What to download from Lenovo's site for a T41?

[ParatoOptimal]

Is there anything I should download from Lenovo's site for a T41 (2373-FU) using W7?

Any software to look for, advice, links or pointing in the right direction is appreciated.

[ajkula66]

My pointer would be one, and one only: don't even bother with W7 on a T41. It will *never* run properly, or anywhere as smooth as it would with XP.

The graphics driver is the main reason for the rough ride...

[ParatoOptimal]

I forget which at the moment but there was a vid driver perhaps for Vista, perhaps Crystal something or other that works with X31. I was hoping perhaps the same would work with the T41.

My cousin's laptop died. I was hoping to set her up with this. would XP-Pro, SP3 be much better than W7 with that Crystal Vid Driver?

[ajkula66]

WXP would be much better than anything else MS-issued on a T41, let's leave it at that...

There are no *true* Vista drivers for T41, or X31 graphics cards, since these do not meet the minimum requirements to be supported by that OS, or W7.

Can it be made to work? Yes.

Will it ever work properly? No.

Back to XP, end of story in my book.

[GACrabill]

I hate to disagree with ajkula66, but my T40 runs Win7 just fine and I am sure that there are others here who will agree that Win7 is a nice upgrade for these older Thinkpads. I had no problems with XP when I switched to Win7 and I have no problems now.

I have done a few upgrades to my T40 over the last 8.5 years :
- processor from 1.5 Banias to 1.7 Dothan
- memory at maximum of 2GB
- 40GB 5400rpm to 80GB 7200rpm

A few searches of this forum will help you find which Lenovo updates to install after moving to Win7. And a little more searching to find the right driver for the ATI 7500 graphics.

I definitely feel that my T40 is more responsive now with Win7 than it was with XP .... (probably better memory management?) ... and I hope to get a few more good years out of it.

[ajkula66]

I hate to disagree with ajkula66, but my T40 runs Win7 just fine and I am sure that there are others here who will agree that Win7 is a nice upgrade for these older Thinkpads. I had no problems with XP when I switched to Win7 and I have no problems now.

I have done a few upgrades to my T40 over the last 8.5 years :
- processor from 1.5 Banias to 1.7 Dothan
- memory at maximum of 2GB
- 40GB 5400rpm to 80GB 7200rpm

A few searches of this forum will help you find which Lenovo updates to install after moving to Win7. And a little more searching to find the right driver for the ATI 7500 graphics.

I definitely feel that my T40 is more responsive now with Win7 than it was with XP .... (probably better memory management?) ... and I hope to get a few more good years out of it.

First of all, I'm here to be disagreed with, otherwise this forum would be no fun...

Secondly, very smart upgrades to that T40 of yours - kudos for taking the sensible route unlike many other people.

Third...let's put it this way: I am *very* sensitive to certain aspects of my laptops, and graphics performance was always one of them. Oh yes I've tried every modded driver in the book when it comes to Radeon 7500 and its cousins for W7/Vista and nothing made me happy. There's a certain lag that I felt (or imagined - not that it makes a difference in the end) with all of them and just went back to XP...

Boy would I love to run W7 on my A31p...and have met several people who are very happy with the performance of W7 on Fire GL 7800...I'm not.

Radeon 9600 (which is a whole another generation when compared to 7500/7800/9000) is the bare minimum for comfortable W7 experience on T4x ThinkPads. In my book, that is.

My $0.02 only...