x220 upgrading to win 10

[iceblitzed]

hello, i was planning to upgrade my x220 from win7 to win10. Unfortunately I went to the lenovo website and it said the x220 is not supported for upgrading to win 10. The x230 is supported however. I also saw a user comment saying they upgraded a x220 tablet with one minor issue. Has anyone with the x220 series had any luck?

[mpcook]

I am thinking about running the upgrade on a backup x220, but it may be a while before I have some spare time. I am also interested to hear about anyone's experience with x220+W10.

[erik]

i installed win 10 enterprise on my X220 and can confirm that everything works.   i recommend installing in full UEFI-only mode for the quickest boot time.

from my own experience, you'll need to install the following driver packages:

• ultranav: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS019164
  -> updated for win 10: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS103454
• multicard reader: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS032126
• fingerprint reader: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS036923
• serial-over-LAN: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/DS101006

you'll see yellow bangs in device manager for the MCR and SoL drivers.   ultranav, if installed, will be a newer version and i recommend rolling back to driver 16.2 (linked in my list) if you want full control over the trackpoint within the mouse control panel.   the fingerprint reader will work without the lenovo package but won't allow full control.   install the fingerprint software to control preboot and single-swipe power-on swipes, plus activate the power light correctly at the lock screen.

this should leave you with little to no extra work needed.   install win 10 and the drivers above and it should go fairly smoothly.

note: i installed win 10 clean, not over an existing win 7 installation, and can't speak to that process.

[ansible212]

I have upgraded my X220 (and indeed my X200s) from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and have experienced no problems.

Generally impressed, in particular dual monitor support (somewhat trivial, I know, but sometimes it's the little things that count).

All devices work as intended. Battery life appears to be better.

Seems to be faster than Windows 10, too.

Addendum: the only major issue I am having is repeated requests to install Lenovo's System Interface Driver which is preventing the Lenovo Modern Apps from functioning. I can mostly live with that.

Minor issue - occasionally search invoked from the Start Menu doesn't return any results. Logging off and back on appears to resolve that (others are having far greater problems related to the Start Menu and search, so I count myself lucky).

[iceblitzed]

hello, with recent updates in the time passed, how have things held up with you guys? still going good?

[josto]

Hi there,

I did not manage to get Win10 Pro 64bit to run on my X220 (i7, IPS Panel, SanDisk 240GB SSD SATA). I only tried the upgrade from Win7 (without migrating anything) because I don’t have a Win10 product key, only one for Win7.

What happens is: after the first reboot, the system freezes shortly after the windows logo appears. After a hard-reset, windows setup re-creates the original state of the system (Win7) and displays an error message when bootet up, giving the following code: 0xC1900101 - 0x20017

Has anybody an idea what could be the cause of the freeze? Win7 and Win8.1 both install with no problems.

cheers,
J

[lukabike]

Just registered to post my 5c.
I've just done an upgrade from 32-bit Windows 7 to Windows 10 online. It went through OK but the graphic driver was apparently missing. Running System Update didn't help so I looked for Win10 drivers manually at Lenovo site. There's a Windows 10 INF update available but doesn't help much so I downloaded a Windows 8 32-bit driver and this one worked.
Also, I've had to manually find the BIOS update for Windows 8 - didn't show up when looking for Win10 drivers. I did this specifically due to loud fan which is controlled by BIOS and according to this page it has been fixed a while ago.
Now, the "factory reset" is being done on the computer as I write. So far, so good.

[jdrou]

Just registered to post my 5c.
I downloaded a Windows 8 32-bit driver and this one worked.

Intel doesn't support Windows 10 on hardware older than 2012 so you need to use Win 7/8 drivers for most Intel components including graphics.
I've done the upgrade on most of my eligible systems just to get the license in case I want to use it later. Haven't done my W520 yet because I need to replace the bad fan first. So far the other upgrades have gone without problems once I identified which "optional" updates were required (2952664, 3035583, 3135445, +IE 11).

[janew1]

I installed Windows 10 64-bit pro on my x220 with no problems. The drivers all seem fine, and everything looks happy in the device manager.

I did have to fool around with the USB3 driver, and Windows did not immediately recognize the IPS display. But both of these were situations -- ah, Windows! -- where I just messed around with it for a while and it worked. But I didn't have to go looking for other drivers, etc.

(I actually did that for the USB3, getting the drivers from Renesas. But they didn't work either (the port remained in USB2). It was when I reinstalled the Windows drivers that it started to work properly.)

Stuff just randomly breaks, too, like the Windows store apps. But the internet seems to indicate that this is par for the course, and probably has nothing to do with the hardware. With Windows 7, my experience was that you could eventually get the event log to be reliably free of errors. Not Windows 10!

I also managed to get Lenovo Power Manager to work, too, which is nice because I can now keep the battery at a lower level for full charge. This involved installing the Lenovo PM by fiddling around with the Win 10 "program compatibility" options. Of course, it didn't work the way the internet said it should, but again I just tried a few different ways to do it and finally it worked.

I wish I could pass along how I got these things to work, but this just seems to be how it is with Windows (for me, anyhow). The internet has all kinds of random advice, some of it pointless -- how many times have I uselessly run sfc /scannow -- and some of it very wrong. (For example, if the Windows 10 apps don't work do not try the global Powershell reset!) Something among all of that randomness then seems to kind of work, and after that it's just random trial-and-error.

I do like Windows 10, though. Maybe just because it's new.

[jdrou]

I also managed to get Lenovo Power Manager to work, too, which is nice because I can now keep the battery at a lower level for full charge. This involved installing the Lenovo PM by fiddling around with the Win 10 "program compatibility" options. Of course, it didn't work the way the internet said it should, but again I just tried a few different ways to do it and finally it worked.

There's also a "Lenovo Battery Guage" app specifically for Windows 10; did you try that out? You'd need to get it from the download area for a newer model since they don't support Win10 on the X220-generation.

[janew1]

There's also a "Lenovo Battery Guage" app specifically for Windows 10.

Oh I didn't know that, or at least think of it. Does it allow you to change the charge thresholds? (That was really what I wanted -- tired of going through batteries by letting them charge to 100%)

[jdrou]

There's also a "Lenovo Battery Guage" app specifically for Windows 10.

Oh I didn't know that, or at least think of it. Does it allow you to change the charge thresholds? (That was really what I wanted -- tired of going through batteries by letting them charge to 100%)

Just installed it and it appears not. Seems to be just a gauge so you can see the % without mousing over the power icon in the system tray. I agree the charge threshold setting is the major attraction of the Thinkpad power app.

[Puppy]

Intel doesn't support Windows 10 on hardware older than 2012 so you need to use Win 7/8 drivers for most Intel components including graphics.

So there is no official Windows 10 HD 3000 driver, Wi-Fi driver, LAN driver and chipset driver ? Everything use the old Windows 7 drivers in compatibility mode, what is the overall reliability then ? This is my primary concern, stable system. I don't need any Lenovo specific software except the on screen display and power management driver (no Power Manager application). I can also live without fingerprint reader.

The initial Intel response from 16 Mar 2015 was https://communities.intel.com/message/284330#284330

The table you reference does not include Windows 10 because it is not yet a released product. One Windows 10 launches the table will be updated to include it.
Drivers for Intel HD 3000 will be in-box divers that will be included in the Windows 10 distribution media.

But the end of the thread indicates it actually did not happen. Pretty confusing.

I don't need a GPU power for games or 3D graphics but there are reports that even scrolling a web page in browser is slow with the Windows 7 driver in Windows 10 compatible mode. That would be useless and looks like it acts as a generic video driver without any hardware acceleration.

I've done the upgrade on most of my eligible systems just to get the license in case I want to use it later.

This is what I am thinking of as well since I have upgraded HDD to SSD, so I can use the old HDD for Windows 10 uprgade I don't want to use at the moment. Still not sure whether it makes sense because of the no official Intel support that won't change in the future.

In short, is there combination of old drivers you can get Windows 10 as stable as Windows 7 with reasonable "2D" performance on X220 ? Thanks.

[Pokrzept]

Intel doesn't support Windows 10 on hardware older than 2012 so you need to use Win 7/8 drivers for most Intel components including graphics.

So there is no official Windows 10 HD 3000 driver, Wi-Fi driver, LAN driver and chipset driver ? Everything use the old Windows 7 drivers in compatibility mode, what is the overall reliability then ? This is my primary concern, stable system. I don't need any Lenovo specific software except the on screen display and power management driver (no Power Manager application). I can also live without fingerprint reader.
[...]

All necessary drivers beside card reader are implemented in W10 installation files and Windows Update repository so you do not have to worry about that. For the card reader you can use W7 drivers available at Lenovos support pages. I do have W10 installed on my x220 for few months already and I haven't had an single problem with driver compatibility so far.

[Puppy]

I do have W10 installed on my x220 for few months already and I haven't had an single problem with driver compatibility so far.

What is the exact version of the video driver ?

[ansible212]

All necessary drivers beside card reader are implemented in W10 installation files and Windows Update repository so you do not have to worry about that. For the card reader you can use W7 drivers available at Lenovos support pages. I do have W10 installed on my x220 for few months already and I haven't had an single problem with driver compatibility so far.

FYI, the card reader driver available to download from the Lenovo site is compatible with Windows 10.

[Puppy]

I tried it on my older original HDD (I replaced it with SSD few weeks ago). The video driver is the 9.x version that has issues with "permanent anti-aliasing" that makes everything blurry even with anti-aliasing turned off in Windows. This is a known issue on Windows 7 and the only solution was to revert back to older 8.15 driver. Unfortunately it does not work with Windows 10

Reference
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X ... -p/1087989
https://communities.intel.com/message/189854

Reverted back to Windows 7 by putting the SSD back.

[vicroberts]

If I install Win 10 to my old hard drive, how do I transfer the license in the future to the SSD I am using now?

[RealBlackStuff]

Micro$haft will store a W10-ID for that specific X220 machine, regardless of what HD/SSD/USB/mSATA drive you use in future.
Even if you go back to W7/W8, the W10-ID will remain valid (until W11 or whatever).
Do this before July 29, and you're good (and for free).
The pain will come once you really install W10 on it in the future...

[jdrou]

Yes, disk probably makes no difference. I believe license is tied to motherboard. I think I read that a major component was MAC address of integrated Ethernet port; not sure how they handle old or ultraportable systems that don't have one.

[canford]

I just upgraded my March 2012 Thinkpad X220 to Windows 10. It appeared to proceed just fine, but I am now without Wifi and Win10 notifications suggest I also no longer have Bluetooth and some other Thinkpad features. I need Wifi. I went to Windows 10 device manager and updated drivers, but still do not have Wifi. I was astonished to find Lenovo not listing the X220 as upgradable to Windows 10 (only saw this after I upgraded, of course) as this Thinkpad is only four years old. I have had Thinkpads for more than 20 years, and still have an X31 that is working just fine under XP.

The Wifi chip is an Intel Centrino Ultimate N6300 AGN. Has anyone had success with making this work on Windows 10?

[TPFanatic]

You can try installing the latest win7 (or win8) driver from lenovo or look for one on Intel's website.

[canford]

I have now been successful at having Wifi on my Thinkpad X220 thanks to Intel's forum. I reverted the Intel Centrino Ultimate N6300 AGN wifi chip driver back to version 15.16, and disabled allowing power management to alter the wifi status. Wifi now works.

[lfty888]

I just ran Windows 10 upgrade assistant today and it flagged my X220 with a no video drivers error. It won't proceed with the upgrade..... can you guys help??? I'm upgrading from Windows 7 Service pack 1. Any help would be appreciated! thank you very much!!

[Hans Gruber]

The T420s doesn't have any compatible video drivers for display on Win 10. I suspect the x220 has the same problem. Microsoft validated my install should Lenovo release display drivers for the T420s. I know the T410s, T410, T61, T510 all install Win 10. I only upgraded a few of my systems to Win 10. Most of them I went back to Win 7 after the upgrade.

[shawross]

Download Windows 10 ISO and then using Rufus install to USB.

Then boot from the USB. Goodluck

[Puppy]

The T420s doesn't have any compatible video drivers for display on Win 10. I suspect the x220 has the same problem.

Intel does not support CPU 2nd generation & HD 3000 GPU on Windows 10: https://communities.intel.com/message/398126#398126

X230 and above are supported only.

[RealBlackStuff]

Only yesterday I upgraded my T420 (with nVidia Optimus) from W7-pro/SP1 to W10-Pro 64-bit.
Initially it said the CPU (i5-2540m) was not supported (NX missing).
Went into the BIOS, and had to set the Security/Memory Protection/Execution Prevention to Enabled.
After that, ran W10upgrade again, using the version for Assisted Technology users and a few hours later W10 was installed, but showing a nice W7 layout.
Only when you hit the Start-button (now a W10 "square") does W10-junk come up.
Everything works OOTB, except the Lenovo power-mgr has been removed.

I'll revert back to W7 in a few day, this exercise was just to have W10 possible when I next sell this machine.
Can't stand the stuff M$ has come up with.