Windows 7 (Experience & Drivers)

In due time, I am sure the drivers will be listed as in traditional for the Thinkpads in the matrix.

 

Does Lenovo have any finalized W7 x64 drivers yet?

 

i have the u330 with switchable graphics, and same result: the power consumption is higher than vista (but not as much as when I'm using only dedicated, so clearly the switching is working but somethings not quite right). This is with a clean install of windows 7, with pretty much no programs running...strange

 

Haven't seen any.

My guess is they won't call them "final" until they're shipping Win7 preloaded systems.

 

With the new switchable graphics driver, I'm getting about 13 mw discharge rate on Windows 7 while on idle. On vista it would be around 11 and I probably had more background processes in vista.

Maybe its not turning the discrete graphics off fully or something else is wrong. Seems like a few others are having the same issue, right?

I have the U330, not sure how this compares to the Thinkpads but a few of the above posts point at the same problem

 

Can someone explain to me why people are so eager to use Win 7, other than simply wanting to use the latest?

Oh yeah and saying stuff like 'it's better than vista,' is not a valid argument btw. I fail to see how Win 7 performs better, unless you're a developer and know all the intricacies of the OS changes under the hood. I'm running both, and so far Vista is in the lead, by a lot.

 

Win 7 has faster boot/shutdown/sleep times than Vista.
Win 7 has a more productive workspace (wish there was expose).
Win 7 has a better media center (you can actually use your radio tuner now).
Win 7 is more efficient, thus saving battery life.

 

1. Boot/shutdown/sleep times are all the same for me.

2. What does that even mean?

3. Who uses windows media center in the first place?

4. So far everyone is complaining about worse battery life with Win 7.

 

1) Shutdown and Sleep is extremely slow in Vista. In windows 7, it's "instant". I'm a developer so I guess it depends on what kind of programs you have installed.
2) The new taskbar is more efficient way to manage a lot of windows. You also have libraries feature. These improve workspace management a lot more. However, I still wish they implemented Expose like in OSX. The task switcher in Windows is obsolete.
3) Nothing can compare to the power of Windows Media Center.
4) Battery life is a subjective thing. You don't know how they machines are configured. With a 4-cell, I'm getting 3-4 hours of battery life in Win7, most people would get 2. Also, the drivers are still in beta although I haven't noticed any issues.

Also, Windows 7 has support for SSDs and most services start delayed now so you have an instant useable desktop.

 

Maybe are the same for you but, apparently, are not the same to everyone else. Time it and you will see!

The fact that you (and i) do not use it, doesn't mean that no-one is using it.

Incorrect. maybe the different is not so big but at least is the same (and even better) than Vista.

Personaly, i was happy with Vista too but i am even happier with Windows 7, and so are many people. The fact that i am a software engineer is irrelevant as i now speak from the user scope.

 

Well, now we're getting somewhere. I was just getting tired of people knocking vista when they don't even know why they're switching to Win 7.

There are still quite a few people saying that their power draw is greater on win 7 than it was on vista, but I get the feeling that this is driver related, so perhaps you guys are right.

Thanks for the help!

 

The reasons I knock Windows Vista aren't shared by everyone. However, I have found a lot of scenarios where Windows Vista just isn't as responsive as XP or Win7. Everything seems to be just a little slower. I've found this to be true regardless of service pack level, although SP2 has improved things slightly. This issue has been resolved in Windows 7 for me, with the possible exception of logon time, and that could be because my Win7 machines are on network domains and there's under-the-hood stuff I haven't bothered to analyze.

The taskbar and start menu of Vista isn't as good as Windows 7, a minor point, but one pretty much everyone acknowledges. I love the Win7 taskbar.

I have no serious issues with Win7's battery life, but I have nothing to compare it to really, and I do use my laptop on AC more than on battery. Throw in XP mode for Windows 7, and you've really got a winner.

For reference, I tested one beta and two RC builds of Vista prior to release, as well as one beta and two RC builds of Windows 7 (now running the RTM). Windows 7 is like Windows 98SE in the way that once you've run it, you wouldn't wish to go back to the previous release. There's just more polish, stability out-of-box is far better than what Vista was at the same point (note: Vista's problems in that area have largely been resolved with time) and Windows 7 has a better graphics subsystem which makes it snappier, check these links for more info.

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/25/engineering-windows-7-for-graphics-performance.aspx

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2343316,00.asp

 

More productive - agreed.
For the expose thing take a look at the software "Switcher --> http://insentient.net/.

The one thing I definitely miss are multiple virtual desktops. Don't know why they are not there.

Greetz!
M.T.

 

Look, my T400 came with Vista. The first thing I did was do a clean install of Vista x64. Along with upgrading the RAM to 4GB almost immediately. Vista is still slow, sluggish, and buggy when it comes to nearly everything. It takes forever to boot, forever to hibernate, and forever to shutdown. Everything appears to be really laggy and the OS still feels bloated despite a clean install.

It also hates all kinds of software and driver incompatibilities with a ton of things, unlike W7, which despite being newer, is much more compatible with software out of the box than Vista SP2 is.

Plainly said, Vista sucks, and that's coming from someone who thought that Vista only sucked for people with little RAM or slow computers. That was until I actually used it for myself.

 

Ah yes there we go. There's exactly the kind of answer I knew I was coming sooner or later. Now I'm definitely sold!

 

Update:

I have installed several updated drivers tonight; previously, my newest drivers were updated at the beginning of September. In my case, I added the updated Authentec fingerprint software, an updated HotKey driver, and the new switchable graphics driver. I have also downloaded (but not installed) updated drivers for Intel AMT (also known as VPro), and ThinkVantage Access Connections.

At one point in the Lenovo forums, someone posted a link to ThinkPad Power Manager 3.0. It may be newer than what is available on Lenovo's Win7 beta site; I mention this because it's what I'm using, and it does work properly with the new switchable graphics driver. While I have only just installed the driver, for the first time, switchable graphics seems to work properly for me. I'll keep track of problems if I find any and let you know. The UltraNav scrolling seems to be smoother with the new drivers so far as well, but that's just an early report.
Fingerprint software loads faster at boot time, and it seems recognition is very slightly faster.

 

I did a clean install of Windows 7 Enterprise x64 RTM on my T400 with switchable graphics, installed the drivers from Lenovo site including hotkey driver and switchable graphics driver, and everything works except screen brightness adjustment - on integrated graphics, I can adjust it, but it automatically dims to 20% after a few minutes of inactivity, even though I explicitly disabled that in power manager, while on discrete ATI graphics, brightness adjustment doesn't work at all - it's stuck on whatever level it was set when I switched from "energy saving" to "high performance", but at least it doesn't auto-dim. Everything else seems to work okay, except for somewhat increased power draw.

 

I just checked the current state of my Windows 7 64-bit drivers using DriverAgent.com.

I seem to have a problem with lack of drivers for the Intel ICH9 controller chipset for PCI-E, and further down for USB as well.

ALL other drivers are good, which is great considering it's Windows 7, or is it common to have drivers ready for everything for a yet-to-be released OS in x64? I checked both the Windows 7 beta drivers on Lenovo's site, and also did a search on the Intel site. Nothing. Nada.

Either way, please take a look at the two snap shots below. This is on my Lenovo Thinkpad W700, and the RTM final release of Windows 7 64-bit.

Thank you much!

 

The newer set of drivers (those with the filenames and drive version) does allow me to go for 8-9W on integrated, lowest brightness and wifi off. With 1/3 brightness and Wifi on, it goes for around 11-13W. This is with a T9400 and one of the first gen T400.

However, power draw still seems to be rather high upon resume from S3 standby and Hibernate, most likely still due to the graphics driver. Hope the RTM drivers will fix that.

 

I'm having sleep issues with my T61. Sometimes it will sleep, sometimes the screen just goes blank but wifi and other lights stay lit. Only way out is hold power button for 5 seconds to perform a dirty shutdown.

 

i get the exact same thing on my T400....but only when waking up from sleep.....and it usually occurs after my laptop has been set to sleep for a prolonged time

 

I come out of sleep OK it's going into sleep.

 

I dont have any problems with sleep but with restart! anyone got a solution?

 

I don't know what's going on...... but it's not acting up nicely as first month... slow boot up, frequent fan error, time-to-time lag.......

Never happened on Vista..... I don't know if it's the drivers..

Well 2 more months till I get a free copy of Ultimate and get out of RC evaluation version..

 

That's to be expected considering you are using the RC version and BETA drivers.

 

Is your problem that you restart to a dark screen, by chance? I had that problem and never figured out how to correct it, though many drivers have been updated since then.

 

Everything fine on my X61 ...

Just installed the Lenovo-supplied Win7 drivers for the following:
- system interface driver
- power management driver
- hotkey driver
- active protection for hdd
- fingerprint driver

Windows 7 took care of the rest. Weird though, at first Win7 recognized the trackpoint and added a tab in the "mouse" section, but then after a few reboots the option was gone and I lost all scrolling ability using the nub. Once I installed the vista drivers for the trackpoint, it all works well now.

Aha, yeah, one more thing - the on-screen display doesn't show up for brightness control - invoking thinklight shows a little icon on the screen; brightness does not (no biggie - I can see the screen get brighter/darker, don't need an icon to show me that). That's about it with regards to issues I've had with Win7 compatibility on my thinkpad.

Win7 is much snappier on my machine than the pre-installed Business x64 ... that wasn't a pleasant experience.

 

The Lenovo Windows 7 Beta drivers page seems to have been updated with Power Manager 3.05. I have to try to install it on my ThinkPad once I get home from work.

Update:
Power Manager 3.05 installs fine on Windows 7, and Switchable Graphics is indeed working. I cannot yet verify if the too high consumption on dedicated issue has been fixed with this update. However, there is an annoying bug: (single) left clicking the power meter in the taskbar will not allow you to select the power profile (like before), instead it starts the entire application. You can then change the profile there.

There was also a new BIOS available (3.09) for the T500 on the regular Lenovo driver/software updates page ( not the Windows 7 beta page). So far so good

 

Well I went ahead and installed Windows 7 Pro x64 on my T400, I finally got mind blowingly sick of Windows Vista Home Premium x64. So far I have not had to install any drivers and almost everything works.

I'm not going to pollute my clean system with BETA drivers or old drivers from Vista. I'm going to wait till the 22nd when Lenovo releases their finalized W7 drivers and software before installing anything. Until then I'll use W7 built in functionality to manage things such as WiFi and Power Management.

 

What happened that you got so disgusted with Vista?

I can tell you that you can go ahead and install the "beta" drivers, as they will become non-beta drivers without many changes on or around launch time, I dare predict, as Windows 7 was finalized in July. Any updates (drivers, Microsoft security patches, etc.) will come through Windows Updates, just as you are used to from Vista and previous versions of Windows.

Lenovo also has a new BIOS out, which is dated 9/24/09 (v2.08), and Lenovo's own release date is 10/5/09. I installed it yesterday without any problems. Besides "Added support for Microsoft Windows 7", it offers easier installation on 64-bit machines. No more CD's needed I guess. Make sure you download and install the file name 7zu3 u6.exe since you have 7 x64 installed.

Version 2.08-1.05

* (New) Added support for Microsoft Windows 7.
* (New) Added support for ME Firmware ver.4.2.0.1020
* (New) Added support for MRC 2.91
* (New) Addes support for BIOS update on the 64-bit version of Windows. (The file name ends with "US.EXE" for 32-bit, "U6.EXE" for 64-bit Windows.)


Best of luck.

 

Where did you download the Power Manager 3.05? Can you post some link? Thanks!

 

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/license.do?filename=thinkvantage_en/6ju410ww.zip

Greetz!
M.T.

 

oh man i just realized windows 7 is releasing next thursday.

cant wait for new drivers.

 

The first thing I did when I got my T400 was clean install Vista x64 on it. From day one I always had incompatibility problems, slow start-up and shutdown, annoying UAC prompts, and general sluggishness. It just didn't feel "right".

Anyways, that BIOS is for the W700 not the T400, I haven't seen any new BIOS updates "Adding Support for W7" for the T400 yet. I might as well wait for finalized drivers, less than two weeks left till W7 release, no point in installing BETA drivers now especially since everything works (audio, video, wifi).

So far I've loved using W7 Pro x64 RTM on my desktop for about a month now, hopefully I will have the same excellent experience with W7 on my laptop.

 

Lenovo Window 7 Beta drivers page is dead. Very annoying. Must be doing a SideKick...

EDIT: Now back up

 

The W7 beta drivers page @ Lenovo has done that (going dead, coming back up) every now and then.

 

Some drivers for W7 are now showing up in the standard drivers page (and even newer than those on the W7 beta page).

 

One thing I noticed while using W7, is that the T400 takes an abnormally long time to reboot. What happens is, the computer shuts down, and then it takes about 10-15s before the boot-up sequence is started.

 

I have noticed this too. Did not happen on the clean build, but upon installation of a Thinkpad WWAN driver, it appeared and won't go away.

 

I haven't installed any drivers or software from Lenovo, so I don't think it's a problem caused by their drivers or software.

I'm guessing a BIOS update may be needed to fix it.

 

ok everything is fine on my new install of Windows 7 Professional but a strange thing is happening.

All my fn keys are working fine but for some reason fn brightness randomly doesn't work. I'm thinking it might be a powermanager problem or something. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

Brightness and volume controls work fine for me (no OSD though), I haven't installed any Lenovo software or drivers yet.

 

The Win 7 beta drivers page is up as of at the point of this communication.

I would encourage anyone to just install beta drivers for what you're missing. OSD issues, brightness levels, even BIOS updates from within Windows 64-bit versions is now possible without having to burn a CD. There won't be all-new drivers all of a sudden just because the calendar says 10/22.

However, I'm impressed at how fast that not only manufacturers and software vendors alike, are coming out with Windows 7 drivers well before the GA (General Availability) release. The GA which has been available as the RTM release for several months won't be any different.

However, the availability of 64-bit drivers will be much more impressive vs. what we had on 1/31/07, the day that Vista was released.

 

I did a quick search of this thread and was unable to turn up any matching results.

I am currently running Windows 7 Enterprise 64-Bit on my x200 Tablet.

Everything is installed and working fine, but I am having a bit of an issue with power consumption. With the hardware wireless radio switch in the off position I get very good power usage (6-9 watts depending on display brightness).

However, when I turn on the switch my usage skyrockets. I sit at 10-13 watts with my Wi-Fi radio on, associated, but NOT transmitting. Even with my all radios off (but the switch still on) my power consumption is between 9-11 watts.

This is a rather serious annoyance as this increase of 4 watts for Wi-Fi basically drops my battery life by 40%. I have tried as many versions of the driver as I can find (Windows Update, Lenovo's Vista Driver, the newest one from Intel). Currently I am running driver version 12.4.3.9 with the Intel Pro-Set Wireless tools. My Wi-Fi technology is installed, but is NOT activated. Full hardware specs in signature.

Any suggestions on how to address this would be much appreciated.

 

Hmm...looks like Windows 7 is great...until you deal with IBM drivers.

I think there is a specific order in which you need to install drivers after a clean build. But I haven't figured out the right order. I have discovered that if you install them in the wrong order, it's foobar and requires a clean OS wipe and install. Nice (not).

On T400:
ATI driver not working. Driver will install but not run
Switchable graphic driver will not install (fail on driver)

Crazy long boot times, even with SSD. Went from 15 second boots to 60 seconds; just like a regular hard disk (woot...not).

Onscreen brightness control does not display...

The list goes on.

Anyone have working checklist of the drivers to install, in the correct order?

Thanks.

 

Seeing as Windows 7 isn't an official release for another week, that wouldn't be surprising to me. That said, Lenovo's drivers are actually quite a bit better than most. All of the hardware on my T400 (wifi, bluetooth, webcam, OSD, switchable graphics) is functioning properly under Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

Windows 7 drivers are very much a work-in-progress. Think of how poor the Windows Vista driver situation was at OS release, and compare it to now. Things are much more stable at this point for Windows 7 than they were for the first four months after the Windows Vista product launch.

P.S. A note to any of you having crash issues with Firefox (I did) --Lenovo released an updated UltraNav driver, which has resolved my problems. It appears it was a scrolling issue.

 

FYI: Actually, Windows 7 has been officially released but only through particular channels on a limited basis.

On the 22nd of this month as mikec indicated, the drivers will not be given a mass update to some new version. WYSIWYG!

 

Agreed on the "not released yet" comment, except that every other Vista driver seems to work just fine.

I'm still no-go on Switchable graphics - won't install, fails on driver install
UltraNav screen pop-up doesn't work either, nor does fingerprint enrollment software.

Somehow, I don't think this will be fixed in 8 days...

What order did you do your driver installs, and which ones?

Thanks.

 

so are you guys saying that they'll be selling Thinkpads with beta drivers loaded on them starting next week?

i have a hard time believing that.

 

So come on guys/girls, where do you think the final version of drivers come from? FYI, my T61p with Vista shares the same driver version with Windows 7 from the beta page.