Lenovo T530 Owner's Thread

No worries, hope I didn't come off harsh, i am actually trying to help you lol.

As you described a....to....e should work. No guarantees on the auto reassignment of drive letters.
Try it if not leave the SSD in main bay and the 500gig out of the ultra, boot up and change ssd drive letter to C
Then slap 500gig into ultra, should be able to do it hot, meaning system still running.
See what letter it gets...change as needed.
If you have any other way, cable etc. to hook it up via a usb port (the 500gig) changing/assigning letter should be easier.

Hope that helps !

 

Harsh?...no way sport.

Many thanks anyway. Will give it a shot on the weekend when I can drink while I am doing it to make it all safer .

 

I was keen and tried this last night. I took both drives out and put the SSD in the main bay, leaving the HDD on the table.
1. Set the SDD to be first in the boot sequence,
2. Got the login prompt up, but then it just sat there tiddling its thumbs, disk light going.
3. After a minute or two, a V B Script error came up saying no Script Engine? found, when cleared just continued and after about 5 minutes the HDD stopped lighting up, no action, nothing.
4. Closed down by forcing the power off.
5. Replace SDD with HDD, all OK.

My guess is that the Samsung cloning software isn't working properly. Otherwise, why would I get a missing file/service?

Thoughts? I guess I could do as you suggest next, because I did have it booting from the Ultrabay once...
"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 "

 

I just got Windows 7 recovery disk in the mail. I'll be going back to Windows 7 tonight and pretending I've never heard of Windows 8.

 

Exactly my own take on the whole Win8 thing.

BTW do a fresh install of Win7.

 

I bought a T530, but somehow missed specifying with backlit keyboard. Is it possible to upgrade to a backlit keyboard by simply buying and installing a backlit keyboard?

 

Sure, it is possible to put in a Backlight keyboard in all T/W/X.

 

Thank you, ibmthink!

 

Done!
It was the Samsung-supplied cloning software that was causing the problem. It ran OK but must have had unreported errors.
I got some software from Paragon which was recommended on another site. Worked a treat.
I did the clone, HDD in main, SSD in UB.
Move SSD to main bay and left the HDD out altogether.
Set the boot order in the BIOS and it started up in a flash.
Checked with Disk Management in Win and the SSD was auto set to the C drive.
Put the HDD into the Ultrabay caddy and did a hot swap... came up immediately and Disk Management showed it as D:
Perfect result.

Thanks everyone.

What is the best way to clean up the HDD, freeing up all the space... format it? What about all those partitions on it.

TIA.

 

You can delete all the partitions, then merge the unallocated areas into a single partition, and finally format that new partition.

(Type "disk management" into the Windows orb's search box and select the option "Create and manage hard disk partitions" to run the program.)

 

Hello I'm new here and I'm hoping someone can help me. I've been looking for a new laptop for a while now and I'm really starting to consider the T530.

I have a Toshiba now and I hate it so I'm looking for an upgrade. I'm a student so I write a lot of papers and I use Photoshop from time to time but just to make simple changes in photos I'm not a photographer or anything like that. I watch a lot of videos online and I've been getting into video editing as well which is becoming a big problem for my Toshiba. My current laptop gets so hot it often shuts itself off. Do you think a T530 would be able to preform better?

I haven't seen any complaints about the T530 shutting off but have heard some things about the fan running very loudly. Has anyone had any problems with their T530?

 

I have been heavily considering getting a T530 for school in the fall, and I am wondering if it is worth the $50 to upgrade the six cell battery to the nine cell. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you need lots of battery life, then perhaps yes, but keep in mind it adds weight, which lessens portability.

 

Definitely get the 9 cell. It allows a laptop to be used the way it was meant to! Mobile!

 

I just ordered a T530 to replace my T510, and I opted for the i7-3840qm w/ 16gb ram. I can't find a single mention of it in this thread, anybody have any experience with that CPU?

I do a lot of formula intensive spreadsheets, and my current laptop (T510 i5-560m) is starting to choke on them, I recently upgrade the ram from 4gb to 8gb and it feels like a new computer and now I'm tempted to cancel the T530, and maybe just get an SSD for this one.

Any thoughts? I know a quad core CPU and extra memory benefits excel, so it seems like the new laptop will benefit me, but I can't find a single review of it with this CPU. Is it even noticeable?

 

Starting with Office 2007, Excel can utilize multiple cores. But, in practice, it is not clear whether Excel does utilize all cores in all situations and can take advantage of all four cores.

Realistically, Excel performs well on a dual-core processor and a lot of memory. The sweet spot for Windows 7 seems to be 8GB, but having 16GB would further boost performance as SuperFetch can freely cache system resources. In addition, Excel maintains its own caches.

As you have noticed, upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB makes the T510 feels like a new computer. Exactly. Large spreadsheets (and interpretive code for the complex formulae) occupy a lot of memory and, in certain cases, Windows 7 has to engage in "paging" activities on the slow HDD to support a large "virtual memory" for Excel if the physical RAM is limited.

Bottom line? Two choices:

(1) Stay with the T510 and add a SSD, as you're already planning to do.

(2) Buy a T530 in order to benefit from improved processing and energy efficiencies of Ivy Bridge. Opt for a QM CPU for "future proof" if you can afford it. You could have 16GB of RAM, but I wouldn't order the RAM as part of the CTO. It is less expensive upgrading the RAM yourself. Also, if your budget allows it, consider self-upgrading to SSD.

Welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for the advice and welcome - much appreciated.

I've run some of the excel models (using Excel 2010) on a recent i7-3630, and the performance difference was significant - but it also had 16gb ram (vs. my 8gb) so who knows what was having the bigger effect. Not sure how difficult it is to access the first ram slot, but tempted to try 16gb on the T510. The new problem is I've developed a 2x1mm spot of dead pixels in the upper center portion of the screen in the last day or so. I have another fairly recent dead pixel or two also. (this is the FHD screen). And the wifi will sometimes lose connection and require me to reset my router even though no other connected devices require it. Not sure if it's worth investing money in ram, SSD, and maybe a new screen for this laptop - even though the keyboard would probably make it worth it. So there's definitely some maintenance required...

The T530 is already ordered and due to ship on 4/22. Not sure the 3840qm is worth $200 more than the 3820qm, but went with it anyway. Also ordered the 16gb pre-installed. I suppose I could cancel and re-configure, but at this point I think I am comparing with a T530 out of the outlet instead I think rather than start this whole waiting period over.

 

There is a new BUEFI-BIOS for the T530: BIOS Update (Bootable CD) for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad T530, T530i

Changelog:

 

"Improved the fan noise"? Dolby stereo? Country rock? Classical orchestra? More bass, less treble?

 

Hm... I tested this "news" Bios Upadate... an I think it's a step backwards. With the older BIOS: my fan started at 45°C for noticeable cooling in IDLE. With the new one the fan reacts at 55°C. On maximum heat with Prime95 the temperatures ends by 85°C but the fan doesn't run on max rpm... that means only ~3860 rpm.

 

So I've been using the T530 (i7-3840qm / 16gb / 1920x1080 / 180gb ssd) for about a week now, and despite my doubts, so far I'm very impressed.
+ build quality excellent
+ totally silent (but haven't pushed it yet)
+ a bit lighter than T510 (ounces count at this size, but could just be the HD vs. SSD)
+ runs/installs/searches extremely fast
+ keyboard feel - as much as I remain in love with the T510 keyboard, this one feels even better, it's awesome. It doesn't feel like a chiclet keyboard at all, it only looks like one. Don't knock it (like I did) until you try it.
+ I feel like the touchpad has a slightly improved texture (I don't really use the stick)
- keyboard layout - the old keyboard did truly have the perfect layout, the new one is not as good. I will get used to it. I also miss the blue color accents on some of the keys and buttons.

That's about it - very pleased so far. Just praying they don't take the buttons off the track pad for future models (it looks like they are), because that's not really negotiable for me.

 

On my T530 with Intel 4000 gpu, I tried connecting monitors to both the VGA and Displayport but no, it seems that only one video-out port can be used at a time. Can someone confirm this? Back to using my DisplayLink adapter for my second external monitor.

 

First off, thank you so much for all the posts so far - it's given me a much better view of the T530, especially differences in opinions and experiences. I just spent the past few hours reading the whole thread.

I've pretty much decided I'm going to get the T530, I was torn between that and an X1C (for the slim and light design), but it's not particularly cost effective in comparison, and no FHD screen! Maybe the next overhaul will have it.

I have a few questions, but I'll give some background first.

I will be truly mobile with this I'm a computer science academic, and the uni has decided on a wonderful open plan office style environment, with few, if any, desks in the offices. So, with that in mind, the sofas in the library are the comfiest in the known universe ;-) I'll pretty much be based there. I can't always guarantee a socket for the AC, which is a shame, but I read a review that said with the 9 cell battery they managed to get 11 hours of use out of the thing, how much made up rubbish is that? I run Linux, so I know I can do a lot turning things off in the kernel to lower the power use, but 11 hours seems unrealistic, is it too good to be true?

I read all the posts, so I know about getting aftermarket memory and SSDs, one thing people haven't talked about, which may be very specific, is how they tuned the caching to memory to prolong the life of the SSD. Has anyone played with this? I assume I'd need to max out the memory to 16Gb to take advantage of that as much as possible (especially as I'll need to do a lot of compiling for work.) Is the Corsair Vengeance still recommended as the best for that? What about the SSDs? 830 or M4 still?

Another thing I've been considering is replacing the wireless card. I was stung last time with the wireless card drivers for my ancient (and truly, spectacularly, awful Touchsmart TX2) whereby the drivers are proprietary for that chipset, and they aren't updating it for recent kernels. So, atheros is the go-to for Linux wireless really. I've got a couple of questions about that. Is it worth doing this? Are Intel fairly decent for their Linux drivers? If it iis worth doing, or if there are cheaper alternatives -anyway-, can anyone recommend a replacement? As for the replacement, if I get a 3x3 MIMO replacement, do I need to get the 3x3 Intel card to get the 3 antennae? The HMM (which I flicked through already) implies that the three antennae aren't always present, I'm not sure what conditions are needed for that.

How are you guys getting them so cheap? I'm in the UK, and this:

Processor: Intel Core i3-3120M Processor (3M Cache, 2.50 GHz)
Display Type: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
System Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Total Memory: 4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard (Backlit) UK English
Pointing Device: UltraNav with Fingerprint Reader for Color Sensor, Smart Card Reader
Camera: 720p HD Camera with Microphone
Hard Drive: 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
System Expansion Slots: Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
Battery: 9 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70++
Integrated WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN

comes to 1111.80GBP, or 1692.05USD. :-( I read about the email list thing, is that valid for UK purchases as well does anyone know?

Other than that, does anyone have any other advice?

Ta!

Steve

 

I get a little below than 4 hours of battery (6 cell) life under moderate load (lots of compiling and programming), so you might realestically expect around 7 hours of battery life under such load. I run arch linux BTW. I have an M4 SSD on mine, never been disappointed. I've heard good things about samsung too.
And as far as wireless is concerned, intel drivers have been good enough. They don't work perfect with the WPA2 enterprise encryption at my university, but other than that they're quite good. Also, I think you can't replace the wireless card with anything other than intel, lenovo has a whitelist in the BIOS so other cards won't work.
I have to say, the 530 is the best laptop I've come across to run linux on, everything just works out of the box. And the HD+ screen is a dream to code on. I'm sure you will love yours.

Cheers.

 

You are one of the few.

Get a T530! I got around to weighing mine yesterday, and it totals 5 lbs 4 oz, or 5.25 lbs, or 2.38 kg.

That's with nothing in the DVD bay (3M blue masking tape over the DVD bay hole).

For the moment I run mine with only a 2.5" 512GB Crucial M4 SSD in the main bay, and even with my lowly i5 it is fast!

No clue yet, as I normally take my small X220 (3.25 lbs) when I'm out and about. But I'm going out today with my T530 (6 cell battery) so I'll have a small bit of insight later on today. FWIW I've already decided to buy a 9 cell battery for my T530.

The new 2.5" Crucial M500 is the one I'd go for (over the older M4). If you do get a M500 2.5" SSD, get either the 480GB or the 960GB as the smaller ones have lesser performance.

I run my T530 with 16GB of RAM (CL 10), buy RAM on sale at the cheapest cost.

I also disabled my Windows pagefile.

I'm busy and will check this thread later today.

 

Also consider the Lenovo Thinkpad W530. It's likely a bit heavier than the T530 but some (all?) of them have 4 memory slots and can therefore go up to 32GB memory.

And if you have a Lenovo outlet as an option where you're at in the UK, consider buying from there; but be very careful if you choose to do this because you want to be 100% certain of EXACTLY what is being ordered before you push the enter button.

I'm typing this at a local Starbucks and am strictly running from battery (no AC power). Remaining time bounces around for maybe the 1st 5 or 10 minutes, but I see that I've got 4 hours and 20 minutes left with my 6 cell battery w/ screen set at 11 of 15 (via the Fn F8/F9 key combo), which is decent.

Laptops w/ Haswell cpu should show up June 2, so another idea is to wait to 2nd week of June to buy a T530/W530.

 

I did it XD

Intel Core i5-3230M Processor (3.20GHz, 3MB Cache, 1600MHz) with Intel HD Graphics 4000
Windows 8 64
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
Intel HD Graphics 4000
4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with Fingerprint Reader for Color Sensor, Smart Card Reader
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max, Dual Layer, Ultrabay Enhanced w/ SW Royalty for Windows 8
9 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70++
Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Mobile Broadband upgradable
None
3 Year Depot/Express Warranty

10 days - not soon enough!

Should I wait before buying the RAM and SSD or just go for it now so it's here when the laptop arrives?

Also there is no academic discount in the UK over the promotions they already do, the lady on the phone told me :-( Just in case anyone in the future sees this.

 

Odd things sometimes happen. Meaning I'd use it for a few weeks to be sure that it's OK.

re 1600MHz speed RAM, buy the least expensive matched pair of 2x8GB.

CL 11 is "normal" for 1600MHz speed, but if you see a matched pair of CL 10 for only a bit more money then go for it. But I'm still not sure if it runs any faster than CL11. For certain don't worry about faster speed RAM coz you'll never see any benefit.

 

I have a problem with the 'Lenovo' logo peeling off the cover, i lost the part of 'v'.
Does anybody else has that problem ?

Thanks.

 

I lost part of "e".

 

You can get a new replacement Logo from Lenovo, see:
[Solution] Lenovo Logo or emblem replacement
Re: Cut myself on a T420i - Lenovo Community

 

Hi ibmthink,
I have just called into the warranty service, and they says as it is a cosmetic part they won't provide it.
I would have to buy it myself from the parts department.

Is that true ?
and secondly is the replacement emblem part number applies to all machine type. The article quote above talks about a T420i and I have a T530.

Thanks.

 

Yep, here's for you:
Click

 

Hey everyone, I am thinking of possibly using the T530 as my main computer at home one day. I currently use a desktop so I was wondering what is a good way for accomplishing this. Is a dock necessary?

I was thinking of hooking up a monitor, keyboard and mouse to the T530 along with speakers. Will that work well? Is there a better way you know? What are the benefits of a dock compared to simply attaching the peripherals?

Appreciate any responses. Thanks.

 

I got my 9 cell battery (Lenovo 70++) for my T530.

Run time on battery settled in at just under 8 hours, when outside (in shade), which to me is decent. As the experienced people here know, battery timing depends mostly on screen brightness.

3rd party vendor I bought from (via Amazon) sent it out with only a 7% charge on it. That's not a typo, 7%. I have no idea if that is normal or not for a battery by itself; it was listed as a "bulk" battery at just under $80. FWIW it took 3+ hours to charge to 100% with 90 watt A/C brick, and so far it has functioned normally.

 

Hey guys,

I'm at the point of buying RAM and and SSD for this beastie.

I'm a bit confused about the SSD in the first place - everyone suggests the M4/M500, but the reviews on that put it middle of the road compared to something like the Intel 520 series. Is there any reason to pick the Samsung over the Intel?

Also, about the size. I didn't get the WAN module, so I know I've got a PCIe slot free, plus there's swapping out the DVD drive. I know I want the SDD to run where the main drive is, do I need an adapter for that? What do I need if/when I move the HDD to the DVD drive slot? I keep hearing people talking about Ultrabay caddies and things but I can't find much reference to them on the wider web (but maybe I just don't know quite what to search for).

Thanks!

 

There are small but important differences if you want encrypt the drive. M500 is a great drive, especially if you want Bitlocker encryption and run Windows 8 (it's the first SSD that integrates with Bitlocker properly), but it does not work the old fashion way - with ATA passwords. Intel 520 works vice versa, works okay with ATA password, does not integrate with Bitlocker.

Performance wise, for all practical purposes, there is no difference whatsoever between Samsung, Intel 520, M500 etc.

No.

To move the existing HDD to DVD slot you'll need that Ultrabay caddy. Search for "Ultrabay T530".

 

Well, this point is moot, unless you've got any advice on encryption with Linux (once I get the SSD I plan on doing FDE).

Also I new I forgot to ask something - both the Ultrabay and original HDD slot are mSATA running SATA-III, right? And I'm guessing I can't move the HDD to the spare PCIe slot because of that? I know it seems obvious, I just don't want to mess anything up XD

 

I've bough several of these for my T530: Amazon.com: Ultrabay SATA 2nd HD Hard Drive Caddy Tray Lenovo ThinkPad T420i T510 W510 T520: Computers & Accessories

 

Yeah, sorry I didn't specify - I'm not in the US. All the suggestions so far have been for US stuff (I found some elsewhere on this forum). I've found a few on ebay.co.uk and amazon.co.uk, so I'm fine with that now, just I keep reading conflicting things about what's actually available - some threads say there is a second mSATA slot already available? So in theory I wouldn't need the caddy. But then some say that second slot isn't SATA-III, just SATA-II. I don't know what the situation is heh.

 

The T530 only has one slot that is mSATA capable. And that slot is only capable of SATA II speed, which is a choice that Lenovo made (a few mfg put SATA III on the mSATA port).

Meaning that SATA II is plenty fast as a boot drive, and I use a mSATA boot drive on my slightly older X220 (Sandy Bridge cpu).

The T530 mobo (which is made by Lenovo with a Phoenix based BIOS) is Intel cpu based and therefore uses an Intel chipset, and is limited to 2 SATA III ports, which are used on the T530 for the HDD bay and the ODD bay. On my older X220 the 2 SATA III ports are used for the HDD bay and the Ultrabase connector.

I believe that Haswell chipsets will offer more than 2 SATA III ports. But I think it's a BIG mistake to become a guinea pig with new tech that has just been released 10 days ago. Meaning give the new Haswell laptops at least a few months to sort itself out.

 

If you want FDE-encrypted HDD, and with SSD it's particularly not ideal doing it with software, your should avoid M4/M500. The former does not do encryption at all, the latter needs Bitlocker to activate its hardware encryption.

Get Intel 520, Plextor M5 Pro (a bit better than Intel), possibly Samsung 830/840 PRO (I haven't tried this one). Secure erase when received, setup ATA password, and that's about it, completely OS/software independent.

 

Yeah I just read about this, I'd rather have a token on an external usb stick for encryption, so I'll just stick with software solutions. Or maybe both, not sure :-D All ordered though! Should be a fun week next week making all of this go

 

So I'm looking into getting a T530/W530 to replace my Sony Vaio s15 (love the form factor/IPS screen of the S15, but I'm getting 3 hours of battery life and I need much more battery life once I get back to school.

I found a decent deal for a T530 in the outlet for ~$1,000, and I'm thinking about springing on it.

Does anyone know if you can haggle a rep over outlet purchases? I have done so in the past for buying a new computer, but didn't know if they would budget on price at all over an outlet item.

 

I personally would avoid purchasing from lenovo's outlet, countless horror stories of messed up orders, lost items, delayed shipping etc.

As to haggling with them I would guess a solid no to that.

I also would highly recommend a reseller who I HAVE personally purchased from, a NIB W530, for a great price fast shipping and very personal service.

I just looked and he has a few T530's available, great prices, and even a W530 or two for under 1000.00

hmh_laptops | eBay

Go for the W530 unless you insist on the T model.

 

This guy you talk about is selling REFURBISHED laptops from Lenovo, with at least a $100 increase of the outlet price. I would recommend buy directly from Lenovo Outlet, rather than from a reseller of refurbished laptops.

 

My experience is that you can't haggle with Lenovo outlet sales rep.

The good machines are gone within seconds and you don't have time to haggle anyway.

When you see a laptop with a good configuration on outlet, grab them immediately.

 

Unlike @voostro (who just did post_#745), I think well of Lenovo's Outlet. e.g. my X220 was bought by me at Lenovo's Outlet.

It does however take a few weeks to a month+ of waiting and watching.

For some specific ideas on this, see: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-wait-until-christmas-kaveri.html#post9231864

I seriously doubt that there is any chance of haggling over an Outlet purchase.

 

I ordered a T530 from outlet recently. The shipping date is postponed about 3 weeks. It is yet to be 'released to the factory'. What do you think is causing the delayed the shipment from the outlet?

 

Yours is a refurb/scratched unit?

Most of the refurb and scratched units have "Estimated Ship Date: 3 days" at the bottom of the extreme right side.

Did yours have this?