Lenovo Thinkpad T410 Owner's Lounge

According to the HMM, there is located an optional smartcard reader, but eben a dummy if there´s not installed one. So, why couldn´t they make this dummy thick enough..

 

I have the smartcard-reader and still some flex.

 

I've just ordered a T410, concerned with regards to 6 cell battery life. Does your model have the discrete or integrated graphics?

 

It's with the discrete graphic, it's the only one available where I live at the moment.

 

Has anyone with integrated graphics tried any games? Obviously no one should expect good gaming performance, but I'm a little curious nonetheless about older titles that I might be able to squeak by with using the GMA HD.

 

Thats a shame. Heres hoping they've screwed up my order and are shipping a 9 cell..

 

I'm not overly impressed with the battery performance, but I'm wondering how much Win7 is to blame, I had a serious battery hit when I installed Win7 on my T400 instead of Vista.

 

Can anyone verify whether T410 batteries are interchangeable with the T400?

 

No, they are not. 6-cell is flush in T410, while in T400 it's not. More empty space inside T410 because of the redesign.

Consult tabook.pdf http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf

 

I managed to wedge a piece of card, like that from a cereal box, in between the roll-cage and the palm rest, over the HDD. Almost zero flex now.

 

I just ordered a T410 and hope to have it in a couple of weeks. Does anyone know if it is possible to boot from the mini-PCIe on these machines? I would like to get a mini-PCIe SSD for the OS.

 

Can any owner let me know what their battery life has been with discrete graphics. I know NBR got 7 hours but laptopmag got just under 5.

 

With Surfing and Office I get clearly >6hrs.
But I never used a stop watch, but 6hrs with my i7 and 9Cell and dedicated GPU are clearly possible.

 

620m w/graphics --> 5h
540m w/graphics --> 7h

 

TinyRK, I was considering getting the t410 with the SSD option and you said yours came with a samsung SSD.

Would you mind running a benchmark on it (maybe HDtune) so we can see how it compares to other SSDs?

 

To make things short:
not my bench, but same HDD and same speed I personally measured before.

The 1.8" is around 10% slower than the 2.5" Samsung PM800

Got the pic from here:
http://home.comcast.net/~rbuck33/OEM1645/DiskMark.jpg

 

So the i5 processor eats up less power than the i7 processor? Why is that, can someone explain? Thanks!

 

It clocks at a lower frequency? They can reduce the operating voltage on the i5's as the processor isn't near it's operating limit.

 

Dont know why,but check this. Same laptop, just different CPU's

 

I have a T410 with the i7, and I can say this data is not at all true for my system. Granted, I have integrated graphics (but so does the W760c), my system draws ~10 watts on idle, hitting about 18 max. Even watching a 720p video on youtube, it is in the mid to low 20's (22-24W) on Linux. I am not sure how that system has such high power draws, but with general use using my 6 cell battery (which is 57Whr), I got around 4.5-5.5 hours of use in Windows and 3.5-4 in Linux. Clearly if my system were always drawing at least 26W, it would barely make it past two hours.

My data generally agrees with http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T410-2522-3FG-Notebook.25368.0.html which differs greatly from the information in that graph.

Honestly the numbers in that chart I think are skewed by some other factor. I have seen so many posts about the "horrible" power consumption of the i7 (which seems to stem completely from people reading that chart and not actually having experience with the actual cpu; I mean that chart indicates that their system with the IGP uses twice as much as the T410 with dedicated graphics while idling) that I had to add my experience. Have there actually been any complaints in these forums about the i7's horrible power consumption from people that own one? I haven't noticed them...

Ryan

 

FWIW, I ordered a T410 on Feb 4. Initially the estimated ship date was Feb 12. When I checked the order status on the 13th the estimated ship date had changed to Mar 8.

From what I've read you cannot boot from mini-PCIe. I'm doing the boot SSD route too and I ordered the ultrabay III adapter to do it. I'm going to move the HDD over to the ultrabay and put the SSD where the HDD was initially installed. You lose the DVD drive, but almost everything I install can be put on a thumb drive so it's no big deal.

 

This article explains it pretty well. The core i7 chips have hyperthreading, each core can handle two threads of instruction. So there's a trade off between power usage and computational power. I personally would stick to core i5, or even intel's ultra low voltage chips for a notebook. But that's just my opinion.


http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-memory/review/2009/09/08/Intel-Core-i7-870---Core-i5-750/p3

 

That information is regarding the desktop processors. All of the processor options for the T410 have hyperthreading.

 

I'm wondering if any other T410 owner is having this issue I'm having with the Instant Resume feature of the Power Manager; the problem being that it won't stay enabled. I'll enable it from the taskbar icon or from the settings windows but it seems to not actually enable it.

I've re-installed both the "Power Management Driver" and "Power Manager" program from Lenovo.com already and it hasn't fixed it.


Update: I think I got that fixed. Either using the ThinkPad Power Management driver from Windows Update instead of Lenovo.com or re-installing Access Connection fixed it. But now, for some reason the microphone mute/unmute button stopped working. Off to try to fix that.

 

Mobile i5 has hyperthreading too.

 

i just look at lenovo blog here is some explanation from Matt kohut:
only T410s that support Switchable graphics
and the rest you can read here
http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=406

 

Great! The same blog article also confirms that

 

from the link above: http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=406

Now, what does this mean. Buy Lenovo and "hack it yourself"

Anyway, what do you think about it?

 

anybody an idea?

come on guys, is nobody interested?

 

I am interested in a t410, I own a t500 with 2.8 dual core, 6 cell on discrete graphics i get about 2 hours max not good.

What is the ballpark battery life for an i7, 9ccell on discrete graphics?

 

it means that lenovo does not currently and does not have plans to support switchable graphics on anything other than the t410s at the current time

 

Ok, that su**.

Anyway, what battery life do you get with discrete graphics, 9-Cell while surfing?

 

I just received my T410 (i7-620M + Intel GMA) this morning. After running Windows and Lenovo software updates and the installation of my anti-virus software (Symantec Endpoint Protection), the virus scan detected 2 heuristic risks classified as Packed.Generic.271 ( http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2009-113011-1821-99).

Those 2 files are
c:\windows\syswow64\encdec.dll
and
c:\windows\winsxs\x86_microsoft-windows-tvencdec_...........\encdec.dll

I am wondering if anybody knows what are those encdec.dll files for?

Thanks!

 

Well i know that "encdec.dll" is from DirectShow, and it's used as a encrypter/decrypter filter, it is heuristic so it may just be tied to what Symantec thinks will exploit a buffer overflow in your RAM, heuristic threats are less to worry about since the scanner is calling it a threat based on experience, and occurences in which a real threat stems from that file/document/datum, like when a scanner program calls a game crack .exe out as a threat, simply because it bypasses a regulated check for genuinity, if that's a word.

 

Thanks! I will restore those files then.

 

Could someone please let us know if the fan is audible when just browsing or working with MS office for example ?
Or is it always on, even when idle ? That high pitched noise is that terrible ?
And compared to the T400, is it more noisy ?
Thanks

 

Do a clean install instead.

 

Got my w510 a couple weeks ago with the FHD screen, loving it except for a few times (about 4 times so far) that it blued screen of death on me (still trying to figure out why with tech support). I have a 2nd hard drive using the ultrabay adaptor (from Lenovo). But everytime the system wakes up from sleep, I get this message:

Problem Ejecting SSDSA2SH032G1 INTEL
This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device, and then try again.

Very weird. Anyone experiencing the same issue? I don't think this ultrabay adaptor was made for this machine because it's not a perfect fit.

Sorry I posted in the wrong thread. My apologies.

 

It's a Symantec error. Their website says that if you update your virus definitions the issue should be fixed.

 

is the clean install worth it? because i read some posts that i might lose "the windows 7 thinkpad experience" which helps to boot faster. so i am not sure atm. also if i understood it correctly, the hidden partition has all the drivers, so if i format the main partition, i can install all drivers later from that hidden partition?

 

The hidden partition is for system recovery. All the drivers are in C:\SWTools.

 

Finally got around to setting up my T410. So far I'm loving it.. coming from a Macbook Pro, this machine seems very well built, easy to use.. the keyboard lives up to the hype!

The only problem I've encountered so far is the colour red on my WXGA+ screen looks a little... toxic. Is there anything I can do about this? Are there any preconfigured colour profiles for T410 screens?

That said, if anyone has any questions about this machine (i5-520/ intel graphics/ HDD) relative to the Macbook Pros, I'd be happy to give my impressions.

 

Hi Cwarner, I'd love to hear about the screen quality and how it compare to the macbook pro, I assume it's not as good, but to how do you feel about it?
And also if you'd have any picture like side by side, that'll be a treat.
In any case, well done for your purchase.

 

I think that's just a marketing strategy. Even then, the hardware would be the same minus unnecessary and trial software. The hidden partition is useless if you have your own Windows 7 key. Get a 7 DVD from a friend and you are good to go. Search for the Vista Clean Install thread here.

 

I went to take a look at the T410 locally and I must say I was very dissapointed with the screen. It could be a fault with the display model, I'm not sure. The screen had a murky look, colors were washed out and the max brightness could be described as weak at best. Now if only Lenovo were to use the same calibre screens as MBP's, then they'd have a solid product. I'm gladly pay an extra $300 for a really nice screen.

 

I have a kind of dumb question. How do I get rid of the "lenovo recovery" partition of the hard drive. I already clean installed windows 7 and I have my own keys, so I assume it's useless.

I want those 10 gigs of space ;O

 

I don't really have too much experience with screens, but the screen on my T410 is really nice. I'm not doing any photo editing or anything but for watching movies, or just doing regular work, the screen is just great.

I had an HP dv4000 before my T410 and in my opinion, the T410 screen is much nicer, especially since it is a matte screen.

 

It's not as good as the MBP screen, as you guessed. That may partly be because the MBP has a glossy screen, which makes it look a little cleaner (I still prefer matte, myself), but the difference in colour quality is quite apparent. As I mentioned, reds seem to be particularly bad. This is coming from someone who normally wouldn't be able to judge a 'good' display just by looking at it by itself.

That said, I don't think I'll have any problems with it. It's not good, but it's definitely not something that's been jumping out at me as I've been using it for the past couple of days.

I'll see about getting some pictures up in a day or two.

 

I've had my T410 for 1 week. I left it plugged in overnight, but off, and when I opened it up today I found that the left speaker had melted. It melted the plastic mesh that covers it. Time for my first test of the Lenovo warranty. I don't really want to spend a month without this machine.

 

Heat/Fan Noise: Is this a common problem??

I want to finally pull the trigger and purchase a T410. Unfortunately, I'm noticing several recent threads complaining about it's loud fan running constantly, even under mild use. Is this a common experience? If so, is it really that loud?

This is the only thing holding me back, so please advise!! Thanks in advance!