Vista on an X30? any driver issues?

[RageRover]

I was unsure where to post my question, so I have also posted my question on the X-series specific forum.

Before I get a lot of why's, or Vista sucks and stick with XP...my OS needs to be re-installed. Its been about a year since I reformatted and re-installed windows. So since I was going to reinstall XP this weekend, I figure why not give Vista a try (or even go with a dual OS: Vista & XP).

I've had Vista running on my HP for 2 months. I'm still used to XP, but Vista is growing on me.

Although the ThinkVantage suite/tools/software has been updated for Vista and will work on the X30, Lenovo is not supporting the X30 for Vista. They have yet to (nor does it seem they are going to ) release any drivers specific for the X30.

Other than the Atheros a/b/g driver, I have not found any drivers which would work on the X30.

I searched Intel's site, and like Lenovo, they do not (nor does it seem they will either) release any graphics drivers for the X30 (intel 82830M). Off the top of my head, I don't rememer finding any ethernet drivers on Intel's site either.

Anyone install Vista on an X30? Any issues with graphics or video? Any audio issues?

I did search the forum and have not found any info on installing Vista on an X30.

Do XP drivers work with Vista?

Although I've upped my RAM to 1gb, I am not planning on using Aero. I'm planning on doing as minimal an install as possible.

I have "tweaked" (i.e. minimized) my Vista Ultimate a bit with vLite (vlite.net). I have removed things like Media Center, Defender, Window's media player (I exclusively use VLC), and bunch of other fancy stuff I'll never use and which seem to just slow the system down and/or take up lots of HD space.

Did you know the Vista DVD has about 1.5gb of drivers!?!?! You would think there would be drivers on there somewhere for the X30!

Hopefully someone can give me the thumbs up or any advice on this...if not...I'll have to be the guinea pig and report back after the weekend!

Thanks.

[SHoTTa35]

well hopefully you didn't use VLite and remove all those drivers then come back and say Vista sux cuz there's no drivers. Vista will have drivers for all those devices but you wont get AERO even if you wanted to so no problems there. Also one might wonder why not install Vista Home Basic which doesn't come with all the Ultimate crap instead of using VLite to remove them? Home Basic gives you Vista features just not the big ones that your system isn't capable of running anyways. As for WMP 11, big deal if 22MB of your HD is taken up. VLC takes up that much too but i guess if you never use it then no biggie.

As you said, since you are going to this weekend how about you just format the machine, install Vista, play around with it for 2hrs and see if you like it. 1GB is almost bare minimum for Vista to run decent so 2GB if your machine can take it would be good. I have a THinkpad T42 with faster HD and 1GB of RAM just the same and while it's usable it's no speed demon. I can't go back to XP tho, there's the sticker on the bottom and i can't even imagine using it anymore since it's just so old, 6yrs old (and i've been using it since Pre-Beta days so it's super old for me)

[RageRover]

Thanks for the quick reply.


No, I did not remove all the drivers. My point about removing things like WMP has more to do with the fact that I never never ever use it, so why not just take it out.

From what I read, Defender slows the system down too...so I took a chance, and removed that too. Same with all the error reporting and the other junk that I can't stand.

Off the top of my head, I htink there is also something like 700mb of languages. There is a lot of "bloat" to Vista...which my X30 can do without.

As far as removing stuff and then comming back and say Vista sucks, I have it installed on my 17" HP and it runs very well. No problems yet. But the HP has a dual core CPU, 2gb ram, and 160gb of storage.

Like you said, I plan on installing it, playing with it and see if I like it. But I was just wanted to know if I am setting myself up for disaster or if the lack of Lenovo drivers and support will be an issue.

As far as buying Vista home vs Ultimate...I have ultimate on my HP...and I'm using those discs. (Yes, I know...technically you are only supposed to install windows on one machine). that is why I am "vLiting" Ultimate instead of just buying Vista Home.

I have also used XP-lite in the past.

Thanks again for your help

[RageRover]

Just to add, I believe 1gb of Ram is the max for the X30

X30 uses PC133. Do they even make PC133 1gig sodimms? I don't recall ever seeing them...