Time to upgrade to Windows 7 for the W700?

[2cdneh]

I have a W700 with 4 gb RAM and Windows Vista X64 Ultimate. This is my first Vista computer, and I'm not impressed with Vista, although I love the computer itself.

I now have the RTM Windows 7 X64 (I am an MSDN subscriber) and would like to upgrade. However, I'm unsure of the quality of the drivers at this point, and if I will have any issues. Anybody converted recently, and how did it go? Anything not working?

Thanks for any info

PS You can't search the forum for "Windows 7" - it rejects it as common words.

[QFoam]

Instead search the forums using the following search string on google:

site:forum.thinkpads.com w700 "windows 7"

In theory, the Vista drivers are supposed to work.


"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice,
there is." - Yogi Berra

[dr_st]

The question is what are the things in Vista that make you unimpressed. If you are used to XP and find it more attractive, chances are you will be equally unimpressed with Windows 7.

[mgo]

I have a W700 with 4 gb RAM and Windows Vista X64 Ultimate. This is my first Vista computer, and I'm not impressed with Vista, although I love the computer itself.

I now have the RTM Windows 7 X64 (I am an MSDN subscriber) and would like to upgrade. However, I'm unsure of the quality of the drivers at this point, and if I will have any issues. Anybody converted recently, and how did it go? Anything not working?

Thanks for any info

PS You can't search the forum for "Windows 7" - it rejects it as common words.

Try: this link from Lenovo. You may find that not all the downloads are needed, as Windows 7 seems to have more compatability with drivers, etc. (just my amateur opinion)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... -BETA.html

For my T60 machines some of the Vista-based features from the Vista Lenovo pages threw non-fatal error messages, and sometimes would not install, but the Windows 7 downloads were better.

Go ahead and try Windows 7, there is nothing about it that will be a "show stopper" to keep your machine from working well.

[johnp126]

I have a W700 and have been running the RC since it came out. Now testing the RTM 64 bit Ultimate. Only issue that is a pain right now is there is no suitable Video driver so I can't run Aero, I only get std vga adapter to load. This i find odd because the RC loaded a working driver that was great with Aero. The only devices that must be loaded are the Intel AMT drivers or you have 2 unknown devices. The only other thing I would install at this point is the beta of the active protection for the drives. All else is ok without it. I did not load anything else under the RC either. I will try the on screen display because that helps with the sound vol.

If you get anything further on the video let me know, I can't wait to get Aero back!

[PanEuropean]

2cdneh:

Although this doesn't directly answer your question, I have a W500 that I have been running W7 RC (32 bit) on for some months, and the computer works flawlessly. As others have pointed out, video drivers come with the RC package. In fact, a surprising number of the drivers that are required for the laptop come with the OS.

Michael

[GarryF]

Been using the 64bit RC for 2 months now and it's been flawless, I installed windows, then installed the beta drivers from lenovo. Then I let windows update fill in the gaps. As said there was one more driver to manually install.

Also did the same on a W500 at the same time and it worked fine too.

Also installed the screen calibration and tablet software and that all works too.

I've a RTM copy ordered but won't get it until general release, then I need to decide if I got raid SSD

[visionviper]

I have a W700 and have been running the RC since it came out. Now testing the RTM 64 bit Ultimate. Only issue that is a pain right now is there is no suitable Video driver so I can't run Aero, I only get std vga adapter to load.

Nvidia has had Windows 7 64-bit drivers out for quite some time.

And 32-bit as well.

[Wendy]

I have the hard drive bay adapter and a second hard drive in my W500. I installed Windows 7 64 bit RTM and am reasonably happy. I keep finding little annoyances like the audio controls don't work right even after trying the beta drivers. These are not a deal breaker for me though. When I need to I boot to my previous set up which is Vista 64. I've been able to install all of the programs I use including some older programs running compatibility mode. I'm hoping that when Win7 is actually release to manufactures there will be more, better running drivers released.

I had issues with the video drivers as I run dual monitors when docked (VGA & DVI). I found that I had to set the bios for discrete graphics before I could set the boot display It actually works better than before where I had to run the ATI utility upon a hard start to get both the monitors up. This means no integrated graphics unless I change it in the bios but is not an issue since I have two batteries and am never far from power anyway.

if you don't need to upgrade right away and don't want to be bothered with little annoyances then wait. If you like to play and can live with what might not work right away, give it a go.

I also installed the 32bit version on my newly acquired R61i and have no complaints there.

My $.02.

[andrej770]

I have a W700 with 4 gb RAM and Windows Vista X64 Ultimate. This is my first Vista computer, and I'm not impressed with Vista, although I love the computer itself.

I now have the RTM Windows 7 X64 (I am an MSDN subscriber) and would like to upgrade. However, I'm unsure of the quality of the drivers at this point, and if I will have any issues. Anybody converted recently, and how did it go? Anything not working?

Thanks for any info

PS You can't search the forum for "Windows 7" - it rejects it as common words.

Instead of giving you a "search the forums" typical response, I will give it to you straight. Don't upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 until the product is released to the general public. The drivers that Lenovo has provided as Beta are unstable. If you will be using your machine as a production machine, as I do, you will want all the same functionality that you are used to (but are not terribly impressed with). I upgraded my T500 to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 and the drivers that Lenovo provided are not stable. There is no sound driver, the access connections works sporadically and causes windows explorer memory leaks, many of the drivers are not optimized for 64 bit yet. If you are a bleeding edge type and have the patience for distrupting your norm with possible hiccups, do Win 7 U 64. Else, wait until the official drivers for 64 emerge.

Just my humble opinion.

andrej770