Lenovo 3000 N100 and Windows Vista
Hannah’s laptop was running Windows XP and I had a spare copy of Windows Vista Ultimate lying around (a legitimate version, thank you very much!) so I decided to install it. Unfortunately, unlike the wonderful easy-to-use world of the Mac, things weren’t exactly straightforward on her Lenovo 3000 N100. So this post is to document what worked for those in the same boat.
One would think that installing the System Update software from Lenovo would do the trick, but oh no… After downloading c.500MB and restarting, the hard disk started churning away and the wireless LAN card wasn’t recognised. And the sound still didn’t work! So a quick System Restore later and a return to the Lenovo support website beckoned.
It turns out the files you need to download are:
It’s still not plain sailing, though. You have to persuade Windows that you do actually know the best driver to install thank-you-very-much by going to Device Manager, right-clicking on the device you want to update the driver for, and selecting the option to update the driver. Navigate to the place where the files you downloaded have been extracted, and Windows should install the correct driver. I can’t guarantee this, however – it’s a bit hit-and-miss!
If, like me, ‘tapping’ (using the trackpad as a mouse button) drives you insane, you need to download the Synaptics driver which will enable you disable this ‘feature’. Simply go to the Mouse settings in the Control Panel, then the Synaptics tab, click on the ‘Settings’ button, then the ‘tapping’ option and untick the box. Quite why you’d want to enable by default something that causes windows pop up seemingly at random and productivity all but impossible is anyone’s guess.
I was actually quite impressed when Vista first loaded up: it’s a lot more polished now than the early beta version I downloaded this time last year. The amount of hassle I’ve had just getting things to work, though, has reminded me why I prefer Macs…
Sounds so familiar, it was an issue where software developper had to chose between standard drivers and non-standard drivers, and they only included the commonly used ones. In the end, it always a decision between cost and comfort :)
Good evening, I desconosco this software, but it gradually seen eh will work better.