Hi everyone, i bought my first thinkpad, an x21 on a bargain purchase from ebay a few weeks ago and ever since then have been avidly reading this forum, albeit wasting a few hours at work doing it!

I'm very experienced with computers, but one problem on my x21 has me dumbfounded. THe laptop came wiv no OS so i sorted that out and downloaded all the necessary drivers.

HOWEVER: In device manager, there is one unidentifiable device left that i have been unable to find. It is simply labelled as 'unknown device'. Everything else on the computer works fine, sound, video, lan, etc.

I'd really appreciate some help on this matter from you knowledgable folks! Also...whats the best OS to put on my thinkpad, i stuck 98SE on there as i felt XP might make it too slow. Ideas? Thoughts on this?

Last but not least...whats the battery life people have had on their X21s?

this might help - for windows me, but i imagine much the same for 98:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4ZGGY8

This is usually the chipset driver. Go to IBM's driver matrix, download the Intel chipset driver and install it. It should be fine after that, and note that in future installations the chipset should be installed before the other devices.

Stavros

Congrats!


Are you sure that you have installed the special power management driver already?

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4GXPEG


Sorry for being so frank, but that sounds idiotic to me. Windows 98SE is a terrible operating system, very unstable and incapable of managing larger amounts of memory sensibly. To choose Windows 9x is the worst decision you could make.

If you've got at least 128MB of RAM, go for Windows 2000. This is almost the perfect operating system, Windows-wise. It won't be slower than Windows 98SE, actually it will work much better, be much more responsive.

Provided that you've got more than 128MB (320MB would be great), you can switch to XP. With that much of memory, Windows XP won't be slower than Windows 2000. Speed differences between W2K and XP are mostly a matter of memory.

I second the Win2k post. If you have to use windows, it is the version to go with. Unless you have vital win-only apps I would give Linux a try, much lighter and very thinkpad-friendly.

Stavros

You people are amazing! After upgrading to XP from 98se on my little x21 wiv 256 mb ram, the machine runs amazingly well! its so quick, responsive and a joy to use. No more intermittent lock ups, etc. I am so impressed.

Also, my ethernet speed went way up to what it was rated at. Standard 100T connection with the desktop:

98se = 2.2mb / sec
XP = 7.1mb / sec

I knew network drivers on XP were better, but this is highly impressive.
And i do quite like the ACPI enhanced power meter, it actually tells how much TIME i have left on my laptop.

A quick ques though....i downloaded this battery meter program from a link i found in this forum and it states that the wear level of my battery is 9%...is this good? bad? Also what battery times have peeps got on the x21 wiv the minimum brightness setting?

ps: you guys are gr8

I certainly agree with the people who have pointed you away from Windows 98 (and all Windows 9x) and to either Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro. Both OS's are excellent, although you can make Windows XP Pro look like Windows 2000 (Classic Interface, no Eye Candy), perform very well (add a bit of memory), and give you advantages such as Clear Type and networking improvements (especially XP Pro SP2).

I really doubt that the X21 came originally without an OS. Put the Model number into the PC Support system and you can determine the preload. If it was Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you should be able to get the recovery CD's from IBM or possibly Bill here at ThinkPads.
... JDHurst