Thinkpads Forum

Got my T400 this morning and as I expected I don't like Vista (1GB RAM idle, not cool). Pop in my XP MCE disc and it doesn't go. Go grab a really old XP Home SP1 disc and toss it in, I get another BSOD. It all happens after the drivers load and it says "starting windows installer" (or whatever comes up before the actual menu comes up). Before anyone asks, all the discs are legit discs.

Is anyone else getting BSOD'd trying to install XP? My friends T400 has the same problem (using his own discs).

On this kind of issue, I am uniquely a minority of 1, but here goes. Order a set of XP recovery disks from Lenovo, because these disks will have all the relevant drivers (more than you think of), should work, and then uninstall what you don't want. Worth a try. ... JDH

Hello Bob,

try to go into Bios and select hdd performance to compatible.

Then install win XP.

See this guide to install and find driver for XP on Notebookreview:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=294574

Vista uses RAM differently, it isn't likely actually sitting there using 1GB RAM but is probably caching it. However, if you do have more RAM it will take advantage of that and use it for better performance. I find on similarly spec'd higher end machines that Vista runs smoother and multitasks better.

What the other poster said. Go into the BIOS set the SATA mode from AHCI to Compatibility.

Switching the drive from AHCI to compatibility did the trick for XP (good to know). I'm still considering Vista only because it can handle switchable graphics without a reboot.