X61 Tablet Middleton Bios

[UKperson]

Hi All,

This is a great forum, very informative and great to see so many X6* users.

1) The links for the X61 Tablet Middleton Bios do not work, they take you to a non existent Mediafile page. Has anyone got the links that work please?

2) I intend to install Middleton Bios on my X61 Tablet (l7700) 1.8 Finger and Pen touch and then install an SSD. Do I just download Middleton Bios (once I have a link) and then install it? Then replace existing hard drive for the SSD?

3) On my X60 Tablet (l7400 1.5) Sxga+, I have Windows 8.1, however I cannot get the hotkeys to work, eg: silver volume up, down, mute and also the auto rotate key, has anyone found the correct Lenovo software to use to get these working in Windows 8.1 for an X60 Tablet?. Please note when I position the X60T in portrait mode - it does auto rotate on its own.

4) I own 3 X6* Tablets:
X60 Tablet l7400 1.5 Sxga+,
X60 Tablet l7400 1.5 Finger and Pen touch,
X61 Tablet l7700 1.8 Finger and Pen Touch.
The main work I do on a laptop is: writing (using MS Office), programming Android and iPhone apps.
Sadly due to finances I need to sell one of the above machines, I have decided to keep the X60 Tablet Sxga+ for graphics work (I hear it has a better Sxga+ screen than an X61T Sxga+) and use the X61 Tablet l7700 as my main machine and sell the X60 Tablet l7400 finger and pen touch. My question is, if you had the above three (and they were your only laptops), which two would you keep?

5) UltraConnect wireless WAN antenna - I am still unclear what this does? Sitting on the top right on the X61 Tablets' screen (not present on any X60 Tablets I believe), does it improve wifi or is it something to do with 3g sim card reception or both? I presume models with this have the 3 wires for wireless N? The description on Lenovo's' site is: 'Some ThinkPad models feature an integrated diversity antenna system built into the display for optimal reception, enabling wireless communication wherever you are. If your computer has the wireless WAN feature, the antenna is on the top right side of the computer display.'

Thanks for any help!

[precip9]

The UltraConnect wireless WAN antenna is strictly for a 3G card. It's a nice handle for opening the lid

[UKperson]

The UltraConnect wireless WAN antenna is strictly for a 3G card. It's a nice handle for opening the lid

Thank you, I was confused whether this gives extra wifi range or/and was for the 3g card. Oh so the wifi antennae is in the housing of the lid and the 3g antennae is using the UltraConnect.

As the 3g card is now redundant (as 4g is available), it would mean the best X61 Tablet l7700 1.8 would be the one without the UltraConnect as if someone isn't going to use 3g then its just useless and protrudes?.

As I understand it, a 4g card cannot be installed in an X61 Tablet to replace the 3g mini pci one?

[precip9]

With the Middleton BIOS, the machine will boot with any card. There is no white list. You would still have to thread through the problems of supporting hardware that has strong carrier/vendor locks.

Here in the U.S., I have not observed any viable mini-pci-e solutions for LTE. The standard way has now become the smartphone. It seems the fragmentation of LTE band assignments has made the radio not worth the cost unless it's part of a high value item, i.e., a phone.

Also, the design center frequency of the antenna on your machine must be considered. The smaller the antenna, the more sharply peaked it is to a particular frequency. This is a matter of physics. It is possible that it is a broadband design, but it requires verification. In later, larger laptops, Lenovo did switch to a broadband design. Notably, these laptops do not exhibit an external antenna. The broadband design was made possible by the switch of the lid to carbon fiber. The antenna is physically larger, and internal to the lid.

For HSPA, I have this on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181284492833?ss ... 1555.l2649

But since you want 4G, it's not for you

[UKperson]

Thank you for the detailed information.

If anyone has managed to install a 4g lte card in the X61 Tablet mini pci slot, please let me know.

[precip9]

Middleton BIOS links:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost6501443

which leads to

http://www.mediafire.com/download/c96i1 ... .02%29.rar

[UKperson]

Middleton BIOS links:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... ost6501443

which leads to

http://www.mediafire.com/download/c96i1 ... .02%29.rar

I tried the mediafire link and it says, '

The website cannot display the page

HTTP 500

Most likely causes: •The website is under maintenance.
•The website has a programming error.

[precip9]

Then let us proceed with Plan B.

[RealBlackStuff]

Mediafire link works fine here.

[precip9]

The page displays here as well.

If you have access to a commercial VPN service like Witopia, which has multiple portals, try a U.S. portal.

[GpsPasSion]

Having finally moved on from my trusty X31 to the X61T I got a few years ago...I'm not too happy with the sluggish (and noisy) 5400 500Gb I had dropped in at the time. Having just found a deal on the Intel 520 it seems like it would make for a decent upgrade? Especially with the Middleton BIOS. Can I just upgrade the BIOS and expect my WinXP install to work out of the box? Thanks!

[Tasurinchi]

Can I just upgrade the BIOS and expect my WinXP install to work out of the box? Thanks!

I hope you mean a clean install. Actually WinXP doesn't work so good with SSDs, if I were you I would upgrade to Win7, which will give an extra performance boost.

[GpsPasSion]

Well I was thinking about making the plunge to Win7 so it sounds like it's one more good reason to do so! Is there a Lenovo tool to pull down all the good drivers?

[Cigarguy]

Well I was thinking about making the plunge to Win7 so it sounds like it's one more good reason to do so! Is there a Lenovo tool to pull down all the good drivers?

Thinkpad System Update used to be great but now it's pretty useless. However Lenovo's support website is still, for now, half decent. Fortunatey Win 7 will load a lot of the drivers for you, the few that are missing can easily be manually loaded.

[GpsPasSion]

Now running Win7/64 on an Intel 520 SSD (120Gb) :

Before Middleton :



After Middleton :



Haven't located the touchscreen drivers so far but I'm not sure I'll bother since I never use that feature and it's sure to use some CPU cycles/RAM...