Thinkpads Forum

I have just appended the following test to the X61 forum, and thought it would be of interest here as well:

"A few months ago, I bought my daughter an X61T. In the meantime, she has spent two months - without internet access - in a foreign country, and came back for xmas vacation with one BIG complaint: the system (a 1Gb mach) is SLOW at all times, on startup, on execution, on shutting down. I looked at the referenced append, followed the guidelines in the link kindly provided, and found only marginal relief. Since there were plenty of Windows updates to install, I decided it was high time to avail myself of the ThinkVantage System Update to put everything to rights.

The experience was ludicrous, to say the least:
1. I chose to install all updates; the first time it got to the BIOS update, it asked me whether I wanted to update the BIOS or the model number (???), I said ok to the BIOS, told me that "the driver failed".
2. I went back to the update, to find that it had installed only a few out of the 26 recommended. So I had another go, and this time, when it got back to the BIOS, everything ran smoothly until it told me that it could not do the needed restart because System Update would not let it!! hmmm... ThinkVantage System Update tripping over itself.
3. I am stubborn, back in I went once more; the BIOS update had gone through but all others had to be downloaded and installed once again. But, this time, when it got to Rescue and Recovery update, it showed me the Windows Wizard pop-up ... hmmm, is that not the kind of thing that ThinkVantage System Update is supposed to hide under the covers, thought I? The disk activity light flickered solidly for about 20 mins, and then finally rested, but the pop-up was still there! hmmm... pity Rescue and Recovery could not rescue or recover itself from that quandary. This time it had to be an old-fashioned power-off.
4. I am stubborn, but not 100% naive, so I forewent the possibility of installing the six remaining updates.
5. In the meantime, whenever I had to restart the system, ThinkVantage Access Connections told me it had found an "unknown ethernet adaptor" (!), would I care to do something or other, or cancel, and I naturally chose cancel.

Maybe the ThinkVantage System Update package should instead be named ThinkDisadvantage System Update. Or maybe it is the whole ThinkVantage concept and/or implementation that has gone awry ...

So now I plan on uninstalling ThinkVantage Access Connections, ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery, ThinkVantage Power something, one at a time, and see if I can get some decent performance out of the box. And please, no replies telling me to upgrade the system to 2Gb, since Lenovo is supposed to sell working setups, not virtual ones.

SUGGESTION:
But, in the meantime, I do have a modest, sincere, and quite reasonable suggestion to make to Lenovo: please sell me an X61T, with half the RAM, half the disk size, and a Linux distribution with all the open-sourced hardware drivers needed to show off this little machine.
Believe me, I shall send you my credit card number five minutes after you announce product availability.
In the meantime, please stop putting Windows-powered lame ducks on the marketplace: they are an insult to IBM, to Lenovo, and to customers like you and me."
_________________
VA

Vasco Almeida wrote:IIn the meantime, please stop putting Windows-powered lame ducks on the marketplace: they are an insult to IBM, to Lenovo, and to customers like you and me."
_________________
VA

Greetings:
Well it sounds like you spent a lot of time trying to fix several problems and just ended up frustrated. So sorry to hear that.

Is this a Windows Vista machine? If so, that helps to explain the slow performance. Unless it is adjusted in a few simple ways, Vista can be very slow.

Here are my suggestions, based on my personal experience with several ThinkPad computers and both Windows Vista and Windows XP:

1: if you had created the recovery CDs when the machine was new, use them to restore the machine to factory original. Warning, make sure you back up personal data, as reverting to factory original configuration will delete all personal data, and will delete any partitions except C: and the special hidden IBM recovery partition.
2: then, purchase Acronis or Ghost and use that program to create an image of your factory setup. (this only take a few minutes, as opposed to two hours using Rescue & Recovery)

3: then, download and install updates from Microsoft only, not lenovo.

4: if the machine is running satisfactorily, create another image of the new setup.

5: Get rid of Vista's "Aero" and other memory hogging visuals that serve no purpose.

6: set up the machine to run in "Classic" mode, including Windows Explorer in Classic mode. This will give you a plain looking desktop, but it will eliminate the overly cluttered desktop background that is hard so see for navigation.

7: defragment the hard drive.

If your operating system is Xp, not Vista, the same tips apply.

But, in the meantime, I do have a modest, sincere, and quite reasonable suggestion to make to Lenovo: please sell me an X61T, with half the RAM, half the disk size...

Respectfully, isn't this essentially a request for a budget tablet? It's hard to see budget anything marketed under the Thinkpad line -- it's more realistic to hope for a tablet version of the Asus EEC PC. I think the days of the 512MB RAM option on the X series have passed. I think we'll only find smaller harddisk capacity with solid-state drives.

and a Linux distribution with all the open-sourced hardware drivers needed to show off this little machine.

Yes! I was disappointed in not having the option for even SLED on the X series. My call to sales for an X61s with no operating system was answered with confusion and ended in failure. Lenovo's Linux poll and forum gives hope they're open to offering Linux on the X.

All that said:
http://www.emperorlinux.com/mfgr/lenovo/raven/

lightweight wrote:Respectfully, isn't this essentially a request for a budget tablet? It's hard to see budget anything marketed under the Thinkpad line -- it's more realistic to hope for a tablet version of the Asus EEC PC. I think the days of the 512MB RAM option on X are over ...

Nothing further from my intentions than a budget tablet: half the memory and disk sizes mentioned in my original append was meant to be ironic, when pitted against the ever insatiable Windows demands.

The X61T is built: all I suggested is that we have the opportunity to install Linux on it (any distro); all that Lenovo had to do was to make sure that noon-proprietary drivers be available to make all the hardware on the machine fully operational. After all, why shouldn't Lenovo take full advantage of a very attractive hardware package and make it available to other market segments?!!!

Nothing further from my intentions than a budget tablet: half the memory and disk sizes mentioned in my original append was meant to be ironic, when pitted against the ever insatiable Windows demands.

Oh. Heh.

The X61T is built: all I suggested is that we have the opportunity to install Linux on it (any distro); all that Lenovo had to do was to make sure that noon-proprietary drivers be available to make all the hardware on the machine fully operational. After all, why shouldn't Lenovo take full advantage of a very attractive hardware package and make it available to other market segments?!!!

I agree that Lenovo extending Linux qualification to the X-Series would be pimp, especially since any OS will require support, which has a symbiotic relationship with open drivers (and the long term success of distributions, developers...). I think this makes SLED on T60/1 exciting. I am also disappointed Lenovo has not extended this partnership/option to all models. But I have hope they will.

Still, Debian on an X61s was a painless install.

I wholeheartedly agree with this Linux on Thinkpads suggestion. I run Xubuntu Gutsy on my x61t and it makes it by far a better usability experience overall compared to Vista and its never ending issues. From time to time I boot into Vista (e.g., to test whether SP1 has brought any improvements) but end up frustrated. Lenovo should just let the customers choose the OS they want preinstalled.