. I basically did a clean install.
edit: windows update found the realtek drivers, now wireless is working whoopee!

Also, does anyone know how to customize battery settings, such as when it begins charging, when it stops charging in win7? Do I have to install thinkpad power manager?
thanks

 

yes, you need pm.

 

Has anyone been succesfully used the built in microphone in the T61 with Windows 7 RTM x86?
Using Windows Live Messenger , There are 3 devices for the microphone in the Audio/Video setup, one of them actually receives the signal but when I press F2 and talk a text comes up:
Your Voice Clip was not sent because no sound was detected in the recording.

Any ideas?

 

Windows 7 drivers not working right????

JUST INSTALL UR LENOVO VISTA DRIVERS.

I was unable to get brightness (backlight) adjustment working tried and everything...updated bios, lenovo beta drivers, intel windows 7 drivers...etc

Just run your vista drivers in compatiblity mode
-right click > properties > compatibility ..then choose vista, close and launch it!
-do this to the downloaded driver and the extracted setup.

 

Hmmm...as for drivers, i prefer a beta one that is designed for my current OS rather than one that is designed for the previous and running it in compatibility mode, even if these two OS are surely share a lot underneath.

You cannot know for sure what this scenario will give you (problems, side effects etc etc)

 

I haven't even been able to get to the beta drivers page for the past 2 weeks.

Did they change the address perhaps?

The link in the first post keeps giving me the Lenovo "page you requested cannot be displayed"

 

Here you go, Mastah!

 

I've searched around, and apparently no one has a z60t with Windows 7?

I'm having a problem with SOUND. The Microsoft High Definition Audio is installed, but there is no sound, at all. Under Playback devices, only the Digital Audio Out shows as the output device, whereas the normal speaker output shows "Not Connected" and is greyed out.

I've read of issues with Vista and sound on the z60t, but have not been able to resolve this.

Any help on getting sound on the z60t?

 

FYI, I finally managed to get sound working. Even after updating the BIOS and Embedded controller, I still had the same problem.

The trick is, though, to uninstall the Microsoft High Definition Audio device, and then REBOOT. Upon reboot, the driver loads again, but this time, it WORKS! (automagically!)

 

Awesome, thanks a lot man.

Note: Link in the first post of this thread needs to be updated!

 

Because it is not possible from the beta drivers page to see if a newer version is available for us there, does anybody somehow detected an updated one ??

 

Is PM needed for the W500 also? What's to be gained over using Windows 7 native power management system vs. Lenovo PM? thanks

 

off the top of my head, the battery charge thresholds, the ability to power off the optical drive, the battery stretch option, and of course, toggling switchable graphics on the fly (although that is currently not supported in win 7 anyway).

 

Hi,

I had the same problem before. But I solved it by either installing the Vista Audio driver from Lenovo or through Windows Update. Your system is probably running the MS generic builtin driver for your sound card.

 

I'm talking about drivers that do NOT exist/work period, beta or not....
Vista Compatibility mode in works fine for me in Windows 7

 

I can't wait till Lenovo finalizes all of their drivers and software for Windows 7. I've been using the godforsaken OS known as Vista for two months now and I'm about ready to chuck my Thinkpad out the window. I've been running W7 RTM for a week now on my desktop, W7 is the near perfect example of how an OS should be like.

Yes, I'm on SP2. Yes, I clean installed. Yes, Vista still sucks.

 

Wow...You're definitely not your average Vista hater by having your mind made up because 10 people on your street say the same thing.

I love Windows 7, too, and have been using it exclusively since the RTM version was released. I'm not going to waste your time telling you as to why I like the new OS as much as I do, since you probably have similar reasons, but I digress...

So I'm with you on Windows 7. I just don't understand why some IT folks, and other very knowledgeable people who know the intricacies as to why an OS is giving them a particular problem, and who don't just check "No, I hate it" from that point forward in every poll they encounter.

While I prefer 7, I had been running Vista since RC2, then RTM, etc., and I had always loved working with it, albeit, granted, you did need a lot of power to run it efficiently. And where Windows 7 runs great or at least doesn't bog your system down where Vista would have been difficult to run on, if it did at all.

I'm just interested as to how Vista impacted you so terribly for you to come to hate it.

 

You're lucky you have the luxury of a clean install, I'm still stuck with crapware galore...and will be too when I upgrade to Windows 7 lol.

 

"Borrow" an OEM copy from a friend and use your key!

"Borrow" can also mean "download".

 

I think Windows 7 will do much better than Vista, but it’s really just Vista stripped down so it’s usable. Good old Microsoft at it again.

 

I've been having some lag issues which has never happened before with Vista. It just freezes and I noticed that CPU usage goes up to 100% for few seconds when only about 70 processes are opened. I used to have 90+ on Vista and had no problem so I'm not sure what is the cause for it.

 

I want to be able to upgrade to Windows 7 when I get it so a bit hesitant to do too much until then. Also wouldn't that void my warranty or at least annoy them at Lenovo if I did that haha.

 

You won't be able to "upgrade". I have tried from Vista-Ultimate to Windows7-Ultimate. And it will not let me upgrade, although the clean install is better than before as it move everything to C:\windows.old so you can recover you old data without having to resort to a backup and restore, but you still have to reinstall all your drivers, programs and accounts.