T400 Problems / Windows 8.1

[cambium0]

I am *upgrading* from a T60P with windows 8.1 to a T400 with Windows 8.1. There are a few problems:

--The T400 boot is utterly laborious and requires me to turn it on, press the power button for several seconds, turn it off by pressing the power again briefly, then turn it on at which point there is a long pause before the post screen shows and then there is a message about ME is initializing or some such. ME is Intel Management Engine I think, it's a chipset that exists on the T400 motherboard. This screen hangs indefinitely, so I then have to press power (normally) to turn off the pc once again. Then I press power a third time, and Windows 8.1 ultimately boots up normally. I have turned expedited boot on and off and it makes no difference.

--Once booted into Windows 8.1, there are a few flag messages (problems with the computer), the first of which is that Intel Maintenance Engine chipset is incompatible with this version of windows. Do I turn it off in the device manager then?

--There does not appear to be Lenovo software for the fingerprint reader for this platform (t400, windows 8.1). That is odd given that there was a working driver for my T60p.

Any ideas for fixes for these issues? thanks

Ken T.

[cambium0]

Ok I'm going to try flashing an older bios, if that's possible. Then if that works, I'll try flashing the current one again.

[pianowizard]

I have never used a T400 (or, for that matter, any post-T60 T Series), and I have installed Windows 8/8.1 on just four computers, so I probably won't be of much help. But if you can clarify a couple things, others might be able to help:

Is this 64-bit or 32-bit?

Did you have Windows 8.1 on the T60p and then transfer the hard drive to this T400, hoping to continue to use the existing software? This approach usually fails.

If you answer "no" to the previous question, did you do a clean install of Windows 8 on the T400, or did you upgrade to 8 from an older OS on the T400?

Did Windows 8 work fine and then problems started after updating to 8.1?

Ok I'm going to try flashing an older bios, if that's possible. Then if that works, I'll try flashing the current one again.

I would tend to expect that you want the newest BIOS, which might have added support for Windows 8/8.1

[cambium0]

Actually the boot up issue I think is independent of the OS issue. I posted here regarding the lack of drivers in the hopes that somebody would have a link or something. No working driver for fingerprint reader under 8.1 for t400 seems strange since there is a working driver for the t60p that has been updated as recently as last year.

The boot up issue and the OS issue seem to come together in that the boot up (second time) hangs on initializing ME, which again is Intel Management Engine or something--and there is a message in 8.1 saying that the chipset is incompatible with windows 8.1. But I guess it's rather clear that the boot up has problems at post so it could not be 8.1 that is causing the problem. Not exactly sure. I have a bunch of these t400's I can slide the hdd into another one and see how that goes. Could be a bad motherboard.

Just to clarify, it was a fresh install of 8 64-bit, followed by online update to 8.1.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check if the RAM is PC3-8500.
Faster RAM is known to sometimes cause problems.

[Temetka]

I'd try another T400 since you said you had a few spares. Also maybe there is an option in the BIOS to disable the IME. I don't know, I only have a T410. Just trying to help.

Out of curiosity and not to sidetrack the thread, but: I hate Windows 8/8.1. Why would you install this instead of 7 which will run just fine and be very fast?

[cambium0]

Uh as far as why install 8.1, maybe I'll get a break on Windows 9? Probably not. I work with used computers and I'm not accustomed to paying $200 for the latest OS. The used computers I've been working with over the last year went from xp to Vista with a very very few windows 7. I was able to get Windows 8 for $40 bucks so I did it. It's nice to have the latest for once, even if people generally hate it.

[user17600]

Check the bios settings, you should be able to turn off the pre-boot (ME) stuff. I have 2 T400s and get a quick blip of ME but that's it.

I'm running 8.1 on my T400 and I have the fingerprint working fine with the Win7 drivers. There were a few fits and starts installing in compatibility mode, but after trying a couple of different settings (run when logged in as administrator, not just as an administrator), they did install and the scanner does work (all our machine have them; I enforce fingerprint for all non-admin users). And this was on a straight 8.1 install, not on an upgrade from 8.0 (which is what some posts suggested was the only way to do it).

You should be able to get most drivers that don't exist in 8.1 installed from Win7 using compatibility mode (OSD, etc).

PS - I for one find that 8 is quicker than 7. I have two virtually identical T400s and two T60s, one of each running 8 and one running 7 (because of Media Center), same amt of memory, same SSDs, etc., and 8 is a bit more stable and a bit faster. Don't let the haters get you down.

[Temetka]

I have no doubt 8 is faster. I have run it on my T410. Went back to Windows 7 though.

I just can't stand the UI.

I had high hopes Windows 9 wouldn't be as fugly, but nope. Just as fugly based on what I have seen.

On topic: How's XP run on a T400? I have need of a real XP box for retro stuff that just doesn't jive with Vista and higher. Mainly for fiddling around, you know the drill. I'd get a T61, but I don't want to go that far back in time and I don't feel like setting up XP on my T410, although I bet it would fly.

[ScottyBoy]

On topic: How's XP run on a T400? I have need of a real XP box for retro stuff that just doesn't jive with Vista and higher. Mainly for fiddling around, you know the drill. I'd get a T61, but I don't want to go that far back in time and I don't feel like setting up XP on my T410, although I bet it would fly.

My mate's father has it running on his T400 - it's a decent enough speed for him (only running with 2GB RAM) but he's using an Intel SSD for the OS until compatibility mode for the storage (rather than AHCI). I do know however that it was a bit of a pain to get it set-up, as he was running XP for a specific oil & gas application (gas field support) and there was issues with device driver support (not sure of the full story).

Have you considered going down the route of running XP as a virtual machine on your system? There was an XP VM from Microsoft (for running under 7) and it should still be available to download (off the top of my head)...just a thought.

[Temetka]

I have considered an XP VM and even went so far as to set one up.

My old games hate it. Same with DosBOX.

Not really a necessity for me as I have much more real life pressing issues to take care of. But it would be nice to fire up Master of Magic again.