I got a T61p with Vista. I hated Vista and went to XP32. I want to go 64 bit XP now, and it was advertised as a 64-bit capable machine. But for whatever ignorant reason, Lenove chose not to offer XP-64 driver support on this very expensive machine. But I got it to work anyway, as have many others (I'm not alone in my opinions). One negative thing though is one or two of the custom IBM bloatware buttons were actually useful, like presentation manager for switching video output to the VGA port for a projector. And the onscreen volume thing was nice also. I bet there is a way to do the same thing using the OS, especially the VGA port one. That is my question. Looking for T61p owners who have actually found a good workaround. Telling me it cant be done or to try using google, or to just use Vista64 aren't going to count as solutions...sorry. I would never have bought ThinkPad if I had realized how bad their 64bit support was, they have always lagged way behind on new things but they do make a nice machine.
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It is a 6459CTO shipped August 2007, when they were the newest and most expensive thing they had. Vista was in infacny, so how they could make a 64bit engineering machine and not make xp64 drivers for it,....grrr...no wonder they are falling so very far behind Dell! I'm an engineer at (very large congloerate) and they used to buy nothing but IBMs but now all the high-end desktops are Dell T7400s and the high-end notebools are Dells too. No more IBM/ThinkPads. They cut too many corners since the Chinese bought them and don't listen to what people want. How LAZY is that, not bothering with drivers on a $3000 dollar notebook! (with accessories) I wrote long letters to two Lenovo sales people I knew and neither bothered replying. Hence I am not lying when I say they do not listen.
On windows update it had the driver for the video card Nvidia 570M. That worked fine and is described correctly in device manager. Chipset drivers fron Intel worked. Soundmax driver that someone found on a hitachi site that used the identical chip. The network & modem worked by using the vista64 version from lenovo. All this stuff people had already figured out by trial and error and searching. That covers all the basic main stuff, but on a laptop the presentation thing could be handy.
I've been using XP-64 at work for 9 months and love it. Its FAST and no BS like Vista. (Vista is nowhere to be found, even on our newest machines). On a leading CAD-CAM software, on my identical dual-quad 8GB-RAM machine, updating a very large assembly using the 32 bit software vs the 64 bit software version had a 10x performance increase: from 33 minutes to 3 minutes. Never going back. And I'll never buy another computer that I cant run XP-64 on easily. Windows 7 is probably just Vista with a clown-face painted on... MS acts like users are morons and a lil advertising and repackaging will fix everything.
The windows drivers are usually a stripped down version without the control panel attributes that would help in this situation. I checked the Nvidia site and they refer you back to the laptop manufacturer. So much for independence from the sad mentalities of the big OEM's.
What occurs when you use the FN +F7 combination to change the display, is it also tied to the presentation management software?
When I try Fn + F7 the cursor turns to an hourglass and the screen blinks but this is only for a split second then nothing happens. It isn't locked up just nothing happens. I read somewhere, probably on Lenovo notes, that you had to install power managment and something else also. I tried both the XP 32 and the Vista drivers of all that stuff. The custom software is easily broken, I see why they are too lazy to maintain it with proper driver support. I HATE proprietary-designed computers but with a notebook it's lots harder to escape.
Sorry for the delay in getting around to it. That was a good idea and it does make a difference. Pressing Fn + F7 still does not open the presentation manager. But I find that if I connect a TV vga cable to the auxilliary display output, the computer recognizes it and the display works. Pressing Fn+F7 does do something, it seems to scroll through modes such as external=off, and maybe a different setting or resolution that the tv didn't like. So pressing it does do something but there is no menu or anything showing on the screen. So I suppose this is the best it's going to work. But it is usable. Thanks.
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by: mark876543Posted on 2009-01-09 at 11:12:56ID: 23339154
Oh and I already tried the presentation manager driver / software that is on lenovo support, under Vista64 and under XP32, and the other drivers they said were prerequisites, but it stil doesn't work. So giving up on their custom software and hoping XP can select the video output (vga port).