Lenovo Thinkpad T410 Owner's Lounge

I was considering 9 cell battery but I hardly run it on battery.

 

wait does that mean i7 operates quieter than i5 does? and also does discrete graphic card help relieve the problem of high pitched fan?

 

Processors really do make much noise compared to a hard drive so don't even worry, as for discrete graphics it will run hotter than integrated, so if anything the fan will run faster creating more noise because the computer internals will get hotter because of heat soak

The high pitched fan will always be there on a notebook like the t410 due to small cooling vents accompanied with a lot of heat, the t series generally use the best processors available which tend to create a good amount of heat, if you really cant stand the fan, fun a cooling bad and turn down the fan in power manger

 

Joining the club soon

 

Hi,

Just got my 410 yesterday (bought it last Tuesday) and I just realised I made a huge mistake! I chose the wrong screen
As I really need the higher res, I'll be selling mine (don't think Lenovo will trade mine!)..
So if anyone in or around London is interested, pls contact me!
Specs:
Core i7-620M
NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics 256MB DDR3 with AMT
Win 7 32
WXGA (should have got the WXGA+ !!!)
4 GB Ram
500 GB HDD
9 cell
Paid £1095 incl. VAT (there was a 10% promotion)

Will accept £1000!

Comes with box and everything that was supplied (ie not much really) as well as copy of my original invoice.

2 days old only ...


PS: if we cant post laptop for sale message, feel free to delete it!

 

Although typically Lenovo does charge a 15% restocking fee for open products, if you negotiate with them and point out that you will be ordering another more expensive configuration, they may give you a break (I do remember someone catching this break a long while back) - anyways, it doesn't hurt to phone them up and try, and could save you some money and time.

 

Hi,
Thanks for that.

Could indeed give them a call in the morning, just that when I called last week to ask a question, I spent 20 minutes on hold and the person who picked up the phone was ... useless :-(
15% restocking is maybe not that bad though... but if I go for the same specs with the correct screen, there is only £40 difference....
Unless I go for a W700 of course lol

 

Question!

Just noticed that the usual Windows licence sticker is missing form the bottom of the laptop.. this is odd I find as all laptops I ever owned always had it.

I just checked a few 410 reviews online and noticed that some had the sticker and others didn't!

Anyone knows anything about this??

Thanks

UPDATE: Windows 7 sticker is ... under the battery!

 

It's probably a noob question and was answered many times, but do ThinkPads come with a W7 DVD or just pre-installed?

 

Thinkpads come with W7 preinstalled, and you can burn your own set (1 CD + 2 DVDs) of factory-state recovery disks (NOT clean-install Windows 7 disks). These are basically a drive image to restore your hard drive to what it was like when it was delivered to you.

 

So in other words, if I want to make my own custom install, I'm screwed?
+1 rep BTW.

<<< Also, can I download the image from their website or create it from the HDD when it arrives?

 

Update on my low-res T410!

Spoke to Lenovo this AM, and they will take it back from me! Amazing!
Technically their T&Cs says I have up to 7 days after delivery to return the product, no questions asked.

So spent 10 mins on the phone with her as she wanted to know the reasons...
I explained about the low res issue and the fact that during order process, it was quite tricky to spot the difference.
Funny enough, she was also on a T60 (my current laptop) and she wanted to get my feedback on T410.
I explained that the biggest drawback was the 'form factor' of the screen! I hate wide formats and will deeply regret my T60. She is also due an update and will also miss her T60 15"...
She said the reason to move all production to wide was following extensive customer surveys where most people, incl. businesses, would prefer wide format just to watch movies!!! Argh!!
What about Excel users huh? :-(

Anyway, she pointed me to a shop in London (246 Totenham court road) that carries the whole Lenovo range, so I might pop in to check the T510 and the W range...

 

In the UK, the 7 day period is law... they don't really have a choice.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20060215095859/http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/guide/homeshop.htm

 

Yes but I did not think it applied to business purchases, only B2C...

 

Hey guys Im thinking on buying this notebook. I have a few questions before I order though. Does anybody know if this laptop is XP compatible and are there drivers for it? Are there any flex on the center of the screen when it is closed and are there any flex when opening the lid? Is the keyboard good or do the people that say its horrible just asking for too much?

 

That's great news that you can send back your low-res T410. Good idea to check out the other models--but bear in mind the T510 and W510 (and I think the new W710 as well?) are all 16:9 wide screen, so even wider than the aspect on the T410.

 

Can you find an OEM install disc on the net somewhere? you can actually backup your Windows 7 activation and restore it on a new install of Windows 7, assuming it's the exact same version on the same laptop.

 

A pity they do not provide the installation W7 DVD. Will have to make an image from the HDD then. But the whole idea was to be able to install the OS from scratch with minimum drivers and create my own custom image. Alas...

 

According to their website there is driver for XP, but I haven't seem anybody install XP on it.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74582.html

 

Thanks Mutnat.
Yeah, I realised when buying the T410 that the good old days of 1400x1050 resolution where gone :-(
Also noticed that the bezel around screen is about double the size on the newer models (compared to T60).
Really don't like that in terms of looks, makes them feel/look sooo old!

 

thanks a lot. for the info! im new to thinkpads and is still wondering about the keyboard and the screen are there any flexes? thanks!

 

any real word on battery life? preferably with the Intel integrated graphics..

 

It's trivially easy to find a clean install disc. There is nothing wrong with that (it's not piracy) as long as you have a license, which you do as it comes with the laptop. Just make sure to install the same W7 edition you have the license for. If you can't find the exact DVD with the exact edition, you can use any W7 DVD and modify 1 file and it allows you select the edition to install. Just make sure you get 32-bit or 64-bit as needed.

You can backup and restore the activation using the ABR tool in my sig.

 

A user over at the thinkpads.com forums posted some recommendations for colour settings for thinkpad displays. I'm too lazy to make an account there, so I figured I'd post the link here--jhawkins I'm assuming you browse here as well. Thanks for the thread! I never even thought to play around with those settings and it's made a huge difference... the only real gripe i had with my T410 was the colours seemed a little toxic at times.. the settings you recommended fixed all that!

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=85851

I'd recommend everyone give it a go.

 

Absolutely agree on T410 screen colour settings!
Probably worse out of the box I have ever seen: all was VERY greyish.

On my T410, there was an Nvidia card so same process but go through the Nvidia software to set it up properly.

TBH, I was hugely disappointed by the screen.

 

One thing I've noticed regarding the colour settings that I linked to above, is that while it improves the grayness issue that alexBe mentioned, it also causes some other colours to be a bit too, uhh, pastel? For example, I'm finding a lot of supposed light blues are now more aqua. I guess I need to tweak some more.

 

Thanks for the detailed answer. Will definitely try it soon.

 

Just ordered my T410 this week, decided to go for it before the 10% coupon expired. Not sure if that was a good idea, since it seems some users in this thread have gotten better deals in the past.

Anyway, heres my setup:
Intel Core i5-540M Processor (2.53GHz, 3MB L3, 1066MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 6412
14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight (WWAN antenna)
NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics 256MB DDR3 with AMT
2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
Camera 2.0MP
320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
9 cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery - Dual Mode
Bluetooth w/ antenna
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)

Decided to skimp out on the stuff that I can easily upgrade later and dont really require at the moment (HDD and RAM).

Ended up paying $1124.10 + $99.76 tax for a total of $1,223.86.

Should ship 4/8.

What do you guys think?

Oh and what does the "dual mode" part of "9 cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery - Dual Mode" mean?

 

Nice setup and good price! Good Luck on getting the system before the EDD

 

I've had my 410 for about a month now, and have the discrete graphics card. For battery life, I'm getting about 5 hours (9-cell battery) during normal work. When playing a demanding game, it drops to about 3 hours. I do not find the fan noise to be objectionable at all, but I'm also 50 and have been hanging around jet engines for many years

 

Hey everyone,

I just posted to the T510 Owner's Lounge, but since the information/question applies to the T410 too I thought I would link to it here as well.

It's about headset adapters for the headphone/mic combo socket.

Bye!
LennyOvo

 

Just got this email today:

Heheh, so thanks for the good luck
I should have it on either Monday or Wednesday, depending on when UPS actually starts moving the package (2 day shipping, but today was a Saturday so the laptop may just be sitting at a UPS warehouse until Monday).

 

Lol, I got the same email today as well!
My W510 is on the way!

 

So I got my laptop back. I took it into the local Business Partner. They said that they couldn't get the parts from Lenovo because of some sort of part number mismatch on the Lenovo website. So there went 12 wasted days. I called Lenovo and they sent me a box. I sent it in and had it back in a week. It seems to be working so far. At least the speaker hasn't melted again. They updated the bios so maybe that had something to do with it.

I am a bit disappointed to see that the screen flickers at low brightness. I have the integrated graphics with the i7 620 M. Has anyone else noticed this? It seems to be related to load; more load = more flickering. i hope this is an issue that can be fixed with a bios update.

 

@jfd3220 The flickering you describe is associated with a bad BIOS flash or a general bug in all similar systems with i7 620M and same BIOS version. The system is experiencing power issues that need to be fixed by either a BIOS update (most likely) or a stronger PSU. It could also be a driver related issue, but I doubt it.
You should contact the support again and ask them for a BIOS fix or a different PSU.

 

Ordered mine the 21st this month. It was shipped on the 26th, and I should have it sometime tomorrow. Very quick turn which I'm very pleased with. Didn't spring for the fingerprint reader because I didn't feel it was necessary. Hoping I don't change my mind sometime down the road.

SBB INCR I5-540M 2.53GHZ,3MBL3
45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64
45M4918 SBB G.WIN.7PROF64US ENGLISH
45M4798 SBB 14.1WXGA+TFT,W/LEDBACKLIG.
45M4792 SBB NV.NVS SW.GR.256MB-AMT,TPM
45M4813 SBB 56KV.92DESIGNEDMODEM
42X6309 VBB 4GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ2DIMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
45M4801 SBB ULNAV(T.POINT+TOUCHPAD)
45M4834 SBB CAMERA SUBCARD
45M4827 SBB 320GB HARDDISKDRIVE7200RPM
45M4820 SBB DVDREC8XMAXD.L.U.SLIMS.ATA
45M4815 SBB 6CELLLI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
45M4804 SBB IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
45M4874 SBB LANG.PACK US ENGLISH

 

Hey guys I just ordered mine last week and estimated to be shipped on 04/06/10. I'm super excited as this is my first Thinkpad. I'm looking to buy a sleeve for the t410 with a 9 cell battery. Anybody have any suggestions? Links would be much appreciated! i'm a college student so i am on a tight budget please recommend something under 30 USD thanks in advance.

 

The only screen flicker I have seen on mine only happens when the Power Manager option is to to reduce the LCD refresh rate to 50Hz on battery.

Check that option.

 

Do you have the same specs? Does your flicker happen when increasing the load?

 

I have the same spec - Intel HD on i7 620m.

The only flicker I see it when the screen refresh is set to 50Hz. It is consistent.

You can set the screen back to 60Hz and there is no flicker.

Your flicker may be something completely different... check your screen is set to 60Hz.

If it is then you have another issue going on.

 

Hey guys! I'm thinking about buying this computer, and my question is whether or not the screen is usable with normal WXGA? It gives an option for WXGA+, but I don't know what the difference is or whether or not it's even useful.

 

jfd3220 describes his flickering as being inconsistent and aggravated by load. I have a strong suspicion of PSU or bad BIOS flash related issues.

 

Have a look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=227218

 

Here's something weird....my T410 isn't quiet, but the problem isn't the fan. Its the hard drive (500gb 7200rpm). In a quiet room, I can hear the hard drive spinning from across the room, even when its idling. I can also feel its vibrations through the palm rest, which is annoying.

I'm 100% sure its not the fan, as I run TPfancontrol and can shut the fan down manually. Does anyone else have a noisy hard drive?

 

@hrez2kx: You may want to open up your hard drive bay and check that the HDD and the rubber rails are secure and seated properly.

 

I checked the bios and they had not infact updated it. It was at version 1.09 so I updated it to 1.15. This didn't make a difference.

I notice the flickering when the machine is loading windows mostly. I tried this program that puts CPU usage to 100%: http://www.jam-software.com/heavyload/ and I did not notice any flickering. I have also tried copying and pasting a large file to see if it is hard drive related but still no flickering. When I go to youtube and play a 1080p video I do notice a bit of flickering, but not for the whole video. I might call tech support.

 

Do you have a discrete card or just the integrated?

 

Just the integrated video.

 

I still think it's a power issue. Does it flicker the same/worse when on battery?

 

just checked, they are secure. removed it and replaced it. still can hear it easily. i want a silent laptop