Lenovo W510 Owner's Thread

You need one that supplies power as well as the SATA connection. You'll probably need to get the power from a USB port. Not sure if an adapter like this exists (SATA for data and power from USB).

 

does the eSATA port double as a USB 2.0 port? If so is the cable capable of hosting a power connection? I mean Im pretty sue the cable is able to surge power through. I mean HDD get there power from a SATA connection on some PC so yeah XD

PS Don't worry, it wasn't off topic...i believe i went off topic XD

 

Something like this ??
Amazon.com: 5V / 12V Power Over eSATA cable with SATA HDD Adapter: Electronics

Thats what i thought ! Thats why i was sure the cable i bought would work but it didnt.

Anyone else want to share their experience ??

 

Nice find! Didn't know those existed!

 

@Aikimox: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/453245-lenovo-w510-owners-thread-210.html#post6393571
If you don't mind...

 

Yes it does.

I'm using this enclosure for my eSATA 2.5" drives.
Link

 

Thank you! I still haven't messed around much with the wireless portion on this notebook, but thought wireless would have been controlled by Fn and some other key combo like my previous Dell...

 

Having anything plugged in the USB 3.0 prevents the system from booting is reeeeaaaaallllllllly pissing my off !!!

Why didn't Lenovo fix this in the latest BIOS update ??! I haven't installed the latest BIOS (too afraid to) but it didn't mention anything that would solve this problem in the BIOS Fixed Issues txt.

 

Sorry, missed that post
Maybe the switch mode circuits term wasn't entirely correct. It's more than just circuits. When you switch to the battery mode additional capacitors should kick in to feed the CPU on the low energy profile. If you load the CPU to force it into a high energy profile, the noise should disappear, at least in theory.
So the noise is probably coming from the capacitors utilized during the CPU's low voltage state.
Assuming that the BIOS doesn't have the CPU voltage profile options there could be some other ways of forcing the higher CPU voltage, similar to RMClock in C2D.

 

That's for your reply. But how does the "music hack" fit into this theory? Actually, I've never noticed that the noise just stopped upon higher CPU load but only when the sound card had got something to do. (As I already said it stops / starts the instant I play back or stop the music, no matter if the speakers are muted or not.)

 

anyone else updated their battery's firmware? in the process of discharging right now. Lenovo Support & downloads - ThinkPad Battery Firmware Update for Windows to fix a low battery capacity problem - ThinkPad (Full version)

 

I did.

While it was downloading, I put my head down, talked to God.. proceeded to ask him for forgiveness for all my sins while it was installing... When i was done i was looked back up and it told me to reboot. Prayed more...

p/s Its very unfortunate that id have to have this kind of feeling when doing a firmware update with Thinkpads.. Nerve wrecking i tell ya...

 

Have you tried running Prime95, 3DMark06 or any other CPU benching software? I bet, the only reason you noticed the noise stopping during music playback is because you either didn't stress the CPU during normal use of the system or were too distracted to notice the difference (ex. playing games).

 

I update my T510 on Wednesday with that battery firmware and had no issues. Everything went smoothly.

 

Oh man, I hear ya on that! In all my years of computing, nothing is more scary than updating the BIOS on these Lenovo Thinkpads!

 

Im still afraid to update the BIOS

- still dealing with 3gb usable memory as opposed to 4gb.

Do you know if the latest BIOS fixes the issue where the system wouldnt boot if anything was plugged in the USB 3.0 ??

 

No, I haven't. But what I did is I changed the default sound ouput to my external (USB) sound card during playback and the high pitch was instantly there again. Now, I'm pretty sure that switching between the sound devices rather doesn't make a difference regarding CPU load, does it?
Also, it's not that I didn't use the CPU's horse power at all when the TP was running on battery. I spent hours listening to that ongoing noise and it *never* disappeared although load levels had changed quite a bit in the meantime (surfing -> programming / compiling -> surfing -> flash game -> … .

As far as I know it doesn't.

 

Do any of you Thinkpad veterans think Lenovo will refresh the GPU to say the fx1800m or maybe one of the professional ATI cards soon? I only ask because I am currently stuck between the HP 8540w and the W510.

 

Unknown. But from what I know, both have a very similar performance and durability wise. 8540w has an outstanding build quality due to the MTG-810G, it also has the DC2 screen option (It's either an IPS or high gamut RGB LED TN panel).
If money is the decisive point - W510 would cost significantly less in most countries and be delivered faster.
Plus, when FirePro M5800 makes it to Lenovo systems and the new BIOS will support it - you can buy the card separately for 400$ and install it yourself.

If money is of no issue (or no big difference in price between the two systems in your country) - probably go for 8540w.

Still, I encourage you to run some CPU stressing apps when on battery. If there's no straight connection, more testing will need to be done (disabling devices in Device Manager, monitoring power consumption for main components as well as minimizing the processes and services running in the background, etc). On my M17X the noise is no more right after forcing the CPU @ max clocks and/or OC'ing/Overvolting it. I didn't try the same on W510, since my wife doesn't care (it's her system) about that noise at all.

 

I was under the impression that the W510's gpu was soldered to the board, making it impossible to every upgrade. However, the 8540w has an MXM graphics card that you can upgrade whenever (with bio's support).

I was really leaning towards the w510 more for it's aesthetics. I really like the straight line design, rubberized feel, and the actual switches/buttons. The 8540w multi-colored touch buttons and tiny recessed touchpad are really bad. The W510's cooling system also looks much more efficient.

Thanks for your help though!

 

Looks like you're right regarding the W510's GPU.


Not sure if you can safely claim that W510 has a better cooling than 8540w.
I'd say they are close. The reason, why people assume that the HP runs warmer is because of its full-metal-jacket partially acting as a HS. It has PRO's and CON's ,btw.
Focusing on the inner temps is more important.
And when comparing the two, look for similar components (ex. FX1800M with GDDR5 will surely run hot compared to FX880M with GDDR3).
From what I've seen on the HP boards and from the W510 testing - they are equal in terms of cooling, IMHO.

 

anyone able to get audio out via displayport to hdmi in linux?

 

Received my W510 this week. Have been able to play with it a little and do some testing. Here are my impressions:

• Not at all impressed with the finish on the LCD cover. Scratched it right out of the box. There was a small speck of dust or something and when I brushed it off it scratched the finish.
  .
• Screen (FHD Wide Gamut) is very vibrant, maybe too much. Red is extremely "electric". I wish there was an option for a regular RGB screen for this laptop, even though it might not technically be "better". I still have to play with the colors and hopefully I can calibrate it to something a little more normal.
  
  FHD resolution looks excellent at default zoom level (125%). Text is smooth and easy to read.
  
  Very glad to have a matte finish screen instead of glossy.
  
  No dead/stuck pixels (yet) and backlight seems to be very even.
  .
• Ugliest power brick I've ever seen (130W). The thing is just a giant brick with no design thought whatsoever -- something out of the early 90s. The AC cable sticks straight out making it difficult to roll up to fit nicely in a bag without unplugging it. It's also 2 prong instead of 3 (USA standard). Probably doesn't matter but every other modern power supply has 3 prongs. Dell really got this right with a flat design and 180 degree AC plug that makes it easy to roll up.
  .
• Keyboard seems nice, but I'm not a fan of the small Windows key. I use hotkeys tied to that all the time. They should have made the Fn key the small one and the Win key full size. Jury is out on the Ctrl/Fn switch, but I knew what I was getting into there before I bought it. Large Esc and Delete keys are very nice.
  
  Trackpad has a good texture and seems to feel pretty fast. It's humid right now and I don't feel my finger sticking to it so it's gliding pretty easily.
  .
• Thinklight reflects off keys causing some glare. Looks like it'd be more useful if you're reading papers or something that you put on top of the keyboard. Dell's backlit Latitude keyboard easily beats the Thinklight in keyboard readability.
  
  EDIT: Overall the Lenovo keyboard is better than Dell, I'm just commenting on the lighting here. If Lenovo went with a Dell-style backlight, it would probably compromise the rest of the keyboard. That's probably not an acceptable tradeoff.
  .
• So far I haven't noticed the CPU whine, but I've only been on AC power so far. I don't expect to be on battery that much.
  .
• Speakers sound decent enough for a laptop. A little light in the bass side, but you can't expect much from laptop speakers. Mute button works correctly even when Windows is locked. This was an issue on my old laptop, if Windows was locked you couldn't mute or change volume.
  
  Disabled "Phantom Speakers" and "3D Immersion" effect. Made music sound a little strange.
  .
• Hard drive shock detection is impressive, or at least interesting.
  .
• Lenovo seems to have done a decent job providing tools that integrate Windows and the hardware, such as power profiles, etc... They are clearly not just dumping Windows in systems to sell them.
  .
• Recovery disc creation creates 3 DVDs. The 2 "data" DVDs appear to be blank when inserted into the DVD drive, however when I rip them to ISO images and open with ISObuster, they show up as UDF formatted and I can see the data.
  .
• While running Prime95 the rest of the system is surprisingly responsive. Temps are pretty high (75-78), ad the fan is not silent, but it's not overly loud either. Expected noise level for a laptop running full CPU.

Overall I like the system so far.

Specs:
- i7-720QM
- 8G RAM
- 500G disk
- FHD display

 

Nice report, orev.

You *can* mute/adjust the colors, right??

Those temps!! Seems that the i7 series all run pretty hot! How long will they (CPUs/motherboard) last running at that temp?? My little Core 1 duo (@ 2 GHz) runs in the mid 50s usually, and that's with me running at back-throttled power (only goes into max under heavy load). Are mid-70s going to burn something out quickly?? Sounds high to me.

 

I also thought the base casing of the 8540w was plastic and only the screen cover/ palm rest was aluminum? When I was referring to the cooling efficiency, I was talking about notebookcheck.com review of both laptops.

W510:
Notebookcheck: Review Lenovo Thinkpad W510 4319-29G Notebook

8540w:
Notebookcheck: Review HP Elitebook 8540w Notebook

About three quarters of the way down the page they show the surface temps. On the W510 the highest heat is located at the fins of the heat sink. While on the 8540w the highest heat is located dead center (where the GPU is?), not at the fins of the heat sink. Also the W510 has 2 heat pipes over the GPU and the 8540w only has one. To me the more heat located at the fins and not at the heat sources (CPU/GPU), the more efficient the cooling system is. It is also good to note that W510 they tested had a hotter CPU then the 8540w and still preformed better.

Don't get me wrong I'm still considering the 8540w, but I have had some really bad experiences with HP's cooling systems (TX1000 and Envy 15).

 

I just ran through the color control panel, and so far I wasn't able to help much.

Those temps are while running the Prime95 stress test, so that's basically the max if you were running a CPU intensive job. Idle is 41-47, and I was thinking of replacing the thermal compound with Arctic Silver, so that would hopefully help the temps more.

 

to reduce "electric" colors get your digital Vibrance in Nvidia controll panel to 34-40% mark

 

The last thing you wanna compare is surface temps.
When I did a W510 review, was very impressed with the low surface temps as well, but the biggest surprise was inside. The CPU (720QM) would often hit above 80C during load, max was around 86C during light gaming. GPU got to 85C when running mildly stressful games.
During the tests conducted by Notebookcheck, they hit 95C + with Prime+Furmark. Quantity of the heatsink pipes alone mean nothing. You need the actual real-time testing while monitoring the temps. Make the plastic insulation of sufficient thickness and your system's surface will not get hot, but inside there will be a nice BBQ grill

 

The Vibrance on mine is already set to 0%, on the "Adjust desktop color settings" page. Turning it up just makes it worse. Is there another place you are referring to?

 

Have you tried calibrating the screen with windows tool?
I had the same problem with my alien and after calibrating was pleasantly surprised.

 

Are there anybody who are architecture students using W510?
I am trying to figure out what is the best laptop for my 3rd and 4th year achitecture program. I have been comparing among W510, M4500, and A Mac. I know general specs of above machines, but since I have never seen them personally, it is important for me to know what others(Architecture students) are thinking about these laptops.

Secondly, I wonder if the monitor size will be sufficient for me to be able to see all the details in Autocad and 3ds Max. I am looking to choose FHD option.

Thirdly, I wonder when Lenovo will refresh the W510 model. I wish they offer higher GPU than the current one with slightly faster CPUs than the i7 820. Any information on this?

Thanks in advance

 

First off if your concern is cpu and gpu speed then a mac meets none of the requirements

secondly I used to think I wanted to be and architect and took 2 years of architecture Esq courses (that focused on 2d CAD) but I branched into 3d in my spare time, I can safely say that my HD+ with 820 greatly improved upon my previous (pos) laptop. but I think it would be amazing with the FHD.

Also remember you can always plug in to a bigger monitor when your at school or at home (assuming you have access)

Lastly lenovo does offer the extreme proc
I have no more of a comment on the gpu refresh

conclusion: If you can get it on sale then buy now?!?!

 

I had same problem once , its a driver issue. reinstall it get the new one and clean install it. digital vibrance should be at mark 50% and not on 0.
could be bios too as I had this problem only before the 1.24-1.13ver of it.

simply put it works when it works, if it doesn't work clean install nvidia drivers if that fails you know the drill. but use some tool that really unistalls your drivers stage wise youd probably have to unistall 3 times and reboot 3 times to get read of all drivers since 7 likes to revert to previous every time.

when it works properly you can make your screen look as pale as you like LCD retro aka 1997

forgot to add download new LCD-display driver , yes the one that you need to install manually. helps with OSD aswell.

trust me im a Dr (just kidding)

 

Where's the microphone located on the W510? I've been trying to Skype with my fiancee and she complains that my mic is cutting in and out.

 

look for the holes m8 just above indicators there are two holes.

man must know where the hole is.. for microphone

 

BTW, I don't know why they ship the other way, but if you're going to be skyping, go to the SmartAudio software and set it for VOIP.

 

I am looking at two W510s that are offered for sale at an online vendor. They are both advertised as "Lenovo ThinkPad W510 4319" One says it has a '15.6" Widescreen TFT 1600 x 900.' The other says it has a '15.6" Widescreen TFT 1920 x 1080.'

There is a price difference between the two, but I think it is attributable to one having 2GB ram and that other having 2 x 2GB ram. Now, I am planning on replacing the ram with 4 x 4GB, regardless. But if there is a difference in screen resolution, I would buy the one with higher resolution at the higher price.

Do you think that it is possible that one has 1600 x 900 resolution and the other has 1920 x 1080 resolution??

Thanks,
-dog

 

If that's what they are advertising, then why would you think otherwise? The higher resolution screen in definitely more money. RAM is not that expensive these days, so if you're seeing a big price difference, it's probably not from that.

Otherwise, if you have concern whether the place is advertising the right product, then you probably shouldn't buy there.

 

My question is whether some versions of the W510 could come with 1600 x 900 while others come with 1920 x 1080?

It seemed to me that the same model "ThinkPad W510 4319" would have the same screen. I'm trying to discern whether the vendor may be mistaken.

I don't 'think otherwise,' I'm just trying to learn before I buy.

Thanks for weighing in on my question.
-dog

 

Well, i spend almost 10 years in Architecture school and i can tell you forget about the Mac. Running windows on a mac, you will get all the problems you have on a pc. I prefer the W510 because it has 4 DIMM ram slots(i dont know about M4500). I believe you will use a lots of photoshop, illustrator, indesign stuff. Those are all ram intensive applications and 4 ram slots will help you lower the cost. I believe all the laptop you mention are good computers but i think W510 suits you better.

 

4319 doesn't qualify the model entirely. There are various 4319 models that have difference configs, including screen resolution. Check out tabook for details.

 

"tabook" shows that some 15.6" displays are 1600x900, while others are 1920x1080.

Thanks for letting me know about "tabook."

 

I know I probably would sound like someone who complains too much but I think I have display problem again smooth ghosting appears in all apps and progs 3d games and scrolls. its not lag but still annoying "Cant draw here so please use a bit of imagination"as if would eight have a shadow ---> 8B

BTW non official driver from nvidia site is the best remedy to the over saturated colors as bar starts to work properly, also latest official lenovo video driver is also not bad but you need to slide the digital V to "0" mark to get same effect as with non official performance driver at mark 40% (default with both when freshly installed is 55%). this maybe more suitable for those who aint got the color censor

 

Nope. I tried it yesterday with some Displayport -> HDMI cable which worked on Windows but wasn't able to get any audio signal whatsoever from Ubuntu 10.04. Can you tell me what your distro, your Nvidia driver's version and your kernel version is? I'm about to file a bug report and it would be good to know where to start the search.

Now, that's funny. Mine has 3 prongs but I wished it had 2 cos that's the standard over here in Europe (or at least Germany).

You're absolutely right. Mine runs damn hot, too. From what I can tell by touching the surface I'd say it's about 70°C right now (ouch!) although I'm just surfing. It's definitely become worse during the last weeks whereas at the beginning it was acceptable.

The first four digits always specify a whole series.

 

Why the heck would someone WANT a 3 prong brick? So that they can run into situations where they can't use it? And since when is 3 prong a US standard? I don't think I have a single 3 prong device in my apartment. Sure, there are a lot of 3 prong outlets around here, but there are also a lot of 2 prong extension cords.

 

I clarified in the next post that my temps were when running CPU burn testing. That's running full bore on the CPU. In that situation, it shows the cooling methods to be quite effective. My idle temps are in the 40s range.

Also, you can't tell anything by touch. Download "Core Temp" to see what the temps really are. If you really are idle and seeing 70s, then you have something seriously wrong. Check the Task Manager process list to make sure you don't have something eating all CPU in the background.

3-prong adapters provide a ground pin which adds more safety. Read this: ELECTRICAL GROUND: Why Three Prongs?

 

Sure, but if they can make a properly functioning brick that doesn't have to use the ground pin, why not?

 

Hope you find a way to fix the color issue, and that you report it here.


Then your temps are not much different than mine, and I'm running my rig at greatly reduced settings, via Power Manager.

Routinely, my southbridge and other ACPI bridge is running in the mid-40s, with the CPUs running 5 to 10 degrees (C.) hotter; HD thankfully stays coolest of all. I find the best way to create the coolest-running situation is to put the machine into stand-by for an hour, running on battery, no power plugged in -- with ambient temperature as cool as possible; I use an external fan during these hot summer days -- then bring it out of stand-by with no apps loaded, only the boot-up items, before plugging it back in to power. Also, HWiNFO32 has my GPU running at ~70 C. (!!), and that's when it's "cool"; often at 75-78 C.

If I dare going to "Maximum Performance" the bridges and CPUs shoot way up into the 60s and 70s, respectively. This while only running Thunderbird, Firefox (with admittedly 20 tabs open, but no streaming going on). I'm currently using Comodo with D+ and Avira free, both running at basically default settings. At idle the machine CPU is between 1 and 20%, roughly.

I've always thought this machine ran too hot, and it requires a lot of cutting back via Power Manager to even keep it reasonably cool. But maybe this is just the nature of dual core machines?? What I'm seeing in the quad and higher core machines seems to bear this out.

From what I've read, Arctic Silver or Diamond 7 will reduce heat measurably, the latter more than the former.

 

Anybody who cares about colors should just buy something like an i1 Display 2. It's the only way to get good colors, and it will vastly improve monitors that are bad (and still provide the edge you need on good monitors).

 

I've been looking into one but they are a bit confusing. It's hard to tell which ones support Win7 and dual monitors, and the ones that do seem very expensive.