Formating lenovo Thinkpad sl500

[Tattare]

I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad SL500 for xmas for my mom. It came loaded down with bloatwear 97 process running and using 80% of the CPU.
Im thinking of formating and putting xp on the machine. currently has vista home.
Any things I should know before formating and doing a fresh install? Im looking at the lenovo website on the drivers and there site is pretty messy.

Lenovo support/driver page

This will be my first time formating a laptop and I hope these propriatary parts on the inside dont give me any problems.

 

[IlllI]

yes.
make sure to get the necessary drivers before you format.

also it probably has a sata hd so you need to somehow load the sata drivers during xp install process, otherwise you will be stuck

 

[corkyg]

Before applying the nuclear solution, why not go to MSCONFIG and turn off those processes and programs that your mom doesn't need. Remember, there are a lot of things put there by Lenovo that make things convenient and easy to manage for new users. One person's bloatware is another person's lifeline, I am concerned that you may be putting yourself in your mom's shoes.

I assume you have a RESTORE DVD? that can put things back to factory condition if the nuke solution doesn't work out?

 

[DarkRogue]

First off, an OS reinstall is good for getting rid of bloatware, but you should try to consider other alternatives first.

I have to wonder what is taking up 80% of your CPU though. Even if you have a hundred processes, most of them don't use very much CPU when idle - they only eat up RAM. Maybe download Process Explorer and find out what is killing your CPU there.

If you're still unsatisfied with that, maybe start uninstalling some of the more useless programs. However, as corkyg pointed out, make sure your mom does not need it either. Some of these things have no use for us who may be more computer literate, but Lenovo's programs are usually there for ease of use for the non-techie user.

Also, Lenovo's site is pretty tricky for some reason, but that particular page lists every single update available for that machine type (SL500.) If you look closely, there is a link to the Driver Matrix, which is a chart that lists the latest version of each particular driver or application available for your machine. Here's the link: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp....do?lndocid=MIGR-70413

If it does come down to a reinstall, make sure you burn the restore discs first, if it did not come with any. It should also have a hidden recovery partition to allow you to reset your laptop to factory settings, your call on whether or not to nuke this when you reformat.

If you end up reformatting, I believe the restore discs will give you the option on whether or not to reinstall the stock Lenovo programs - just uncheck it or something.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: clandren
yes.
make sure to get the necessary drivers before you format.

also it probably has a sata hd so you need to somehow load the sata drivers during xp install process, otherwise you will be stuck

Wrong.

Enter the bios. Under devices you should see a menu for Storage or SATA... It may be in another sub menu as I haven't played with an SL THinkPad yet.

Once you find the sata menu in the bios, your choice will either be to disable AHCI or it might be labelled "compatibility mode". Depends on how they labeled it in the bios. This will allow you to install XP without out the need to use F6 on install.

*however, You will want to download the Intel Storage Matrix driver from Lenovo, install it following the directions. After which you will want to set the bios back to AHCI enabled or "Sata" to get the performance boost. Any questions... PM me.

 

[WackyDan]

Also.. All you need to do, is to install System Update 3.14. after you've installed the ethernet driver and .NET 2.0. System update will list all the drivers and apps available from lenovo and automatically downlaod and install the ones you want.

Also important... before you format, look for the c:\SWTOOLS folder. copy this off to a USB drive or network location as that holds the installers for some of the apps you may want that Lenovo does not host on their website. ie; WIN DVD.... Lenovo hosts updates, but not full versions typically... same thing for burning software in some cases.

Final advice. System update will show you MS hotfixes that are specifically helpful on that thinkpad....and solve known issues. If you aren't sure what lenovo utils to reinstall, I do highly recommend their power manager as that will indeed give you better battery life and management than the default XP power manager.

 

[AsianriceX]

Remember that you'll need a valid XP license in order to stay legal with your downgrade.

Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium do not include downgrade rights to XP.

 

[cparker]

I second Corky-G's suggestion to try to clean up your vista before trying to "nuke" it by replacing it with xp. In addition to getting rid of anything that's "bloat" and not essential, you could also disable "aero" graphics, get rid of the sidebar by setting it's properties not to start on bootup, to try to get the OS as "lean and mean" as possible. I've just been reading about how some netbook owners have been "nuking" xp that comes with the computer and replacing it with a lean Vista installation and it seems to work just fine. This with a much less powerful "Atom" cpu running at 1.6 ghz. You may want to go to the OS forum to get more advice on slimming down your vista.

Good luck!!!!!

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: AsianriceX
Remember that you'll need a valid XP license in order to stay legal with your downgrade.

Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium do not include downgrade rights to XP.

He'd need a retail install in his case anyway. Downgrade rights don't matter in that instance.

 

[CatalinCristescu]

Hello!
I have a problem installing the Intel Storage Matrix driver so I can't select S-ATA in the BIOS. I am using XP software. I tried with the Intel Turbo Memory driver which Lenovo also provides, but that doesn't work cause my Device Manager doesn't have a PCI Memory Controller tab (as Lenovo states I should).
If you have any ideas, please let me know!

Thank you!

 

[WackyDan]

AS I sent you in the PM.... THere is no support for Turbo Memory in XP. Lenovo provides a Null Driver for those modules on other THinkPads but seemingly not the SLs... but I could be wrong. I don't see it in the driver matrix for the SL500