Thinkpads Forum

I used to own an X41 Tablet but the Win XP software wasn't the greatest and I had problems and there was no SXGA resolution. I've heard the Vista software is much better for tablets.

Could current X61 Tablet owners answer these questions for me?

1. Does anyone run Vista 64 on their tablet (I'm running it on my X61s)? Does it work well?

2. How is the battery life? I get about 7 hours on my X61s. What would I expect on the X61T?

3. Are many people using Microsoft OneNote 2007? I'm currently using it with a Wacom Bamboo tablet, but I was wondering if tablet owners were using it and how....here is a OneNote demo that I like:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/ ... 11033.aspx
(see bottom of article for the link of the OneNote demo).

As Vista has a battery drain bug, you can only expect 4h on the x61t, see
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=53757

Some people get more under XP.

Some report they can get 6h under Vista.

This is weird and yet there's no definitive answer to it.

I suspect the SATA-Controller Driver plus some different HDD access mechanisms in Vista to be the culprit, but still this is an open issue.
People getting the better runtime seem to use TurboMemory + Matrix Storage driver.

1.) Sorry, got Vista 32

2.) I can get around 6ish/7ish, using it in class with screen brightness down all the way, wireless/BT off, and on 'maximize' battery life (although, I have yet to turn battery stretch on...I'd be interested to see if there is any difference)

3.) I'm absoultly loving Onenote 07, never used it before I got the tablet (X61T), and its fantastic. Wish I had it before. I'm using it class notes, I'll send my ppt and pdf files to Onenote and ink on them to record my class notes....beats wasting ink and paper printing them off.

Hope it helps.

Trekk69 wrote:I'll send my ppt and pdf files to Onenote and ink on them to record my class notes.....

That is pretty cool that you're able to send adobe files to OneNote as well. I tried to copy and paste a single adobe pdf page into OneNote but it comes out too small. I'm able to make it larger by using the "handle bars" on the sides, but it is very hard to do.

There is a 'send to onenote 2007' option, under my print menu for Adobe. Once in onenote, I just change the 'zoom' viewing option, to make it easier to read if I need to.
I know there is other software that specifically handles the PDF to onenote conversions without any change, or software that specifically handles PDFs (Bluebeam comes to mind). But right now I have no problem with my current system.

Vista 64 doesn't have Print to OneNote working, they haven't done the driver. I tried copying single pages, but the zoom doesn't work well, it is very unclear because it is seen as a "picture." Thanks.

Trekk69 wrote: 2.) I can get around 6ish/7ish, using it in class with screen brightness down all the way...

Do you have TBM and Matrix Storage driver? Does your HDD get asleep with full spindown?

@pibach
TBM....I assume thinkvantage battery manager. Yes I use it to regulate my battery life. I never have my battery in when I'm plugged it, I find that helps as well.
Not aware of the Matrix Storage Driver?, please explain
I find my HDD does do a full spindown, although not entirely sure.

Hope that helps.

sorry, wasn't clear, by TBM I mean Turbo Memory. X61t's without TBM do not run much longer than 4h even on lightest usage.

TBM might help to get the HDD to sleep (depending on what you do). And the Matrix Storage driver is the Inter Driver for 2 and more HDDs, comes only with TBM models as it is handled as a HDD.

I assume that SATA controller then can go to a special power saving mode, and therefore the lower power consumption.

If you HDD spins down completely then is should be 100% noise emission free, even when ear directly over right side of keyboard.

All the power setting from the ThinkVantage Energy Manager do not help much.

Ok thanks,
No I don't have Turbo Memory.
And yes, I'm pretty sure my HDD spins down completely, its pretty noise-free, and I only have 1 HDD

Ok Trekk thanks.
Seems that you have a pretty singular configuration as I do not know of anybody getting HDD to sleep with Vista without TBM. So what did you do?

Did you change SATA mode from Compatibility Mode to AHCI? Some special Caching Mode enabled? What size of Ram do you have?

What minimum wattage can you archive at lowest brightness? Does it go down as low as <8 Watt when idle (if you don't touch it for 20 sec)?

I'll be honest pibach, the information your telling me is pretty far over my head. I'm not a huge technical guy when it comes to this kind of jargon.

I know that when I go to sleep my computer is basically silent, and I experience great battery life, from not really touching any settings other than battery manager.

So I apologize if I can't offer any more guidance or experience into changing settings to optimize battery life.

ok, don't worry, thought you have tweaked out your machine to all the bits and details when I read 6-7 hours runtime, as I never get much more than 4. Probably you did a Clean Install? Or does this runtime come for you out-of-the-box? Or maybe Canadian configuration is different? Weird.

But to make sure, did you actually run it for that long or was it only the Vista or ThinkVantage prediction (which can be quite inaccurate sometimes)?

best,

Peter

No clean install, but I did do a Custom RnR install and got rid of a whole bunch of crap.

I've my self experienced 5hrs of actual run time, with the predication still for another 2 or so.

Trekk, thanks again, great, so it seems to be possible to get that long runtime even without Turbo Memory. Question of how to is still open though...Maybe some others could help us.

BTW, here is a link to a detailed discussion of x61t power consumption with a poll what people are observing. You get all the various Wattages, weird. Some got it down to <7 Watt.
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=11150

Thanks for the link
That forum has been useful for me in the past.

Hopefully a more technical jargon'ed person can give you a hand.
Take care

Is there any specific information that shows that with Turbo Memory one gets longer battery life? Any articles, etc? TIA.

No. Turbo Memory in its current implementation is pure placebo. But it might have this side effect under specific settings. Think it is a bug in the Intel SATA driver (while the Matrix driver maybe does not have it). Unfortunately I haven't seen anywhere a real good in depth comparison Vista/XP getting to the beef. These reviews all stuck at Aero switching off or some power plan settings which both have almost no effect at all. But seemingly it is also possible to get good runtime without Turbo Memory, I just don't know how...