Can windows xp work on the thinkpad W520 with i7 2720 qm ?

Message

leopol · #1 Post by **leopol** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:24 am

Hello,

I would like to buy the Thinkpad W520 with the new Sandy Bridge processors 2720.

However I need to know if Windows Xp can also work on this machine and if Lenovo does provide the xp drivers for that.

I had a previous Dell laptop, but they no longer provide the xp drivers, so it was only possible to run Windows 7.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards

Leopol

hunterman223 · #2 Post by **hunterman223** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:32 am

Looking at the driver page I don't see why not. Most everything important has xp listed. The only important thing i see is nvidia optimus doesn't have drivers for xp, likely because it is not supported. You would either have to have integrated or discrete graphics all of the time, no automatic switching.

craigmontHunter · #3 Post by **craigmontHunter** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 2:45 pm

yes, you can run xp. As mentioned above optimus will not work, you will have to restart and change the card in the bios if you want to change it. That also limits you to 2 displays, as opposed to 4. If you don't mind me asking, why run xp? with xp mode on windows 7, you get almost full compatiblity with xp programs, and you get the better task scheduler of 7 (uses quad core more effectively) - while I understand that xp is still the choice for buisnesses, to really take advantage of the hardware, 7 is the way to go.

Q-Ball · #4 Post by **Q-Ball** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:44 pm

And if you don't want to run a virtual copy of 7, just dual-boot, or go to W7 Ultimate, install Windows XP mode, and then just boot off that virtual hard disk!

That way you can get a copy of Windows XP for free.

hunterman223 · #5 Post by **hunterman223** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 5:44 pm

Q-Ball wrote:And if you don't want to run a virtual copy of 7, just dual-boot, or go to W7 Ultimate, install Windows XP mode, and then just boot off that virtual hard disk!

That way you can get a copy of Windows XP for free.

XP mode is supported with Professional too. Pro and Ultimate seem to be exactly the same, save for the 50 odd language packs that show up in windows update.

RedruM84 · #6 Post by **RedruM84** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:23 pm

if you do a clean install on XP. Make sure you change the HDD model to compatibility mode before you install the OS. Else you will be greeted with a BSOD.

jdrou · #7 Post by **jdrou** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 1:22 am

RedruM84 wrote:if you do a clean install on XP. Make sure you change the HDD model to compatibility mode before you install the OS. Else you will be greeted with a BSOD.

There are at least two ways around this:
1. slipstream updated storage drivers into an XP install CD (using nLite for example)
2. use a USB floppy drive or possibly a flash drive to add the driver after hitting F6 in the first part of the install