Vista on an X41 - my experience

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mpopps · #1 Post by **mpopps** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:42 pm

I just upgraded my X41 to Vista Home Premium. Here's how it went:

1. I wanted to do a completely clean install from the CD, formatting the C: partition, but Vista Home Premium would not allow that. So instead I reverted to the IBM Preinstall (which took a long time to load) and installed Vista with a clean install immediately after that. This proved to be a good move - I learned in a call to Levano support later that they recommend this approach.

2. The Vista install was uneventful and faster than the preload. I looked at the Levano site for downloads and decided to get the new version of Rescue and Recovery and make a backup (on my network) of the newly loaded system. This proved to be a brilliant move, as I later had to revert to it.

3. My X41 had been so slow as to be useless (5 - 10 minutes to boot), and by comparison, it was now blazingly fast. But the fingerprint reader was not working. I started to download various of the Levano drivers and updates, opting in the end to download their automatic up-grader and let it do the job for me. What a mistake! By the end of the night, the machine was again taking 5-10 minutes to boot, and forever to shut down.

4. I had to give a public talk the next day, so I loaded Office 2007 and started PowerPoint up, moved my old presentation to the new (admittedly slow) environment, and got everything working - or so I thought. I decided to test the system on my video projector. What a disaster! F7 did not work and Presentation Director told me that all my monitor options were invalid, so I could not display the presentation. I finally got the projector projecting (with several pushers of F7, I think), but then it was impossible to get my LCD screen working AT ALL! I had to hook the laptop up to a monitor to do anything. A call to Levano support confirmed that my support was supposed to come from Microsoft, since I purchased the software from them. I determined to use as little Levano stuff as I could get away with.

5. I reverted to the Vista clean install that I had backed up; the restore went well. This returned the F7 key to its working state and restored the speed that the Levano stuff had sapped away. I reloaded Office 2007 and got PowerPoint working, and gave the presentation from my new environment - it went fine.

6. I installed the disk protection system and fingerprint software, and a video driver from INTEL. (Widows update was trying to install a video driver update and it failed because the old version was looking like a NEWER version?? The Intel video driver update solved this problem.) Things continued to work well.

7. I installed the wireless LAN software from Levano because Intel suggested that end users get their Vista-compatible wireless card drivers from their laptop vendor. At that point, the system pretty much died. It slowed to a crawl and the F5 key caused the system to go out of control (random responses to keyboard input). I uninstalled the wireless LAN driver and decided that what Vista provided would be good enough. Better no F5 key than no system! The uninstall seemed to be clean - the system returned to its previously fast and well-behaved state. The wireless card connects to networks just fine, and I can turn it on and off in the Vista mobility center.

8. I archived the windows.old directory and most of the old IBM stuff, then deleted them. I was impressed that I was using less than half of the 60 (50 usable) GB disk. I defragged the disk and did a new complete backup. One glitch: I had to uninstall and reinstall Levano's Rescue and Recovery software and create a completely new base backup, because once you choose a network location there is NO WAY (that I could find) that you can EVER move the backup file and expect Rescue and Recovery to EVER find it again - even it you put it back into its original location. So don't create a base backup until you know where it will reside for LIFE.

Bottom line - the X41 runs nicely with Vista, but I recommend avoiding the stuff that Levano provides like the plague, unless it is something you really need. I use Rescue and Recovery, because Vista Home does not provide it, and also the disk crash protector and the fingerprint reader software. By the way, the fingerprint reader is far faster and more reliable than before.

MPopps

PS. I did a BIOS and Controller update prior to any of the above.

berlin · #2 Post by **berlin** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:43 pm

So install the original Lenovo software first then install Vista on top of it? I'm confused about the term 'preinstall.'

mpopps · #3 Post by **mpopps** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:53 am

There is a hidden partition on Thinkpad disks that will re-install the factory-shipped image of the software. You ge to it when you boot up by pressing some button - sometimes F11, or "Access IBM" or some other button. The system warns you that you loose everything when you do this and should only do it to solve serious problems. Despite the warnings, I had the system re-install the factory-delivered disk image. It took an hour, I think. The computer was purchased just under two years ago, so I started with a clean disk with the lasest software from mid-2005, with no updates or added stuff whatsoever.

By doing a "clean install" of Vista, I got a big file called "Windows.old" and there were quite a few files around with IBM software that were not encapsulated in windows.old, and I eventually gathered them into a file called IBM.old, which I archived and deleted.

MPopps

gearguy · #4 Post by **gearguy** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:47 am

Just one small thing.

I assume when you say Levano you mean Lenovo... right?

berlin · #5 Post by **berlin** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:49 am

Thanks mpopps although I might sell my X41. The hard drive is the biggest downer.

IBM would've never made the same mistake as Lenovo.

Btw, does Vista aero work on X41?

#6 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:17 am

berlin wrote:IBM would've never made the same mistake as Lenovo.

Most of the "Lenovo software" dates back to IBM days -- it has just been renamed.

berlin wrote:Btw, does Vista aero work on X41?

Surely not ... the video is not up to Vista standards.

berlin · #7 Post by **berlin** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:30 am

tomh009 wrote:
berlin wrote:IBM would've never made the same mistake as Lenovo.
Most of the "Lenovo software" dates back to IBM days -- it has just been renamed.

I meant the 1.8" hard drive.

#8 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:24 am

The 1.8" hard drive dates back to the X40, which was introduced in early 2004 (and designed in 2002-2003), well before Lenovo's purchase of the PC division.

The hard drive choice turned out to be unfortunate, but maybe if other manufacturers had adopted the same form factor as well, we would today have larger, faster 1.8" drive choices and the X40/X41 would look visionary. But you need to take some risks in your technology choices, and they don't always pan out ...