I love my T400 :)

First, millions thanks to all. You have provided me a lot of useful information about T400.

I just have a few questions that I wonder:
1. If I am reinstalling Vista for XP, are there any other easy ways to download and install all the drivers? (There are 6x XP drivers on Thinkpad's website!!)

2. It doesn't seem like there is any flex for the armrest! But how should I check if this is the old keyboard or not?

Thanks all

 

If you're happy with the keyboard, leave it be. Ignorance is bliss.

 

Congratulations.

1. I don't understand the question.

2. You can check the keyboard by pressing down on it to see how much it gives under pressure. However, Zaz is 100 percent correct (as usual). If you're happy with it, then don't try to change anything. Some people have not noticed any flex at all, while others have not been so lucky. Play with it. Test it out completely and, if you find it satisfactory, then "leave it be."

 

Reinstall Vista for XP? I don't understand..

Don't check. If you're satisfied with how it is now, then leaving it alone would be best.

 

Sorry for the bad English of the first question.

I am planning to uninstall Vista and install XP on this laptop. I guess I will transfer the data in the default Q and S drives as backup (as they seem important) and start the installation of XP. However, just now I have noticed that there are sixty something drivers for T400 on XP. I wonder if there are easier ways to download and install all drivers with easier ways.

By the way, this T400 doesn't seem as fast as I thought. My spec is: 2.26mhz and 3GB ram.

Thanks.

 

This could just be due to the bloatware that might be bogging things down at the moment. A clean install should make a big difference.

 

Well, I'm sure there's a T400/500 xp clean install guide somewhere. If not, just download the basic drivers and the chipset modules. Then selectively download the Thinkpad ones. The ones I install are the power manager and active protection.

 

Wow, I didn't know you could selectively download the Thinkpad drivers. I always thought it was all or nothing, but this is definitely welcomed news.

 

Okie dokie. I am thinking what I should go for... either XP SP2 or Vista... too bad that we can't switch the graphics on XP but it's so user friendly!

 

Thanks for the info. I have found many of them... let me see which ones are good.

 

Personally, I love both but would recommend that you stick with Vista. I still use both quite frequently, but I prefer Vista. Choosing your OS is one of the more personal decisions you can make in regards to your PC, so you should definitely make up your own mind. It really just comes down to which one you're most comfortable with.

 

Aye. It's all personal preference. Vista may seem odd at first, but over time you'll get used to it, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as XP. And if you're sticking with XP, go for SP3.

As for the driver downloads, follow Arkit3kt's XP clean install guide as a basis for what drivers to install. Of course, you don't download the exact drivers, but what types of drivers you need. This will make your computer as squeaky as possible.

Then, don't forget to CCleaner and defrag your computer. This is also in Arkit3kt's guide

 

I would like to recommend not using Crap Cleaner to clean your registry. As long as you just use the uninstallers provided with applications you install, it will be very rare indeed to have something remain in the registry that will adversely and noticeably affect performance.

*mumbles something about not trying to fix things until they're broken*

 

Hehehe.. neenee, I know. The speed change maybe almost minimal, but I'd personally still tweak it. And nothing has gone wrong so far for me

 

Im actually planning to reinstall as well and noticed you brought up a good point. What is the S drive for should I back that up as well? im planning to back up the Q drive onto DVD and then follow Stallen's (Clean Install ) http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783.

Anyone know anything else I should back up?

 

The S: partition is just the windows' boot partition. Most PC's come with it integrated into the C: drive, but I suppose Lenovo separated it so that it's easier to repair a windows install?

Anyway, it's something you will want to remove when you install your new OS.

edit: Oh, also make sure to backup your C:\SWTOOLS folder. It comes with a load of (probably-out-of-date) drivers as well as installers for all the preloaded software. You will probably want to use System Update or Lenovo's site for the drivers, rather than using the SWTOOLS versions.

 

C:\SWTools folder.

 

What's the S drive for ? I have one to should I back it up?

 

Hey all! I have finally finished installing Vista Ultimate for my T400.

I have two questions for now..

1) My 80GB HDD says that I only have 73GB... Where can I retrieve that missing 7GB?

2) If I want to switch my HDD with one with larger capacity, do I have to reinstall everything? Or can I just move the stuff over?

Thank you everyone!!

 

I have only backed up SWTools and burned 3 DVDs for one of the drives as suggested.

Hope this helps

 

You never get the full advertised size. 80GB is the size you would get pre-formatted. Once formatted, you only get ~93% of the advertised size.

If you buy a new HDD, I believe the box will usually come with cloning software so you can copy an image of your old HDD to the new one. If not, you'll need imaging software like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost.

 

I see.... Thank you so much!

There is still a problem for the drivers.. In device manager, drivers of Radeon HD 3400, PCI Simple Communication Controller and SM Bus Controller still cannot be detected. I wonder why..

Thanks again in advance!

 

80GB is actually 73GB because of wrong naming conventions followed by
manufacturers. it applies to every capacity. for example my 250GB is only 232GB.

 

Besides from the one from above, there are another 2 questions:

1) How can I display Chinese in Vista Ultimate? I have already installed language packs and it still doesn't work. Problem solved by changing the "system locale" in Regional and Language Options"

2) My windows start-up and close-down time is really really slow... it is even slower than my old desktop that is with a lot of junk. I wonder why

Thx.

 

I don’t know why this is the case for you, but I really don’t see a major issue with this. Vista is notoriously stable and the only time I really do a full shut down/startup is when installing Windows updates. Otherwise, I usually just put the computer to sleep, which is extremely fast, or I hibernate.

 

Almost all problems are solved... still can't figure out how to fix the graphic card driver...