Lenovo W510 Owner's Thread

I find it amusing that people love to blame Dell, Lenovo, etc for the whining issue and not properly testing when it has more to do with Intel and their chipset design. High speed power switching produces high pitched noises.

 

Good point, but its not Intel that assembles and designs the products or is it?

 

Lenovo puts together the total package yes, but Intel designs the chipsets. Lenovo is using Intel chipsets and that's where your noise is coming from. That's why its common across so many brands, Dell, Lenovo, Asus, etc, etc...

 

Yes, I got the whine.

Shipped it back to Lenovo a couple weeks ago...still waiting to heard back from them. It's with the engineers as of Monday night...they're saying it's an issue with the CPU.

 

probably coil noise from the gpu. Every nvidia based notebook I've ever owned had a screeching noise coming from it.

 

It's definitely possible the GPU could be producing the noises, however I'm not as inclined to think it's the GPU since changing CPU power management settings affects the whine.

 

if it is the gpu you'll definitely hear a difference when its stressed.

 

But it would be very difficult to stress the GPU while leaving the CPU in a low power state. So I don't know that it would be possible to test that independent of the CPU. I guess you could turn Nvidia's throttling off, I think there's a utility to do that, so that when idle the GPU stays at full clock rate. From the testing I've seen done playing with those settings on the CPU will affect that noise levels, but it would be interesting to see if the GPU settings change things to. Another thing to keep in mind is that anything (GPU, USB, etc) that changes it's power draw will have an affect on power flow on the entire chipset/motherboard. So things that don't actually produce the noise can affect it.

 

There are both the GPU coil noise and the high pitch CPU whine. Both are easily noticeable, but as Mandrake said the GPU noise will be directly linked to any GPU stressing activity, while the CPU whine can even happen when idle.

 

Both my X300 and T400s exhibited the annoying "piezoelectric" noise. Currently, there is no whine whatsoever on my i7 Sony Z, with or without the NVidia graphics. I wonder what the difference is...

 

The difference starts with circuit board design, grade of cpu/gpu, installed components and ends with custom software and the currently active applications.

 

There's a new BIOS and a few updates up at lenovo for the w510 - Anyone try it yet? Anyone see any differences?

 

here's better alternative to Daemon tools http://download.cnet.com/Gizmo-Drive/3000-2248_4-10407554.html

daemon tools lately mutated into something horrible IMO

I have used gizmo to mount ISO's and it totally replaces daemon plus seem to me more stable. Daemon may give you BSOD from time to time.

elaborate? grade of CPU? is there a 3rd class? CPUs out there, makes me scared.

 

Why would you recommend an alternative that mutated into something horrible? Maybe you meant "Daemon has mutated into something horrible lately, here's better alternative..."?

 

There are no real 3rd grade CPUs but there are differences. When it comes to undervolting some CPUs can go lower than others even though they are the same brand/series. Intel just gurantees certain limits - it might work with less voltage but it is not a 100% sure. Same goes for leak current and so on. This also applies to resistors, coils, condensator, ... so electronic parts are never 100% the same which changes their behavior. So if you make a basic circuit board you need to take those aspects into account and try to minimize errors based on manufacturing deviances.

Since Intel also constantly updates their CPUs - different revisions might have different behavior.

 

if you understood what I meant why cry about it? but I appreciate you pointing out my lack of attention to details.

Thanks this explains allot for me. coils capacitors,remind me of good old times of being a HAM pirate

still why wouldn't they test ride the board and then put it in production?
if it was music I'd say I can somewhat tolerate it but its a high pitch whine! we arent borg and its not a subspace message.

 

......

wow.

 

Question:
Is the warranty voided if I replace the factory drive with a Intel Gen2 SSD ?

 

They don't inspect the whole aspect of each board by hand, they just plug them into a diagnostics/test machine and if everything checks out they ship. This is one area where refurbs are arguably better, since those boards are looked at by a person.

No. You cannot void the warranty by performing reasonable upgrades on a computer, only if you badly mistreat it or pull out a soldering iron [1]

[1] Applies to USA, other countries might have different rules.

 

I'm thinking to contact the repair depot and tell them about whine, but I doubt they will have replacement board. tho you never know.

 

Keep us posted.

Mine doesn't whine. And it made a good decision not to whine, because otherwise I would have thrown the damn thing out the window right away. Or in front of a train. I'm mostly getting rid of my T61p because of annoying GPU whine. So I guess I deserved and earned to have gotten lucky this time...

 

I'll post here with what they say they did to fix mine...whenever I hear back from them. I hate that they close at 7PM at night.

 

I had a worse problem than whine; my Seagate 500 GB HDD failed today!

I believe it failed quite completely. I had the W510 just a little less than 6 weeks. Fortunately I kept backups of most of my important data, however I neglected several files of lesser importance and forgot to backup some more important recent ones, so I'm off to a data recovery company tomorrow morning to see if I can get a good price, otherwise I'll just recreate the files (which will be several hours effort).

Since I can't wait for the replacement HDD to arrive, I went and bought the Intel 80 GB SSD and spent the better part of the day setting it up. That's the only consolation in this mess.

I also have a replacement keyboard, which I cannot use because I can't get this one out! I studied the section in the hardware maintenance manual thoroughly and pushed much harder than it implies, but no luck. (The keyboard I'm using works, but not too well.)

I had a different keyboard problem today, unrelated to the general problem of getting tactile feedback but not always having the key presses registered. The c, d, e, and 3 keys (all in a line, strangely) failed, even after multiple reboots (which were, thankfully, fast due to the SSD). Something happened when I went to Control Panel and they started working again, however, the same thing happened a while later. I was on the phone with Lenovo tech support and the guy suggested I take out the battery, power down, then "default" the BIOS. Fortunately after I rebooted (without having yet defaulted the BIOS, which I assume means resetting it to its default state), the keys were working again. Strange, this problem.

 

@ not.sure

OK I have sent an email to them, 1h after they have contacted me saying they are returning the unit to me (with tracking number) I hope I'm not too late. took them 5 days to sort my problems (hopefully) out which by UK standards of support is stellar!

 

now its no longer annoyance or a problem, but the curiosity quest!

buba:I bought laptop to decode the subspace message its emitting 24/7

@ midnight sun

thanks for merging my posts i'm forgetting to multi quote

 

Hello, I am planning to switch my hard drive to 120 vertex.
I see there's a lot of empty space after ataching it.

Which part should I buy to firmly attach it?

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks!!

ps: and is there any news on hdd adapter that perfectly fits w510?

 

According to this link: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5573&p=2

The score in 1280x1024 3d06 is 7100 compared to the 6333 scored in this thread. Why is this?

 

After about 1 week of use, my new W510, 820, multitouch, is suffering from significant hardware problems.

First it began locking up. Then crashing.

It was sitting in a docking station, with the screen closed, with good ventilation and in a cold room. My W500 practically lived in the same spot.

Last night I was watching a DVD, and it was working fine. The movie began stuttering. I restarted. The system locked up during boot. I reset, got into windows, and then had a hard-lock. Gave up and went to bed.

This morning, every time a sound starts to play, the left speaker makes a loud popping sound (akin to some kind of short) and then all sound stops. I can listen to the first 3 seconds of an .mp3, during which there is repeated popping, and then all sound stops.

It also makes a popping sound when I push the power button. I even reset the BIOS to factory defaults, and reloaded the system from the factory recovery CDs.

I did not change anything between when the system worked fine and when this problem started.

For $2.5k, I expected a bit more in-house testing. Far too many users are reporting this issue for this to have been some kind of isolated issue.

Not sure if it is due to improper wiring, faulty chips, always-on charging USB, but it is far too big an issue.

---------------------------------
Update:

I called and was scheduled to have on-site repair performed, but at the time the Lenovo call center's own network had crashed and they were unable to give me an estimate on the waiting time. Today I received a phone call from an automated system, informing me that the part is on backorder. I called, and was told that they had no idea when mainboards would be available.

So, I am returning my W510 for a refund. I really liked the new features (LED, 95% gamut touchscreen), etc., but until Lenovo modifies the design the W510 simply won't work. I imagine they will be put on notice of this issue when more early-adopters start having to return their laptops.

 

I,m not sure.. I will run a few more tests this week.

whatever I did it didn't exceed the 6200-6400 threshold maybe
extreme core I7 added the 700+ points

 

@Goodfellaslxa
"So, I am returning my W510"



wow I have a bad feeling about this... I'll see what i'm getting back from repairs. otherwise hold on to your sits guys i'll do some major bombardment.

 

i could have ordered two of my fhd ssd t510 for 2500! what currency is that?

 

W510 with multi-touch is much more expensive.

 

i never knew.

 

What modifications did you had on the laptop? I mean OS etc.

 

Windows 7, an no modifications that would cause the left speaker to short out. The popping sounds occur even without a hard drive in it. I restored every aspect of the laptop back to factory original condition, it didnt make a difference.

 

OK got my w510 back from repairs and the screen was replaced and looks better than the previous 100%

will continue the rest of the tests later in the week.

ok they did NOT replace the keys and I'm yet to know what the fault description says..

but I'm happy so far.

 

Surprising news for my FHD multitouch order.
Estimated shipping date got pushed from 06/01/10 to 04/08/10. Too good to be true?

 

Just ordered mine with a FH+ screen (was no FHD option on the Canadian site )
Now with all the "DIY type of service" will it void warranty if you replace the thermal compound on the CPU/GPU? Looks like some work there will need to be done to ensure the cool operation.

 

I spoke with a rep today and they stated they are getting a shipment of FHD monitors in in early April. Those will be used to fulfill existing orders. Hopefully the option to place new orders will be on the site in mid-April.

 

My T60p had no warranty stickers on it. I hope the W510 doesn't.

 

There was no mention of any such stickers in Kevin's review of the W510. I don't think Thinkpads have "warranty void" stickers, although if you do have to send your machine in later and they find you have been messing around with the heat sink/thermal compound, they could technically refuse warranty service as the CPU/heatsink is not a customer-replaceable unit.

 

They didn't give me any problems with my T60p. I sent it in twice in the 3.5 years I've had it.

 

Cool, will know quite soon for sure.
Are you camping for the multi-touch?

What about thermal paste replacements?

 

Thats whay i was thinking.....surely not???
Im totally intrested in this cos if it can achieve the 7000 mark then its about as good as i expected. but the 6300 is not bad. its good infact but i was expecting better.
I just want a big increase if i upgrade to the the 880m or the 1800m which hp has.

 

I put in an order for one through laptop authority. I was kind of hoping a reseller could get it quicker.

 

Nice. Do you know if the multi is anti-glare or not?

 

Nope, it's the 4319-2RU.

 

Then I have no choice but to stay away from it.
Can't stand the glossy screens.

 

This is a known issue. They have a series of faulty keyboards dropping keys. Have it replaced.

 

Say, what were the problems that you have experienced with your t60p?

by the way CPU whine disappeared on mine,which is good news!