Lenovo Centre advises against Win 8 for pre-Win 8 models

ecbritz

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I bought Win 8 Pro Upgrade especially for my fairly recently bought Lenovo Ideapad Y570 laptop. Today, I contacted a large Lenovo Service Centre in Shanghai, to get their take on actually installing Win 8. I'm still uncertain about how the upgrade will affect my work. The service manager said he advises against it. The Ideapad Y Series sold up to now has been designed with Win 7 in mind. Almost all of the special hardware features and the software supporting these features are not compatible with Win 8. The new Lenovo's fitted with Win 8 are adapted to the new version of Windows. The pre-Win 8 models should rather be used in the way they were intended to be used. Otherwise you might experience all kinds of difficulties and lose more than you gain from upgrading to Win 8, depending on your particular use of a computer. The guy did not speak for Lenovo as a company, he was simply speaking from workshop experience and dealings with customers.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus S200
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i3 3217U
    Memory
    DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM, OnBoard Memory 4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
If you are talking about windows 8 not having some drivers for specific hardware, then i must tell you, you shouldnt depend on drivers, which are available on lenovo or any other laptops seller sites, because they dont update drivers on their sites. You should download drivers directly from the sites of the manufacturers of specific hardware, i.e. intel, realtek, atheros ...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ljkhlj
fwiw; Lenovo seems to have a good selection of win8 drivers for that model;
Drivers and software - IdeaPad Y570 Notebook

I don't have that model but my Lenovo laptop is about 9 months old and I did the win8 upgrage,,, Some of the win8 drivers from Lenovo were buggy but supplied the proper additions to make Fn keys work and such.. and now many of the Software makers drivers update those Lenovo supplied drivers and work near perfectly ok.

Actually the Microsoft win8 upgrade works fine with the default generic drivers they use, as long as you don't look in the event logs or push the Fn key anyways :) The main two I had issues with here were the Intel Graphics, and the Synaptics touchpad. Intel has a new graphics driver soon to be public, available now at gigabyte's site.. and Synaptics website offers a touchpad driver updated recently that also seems fine and fixes issues with the Lenovo supplied one.

One thing many overlook with intel drivers is they must 1st install the main chipset drivers before installing any other drivers. I imagine the same holds true for all makes of chipsets. Start installing drivers then later do the chipset drivers you can't really expect everything to work right.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    lenovo
There are many members on this forum who have been using pre-release versions of Windows 8 up to the date that Windows 8 was officially released in October 2012, and every installation was on pre-Windows 8 Hardware. Many more took advantage of the Low priced upgrades available until the end of January 2013, and I believe that instability and lack of driver support were not the prime reasons that people who were dissatisfied with Windows 8 could not get on with this new OS.
After all, Windows 8, as a desktop OS has been developed on PCs that predated the release of the OS.

Microsoft themselves say that they test compatibility with Windows 8 on the basis of compatibility with Windows 7:

[h=4]If I run Upgrade Assistant and it doesn't mention a particular app or device, does that mean the app or device will work in Windows 8?[/h]Not necessarily. When you run Upgrade Assistant, it scans your apps and connected devices, and provides a compatibility report about the products that we know will or won't work in Windows 8. If you have a product that worked in Windows 7, then most likely, it will work in Windows 8, too. But there might be apps or devices on your PC that we have no info for.
The compatibility info we provide is based on these sources:

  • Independent software and hardware vendors test and officially certify some apps and devices forWindows 8.
  • Microsoft tests the most popular apps and devices on the market, and provides compatibility info based on this testing.
  • If we didn't test a product on Windows 8, we might base its compatibility status on whether it worked on Windows 7.
  • We also base some compatibility info on reports from the manufacturer. This info hasn't been tested or confirmed byMicrosoft.
Check for more compatibility info for a specific app or device (including info from community forums) in the WindowsCompatibility Center, or contact the app or device manufacturer.

source: Upgrade to Windows 8 - Microsoft Windows

So run the upgrade assistant first Upgrade Assistant: See if your PC can run Windows 8 - Microsoft Windows
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
Not to start an argument ... but I would disagree with NOT going to Lenovo, or Acer, or HP, or to whatever manufacturer built your PC ... for drivers. OEMs are infamous for customizing hardware in their prebuilt PCs, and in some cases, only their driver is going to work.

My own suggestion is always to go the manufacturer of your PC first for drivers, then, you can look around elsewhere -- but I would backup the drivers you have before you go elsewhere and install something just because it's newer than what you have.
 

My Computer

I bought Win 8 Pro Upgrade especially for my fairly recently bought Lenovo Ideapad Y570 laptop. Today, I contacted a large Lenovo Service Centre in Shanghai, to get their take on actually installing Win 8. I'm still uncertain about how the upgrade will affect my work. The service manager said he advises against it. The Ideapad Y Series sold up to now has been designed with Win 7 in mind. Almost all of the special hardware features and the software supporting these features are not compatible with Win 8. The new Lenovo's fitted with Win 8 are adapted to the new version of Windows. The pre-Win 8 models should rather be used in the way they were intended to be used. Otherwise you might experience all kinds of difficulties and lose more than you gain from upgrading to Win 8, depending on your particular use of a computer. The guy did not speak for Lenovo as a company, he was simply speaking from workshop experience and dealings with customers.

Honestly, any comment from Lenovo about anything and everything should not be heeded.

Lenovo apparently they can't even put out a product that connects wirelessly to the internet without having to jump through Lenovo hoops and remove every last piece of preinstalled garbage they installed, not to mention the need to use a special tool just to remove their so called trial anti virus software. Plus all drivers required updating and yes from the manufacture's site, all this before a customer can connect wirelessly with a device that is made just to connect wirelessly?

Don't believe me?

And this link is one of the many other complaints from the victims of Lenovo products, in fact I've seen more wireless connection problems with Lenovo products than any other by far. Should a customer have to go through all this every time they purchase a Lenovo product?

http://www.eightforums.com/network-sharing/19758-cannot-connect-wifi.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Q9650 @ 4.05 GHz
    Motherboard
    Gforce 780i SLI FTW
    Memory
    8GB Gskill DDR2 1200Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX-480
    Sound Card
    Asus D2 Xonar
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HannsG
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Gskill 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Thermal Take 1000watts
    Case
    Thermal Take Xtreme
    Cooling
    9 fans air cooled
    Keyboard
    G15 logitech
    Mouse
    G9 logitech
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
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