Windows 10 technical preview on an IBM T43

First I wasn't even sure if this was possible. IBM T43 is a very old machine. But I did try Windows 8 on it, and at least I was able to take a look at that system. My goal here was just to see if Windows 10 would run, and to see what it looked like. You can look at it in a virtual machine, but I had an extra drive for my T43, so I decided install on it.

I burned the Windows 10 iso to a DVD and put my spare drive in my laptop and gave it a try.

To install Windows 10 you need a processor that is 1GHz or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2, and the processor I had did meet those specifications. It's a Pentium M 1.86 GHz and I have 1,5 Gb memory installed, a 32-bits installation needs at least 1 Gb.

After pointing my laptop to start from DVD I got the familiar message

Press any key to boot from CD or DVD....

The installation looked familiar to installing Windows 7 or 8, I choose to make a clean install and wipe the disk. I had Windows 7 on it, but did not want to keep anything.

It took took about 30 minutes and worked without any errors. I found this surprisingly fast, after having installed many different operating systems on this machine. The DVD is usually slow.

Right after the installation the Device manager looked like this. A number of missing drivers.

But after connecting to internet by cable, allowing the system to update and download drivers, and after restarting a couple of times, it looked better.

One of the remaining unknown devices are the Winbond (National Semiconductor) TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and you can get rid of that Unknown device by installing a dummy driver from this thread. The device won't work but it looks better.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=106993

The other one is ACPI\PNP0700\ and seems to be dealing with floppy control. Well, I havn't needed a floppy for years, and I don't intend to use them on this T43 anyway. I'll deal with that later. Now I'm just happy that my system starts, and I will start exploring Windows 10. And see if there are any drivers around that will improve my experience.

Update: I have now solved the problem with my drivers. The dummy driver for TPM (Trusted Platform Module) just sits there and makes the "Unknown device" go away. No errors, but it can't be used of course.

And I now have a driver for the ACPI\PNP0700\ . I didn't see this when I tested Windows 8 on this T43, so I installed Windows 8 again (on another old drive) and then extracted the driver from that installation. That driver installed fine on Windows 10, except from giving the message about drivers signature not right. I don't know yet if the driver actually works, I havn't found the floppy drive that can be used in this machine. But I remember having one, long time ago...
Maybe I will find it.

If anyone is interested I made a zip with the driver - Standard_floppy disk_controller_T43

Update nr 2:

 

I downloaded some drivers from Lenovo site for my T43 for Windows 8.1, and at least some can be used. There were drivers for mouse and trackpoint, but they got installed aotomatically when Windows 10 updated itsesf. No need to download.

The driver for the ThinkVantage Active Protection System (n15sa03w.exe) from Lenovo site installed without errors and is up and running. But I don't know if it actually works, my laptop has not been moved around.

Fingerprint software for Win 8.1 did install without errors too, and it does work (g1f914ww_32.exe). I can now log on to my local Windows 10 account using my finger. I havn't tested my Microsoft account yet. It's a bit slow, and the logon screen for password always comes up first, but it does work.

And now when I have been trying my system a little more, I must say I like it. I never got used to Windows 8, but this is something I could install on a PC for daily use. But perhaps not on a machine this old. The system will run, but gets very slow in some situations. But my goal was to have a look at it and get used to it, and I can test if my favourite programs will run. For now this will do.

 

 

Update nr 3: I have now moved on to Build 9879, I did a clean installation on my T43. The system seems to run a bit quicker with this build, and has not crashed yet. This time I skipped installing the fingerprint reader, I never used it anyway. And I have found a new video driver for my card ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 that seems to be working better that the generic driver that gets installed by Microsoft. It's a driver from Lenovo site, 1yd302ww.exe that is intended for Vista. Before installing it I activated .NET version 3.5 just as i did on my T60 (in control panel, Turn Windows features on or off). So now I have the Catalyst Control Center.

I have also tested Windows 10 on a T60, that page is here.

 

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