[Thinkpad] Windows XP on 380XD

[Cottrell, Eric]

Hello,

Based on my experience I would say put Windows 98SE on it.  Windows
2000 would be borderline slow and Windows XP would be worse.  The
Vista Beta install would show an animation of a guy rolling on the
floor laughing and exit. :)

I would start considering W2K if I could get 128 Meg or better in
the machine.  You can not with the 380XD.  It may be possible to
trim the OS down by using the "lite" version.

I have several 380 series laptops that are running Win95 to Win98SE.
My 600e (366 MHz) has the max 288 Meg of memory so I run W2K on it.
I would not even consider the 600e for XP Upgrade unless I could
put 512 Meg in it.  Newer Microsoft Operating Systems need newer
hardware.  The 380XD is over 8 years old so it has been obsolete
five times over.

Some people tolerate slowness better.  It depends on what
applications you want to run on the machine.  It depends on if you
want to make a project out of it.

73 Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: thinkpad-bounces at stderr.org [mailto:thinkpad-bounces at stderr.org]On
Behalf Of Paul A. Pennington
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 2:52 PM
To: ThinkPad Mailing List
Subject: [Thinkpad] Windows XP on 380XD


    The list is quiet today so I thought I would ask this question.  I have 
a 380XD (2635-FAU) I picked up for thirty bucks.  I thought I would try to 
get XP going on it just to see if I could.  Actually, a retail version of 
XP-Pro did load after I figured out the installation procedure.  Looks 
pretty strange to see the Teletubbies hill on that old screen.

    My question is about drivers:  when I press Fn-F4 to put it in standby, 
it just pauses and then beeps, but does not go into standby.  Pretty obvious 
it needs the IBM drivers installed.  There were no drivers for XP, of 
course,  so I tried the Windows 2000 set, but got the same symptoms.  (The 
web site says even 2000 is not supported on this machine, only on the 380Z 
in this series.)

    Does anyone have suggestions for a fix?

    The Windows XP "Inside Out" book suggests getting a previous version of 
Windows working and then upgrading to XP will sometimes work where a clean 
install will not (the old drivers are retained).  Obviously, it would be 
best to get 2000 running, but that appears not to be an option.

    Is there any point in trying it with Windows 98SE?  I know I could get 
that going and then upgrade to XP.  Opinions?

    Details:  this 380XD 2635-FAU is a Pentium-II 266MHz with 96MB of RAM. 
It has the upgraded BIOS.  I'd appreciate any suggestions.

    Paul Pennington
    Augusta, Georgia


 

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