I recently bought a ThinkPad X220 with an expresscard slot because I need a direct serial port (NO USB adapters please). I cannot run my software in Win7 and I cannot access my serial port expresscard in XP virtual machine. I tried to install XP as dualboot but the whole system crashes immediately after installing drivers and attempting install startup. I need to either resolve installing the dualboot system or configuring the expresscard in virtual machine. I tried both the Windows and the Oracle virtual machines. XP works fine but I cannot set up a com port on the serial expresscard. Any solutions??

I'd be very surprised if you could get it to work in the virtual machine. A more advanced system like VMWare might manage it but not MS Virtual PC (the system underlying XP Mode). You might also look at the free VirtualBox to see if it is any better.

I have no problem dual-booting between XP and Win 7 on my X201 but I installed XP first. Usually installing the older OS first is the easiest way to set up a dual-boot system since the newer OS setup will recognize the older OS and configure the dual-boot for you. Installing XP after 7 is especially a problem because Vista/7 use a completely new boot manager and master-boot-record compared to Windows NT/2000/XP/2003.

I appreciate your take on this and I would be happy if I could get XP to install. I reformatted my Win 7 installation but maybe I didn't get rid of the boot manager, mbr and other system software Lenovo installs. I keep getting an error message regarding pci.sys that my WinXP instal disc cannot handle. Can I get an XP install disc which will handle this?

Windows XP is supported as recovery media is listed in the HMM. Post a WTB in the marketplace here on the forum or call Lenovo support and ask them.

Brad