Lenovo Driver Sweep. *LenovoSupport severely limited!*

[ilakast]

So, the 1 million question: who mirrored the drivers database out there?

[Puppy]

I can totally understand them not wanting to spend another minute of their support staff time on the ancient models, but removing content makes zero sense. They should just post the old documents / drivers online in a fixed repository that's never gets changed/updated and the disclaimer that it is no longer supported and that they hold no responsibility whatsoever. This would make everyone happy enough.

The content is very likely dynamically created from a database. That would mean to keep the data and the application that presents them online. I can not imagine to create a static content for all model combinations.

[dr_st]

I was thinking more about the per-model driver/software pages, like this: http://web.archive.org/web/201306051552 ... D=HT072372

They seem pretty static to me. Maybe there is something that updates them dynamically every time a new version of a particular software comes out, but it shouldn't be difficult cutting it off, and just fixing the latest static version. And in any case whatever creates them is still online, if only to update the newer models, so I see no potential overhead. Just some executive stupidity.

[Tasurinchi]

I'm all with you guys, I don't think it's a big investment to keep a server with some GB to store the data...

Can't they afford a premium dropbox account?

[dr_st]

Heck, if they just give me a snapshot of the old, pre-migration, support site, I will be willing to find some storage and some hosting. How big can it be?

[RealBlackStuff]

I have only (most or all) the old XP drivers from a T23, totaling 24, not the downloads themselves, but their unpacked files, that usually go to C:\DRIVERS\xxx
Not sure if I even have all of them though.
The lot for just the T23 consists of ca. 270MB (unpacked), spread over 2,075 Files in 360 Folders.
My uneducated guesstimate for the (now) missing stuff: ca. 25-30GB

[ajkula66]

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for your feedback.

Please be informed ThinkPad A series already end of life. We are no longer support and already removed from our support site.

Thank you for contacting the Lenovo Web Content Team. http://support.lenovo.com

Talk about *atrocious* English....Good Lord....

Why do they try to fix something that isn't broke?

They've been doing it for years now...keyboard, TrackPoint...and now this.

Time for me to retire from their forums, and for good.

[RealBlackStuff]

Just reading the posts from the Lenovo 'staff' about dumping support for older items makes you sick!
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Feedback-on ... -p/1532408

@dr_st:
I admire your posts there, and totally agree with them!

[Johan]

While I am (at least!) as annoyed as any of you by this Lenovo "improvement" to apparently delete all drivers for pre-T60 ThinkPad's, I just discovered that there is at least one site still allowing MTM specifications lookup; see here (use the "Quick Path" box at right).

As to the PSref's, mentioned above by JaneL probably being a good idea to download altogether (while this is still possible!), I found them here with the "older" ones (the withdrawn models) being here (at the bottom).

Also, and more interestingly, it seems that all drivers are actually still "out there" and are still available for download; e.g. the T42p drivers are still available (someone at Lenovo not yet having been able to clear worldwide links?). I also found all the older drivers... here!

Question: Does anyone know how it is possible to download ("mirror"?) ALL all old BIOS'es, drivers, utilities etc. for T42/p's and T60/p's in such a way, that they can easily be retrieved/identified/searched on one's own HDD; I mean in a format like that found on the latter above-mentioned (T42p-driver) Lenovo page? Is it somehow to download a copy of a certain URL including all "sub-links" and downloads linked to?? (or is that what a "mirror" is?). I realize that it may probably become a 100 GB+ download, but if that's a last-chance-in-a-lifetime option, then I guess now is the time to initialize such a download!

If Lenovo does not make up their minds, and revoke their (user-unfriendly!) decision to no longer publicly host all pre-T60 drivers, then I really suggest that we - all us entuisatic ThinkPad'ers - should somehow try to arrange for a complete "pre-T60 drivers" copy to be made; one that we can all draw advantage of for the future. If needed, I'm willing to support (economically) the establishment of such a pre-T60 driver site, open to at least "all of us", but preferably to everybody. In the case that some are interested in this, I really suggest we move SWIFTLY and download and/or mirror everything before all links are taken down!

Comments and suggestions about how we move - FAST! - are most welcome!

Johan

[pianowizard]

Lenovo probably sees this as a way to encourage people who are still using very old Thinkpads to upgrade.

[dr_st]

support1.lenovo.com seems to be a full mirror of the old site. Maybe they listened?

[Johan]

support1.lenovo.com seems to be a full mirror of the old site. Maybe they listened?

... and maybe they just haven't yet taken this site off public eyes?

So, my question from the above post still stands:

Question: Does anyone know how it is possible to download ("mirror"?) ALL all old BIOS'es, drivers, utilities etc. for T42/p's and T60/p's in such a way, that they can easily be retrieved/identified/searched on one's own HDD; I mean in a format like that found on the latter above-mentioned (T42p-driver) Lenovo page? Is it somehow to download a copy of a certain URL including all "sub-links" and downloads linked to?? (or is that what a "mirror" is?). I realize that it may probably become a 100 GB+ download, but if that's a last-chance-in-a-lifetime option, then I guess now is the time to initialize such a download!

Johan

[RealBlackStuff]

Their files are all supposedly stored here: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/
but HTTrack and BlackWidow don't find anything there...
Mirroring needs looking into...

[ilakast]

Thanks for the links Johan, apparently these are from the Danish version of lenovo, well spotted. If the links/sites remain active within the coming 3-4 days, I will try to find a way of mirroring (firstly, downloading, of course, I'm not sure I could host them somewhere for the time being).

[RealBlackStuff]

DK-files are also located in the same download-place as I mentioned above! Good luck hunting!

[rkawakami]

Per Mark Hopkins' post at LF, you can still access drivers/software for older systems here: http://download.lenovo.com/express/

[twistero]

Downloading all the drivers is the easy part. I should be able to grab a complete copy of all current downloads for all laptop models once I get home.

Somehow retaining the functionality of device type lookup, though, will be quite difficult.

EDIT: I've started downloading the drivers. Planning to download all the files for the double-digit era (up to T61 etc.) and earlier.
I chose to test my recursive wget command on X60t. Right now it has already downloaded 14GB of software, where the various versions of Rescue and Recovery is responsible for 13GB. Hopefully it's the same files for other models.

[Johan]

<snip>

EDIT: I've started downloading the drivers. Planning to download all the files for the double-digit era (up to T61 etc.) and earlier. I chose to test my recursive wget command on X60t.

<snip>

Wow, totally awesome and great news; much appreciated!! Yesterday I tried to wget32 all of the T42/p drivers, but unfortunately it didn't work; I used this command (partly supported by the suggestions of this site):

Code: Select all

C:\Progra~2\Wget32\bin\wget.exe -t 45 -o log.txt -w 1 -r http://support1.lenovo.com/en_DK/research/hints-or-tips/detail.page?&DocID=HT035441 &

I only got some 926 MB (approx. 14.000 files, mostly HTML). This morning I found the following error-message from wget32:

Code: Select all

'DocID' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

... so I guess that the &-character in the above Lenovo "support1"-URL cannot be passed from a (Windows) Command-shell to wget32 the way I tried? (I've never used wget32 before and I admit that I didn't read the entire 65-page Wget32 manual before doing what I did).

Anyway, twistero, please keep us posted about your progress (= continued success!), and how the less bright of us "out here" may hopefully be able to benefit from your efforts?

Thanks very much for your rapid action - I like to see that the drivers etc. for older ThinkPad's have now been secured, and hopefully will remain available, should Lenovo at some point decide to take finally remove them entirely.

Bottom line is this --> twistero; you're my hero!!

Johan

[twistero]

A bit more than half way through the models, I've downloaded 50 GB so far.

Now, about how people will be able to get these drivers once I finish downloading. As usual with license agreements, I think I am not legally allowed to distribute these software:

You may not a) use, copy, modify, or distribute the Software Product except as provided in this Agreement

- so I'm inclined to not put these on web hosting under my name. Not to mention that the amount of data is ... unwieldy.

A torrent seems like the best solution. People with bandwidth and hard drive space to spare can download everything and seed them, and people who want a few files can always download those only.

Any other ideas?

Yesterday I tried to wget32 all of the T42/p drivers, but unfortunately it didn't work; I used this command (partly supported by the suggestions of this site):

Code: Select all

C:\Progra~2\Wget32\bin\wget.exe -t 45 -o log.txt -w 1 -r http://support1.lenovo.com/en_DK/research/hints-or-tips/detail.page?&DocID=HT035441 &

I only got some 926 MB (approx. 14.000 files, mostly HTML). This morning I found the following error-message from wget32:

Code: Select all

'DocID' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

... so I guess that the &-character in the above Lenovo "support1"-URL cannot be passed from a (Windows) Command-shell to wget32 the way I tried? (I've never used wget32 before and I admit that I didn't read the entire 65-page Wget32 manual before doing what I did).

Yeah, sometimes it's difficult to get wget commands right. You'll have to either escape or quote special characters on the command line, and I'm not familiar with how that's done in Windows. Also, all the actual software are under download.lenovo.com, and wget by default will not span across domains.

Here's the command I used:

Code: Select all

wget http://download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/ddfm/X60t.html -r -l 1 -k -p -N -w 1

- except I made a loop to change out the model name in that link automatically.

[Easy Wind]

I'll have to admit I have not thoroughly read through all on this, but is it just XP drivers only? So if you are running Vista/7/8 on any of those models, you can still get updates?

[ajkula66]

I'll have to admit I have not thoroughly read through all on this, but is it just XP drivers only?

No. It's the entire range of machines, not divided by OS.

So if you are running Vista/7/8 on any of those models, you can still get updates?

No.

[Easy Wind]

Soooo when I run TVSU, it just won't find anything?

Guess I'll be moving to a *nix based OS sooner than I had imagined !!

[Cigarguy]

Soooo when I run TVSU, it just won't find anything?

Guess I'll be moving to a *nix based OS sooner than I had imagined !!

TVSU is pathetic even for supported Thinkpads (T61, X220, T420, etc). IMO, it's practically useless these days where as last year it was really good.

[Easy Wind]

really? We use this almost daily here at work without hardly any issues at all. And when we do run into issues running that, well its usually coming from something else (ie virus', time/date incorrect etc)

[RealBlackStuff]

Seems that the feckers have now also incapacitated the support1.lenovo.com setup.
I have NEVER seen a bunch of worse morons than them! (and I'm trying to be civilized here!)

You know what?
Last week I had an Acer Aspire 7741Z-5731 in for repair.
Needed new keyboard plus a new HD.
This machine dates from 2011 and looked rather decent, with a 17.3" HD+ screen (1600x900).
Official new Acer keyboard: $9.83 incl. free shipping. From eBay. Takes less than 5 minutes to replace it.
Set of official Acer Recovery DVDs (5) with W7-Home/64-bit: $19.95 + $15 Fedex shipping, howzat? From Acer. Got it the next day!
When I'm beginning to like other brands, Lenovo watch out!

[pianowizard]

Last week I had an Acer Aspire 7741Z-5731 in for repair...

Ah, Acer, a brand that's clearly getting its act together. Not long ago, it focused on selling the cheapest possible computers and monitors, a strategy that Dell had used back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Just like for Dell, it worked for a while, and if I remember correctly Acer was at one point the world's #2 PC maker. But eventually this strategy backfired because consumers started to equate Acer with crap. Sales suffered, which served as a wakeup call and Acer has been steadily improving the quality of its products. I used to say that all Acer monitors were garbage. Many still are, but we now start to see some good monitors including IPS-equipped ones. Some laptops have gotten better as well. Acer (and Dell for that matter) still sells tons of craptops and so we won't see huge jumps in reliability survey rankings any time soon, but at least it's now possible to find high-quality products from these companies.

To be fair, Lenovo's consumer laptops seem to have gotten quite good too. It certainly is making most of its profits from them, and smartphones. I did own a stunningly crappy Lenovo Lynx tablet last month, though I'm sure that's not the norm. Lenovo has been making lots of questionable changes to the Thinkpad lines, but people who have never owned IBM-era or early Lenovo Thinkpads probably don't mind them.

[ajkula66]

In other news, the "1" version of site which provided lookup functionality for older models MTMs seem to be down...

http://support1.lenovo.com/en_US/landin ... pq=6460dvu#

Hope it's only a temporary glitch, but given Mark's post in LF I'm not holding my breath...

Ridiculous...

[dr_st]

Works fine from here for now...

[ajkula66]

Works fine from here for now...

There's something wrong and I don't have another computer to test from:

It *does* work using IE11. It does NOT work in Pale Moon. May very well be an issue on my end, thanks for looking into this, old friend...

[dr_st]

I used Pale Moon to test it and it worked. Maybe something is messed up with the browser cache or cookies. Consider clearing the cache. Then try Private Browsing mode (Ctrl+Shift+P). It bypasses all cookies when accessing sites.