Thinkpad T61 - drivers - Desperate!

[Deedornass]

Alright if any of you could help me I'd owe my life to you..

I haven't had a working computer in aaaages and now I finally recieved one second hand from a friend. It had linux on it so I reformatted it with XP and then obviously no drivers were installed. The one I have is Lenovo Thinkpad T61 64574XG.

I went to Lenovos website and followed the guide. Everything was perfect all the way down to the modell "4XG" and it found my computer. However the problem is it found 0 drivers, nada, nothing.. I then googled and googled and googled for ages and found nothing.. The thinkpad doesnt even have working internet which I assume is because of no drivers (since it worked with Ubuntu which i tried before I installed XP).

I don't know what to do.. please please help me.. I just want a computer..

[urbanguy75]

This may be what you're looking for.... http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/default.page?

[Deedornass]

This may be what you're looking for.... http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/default.page?

I tried that, I downloaded the "Intel Chipset Support" thing and put it on a USB and put it on my thinkpad. I ran the program and "installed it". It asked me if it could restart the computer and I said yes. It restarted and now it's back on with no changes at all. Same yellow questionmarks in device manager and same choppy graphics with low resolution etc (like any fresh install).

I don't know what to do, please don't give up on me..

[Cigarguy]

X2 - there's a bunch of XP driver in there.

Best way is to download Thinkvantage update first. Then I'd update via the update program. You might have to down the LAN adapter to get connected to the net.

[Deedornass]

X2 - there's a bunch of XP driver in there.

Best way is to download Thinkvantage update first. Then I'd update via the update program. You might have to down the LAN adapter to get connected to the net.

Thank you so much for helping! Thank you thank you thank you!

I'll get right on it but before I do, could you possibly help me in a more step by step way =/? I'm not the best when it comes to these things.. Also I have no idea what X2 is o.O.

Thank you so much again! Feels like there is hope as soon as someone replies..

Edit: THANK YOU, I got internet to work! Downloaded some Ethernet driver and now internet works! First step done

Edit2: ThinkVantage System Update didn't go as well.. Downloaded it and tried to install and it just says "ThinkVantage System Update could not find a supported .NET Framework."

Edit3: Err something to do with the XP updates I think.. It said I finished my updates but now in the right corner down there when i hover a yellow shield it says "Download updates: 0%"

[Cigarguy]

X2 means multiply by 2 the answer of the above poster.

OK here goes:

Assuming you've already loaded XP onto the machine and have Internet access on the same machine:

1) Following the link above enter your machine info in the "Enter Your Machine Information" box. It will pull up a page with everything you ever want to know and need for that machine. Ain't Thinkpads great! Besides this forum, it's one of the benefits of owning these machines so enjoy it.

2) Scroll down and click on Thinkpad Vantage Technology.

3) In Thinkpad Vantage Technology scroll down 3 items to "ThinkVantage System Update 3.15 for Windows Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP, 2000", click on the icon that said "Click for files".

4) Download and install the file

5) After Thinkpad Vantage update is installed, run this program to update all the other drivers.

6) Also don't forget to run Windows Update too.

7) Finally goto Intel's Website and run Intel's update. Just follow the instruction on this site. It's pretty good and pretty clear. Use Windows Explorer. Click on and run "Run Intel Driver Update Utility" from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx?lang=eng

Enjoy

[Deedornass]

X2 means multiply by 2 the answer of the above poster.

OK here goes:

Assuming you've already loaded XP onto the machine and have Internet access on the same machine:

1) Following the link above enter your machine info in the "Enter Your Machine Information" box. It will pull up a page with everything you ever want to know and need for that machine. Ain't Thinkpads great! Besides this forum, it's one of the benefits of owning these machines so enjoy it.

2) Scroll down and click on Thinkpad Vantage Technology.

3) In Thinkpad Vantage Technology scroll down 3 items to "ThinkVantage System Update 3.15 for Windows Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP, 2000", click on the icon that said "Click for files".

4) Download and install the file

5) After Thinkpad Vantage update is installed, run this program to update all the other drivers.

6) Also don't forget to run Windows Update too.

7) Finally goto Intel's Website and run Intel's update. Just follow the instruction on this site. It's pretty good and pretty clear. Use Windows Explorer. Click on and run "Run Intel Driver Update Utility" from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx?lang=eng

Enjoy

Cant install Thinkvantage says its missing some .NET framework.. I did the windows update thing and it was done in like a second..

[Cigarguy]

OK the next route is to install the updates manually. No biggie. Download each item one by one and install them. MS .net framework can be installed via Windows update. I suspect Windows update is not doing much as it can't identify a lot of the hardware that is there. Not until the drivers are loaded.

FYI - Win 7 runs great on these T61 but it needs at least 2 GB of RAM. I recommend 4 GB but it'll take as much as 8 even though Lenovo said it'll only take 4. I've got 3 T61, 2 with 4 GB of RAM and 1 with 8 GB.

edit - If you do install Win 7, all but a few fairly minor drivers will be installed. The install process is much simpler.

[craigmontHunter]

download the .net framework from microsoft, then system update will run fine - system update makes life so much easier its not funny.

[cadillacmike68]

A note on the winblows updates, you may have to do this in several stages, because ms halts further updates until you "verify" your os - not validate, but let ms check to see if your XP is "genuine". Then it will allow the rest of the updates. Get all the .NETs, v1.1, v2 and V3 - they are not backward compatible.

THEN re-run the ThinkVantage program.

[cadillacmike68]

OK the next route is to install the updates manually. No biggie. Download each item one by one and install them. MS .net framework can be installed via Windows update. I suspect Windows update is not doing much as it can't identify a lot of the hardware that is there. Not until the drivers are loaded.

FYI - Win 7 runs great on these T61 but it needs at least 2 GB of RAM. I recommend 4 GB but it'll take as much as 8 even though Lenovo said it'll only take 4. I've got 3 T61, 2 with 4 GB of RAM and 1 with 8 GB.

edit - If you do install Win 7, all but a few fairly minor drivers will be installed. The install process is much simpler.

Winblows update stops further updates past (SP 1 or 2) until the user runs a "genuine" check. It just won't show any available updates until you do that one. and it's nothing to do with hardware drivers.

[Microspeed]

Think the op needs this link. If you download this .net I believe the thinkvantage update will work
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... aspx?id=21
good luck

[TuuS]

You need dotnet framework 3.5 to run system update, a search on google will find it for you.

From there it's pretty effortless