Thinkpads Forum

Now my 600X is throwing me a curve ball....sort of:

I am running into problems that I am assuming is due to corruption in the original Wink2k Pro installation. I have a off-the-shelf installation disc and no IBM restore software. I do not want to lose the IBM software such as the ThinkPad Configuration program when I reload the OS. The ThinkPad folder in Program Files is just under 15MB. To install the IBM software on a generic Win2k installation, is it as easy as saving that folder to a USB stick in installing them in the new OS installation?

I visited the mirror site stickied to this forum, but it claims to be offline.

I have installed Office 97, Photoshop, and SimCity 3000. Only SimCity will run as it should. All the other programs, despite residing on the HD, present a message that the application must be installed to run. The containing folders are the right sizes. If I put in the Office disc, I can get Word to run by entering the path from the CD in the Run program. Is that a sign of a OS installation gone bad?

I am unfamiliar with Win2k. For a writer, the 600X and TransNote are perfect. I am starting to get nervous that I'll never get them to the point where I can actually use them for this purpose!

Lenovo is no longer hosting them. Bill however was lucky enough to have someone grab them and is hosting them. If you're just looking for the drivers and such, look at the very top of the forum, and the colorful logo, and there is a link to "Drivers & HMMs". Then scroll down to the 600X and you'll find the win2K drivers.

startac wrote:I am running into problems that I am assuming is due to corruption in the original Wink2k Pro installation. I have a off-the-shelf installation disc and no IBM restore software. I do not want to lose the IBM software such as the ThinkPad Configuration program when I reload the OS. The ThinkPad folder in Program Files is just under 15MB. To install the IBM software on a generic Win2k installation, is it as easy as saving that folder to a USB stick in installing them in the new OS installation?

No, you can't just copy the folder over and then expect the utilities to run correctly on your new system, even if they are in the exactly correct locations and include all the files, because Windows stores lots of things in its "registry" and most programs need various entries in your "registry" to work.

But have no fear! All of the Thinkpad software you need you can download elsewhere, and then you can manually install each utility you need by following the installation instructions that accompany each one. Windows 2000 has pretty good support for most of the hardware that came with the 600X, so you actually shouldn't need very many drivers. And the special Thinkpad utilitities (like for the TrackPoint, or Power Manager, for example), you would have needed to update those from the default installation anyways. I think the only thing from the IBM restore disk for the 600 series that you can't download separately now would be the DVD player Mediamatics DVDExpress, but you'll find much better media players than that now anyways.

It's possible that you could try running the Lenovo Update Manager or System Manager or whatever it was called in that era, but you might get along better installing whatever you need manually as you come across the need for it.

startac wrote:I visited the mirror site stickied to this forum, but it claims to be offline.

tfflivemb2 wrote:Lenovo is no longer hosting them.

Up until a week or two ago, that was true, and we were all pretty annoyed at Lenovo for removing those files. But they've since had a change of heart, and you can download the same files on their EOL site here:
http://download.lenovo.com/eol/index.html
(This does not include the really, really old files that used to be available via the archive of the ftp folder in the sticky at the top of this thread, but it for sure includes all 600-series files).

startac wrote:I have installed Office 97, Photoshop, and SimCity 3000. Only SimCity will run as it should. All the other programs, despite residing on the HD, present a message that the application must be installed to run....

Not sure what's going on there. But you'll need original discs or install files to install Office 97 and Photoshop - you can't just copy the folders over and expect them to run for the same reason that I explain above about the "registry".

Phil.

pkiff wrote:Up until a week or two ago, that was true..<snip>

Awesome news! Thanks for sharing!