Windows 7 for Thinkpad T60.

[paco008]

Hello guys, i need some help.

i would like to install windows 7 on IBM thinkpad T60, 2007-46A

i would like to ask if what are the drivers i needed for it.
and if where can i download it.

Thanks a lot!

[Cigarguy]

I have a T60 with Win 7. Runs great. Straight forward install with most devices supported by Win 7 at install. Lenovo's website is your best source for drivers (www.lenovo.com). Download the Thinkpad Vantage System update tool and use in conjunction with Windows update.

The 2007-46A specs (as shown on Lenovo's website) is with 512 MB of RAM which is not enough even for XP. Updating memory to 3 GB will definitely help.

[farmall]

Also note that modded BIOS exist which get rid of the WLAN card whitelist so you can upgrade if you wish, and update your SLIC code.

I don't have a T60 but other folks can recommend specific BIOS.

I just tried loading 7 Pro (for which I have a legit COA of course) on a Middleton BIOS (which upgrades the SLIC) T61 using recovery DVDs supposedly for a T420.

Worked fine.

You might have to download some drivers if you used that method on a T60, but there's no reason it shouldn't work.

[paco008]

I have a T60 with Win 7. Runs great. Straight forward install with most devices supported by Win 7 at install. Lenovo's website is your best source for drivers (http://www.lenovo.com). Download the Thinkpad Vantage System update tool and use in conjunction with Windows update.

The 2007-46A specs (as shown on Lenovo's website) is with 512 MB of RAM which is not enough even for XP. Updating memory to 3 GB will definitely help.

What should i install?
should i install 32 bit 0r 64 bit?

these are the specs of the thinkpad i will format..


IBM corporation
Genuine intel(R) CPU
T2400 @1.83Ghz
987 Mhz, 1,00 Gb RAM

[ajkula66]

That machine will only run 32-bit with its current CPU.

Given the RAM limit of 3GB on T60/p series, you're better off with 32-bit anyway IMO.

You'll need more than 1GB to run W7 smoothly though...

[Cigarguy]

3 GB is still plenty for most folks. Win 7 32 bit is what I have installed in my T60 and it runs great. If you really want to improve the general computing experience add a SSD.

[ajkula66]

3 GB is still plenty for most folks. Win 7 32 bit is what I have installed in my T60 and it runs great. If you really want to improve the general computing experience add a SSD.

No argument from me on that one.

Heck, I have only 2GB in my modded T43p and it's running W7 without breaking a sweat. My daughter's T60 also runs a 32-bit version, although it does have a C2D CPU.

64-bit makes sense at 4GB and above, and in certain applications only, at least in my opinion.

[paco008]

with the current specs of the laptop, will it run smooth if i install win 7 32 bit?

[ajkula66]

with the current specs of the laptop, will it run smooth if i install win 7 32 bit?

No.

You need at least 2GB of RAM (preferably 3GB) for W7 to run smoothly.

[Cigarguy]

Maxed out the RAM to 2 GB on a T40 and installed Win 7 32 bit. It runs adequately but not as nice as my 3 GB T60. 4 GB T61 runs even smoother.

[Bruce Guttman]

I put Win 7 Pro on my R60 (9457 series) with a T2400 CPU and 2 GB RAM and it ran OK. I don't run that box much now that I have some T60s and an X61. When I get brave I'll probably see how the X61 runs Win 7.

Incidentally, I was able to find all the necessary drivers on the Lenovo site.

[Cigarguy]

When I get brave I'll probably see how the X61 runs Win 7.

No need to be brave, I got X61T and X61, both run Win 7 64 just great with 4 GB of RAM. The SSD did not hurt it either.

[Bruce Guttman]

No need to be brave, I got X61T and X61, both run Win 7 64 just great with 4 GB of RAM. The SSD did not hurt it either.

The problem is the X61 is my daily worker and I can't afford to shut it down while I sort through the driver issues that invariably crop up. At some point I will probably get a spare drive to use to run the test. When I know exactly what I need I'll do the upgrade. Sadly, it seems that the world is moving past XP onto 7 and my XP installs will soon be as useful as Windows 3.1 or 98.

[ajkula66]

The problem is the X61 is my daily worker and I can't afford to shut it down while I sort through the driver issues that invariably crop up. At some point I will probably get a spare drive to use to run the test. When I know exactly what I need I'll do the upgrade. Sadly, it seems that the world is moving past XP onto 7 and my XP installs will soon be as useful as Windows 3.1 or 98.

W7 will install the drivers required for X61 apart from possibly FPR and PM, so it will be usable out of the box.

I know a lot of people are unhappy about XP's upcoming demise - I was heartbroken when the support for W2K ended myself - but after a couple of days with W7 you'll likely fall in love. It's a great OS, and very rarely do I say anything of that nature for a MS product.

[Cigarguy]

@Bruce,

For something that is that mission critical, a new HDD or SSD is relatively cheap. Get a new one, swap with the old one, and take your sweet time installing the OS, programs and transfer your data over. Once and only once all the data from the old HDD is copied over to the new HDD/SSD would I consider selling the old HDD or keep it as is. If ever your new HDD/SSD fails you can swap your old one back in.

Also anytime during the transferring to new stage, if you need your X61 again, simply swap the old HDD back in. In the process of installing Win 7 and you really really made a mess of things, no problem, swap your old drive back in. After installing Win 7, if you really hate it, no problem swap your old drive back in.

edit - If XP is working for you, then keep using it.

[Bruce Guttman]

I have one Win 7 Upgrade that I got for cheap when I was taking accounting courses a couple of years back. I put it on the R60 just to see what would happen. I found it was a load on the machine, although it was running a T2400 processor and 1 GB of RAM. I'm talking about a more powerful machine to try again: T61 or X61, T7300 processor, 2 GB RAM.

I see a lot of resistance to moving from XP to anything newer, which is still surprising. I use XP because "it ain't broke, why fix it". I have tried various flavors of Ubuntu, and it's a nice interface except that I need to run some Windows based programs for my job. Note that I do use Apache Open Office at times, although it's not a replacement for Microsoft Access or Microsoft Visio (but the price is good!). Also, I haven't figured out how to protect documents against editing using OO (other than exporting as PDF).

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[simes]

One more comment. I am not a Windows expert any more, if I ever was, because I use various flavours of Linux most days. But in the last two months I have installed Win7 from scratch on a T60 and an X60s. Both were easy to do and there was no problem with drivers, both ran cleanly immediately (once I had the usual slew of patches downloaded from MS, of course). I downloaded the Lenovo utilities for power management and network management only because I wanted them. Performance is plenty good enough on both machines (T60 is Core Duo 2.16GHz 3Gb RAM, X60s is Core Duo 1.6 GHz, 2Gb RAM). X60s does feel slower but not enough to be a problem, 3Gb RAM would fix it. The idea of a spare disk so you can swap Win7 for XP if the install is troublesome is excellent, it's really easy to do. Win7 looks to be a good solid edition and there is a lot of eye candy.

I still prefer Linux, though!

[JeffCullen]

Whilst philosophically opposed to Windows, unfortunately that ecosystem does keep my bread buttered. Windows 7 really isn't too terrible...

[rumbero]

Whilst philosophically opposed to Windows, unfortunately that ecosystem does keep my bread buttered. Windows 7 really isn't too terrible...

Yeah, Windows has impressively improved since i switched from Windows for Workgroups 3.11 to Debian Linux sometime around the mid nineties of last century. Win7 is pretty nice compared to all the former crap we loved to bash so much in the old days.

[Saucey]

I just recently installed Windows 7 for my "newly" acquired T61 yesterday.
With 2GB of RAM and a 5400 RPM drive it works pretty decently.
I am not too sure if I am having some problems on the drivers, but I did come across some oddities.
Main thing I noticed was that the middle button didn't work and I had to get the UltraNav driver and utility instead of the trackpoint driver, as it won't work correctly.
Two finger scrolling is amazing compared to my x61
Finally a decent function for a touchpad.

I have yet to try it out on netflix on it, youtube works fine.
It does get a bit hot and sluggish when it came to a few games to try on it though...

To help smooth out your experience on Win7 I suggest removing some background windows components, preferebly the Aero settings as it would use alot of your resources with 1GB ram...