Lenovo R500 Win Xp

:crybaby
I have a lenovo R500 which had Vista home basic on it. The PC was virtually useless. Installed Win7 prerelease. Brilliant. Couldn't upgrade. Needed a brand new installation & at about $250 AU I was not prepared to spend it.
Installed Ubuntu 9.10. Worked perfectly. Upgrade tp 10.04 & wireless kept cutting out. Tried to install Win XP _ Got the BSOD. Found out about the SATA controller, set it to compatability mode & installed.
Downloaded everything I could find off IBM & Intel. Still can't get the SATA controller working.
Currently the PC is a total piece of crap. On boot up, it sometimes boots. Otherwise you have to hit the power off & restart. Wireless networking works most of the time. But you have to do a repair network connections the rest of the time.
Joined the Lenovo forum but can't figure out how to log on.
Boot time is worse than Vista. With Ubuntu, everything was bloody fast.
Any suggenstions, or do I just scrap this & buy a new laptop,
Thanks,
Lance Brown

 

Hi

Why not simply reinstall Ubuntu 9.10? The download can be found here:

http://releases.ubuntu.com/karmic/

That seems to me to be the simplest solution, as you seem to have liked it.

 

Not sure about Lenovo; however HP shipped many "home" PC models that would not allow a downgrade from Vista to XP. This was due to the automatic restore option in the BIOS. (Been there, done that, got the Valium prescription :banghead)

If the Lenovo shipped with the "restore" as a separate partition on the hard drive (no CD/DVD) and it gave you a "restore computer" option at startup, this is why XP won't work (and why I gave up on "store bought" PCs years ago).

 

The PC shipped with a recovery partition & no disc. Tried to make Vista recovery discs after Win7 pre-release expired. Wouldn't work.
So much for recovery partitions.
Ubuntu 9.10 worked extremely well. The wireless has gone intermittent with the latesy updates. Ubuntu 10.4 was hopeless with wireless. I tried OpenSUSE, but the wireless was non-existent. Looked at their forums & looked like the distro had stuffed up support for the Intel WiFi installed.
I am still not sure what to do with this. As I said I refuse to pay about $250 for a programme to replace something that M*******t should have NEVER releasd.
Thanks for the replies,
Lance

 

If you want a Genuine copy of Win 7, consider buying the "OEM" system builder version

The OEM of Win 7 Premium sells for $129 USD; I've seen it on sale for as low as $99 USD.

The OEM is a Genuine Microsoft License. It requires a clean install and the license code is tied to the PC - you can't move or reuse the license if you upgrade to a new board or PC. Other than this, it's the same as the "retail" version.

Although Win 7 "Starter" isn't available as a single license OEM in the US, my understanding is they are offering it in single license packs in many other countries. You may want to check this out on the major Australian PC retailers' websites. If available, it should be a bit less expensive.

Hope this info helps.

(Note to nitpickers: Yes, I am aware MS's license terms technically state OEM copies are for new system builds. I'm also aware that every components retailer and website in the US openly sells OEM copies without requiring a hardware purchase and has done so for years. It's a safe guess Microsoft feels getting less of your money on an OEM copy beats getting none of it on a hacked copy.)

 

Hi rainmaster, if you elect to go the Aussie OEM route, check out:
http://au.shopping.com/windows 7 oem/products~NS-1~linkin_id-8024509

or Search on Windows 7 OEM Australia

Lots of links at:
http://www.google.com/search?q=windows+7+OEM+Australia&hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images

Bazza