windows 7 install on new hard drive

[motoracer47]

Hi,
I just picked up a x61 tablet(and ultra bay with dvd/rw) on ebay, and I got a few questions about getting it going. This did not come with a hard drive, but Ive got a 2.5" 100gb sata drive laying around, and windows 7 32bit home premium to install on it. I know that the x61 has bios # 1.19, and from my research, I need 1.23 or up for windows 7 support. So here is what it looks like I need to do:

Make a bios update cd with 1.25 on it
update bios with tablet attached to ultra bay(does the hard drive need to be installed to update bios from cd?)
install hard drive
install windows 7
as far as drivers go..should i download all the drivers individually from Lenovo, or should i just download thinkvantage and that updates everything?

anything else I should do?


thanks for any input

[sarbin]

welcome to the forum.

1) yep
2) yep (nope)
3) yep
4) yep
5) tv sys update works pretty well. anything it doesn't offer can be dl'ed and installed manually.

btw... this is exactly how i installed win7pro64 on my x61t.
***eta... i never checked my bios version prior to install. hmmm, gonna hafta now. regardless, haven't had any issues whatsoever.

cheers!

[motoracer47]

awesome, thanks for the response. Looks like im ready to go once everything gets here.
As far as the bios goes, im only assuming I should update it. I was browsing through Lenovo bios updates for the x61 tablet (everyone does that on the weekends right?:) and noticed on update 1.23, it "included windows 7 support" So I just assumed I needed to upgrade to at least 1.23. Any reason I shouldnt try to update? Is bios update on these a pretty smooth thing, or do people have issue's? (or is it one of those--if it aint broke, dont fix it--kinda things?)

[sarbin]

np.

just checked. as i thought, i had not updated my x61t bios. i'm still at v1.08, but after looking at the changes between that and v1.25, i think i'll do it. normally, a good rule is not to fix what isn't broken, but there seems to be a enough critical mass here.

as far as 'smooth', i've never had a problem updating, via bootable cd, on any of my current tps, or bootable floppy on the older models. others here have had great luck updating from within a booted windows system, but i've heard of bricked machines on rare occasions. just follow all the instructions (charged battery, ac power, etc) and you should be fine.

let us know how you make out.
cheers!

[motoracer47]

Once I get everything in hand, ill post an update. I have decided to update to 1.25 for now. I have been reading up on the modded bios, and may eventually look at one of those. Once I get the laptop in hand, I'm going to disassemble, replace cooling fan, see if it supports WWAN, and if so, install smaller fan(if posts and connector are there). I am with Sprint, so I will need to put in a different wwan card for their service, I just need to find what bios works with the card I will need. However, thats a bit down the line, so stock, latest bios for now to get her going.

[motoracer47]

Got it running! Man, I think I really lucked out on this purchase. There was a seller that had 32 of these for sale, a corporate surplus place, and it ends up this one was originally purchased dec of 2009 (didnt think they still made these then) I still have 202 days left on the warranty! But more importantly, I wonder if this unit was ever really used. No scratches anywhere(even the rubber feet looked unused) battery checked out as: good condition, 100% life left, and lasts about 4 hours (8cell). Used my fiber-optic boroscope (for car work) to check fan and cooler...no hair or dust or lint at all!!! I tend to replace the cooling fan and use Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste on the chips as a matter of course on a used laptop, but I dont think I need to worry about it on this one.

I attempted to use bios update cd, but I guess I didnt make it bootable (even though the software burner said it did) I could not get the x61 to see it in the ultra bay drive(yup, changed boot order to attapi cd0--but no go. So I just installed windows 7 with the current bios(1.19)then installed middleton's modded bios 1.24 with the windows installer, worked perfect. Now im at 1.24 with SATA 2 active, and whitelist removed.

Only thing I have not got working is multi-touch. I installed the latest driver from lenovo (3.0.0.3), but still no go. Does anyone know if all X61 Tablets are multi-touch, or is that an option? (btw, this unit does NOT have fingerprint reader..if that tells you anything)

[sarbin]

mine doesn't have the fpr either.
not all had multi-touch. mine doesn't.

if you look up your model in the ltwbook by it's machine type number, you should be able to get an idea. you could also punch your mt/sn into the warranty lookup page and see what the original config part numbers were and use those in the hmm to try to puzzle this out.

ltwbook: http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/ltwbook.pdf
*note - not all machine types are listed explicitly. do you have a cto model?
warranty lookup: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... yle=lenovo
hmm: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-66749

hth.