installing windows 7 for lenovo thinkpad T61 series how to

when it comes to notebooks, my personal preference is always an (formely branded as) ibm (now, its lenovo) thinkpad series notebook. i was issued 1 in my previous employment and i bought a similar thinkpad series notebook when i shot fulltime. i don’t want to go into a few lengthy paragraphs on how great i think the thinkpad series is compared to other maketh because when you start to use one, trust me, you won’t want to use other brand of notebooks. its a pedigree workhorse.

the original OS that came with my notebook was windows vista business edition (to be fair, i had no issues with it and for the last 1 1/2 years, it was a breeze to use it) and when windows 7 was released, i was thinking to change the OS. the only thing that stopped me from changing OS was availability and installation of drivers. i assumed because its a different OS altogether, some of the vista’s drivers would not be compatible.

after googling and looking through the maze in lenovo site, i decided to take the plunge. it was a blessing because almost ALL drivers are updated to windows 7.

what i did was the following -

1. checked the windows 7 site, specifically this – to check everything is compatible in terms of hardware.

2. when i bought my notebook, i upgraded my RAM to 2GIGs. my warranty had lapsed and since a friend of mine have a spare brand new WD Scorpio Black (he changed his HDD to a SSD, ha ha), i thought why dont i clean install windows 7 – just in case if things screwed up, i could revert back to my old hard disk. i did not have much backup to do because most of my files are photos, they are backed up once my sets are shot.

if you are following the same strategy – here is a youtube video on how to change your hard disk for think pad T series – btw, the black thingy around the hard disk tray, thats the “roll cage” for your hard disk

3. i clean installed windows 7 ultimate 32bit edition – installation took less than 30mins. a breeze with no hiccups. i did not partition my hard disk.

4. once you done the necessary windows activation - make sure you update your OS via windows update. windows 7 is smart enough to recognise the usual drivers – graphic card, wireless card, sound card and display.

5.i went to this page at lenovo.

lenovo drivers download and support

you can use the search tool for locating drivers for the specific OS.

in this case, i am looking for windows 7 drivers for my thinkpad T series – in particular a T61 series

a. Brand – choose “Notebook and handhelds”

b. Family – scroll down the list and choose “T61″

c. Type – this is to state the specific model of the T series – flip to the back of your notebook, locate where is state “TYPE ” on the sticker  - for mine is 7664 – A12 – for Type – choose “7664″ (this is just an example, you need to choose your specific model type)

d. Model – choose “A12″ (this is just an example, you need to choose your specific model type)

e. Operating system – choose windows 7

click “Continue”

this is what you most probably see

product description and drivers

this is where it get interesting.

in the product support box – this is the description of your thinkpad model in its original hardware configuration. based on the model type 7664- A12, i know now that my thinkpad is a customized model based on 7663-13A (ooo, this bring back memories ) this is not important for the layman, its just trivia.

what is important is the other hardware config – in this case, hard disk, blue tooth, modem, ultra nav (thats your trackpad and mouse nipple thing), sec chip (thats the secure chip reader), FPR (finger print reader) and camera.

based from my installation of the drivers, windows 7 failed to recognised my integrated camera,  blue tooth drivers, sec chip and finger print reader. the rest of additional software to compliment your thinkpad hardware. choose from the list.

what i chose to install  -

a. i chose to update my BIOS, blue tooth drivers, sec chip, FPR, ultra nav (there is 2 of em, just install both), hotkeys (this is to enable you to use your hotkeys on the keyboard), access connections (although windows 7 manage wireless, you might need to install access connections to manage your bluetooth – in particular, to switch it on and off), power management and integrated camera.

b. i installed the new thinkvantage toolbox – i find the hardware profile is usefull, apart from that, its faster to update your driver via the search and download drivers page.

hope this is useful to you – if you screwed your installation process, i am not responsible for it =)

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