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Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

T20-T23 Series and T30. NOT for T25-Retro.
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Manuel
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Location: Milano, Italy

Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#1 Post by Manuel » Tue Jul 19, 2016 11:32 am

Hi, my father uses an old ThinkPad T30 which, after 13 years, works perfectly. The model is 2366-R7G (CPU Pentium 4M 2Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, GPU ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, Windows XP Pro SP3). The problem is that my father is a heavy Dropbox user and Dropbox will drop support for Windows XP as of August 29th.

I would like to buy a new machine for him, but he's very old and he literally loves his old computer. So I'm considering a bold alternative: upgrade Windows (Linux is too different for my father).

Is it possible to install Windows Vista 32 bit or Windows 7 32 bit on T30? Where to find the drivers?

Unknown_K
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#2 Post by Unknown_K » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:06 pm

The GPU might not be supported and 1GB of RAM would be too slow for Vista/7.
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#3 Post by hhhd1 » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:16 pm

try to get a T60 or T61, the difference between them and T30 shouldn't be too much.
===

brchan
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#4 Post by brchan » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:22 pm

Vista or 7 will run painfully slow on even the fastest T30.

The better option is to install a lightweight, easy to use linux distro such as BunsenLabs Linux or Linux Mint Debian Edition and then install Dropbox on it. Performance will be slightly better and there is no need to run anti-virus, which are some bonuses.
Current Thinkpads: W530 (functional classic keyboard mod), X301, T61, T60, T43, A31p, T23, 600X, 770
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TPFanatic
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#5 Post by TPFanatic » Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:32 pm

Light OSes and light software make a world of a difference on older hardware... do what ^^^ said.

kfzhu1229
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#6 Post by kfzhu1229 » Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:54 pm

It is only personal opinions. I am using a ThinkPad A30 and T23 in Windows 7 x86 SP1 with firefox and added Intel 2200BG wireless. A30 has 1.2ghz and T23 has 1.13ghz Pentium III - M. Both with maxed 1GB PC133 SDRAM. Windows 7 takes 1 minute to start. T23's S3 GPU is somehow struggling but I feel like even A30 with the first generation of Radeon (Radeon 7k with 16mb RAM) works just fine. Do not expect Windows Aero, but basic tasks works pretty fine to me. Pentium 4M 2ghz is somehow faster and somehow slower than Pentium III - M 1.2ghz.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=659
For Dropbox it takes more patience but tasks can be done.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

ajkula66
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#7 Post by ajkula66 » Tue Jul 19, 2016 8:22 pm

Manuel wrote:Hi, my father uses an old ThinkPad T30 which, after 13 years, works perfectly. The model is 2366-R7G (CPU Pentium 4M 2Ghz, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, GPU ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, Windows XP Pro SP3).
If both RAM slots are working, you should upgrade to 2GB.
Is it possible to install Windows Vista 32 bit or Windows 7 32 bit on T30? Where to find the drivers?
While it's possible to install Vista and W7 on these machines, the result is likely to be less-than-optimal. There are only "tweaked" GPU drivers which will affect the system's performance one way or another. All other drivers are available from either Windows Update or by clicking on the "drivers" link at the top of this page.

An *extremely* lightened-up and tweaked W7 32 will work, but it might be quite painful to use nevertheless, especially considering that these systems utilize PATA drives.

Good luck.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Mike Blake
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#8 Post by Mike Blake » Thu Jul 21, 2016 5:34 pm

Forced to by circumstances, I've fallen back to using my old T30 (recent seperate thunderstorms fried both my T400 AND T42). And this indeed has Vista on it, so it can be done, but I don't recommend it.

I got it years ago when I was still doing tech support and thought a cheap TP with Vista would be a useful learning tool. But I never had to support Vista, and it ran like a dog on the T30, so I put it aside.

Now I'm using it again and it's actually painful. To get it to run at all I have to boot into safe mode w/ networking, then use Firefox in its own safe mode.

I can understand your dad will probably miss that funky notch cut out of the upper left corner, but something more modern (or a FrankenPad in T30 clothing) is the way to go.

Ajkula66, you've jogged my memory -- isn't the T30 the one where one of the memory slots were often bad? Another consideration.

jronald
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#9 Post by jronald » Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:35 pm

I have an X120e that was painfully slow on W7. It runs Mint Mate with Midori for a browser just fine. Might be worth a try.

Ron
I see in my son's eyes, each day, the wonders I have squandered fortunes to possess and have sought my entire lifetime to attain. jrr 09/2011


T400's and T500's

ajkula66
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#10 Post by ajkula66 » Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:50 pm

Mike Blake wrote:
Ajkula66, you've jogged my memory -- isn't the T30 the one where one of the memory slots were often bad? Another consideration.
Yes.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

kfzhu1229
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Re: Windows Vista (or 7) on ThinkPad T30

#11 Post by kfzhu1229 » Sat Jul 23, 2016 10:31 am

If so you are better off using a T23... The P4 isnt too much faster than PIII 1.2ghz if any faster. P4's advantage is that it runs latest version of Chrome, Spotify, etc. while PIII runs cooler. Their max memory spec. should be identical since one slot on T30 is done
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

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