Lenovo W510 Owner's Thread

Are you all in the US? The next availability in Switzerland is in 49 days!

 

Universities in Switzerland get a big shipment on thursday as far as I know. The first shipment of W510 FHD ever when I remember correctly.

 

How often does Lenovo typically go before offering spec refreshes? Lenovo is saying the end of June (which I imagine they are just pulling out of their a**) as the recovery date for FHD monitors, but at this point I thought about just waiting for the next re-fresh.

Yes, I know you can always say that when it comes to electronics, but this model is going to be nearly 7 months old by the time they get FHD monitors again and that is usually pretty close to when most manufacturers do minor updates.

 

Yeah, especially with Intel's announcement of their new cpu's again (which is just a small refresh of their lineup, nothing significant) but I'd imagine Lenovo would update to those.

 

Wow, now end of June?! This screen fiasco is killing me. I'm closely monitoring the Elitebook and Thinkpad threads and whoever has the display available first gets my money

 

***WARNING TO ANYONE CONSIDERING A W510 FROM LENOVO***

Just a warning to anyone considering buying a W510 -- this is the biggest piece of crap computer I've ever owned in 15 years.

After fighting with support for 6 weeks to replace a faulty system board that periodically froze the computer (and having to prove it froze in 3 different operating systems so they could not claim it was a faulty driver), and then having to do without my laptop for the better part of 2 weeks while it was shipped back and forth for the repair -- they sent back a unit with a defective SD slot. Worked fine until they replaced the system board, and this one is completely borked.

RUN AWAY! RUN RUN RUN AWAY!

 

dude just read the S**t I've been to with ARSUS PC they will make you cry from their support 2 weeks? how about 1 year?

 

Add me to the club! Just ordered the W510 with FHD screen and should have it this coming Tuesday! Do I really need the color sensor?

 

Did you order it from Lenovo? Are you sure you got the FHD display? Their website only shows HD and HD+ as options. Others on here have been waiting a long time for Lenovo to get more FHD displays.

I plan to purchase the color sensor as one of my primary uses is photo editing. If you don't work with photos you probably don't need it.

 

Well I have to wait even longer now for my W510. After settling on the HD+ (I couldn't wait for FHD anymore) I received it last Friday (I posted earlier) and it had a dead pixel. Lenovo sent me the box and I sent the laptop in right away. To my pleasant surprise it came back today. Unfortunately, when I opened the box and turned it on I found that they replaced my defective HD+ (1600 x 900) with an HD (1366 x 768). Now I'm waiting for a new box to hopefully come tomorrow. This isn't exactly making me happy with my purchase or with their technical support.

 

Other then the dead pixel how was the HD+ in your opinion?

 

yeah its sad to hear all this delays , but looks like they underestimated the situation in my opinion. and that is: when financial problems started they though oh man we need to cut the quantity then ooh... this price will reduce the quantity bought from us, lets save on quality a bit, and also reduce the price so we can survive all this.

but in reality people in such tough times shifted towards buying something that lasts longer = 2X the saving!, than average consumer laptop that will give up its ghost within first year excluding dead HDD and cheap ram installed.

I say T30 which survives till this day!, is a good example why people moved in this direction. and also if someone asks you what are the most surviving and long lasting laptops with resale tags? you guessed it!

now after cutting the quantity and thinking that they will have less buyers for high tek they shot themselves in the foot. I think you can safely apply this to other suppliers of parts and spare parts, that's why in my opinion of a noob all this strange things happening.

P.S. those engineers who made first lines of thinkpads invested in the future of the company by making quality though through machines (which I appreciate very much thanks) but cowboy approach to ride this will not bring any luck and will brake my beloved brand please think before you act, or give us samples,and then you'll get real opinions. though "One Man's Heaven is Another Man's Hell"

 

It isn't ideal (I'd prefer the FHD) but it looks pretty good. It is definitely noticeable when compared to the HD. When I turned the computer on I knew right away that something wasn't quite right. The HD+ looks good and I think I'll be happy with it as soon as Lenovo gets me a good one.

 

While my applications are not as critical as yours would be with color correctness, I was wondering if there is usually a big correction needed in regards to getting correct colors. It's not a big deal to me, but I am curious as to how off things are...

Sorry, if I gave the impression that I ordered it from Lenovo. I actually placed the order with Laptop Authority at Laptop Authority. I've called Lenovo to verify that this place is indeed a authorized reseller, as well as called them up to verify that this notebook is indeed the one with the FHD display. The place actually sells several configurations for this notebook, but only one of them is in stock with the FHD mention in the description. The guy I spoke with on the phone for Laptop Authority was pretty nice and seemed to be in the know somewhat. He was aware that this particular machine with the FHD display was very scarce in supple and mentioned that they actually JUST received a small batch of these machines. This would sort of go with what Lenovo's been saying in regards to be able to take orders for FHD some time in mid-late June. It would seem Lenovo has quite a backlog of FHD orders to fulfill first before they can put it up again on the site.

I configured a similar machine through Lenovo's website and after taxes and with the current discount, you actually pay about 200-270 more just to have the FHD display now. The way I see it is I get to have it much faster than if I ordered directly from Lenovo especially since I'm running on a crippled machine right now.

I guess I can answer with a definite of whether this is FHD or not come Tuesday... hopefully it is and there are no issues at all with the display in regards to dead pixels and such.

 

my w510 have a dead pixel (one) center lcd. visible black screen. :-(

 

What is Lenovo's policy in regards to dead pixels? Did anyone have a tough time getting it swaped out?

 

i must say 'thank you all for this forum', it has helped me alot while preparing for my w510 to arrive. i've read 182pages -haha- even though this forum actually first started to become handy after page 160 or so, when people got their w510's. its to much about shipping dates, but now and then something really helpful comes along..
right now, im typing on my 2day old w510. ! this is a pc to fall in love with.

sorry about my english,-i just wanted to say thanks.

 

My experience is that color calibration makes a big difference on every monitor that I've calibrated. I've used mostly Dell laptops and I've found that their default colors are usually quite cold (i.e., bluish). Calibration warms the colors and makes skin tones look much more natural.

 

I'm actually going through this thread slowly page by page myself as I await delivery of my very own! It just shipped and I should have it this Tuesday!

Darn, was hoping factory settings would be close enough. How does one calibrate accurately manually?

 

I think you can't. But I wouldn't worry about it just yet.
When it was new, my screen seemed too be to red-ish and a with a bit radioactive reds and greens. I tried a couple of color profiles made by others but they wouldn't really work.
Right now I find the screen perfect as is. Don't know whether the screen has actually changed (the fact that the official color profile software wants to re-calibrate every two weeks suggests that the screen 'chemistry' might change a bit) or whether I just got used to it. I think the former.

Either way, my advice for the screen would be to not panic and use it for 1-2 weeks.

 

It really depends how important accurate colors are to you. You may be happy with the default colors. I was happy until I got a digital SLR camera and realized that my prints didn't look like what I was seeing on my computer screen.

I have a usb color calibration device (Spyder 2 Express). You plug this device into your usb port and place it in front of your display. Then you run a program that cycles through a bunch of colors while the calibration device is sensing the colors. This generates a color profile file (.icm). Then you just select this file as your default color profile in Control Panel -> Display -> Settings -> Advanced -> Color Management (on Windows XP).

 

I was working on about 2000+ old 35mm slides and about halfway done i recieved my beloved W510 HD+ W/ color sensor. After calibration, the screen looks so much better and i had to go back to fix all the photo again.
But its better not to waste 60 dollars for a build-in calibration sensor and rather spent 85 dollar for a Seperate sensor. That way you can use it on everyone of you screens and even your neightbors monitors.

 

But in this case, doesn't the color profile only apply to color managed apps like photoshop? I don't think apps like web browsers, etc... will be able to use the profile information.

Be careful fixing all those photos. It's important that you fix them for the type of device you're going to be viewing them on. If you fix them for a 95% gamut monitor, then send them to all your relatives who only have sRGB monitors, the colors are going to be wrong for all of them. I think you can save the color profile information in the image metadata, but unless their apps a also color managed, it won't be useful.

This is all based on research that I've done on the topic. If anyone with hands-on knowledge has a better idea, please chime in.

 

you'd do the same thing for us wouldnt you ?

 

The whole point of color management, creating and using profiles on scanners, monitors and printers, is that the file will be reproduced across platform with minimal, if any, color shift.

Of course, a remaining large gotcha is that seeing your image on a luminous display is going to always have a different quality to it compared to a color managed printer output on paper. That said, still, the colors should be very very VERY close. Different papers and printers have output qualities that I won't go into (metamerism, bronzing) that effect the viewing experience.

Color managed, large gamut workspace = maximum display of contained colors. When outputing from any workflow, you should convert to an appropriate color space - in the case of the web and most non-color managed monitors, the default color space is sRGB.

I believe Firefox and Safari are the two most well know browsers offering color management aware performance automatically...that is to say, yes, a color profile tagged (in the metadata) image will be displayed correctly.

Just an FYI: the early wide-gamut displays could not correctly show an image in the smaller sRGB color space - it was Adobe RGB or nothing....this made them uncomfortable for use web browsing or gaming....Newer displays have varying awkward implementation of selecting sRGB over a wide gamut color profile, and the very newest (see NEC new PA series of monitors) have a seamless, automatic internal selection of display profiles to fit the profile tagged to an image...

 

I almost pulled the trigger on purchasing the W510, but have two major concerns about it. The first one is its graphic card. 880M FX is a DirectX 10 card with mediocre benchmark; for something like a mobile workstation, I would have hoped for something better. I believe this card was released this year, so even more of a surprise that it doesn't support features unique to DirectX 11. The second thing was Lenovo's support. I have heard mostly horror stories about their service and support in the event of a problem with the notebook, so I figure purchasing extended warranty may compensate for that. The only option available is to extend to 3 years, for almost $600! I could have bought another notebook for that price.

 

Regarding the GPU, you are right, one could expect something better, but after all I find it quite adequate for my mild gaming needs. The reason that there is no DX11 is simply that nvidia doesn't really have DX11 GPUs. Why they went with nvidia again, who knows. Probably cheaper than ATI DX11 chips.

Re support, I don't think it's particularly bad?! If you want cheap warranty, go for a TopSeller model which comes with 3 years (my 2.5-year old T61p is currently in warranty hinge repair).

 

Actually if you look at the Elitebooks it becomes obvious that the ATI chips are much cheaper than the Nvidia ones. The difference ranges from $400 to almost $1000!

 

hah! yeah i think i would..and here it comes:- mine is a i7 720, hd+ screen, upgraded to 8gb memory and a ultrabay III slot with an extra 500gb hardrive.
this is my first time on a thinkpad.
i can hear the hizz when on battery, its a bit annoying especially when in a studio recording sound. but just plug the adapter, and the problem is solved. i only got the 6cell battery anyway, so the adapter stays with it all the time.
the adobe cs4 runs smoothly. i havent had any issues yet.
for the music and video editing i use this in the background when installing new programs, to see if it makes some drastic changes:- DPC Latency Checker

 

oh, and the volume controller on the keyboard doesnt work when the vlc player is active (im only using vlc, so its a bit annoying)(win7 x64). actually only when vlc is the top window. click on another window, and its working again. it will probably be fixed later on with some driver upgrades - i hope

 

The full hd 1920x1080 screens are showing up now, at least on ebay and some online retailers. If anyone has one, I'd be interested in hearing about the typical brightness, color, contrast, viewing angles compared to the hd+ 1600x900 screen. I hear that the hd+ screen is good but could use more peak brightness levels.

 

Hi hdanielsen,

Wish you lots of luck with your 2 day old w510.

Could you do a favor? Could you weigh your machine? I mean, without the power cable.

Some specs say that the W510 is 2.5Kg. That looks to me like a copy+paste error. I saw a YouTube video, that claims it is 3.2 Kg. That looks more realistic - but it is too heavy for me, I think.

Thanks in advance,

avi

 

thank you avi10. i dont have anything to measure with, but on my order description it says 2,7kg. and i think that is correct (i dont know if its with or without the battery). my old laptop has the exactly same weight, so it should be possible to recognize the 0,5kg extra. with a 9cell battery it off course weigh more.
i dont have any problems at all with the weight. 3kg is not much.

 

Hi hdanielsen,
Thanks for the quick response.
I guess that 2.7Kg is with the 6-cell battery. That is a good point though. I should check.
I never imagined I would look so high as a T5xx.
Originally I was thinking only of a T410s, cos it is so light. But then I realized that since I am involved with all sorts of development work, I need a laptop that's also good to work with, and not just good to carry around. So I started to look at the T510. Then I discovered there is such thing as FHD, but I find no T510 model with FHD. (I should start a thread.) So well … if I am buying a laptop to use for the next 3 years, one can't skimp on money. But weight is a real issue.

Thanks,

avi

 

@avi
ive read in this thread, that a fhd 90%gamma screen is mostly for professional use. if you are a professional and need that screen, you probably dont mind the extra weight. but if not, you should read more about it to see if its for your need. i have a hd+, and its perfect for me.(video ,audio and basic photo editing)

 

small input if you have a BSOD on your W510 one of the reasons is enabled corrupted or disabled "Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface" this thing gave me psycho symptoms lol. if you disable it bsod will stop tool box was essential to locate it , though funny thing is I noticed the ""notice" from it when I was about to unistall it thinking it was its new ver that corrupted something.

I have even done 12h memtest86+ and reinstalled the Nvidia drivers (by the way the one that is installed by W7 update is a more stable ver than original)

toodle

 

>> ive read in this thread, that a fhd 90%gamma screen is mostly for professional use.

Right. For professional photo work. I do all sorts of things, but not that. So agreed with you there that I don't need the 90%gamma-thingy feature.

However, I am a technical writer, and also a s/w developer so I need a lot of pixels on the screen. E.g., When I lay out a page, even the height of my 1600x1200 main screen is not quite enough. So the FHD gives 1920x1080, whereas the HD+ gives only 1600x900.

I also read many times on this thread that the FHD simply looks better also.

>> you probably dont mind the extra weight
Actually, if the W510 really is only 2.7 Kg, I think it is no heavier than the T510.

- avi

 

For professional photo work... Lenovo W510 w/FHD or Dell M4500 w/FHD ?

I am about to make a purchase decision and am torn.

 

May I add another option? The HP Elitebook 8540w.
Now, please describe HOW torn you actually are.
(FYI, I am too.)

 

Elitebook 8540w is far too expensive.

$3600 for the specs I want. I can get a Lenovo W510 brand new from ebay for $2000

 

Welp! I am part of Club Lenovo! I pulled the trigger on a W510 FHD

Yay!

 

don't wanna put a poop in your soup ,but w510 has real problem with dimm 3 slot, i have tested different memory modules and got same failures on the same slot. I think it might be BIOS related somehow? CPU intolerance to all 4 Dimms filled in with DDR3 1333? anyone? do you have any suggestions?


works in other 3 slots, no problems
works as dual channel, no problems
failes every time no matter on what type or which module is in the slot 3

(the one that is closer to CPU and lays under the 1st slot)

why why why?!!!!! cant I have a Laptop that doesn't fail me and I have to be over-geek'ed to operate it?> this REALLY pisses me off.

all looked good on paper= putting 4 dimms x 2gb and living happy ,but no! memory failed BSOD hang and freezes now I have to reinstall everything thus all other progs wrote corrupted stuff back to HDD!

im very upset calling Le-nova in the morning.


EDIT: found one solution the Kingston memory I used is actually may not be compatible with w510 other good thing to know is combination of CL7 and 1333mhz is also an issue it seems.

so to be on the safe side I advice you to go with CL7 and Elpidia chip based memory. (kingston says that CL9 remedies the problem as-well)
i did not know and assumed that that Kingston used "Elpidia" chips under the hood, but actually they have covered it with nice" heatspreders and real name of chips underneath it is Hynix I honestly hate this brand! it always gives headache and fails in some way.
FFS Elpidia= OK
Samsung=OK
Hynnix=FAIL

 

I'm getting so fed up with these delays. I ordered my W510 mid-March. The reseller was showing items in stock at the time - but it turned out those items had already been pre-ordered. I'm in weekly contact with the distributor, but it seems that the timelines they get from Lenovo are meaningless - they change constantly, jumping backwards and forwards, sometimes to just a few days in the future, other times to months ahead.

The laptop wasn't a priority requirement, and I've been (until now) a big fan of Lenovo and of this laptop spec in particular, but this is getting beyond a joke and if the situation hasn't changed within a couple of weeks then I'll have to, very sadly, take my order to another vendor.

 

Im sorry but this thread is too huge, is there any comparison topic of FHD and the FHD mutlitouch screen on the net?

THX

 

It seems I have this problem too, i bought my w510 with 4x 2 GB ddr3-1333 in February. I tested every slot with every module but if all four modules were in there, I got BSOD with "MEMORY_MANAGMENT" error. The modules are good, tested each for many hours.

I sent it back to the vendor 2 months ago when they said "lenovo europe cannot send us motherboards, please wait"... Today I finally received the "fixed" laptop with the motherboard replaced and AGAIN it's the same issue. When all the 4 memory modules are inserted it sometimes works (when I just replaced the order of the modules) but most of the time it does not.



Please let me know when you succeed in moving this forward.

By the way, I am from Hungary, Europe.


EDIT: i have Geil PC3 10660 1333Mhz CL 9-9-9-24 modules

 

OK m8 I understand now its the its to do with 1333
I'll ask Kingston guys to replace it with KTL type instead of my garbage nicely packed! type.

what i think is happening is that while we used the bad memory we damaged the OS so now errors will increase.

tell me if you have re-imaged/reinstalled your PC.

me thinks formula works something like this (correct me if im wrong)

bad memory- bad writes- bad OS.
good memory-good writes-good OS

so now thanks to you and other guy we can see the similarities in our problems.
what we have is all 3 of us used the 1333 and all of us used all 4 slots
I concluded that it must be the 1333. initially I thought that it was latency problem. CL7 vs CL9
but you mentioned the CL9 1333 and still no go?!

GUYS WHO GOT ALL 4 DIMM IN PLEASE SPILL THE BEANS WHATS INSIDE OF YOUR MACHINES.

in my tests I have also found that when 3 modules say 1333 and 4th is 1066 in machine it seems to pass the mem test.

(best and fastest is short advanced pattern bootable DVD of PC-Dr)

I personally think that the memory we used is too cheap of a memory to be used with this machine, and it overheats then fails. in my case it fails after some time into OS and into app or into game which indicates I'm possibly right , hehe

now those who got a clue please enlighten us!

message i get in W7
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 7f
BCP1: 0000000000000008
BCP2: 0000000080050031
BCP3: 00000000000006F8
BCP4: FFFFF8000348EE58
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1


P.S one more thing those who are sitting on Elpidia and have all 4 slots filled please confirm to "have no problems"

why I dont like Hynnix I think its informative enough about the reasons and origins (i trust my guts) http://www.elpida.com/en/news/2004/06-16.html



OK I got a hold of Elpidia 2 GB module and its not giving the BSOD its 1066 CL7 so draw your conclusions from here .

 

Really? Who did you buy from?

 

Ebay. Lots of Chinese dudes with connections in the Old Country selling them. There was at least 12 FHD W510s yesterday. Mine is factory-sealed brand new and in transit right now.

The seller has 2300 sales and a 100% feedback rating... seems like a safe bet.

 

""""

 

The prebuilts with the FHD do appear to be instock at some retailers and/or their suppliers.