Lenovo W510 Owner's Thread

That's what I needed to know, thanks. Cold switching is enough.

 

you will need to buy a enclosure and put the 2nd HDD in it. then remove the DVD and put the enclosure there. Configure the Raid and you are good to go. I am planning to do this got all the parts except the laptop. Still waiting for the laptop to be shipped.

 

What's the enclosure' part number? I only see the one for W500 (43N3412) on the website. Will it work with the W510 as well?

 

I got better question... how much is the enclosure? $

 

Just a heads up, the latest firmware update bricked my W510. I turn it on and the ThinkLight and LED's come on for a second like the computer should normally do, and then the screen just stays black and the CPU gets hot.

 

60-70$ Afaik

Are you sure it was the correct version?
You can try a power drain and a BIOS reset.

 

I tried those thing already. This thing is getting sent back and I'm getting a Dell, between this BIOS problem, the processor making noise, and the average-at-best screen, I'm far from impressed.

 

One last ditch test could be to hit "F1" during power up. The new version of the BIOS for the T510 no longer has the selection screen after hitting the ThinkVantage button. I suspect the W510 is the same. Does this allow you into the BIOS?

 

Sorry to hear this. Keep in mind though that Dell is more expensive and not necessary better quality. I'm coming from Dell to Lenovo after quite a few disappointing issues with their quality and support. Everyone is going cheap these days, IMHO.

 

I get pretty incredible discounts through my company, so Dell isn't any more expensive. I'd be giving up USB 3.0 and 2 DIMM slots, but I've never had problems like this with a Dell. I unplugged the BIOS battery and the main battery and let it sit for the past four hours. Came back, put it all together, no dice.

 

guys forget the dells, lenovos, etc. if u want a perfrmance laptop go with clevo (eg. w860cu)

 

Please no more chiclet keyboards.

 

hahaha I know what you mean but I've gotten used to the keyboard pretty fast. It's the trackpad that's the nuance. But I think the pros for this Clevo far outweigh the cons.. ex: powerful (gtx285m) and upgradeable video card, heat dissipation (much much better compared to even my t61p), crystal clear 1080p screen, very competitive price

 

I'd get the 5870 if I were to go that route but people who buy Thinkpads normally don't buy it to game on. The W510 has features like raid options and touch screen which the Clevo 15" systems don't have.

 

Is it possible that you made some mistake in applying the update? Did you checksum the downloads, and in case you burned the CD, read it back and compared the images?

Were there any problems or error messages during the update?

 

@Clevo: Gimme a nice anti-glare screen and I'm game!

 

I double tripple checked the ISO,

and I used the CD-RW to update it, CD-RW's are more reliable.
it took little over a minute maybe 2 its said "updating" then "still updating" and then done!

I made sure nothing at all was connected and everything was defaulted
prior to flash. this comes from my experience including Dells.

Dell's are pretty but I like German brunettes :b

 

Hello!

When I have W510 plugged in with "remote" charger I get a notice that this is not original charger which comes with laptop and that i should change charger.

As far as I know this is the charger which comes in box. I have two because a bigger one is for docking station.

Any tips or some link where I can check charger model?

 

Just a quick guess, I'd bet you bought the docking station with the model ending in 10U. This docking station comes with a 90W power supply instead of the required 135W. Unfortunately Lenovo recommends the wrong docking station, it should have ended in 20U. My second assumption is that you just forgot which power supply originally came with the laptop.

 

I have one 90W (small) and 135W (bigger). I have big one for docking station and 90W for portable things. That was my "logic" that smaller should be for carry around thing.

Yes it is true that I forgot which one was with laptop and which one was with docking station.

Regards

 

They are now saying the "recover date" for the FHD monitors is May 6th.

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_197.16_whql.html

is this a newer more efficant driver for our graphics card?

will it work?

is someone willing to try

 

If it is from the same graphic card it should work, make sure that you uninstalled the old driver from the computer.

 

What does "recover date" mean? Is that when they'll have got caught up on past orders, or is that when FHD will become available for order again?

 

I finally got to see the W510 today, briefly, as Lenovo representatives came to my school for a demo. Coming from the T61p, I was disappointed that it's slightly thicker. But it felt pretty light to me, surprisingly.

I asked why do they keep the Firewire 400 port in there when you have eSATA and USB 3, and their answer was basically because they feel like it, lol. Also saw the T410, didn't seem so special to me.

I really wish we could get a W510 with switchable graphics/Nvidia Optimus. I like having workstation power, but I also really want great battery life.

 

I think FireWire is still included purely out of compatibility reasons. There's a bunch of older digital cameras and video cameras out there that still only have a FireWire cord to connect to a PC, so leaving out the port could cause some problems.

Seeing as there's plenty of ports available on the W510, I don't think it's really at the expense of another port, so I'm just fine with it. Truth be told, though, I haven't used a FireWire port on a computer since I was servicing eMacs in middle school

 

Well let me just add that I think it would be great if they put in Firewire 800 or at least put in a 6 pin port so you wouldn't need an adapter. Seems like Firewire 400 4-pin is just half-assing it at this point, lol.

 

I have 4337 model of docking station.

 

why fire wire?

once i woke up late in the morning to find that the camera given to me had only fire wire to transfer the tape-to-PC so I was real lucky to find the firewire on my x60 truth is I used it only once saved me alot of time, but I have never used it again its continuing collecting dust. I know there are portable hard drives having this interface.

for those who think they can. here is original part name of Lenovo FHD For W510 display " B156HW01 V4" get it and make your HD+ a spare.

 

Good find m8 looks like we are 30% increase in performance with some apps and games , there are bouch of updated drivers on lenovo site for w510 too.

 

hey guys, i know this might be the wrong thread, but i can't find the proper thread for w500. Wanted to ask, i do have a w500 and now i want to get a ext moniter to couple with my w500. I wanted to ask what type of resolution should i get for my new moniter. My w500 has a native resolution of 1680 X 1050. So is it possible for me to run my ext moniter at 1920 X 1080 or should i get a moniter with resolution of 1680 X 1050?

Thanks in advance.

 

It will run a 1920 x 1080 external monitor without any problem at all.

 

Your VGA can support up to 2048x1536 and the Displayport can support up to WQXGA (if you are using a passive DP to DVI converter it can support WUXGA and if you use Active DP to DVI converter it can also support the WQXGA resolution).

 

I installed this the other day....worked fine.

I have the 880M card.

Regards,
R

 

Out for delivery! C'mon UPS!

 

congrats!!!

 

It should arrive any minute now. Will be making a small review with pics and benches today. Stay tuned!

 

was it to remedy something or just for the sake of the extra fps? i'm hoping to get boost from it

 

Whoa! It's arrived! Playing with it now. The screen is fine (HD+), sufficiently bright and I think the FHD would be an overkill. Will write a review a bit later with pics and benches.
So far I'm impressed with the quality and looks. The idle temps are fine, but I already see a reason for a better thermal paste as the CPU hits 60C+ occasionally while browsing. Stress tests will probably scratch 90c.
The build quality is very good but still slightly behind my AW M17X-R2.
That's it for now, stay tuned. There will be more.

 

I usually wait a month or so and then update the video drivers. This is one of those things that I always keep up to date on.

The other thing is wireless adapter drivers.

FYI, I installed the same driver set on my HP laptop.... worked ok on there too.

Regards,
R

 

unfortunately guys i think i have to send back my my w510, i caught specks of dust in the screen and the right speaker distorts, the rep told me she will order a new one for me but since my model is the touch screen i'll have to wait until may 9th or so.

sigh............this is troublesome.

 

its not about brightness.

 

You know, it is funny that you mention the speaker.

I noticed that my left speaker has a bit of vibration to it, especially at higher frequencies. I installed the SRS audio sandbox software but I still notice it.

Considering the apparent size of the speakers, I would have expected a better sounding laptop.

R

 

exactly; my 4yr old core duo MBP sounds 10x better than the w510. The speakers are horrible but besides that you can tell when speakers are just crap and when they arent working correctly, my right speaker vibrates at mid to high frequencies and its annoying you would think that in a laptop of this caliber you would get a subwoofer included.

Im pissed that i can see at least 4 specks of dust in my screen......yea..im picky but i aint paying 2000+ for something that aint what it supposed to be

 

@akanhi: The screen is definitely a problem that Lenovo should rectify, however, speakers on business laptops have historically been quite poor. The fact is, most business users (most people who buy Thinkpads are) don't care about great speakers on their laptops - my dad has kept his T60 on mute pretty much since he was issued it a few years ago. Don't expect subwoofers any time soon.

I always use either an external 2.1 system or headphones with my T500, although honestly, I wouldn't say its speakers are that bad for a laptop.

 

Lol, I never said, the brightness was the main reason for preferring or rejecting it. Mentioned it because after my RGB LED with 300+ nits was afraid to feel a huge difference with a 220nit screen.
The FHD has too high a rez. and adjusting the windows DPI might be a real pain. You'll especially hate the way different websites displayed, some will need a font increase from within your browser in general but sometimes it will affect the way you can navigate and you'll have to adjust back to the small fonts just to be able to click a few buttons.
Anyway, the HD+ is more than enough for me, with good WA and high contrast ratio. The vertical WA suffer a bit, but that's bearable.

 

I agree about the speakers not being a big deal. It is a little like buying an LCD screen for a desktop PC and expecting the internal speakers to be sufficient.

On the other hand, these speakers take up almost two thirds of the length on either side of the keyboard. Considering the overall build quality, would it have killed them to put in more than pieces of junk?

I won't return the system based on this.

Regards,
R

 

i think dust is something to return it for even though it doesnt affect computing really. It doesnt seem like a big deal and i am not sure if i should return it, because it might be a gamble. Theres 2 specks trapped between the touch layer and the lcd and 2 marks in the capacitive touch layer.

Too bad my eyes are good enough to pick it up.

@Rhystar the apparent size of the speakers are misleading they are actually much smaller than the grill suggest
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/50423.jpg

 

If you review the maintenance manuals, it may describe how to open up the LCD panel and possibly allow you to clean the dust yourself.

 

what is active and passive dp?