My report on installing Windows 7 RC x64 on my lenovo X200 (Still some help needed!)

Question

I upgraded from Vista and for a brief moment everything seemed to work but then problems started and I did a clean install. BUT there are quite some issues:
- Unknown PCI Simple Communications Controller in Device Manager (Which drivers are needed?)
- Intel GMA driver reports to be installed but I don't have the Settings app to change power saving things and I don't have the GPU video acceleration as well as some problems with 3D Games (QuakeLive)
- Fans seem to spin more than under Vista. Not sure about that one. (Have to observe with new drivers from lenovo)
Fixed:
 - Can't install Bluetooth driver (No Device found) - Installed the OSD Package following a guide posted somewhere on the board (manual registry key added, installed in vista mode) and could then enable BT using the Fn Keys and the Drivers were installed automatically by Wind7 after that
- Fn+F2 (Lock) does not work, Fn+F5 (WiFi&Bluetooth) does not work - Same fix as BT issue
- Brightness change does not show the green onscreen bar, does not work after sleep - Fixed through the Hotkeys Driver for Win7 (provided by lenovo on the Win7 Beta Drivers page)
- Power Manager - New Drivers for Win7 by lenovo
Doesn't work but it's crap anyways:
- Presentation Director won't install correctly
Doesn't work but not important:
- Audio Driver from lenovo only worked after "Install with recommended Settings" and the SmartAudio pane in the Control Panel does not work so I uninstalled and the Win drivers work perfectly
- Fn+Pause (doesn't do anything)
- Fn+PrtSc (doesn't do anything)
- Intel AMT wouldn't install (I'm not in an Enterprise Environment so I don't need it anyways)
What works:
- Active Protection
- Camera (at least it installed. Didn't try it out)
- All other Fn Keys, Volume Buttons, Onscreen Display of volume/ThinkLight change
- Intel Matrix and Turbo Memory drivers installed
- lenovo System Interface installed
- WLan (Out of the box and after I killed it with the deinstallation of Access Connections, worked again with Intel drivers)
- Fingerprint (Win Update)
- Chipset (Win Update)
- LAN (Win Update)
- Display (Win Update)
- Power Management Driver (Win Update)
- Trackpint (Win Update)
- Audio (Out of the box)
- Modem Drivers installed
Untested/Not Installed:
- Easy Eject Utility (Not needed anymore with new Win7 Driver behavior)
- ThinkVantage Menu & Message Center
- Access Connections
It works quite well but the GMA and Brightness issues are really annoying! BUT I hate it, that the System Update App isn't available anymore and stopped working with Vista SP2 (RC). One app which manages all the Driver and support software installation is just perfect! I hope lenovo will release something like it again (Maybe as a sidetab in the official Win7 Update app )
Does someone know how I can fix the the red problems?
Thank you.
Message Edited by Chrigi on 05-28-2009 01:11 PM
Message Edited by Chrigi on 06-06-2009 03:42 AM

Answer 1

Grüezi Christian:
I did a clean installation (as opposed to an upgrade) of W7 RC on my W500, and discovered that all of the problem you mention are quite easily solved.  Basically, they seem to be caused by the computer needing the correct device driver for the item - in other words, the device driver is not provided on the W7 CD, you need to get it from the Lenovo website.
In your case, because you did an upgrade install (rather than wiping your hard drive and doing a clean install), chances are that you already have the required drivers present on your computer.  They will be located at the root level of your 'C:' drive in a folder entitled 'drivers' (in other words, C:/drivers/).
All you have to do is point your computer in the correct direction, to assist it to find the driver that is present on your hard drive.
Here is how I recommend you proceed:
1) Open the Device Manager.  In W7, you can accomplish this from the control panel (Start - Control Panel - Device Manager).
2) Look for an item in the device manager that the computer is unhappy about.  These are normally identified with exclamation points or similar icons beside them.
3) Right-click on one of these problem items, and choose 'Update Driver Software'.
4) Select the lower option (the non-default option), which is 'Browse my computer for driver software'.
5) In the window that appears, use the browse button to navigate to C:/Drivers, and confirm that the check box 'include subfolders' is checked.
6) Press the NEXT button.  The computer will then go fishing through the C:/Drivers folder, find what it needs, and install it.
You will have to iterate this procedure for each item in the device driver list that shows a problem.  It may also be necessary to reboot the computer after each iteration.
Hopefully, this will solve your problems.  Please let us know what your experience is.
gruss,
Michael
Message Edited by PanEuropean on 05-17-2009 01:35 PM
W520 (4270 CTO), which replaced a W500 (4062-27U), which replaced a T42P, which replaced an A21P...