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What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

X230-X280, X390 Series
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Henry0622
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What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#1 Post by Henry0622 » Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:22 am

Hi guys, I'm a Thinkpad user using X230 now.

I'm thinking of upgrade my notebook recently and trying to survey on the new thinkpads.

I use Win7 32 bit version a lot on work, some programs and files are only available on it, even win7 64bit won't work.

So I search on the net and find out that some people said it's X260 and others said X270 has 6th generation Intel CPU supports Win7 too(Not sure if it includes 32 bit version? Or only 64bit version?)

I'm planning using both Win7 32 bit and Win10 64bit on my new Thinkpad at same SSD. Is there any possible conflict I shoud be aware of?

Thank you for all the suggests guys.

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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#2 Post by dr_st » Fri Apr 20, 2018 12:15 pm

Welcome to the forum. :D

I believe that Skylake-based and older systems support both 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows 7.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#3 Post by thinkpadcollection » Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:23 pm

Windows 10 32bit do exist have you built a test computer with windows 10 Pro 32bit yet? 4GB addressed is the limitation for 32 bit OSes You can have dual channel pair of 4GB for 8GB total but windows 32 bit OS can use 4GB of it with no problems, I have done this only to improve the integrated GPU via doubled memory bandwidth using two memory modules as a pair. Windows 7 end of support will be soon come around the corner in 1.5 year away (2020).

x240 and later does not support dual channel mode due to only 1 slot memory and they do not have onboard soldered memory either this can impact the integrated GPU performance.

May suggest look at HP Elitebook 820 G1 or G2 (12.5" LCD with trackpoint) and they support dual channel with two memory slots DDR3L you can get pair of 4GB modules of DDR3L-1600 as 8GB total installed but yet 32bit OS does can use most of 4GB and some left over that OS could not use rest but useful for integrated GPU? If you only have 4GB memory, intergrated GPU will steal some more from it and leaving you with less for 32bit OS. Just a suggestion.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

Henry0622
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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#4 Post by Henry0622 » Sat Apr 21, 2018 7:17 am

Thank you all for the kindly replies.

To thinkpadcollection:

I know there's 32-bit Win10, but I never build up a test PC successfully as the situation I faced below. so I come here and ask for help to make sure I don't make same mistake again.

I have just bought a laptop recently, and I bought the one with Skylake CPU which might supports Win7 32 bit.

But I found out I can't use both mouse & Keyboard in Win7 32 bit installation screen, even I modify the BIOS options for compatibility.

I contact ASRock which is the motherboard manufacturer, and they told me that the 64-bit UEFI board doesn't supports 32-bit OS installation even if the CPU supports it still doesn't work.

My money and effort on that Skylake PC totally waste :oops: So I/m trying not to make the same mistake again on the notebook.

Thank you for all the help mate.
thinkpadcollection wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:23 pm
Windows 10 32bit do exist have you built a test computer with windows 10 Pro 32bit yet? 4GB addressed is the limitation for 32 bit OSes You can have dual channel pair of 4GB for 8GB total but windows 32 bit OS can use 4GB of it with no problems, I have done this only to improve the integrated GPU via doubled memory bandwidth using two memory modules as a pair. Windows 7 end of support will be soon come around the corner in 1.5 year away (2020).

x240 and later does not support dual channel mode due to only 1 slot memory and they do not have onboard soldered memory either this can impact the integrated GPU performance.

May suggest look at HP Elitebook 820 G1 or G2 (12.5" LCD with trackpoint) and they support dual channel with two memory slots DDR3L you can get pair of 4GB modules of DDR3L-1600 as 8GB total installed but yet 32bit OS does can use most of 4GB and some left over that OS could not use rest but useful for integrated GPU? If you only have 4GB memory, intergrated GPU will steal some more from it and leaving you with less for 32bit OS. Just a suggestion.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

dr_st
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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#5 Post by dr_st » Sat Apr 21, 2018 10:12 am

Henry0622 wrote:
Sat Apr 21, 2018 7:17 am
But I found out I can't use both mouse & Keyboard in Win7 32 bit installation screen, even I modify the BIOS options for compatibility.

I contact ASRock which is the motherboard manufacturer, and they told me that the 64-bit UEFI board doesn't supports 32-bit OS installation even if the CPU supports it still doesn't work.

My money and effort on that Skylake PC totally waste :oops: So I/m trying not to make the same mistake again on the notebook.
I think the tech support was wrong. I believe it is due to lack of USB 3.0 drivers in Windows 7. Read here:
https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/win7-skylake/
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#6 Post by jdrou » Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:37 am

While USB 3.0 drivers is probably an issue it also seems to be true that most UEFI firmware only supports 64-bit OS.
If the BIOS doesn't allow you to revert to legacy mode you won't be able to install 32-bit OS.
In legacy mode you'd still run into the USB driver issue though if the system has no USB 2.0 ports.
I use NTlite to integrate USB 3.0 drivers into Windows 7 install images.

Note from MS:
While in UEFI mode, the Windows version must match the PC architecture. A 64-bit UEFI PC can only boot 64-bit versions of Windows. A 32-bit PC can only boot 32-bit versions of Windows. In some cases, while in legacy BIOS mode, you may be able to run 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit PC, assuming the manufacturer supports 32-bit legacy BIOS mode on the PC.

I do have a partition with Windows 7 32-bit on my T440p in non-EFI mode so I can confirm that at least; that still has a couple of USB 2.0 ports. I'd expect it to work on Skylake Thinkpads if you work around the USB issue.
Current Thinkpads:
X31, X40, X61T, X61, X201, X220 (i7 IPS), W520 (FHD), T440p (FHD),
T480 (QHD)
Dells: Latitude C840, Precision M70, Precision M4400, M6400 (WUXGA), M6600, M6700, 7730, XPS 13
Daily driver: MS Surface Pro 7 (i7)

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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#7 Post by dr_st » Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:16 am

jdrou wrote:
Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:37 am
While USB 3.0 drivers is probably an issue it also seems to be true that most UEFI firmware only supports 64-bit OS.
If the BIOS doesn't allow you to revert to legacy mode you won't be able to install 32-bit OS.
Right, right. You are correct of course.

I think all Thinkpads support Legacy mode.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#8 Post by Utwig » Wed Aug 15, 2018 6:56 pm

I once cloned drive with Windows 7 to UEFI (Not a Thinkpad) machine and used RDP after install to download USB 3.0 drivers. You can install Win7 on very late hardware with some tricks and if you look there are probably isos with integrated USB 3.0 drivers (just assuming based on how people during late XP and 2000 behaved).
T540p, T420s, T400, R61, X61t, T60p, T42p, A21p

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Re: What's the latest Thinkpad model that officially supports Win7 32Bit version?

#9 Post by GomJabbar » Sat Aug 18, 2018 10:50 pm

The ThinkPad T42 supports Windows 7 32-bit pretty well - although it is a bit slow. It takes a bit of diligent searching to find the best drivers on Lenovo's site. For instance, I was recently setting up an old T42 for Windows Vista that came with an ATI radeon 9000 display adapter. It took some searching to find the best drivers.

Here is what I used for Windows Vista. The same drivers should be compatible with Windows 7. The following drivers are the most important IMO.

ATI Driver version 8.133.2.1.1.1-070206a-043154C (Install package to the hard drive, then in Device Manager choose to update driver and search C:\DRIVERS\ [and subfolders])
Ultranav Driver version 16.2.19.14
Power Management Driver version 1.67.04.05
Hotkey Features Integration version 3.02.0000
Lenovo Active Protection System version 1.81.0.8

There are also Lenovo drivers for Intel WIFi and Ethernet, but Windows Update seems to be sufficient.

EDIT: I should add that I do have Windows 7 on a top-end T42 with the ATI Radeon 9600 display adapter that I keep for myself. The T42 I wrote about above was set up with Vista for my Grandson. He is 8 years old and wants to learn coding. His mother (my daughter) bought him a book on programing with Python. Python 3.x would not seem to run on XP, and I had an unused copy of Vista Ultimate laying around, so that is why I installed Vista. Fortunately Python is running fine on Vista.
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