Lenovo W510 Owner's Thread

good news - the order status works again
bad news - new shipping date, it was originally 2/11 then pushed to 3/5 then pushed to 3/8 and now 5/31!
w510 multitouch...

Tell me it is a joke?

 

Same term used for the larger systems, that's why it's confusing.

 

I agree it is confusing. but according to Murphy law less parts = fewer chances to break. I think you can see it soldered on in the assemble/disassemble videos link I have posted somewhere along this thread.

 

It's not a joke.

After a few weeks of laying low waiting for a FHD display I checked with my rep again and was told "very few" FHD multi / non-multi displays are available.

They've since removed both options from the Canadian site as well.

 

Ugh, sorry to hear it guys.

Boggles the mind why it would take 5 months to meet orders. Since some shipped, the likelihood of there being a technical problem is low. I find it hard to believe that it would take this long to manufacture sufficient quantities if proper planning and sourcing occurred. Labor issues or not, this is really horrible.

I still wonder if some fortune 500 company ordered a ton of these, causing the shortage.

I'm not sure if it is indeed the case, but the FHD and FHD-Multi could share the same screen. The multi would just have the touch element added. Shortage in the FHD means no fun for anybody. This is just a thought, no basis in fact.

 

If there were more orders then expected in combination with a shortage on what their supplier was supposed to deliver, sure, I can see these delays. The bad thing is that Lenovo's system is so slow they handle it very poorly. My take on it is, if it doesn't say ships in 6 days, don't expect to get it on a schedule. Seems like only the ones that ship within a week are systems they actually have a good supply on.

 

My point is that this is a direct cause of poor pre-planning. I don't want to take away from the complexity of placing the right sized orders to multiple vendors, but that's what companies like Lenovo, HP, Dell and Sony do as their livelihood. If they can't meet demand, they lose revenue.

I'm not aware of any other vendors having delays this severe.

 

Looks like you can get the W510 w/multitouch from laptopauthority.com in 2-4 weeks. Who wanted to that time frame?

 

If it's not in stock, the likelihood of having the same delay is very high.

If you are to take that gamble, it's probably better to do it through a larger distributor like CDW.

 

I definitely agree Lenovo has handled it poorly. I think you don't see delays this big with other companies because their inventory/ordering system updates faster to disallow too many orders coming in. I see options going up and down on Dell's site all the time. Seems like it only happens on Lenovo's when it gets disastrously bad.

 

This is strange...I ordered a Multi-Touch w510 on 2/19. My original Ship date was 3/17. The ship date then disappeared for several days and came back up this morning...as...3/17.

So maybe I am getting lucky???

4318CTO THINKPAD W510 - 1 YEAR DEPOT
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theyre going through fhd orders made from february 1 to february 28 in three days. anyone ordering in january would be in the air by now. there have been confirmed cancelled orders shipped so you still might be in luck.



fhd and ssd shipped today! nine days after ordering!

 

I ordered Jan 22, still no updates

 

they are working in mysterious ways.

 

my order placed on feb 18 is finally shipped!!! (hd+)

 

lol

Well, CDW even indicated now that their W510 date for the FHD screen (non-multitouch) is now late March. Originally it was scheduled for today.

I'm changing my order to a 14" HP Elitebook 8440p, also with an i7 core. Best of luck everyone.

 

i ordered nonmultitouch fhd on 2/28, which was also thankfully the last day of a sale! the next day the option was gone.

they were delayed before but are nearly fully caught up with orders with quick turnaround time now, close to standard one week build time.

 

Are you kidding?? If they are fully caught up how come we have i) many folks here still waiting for delivery and ii) why is the FHD option no longer available via their website? When it was last available a couple of days ago it had a more than 4 week waiting period.

My rep told me just this week they had a serious shortage of FHD and FHD multitouch displays.

 

That sounds great for those who ordered early, but were are you getting this information?

 

there are people on this site and lenovo forums with order dates ranging from well over a month ago to a week ago getting shipping dates this week and next week. i got shipping confirmation in under 10 days for nonmultitouch fhd.

there is definitely something awry in the system as someone with a confirmed cancelled order form the first of february getting their shipment confirmation.

 

Hope you are correct.

 

I got my W510 with Multi-touch yeaterday and here are the videoes I tested the machine.

first
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTU3MTU3NzY0.html

sencond
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTU3MTQ5NTY0.html

 

I have three problem,
First, I pushed my unifying receiver of my Logitech mouse into the 3.0 port, it did not have any reaction. When I pushed it into the 2.0 port, it worked. Does anyone know why?
Second, can any owner of W510 tell me what is the temprature on your laptop? My is around 50-60 C(122-140 F) when I was surfing.
Third, why my battery is 98% of the origin after 24 hours' using? How can I solve this problem expect take off the battery from the mashine?

 

I think a multi-touch laptop screen is the most retarded thing ever.

 

First, the mouse is probably not compatible with USB 3.0 or you're missing a driver. There is no point in using the USB 3.0 port for a mouse anyway. Even if it did work, it would be a waste, as it is designed to transfer files faster than using over USB 2.0 connection.

Second, yes, 50-60C is fine. Even the older CPU's were designed to withstand up 100C (212F). The newer ones can handle up to 105C. Obviously you wouldn't want to run it anywhere near to that level on a consistent basis. Make sure you don't obstruct any of the vents.

Third, did you unplug the Thinkpad from the power cord yet? The Power Manager may be set to not start charging the battery until it falls below 96%. That is one of the default settings that I've seen many times. Again, this is normal and you're fine.

Congrats on your new W510.

 

Thank you so much for replying. There were just 3 ports on W510 and just one is 2.0. If the 3.0 port can not support the receiver, do you think the number of 2.0 port is too few?

 

Question to folks who are monitoring Lenovo more closely.

I am typing on my trusty 2+ years old decked out T61p and it's time for the upgrade cycle After being miffed about T510 not featuring quad cores I understand 'p' workstation models have been replaced with 'W's.

The W510 is almost perfect on paper. My only problem is the graphics card. I actually want a LOWER spec one (i.e. integrated). I don't do 3D gaming. I do development, run VMs, do scientific stuff etc. I want long battery life (commuting to client site etc) and low heat (several laptops died on in me incl a T-series due to the gfx eventually getting fried).

Despite the 2nd point I have no principal problem with discrete gfx when docked (they do a good warranty after all) but I don't want to miss out on integrated. So the question is - do Lenovo update models throughout the life or is this it for the W510 and I'd have to wait for a 'W520' or whatever? I get the impression there are rumors about T410 switchable gfx.

I have about 3 months until I really want to switch this machine (sell with some warranty left) so I'm hoping to hear some 'theoretical' experience if models usually change over time. Thanks!

 

If you don't use the 3D features the higher clocks will never kick in thus saving you battery and acting just like an integrated card.

 

While you are right that it would stay down clocked it still pulls more power then integrated graphics.

 

underclocking the gpu will save battery life but i dont think temperatures drop much. undervolting the gpu would lower temperatures, but it seems to be considered dangerous. i want to lower gpu temperatures because im a t61 user with a fiery nvidia gpu, and i dont want problems again.

 

So, you want a quad core CPU with integrated or switchable gfx? If so, I believe neither will be available anytime soon. I don't understand the details, but I know the current gen of 4-core CPUs do not have the Intel gfx built-in like the current gen 2-core CPUs. I also doubt anyone is going to bother with rigging up a switchable solution for the quads.

I think the best you can do on integrated gfx is i7-620M (dual core). Most benchmarks show it is very comparable to i7-720QM (quad core). This is available in the T510 and T410. (you could also get it in the HP 8540w which theoretically could do switchable gfx, but for some reason it currently does not and I would not bank on it in the near future).

In regards to the next re-fresh of W510...I have no idea if they would bother with switchable gfx on a workstation, but I kind of doubt it. Also, the W510 are just barley getting started, the re-fresh is quite a ways out. And finally, I'm betting the refresh will be W511, not W520. W500-->W510 was a drastic change, the next round will be refreshing hardware for the most part.

 

Another thing I just thought of, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the quads have the graphics core on die, so integrated graphics wouldn't even be an option.

edit: just saw that you mentioned that! Heh, I'm a bit slow this morning.

 

While it will use less power (nvidia list it as using up to 35W...) I'd prefer it to be just gone. I just read this somewhere re FX 880M:

"The chip supports Optimus for automatic switching between dedicated and integrated graphics card (e.g. in the new Core i5 CPUs). Still Optimus was for example not integrated in the Lenovo Thinkpad W510."

Does anyone know if this could be cured with a driver update or is this an actual hardware situation? Thanks.

 

Hah! Forums - changing as I type responses. I'll check on the quads don't have gfx built in claim - that would make my hope a moot point I guess.

Wow, you are right: http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=43560,43124,

Let's find some tests 620M vs 820QM (my choice). Ideally I'd like 4 cores and allocate 2 to a VM and 2 to the main OS...

 

Thanks for contributing.

Yozou,

Can you take some pictures of the screen with the LCD off? I'd be curious to see what the touch element looks like. The Touch element on the T410s I worked with had a little depth from the actual LCD. I'd also be interested in seeing it the grid pattern is still being used.

 

no its a prn lover favorite option. lol

 

i wonder if it would be easier to mate the quad core processor to a T510 to achieve what you want. From what i've seen lenovo doesnt "refresh" the computers too often. They usually only do it when a new platform comes out from intel.

 

Given these priorities, I'd suggest you look at the T510 with integrated graphics. Yes you'll be limited to dual cores but bear in mind they also feature hyper-threading so you get 4 logical cores. I think you can still get acceptable performance from your VMs in this scenario. Also, the dual-core i7 and i5 use much less power than the quad i7's, so they will last longer and produce less heat; also the integrated T510 models feature a 65w power adapter which is nice and small and doesn't seem to get very hot in my use to date (a small thing but still nice).

 

Wouldn't work, if you pulled the dual core proc for a quad core you'd also be pulling the integrated graphics that's on the die of that dual core proc.

 

I wish it were true, but I ordered my FHD January 7th and it still hasn't shipped!

Dwayne

 

You are right, the 620M is 35W and the 820QM+880M are 80W under load! But my top prio is actually having serious horse power. I run VMs with dev environments, app servers, databases and what not (I feel sorry for my good old 61p . I can address mobile runtime with another battery and the majority of travel is ~1h which I don't do extensively. My approach to laptop purchase within a budget is to go with the top non-replaceable components and upgrade the rest over time. CPU I cannot replace. W510 quad with SATA II extension bay (drop in a 640GB and put an SSD into main) and USB3 should last for my next 2.5y refresh cycle. The T510 seems a very fine machine though.

I didn't know about the QM's not having integrated gfx (looks like you have the choice of that space being used by cpu or gpu cores) so I'll prob order a W510 820QM 1080p should they ever decide to sell them again (I wished they wouldn't steal away those extra 120 pixels from my 61p)....

 

OK my second one gone for repairs hopefully they will have the FHD for replacement.

wanted to ask about "alps keyboard problem" did anyone manage to replace it with NMB or chicony any general feedback on the issue will be appreciated.

I was annoyed with the softness of my keyboard and it wasn't registering the keys when you type faster than average consumer

grammar has nothing to do with the quality of keyboard I promiss

 

Lenovo confirmed there was a batch of keyboards that was dropping keys, the problem gets fixed with a replacement.

 

I don't trust it. My T61p has keyboard probs to this date. I replaced it about 4-5 times within 2 years. Dead keys on arrival. And the latest replacement suddenly lost the W key after 2 weeks. Some of the tiny flimsy plastic seems to have broken off. Another replacement was shipped overnight but still - I am not impressed with the quality since T30s...

meaning: pay for a warranty covering the expected usage life of the device...

 

Thanks for that info, I'm calling them today to ask about a replacement for my dodgy ALPS.

Update: I just got off the phone with them; they're shipping me a replacement keyboard. There is no choice of ALPS/Chicony/NMB (I asked for a Chicony). The rep told me that he's unaware of any keyboard issues. Still, excellent customer service.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if not all their reps know, but one of their reps on the Lenovo forums confirmed that all keyboards with a certain FRU or something were dropping keys at high typing speeds.

 

you know I think it would be only logical to look for MNB or chicony say on the side (ebay) thus for example I had to pay shipping to repair my laptop in UK under warranty and this costs me 50$ but I agreed to do this thus screen is crappy otherwise if its not to do with ty RAM or motherboard connector (used to be huge problem with dells where not keyboard was at fault but its connector socket)then its cheaper to do it yourself (if you are in UK) I'm thinking am I right to ask for refund for shipping costs thus its their waste of my time not otherwise.

 

have u test a stylus on the multi touch screen? i'm talking about pogo stylus for Iphone.
thank you for video

 

Slight thread-jack...

New battery add on for Sony
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=466881&page=9

I'll get around to selling the thing eventually.

 

All i could notice is that people in that thread arent pissed with quality so the allays tend to say "hi" lol