Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 11 (Bay Trail) Owners' Thread

I have not had any wifi issues with this computer at all. Keep in mind though, that it is only 2.4ghz and does not have 5ghz, it is still 2x antenna though. This does not matter for me, but to some people, its a large deal.

As for the i5y vs the Pentium... I would personally stick with the Pentium model (DONT GO CELERON). Its plenty fast for surfing and watching videos, fanless, and possibly thinner and lighter (Depends on the exact model).

One thing that no one here has touched on though is the keyboard... its pretty bad in my opinion. Sure, its solid with very little flex, but the key "feel" is not up to the standards of someone who types a lot.

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking of going I5 because I'm an amateur photographer and do photo editing on a regular basis. I know that this computer isn't made for photographers, but I think it's manageable.

I do worry about the 128GB HD not being large enough for both my photo collection and music files, however.

 

The SSD upgrade is super easy to do and there is a slot for full size SD cards, so you have options for storage. As for the i5 vs Pentium for photoshop... the pentium is a quad core (I think ps is optimized for 4 real cores) and has graphics about equal to the HD4000. The i5 is a Y series so it uses HD4200 for graphics (a tad better than the pentium) and the processor is snappier too even though its a dual core. Still if it were my money, I'd go pentium and save the money, even if this is your only machine that you plan to edit photos on. It may be in your best interest though to research how the baytrail pentiums handle PS though, I am sure someone on some forum has more real world experience on this subject.

 

Hello all,

I just purchased a Yoga 2 model 20428 with i5, 4G, and 128GB ssd.

First pc purchase in many years. Casual user. I do have a few questions I hope the brain trust here can assist with.

Can I add additional memory to this unit?

I noticed that my hard drive shows only 64GB space available, is this normal? I've not installed anything except itunes, and Chrome browser. I understand Windows 8 takes about 20GB, but not sure where the rest has gone.

What Lenovo apps are Ok to remove without causing problems. Yoga picks, companion, Lenovo reach, motion control, Veri face pro?

Thanks in advance.

 

YES! Just buy a new SSD and pop it in! The swap is super easy, I actually did a replacement from a 500gb HD to a 128 GB SSD. You already have the SSD in there, just go on amazon and get a bigger one. Pop the bottom of the laptop off first to be 100 percent sure, but you should see an SSD with a normal full size sata connector. If that is the case (as it should be) then you are golden. The back comes off easy and the process is explained earlier in this thread. Cheers~!

 

Hey guys,

I'm really interested in the Pentium Yoga 2 11.
Any news on that battery drain issue?
Would be a deal breaker for me personally

Cheers
Stefan

 

I haven't had ANY issues with Battery drain. I think it's an isolated issue that only affects a small number of users. I have an SSD in my pentium 2 11 and I get about 6 hours of life on average unless I am doing netlfix and then it's about 4 or 4 1/2.

 

Please can someone tell me what exact version of windows 8 or 8.1 your yoga 2 came with? is it "plain" or "home" or "pro" ??? need to switch from windows 10

 

Mine came with 8.1 Pro

 

I see the Battery Drain issue brought up in this thread but no answers.
Has anyone successfully solved?

If you are not having to depend on getting your whole 3-4 hour battery use, it is probably because you don't need it. For a student or a traveling worker, it renders the system useless. you cannot depend on it. I know of no way to truly turn the Yoga 2 OFF [like the dictionary definition of off]. The issues are several, not simple, not even MS can give coherence. It is not exclusive to any one brand or mftr - Dell/Lenovo/HP/Asus - many have and have had the issue but seems worse with 10 because there are many bad drivers and firmware.

any ideas pls share the wealth

 

My wife's hard drive crashed in her Yoga 2 11 a month out of warranty. It was a WD, so she has the WD SATA cable that everyone has talked about on here. What I have been unable to get from reading all the posts is, can I replace that cable with another type of cable to work with an SSD or Seagate? Or am I hosed by the connection on the board?

 

I am assuming from your descrip that she has the i3-based model? should be no problem at all. any of the SATA SSD's common on the market will fit and plug right in. There are three components there: the 'vienna cable' which best I can tell is the same regardless of model, the adapter itself, which in your case should be a normal notebook SATA adapter, and the sled/carrier. remove the old, install the new, load windows 10 from a usb device. you'll need to adjust bios settings to allow legacy devices. that part confuses a lot of people and you may be stuck with a not-quite-UEFI install [see copious notes on the lenovo forums].

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond, this was helpful. She has the Intel N3530 model processor which is a Pentium I believe and not an i3 Core if that is what you are referring to.

Also by sled/carrier I assume that is the bracket that holds it in.

You'll have to forgive me, I got my start in IT and did a lot of grunt work back in the DOS and early windows day, but the progression to management has left me a little out of touch with the new technology, especially at this level. It's not dramatically different when you break it down, but the terminology is different.

 

same as i3 in this regard.
if you;'re going back in with windows 10, which I would do despite a couple of issues, you'll need to make the usb device on a good pc, obviously. if you google search 'windows 10 media creation' and pick the real microsoft site, you'll find a utility to download. if the machine you're making the media on is 7/8/10 it will be straight ahead full steam. you need 4gb free, which usually means a 8gb device - sd or whatever.
it is possible to load it from a usb hard drive also if that's what you have. in fact 10 will try to run from a usb attached hard drive but that's not what you're after.

you can find videos of this but it is not hard. flip it over and remove all the screws paying attention to where they came from. ease the whole bottom cover off he unit and you'll see the HD right away. remove it from the sled/carrier/tray and pop the SSd in there. back your way out and reassemble.

On the side of the Yoga 2, Lenovo kindly put a bios button. it is obscure but look for it and you'll find near the power button. you may need a tool to press it. hit that and go to setup and switch the bios to legacy supporting. I'm going from memory but if you web search for lenovo communities there are some good notes there. I hope yours has the last/latest bios. basically you have to disable UEFI-ONLY, switching it to legacy, AND you should prioritize the boot-device for USB [it considers the card reader USB also]. Then you're set. put the media in the slot and fire it up

 

also - if there were files on the HDD that you want to try to recover, odds are good that you can do so.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002JQNXZC
there are others and you can get this one cheaper elsewhere, or get a usb 3.0 type. either way will work fine. just install the 'dead' hdd and hook it up to a living PC. download Piriform Recuva https://www.piriform.com/recuva
locate the drive and identify it to Recuva. Basically, if windows will recognize and mount the drive, it will be fairly easy. If windows gags on it, run Disk Management util in windows and see if you can get it back. If it tells you the drive needs to be formatted, that means the file system is damaged [the partition]. strange as it sounds, reformatting it, especially the 'quick' increases, not decreases, the odds of getting your files out safely. if that doesn't work, harsher methods must be used

 

thank you. I have already been through most of that, which is how I figured out that the drive was crashed and just didn't have some bad boot sectors. I'm not even worried about the data because I have it on an external drive, so this is just a clean load of windows from a memory stick and a download of office suite from my 365 account.
Just wanted to make sure that before I purchased the hardware and wiring that it is going to work. I hate going back and forth on line.
I may be making a bad assumption, but it looks to me like I can't have an HD with greater than 5400 RPM, so after pricing them, it seemed a no brainer to just go to a lower capacity SSD seeing how she uses it like a tablet mostly and doesn't store much data.

 

indeed.
an aside - I dunno why this is but windows 10 seems to like SSD and hate conventional drives. the delta between the two, performance-wise, is bigger than what I observe on windows 7. strangely big...

 

Once again I would like to thank you for your help and advice.
I have a couple more questions before I order?
1. I'm thinking of the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E250B/AM). Any advice or issues you see there?
2. What is the likely hood I'll need new sled/tray? It looks like the screw holes will line up, but I was concerned about the depth?

 

no need for sled.
it fits. slightly slimmer, I think, than the WD
3.94" x 2.75" x 0.27"
when you see the space, you'll see that really the sled isn't even essential, though it is more secure/snug than without. the connector/adapter is fastened to the sled by two screws, so at very worst, chunk the sled. but yours will fit. you might lookup the dimensions of the wd.

 

@cognus and every one,

I'm planning to purchase Samsung Evo 850 250GB,
but some people told me that this model got booting issues and may not work with my Pentium Yoga 2 11 Bay Trail with Seagate Ultrathin 500GB
so i'm wondering if any body used this model and works fine? or shall i go to the older Samsung Evo 840 250GB?

 

I did not research this a lot but the few complaints seemed to be based on cloning, which is a coin toss on ssd's [worse in the past than now]. If you are [and you should] going to clean install from a MS-utility-created SD or usb-drive, I see no reason to avoid. There are specific steps to follow so you need to search that up and do so. and I do not see a way with that system to return to the Lenovo-preferred bios settings afterward - you must switch to compatibility-mode to get the install done, and afterward cannot revert but it has no effect on performance etc. UEFI will work fine and life is good.
if fits fine and the sata connector is 'normal'

 

Hmm just bought a 11e with AMD processor because I want 8gb ram, I was tired of all the problems with my Dell 3147, looks like none of these cheaper laptops are free from issues,

My new in the box 11e has 120gb ssd and the 4gb of ram can be taken out of the slot and I can put in a 8gb ram