Windows 8 Upgrade on X60 successful only after updating BIOS

[henrikb]

I just like to report that upgrading to Windows 8 works on Thinkpad X60 (T2400@1.83GHz; 1.5GB RAM). However, it only did so after updating the BIOS to v2.18 (7BETD7WW; 2008-11-20).

DETAILS:
I decided to upgrade an old Thinkpad X60 that was running Windows XP Pro 32-bit to Windows 8 by using the 'Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant'. That starts by checking the compatibility of your current system. In the details, the generated report said "Your processor doesn't have NX turned on or might not support NX - Setup will attempt to turn on NX during installation. If you processor doesn't support NX, the installation will be cancelled and your PC will roll back to the current OS". Since, it promised to unroll if it wouldn't work and that I had a HDD image clone, I decided to give it a try. I went ahead and ordered the 40 USD upgrade online and a 2GB download started. Then started the installation.

There is not much info provided by the installer while installing, but everything seemed fine for an hour. Lots of restarts etc. Then a screen saying ":( Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you. (100% complete)". A bit later the notebook restarts with a screen saying "Windows installation was not successful. Your previous version of Windows is being restored. Do not restart your computer during this time". At this time it's been 58 mins since the download finished and the installer started. Eventually, the computer restarts a final time and then booting up the original OS (here WinXP).

Before giving up, I decided to check the BIOS version. To my surprise, I've never updated it - it was v1.06 (7BET46WW) from 2006-05-23. Then I noticed that BIOS v2.18 contains the following update:

<2.18>
- (New) Supports Microsoft Windows 7. (addition)

Using Lenovo's 'System Update', I updated the BIOS to v2.18 (7BETD7WW) from 2008-11-20. Next I restarted the Windows 8 setup. This time the installation completed.

[caliber90ft]

It is exciting to see you successfully upgrade the x60 to windows 8. My x60s(L2400) shows "windows 8 install failed" at 10% while upgrding from Windows XP.

I have no clues about the fail, I have upgraded the BIOS to the newest version(2011).

At least I know the L2400 CPU would be ok for windows 8 ( L2400 is low voltage version of your T2400).

I will keep working on that.