Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P Owners and Information thread

Hmm first message didn't seem to make it through, ahh well...

Jobine! Thanks for the haggling tip, saved me $40 and I'll try for free shipping here in a day or two. What is your opinion on the hybrid 24gb SSD? Although I have gotten a quote I plan on using later today, I haven't yet placed an order. I'm torn between paying an extra $70 to get an SSD that will be useful for now, or totally replacing the 1TB +24gb with a 240gb or similar SSD. I've heard rumors this is possible - running the OS and essentials from the SSD and maybe using an external, or even throwing in the 1TB + 24gb into the Ultrabay whenever I'm at home and in need of extra room.

What would you recommend, I see you are using the hybrid. Does it blaze through everything or would you ever consider an SSD upgrade?

 

It's not a hybrid drive, it's a 1TB 5400 RPM HDD and a separate 24GB M.2 SSD used for caching. The SSD upgrade is overpriced and you should put your money toward a real SSD. Swap out the HDD for an SSD and put the HDD in an Ultrabay caddy. Or if you want SLI you could keep the HDD where it is and wait until M.2 drives become available in the next year or so, but keep in mind that due to the 42mm M.2 form factor used by this laptop you will be limited to drives 128GB and smaller, and even that isn't guaranteed. It's really unfortunate that Lenovo decided to gimp this machine's SSD expansion options by going with 42mm M.2 instead of mSATA like in the previous Y400/Y500.

 

So it will work to get a 2.5 SSD and recover WIN8 via usb drive (and continue to use the SSD as the main C drive), then use the 1TB +24gb as a supplemental that could be interchangable with graphics/dvd in the ultrabay? That would be perfect.

 

What you REALLY need to keep in mind, is that if you order it without the cacheing SSD, there's a good chance you won't get the M.2 port AT ALL. Order it with the cacheing drive to keep that future upgrade path open.

 

Not exactly. You can place ONLY the 1TB drive in the ultrabay with a caddy. That's what I did after I installed a 500GB Samsung EVO SSD. Best upgrade decision I've ever made; though I don't think I could handle living without a SSD now haha. The 24GB SSD Cache that is with Y410p models is in its own SEPARATE slot. It provides very fast performance in programs and operations you run the most, but since you're going to be replacing the hard drive with a SSD, it's not going to make a difference having that 24GB SSD Cache. Hence why I downgraded to the model without it.
Just my two cents on the matter.

 

Recent models have been shown to ship with the connector. And by recent, i mean GT755M.

 

Lenovo Y410P Removable Graphics GN35 GT750M + 170w ac adapter

can anyone confirm??? was looking to see if there was an ultrabay gfx yet and stumbled upon this

 

I actually bought one from them over the weekend and I'm currently waiting for some shipping information on it. I emailed them and they said they would send me DHL tracking when it ships.

EDIT: Just noticed they increased the price to $500, I paid closer to $400... I wouldn't buy from them. Even $400 is too much, honestly.

 

If you get the card, and it turns out to be legit, you will at least have the benefit of having it before everyone else. If you don't, sue their asses.

 

In my Personal opinion i would not get the 24gb cache upgrade. It's a cool idea conceptually, but practically i think it can be more hassle than it's worth. I don't know the specifics about the implementation of the expresscache but i would have to guess it is writing to the sdd drive every time a memory block is read (meaning your system is performing writes on all reads) and probably using some sort of LRU(least recently used) algorithm to determine which memory block to write over. The problem I have with this is that a lot of extra work(processing) is being done to mimic a normal ssd's performance on a 24gb drive.

Also the ssd is not being written too directly on writes(this avoids the problem of writing back and maintaining integrity of data). Since programs and their data are loaded into memory(ram), the ssd cache only helps the first time you open a file/program, if you have opened it relatively recently (depends on the sizes of files you open and what size files the cache allows) and only on those memory blocks still in the cache. This means if you open a file that you saved/altered the last time you used it, it will be loaded from disk and not the cache(it is probably flagged as invalid in the cache). I also don't think it helps on disk access's as a result of page faults.Thus the cache is too limited in it's uses since it doesn't behave as real drive nor does it have the characteristics of real memory cache either.

An ssd drive is persistent storage unlike RAM, so it is quite possible that constantly writing to the drive could lead to drive failure or reduced life(SDD is based on flash memory technology so i'm not really sure how writes affect it's lifespan, but this is a guess). I am a little biased because I got my mom a ideapad u310 6 to 9 months ago and had to send it to be repaired because the hybrid drive stopped working and the computer was very slow and took like an hour to boot up. I'm pretty sure that was a hybrid drive and this is in a separate slot so it is probably a bit different, and you can probably easily disable the cache, but i think if you want ssd performance you are better off just buying a normal ssd drive (prices are going down) and moving ur 1 tb disk drive to the ultrabay. For every day computing u do not need 1 tb of storage (if you do then you should be able to spend the money on some big ssd drive if it really is that important). For me atleast, a 128gb or 256gb ssd would be plenty, i probably wouldnt even end up using the 1tb in the ultrabay.

The only scenario i would find the 24gb drive useful is if you can disable the caching and use it as a normal drive, which i think you should be able to do since it is in a separate connector. In this case you could load a Linux distro onto the drive since 24gb is more than enough for all linux/low-level programming needs (you could still use an ntfs formatted partition in the disk drive for storage that can be accessed by both windows and linux).

Edit: Actually, i think on writes it is written to both the disk and the ssd cache to maintain data integrity. It's still another tier in the memory structure though, so i still don't like it haha.

 

I ordered the y410p model w/o ssd cache but with the 1600x900 6 days ago (first day they put up gt755 on the US site. It is set to ship from manufacturer on the 24th and supposed to be delivered on October 1st.

Any advice for making sure i getting the laptop on time? I will be going back to school a few days before it arrives, which is okay as long as i can get it before the end of week 1 so i can set up a linux partition and fiddle around with it before week 2 starts. I really want to make sure it is not "delayed" like many posters have mentioned.

Also was i lucky or unlucky i ordered it the day they switched to gt755m? I don't plan on ever putting in a dual graphics into the ultrabay as it is not necessary for my needs, so the sli is not an issue for me. I did notice it doesn't have GPU boost, perhaps because it is already overclocked? I'm wondering if it is indeed better or more ready(i hope at least adequately ready) than the 750m. It is 6 months newer though, and on the same chipset so hopefully it's not worse off lol. I decided to go with ideapad over the thinkpad series because i wanted more computing power (i7) for heavy applications such as eclipse + android emulator(i hate it but is necessary sometimes) and possible any cad software and i didn't want to pay for an i7 in the thinkpad t series (also i would have to upgrade ram too). Is the gt755 actually better or did they happen to find a cheaper manufacturer for it (i'm worried, i only see it in the models in china and the low-end us and canada ones). Perhaps they are just moving to gt755 cause its 6 months newer, but they have to sell off the gt750's already built or something, i'm not really sure how to make sense of it.

Thanks.

 

@Monkeykap

Only reason i got the SSD upgrade is because i feared Lenovo would ship the laptop without the connector.

 

Sorry to post again soo soon but, but i am also worried about the resolution making text too small. Fundamentally resolution should be relative, but this depends on how websites and applications design their text sizing. I have been using my mom's u310 and in the night the screen hurts my eyes and almost looks blurry and it is standard resolution not the 1600x900 i ordered. I didn't get the 510p cause i thought 15.6 inch laptops are too big but i'm not so sure anymore (my old laptop was 15 inch, but these days they have these 15.6 inch monsters).


On a side note how is the touchpad, i'm guessing it's similar to the u310 which i hated at first, but after fiddling with the synaptic settings (i am used to tapping and using two finger scroll now), it's kinda convenient. It doesn't feel sturdy all the time but that may because it has to be able to handle/detect so many different kind of touch/tap motions so it needs adequate differentiation between similar feedbacks.

 

You write a lot

Yea, the touchpad is similar to the u310. You will have either 1366x768 or 1600x900 on a 14 inch screen,

 

Hey. Sorry to beat the dead horse if this issue has been resolved already, but I didn't want to scroll through 137 walls of text to look for the solution so please bear with me

so I just received my 410 a week ago and it's been working great....with just 1 small issue

See, when I connect to my wireless at home, there's no issues besides occassional lagging, which I can't decided whether its the modem's fault or the laptop.
However, when I'm trying to connect to my university's wireless, it won't ever stay connected for more than 15 minutes at a time. The icon will show that I'm still "connected" with full bars, but I can't access any websites. I've tried using lenovo support, who told me to update my drivers and tinker around with the wireless properties, but to no avail.

So I'm hoping if any tech-saavy people can help me with my problem:hi2: Thanks for your help and I hope to hear back from some of you

 

What drivers are you using? Open device manager, find your card, properties, driver and tell me the driver version. Also, maybe your uni has poor Wifi. I know at UPEI i can only watch youtube vids in 144p

 

I'm not exactly tech saavy lol so I'll put everything down that looks remotely like driver info.... I should also note that BU wireless is really quick when I'm connected in that it could load 720p easily when I am connected, but it just disconnects so often while telling me via icon its still connected it's getting grating.

ST10000LM024 HN-M101MBB Disk Drive
Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2230
Microsoft KErnel Debug Network Adapter
Qualcomm Atheros AR8171/8175 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.30)

If there's anything else you need just ask :] and thanks again!!!

 

What is the driver version of the Intel 2230 driver?? You still didn't answer my question :/

 

Installing this driver helped for me. It's the 16.1.5 version of intel's wireless driver.

 

intel wireless-N 2230 15.8.0.5? Sorry I'm not really tech saavy as you can see ><

and Thunderr I'll try this once I get home to a more stable connection. Thanks for all your help!

 

@shyang111 What you will want to do is uninstall the Intel PROSet application in your uninstall programs menu. You can also uninstall the drivers for your Wireless-N 2230 through the device manager.

For Windows 7 Drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23045
You will want to download the Wireless_16.1.1_Ds64.exe (assuming you have 64bit Windows 7) as it is just the drivers and doesn't include the worthless PROSet software.

-----OR-----

For Windows 8 Drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23044
Use Wireless_16.1.1_De64.exe if you are using the pre-installed Lenovo Windows 8 copy.

Get that file for your OS and let it install to upgrade to v16.1.1 drivers and see if that solves your connectivity problems.

 

Hi EmberV!

Just wondering, do I uninstall both the Intel Prosets and the wireless-N 2230 drivers? Or will uninstalling Proset be fine?

And does installing the new wireless allow it to work properly once installed or is there some special way to get it into the OS. Sorry to take up your time but I really appreciate it!!!

 

Uninstall the Wifi proset (not the bluetooth one) and then uninstall the 15.x driver, reboot twice and the issues should go away.

 

Just got my laptop today. 900p screen with the 24 GB m.2 ssd from ebay for $795 scratch and dent(none that I've seen) off of ebay. I did a little bit of overclocking on the gpu to see what kind of benchmarks I could get. P3145


That is with a core clock of +135 and memory of +209 on the 750m. Max temp of 74* on GPU.

 

In regards to my last post, the gpu hit 74* and the cpu hit 90+. Has anyone re pasted and seen temperature drops?

 

My cpu maxes at like 82-85, because i undervolted mine using Intel XTU @ -86mv

Havent repasted yet though i am tempted to.

 

So been enjoying the laptop for around 2 months now, but if I wanted to get some more performance out of it, I should overclock and undervolt? Any tips to get started on this?

I understand that OCing the GPU by a bit is safe. What about the CPU?

 

You should definitely think about repasting your CPU. It's getting past 90C in 3DMark 11 even though it's throttling, and 3DMark 11 doesn't even heat up the CPU as much as some games. The i7-4700MQ should be getting around 8000 Physics Score if Turbo Boost is working correctly, which it isn't for you. Look into ThrottleStop or XTU if you want to get rid of the throttling, but know that you can easily get 100C+ if you don't do anything to reduce temperatures.

For reference, my i7-3630QM gets about 7700 Physics Score and maxes out at 80C after looping 3DMark 11 three times in a row.

 

You can download the Geforce 327.23 drivers now.
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/66702

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4

 

2 hours in the campus library and no signs of disconnecting. Thanks so much to all those who helped me

 

Wow, i cant believe i still havent done this

 

If you download the Geforce Experience app and set it to notify you you of beta driver updates you should always be up to date.

 

I disable notifications on everything. They annoy you at the worst of times.

 

It seems that I cant get the comp to Turbo boost. Running Dolphin emulator and LoL and everytime I check the task manager, it's displaying 2.35ghz. Other times, when just browsing in webs, 3.25ghz.

Temp is around 85C when running these though, a bit high. So do I have to reduce the heat on it if I want it to get turbo boosted? Oh and undervolting, jobine how much lower did you manage to bring it?

 

I feel its pretty stable at -100mv, though i'm running -86mv to be safe. Feel free to do stress tests, if the computer bluescreens, Intel XTU's watchdog will just reset to stock voltage.

 

No need to undervolt IMO since it's more stable at factory voltages. You can force the CPU to run Turbo Boost when there's a CPU load using Throttlestop Turbo will kick in until you hit temps above 100 degrees Celsius and then you'll encounter a thermal shutdown.

 

I'll try throttlestop. What's generally a dangerous temp ?

Also in XTU do I want to change core voltage or the dynamic core voltage offset?

 

I would say anything above 90C is out of my comfort zone. Thermal shutdown is at 100C, which means Turbo Boost ain't happening for you unless you find ways to reduce temperatures by a lot. You're already at 85C without it and adding Turbo Boost can easily increase CPU temperatures by 20C or more.

My advice? Skip the CPU undervolting. Instead, repaste and get a decent cooling pad. You won't be able to decrease the voltage enough to make an appreciable and significant reduction in load temperatures without destabilizing your entire system. CPU and RAM are two things I would never touch as far as undervolting goes.

 

Yeahhhhh gonna have to not try out undervolting. I tried 80mv and it crapped out on me. Guess i'll have to take this apart. Oh boy.

 

I don't know how you're managing that score. I ran it with throttlestop on and got around the same scores. Also, the temps are lower according to throttlestop, low to mid 80s after three runs..

Heres a link to the average physics scores by cpu: Best Processors September - 2013

 

Use these ThrottleStop settings:



My i7-3630QM gets around 7700 Physics Score: NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor,LENOVO INVALID

The i7-4700MQ should be getting around 8000 if running at full speed. Example: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,LENOVO 20217

The Y410p/Y510p have CPU throttling issues and I'm guessing a lot of people aren't even aware of it, which is why you see so many lower-than-normal benchmark scores floating around.

 

Hey guys,

I got my Y410P about a month ago and I'm loving it. The added SSD for cache seems to help a lot and I'm quite happy with the battery life. I've been reading this thread for some time now, trying to get caught up to a few things, but I still got a few questions:

1- I'd like to upgrade the RAM to the maximum of 16GB. Sometimes there are blacklists for modules to stay away from when using a specific machine, is there anything like it for the Y410p? Any of you got one of these or could : Option #1 and Option #2?

2- I noticed that I didn't get any backup disks for the OS and as I understand, there are hidden partitions in the HDD that are used for keeping a copy of the drivers, bloatware, and Windows 8, the latter which is supposed to activate automatically using a Serical code embedded on the HDD. Does that mean there is no way to make an HDD upgrade into maybe a better HDD or even an SSD without losing access to the installed OS? Would I need another copy of some OS to install on a new SSD that would be replacing the main drive? I'm thinking of installing this SSD and replacing the DVD with the 1TB HDD.

3- I already made sure that ExpressCache is running and my SSD working properly. Are there any other general tips for starting to get more out of this machine? Any BIOS upgrades, or unlocking of features? Any must-do Overclocks?

4- I've had some problems when using a microphone plugged in the mic jack. There was a lot of interference, enough to make it unbearable except on very low volume levels, but that did not work out because I use a clip-on mic that sits away from my mouth. The interference is understandable since it's just a laptop, I've had that before with other computers, but did anyone else have this issue on this one? And did anyone of you guys use optical cables through the audio jack to get a digital output? How was the sound quality?

5- Last but not least, what software should I use to check the temperatures and overall performance of this machine?



Thanks!

 

Hi

Whenever I shut down my Y410p with the backlit keyboard brightness at medium brightness,A short high pitched buzzing sound will appear from the speakers of the laptop around 3 second (during the part when the fan spin louder ) before the laptop completely shut down. ( Changing between backlight brightness will remove the sound completely and return as soon it turn back to medium)

This also happened between the lenovo starting up screen and Windows 8 screen when booting up

The sound does not appear any time else.

Should I be worried or this indicates something severe.

 

To upgrade the ram, use 8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz, and i recommend buying from Crucial.

I would rather recommend buying an ultrabay caddy here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-2nd-SAT...2?pt=US_Drive_Bay_Caddies&hash=item4174b0cda0

Then screw the ODD faceplate on it. Then you have both an SSD and HDD.

There is an unlocked BIOS. I can email it to you if you want, however i do recommend donating to Svl7, the creator, for his work. You can find this bios and donation links here:

Lenovo Y410p / Y510p - unlocked BIOS / wlan whitelist mod / vbios mod - Page 7

Also, undervolting your CPU and overclocking your GPU are tips to increase performance, do at your own risk

Update Audio drivers, and install Dolby home theater V4 and play with the settings:

Dolby Home Theater v4 for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad S430

HWinfo is good. So is Speedfan. Also, for the performance, you should use CPU-Z and GPU-Z, and Intel XTU for undervolting, MSI afterburner for GPU overclocking.

No problem

 

1. Try muting your speakers before poweroff

2. Open intel hd gfx settings, go to power, then to battery, then turn auto power saving off. That might be related to it.

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,LENOVO 20216

Mine is a little over 8000. Note that the stock Lenovo drivers have been used in this test, not the latest Nvidia ones.

 

Hi all, I wonder if the 80mm length NGFF ssd would fit? or is it too long?
For example this:
SanDisk 128GB NGFF SATA3 X110 SSD | eBay

 

hmm, tried both and the buzzing sound still appears......louder on the top left part of the laptop.

Just discovered something, when I try to update my speaker drivers....during the time windows was ''driverless'' , the buzzing sound can be heard during windows and like last time changing keyboard brightness to either off or high eliminate this problem.
When the drivers are installed back, the buzzing only appears during the shutting down process like usual.

Anyone else experiencing this ?

 

Too long. 42mm only.

Also the proper name for NGFF is M.2, so search for those.

 

*Turns out this is a Just Cause 2 issue* The fix for the Just Cause 2 issue is to run it windowed, if anyone else has this problem
I'd like to add that by my standards the touchpad is just fine, no worse than any other I've used, and I'll be using the mouse anyways. My only complaint is that at high speeds the fan has a whine that sounds like a jet spooling up in a very quiet room. It does a fantastic job getting the heat out though, and it drops to near silent about 30 seconds after closing a game.

Hey guys
I got my y410p today and I've been cleaning off bloatware, updating drivers, etc.
Running Just Cause 2 gives framerates of about 35 fps at medium settings, regardless of what gpu is selected in the Nvidia control panel. Additionally, the nvidia gpu activity icon always shows "none," regardless of what is running and what option is selected, except when I run 3dmark (which crashes anyways) so I'm thinking the dedicated GPU is not being enabled.
3dmark returns an error and won't run.
Nvidia drivers are up to date (9/23/2013)
Heat is lower than I expected, CPU is about 55C after running for several hours and fifteen minutes of gaming.
Any advice as to the GPU would be appreciated.

Edit: I got 3dmark running by fiddling with the settings: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/1269051. These are the scores I was expecting, but again, 3dmark is the application which has appeared in the NVIDIA activity indicator. All other applications appear to be using the 4600.

Edit Edit: It appears this issue is only with Just Cause 2 and a few other games which aren't using the 750m. Mirror's Edge works fine, so I'll move this to a Just Cause 2 forum. Mirror's Edge gets a steady 62fps (max) at maximum settings.