Installing Winsows 7 on my T400 - worries about battery

[andre_wj]

Hello,
recently i've bought a used lenovo t400 (model 6475-R1G). It came with preinstalled Windows Xp Prof (made by downgrade from Vista business). I want to install Windows 7 professional, because i'm a student and I can get for free from MSDN.  Everything would be ok, but i heard that there was a bug in win7 and it destroys batteries in laptops.
I don't want to kill mine, because it lasts for about 5hrs of normal work.
I've searched the internet but the whole rumours abut this bug were from 2009/2010. 

Please tell me, does this bug appears now, or was it completely fixed by MS/Lenovo?

Do i have to install some updates after clean install of win 7 on my t400 (despite power manager and its driver, hotkey stuff etc.)?

Big thanks for your answers

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor · Accepted solution]

Windows 7 doesn't destroy your battery. If you need to maximise the run time, run the Win 7 in basic theme mode.

i have windows 7 on mine T400 and it runs just fine. I use ThinkVantage System update to download all the new updates and software for my Win 7.

However, there is a bug in Windows 7 that requires you to run a pair of equal sized ram in your machine to prevent screen artificates. i.e. 1 + 1 gigs, 2 + 2 gigs, 4 + 4 gigs, etc. 

[andre_wj]

Thank you for your answer. Now I don't have any worries.

I have stock 2GB of ram and I don't plan to upgrade it now.

To be sure, this bug appears in models with ATI and Intel graphics or in all models? Because mine has only intel graphics.

[macmovieman]

More ram might help.

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

only when you use Intel GPU.

[andre_wj]

lead_org - Thank you for your help.
macmovieman - I don't think that i need mor than 2GB of ram even in win7, because I have Win7 at my home pc and it runs very smooth with 2gb of ram. To be honest it ran smoothly even with 1gb of ram, but gaming was impossible.
To surf the net, do some stuff in office and watch movies/listen to music it's enough.

[nibs Guru]

My T400 is running Win 7 just fine. It shipped with Vista, but came with a free upgrade to Win 7. Once you have the ThinkVantage toolbox and run Lenovo updater, you should have all necessary drivers for Win 7. You can use Power Manager to manage your battery for optimum lifetime, just check the forums for the ideal settings and discussion.