Lenovo ThinkPad 11e (AMD)

Both are W7/HDD from Adorama

Are you referring to the one that is displayed in System Properties?

Finally, the machines still haven't completed their Windows Updates activity

 

Do you see CPU or memory usage spiking when doing the wired transfer?

I've seen the jumpy trackpad behavior during software installs but haven't tested long wired transfers.

 

Give her the 11e and buy yourself a refurbished T420S from Arrow Direct for around the same price. They are very clean cosmetically, especially if you buy A-stock and the CPU is twice as fast.

http://stores.ebay.com/Shop-Arrow-Direct

 

The one I have is I think a IVO brand display. It's probably the cheapest and crappiest LCD.

Don't worry about the win7 cdkey. They use a oem key which is generic, plus a marker in the bios called SLIC2.1. Very easy to get if you search for it.

The activation on win10 is different from the past. Once you have win10 installed at least once, you don't need to worry about the cdkey for that machine.

 

ya I did notice a couple of cores getting close to the max usage during the file transfers. however, I tried again a few more times and I did not see the slowness anymore. It has been quite smooth since then. There were occasional lags when scrolling some web pages, but not a big deal for me.

 

No. I meant the product key used to activate Windows 7 Pro. You'd have to use a "product key finder" app.

For Windows 10 Pro, a product key isn't needed for activation.


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Windows cd-key finder apps will only find you a generic cd-key which you can easily find online. There's no point in retrieving a cd-key from Windows 7 unless you used a private cd-key to install it.

For example, Lenovo Win7 Ultimate cd-key is 6K2KY-BFH24-PJW6W-9GK29-TMPWP. You'll need a xrm-ms file too, but that's easy to find online.

For Windows 10, you need to at least install it once through upgrade, or using a cd-key. After that you don't need the cd-key.

 

First time I ever hear about this. I knew about generic keys in Windows 8, but those generic keys were only used for installation and not activation. I'd like to learn more about what you're talking about.

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I am playing with the laptop with no program or window open but the memory usage is very high 2.5GB to 3.5GB...
The track pad also stutters alot when the ram reaches its high points..
CPU usage is at 15%~23% at idle...

Is this normal? Any tips to lower the cpu usage?

Edit: After turning off Nitro9, My CPU usage went down immensely. If you guys have any other tips please let me know.

 

The cpu is definitely the bottleneck. The 8gb RAM I put in helps, but this thing still has problems at times. My 2gb RAM ASUS runs a bit smoother most of the time.

 

i have the recent woot sale version. i am happy with the machine. the screen is ivo version and is not too bad. i also get between 1 to 4 percent cpu usage on the compressed memory/system process in windows 10. i dual boot it with arch linux running gnome and linux-ck kernel customized for amd bobcat which runs much nicer than windows 10. i had an 8 gig stick around and swapped it in, i don't really see much improvement. i removed the bloatware in win 10 and disabled the windows defender. battery life no more than 5 hours but somewhat better in linux using tlp and powertop tweaks. really like the wifi. i am getting 35meg a second transfers on my network in linux. the sound/speakers is the weakest/worst thing they are very tinny and too soft. i plan on doing a clean windows 10 install i prefer all of the lenovo stuff out as much as possible. overall this a well built machine with a very nice keyboard well worth the 200 dollars.

 

Same one as mine! I figured the 8GB upgrade wouldn't make a difference but I ordered one anyways because it was less than $30. The sound is actually pretty good if you listen in Windows with the Dolby software enhancement enabled.

The problem I'm having besides the awful screen is that it gets really sluggish because the lack of CPU power. Lot of times I see myself typing faster than it being displayed in certain apps. Opening Photoshop to print something takes a long time to load the application. I can imagine how worse it would be with a spinning HDD, lol.

I also disabled a lot of crap, and especially Windows Defender. I was hoping to undervolt the CPU so it wastes less energy, and turn off the memory compression since the CPU is so weak and I have enough RAM but haven't found a way to do so.

Running Linux would be nice, but I just use VM on my rMBP13 for that if I need it. I'm planning to keep mine to use as a home file server which I can keep powered on 24/7. In the mean time I've been using this as a beat up laptop, bringing it to the toilet, near the kitchen, and using it like a rugged laptop. I think it's good for these too since I can't treat my shiny rMBP13 like that, lol. Funny thing, they weigh about the same when I hold them in my hand. The footprint is very close to each other, a 11" and a 13" laptop.

 

Here's a good place to get more information about Windows 7 activation.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/forums/16-Windows-7?s=e5dc4dcfd28fc264661bd803eee16ea3

If you install Windows 7 with this method, you don't "activate" anything. It's all done automatically.
Basically, after installing Windows 7 without a cdkey, you open a admin command prompt and type in two commands and that's it.

So your BIOS will already have a SLIC2.1 information which is needed for OEM activation.
You'll need a generic cdkey that matches the version your laptop originally came with, Ultimate or Professional or Home.
And the one xrm- file that I mentioned earlier.
And the two commands - one for entering the cdkey, the other for reading in the arm file.
Then you are all set. This is perfectly legal as long as you use the same version Windows 7 that your laptop came with.

 

When the unit is turned off and charging, how do you know if its fully charged? I see no light or anything.
Or do I have to turn on my computer and see?

 

I am 99% sure you have to power ON the PC and check within the OS or UEFI.

According to the Lenovo ThinkPad 11e (AMD) Hardware Maintenance Manual it states:

 

Has anyone played with Lenovo Solution Center and saw that the Warranty section it says "Unable to get response from warranty server" "Unable to connect and check the warranty at this time" ?

 

Yes, I've seen that.

 

Is this bad or good?

 

Ditto, this calls for a chat with a Lenovo representative.

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I have the woot version with the SSD and I am having WiFi issues. I can only seem to stay connected for about 20 minutes and then I get a big red X through the icon in the bottom right corner. I tried rolling back the driver as recommended in this thread but do not see any options for older drivers. It only says, let windows find a driver or to browse to one myself. The only way to fix this for me is to re-start and this isn't very practical. Anyone else experiencing this? Or can anyone assist? This makes the laptop somewhat unusable.

 

I don't know about the rolling back button, but I just downloaded the older version and manually installed that over the latest version. Working fine after that. But the 5 GHz range is really short for this laptop.

 

How short? My house is 800 sq feet and I'm no more than 20-30 feet from my router at any point in my house.

 

My router is about 20ft away, on 2nd floor while I'm in 3rd floor. RMBP13 pulls 20 MB/s easy while the 11e does about 15 MB/s with weak signals.

It's not that disappointing.. it's just slower than expected. The CPU performance is more of a disappointment to me, and then the crappy screen.

 

The wifi for me stays connected but its super slow. I checked my driver, its the same one that people are recommending. Is anyones wifi slow? Feels like 56k..

 

When mine is actually connected I'm getting about 5mb/s down. Compare this to my iPhone that gets 75mb/s down.

This is disappointing. This thing is quickly becoming a paperweight (and a heavy one at that) if I can't get this issue resolved.

 

Yea pretty disappointed myself. I bought this computer for school, if the WiFi is like this there is no point for me to keep it. If the Wifi does not get better I am willing to sell it for the same price I payed.

 

Sucks to see so many disappointed owners. I haven't had any WiFi issues with the Windows 7 build that came on the HDD from the factory. Then again, I'm also not using 802.11ac and I'm rarely if ever transferring large files over my crappy 802.11n/Fast Ethernet home network. I'm in need of a serious home network makeover! Maybe 2016 will be the year I finally upgrade my family's home network to 802.11ac and Gigabit Ethernet! Let's try to isolate and resolve this issue.

What Windows version are you guys seeing these WiFi issues with? 7, 8.1, 10, Linux, etc.?

What driver version are you using when the WiFi issues occur?

If you plan on keeping the 11e, why not give Lenovo support a try?

If you don't plan on keeping the 11e, I would assume you need to hurry up and return it ASAP! I plan on keeping mine and riding out the issues as long as I have warranty and support. The 11e was so cheap for me and does what I need that I ended up purchasing a second one. However, now hearing all this disappointment I hope it wasn't a mistake. Good luck to everyone.

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Return it or sell it on ebay for at least $250. These are easy sell.
My wifi is working fine, although the 5 GHz signal is a bit weak, it's stable. I have Windows 10 with one from the latest driver.

 

Adoramas return policy is that if the laptop is turned on it cannot be returned, since the key is activated.

Also I dont think anyone would want a opened unit thats been activated for $250 since the unopened ones on ebay go for $250~280

 

I'll probably sell mine for $150 with 8gb ram to someone local.

 

Anyone know where I can pick up a spare charger for this model?

 

The best thing I got locally was $210..

 

I had said $150 because I didn't keep the box or anything but maybe I'll ask $200 since it's practically brand new and has 8gb ram. It's the Woot SSD model.

 

I think you can get more, just show them the invoice as proof that its brand new. I just let mine go last night for $210. I just had to get rid of it before more disappointing things pop up. It was cool while it lasted.

 

I've been meaning to dabble in the world of Self Encrypting Drives or SE-SSDs, specifically in my personal portable PCs to prevent data theft. So, I picked up a couple SanDisk X300s SSDs (2.5", SATA, HP 769999-001) for my 11e(s). One dedicated to Windows and the other strictly for Linux. I've yet to see a "2.5" SATA HDD/SSD white list" from either HP or Lenovo, and technically storage is considered to be an end-user replaceable part so I decided to proceed with my plan. Lastly, I did find that there exists a SanDisk X300s from Lenovo with custom Lenovo firmware as well. Here's hoping the custom HP firmware in the X300s I ordered doesn't get flagged by the Lenovo BIOS.

WINMAGIC CERTIFIED SECURE; CERTIFICATION ISSUED: 008

WAVE SELF-ENCRYPTING DRIVE MANAGEMENT

 

Sold mine for $225 locally. One on eBay for $235 with free shipping to HI. I didn't know eBay fees hiked that much that I'm at a loss for the one I sold on eBay.

 

Maybe Ebay, Lenovo direct, Amazon, or a local computer store? Should be pretty easy to find.

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I'm going to try a fresh install of Windows this week. I just plan to make a USB drive with windows 10 pro. Will this pickup my windows key? How about the drivers? And is it going to install all the Lenovo stuff? (Outside of drivers)

 

Will this pickup my windows key?
Yes, it will automatically pick up the key.

How about the drivers?
Windows Update will install most if not all the necessary device drivers. Watch out for buggy Lenovo drivers though, like the Lenovo Broadcom WiFi driver.

And is it going to install all the Lenovo stuff? (Outside of drivers)
No, you'll have to install Lenovo software yourself.

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Thanks! I guess I'll have the boot disk on one drive and the drivers on another, just in case. Last time I reinstalled windows on my only machine it was a bit painful to get drivers without internet haha. This time I have backup computers though.

 

It helps having two computers. Also, you could just download the Drivers and software beforehand. Let us know how it goes.

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I did this last night and was pretty uneventful. I had the drivers on one flash drive and windows on the other. Once it finally booted some things didn't work so I manually loaded the drivers from the flash drive and everything appears to be working now. A lot less clutter now!

 

They have the ssd version on Woot again if anyone is interested.

 

several questions, as I continue to track the 11e.
WIFI is the biggest complaint, though the AMD generally has more complaints than the Intel model.
Is the WIFI issue strictly a driver issue? Have any of you upgraded/replaced the WIFI card and is the FRU list essentially the "whitelist-only" with no exceptions recognized by BIOS?
What is the real honest battery life?

Some of you have a persistent CPU crank of 3% & up - this is likely the AMD SATA device which AMD seems incapable of implementing correctly [multiple generations]. I suggest you try swapping the device driver to the standard-issue Microsoft SATA/AHCI device driver. CPU will go flat, and if you measure with Crystaldisk you probably get a small bump up in performance

 

I ordered this one from Amazon and it works just fine:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012SRKG7E?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

Good luck,
Steve