Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P Owners and Information thread

I've used the laptop for a few months. My model has the intel centrino wireless card and I've very rarely, if ever, experienced disconnection.

 

Can you PM me and let me know how you did this? I would really like to do this on my PC as well

 

So i got the i7 1TB y410p with without the 24gb SSD drive. Is that a big mistake? Will the m.2 eventually catch up and is mine compatible? Basically i wanted to load the OS off of the m.2 or SSD so i can have faster response times and better battery life. I couldnt find an external battery for the ultrabay so that wasn't an option. I am not a huge gamer but liked the specs of this laptop for the price. I just wanted a better battery life so i am not tied to the cord all the time. If someone can help me do that with the model i got i would REALLY appreciate it. Let me know if i made a huge mistake not getting the SSD version or if there is a way to extend battery life with my config.

 

Did you get the 900p display?

 

No, i didnt. I took advantage of the $729 price w/o the 900p display. I debated for awhile on that one. Since I am not a huge game and rarely watch movies on it, I opted to save the $70.

 

Anyways, you can always buy a 3rd party SSD and put it in the ultrabay with a caddy.

 

Now that made me chuckle out loud, haha. It gets delivered next thursday. Should i return and get the 900p model? I dont want to dissapoint, haha. I noticed the caddy for sale on ebay, if i put a SSD in there can i boot the os from that? I thought the caddy was for the space where the DVD was at and not the ultra bay.

Anyway, any advice on increasing battery life, etc.? Is the SSD on the OS the best/only way?

 

I'd return/cancel it and buy the 799$ 900p model that also comes with the 24GB SSD.

To increase battery life, you can do the usual tricks, lower brightness, power saver mode, etc. But you can also shut off cores with a modded BIOS, disable the Nvidia GPU in the Nvidia control panel and even buy a larger 72w/h battery:
https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash3/41787_214277156210_9019_n.jpg

By shutting off 2 cores, balanced mode, Nvidia disabled, bluetooth disabled, i've hit a little over 5 hours of mid brightness web browsing on mine. Much better than the 3-4 hours you get from the machine in stock condition.

 

What are the main reasons you recommend cancelling and buying the 799 version?

Are they things you recommended (modded BIOS, shutting off Nividia, etc.) something a person like myself could do? I am in the IT business but not extremely technical. I can learn/try though as long as I have detailed instructions. Thoughts?

 

1. Better display, more working room and better colors. Cache SSD helps with load speeds.
2. I can walk you through it. However it will involve flashing a custom BIOS.

 

1. Thanks, i will chat with Lenovo tomorrow during business hours. I need to weigh the pros vs. cons for myself

2. Is there a huge risk in this or is it minimal? I also have read things on underclocking, etc to help with battery mgmt, is that true?

3. If i shut of 2 cores, Nvidia chip etc. am i missing out on any functionality of the PC or will i notice a difference?

Thanks for your offer to help!!!

 

1. ok

2. Minimal risks if done right.

3. You lose half your cPU power and if you disable the Nvidia card you lose a substantial amount of gaming performance. However you gain improved thermals and better battery life.

 

Isn't losing CPU power a bad thing though too? Would it make sense to only do Nvidia instead then?

 

For everyday tasks, dual-core is more than enough. in fact, with 2 cores disabled, i noticed no loss in FPS while playing games such as CoD Black ops.

Also an alternative to shutting off the GPU is using Optimus, which i currently use.

 

Which would you recommend optimus or shutting of GPU? Can you PM in on this site? I can't figure out how and would like to chat if you had time to help me get some battery life out of the PC when i get it.

 

Optimus. Yes, you can pm. Click on my avatar, then under the picture in my profile there is the option to send a private message.

 

I don't have that option, maybe because I am so new to this site and havent posted much? What is Optimus? Sorry for being a noob. I do appreciate all your feedback.

 

You need have have a sufficient amount of posts before you can pm. This is done to prevent spam.

 

I guess we can message in the forum then. So what does Optimus do and how do i do it?

 

Optimus detects any power-hungry applications and turns on the Nvidia GPU only when it is needed. Otherwise it uses the Intel GPU for lower end tasks.

To enable it, go to the Nvidia Control Panel, 3D settings and choose "Auto-Select".

Optimus works only when there is no graphics card in the Ultrabay.

 

Nice, so this is a standard out of the box config change and i dont need to do any BIOS updates, etc.? How much of a battery life increase will I see? Should I do anything else to get better battery life?

Also, I am reading a lot about trackpad drivers and updated wifi drivers. Should I worry about either or does the new 8.1 config at least come with the new wifi driver? Thanks man!

 

*cough* http://goo.gl/nOm8tm *cough*

 

Thanks, so any other battery mgmt ideas for the 410p? Boot the OS off an SSD?

Thoughts on drivers for wifi or trackpad?

 

bumping this, recently bought the y410p during black friday sale

 

how was the caddy experience? Which one did you get,(link?) and did the drive and caddy fit perfect, or was some work required?

 

So I haven't actually done this yet, but some people have in this thread earlier.
The Caddy (ies) are available on ebay, and although they are all labeled as "universal" apparently they take some finagling to fit properly in the y410p
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ide...apad-y410p-owners-information-thread-117.html
There is a pretty useful picture with some key places pointed out that are needed to be modified (on post 1165)
From what I gather though, there are a few things that need to be fixed in particular -the groove for being ejected via the button on the back has to be made deeper
there are some random edges that stick out that need to be filed
and the bezel is a total pain in the butt

 

All y410p with 900p comes with m.2 port?

I bought the 900p but without ssd, only two more days to have it

 

So, I'm trying to change to windows 7 and when I insert my dvd and choose to boot to it from the boot menu I get the error "EFI DVD/CD ROM (name of dvd drive) BOOT FAILED" . Anyone had any experience with this? Thanks!

 

Boot into the BIOS (F2 at startup), and change the boot from UEFI to Legacy. Then use a 3rd party Utility to format your disk under an MBR partition table (wiping all data! make a back-up) then proceed to installing Windows 7.

 

Got it, thanks! So I shouldn't just format it through the windows 7 utility? I should format while I'm still booted into windows 8?

 

Format it through a Gparted Live CD or USB.

GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions

 

Just realised how ridiculous that question was! Haha, thanks!

 

Im the only one who bought the m2 128GB drive?

Everyone seems to be using second caddy option for ssd

 

I bought one too for my y510p. It's simple to add and works for SLI users on the 510.

Cheers,

 

So, I finally got this beautiful laptop! I'm playing Skyrim on it but I get stutters in some areas, when it's not stuttering it's at a constant 59FPS. I'm playing below the geforce experience optimized settings(which is everything maxed out). Can anyone help? It's really deterring my thoughts about this laptop. Oh and yes I have mods installed.

 

You still using stock drivers? Update those.

 

Hi guys, I just ordered my laptop on Friday, and I've been reading through this thread for info I should know.

I couldn't get through the entire thread because it's so massive, but I was wondering if there was a way to boot from the SSD. If someone could point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

@Jobine I have updated my GPU drives twice since I got my laptop a month and a half ago, using Geforce Experience. Anything else? Im desperate to get smooth fps because I know my laptop can do it.

 

Maybe this will help?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...ds/738854-skyrim-jerky-camera-stuttering.html

 

@Octiceps I used the 64Hz stutter fix already, it fixed the BIG stutters when looking up or down, and moderate ones indoors, right now it's just everywhere outdoors ranging from moderate stutters to big.

 

I did also ordered this laptop.
You have 3 options.

You can buy sata SSD drive and use it instead of your 1TB drive

You can buy sata SSD, place it instead of your 1TB drive and put 1TB drive instead of DVD drive in caddy

You can buy M2 128GB SSD and place it instead of your 24GB cache drive, or if you ordered laptop without the 24GB cache, hope that you have the connector present, and boot from it. You will have your 1TB drive as second disk, and you dont have to remove DVD drive

 

I do see a drive labeled LENOVO. It's 24 GB, should I just put my Skyrim, all it's mods in here? It'll fit. And I have an Optical Drive, and see no way to remove it, because if I had I would have already put an SSD in there.

 

4. Buy a SSD and place that in a caddy and boot from, no need to open machine.

If you need a DVD drive buy a external USB one.

 

Don't think you can boot from Ultrabay, though i could be wrong. But i still recommend placing the SSD in the main bay and the HDD in the caddy.

 

No. That's not a separate drive, it's a partition on the HDD where a backup of your drivers and preinstalled software are stored. It's also the default save location used by OneKey Recovery. A few of GB's should already be occupied by all of this.

 

Ok. Does the Y410P have Optimus technology too?

 

Yes.

10char.

 

Do you think Skyrim may be switching to my integrated gpu once in a while?

 

If that is the case you can force everything to run on only the Nvidia GPU through the Nvidia Control Panel.

 

Hey guys, after my debacle with the aftermarket Y510p ultrabay, I have decided to return it and just run one GPU. However, I want to do a bit of overclocking, because I am getting low frames in some games (AC4, Far Cry 3), but the temps are only in the 60 degree range. I have installed MSI afterburner, but when I try to apply overclocking, it just sets the sliders back to default. Has anyone successfully overclocked with this laptop?

Also, I took a nasty fall longboarding with my laptop in my backpack, and I must say, it is pretty resilient. Apart from bent metal in the left corner, it took the impact with minimal damage, all cosmetic. Unfortunately, the accidental damage extended warranty I paid extra for only covers the laptop if it doesn't work anymore, so I'm SOL for getting a new one. Just thought I'd let everyone know that this does have some quality behind it.

Overall, after 4 months with this laptop at college, I am loving it. Even with the ultrabay disaster, this is the best value you can get, and everyone is jealous of it. I plan on using it for at least two more years before buying another laptop, probably a Lenovo again.