Results - Win 7 Beta on TP600X with 20GB HDD and 576MB RAM

[wb0gaz]

Just wanted to pass along outcome of my informal experiment to try Windows 7 Beta on an IBM 600X thinkpad type 2645-5FU (it has a 650 MHz CPU in any event.) The machine has 576MB RAM using a pair of Crucial 256MB memory modules, and a 20GB HDD (an old IBM Travelstar). Partitioned 4GB "C" with XP (just to enable the Windows 7 Beta install), and 16GB "D" (the latter formatted as NTFS, required by Windows 7 Beta.) Ran "Setup" from the (downloaded) install DVD and did a clean install onto the "D" partition. About 7GB remains free on the 16GB partition containing Windows 7 (a few small updates, drivers, and Mozilla Firefox 3 are all I've added.) I believe this machine configuration is close to the bare minimum resource requirements for Windows 7 Beta.

As the 600X doesn't have built-in Ethernet, I completed install by leaving the serial number key input field blank (that will let it run for 30 days), then tried every wired/wireless Ethernet (PCMCIA/USB) adapter I had lying around to discover that NONE worked (all said there was no driver - the NICs I have on hand are all pre-Vista era). Went out and picked up a new low-end Cardbus Ethernet NIC to get Vista support (based on RT8139 chipset) which was recognized by Windows 7 Beta, then used that to install (via Windows 7 automated driver search/download process) the driver for a D-Link USB Wireless NIC, then used that connection to pick up the driver for a D-Link DWL-650 cardbus wireless NIC I already had (and am using now.) Once on-line, the machine picked up drivers for the Thinkpad's IR port (I have nothing to test with), a specific driver for the trackpoint (the trackpoint worked w/o the driver, but the installed driver added some adjustment capabilities), and a driver for the built in sound port/speakers (worked once the driver was picked up.)

Screen resolution was initially set at 800x600 but was easily changed to 1024x768. Once there was a working network connection, it picked up drivers for the thinkpad's sound and trackpoint devices. The display doesn't seem to support the "composited" window manager graphics, but is otherwise quite usable.

[wb0gaz]

I failed to include in my write-up above that the "sleep" mode for Windows 7 Beta is evidently not supported on the Thinkpad 600X (at least given the way I've installed and set up so far.) It will hibernate, but sleep (I gather replaces the old "standby" mode of Windows 2000) is greyed out and not offered in the power management options.

[Neil]

Probably not enough RAM for Windows 7 to sleep (standby). I have had the same result with XP on very low RAM systems.

[Temetka]

Minus the fact that I find that setup to be unusable in a production envorinment (old HW), you get geek points for doing it.

[Rob Mayercik]

So how does the machine perform now that you have it installed?

Maybe I'll have a go with it on my old 600 (2645-45U with PII-400 and 288MB ram) - I have a spare partition on the drive in it that I can use for dual-booting between 7 and 98SE.

Rob