Thinkpads Forum

hello,

I installed windows xp pro without a problem using the following method:

-Installed from windows XP Pro OS install cd.
-Ethernet drivers downloaded from Lenovo and install them.
-Thinkvantage system update downloaded from Lenovo and installed.

Proceed to get the rest of the drivers via system update.

I tried this method to get vista business going but i am stuck with
the modem driver complaining that it while it can find the driver file (downloaded)
it isn't present in the "inf" file and so cant proceed with installing them.

I downloaded the Intel chipset drivers from Lenovo which has the inf and installed it but still the same error.

Also Firewire is missing but there is no specific driver for it on the Lenovo website and thinkvantage system update doesn't give me one.

Finally the WiFi driver is installed but i cannot connect via WiFi .
Ethernet works fine though.

Is there a preferred or better method to install vista then the one i use for xp?
Any tricks required or a particular order to install drivers?

Googling doesn't really turn up much presumably because vista was the black
sheep of the windows family. People just installed xp or W7 instead.
The x61 is dual booted so the hardware is fine because xp works great.

thanks for your time

Martin

Hi Martin...welcome to the forum!

Installing Vista is not much different from installing XP. Looks like you are on the right track, and just need a few drivers. Should be able to find everything you need here:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-67971

BTW, System Update isn't always reliable about finding drivers. It's usually better to just manually install them when Update misses them. But Update does automagically install drivers, so there are a few more steps, download>unpack>install, to get drivers installed manually.

Neil wrote:Hi Martin...welcome to the forum!

Installing Vista is not much different from installing XP. Looks like you are on the right track, and just need a few drivers. Should be able to find everything you need here:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-67971

BTW, System Update isn't always reliable about finding drivers. It's usually better to just manually install them when Update misses them. But Update does automagically install drivers, so there are a few more steps, download>unpack>install, to get drivers installed manually.

After the system update failure i did download the drivers separately.
But the modem driver doesnt install with the inf error and there seems to be no firewire driver.
(reinstalling intel chipset drivers doesnt fix that)

Also wifi doesnt work even though it does install.
(Intel software on vista cant find a network while xp can)

Martin

Sorry I'm not much help. Not sure about the modem, as there are modem drivers on the linked page. Firewire should be part of the OS, might look to Windows Update for that. BTW, have you installed Service Pack 1?

Wifi problems might be because of the wrong (or at least not the best) driver. Some folks have had better luck with drivers direct from Intel instead of Lenovo.

Maybe someone with more experience will come along to help our. I've only installed Vista once (on a R61), but everything worked out well for me, after installing a few missing drivers. I liked it much better than XP.

I havent installed SP1 time to go hunting for it .......

Do intel have an auto detect tool to determine my wifi card?

Martin

I think Intel has a driver update utility with auto-detect, but I've never used it...so not sure.

Sadly the vista sp1 install failed due to an internal error.
Great nice bit of informative error reportin Microsoft.

Martin

I tried this only a couple of days ago just to see if there were any performance improvements over win7, I had no problems at all with drivers, after installing vista x64 I let it update to sp1 and sp2 + more updates then installed thinkvantage and took all the drivers that were missing took nearly two days though to get all the updates etc. then it took two minutes to swap the hd back to win7.