Installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on a Lenovo ThinkPad W510
I am testing one of the new Lenovo ThinkPad W510 models. If this machine is going to be considered for future purchase, it really needs to be able to run Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V. In order to do that, certain minimum requirements must be met for the drivers that are supported. This typically involves running a video driver beyond the standard VGA driver so that you get projector support. Networking must obviously work as well.
In order to install and configure Windows Server 2008 R2, some up front planning is a good idea. You should download the latest drivers from the Lenovo.com Support and Downloads area. You should also make sure and keep a copy of the SWTOOLS directory that came with the machine.
The order you install drivers and software does matter in a couple of cases. I always manage to figure that out by trial and error. Mostly error. For that reason, I take notes as I go along and here are some recommended steps and pitfalls to avoid. Enjoy.
Installation Steps I Followed:
- Download all of the drivers and software from the W510 Windows 7 area paying close attention to get the 64 bit versions where available.
- Make sure you have a copy of the SWTOOLS directory that came with the factory image of your machine.
- Since I am using Windows Server 2008 R2 in a dual boot environment, I created a .VHD to install R2 into. See https://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2009/10/15/using-hyper-v-without-re-installing-your-world.aspx for some simple procedures on how to do what I am doing. Keep in mind that install method is technically unsupported.
- After installing R2, you’ll probably want to install USB 3.0 support if you have an enclosure that support Superspeed USB. I installed 6my204ww.exe. This version may change after this writing and some of the other drivers are likely to change as well.
- Install the Intel chipset drivers via oss909ww.exe
- Install the NVIDIA video drivers via 6md617ww.exe
- Install the Power management drivers. This is in the IBMPM directory from SWTOOLS. They are not currently (as of 2/10/2010) on the Lenovo Support and Download site.
- Install the Ethernet driver. This driver is not in the inbox drivers for Windows so you must download it. Like the T400 install I did, the package doesn’t install correctly so you have to do some manual work. Here are those steps:
- Run the 6irf10ww_v64.exe install.
- Launch R2 Server Manager and go to the device manager node.
- Right mouse click the banged out Ethernet nic.
- Select Update driver.
- Select browse my computer.
- Click “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”
- Click the “Have a disk” button
- Click the browse button
- Go to c:\drivers\win\ethernet\pro1000\winx64\ndis62
- Click e1k62x64.inf then click the open button
- Select the 82567LM-3 nic from the list and click the Next button (see screenshot below for the list displayed). Also note, other nics may work but this is what I am using until a better solution comes along.
- Install the Intel 6300 wireless card drivers using 6mws14ww.exe
- From the R2 server manager, install the “Wireless LAN Service” from the list of installable features.
- Verify the “WLAN Autoconfig” service is set to automatic. If you haven’t already done so at this point, reboot to picked and verify all of the changes are working properly.
- Install the audio drivers via 6na112ww.exe. Verify the audio service is set to automatic. It’s default it manual.
The rest of the software installs without incident with one exception. The Bluetooth stack did not install, and I have no desire to troubleshoot that so you are on your own. It should also be noted that the Pantone X-Rite drivers and application also installed and worked for me. Make sure you have the power management drivers and audio already installed. The screen calibration drivers and software are in the X-Rite directory under SWTOOLS. This driver set and software is not on the Lenovo download area at the time of this post.
I have not been running Windows Server 2008 R2 very long so I cannot tell yet how stable this configuration is. But I was frankly pretty shocked that most of the drivers and software installed without issue including the screen calibration tool. I did see one BSOD but I haven’t determined the cause. I believe my USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure might have been the culprit because I heard it make a funny noise before the BSOD occurred. I will keep watching this situation but I haven’t seen any issues for over a day now. I’ll certainly know how stable this environment is over the next 3-4 weeks.
After installing all of the above, I installed the Hyper-V role. Make sure you have the BIOS set to support Intel-VT. If you had it disabled then enabled it, make sure to power off your machine to pick up this change. Once Hyper-V was running, I created a 64 bit Windows 7 Enterprise virtual machine. Just for fun, I allocated 8GB of memory to the VM to see if the W510 was really using all 16GB of memory properly. It sure appears it is. Here are those screenshots. In the first screenshot, I captured the allocation when starting the VM.
In the next screenshot, I grabbed a screenshot of the OS already installed looking at the properties. Click the pics for larger views of the screenshots. Enjoy.
[NOTE for 2/23] If you decide to install the Lenovo Power Manager, make sure to install the two prerequisites. The power management driver is the first one, and the .Net Framework 3.5.1 Features that can be installed from Server Manager.
Comments
Anonymous
February 11, 2010
Does enabling hyper-v on 2008 r2 disable sleep mode still like it did on 2008?Anonymous
February 11, 2010
Yes. Installing the Hyper-V role disables sleep on all laptops. However, there's a convenient solution. See http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/04/14/creating-a-no-hypervisor-boot-entry.aspx This will only work properly with Windows Server 2008 R2.Anonymous
February 23, 2010
Hi Keith, Ok it's been 13 days since the post. How has the installation held up. If everything is good then this will be my decision maker to purchase. I'm a database admin and having a native and stable Server 2008 R2 along with SQL Server '05 and '08 on a laptop is a dream! Thanks for the great and helpful post.Anonymous
February 23, 2010
No problems so far Manuel but I didn't use the machine at all last week while I was in Seattle at the MVP Summit.Anonymous
March 18, 2010
How has it been holding up? I just got three blue screens today while running Hyper-V on the W510 w/8GB ram. I have 3 VM's running: Win2k3R2 as DC with 512MB, 1 2GB Win2K8R2 for SQL 2008R2, 1 2GB SP2010.. It seems to be something about a processor clock missed on the BSOD. Have you seen anything like this? It's ashame, I thought I was approaching Nivana with this configuration and performance was good.Anonymous
March 18, 2010
Greg, I returned the W510's. I only had a 30 day eval period. Sorry, I don't know. Do you have hyper-threading turned on?Anonymous
March 18, 2010
Yes, I have 8 virtual processors going . Some are "parked" occasionally in resource monitor. I have an Core i7-820 chip. I wonder if there is a way to turn off the parking? I never expected a processor didn't respond in time message. THanks for your help. It's a wonderful machine... probably even more awesome with 16GB or RAM. THanks for your help and the Guide to aid my installation.Anonymous
April 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010 12:25 PM by Arthur
re: Installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on a Lenovo ThinkPad W510
Does enabling hyper-v on 2008 r2 disable sleep mode still like it did on 2008? Yes Sleep mode is not possible with running virtual servers, so its automaticly disabled
- Anonymous
May 08, 2010
Thank you for helping with setting up my W510 with drivers for server 2008 R2 64.