Windows7 drivers for X2100 4th gen

[jamesfawcett]

Does anyone know if its possible to get drivers for Windows 7 for the X2100 51nb 4th generation motherboard? In particular I want to get the USB hub working.

I absolutely love the X2100, I've set it up to boot Windows 7, Windows 10, Manjaro and Mac OS Big Sur. I use Windows 7 for car diagnostics, but none of the USB ports are responding.

thanks
James

[RealBlackStuff]

Maybe this?
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downlo ... set-Family

[jamesfawcett]

Thanks for replying, unfortunately not I just tried those.

The device I am looking for drivers for mainly is the PCI\ven_8086&dev_02ED&subsys_72708086@rev_00

The drivers that I can find, say not compatible on Windows 7 when I try to use them. Maybe I will have to try modify the driver to force it to install?

I am an Apple/Linux guy, not Windows

[RealBlackStuff]

Try this newer USB 3.1 one: https://www.runonpc.com/intel-usb-3-1-e ... ds-update/

[jamesfawcett]

That didn't work unfortunately. I am a little but wiser now, apparently the Comet lake pch-lp usb 3.1 xHCI host controller is not supported with original drivers in Windows 7, but I've found some interesting info here and some self signed drivers I'm going to give a go: https://www.win-raid.com/t4883f52-Solut ... stems.html

[jamesfawcett]

All working!

The solution was to use Canonking's modified drivers from here https://www.sevenforums.com/installatio ... ost3471495

USB is now fully working in Windows 7.

Apparently the functionality is there, they just chose to modify the drivers not to work in Windows 7 in favour of Windows 8.1.

Hope this helps someone else!

[greatzot]

Does anyone know if its possible to get drivers for Windows 7 for the X2100 51nb 4th generation motherboard? In particular I want to get the USB hub working.

I absolutely love the X2100, I've set it up to boot Windows 7, Windows 10, Manjaro and Mac OS Big Sur. I use Windows 7 for car diagnostics, but none of the USB ports are responding.

thanks
James

How did you get Win7 to even install? I never got past a frozen splash screen. Tried one or two linux distros and those didn't get to the install stage either, nor did MacOs Big Sur. Eventually gave up on everything but Win10, though initially I had issues when trying to install via a multiboot USB stick. Got it to work at some point, and did a clean install a week ago or so just to tweak things more carefully than the first time. But then Win10 froze over the weekend while copying my various files from one SSD to another, and I can't get a reinstall to work, nor any of the recovery stuff I have to fully boot. Since I have to connect all the ISOs via USB, I wonder if it's a USB issue on the motherboard or something in the BIOS, but regardless, it's very frustrating. Why did it work for an install last week, but now it won't go past the splash screen? Why did some backup/recovery ISOs boot before, but now the linux ones keep crashing, and others just won't start at all, including a Win10 recovery drive I made on my other computer?

Anyway, I would really prefer to work in Win7 when possible, though there's at least one thing I need Win10 for. But now nothing works except the BIOS. Really frustrating as for now I have a $1k paperweight.

[jamesfawcett]

Windows 7 install was really straight forwards. I installed the non sp1 version first but I couldn’t find updates. I then installed the latest Sp1.

Since then I’ve installed the SP1 version so that I can run updates.

Two thing to note tho:
- I had to install Win 7 to a normal Sata SSD. It can’t see the Nvme drive.
- I had to use one of the left hand side USB ports. The two on the left seem faster and a better connection - not sure why. It might be just my machine, but the left USB ports are definitely more reliable.

Mines quad boot now - Linux manjaro, windows 7 (for car diagnostics), windows 10 (mainly for xhp flash for flashing car gearboxes), the latest big sur. Windows 10 and Big sur are on the Nvme. Big sur is the last partition on that drive so that it can create its own containers and expand etc.

Here’s my EFI if it helps for big sur https://github.com/jamesfawcett/Thinkpa ... Hackintosh

When your machine freezes is it getting hot or anything?

[jamesfawcett]

Oh one more thing to mention too!

I couldn’t get Windows 7 to boot through the OpenCore selector at boot, but I managed to do it through windows 10 boot menu.

So to select windows 7, I turn on the machine, the OpenCore menu pops up. I select Windows. Then the windows boot manager shows and you select Windows 7 or Windows 10.

If you stick my OpenCore EFI From above on a USB in the EFI partition see if you get to the boot menu

[greatzot]

Windows 7 install was really straight forwards. I installed the non sp1 version first but I couldn’t find updates. I then installed the latest Sp1.

Since then I’ve installed the SP1 version so that I can run updates.

Two thing to note tho:
- I had to install Win 7 to a normal Sata SSD. It can’t see the Nvme drive.
- I had to use one of the left hand side USB ports. The two on the left seem faster and a better connection - not sure why. It might be just my machine, but the left USB ports are definitely more reliable.

Mines quad boot now - Linux manjaro, windows 7 (for car diagnostics), windows 10 (mainly for xhp flash for flashing car gearboxes), the latest big sur. Windows 10 and Big sur are on the Nvme. Big sur is the last partition on that drive so that it can create its own containers and expand etc.

Here’s my EFI if it helps for big sur https://github.com/jamesfawcett/Thinkpa ... Hackintosh

When your machine freezes is it getting hot or anything?

The first time it froze during the file copy, when I returned, the fan was running pretty high so I guess it was hot. I didn't actually touch the bottom to see how hot. Since then, initially it's fine, but after it freezes eventually the fan starts running on the high side. Reminds me of when Excel freezes on Windows 7 and you see the CPU crank up to 100% but nothing seems to be happening. Except that usually in that case if you wait long enough it finishes whatever it's doing and unfreezes. With this issue, whatever it is, waiting doesn't help, and sometimes it just crashes and reboots itself. Just puzzling that I could get the Windows 10 installer and some other stuff to run before, but not now.

I've tried all the USB ports except the C port, as I don't have an A>C adapter that will fit in that, and sticking my hub in between won't work. The one I used for the prior installs was the right side USB 2.0 port.

I've never used OpenCore but I'll try to figure out how to set up a USB stick for that and give it a whirl. Doesn't look as straightforward as the other things I've used so far (Windows create recovery disk, Rufus and its ilk, or Ventoy, which I found the other day and much prefer as it's really easy to just add as many ISOs as you like).

Thanks for the Mac and Win7 tips--did you just put linux on the regular SSD with Win7? I was thinking about playing with both of those as well but had resigned myself to Win10 since that was the only thing that would install the first time around, and I figured I should get to work instead of spending more time troubleshooting each system. But if there's hope for later I'd prefer to set it up in a way that makes it easier to add Linux or MacOS at some point, as I'd really like to stop being dependent on Microsoft.

[greatzot]

Oh one more thing to mention too!

I couldn’t get Windows 7 to boot through the OpenCore selector at boot, but I managed to do it through windows 10 boot menu.

So to select windows 7, I turn on the machine, the OpenCore menu pops up. I select Windows. Then the windows boot manager shows and you select Windows 7 or Windows 10.

If you stick my OpenCore EFI From above on a USB in the EFI partition see if you get to the boot menu

I set up an OpenCore drive according to the instructions I found and stuck your EFI folder in there and got a menu...but that's it. Looks like it's your menu since "manjaro" is in the list. As for the instructions, they said to format it in FAT32, but the installers I have for Win10 and the more recent MacOS are all bigger than 4GB, so they can't be copied over. I'm not really sure how exactly they're supposed to be put onto the OpenCore drive--other than the single example of a recovery drive from archive.org, I didn't see anything about how to put installers on there, or how to load them when you boot. Maybe this is necessary for installing MacOS, but so far OpenCore seems like a really convoluted way to work.

[jamesfawcett]

So sorry- I’ve led you on a wild goose chase here. I thought you were trying to multiboot, and I find OpenCore a nice ui for selecting the OS’s.

Do you think it could need the cpu thermal compound re-pasting?

[greatzot]

So sorry- I’ve led you on a wild goose chase here. I thought you were trying to multiboot, and I find OpenCore a nice ui for selecting the OS’s.

Do you think it could need the cpu thermal compound re-pasting?

No apology necessary--any possible solutions are worth looking into, as right now I can't do anything with it except admire how nice the screen looks in the BIOS or on the Windows logo. If it clears anything up, originally I wanted primarily to install Win7...and maybe multiboot if I could. But Win7 didn't work, so I went for Win10. However, I am not a fan of the spyware design of it, nor a few other things, so I thought about moving to Linux, but the couple of distros I tried didn't work, so I figured better not go down that road just yet. Xue Yao suggested trying MacOs, but again, seemed like it could take a while to figure out how to get it installed and working, so I stuck with Win10. And for a few weeks that worked...until this past weekend.

I don't know about the thermal compound. I can't rule it out--but if it does, wouldn't that mean it wasn't done properly to begin with? (Got this machine from Xue Yao--only things I installed were the batteries, RAM, and SSDs.) With my old computer, when the CPU paste dried out, it still booted and ran for a while--it just eventually started stuttering and locking up due to overheating. The symptom here is not the same--it just freezes right in the middle of the Windows installer spinning-dots screen (or before I wiped the NVME drive, the "preparing automatic repair" screen), and any fan speed increase comes after it's been sitting a while. And I just turned it on and tried booting into the Win7 installer via Ventoy to test the heat theory, and while the fan started running a little higher after a minute or two of being frozen, it wasn't extremely high, and I didn't feel any heat through the laptop casing. (No 9 cell battery installed at the moment, just using the 90W charger.) And then I tried a Win10 installer from last year and that just resulted in the computer restarting and going back to the Ventoy boot menu.

[crashnburn]

All working!

The solution was to use Canonking's modified drivers from here https://www.sevenforums.com/installatio ... ost3471495

USB is now fully working in Windows 7.

Apparently the functionality is there, they just chose to modify the drivers not to work in Windows 7 in favour of Windows 8.1.

Hope this helps someone else!

Not surprising for MS - I read that the way folks did it was Slimstream integrate USB drivers into Win 7 base for it to have USB recognized or need a PS2 Keyboard.

[greatzot]

Windows 7 install was really straight forwards. I installed the non sp1 version first but I couldn’t find updates. I then installed the latest Sp1.

Since then I’ve installed the SP1 version so that I can run updates.

Two thing to note tho:
- I had to install Win 7 to a normal Sata SSD. It can’t see the Nvme drive.
- I had to use one of the left hand side USB ports. The two on the left seem faster and a better connection - not sure why. It might be just my machine, but the left USB ports are definitely more reliable.

So since my last post, Xue Yao replaced my board. However, while I have Win10 working now, I'm still unable to get a Win7 installer to work. Just freezes at the Windows logo. Doesn't seem to matter what USB port I use. And I'm using an old Hitachi SATA 7200RPM drive from a previous Thinkpad so the target drive isn't the issue--I just can't get to the point where I can actually select it as the target.

I'm thinking there must be something different about my hardware vs. yours that's tripping up the installer. What wireless adapter and display did you go with? I'm wondering if it's the AX200 wireless on mine that's confusing the Win7 installer, or maybe the 3k x 2k display. I tried the RAM and NVME drive I have in a 3rd generation x210 I got from Jacky and Win7 was able to install to the same Hitachi SATA drive on that computer, so those don't seem to be the issue, but besides the board and processor being different, the x210 has a different display (12.6" 2880x1920) and the an older wireless adapter (think it's called Intel Wireless-AC 7260) than the x2100.

[surfbro]

Windows 7 install was really straight forwards. I installed the non sp1 version first but I couldn’t find updates. I then installed the latest Sp1.

Since then I’ve installed the SP1 version so that I can run updates.

Two thing to note tho:
- I had to install Win 7 to a normal Sata SSD. It can’t see the Nvme drive.
- I had to use one of the left hand side USB ports. The two on the left seem faster and a better connection - not sure why. It might be just my machine, but the left USB ports are definitely more reliable.

So since my last post, Xue Yao replaced my board. However, while I have Win10 working now, I'm still unable to get a Win7 installer to work. Just freezes at the Windows logo. Doesn't seem to matter what USB port I use. And I'm using an old Hitachi SATA 7200RPM drive from a previous Thinkpad so the target drive isn't the issue--I just can't get to the point where I can actually select it as the target.

I'm thinking there must be something different about my hardware vs. yours that's tripping up the installer. What wireless adapter and display did you go with? I'm wondering if it's the AX200 wireless on mine that's confusing the Win7 installer, or maybe the 3k x 2k display. I tried the RAM and NVME drive I have in a 3rd generation x210 I got from Jacky and Win7 was able to install to the same Hitachi SATA drive on that computer, so those don't seem to be the issue, but besides the board and processor being different, the x210 has a different display (12.6" 2880x1920) and the an older wireless adapter (think it's called Intel Wireless-AC 7260) than the x2100.

If you are still looking for a working Win7.iso I can upload one. I just installed Win7 to my x2100 and Im in the process of trying to install the new Bios as well as get the video card working properly. It seems like 3000x2000 resolution is making the icons almost like specs of dust, they are so tiny.

Not sure if OP has any other suggestions on drivers they used? I also got tpmiddle working on my Win7 installation on my x2100 as well! You have to tell the Device Manager in Win7 on the Mouse selection, to Upgrade Driver, and then Let me Choose, Have Disk, and then give it the default Synpatics Trackpoint driver that you can find on Lenovo. The end of the file name should be .inf and from there you drop tpmiddle0.6 in the start up folder in win 7 so it boots up on startup.

[greatzot]

If you are still looking for a working Win7.iso I can upload one. I just installed Win7 to my x2100 and Im in the process of trying to install the new Bios as well as get the video card working properly. It seems like 3000x2000 resolution is making the icons almost like specs of dust, they are so tiny.

Not sure if OP has any other suggestions on drivers they used? I also got tpmiddle working on my Win7 installation on my x2100 as well! You have to tell the Device Manager in Win7 on the Mouse selection, to Upgrade Driver, and then Let me Choose, Have Disk, and then give it the default Synpatics Trackpoint driver that you can find on Lenovo. The end of the file name should be .inf and from there you drop tpmiddle0.6 in the start up folder in win 7 so it boots up on startup.

Sorry, somehow I missed this post early this year--I guess in the first-quarter rush I overlooked it. I would definitely be interested if you can get that working Win7 ISO to me somehow--a Dropbox link or something like that. I have a couple Win7 pro installer disks but was never able to get it to install successfully on the x2100. Win10 has been an exercise in frustration from the beginning. It's unbelievable how many bugs it has that have never been squished (e.g., restarting instead of waking from sleep), and how updates that are supposedly to "improve" things break things instead, and there is no way to stop them permanently.

[surfbro]

If you are still looking for a working Win7.iso I can upload one. I just installed Win7 to my x2100 and Im in the process of trying to install the new Bios as well as get the video card working properly. It seems like 3000x2000 resolution is making the icons almost like specs of dust, they are so tiny.

Not sure if OP has any other suggestions on drivers they used? I also got tpmiddle working on my Win7 installation on my x2100 as well! You have to tell the Device Manager in Win7 on the Mouse selection, to Upgrade Driver, and then Let me Choose, Have Disk, and then give it the default Synpatics Trackpoint driver that you can find on Lenovo. The end of the file name should be .inf and from there you drop tpmiddle0.6 in the start up folder in win 7 so it boots up on startup.

Sorry, somehow I missed this post early this year--I guess in the first-quarter rush I overlooked it. I would definitely be interested if you can get that working Win7 ISO to me somehow--a Dropbox link or something like that. I have a couple Win7 pro installer disks but was never able to get it to install successfully on the x2100. Win10 has been an exercise in frustration from the beginning. It's unbelievable how many bugs it has that have never been squished (e.g., restarting instead of waking from sleep), and how updates that are supposedly to "improve" things break things instead, and there is no way to stop them permanently.

Okay let me know if you still need it, I will have to dig for it, but I know I have it saved!

[greatzot]

Sorry, somehow I missed this post early this year--I guess in the first-quarter rush I overlooked it. I would definitely be interested if you can get that working Win7 ISO to me somehow--a Dropbox link or something like that. I have a couple Win7 pro installer disks but was never able to get it to install successfully on the x2100. Win10 has been an exercise in frustration from the beginning. It's unbelievable how many bugs it has that have never been squished (e.g., restarting instead of waking from sleep), and how updates that are supposedly to "improve" things break things instead, and there is no way to stop them permanently.

Okay let me know if you still need it, I will have to dig for it, but I know I have it saved!

I wouldn't spend tons of time on it but if you get a chance would be appreciated.