Lenovo T530 Owner's Thread

All the technicians I talked to on the phone including the one who came to me today said that they are all refurbished and no news will ever be used. For me, I would return the machine and not get the mobo replaced after 4 days of usage. Some people would not mind a refurbished part but I would. As the technician told me today 'in a sarcastic way', it is basically a 're-utilized' part.

 

Returning it means paying up to 15% restocking fee which could be up to $120. I'd rather keep it than lose that amount of money. If they don't charge me anything, I'd love to return it and get a new one.. lol...

 

Who told you that? My understanding is that you are having an issue with the mobo that is Lenovo's error and not your fault and you are still within the return period, so you can definitely return it for refund or exchange within 21 days. "Lenovo will accept the return or exchange of any product in its original package for a full refund in cases of Lenovo error."

 

oh well... that is correct, I could/should have I guess. The technician was already here and changed the motherboard and everything works now. There is no point in worrying about it now. I have 4 year onsite warranty so even if it is refub and breaks in couple of months, I will get it replaced. Having said that, I will call Lenovo and see if I can find out if the part was new or refub just out of curiosity.

 

Hey all,

After a nearly perfect but flawed experience with the T430u, I ended up returning it. Now I have a T530 on order, with the relevant specs below:

Intel Core i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with Fingerprint Reader for Color Sensor, Smart Card Reader
720p HD Camera with Microphone
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN


The big thing for me is the display. If you read my short review linked above, you will see that the display was my major complaint with the T430u. I'm coming from a 2008 Macbook Pro, and the 1440 display in that is worlds better than the T430u - not just in resolution, but in every other metric. I found that to be unacceptable for a brand new laptop, and it felt like a downgrade in that aspect. So back to Lenovo it went!

After this experience, and the positive reviews about the screen, I have no doubts that the FHD display in the T530 will blow me away

I'm going to be ordering a Crucial mSata drive now, and some extra RAM later (after I'm sure I'm going to keep it). I'm going to be installing Linux (mint) as soon as I open the box, and just as others have done I will be sure to share my experience with this machine.

Thanks for all the great info in this thread, everyone!

 

Nice choice of specs for your new T530, and given your MBP experience you will love the T530's FHD screen.

Out of curiosity, what is the screen size of your "2008 Macbook Pro"?

With regard to SSD, get at least 256GB size.

My suggestion is get the current 256GB Crucial M4 mSATA and make that the boot drive with a fresh install of Win7 (Win8?).

When Crucial comes out with the new bigger/lower-priced M500 SSD units, get a 2.5" 512GB M500 SSD and make that your boot drive with the 256GB mSATA as a secondary drive (but don't do RAID with them as there's nothing to be gained from that).

Use gparted for setting the boot record and partitioning; see: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sd-setup-bootup-error-help-3.html#post9075884

and: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...sd-setup-bootup-error-help-5.html#post9088733

FWIW this works for Win7, but I've not yet used Win8.

 

Thanks for the response OtherSongs

I have the 15 inch model, which has a resolution of 1440x900. It's a great display aside from the glossy coating.

I'm probably going to stick with a 128Gb msata drive, and use that alongside the 320GB spinner that the machine came with for media/file storage. I use Linux, so I will be able to mount portions of my filesystem on the appropriate physical disk as I see fit. I don't really want to spend the money on a 256Gb drive that I will only use a quarter of, especially as SSD prices come down over the next few years. At some point, I'll replace the 320Gb spinner with a 1Gb SSD (when those become a reasonable thing)

I'm also not going to be installing Windows directly on the drive at all - I probably wont even boot it when the machine arrives. I run Windows 7 within a VM for anything I need, mostly IE for frontend web development debugging. I did order the machine with Windows 8 preinstalled, but only because I already have a W7 license.

Thanks again for the info, I appreciate it!

 

The lenovo guide is a little out of date i think... you can't get to recovery under control panel as suggested in the document there. Just search for recovery and take it from there...


The clean install method doesn't work - you can't download the OS using the OEM key found using apps like belarc etc. Confirmed today. So the only way is to create factory recovery USB/DVD. Good luck.

 

I never tried it. Can you run any application on windows inside VM? like photoshop? If that is possible, I'd install arch and have windows in a VM.

Also, can you install windows in VM with the factory reset bootable USB?

Thanks.

 

Yes, in fact running CS6 is one of my primary uses along with IE. Everything runs really well.


As for the factory image, I'm not sure. I will use my own Windows 7 license/install.

 

Ok. this might be a little bit off topic: I bought a refurb T530 from the outlet.
Tried to install ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 (installed ,uninstalled , backnforth several times) with wubi (ubuntu's windows installer) and dual boot with the preinstalled win7.

For all the times i tried, it works fine the 1st time after I installed it , 12.04 and 12.10, but after a few reboots(and maybe booting into win7 and shut down) and try to boot into ubuntu,
I'd see a black screen flash by, saying something about NTFS and then:
"error: couldn't read file, press any key to continue" message, or get stuck with the black screen and grub prompt.
When i uninstalled ubuntu in windows, sometimes it would go to disk check( i got a msgbox saying some files corrupted).


I have (un)install ubuntu couple times with wubi. all run into error. Finally gave up.

Since this problem might be (refurb) thinkpad specific, i thought i'd post it here.
Do you guys think this is related to a faulty harddrive?? I'm not tech savvy, the only thing I did with the harddrive was to shrink C: partition and allocate 200G to a new D:

Any ideas appreciated.

 

What OS did the machine come with?

 

Win 7 home premium.

 

You might want to post this in the Linux forum.

 

sandiegosd I would go the the manufacturer's site for the hard drive and download any tools that run outside of windows to thoroughly check the hard drive.
Just out of curiosity are you able to run either version of Ubuntu directly from the installation media? (using the try ubuntu option during the install dialog), I am contempating the purchase of a new T530 and want to dual boot 7 and 12.04.

 

Lenovo's T530 is a good laptop and I recommend it.

Like you, a goal of mine is to dual boot Win7 and Ubuntu (either 12.04 or 12.10).

I'm still considering how I'll recover, without too much of a nose bleed, if dual boot install of Ubuntu 12.04/10 and Win7 doesn't come up roses.

 

NBR's Linux forum is pretty lame.

OTOH some useful things do sometimes get said there.

 

Still trying to comprehend what you're saying in your question. give me some time.

 

Hi!

If i buy T530 with out the backlit keyboard, it is possible to replace it to backlit in the future?

 

It should be a direct swap for the backlit keyboards.

 

Updating my review after so more time with the unit. Pain from resting palms has mostly gone as I get used to it although still slightly there. Have to say I actually really like and probably prefer the new keys now. They're crisp for fast typing while still feel 'expensive' compared to other laptops. Got an Inspire for a friend and definitely noticed a big difference.

If the front slope of the machine was more gradual like the older ones it would be perfect for me but overall happy with it now.

 

If we change dual core to quad in t530 we need to buy other psu?

 

Online config will change the power adapter accordingly.

 

Not sure about T530, but the temps on my T430 is very low. I haven't seen the temp above 80C even in heavy use.

 

Yes, but im talking about situation when i buy dual core version and wanna change to quad by myself.

 

I have the same question.

You also might have to get the dedicated GPU version. Last time I checked, the dedicated GPU is auto selected when a quad CPU is selected in the configuration.
IIRC the heat sink size is different for the CPU when a dGPU is selected. You might want to take a look at the t530 disassemble guides to confirm this.

My T530 came with i5 and dGPU and the power supply is 90w.

 

I single boot ubuntu 12.04 without any problems. The t530 is an excellent linux laptop.
The only thing I did was to upgrade the kernel to kernel 3.5 (3.4 and 3.6 should also work). I was getting system freezups with kernel 3.2.

 

I wanna buy dual core with nvs so heat is not a problem.

 

Yep, it takes about 5 minutes I recently swapped a -en-US non-backlit keyboard for a pt-PT backlit keyboard and it worked like a charm

 

Hi all,

I have been using my T530 for 2 months now and pretty happy with it. It came pre-loaded with Windows 8. I have n't created recovery disc until now. I have gone through some of the threads and have a confusion regarding burning Windows 8 recovery discs. Some threads mention that Windows 8 recovery cannot be burnt to DVD's and need a USB. Can somebody confirm this. I don't have either the USB or the DVD's and need to buy either of them. I would prefer DVD's to USB however. I intend to dual boot Linux and hence want to have a backup disks just in case something screws up. Also I would appreciate if there is an approach of saving the DVD's as .iso files instead of actually writing them to a real disk. I can store them in my external hard disk and write them to DVD's later.

Thanks.

 

You can create recovery drives on DVD or CD using W8's in-built recovery drive utility if, and apparently only if, you don't copy the Lenovo recovery partition to the recovery drive.

Windows 8 has its own utility to create recovery drives. Just type "create recovery drive" on the Metro screen and you will reach this utility. The first page of this utility has a checkbox entitled "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive." If you check this, the following screens say you can only use USB flash drives for the recovery drive. (W8 says you should use at least 8 gb flash. Lenovo says at least 16 gb. I used a 16 gb USB 3.0 drive when my T530 was fresh from the factory, and the recovery load took up about 7.95 gb of space -- so I would recommend a 16 gb flash.)

However, if you don't check this box, the next screen allows you to create a recovery drive either with USB flash drives or with DVD/CD having a capacity of 512 mb. Presumably, this option requires a lot less space because the Lenovo factory recovery partition is not being copied onto the recovery media.

 

Confirming this is a myth. I recently backed up my wife's windows 8 computer to DVD because I didn't have a free USB at the moment. As I recall it took 3-4 DVDs and around 30ish mins to complete the task. USB would certainly be easier/faster, but if you want to go the DVD rout it's definitely possible.

 

Proletaria, since "backing up" may mean something different from creating a recovery drive, could you clarify that you (1) used the Windows 8 "create a recovery drive" utility, and (2) checked the box to copy the factory recovery partition. If you did both, then I suppose the Window's 8 instruction to use a flash drive may not a requirement but just a recommedation.

I suppose one could experiment with the utility to see if accepts DVD's as the target recovery medium.

My creation of a USB 3.0 flash recovery drive took about 8 minutes, as I recall. When you copy the factory recovery partition onto the recovery drive, the W8 utility gives you the option of deleting the factory recovery partition from the source drive in order to reclaim about 10 gb of space. I did this, as my source (system) drive is a 180 gb SSD and I wanted the extra space.

 

I can confirm neither of those things since I no longer have the laptop in question (an inspiron my wife returned). As memory serves the process was done through dell software, so it's quite likely that you are correct.

 

Well, then I think we have to clarify that there are two questions relating to the creation of recovery media onto a DVD from a Windows 8 computer.

Q1: Can one do this with a third party program? I have never done this myself, but it is my understanding that there are third party programs, such as Acronis, that can create recovery media. There are probably programs supplied by the hardware manufacturer itself, such as Lenovo used to do and perhaps Dell still does. Whether these third party utilities allow a DVD to be the recovery target would seem to be more a function of those particular programs rather than W8. (That's speculation.)

Q2: Can you do this with the in-built Windows 8 "create a recovery drive" utility? I have described what the utility's instructions say about that. I don't recall whether the utility literally forces one to use a flash drive when the "copy the factory recovery partition" box is checked. And I can't experiment with a DVD recovery now because the utility won't allow me to do so, presumably because I have deleted my Lenovo recovery partition.

 

Found this on a windows 8 forum article.

 

You can find videos on YouTube that show you how to use the Dell, HP and Sony proprietary recovery media creation programs in Windows 8. Lenovo has abandoned its proprietary program for Windows 8 in favor of the W8 in-built utility.

This video shows how the Windows 8 create-a-recovery-drive utility works. The author does not check the "copy the recovery partition box" because, as he explains, he does not have a recovery partition. However, he correctly states that the box will be checked by default if the system has a recovery partition, as with a Lenovo T530, and that you must use a USB flash drive if that box is checked. He goes on to show how the utility offers the choice of DVD/CD when the "copy the recovery partition" box is unchecked.



There are actually a family of W8 in-built utilities that allow you, in addition to (1) creating recovery media, to (2) "refresh" the system (which saves data and Metro apps while refreshing W8 back to factory state), (3) "reset" the system (which takes everything back to factory state), and/or (4) create a system image. After testing both "refresh" and "reset" with no apps or data on my T530, I had about 20 gb more on my C drive after a refresh than after a reset. This is because refresh apparently saves the the entire old W8 configuration along with refreshing to factory state. Hence, refresh probably should be only an emergency procedure in the event you haven't backed up your data.

 

While we're on the topic of recovery disk, I just got a new T530 and have learned a valuable lesson in their importance. I'll skip the details, but I had to do a reset with Windows 8. It seems to be working now, but I've lost all the pre-installed utilities and apps. Which of them are worth re-installing? I'm thinking the auto-scroll one I definitely will, but I can't figure out what any of the others do, or if I need to download them from Lenovo's support site, or if they're grouped in with the auto Windows update (the NVIDIA seemed to get reinstalled after the first auto-update)?

Thanks,

 

All the drivers and utilities should be in the SWTools folder on the C:\ drive. As to their worth, that depends on who you ask. One person's junk is another's treasure.

 

Thanks for the help; I'm not seeing the SWTools folder though. I did a complete Reset with Windows 8, so I think it wiped everything out. At this point I'm thinking it might be easier to just use the recovery partition and go back to the factory setting (if that is in fact what it does). I'm not liking Windows 8 much anyway. Is it as simple as entering the Bios screen and selecting boot from another drive, then selecting the D:\ drive with the recovery file on it?

 

I have been thinking of getting a docking station for my T530 with the I5 processor. However, when I checked the specs, it says "dual core" models only. I should be fine because the I5 is dual core correct? What if i upgrade to quad core at some point, and why wouldn't they be compatible?


ThinkPad Series 3 Docking Stations with USB 3.0 - Overview

 

The i5 is dual-core. The i7 is available as both dual-core and quad-core: for example, the Core i7-3520M is dual-core whereas the i7-3740QM is quad-core.

One thing to keep in mind when upgrading to quad-core is the power supply.

 

T530 with quad core CPU + Nvidia only uses a 135 watts adapter, so basically you can use any series 3 dock and plug in the 135 watts adapter. If you use a W530 with quad core then you would need a dock with 170 watts adapter (although my W530 functions fine with the 135 watts power adapter).

 

Can T530 use either Intel HD 4000 gpu or nVidia NVS 5400M gpu during same boot???

I thought that one's BIOS selection of nVidia NVS 5400M gpu would have excluded the Intel HD 4000 gpu, but that remains unclear to me.

 

Can somebody tell me how to adjust the TrackPad settings in Windows 8? I've searched for answers and looked through all the settings, but I can't find anything. I want to turn off the tap to click and inverse scroll, but I can't find any control panel to adjust this. Thanks.

 

Control panel > Devices and Printers > Mouse > UltraNav tab > press Settings button in TouchPad block > opens TouchPad Properties, which lets you turn on/off dozens of touchpad features and gestures

 

Nice response.

So knowing what you now know about the (likely?) nosebleed of using Win8 on your T530 has been, would you do it again?

Meaning go back to November 2012 and order a new custom T530 again.

Would you really again get it with Win8?????

And if yes, what are your top 2 reasons?????

Especially given that Win8 is likely to be upgraded, and may still not be successful even then.

All ears.

 

This is a Win8, 8Gb system. I have just taken the CD out and put an ultrabay caddy + Samsung 840 PRO 256Gb SSD in there. Primary drive is a 500Gb HDD. My aim is to make the SSD the boot and C: drive, the HDD just the D: drive for file storage.

I started by using the Data Migration (really cloning) software provided by Samsung, this worked well 1st time. In order to make the SSD the boot drive, I then moved it above the HDD in the boot order in Setup (there were still a few things above it, like some USB's and the Windows Boot). This didn't make any difference. I then moved the SSD to the top of the list - from memory that didn't help. I had to use the Disk Manager utility provided by Windows 8 and set the SSD (which by default was F to be the boot. This also auto-changed the drive letter to D:.

What I can't seem to do with the DIsk Management utility is make the SSD the C: drive. I tried it with the Disk Manager utility but couldn't achieve what I wanted. Why do I want this... because lots of things expect the boot drive to be C: Also, I want "My Documents" to be on C (I am strange, I like the default My Documents structure as so many things expect it). Is there some way of leaving the SSD in the Ultrabay but making it the C: drive?

When I have the SSD as the boot and the C: drive, I will feel safe formatting/deleting/uninstalling_apps on the HDD to get rid of all the stuff on it and have a clean disk.

Your thoughts?

TIA.

 

First of all I am curious why you don't/didn't put the 500g in the ultrabay and the SSD in the main hdd bay, that is the usual set up and would have solved all this.

You can still do that actually.

I am pretty sure windows assigns the letter C etc. according to the ports on the mobo

sata 0 sata 1 etc.

Meaning the main bay will always get the younger letter, ultrabay next letter etc.

You could also do a fresh install or reinstall with the SSD in the main bay as I described, or

if the SSD is successfully running with the OS and progs in the ultrabay, yank the main bay hdd
boot up with only the SSD in the ultra, reassign letter C to it, shutdown, install 500 hdd back in main
and see what lettrer it gets or if you can reassign or change it as needed

that might work

as you sit now you can move 'my documents' to the other drive by right clicking on the folder, properties>location>move>select folder>ok or apply
(you can also do this to my music, pictures etc.)

there may also be a way to change the default target of program files but it won't be as easy

do a google search

 

Thanks for the reply.

1. Why didn't I simply put the SSD in the primary bay and the HDD in the Ultrabay.
Good question, mainly due to my temerity and inexperience. I was thinking that the HDD was a different form factor to the SSD and would require a different Ultrabay caddy. If not, then what you say is cerainly on. It took 4 weeks to get the caddy I did get from China, no stocks of this sort of thing here in NZ. Let's assume though that they are the same form factor and the HDD does fit in the UB caddy I have, then:
a. ...as I have already cloned the SSD off the HDD using the Samsung supplied utility...
b. Computer off, I would make the physical swap.
c. Computer on, into Setup, move the SSD up to the top of the boot order.
d. On startup, go to Disk Management and check that the SSD now had the boot on one of its partitions and that it was C:
e. I could then reformat the HDD or use Disk Management or simply uninstall and delete unwanted stuff. HDD likely to be D: or F: at this point (done automatically on auto-reassignment of drive numbers when the SDD and HDD physically swapped).
f. ... is that what I'd do?

2. As to moving the My Documents... it wasn't that I didn't know how to move directories etc, it was that I was under the impression that My Docs was searched for under the login name under /Users, and /Users would be staying on the boot drive, so any automation around My Documents would likely fail even though I had logically moved it correctly.

Many thanks from Aotearoa