Thinkpads Forum

So we just got a refurbished X60s for my wife, 1704-69U. I installed Vista Ultimate and added a GB of ram for 2GB total. I installed all the lenovo software I wanted (mostly battery and wireless stuff) and it seems to be up and running very well. I setup a custom profile for battery life and with performance set to low, wireless off, and LCD at level 5 of 7 the battery is telling me it will last 5 hours (with the 8 cell). I tested this and got about 4 hours of like with ~30% remaining. Does this seem correct or is there something wrong?

Also, I ran CPU-z and noticed the 1.66 CD runs at 997 most of the time and 1.66 when something is loading. It does not matter what I set the performance at, plugged in or on battery, the cpu is always registering as 997 (6x multi) unless it's loading a program or doing something intensive. All the while windows system information says the speed is 1.66, no change. I want it to scale correctly and stay at low speeds when on battery to conserve life.

Also, does anyone know how to get the fingerprint reader to work in vista?

The only other question I have (at the moment ) is with the brightness settings. On battery or AC I can change the brightness settings easily using the fn+home/end but if I got to brightness of 0 and then try to change it again the CPU (both cores) goes to 100%, the comp freezes, and it takes ~5-10 seconds for each level brightness change. It requires multiple key presses for each level change.

Other than that the computer has run beautifully and my wife is so excited about how fast it is, especially compared to her old T23 she was using. Thanks for any help!

Your battery life with Vista is on par with what I got. That's the main reason I stayed with XP, which gives me around 7 hours actual usage on my X60s.

sugo wrote:Your battery life with Vista is on par with what I got. That's the main reason I stayed with XP, which gives me around 7 hours actual usage on my X60s.

If it is supposed to last 5 hours with this configuration I'm ok with that as my wife is not a heavy battery user. I just wanted to confirm that it was working correctly. As long as we can still watch a single movie with some spare juice she will be happy.

Your movie may require a higher CPU speed to play (depends ... you should try playing the movie and see how the battery life projection changes) and thus a shorter battery life.

On the other hand, you could install RMClock to undervolt the CPU and increase battery life. (NHC is an excellent choice for that as well, but unfortunately it does not yet support Vista.)

tomh009 wrote:Your movie may require a higher CPU speed to play (depends ... you should try playing the movie and see how the battery life projection changes) and thus a shorter battery life.

On the other hand, you could install RMClock to undervolt the CPU and increase battery life. (NHC is an excellent choice for that as well, but unfortunately it does not yet support Vista.)

Is undervoltage safe and reliable? I am using x60. Interested to try undervoltage? How low should i go to?

tomh009 wrote:Your movie may require a higher CPU speed to play (depends ... you should try playing the movie and see how the battery life projection changes) and thus a shorter battery life.

On the other hand, you could install RMClock to undervolt the CPU and increase battery life. (NHC is an excellent choice for that as well, but unfortunately it does not yet support Vista.)

I'm all good about the movie watching taking extra battery which is why we went with a 8+ hour rated laptop. My worry is that with the brightness up, vista installed, and the CPU going nutz that we won't even be able to get through a single movie. It sounds like this is a normal thing with Vista (except the CPU speed) so thats all good. Any ideas on my other questions?

Other questions -- fingerprint reader and brightness setting issues?

Unfortunately not as I'm still in XP-land on my X31, only occasionally using Vista at work (on desktop machines). I would suggest posting in the Vista forum, with a specific subject line, about those two items.

tomh009 wrote:Other questions -- fingerprint reader and brightness setting issues?

Unfortunately not as I'm still in XP-land on my X31, only occasionally using Vista at work (on desktop machines). I would suggest posting in the Vista forum, with a specific subject line, about those two items.

heh heh, thanks for that. Obviously I'm brand new to the forums as I did not even notice the vista forum. Thanks!

I have been running Ultimate for about a month and NO MAJOR PROBLEMS-Fingerprint, etc..they all work...

However, I do have problems with the "auto" feature for brightness. For example, I have the LCD brightness to go to max when plugged in; however the brightness will kick up as soon as I plug it in; it will "refresh"(screen goes blank for a second) two seconds later it goes back to the levels set for battery...I have to change the settings myself to max brightness...everything else...A+

But the "prompts" to allow every little thing are starting to get on my nerves....

If it were my personal machine the prompts would also drive me nuts but since it's my wifes machine she never really enters menus that have those. I have heard they can be disabled and I think you do that in the user controls but I'm not sure.

draco2527 wrote:I have been running Ultimate for about a month and NO MAJOR PROBLEMS-Fingerprint, etc..they all work...

However, I do have problems with the "auto" feature for brightness. For example, I have the LCD brightness to go to max when plugged in; however the brightness will kick up as soon as I plug it in; it will "refresh"(screen goes blank for a second) two seconds later it goes back to the levels set for battery...I have to change the settings myself to max brightness...everything else...A+

But the "prompts" to allow every little thing are starting to get on my nerves....

Please see this thread I started over in the Vista section on RMClock and the difference it has made for me.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=39325