• Acpi Nsc1100 Driver Win7

So I've been testing Windows 8 (release version) on the ThinkPad T43. RealBlackStuff wrote:This is not a T43 problem. Stuff like this belongs in the Windows 8 Forum. But IMHO you should forget about loading it on such an elderly machine. Lenovo has not released an updated TPM binary newer than from 2005. That has nothing to do with Windows 8, really. An updated driver could benefit Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

The ThinkPad T43 runs Windows 7 amazingly well, but when it comes to Windows 8 (which has the same system requirements as Windows 7), the T43 is suddenly 'elderly'??? I'm assuming you've never used Windows 8 on a T43, then; it runs GREAT. Lenovo has listed Windows 8 as one of the supported operating systems for the ThinkPad T43, so even then they don't think it's so bad. The only issue I've seen so far is the lack of working TPM driver. I've never really used the TPM before, I just don't like having the 'Unknown device' listed.

Perhaps a thread title of 'ThinkPad T43 and a newer TPM driver' would have been better? Twistero wrote:The TPM chip in my X41t was TPM ver.1.1, while Windows 7 only works with ver. TPM drivers can be installed on Win7, but Windows can't actually use the chip because it is too old. I assume this applies to T43 as well.

Thank you for this information! Upon further reading, apparently Vista and newer only work with TPM 1.2 (plus, a universal 1.2 driver has been included since Vista by Microsoft). So even though the TPM 1.1 driver installed without issue in Windows Vista and Windows 7, the OS would NOT have even used the device! I think I have a solution - a dummy driver.

I've put together an INF that will install the TPM driver on Windows 8 without actually copying any files or trying to add a system service. It makes the 'Unknown device' go away and doesn't interfere with Windows. I will post this 'driver' a little later. This is what I'm using on Windows 8 for the TPM 1.1 chip on my ThinkPad T43 (ACPI NSC1100): (1KB) It is just an INF (no DLL or SYS file). It gets rid of the 'Unknown device' from Device Manager, but doesn't cause boot-failures like the original driver. It will add the device as 'Winbond Trusted Platform Module 1.1' under System devices. I've only used it on Windows 8 as the original TPM driver installs on Vista and Windows 7 without issue.

Other than that, Lenovo and Microsoft provide Windows 8 compatible software for everything else on the T43. Fingerprint scanner, Hotkey controls, HDD Active Protection, Power Manager, etc.

For video, I'm still using ATI's 'Legacy' Catalyst 10.2 drivers (altered with Mobility Modder). Scodal wrote:So what's the verdict with win 8 on a thinkpad? Are you enjoying it? Or was it just fun to experiment with?

Windows 8 runs. surprisingly.

well on my T43. The interface and animations are incredibly smooth, and programs seem to launch quicker than they did on Windows 7. All the ThinkPad 'stuff' works. The tilt-sensor and active protection, the power manager and battery maintenance, hot-keys and on-screen display, fingerprint scanner, etc, etc. No errors, crashing, or weird anomalies. Plus, while the full-screen, touch-interface of Windows 8 drives me nuts on my primary Desktop computer (which has a larger screen and all my normal apps), I actually enjoy it on my smaller 14' laptop. I'll definitely be making this my new primary OS for the system.

Acpi Nsc1100 Driver Win7

It's not as quick as using XP, but it certainly feels quicker than with Vista or even Windows 7. I highly recommend Windows 8 on the ThinkPad T43. It's not like my T43 specs were terrible: Pentium M @ 2.13 GHz 2 Gigs of DDR2 RAM Radeon X300 w/ Catalyst 10.2.

FrankL wrote:How do you get PowerPlay to work on the Mobility X300 (which my T43 is equipped with) in Windows 8? I'm trying Windows 8 (PXE boot), but PowerPlay doesn't kick in to preserve power when I go to battery mode. Battery life therefor is much lower than in my Vista install.

I've verified this with GPU-Z. Normal clocks are 230/300 Mhz (ram/core), while Powerplay about halves those values in Vista.

I didn't do anything to get PowerPlay to work. It 'just worked' on my system. When plugged in (300/230 MHz): When unplugged (105/122 MHz): PowerPlay setting. FrankL wrote: thanks. Is the modded Catalyst 10.2 completely stable with the X300 in the T43, especially after extensive S3 standby/sleep cycling? I don't think I've.ever.

had a BSOD or any stability issues on my T43 before. I only use modded drivers because that's the only way to get the latest drivers for it. I've been using the 10.2 drivers since they were released (around late February, early March 2010, I guess). I've had zero issues with them. That's well over two years of nearly 24/7 stability. My system sleeps nightly, as I never turn it off.

Every day it wakes with a 'beep!' When I hit a key so I can use it. I reboot it every other month or so for Windows Updates. Xenomorph wrote: I don't think I've.ever.

had a BSOD or any stability issues on my T43 before. I only use modded drivers because that's the only way to get the latest drivers for it. I've been using the 10.2 drivers since they were released (around late February, early March 2010, I guess). I've had zero issues with them. That's well over two years of nearly 24/7 stability. My system sleeps nightly, as I never turn it off.

Every day it wakes with a 'beep!' When I hit a key so I can use it. I reboot it every other month or so for Windows Updates. That sounds promising.

One more question: Which WDDM version does the Catalyst 10.2 driver support for the X300? Dxdiag.exe will tell you in the display tab. FrankL wrote. Maybe, but the X300 driver shipping with Win8 reports WDDM 1.2 in dxdiag. Would it be impossible to support Direct2D for the X300? For example, WinXP had hardware GDI acceleration, which the X300 likely supports just fine. I'll need to test that in Win8 with the build-in driver.

I'm getting four times the performance (16 fps vs. 4 fps, reported window size 1080x760) in IE10 on Windows 8 using the build-in X300 driver in the Microsoft SpeedReading HTML drawing test compared to running it in IE9 on Windows Vista. Here's the link: Unless I'm mistaken, Direct2D is used for draw acceleration in internet explorer, and this seems to suggest that indeed the Direct2D feature, which is not part of WDDM 1.0, is supported by the X300. I'd like to verify this observation through other means if possible. Never mind, I should have dug a bit deeper. The driver shipping with Windows 8 is a 'Windows Basic Display Adapter' driver, basically a software renderer hence it shows all WDDM 1.2 features.

The reason why IE html rendering is four times faster, is probably because the software Direct2D implementation in this driver is four times more efficient than the path taken by non-Direct2D rendering in Vista (also a software rendering path). Am I correct to interpret your last post as saying that the 10.2 catalyst reports WDDM 1.0 in dxdiag on Windows 8, on the ATI X300 mobility?

FrankL wrote:Can you explain how to install the Catalyst 10.2 on the T43 with Win 8? I've modded the Catalyst 10.2 for Win Vista/7 x86 edition using the final release of the unofficial mobility modder tool. When I try to install the catalyst driver, I get a 'driver installation failed' error in the catalyst install wizard (started in Win7 compat mode with admin rights). Manual installation from device manager with 'have disk' also leads to an error when selecting the X300 driver. I don't remember doing anything special, but I did set the 'Setup.exe' file to use 'Windows Vista' compatibility mode and installed that way. (C: ATI Support 10-02legacyvista32-64ddccc Setup.exe) Let me know if you have any issues with Desktop scaling. It seemed to work as expected in Windows 8 (but I had to edit the registry to get it to work under Windows 7).

Xenomorph wrote: I don't remember doing anything special, but I did set the 'Setup.exe' file to use 'Windows Vista' compatibility mode and installed that way. (C: ATI Support 10-02legacyvista32-64ddccc Setup.exe) Let me know if you have any issues with Desktop scaling.

It seemed to work as expected in Windows 8 (but I had to edit the registry to get it to work under Windows 7). I noticed from your post that you used a different version of Catalyst 10.2 than I did. I've found the 'legacy XP/Vista32/Vista64' driver on the AMD website and now it works. The version that did not work, presumably because the mod tool couldn't properly alter the entries, is a version I downloaded from the guru3d archive. It was called 10-2vista32win732ddcccwdmenu. Thanks for helping me solve this mystery! I ran one of the Preview versions of Win8 FROM A USB DRIVE for several weeks on my old T43p after (so I thought) the hard disk died.

In fact the disk hadn't died, the controller for it had (or something else internally). I was using the Win8-2Go feature to run the whole machine off a USB. It was a real life saver until I could get a new Thinkpad. And, would you believe it, it was actually faster in everyday operation (not in booting up, of course) than Windows 7 had been. I didn't try to optimize drivers. I sorely miss my T43p, RIP. The height of the screen was just perfect for the kind of work I do.

But then it gave up the ghost finally - overheating and a bust fan caused something internal to give, and then it just died. For a replacement, I got the Thinkpad with the densest vertical resolution I could get, which turned out to be the W520. Sometimes as I type on the W520, I can for a moment think it's my T43p come back to life. OK, enough nostalgia. I do.not. miss the whining fan of the T43p (before it broke).

The W520 with an SSD on Windows 8 is whisper-quiet. I never hear the fan or any other noise for that matter. An update on running Windows 8 on the T43 (model 2668): - CPU speed sometimes doesn't scale to the full 2 GHz when on the adapter. For some reason, Windows sometimes limits the CPU to 800Mhz (which is what I've set for battery mode). Cycling adapter/battery/adapter mode fixes this when it occurs. Very annoying!

I'll try and see if I can fix this by using RMClock to manage the CPU speeds. there's something fishy with the firewall and/or wireless network. Sometimes after a resume from S3, I cannot receive UPNP broadcasts, which I use for running a UPNP ControlPoint (LeiaDS) to remote control my stereo.

After a S3 standby/resume cycle, this usually is fixed. Ajkula66 wrote: It most certainly will give a more-than-noticeable bump.I'm running an Intel X-25E in my T43p and it's simply amazing. Do be careful with the choice of SSD, though, since there is no AHCI and hence no TRIM on T43/p.an older Intel drive is likely your best bet, and anything SF-based is a 'no-no'. I was specifically looking at a SandForce 2281 drive, since it has active garbage collection (and is great for systems that lack TRIM). In fact, OWC only uses SandForce chipset-based SSDs for their IDE/PATA offering.

Why do you say SF-based is a no-no? This is the drive I was looking at (paired with an mSATA adapter). Yes, OWC does use the SF-2281 controller. I don't own a single OWC drive so I can't comment on them from personal experience, but: Sandforce based drives require serious (as in 30%) overprovisioning in order to work properly, not to mention the fact that I've seen quite a few of them vanish. Intel's older drives are a much safer bet, and on a machine that runs a crippled SATA I standard will be as fast as any newer drive.

Do bear one thing in mind: If you're using an unconverted T43, the whole concept of adapter+SSD may or may not work, and if it does work it will return weaker results than it would on a comparable T42/p. The only way to run an SSD in a T43/p or R52 is to SATA-mod it. Previous T4x machines are a whole different ballgame.