does windows 10 run well on a T500?

[skm67]

Hi Everyone, I'm interested to know peoples experiences running windows 10 on the T500 (2242-7uu)? Is it worth upgrading? Does the T500 run win10 well? Or is it slow? Thanks!

[Hans Gruber]

Win10 doesn't require much to run well. I ran it on a T61 with 2.4ghz CPU and integrated graphics during the beta phase. You probably want 8GB of ram on your T500.

[Khipata]

Yes it does! I am posting from it right now and yes I have 8 Gigs in it

[shawross]

Give it a try but make sure you have a system image of W7 to go back to if it goes pear shaped.

[skm67]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I was thinking of maxing out the RAM and getting a new SSD.

Any recommendations for an SSD for this T500?

[RealBlackStuff]

I recommend Zotac Premium Edition 240 or 480 GB.
Check Newegg, Amazon or eBay.

[brchan]

The Samsung 850 PRO series are excellent. The 128GB and 256GB ones are $90 and $130, respectively. I have the 128GB version (I don't install many programs or have store media content) and it is super quick in my W530. No freezes, lockups, lag, or issues so far. Same goes for my older 256GB 840 PRO.

[Pokrzept]

Before purchasing, please consider one fact. T500 is still a powerful machine suitable for most applications, but it does have some limitations. No matter how fast SSD you buy, it wont run faster than SATA II speed. In this case - IMHO - investing money in ultra fast, expensive SSDs does not make sense. What's more in Ultrabook era days of 2,5" disk slots are numbered, and you may expect that in next few years this standard become obsolete and you wont be able to use it in brand new laptops. There's a lot of 5/6th gen laptops on the market in which 2,5" has been replaced by M2 slot. If I may suggest anything please consider acquiring mid-range SSD with an MLC memory cells, ie. Crucial MX200 or ADATA SX930. To be honest in some extremal situations I'd even recommend TLC SSD (Samsung 850 Evo, Plextor M6V, M7V) instead of cheap MLC SSDs (ADATA SP600).

[skm67]

Hi Everyone, I got the memory and SSD and was able to install Win10 but it installed the 32 bit version and not the 64 bit version. I was never given an option. Can I get the 64 bit version and will it install on this T500? Thanks again!

[Hans Gruber]

Hi Everyone, I got the memory and SSD and was able to install Win10 but it installed the 32 bit version and not the 64 bit version. I was never given an option. Can I get the 64 bit version and will it install on this T500? Thanks again!

Did your T500 have a 32bit version of Win7 installed? I have Win 10 64bit on my desktop. Make sure after you do the upgrade that you do a clean install after. There is a Microsoft website that has all the Windows 10 reinstall option once you have it on your system. You can choose 64bit from their website on the clean install.

[skm67]

Yes, it did have the 32 bit version of Windows 7

Thanks, I'll search for it.

[Frobe70]

I migrated from Win 8 32 bits to Win 10 64 bits by using this procedure from Microsoft:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... ab312caf74

Have not tested Win 10 on T500, but I use it several hour a day on my T61 "Frankenpad".

[skm67]

Thanks for the help everyone! It took some work and wasn't as easy as I had hoped but i now have Win 10 running very nicely on my old T500!

I looked on Lenovo's support page but there wasn't much up there for drivers and all the ThinkVantage software that usually comes on a ThinkPad. I also installed ThinkVantage System Update but surprisingly it didn't have more than a handful of programs available and those weren't what I was looking for. I was able to find a driver for the ultraNav and trackpoint so finally that is working properly!!!

Any suggestions??

Thanks again!

[Frobe70]

There is a free Win 10 app from Lenovo available at Store (requires MS account log in).
The battery icon is also possible to download from Lenovo.

[skm67]

Thanks! I'll check it out!

[skm67]

Well, I checked out the Lenovo software on the Microsoft store and they aren't nearly as good as they used to be. Very disappointing!

I'm still having issues with not having drivers for the finger print reader, pci simple communications controller, and two other devices called "base system device", whatever that is??? I already tried having the system try to auto detect them but no luck.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

S

[terry_mccann]

I was able to find a driver for the ultraNav and trackpoint so finally that is working properly!!!

May one enquire exactly what driver for the Ultranav you are using? Does scroll with one finger work? If so, could you please hook me up with a link to that driver? I am still looking for a working Ultranav driver which prevents me from using W10 on my daughters T500

Thanks,

[skm67]

Sorry, that was almost a year ago, I don't remember, and since then I bought a new T460p and gave the T500 to my parents. I checked my system and my backups but there was no info about it there. If there is any info about it, it may be on the T500. I'll try to check it next time I see them, but that won't be until probably April.

[rf-harris]

I am personally not a huge fan of Windows 10. For me Windows 7 is the best. I have T500 with Windows 7 and I am doing all my tasks without any problem.

[micrex22]

May one enquire exactly what driver for the Ultranav you are using? Does scroll with one finger work? If so, could you please hook me up with a link to that driver? I am still looking for a working Ultranav driver which prevents me from using W10 on my daughters T500

Thanks,

The TrackPoint drivers are all cross compatible (which is how even a T60 can get Windows 10 support for its TrackPoint). The only caveat would be nonstandard ThinkPads; some Edge series can run into some issues as the TrackPoints are TouchStyks implemented in a different manner.

Try this package: http://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/downloads/ds103454

Also keep in mind that Windows 10 is really dumb when it comes to updates, so for instance on my T61 I had to REINSTALL the driver after Windows 10 uninstalled some portions of it for no good reason. Just keep the installer on your desktop or root of C:\ ready at all times

I am personally not a huge fan of Windows 10. For me Windows 7 is the best. I have T500 with Windows 7 and I am doing all my tasks without any problem.

Whaaaat?! You don't want Microsoft dictating your computing experience and flooding you with advertisements on your very own computer? And even nags to switch from chrome to edge? Edge is a good browser you know... it innovates by removing features such as custom download paths, everything should go to the 'downloads' folder by default, who would ever want to change that??? And advertisements are good for your health.