THINKPAD T43 & WINDOWS 10

[KRAZY KEV]

I got a T43 type 2668 with ATI Radion Mobility R300 video which has 2gb of RAM fitted and im wondering if anyone has had success running windows 10 on it. it is currently running windows 7 with no problems at all.

[brchan]

I didn't have Windows 10 on my T43 (2ghz, 2gb ram, 5400rpm HDD, ATI X300), but I did have Windows 8.1 on it. The experience was OK at best. I wouldn't expect Windows 10 to run any faster, but slower. These machines are simply getting too dated to be able to run the fancy interface and extra services that are in Windows 8 and up. I imagine gpu drivers would be an issue as well.

I would stick to Linux or Windows 7 at most for these machines.

[ajkula66]

I would stick to Linux or Windows 7 at most for these machines.

^^^^^^^

This. Times a zillion.

Not to mention that I'm not touching W10 with a 50-foot pole until they've fixed all the bugs...

My $0.02 only...

[KRAZY KEV]

Today I took the plunge and installed Windows 10 build 10041 32bit.
Installation went extremely smoothly.
To my amazement even more drivers are included with W10 than W7.
there are 2 exceptions.
1/ = VGA. This is installed as a Microsoft basic display adaptor. The resolution is correct for the screen so it is not too much of a problem as I don't use it for gaming.
2/ = Power management driver. This is not too much of an issue as I always use the mains. This is the Winbond Trusted Platform Module 1:1. Maybe someone knows of a fix

I know the software I use wont be a problem as I have tested it on another computer and it runs great. I have been testing W10 since its first test build and I'm very pleased with how it looks and informs. A huge improvement over 8 / 8:1
I now know that I will be future proof for the next 10 years or so.

[Norway Pad]

Good job there. Thanks for confirming that Win10 at least works in a basic sense. Even if the computer in my eyes is a little crippled without the system software and particularly without a graphics driver, it's at least usable. And you might succeed in installing some of it in compatibility mode, even though I suspect the graphics driver is likely to give you some hassle.

This is the Winbond Trusted Platform Module 1:1. Maybe someone knows of a fix.

I know that someone on this forum made a "dummy" driver for the TPM chip, for use with Win8 on T43, so that it didn't remain an unknown object in Device Manager. I don't think it had any functionality, so it didn't do anything else than actually recognize the module. I'm headed to bed right now, so I don't have the time to find that post, and I'm not even sure about the details. See if you can find it. If the download is gone, I downloaded this file and kept it, and can email it to you.

[brchan]

Nice that you got the system working . Having a basic VGA driver may become a problem though. You can try installing the ATI driver (depending on which model you have) in compatability mode.

I now know that I will be future proof for the next 10 years or so.

That is a bit of a stretch IMO. Maybe for upper end Nehalem chips, but not for a pentium M.

[KRAZY KEV]

i have seen a few laptops i like, all thinkpads that will fly with W10 on them. problem is lack of dosh at the moment

http://www.grabalaptop.com/i5-laptops/X220/

http://www.grabalaptop.com/i5-laptops/IBM-T420/

http://www.grabalaptop.com/i5-laptops/IBM-T410/

this is the company that i brought my T43 from over three years ago. they are good to deal with as well. all the laptops are ex corporate and between 3 and 5 years old although my t43 was around 6 or 7 years old when i got it. first thing i done to the t43 was max out the ram to 2gb. this was purchased from crucial memory.

[KRAZY KEV]

i just set up the fingerprint reader in windows 10. no extra software is needed and compared to past versions of windows this must be the easiest way to set up the finger print reader. its a lot easier than having to type in a long password every time.

overall the T43 is running great. there is a slight bit of lag with the display but this could be down to the fact that its a beta build or maybe the standard windows driver.
I have found out that W10 uses a lot less storage space on the hard drive. i have only used 21.6gb of space and that includes all my files as well as extra software that i have installed.
memory usage is also good. its only using 40% of 2gb as im typing this post.
im going to continue testing W10 and see what happens when i disable a few unneeded services.

on my main PC which is 7 years old i am tri-booting xp. 7 and 10. 10 runs faultlessly on it. i cannot wait for the full release version so i can wave bye bye to 7. every driver is in W10 except for the sound card but i can use one for W8:1