OK, clean install of 7 on a SSD with 2 gig of memory. Couple of odd things. Not impressed with the battery life at all. I gave up on trying to configure the OS, and have RMClock doing the throttling, that has gotten me back up a little over 2 hours on a new battery. Have configured the sleep, lid close and the power switch button, every day for the last week and a half. Never retains the setting more than 24 hours. WTH?

On the good side 7 starts as fast as uBuntu, leaves XP in the dust. Shut down is bloody fast also. However the OS just seems bugging to me. I know the Z was not supposed to have 7 on it, but it is not exactly vintage.

Ron

When it comes to battery life - especially on older ThinkPads - W7 leaves a lot to be desired. That's one of the main reasons why I reverted back to XP on my T43/p stock...

As for "vintage"...huh...I love Z series, and they are to this day still the prettiest widescreen ThinkPads to my eyes. That being said, from a sheer technical standpoint, a Z60t is no more than an Intel-based T43 with a SATA drive and 16:10 screen...

I would not be running W7 on a machine with those specs...

My $0.02 only...

Thanks George, Im pondering the revision back to XP myself. I did load the orginal 80gig HDD with XP before I swapped over to the SSD. It is a Retail copy, not tailored to the IBM so I dont know whether it was faster or not. I like the startup and shut down of W7...but thats about all. As an experiment I reset and then rereset (and then rerereset) the shut down options last night like lid close and so forth. It will not store the settings past a full shut down. If I resume or hibernate Im fine. Full shut down erases my settings.
I think Ill slide the 80gig back in over the holidays and see what I think.

Ron

Hi Ron -- when you changed the power options, did you change for both on battery and plugged in? Also, in my older machines, I turn off Aero in windows 7 and check 'adjust for best performance' in advanced computer properties -- I'm guessing you already did that. My T60's zip along on SSD's with Windows 7, so I can't figure out what the issue may be with your Z, especially not saving your power settings.

I'm going to throw a wild pitch here...my hunch is that the Power Manager insanity has something to do with the graphics driver.

Personally, I'd turn it into a Linux box, but that's me...

Good luck.

Hi George -- I have a question for you -- why do my T60's run W7 perfectly, while Ron's Z60t balks -- are the graphics different even though they are same generation (i.e. 60's?)

T60 and Z60t are not the same generation, despite the similar numbers.

Z60 series are akin to T43. T60 and Z61 series are the same generation.

Exactly...A Z60t (or Z60m) is basically a T43 (notably, the Z60t/m models were the first to use SATA hard drives and 20v AC adapters)! A Z61t (or Z61m) is basically a T60! The numbers are confusing since they are off by one. Z60t is Pentium M, T60 is Core Duo - a generational difference.

Thanks dr_st and underclocker -- that helps me understand the 'generations' -- I'm still puzzled about Windows 7 issues in the Z60t. I've never owned a Z60t, but I've had the Z61t and Z61m, and both ran W7 without issues. So I'm clear with the information you gave that the Z60t is more the T43 generation. But I'm still puzzled.

When W7 came out, I 'jumped ship' from XP on each Thinkpad I had at the time and since. I've never had an issue with W7, although all I really do on my machines is net surf, youtube, email, netflix, etc. I was looking back at what machines I've had on W7, and I had a T42/R51 I purchased here on the Forum on which I installed W7 before giving the machine to a friend. The model type was 2883-8QU, although I'm not sure how that relates to the T42/R51. It had a PATA HDD. I don't understand why the Z60t dislikes W7, when my other machines have run it well. The T42/R51 is my oldest machine that ran W7 -- after that the next oldest machines I ran on W7 were X60 and T60 and newer.

Well, I can share some experiences about my installation of Win7 on an old Thinkpad.

In my case it was the X32, which is equivalent to a T42/R51, except one thing - it's graphics adapter is the original ATI Mobility Radeon, older than the Mobility 7500/9600 or the Intel GPU used in T42/R51. The GPU has given me quite a few problems, some of which I still cannot solve, and I am not sure I will.

Basically Win+P does nothing and multi-monitor configurations in general fail to work properly most of the time. I tried installing the Presentation Director, but it failed to work as well. There is no proper driver for this GPU for anything newer than Windows XP, and while the XP drivers can work somewhat OK, they naturally have never been tested to comply with all functions and specifications of Vista/Win7, so it's not surprising to run into issues.

All other components, BTW, worked 100% from the start, so it is not coincidental that the problems many people report on old machines running Windows 7 are almost always GPU related.

Ill buy the GPU issues...............
Last night i got tired and just shut the lid down. This morning I touched the lid and noticed it was very warm, not hot mind you but no where near room temp. Opened the lid and sure enough, there sat the NORAD Santa tracking web page my son and I were on last night. I had fiddled with the setting one more time yesterday, and they did not take.

I have something in the works that will let me use my w7 License, so as soon as that fleshes out, I suspect Ill drop back and punt. There are a ton of good things that can be said about an OS that works correctly with the hardware you have.

Merry Christmas all
Ron

Thanks dr_st -- that's what George and underclocker have been saying all along, but your example helped me get the gpu issue in a perspective I could understand. It's just been by coincidence that I haven't had W7 issues, even on my oldest machines, because of the gpu's involved.

OK, reloaded Windoze XP on the "t" (from W7). No tweaking at all and went from 2 hours battery to 3 hours battery. I can close the lid, and the switch works! The wireless that worked flawless on W7, now drops the signal every 10 mins, so I swapped over to the Atheros driver and the problem appears to have gone away. It is painfully slow starting, but Im thinking most of that is the system still sorting out the updates. Overall, I think Im in looove!?!

Ron

So how is your Z running on XP now?

I'm using XP on my 'new-to-me' Z61m, and am pleased with it so far. I had jumped ship from Xp to Vista (which ran 'ok' for me) and then to W7 (which works really well on my all my current machines) until I recently acquired this Zm -- If I decide to keep the Zm, I will probably move to W7, but perhaps not if I keep liking this XP install -- Have you worked out your wireless connection issues? This Z61m reminds me of the G40 and G41 I used to have -- really nice/large screen

I love the thing. RBS and I have/had a long running love affair with the T30's. "probably the best package IBM ever built!" The Z, without a shadow of a doubt, is the best I have used. We have all sorts of wizbang Wide Screens at work, nothing feels right size wize compared to this one. Ill take this anyday.
Swapping over to the Atheros branded driver, instead of the IBM tweaked driver, fixed the wireless drop.

Bug in a rug!
Ron

I got a Z61m for my wife, actually because I liked that type of Thinkpad, She also liked it, specially because of the Ti Lid (which unfortunately is not in top condition) and the integrated webcam. I've maxed out the RAM and put a bigger HD and since then Win7 Ultimate is working like a champ. No issues to report, everything worked ootb.

This thread has answered a multitude of my questions that have popped up over the Christmas/New Years break, such as what if I put an SSD and W7 on my son's Z60t!

7 was ok, never did work out the GPU issues, most annoying was the sleep on screen close issue. Other than that, it worked well. Im running XP now and am very happy. It does everything I want it to do, plus! The & was recycled onto a later machine, and once again...it OK.


Ron

Have I mentioned lately, I love this machine?
I guess I'm twice blessed, once with the machine, and again for my benefactor!

Ron