Options for OS on T60 Type 2007

[jack6128]

Hi, new here and new to Thinkpad. I have a "Type 2007", which I believe is a T60. It used to have XP Professional installed and still has the product key on the COA on the bottom. The drive got wiped and I have come here to find out from those who know more than I what my options are to turn this doorstop back into a laptop. I don't have the recovery disks. My specific questions are:

1. Are XP Professional recovery disks available for a T60/Type 2007?
2. What other operating systems can be loaded on a T60/Type 2007?

Appreciate any help,
Jack

[Cigarguy]

Of all the Thinkpads, the T60 generation is my favourite. Still powerful enough to run today's OS. Forget the recovery CD as it mostly contain bloatware and other garbage. A T60 will run most any Linux OS, Win XP, Win 7 and Win 8 just fine. Highly recommend maxing out the RAM to 3 GB and getting a SSD. Get a new SSD, fresh install of the OS and programs of your choice and you're golden.

[Dekks]

If you want to run an 64bit OS check your model number on the MTM link in the banner and if the CPU a Core Duo [32bit] i.e T2500 swap the CPU for a T7200 or better and away you go.

[jronald]

There are T60 Vista Business recovery discs out there, cost is minimal and the T60 runs it fine. I also have a couple running 7 just fine. Tons of Linux as well. XP is very long in the tooth now, and I just cant justify running it anymore.

Ron

[jack6128]

Thanks much for the helpful advice, all!

I just bought a T7200 on eBay for 5 bucks, delivered! I'm gonna see about more memory and an SSD drive and other hardware upgrades before buying a win7 or 8.1 OS. In the meantime, I'm gonna see about downloading Linux ASAP because i need this puppy to use with a sewer cam, like yesterday.

Thanks again, you all are the GREATEST! I love this machine! It feels bomb-proof!

Jack

[jack6128]

Cigarguy, re: "Highly recommend maxing out the RAM to 3 GB and getting a SSD"

Just ordered a 120 GB SSD from Newegg. What form should the RAM be to max out to 3 gigs? How many slots are there on the MB? Should I get two 2gig modules or one 4 gig module?

Thanks again for all the help.

[Shredder11]

You need two modules 2GB + 1GB preferably, otherwise two 2GB modules will suffice. A single 4GB module will not work. Also the motherboard chipset is hard wired to only work with 3GB MAXIMUM, even though installing 4GB will work it will only access 3GB of it.

[MrMaguire]

You need either DDR2-533 (PC2-4200s) or DDR2-667 (PC2-5300s). The Core 2 Duo T7200 has a 667MHz front side bus, so I'd recommend DDR2-667.

The T60 has two memory slots. The Intel 945GM/PM chipset it uses is 32-bit, so it can't address more than ~3.5GB of memory. I'd recommend getting one 2GB stick, and one 1GB stick, so you'll have 3GB of RAM. That'll be a little bit cheaper than getting two 2GB sticks for 4GB of RAM and not being able to use all of it.

[jack6128]

Unit has a one gig module, Hynix pc-5300s 555-12. Just bought the same in 2gigs from eBay for $14. Now to find a Linux download to install.

[MisterB]

2007 T60s have ATI GPUs and do well with Windows 7. I've found the T60s with Intel Graphics don't do quite as well but no problems either. Aero uses a lot of GPU power.

Mine all have either Windows 7 or Vista as the main OS with Xp partitions as well. I've never really had a problem with the product recovery OSes from either IBM or Lenovo. They are much less bloated than those of other manufacturers. The older versions of system recovery actually give you the option to choose what gets installed so you can omit such things as an outdated version of Norton AV. There are instances where the older driver versions work better than what Lenovo currently has for downloading on there site. The on screen display is one, for example.

For Windows, the activation method from a product recovery CD is better and allows you to copy your system to another Thinkpad without reactivating provided that your BIOS has the appropriate SLP or SLIC table. With an XP sticker, you probably have an XP SLP table in the BIOS so Vista and 7 won't be automatically activated if you use a Product Recovery CD with those systems.

[ajkula66]

With an XP sticker, you probably have an XP SLP table in the BIOS so Vista and 7 won't be automatically activated if you use a Product Recovery CD with those systems.

Actually, Vista *should* activate given that quite a few of these systems shipped with it. Legality of such an approach is a whole different matter.

W7 will not activate with standard BIOS.

[MisterB]

Vista was only activated with the supplied bios in my one T60 that had a Vista sticker. This one had both Xp and Vista stickers and an Xp COA. All my other T60s had just Xp stickers and Vista wouldn't activate on them. I think it depends more on the date of manufacture than anything else. At a certain point, Vista became an option and that was reflected in the Bios.

Legality is another matter. OEM licensing is so absurdly strict that you really can't legally restore a system unless it is complete with original disk with restore partition or manufacturer supplied recovery media. That is why a lot shops that sell used computers complete install Linux even though there is a Windows COA.

[ajkula66]

Vista was only activated with the supplied bios in my one T60 that had a Vista sticker. This one had both Xp and Vista stickers and an Xp COA. All my other T60s had just Xp stickers and Vista wouldn't activate on them. I think it depends more on the date of manufacture than anything else. At a certain point, Vista became an option and that was reflected in the Bios.

In other words - since all ATI-based T60/p systems share the same BIOS regardless of MTM - a recent BIOS will hold the appropriate SLIC...

Legality is another matter. OEM licensing is so absurdly strict that you really can't legally restore a system unless it is complete with original disk with restore partition or manufacturer supplied recovery media.

Not really.

I've used "vanila" media on ThinkPads that had the appropriate COA and had no problems activating them through M$, although a phone call was required 9 out of 10 times.

[MisterB]

Legality is another matter. OEM licensing is so absurdly strict that you really can't legally restore a system unless it is complete with original disk with restore partition or manufacturer supplied recovery media.

Not really.

I've used "vanila" media on ThinkPads that had the appropriate COA and had no problems activating them through M$, although a phone call was required 9 out of 10 times.

I've had better luck than that, I've had most of them activate without a phone call. I recently created a Virtualbox version of my T60's Xp system and used the COA to activate it. For real Thinkpads, I prefer the OEM restored systems because of the easy cloning to other Thinkpads without activation hassles. MS is pretty tolerant of individual users not living up to the letter of the EULA but it is different for businesses selling old equipment. Once you start doing it in any volume, they want you to become a certified refurbisher and buy new licenses and COAs if you want to keep out of trouble.

[jronald]

I have done multiple XP stickered T60's with Vista Business discs, never had one fail. With that said Middleton is your friend. The ones I have kept around or family has are all SLIC 2.1 and 7.

Ron

[ajkula66]

I have done multiple XP stickered T60's with Vista Business discs, never had one fail. With that said Middleton is your friend.
Ron

You meant Zender - not Middleton - correct?

[jronald]

Another correction. Zender it is!

Ron

[micrex22]

You need either DDR2-533 (PC2-4200s) or DDR2-667 (PC2-5300s). The Core 2 Duo T7200 has a 667MHz front side bus, so I'd recommend DDR2-667.

The T60 has two memory slots. The Intel 945GM/PM chipset it uses is 32-bit, so it can't address more than ~3.5GB of memory. I'd recommend getting one 2GB stick, and one 1GB stick, so you'll have 3GB of RAM. That'll be a little bit cheaper than getting two 2GB sticks for 4GB of RAM and not being able to use all of it.

Sort of. The intel spec sheet for 945 states on pages 325 through 327 that *4* GB of memory is supported (and on FFFF_FFFFh in the high BIOS, it should be 4 GB). Page 339 clarifies that 4 GB is the maximum capacity for 945GM/GME/PM/GMS/GSE, 943/940GML and Intel 945GT:
http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/309219.pdf

It further clarifies on page 342: "By using 1-Gb technology, the largest memory capacity is 4 GB (128M x 8b x 8 devices x 4 ranks = 4 GB). This is achieved using stacked SO-DIMMs. With non-stacked SODIMMs, the maximum memory capacity is 2 GB (64M x 16b x 4 devices x 4 ranks = 2 GB)."

There has been a lot of debate about the missing 1 GB on the T60s (to which everyone's reply is that 3 GB is the maximum for x86). We know that the T60s do not see 3.5 GB, 3.9 GB, but only 3.0 GB. There are also other laptops which use the 945 (mobile) that aren't limited to 3 GB and can see the full 4 GB.

I'm not sure if this is because PAE is needed for the full 4 GB or that the way IBM implemented the T60 platform, adds extra inhibitors that stow away the 1 GB from addressability. The intel spec sheet would be lying if we were to assume 3 GB was the maximum memory for the 945. If any one else has more information regarding deep technical details on this, please let me know.

---

Regarding OSes on the T60, yeah, I like Windows 7 on mine. XP is a bit of a dog these days.

[hhmcsv]

Your T60 will go all the way. I'm just running W10 Technical preview build 10061 on one, no issues whatsoever apart from the graphics driver for the X1300 - but this can be remedied.

[Muse]

There are T60 Vista Business recovery discs out there, cost is minimal and the T60 runs it fine. I also have a couple running 7 just fine. Tons of Linux as well. XP is very long in the tooth now, and I just cant justify running it anymore.

Ron

I have two T60's, the first bought new from Lenovo came with XP COA and the promise of free Vista, which was just rolling out (circa 2006). By the time I called Lenovo asking for the free Vista they told me that I was too late to take advantage of that. I now run Win7 32 bit Home Business on it on an SSD. I like the 32 bit because I use some apps that won't run on 64 bit OS.

My other T60 I bought "for parts" and saved the machine (there wasn't AFAIK anything fundamentally wrong with it, it needed some TLC). It's still running XP, and I should upgrade. I think it's not capable of 64 bit OS. Maybe I can get T60 Vista Business recovery discs for it? Or should I pony up for Win7 or 8.x or even 10??? In its current usage I need Windows on the machine because it runs an application that won't run on Linux (rather likely).

Another correction. Zender it is!

Ron

Reading through the thread, I'm thinking I should/could maybe install the Zender BIOS and obtain Vista recovery disks for my T60 that's running XP, eh?

[RealBlackStuff]

You need either DDR2-533 (PC2-4200s) or DDR2-667 (PC2-5300s). The Core 2 Duo T7200 has a 667MHz front side bus, so I'd recommend DDR2-667.

Do NOT install DDR2-533 (PC2-4200s), they are too slow.
Instead, also look at DDR2-800 (PC2-6400), which are backwards compatible, run cooler, and are often cheaper than the PC2-5300.