Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

When I talk/chat with most agents at Lenovo, they state that replacing the HDD yourself voids the warranty. That is why I did not want to do that.

 

It won't unless there is negligence involved.

 

Well, is there anything written with that in the warranty TOC? If there is not, then how would you resolve a problem when you need technical support and then it get to your word versus theirs without any written evidence?

 

Why are you so worried about this? It seems logical that Lenovo customers are going to purchase upgrades and options. The storage device is a typical change as customers buy new hard drives with higher capacity, or purchase faster drives and SSD storage.

Nobody in the industry voids a warranty for a purchase of a standard HDD or SSD. That also includes the addition of a mSATA drive.

If you want to continue debating this, please start another thread outside the W520 owners thread.

 

Who are you to tell me what to say and what not and where? What I am telling you are facts being told by the manufacturer agents and you can try to chat with one of them yourself. If you just do not like to hear the facts, it's your problem. If you have something that says otherwise, please provide it for the benefit of me and others in this forum which is actually the purpose of this forum to benefit each others instead of kicking me out.

 

Although I'm not sure if it's officially written, I have used Lenovo's warranty and support with aftermarket HDD and memory upgrades, without a problem. If it worries you, then don't upgrade, but from my experience, I doubt you'd have a problem.

 

That's good to hear since you have a personal experience with that. That makes me less worried about it and that's what I was looking for. The issue now is probably I would not be to change my order or I would have to place a new order.

 

I've had several ibm and lenovo laptops and upgraded the drives in every one of them. it has never been an issue when i needed warranty work. unless it's a problem with the drive you won't have an issue.

 

I've upgraded from the stock 500GB drive to the Intel 320 in my sig. No problems whatsoever. Same goes for RAM.

 

I am sorry but you cannot say "No problems whatsoever" until you try to send the laptop for repair. At that time, you can share the experience.

 

It's really simple at that point. Put the original drive in if you're worried about it.

 

You are being paranoid. The HDD, RAM, and a bunch of other things are considered as CRU's (Customer Replaceable Units), i.e. if they are broken, Lenovo wouldn't even take it back for repair and would instead just send you a new one (as long as you send back the broken one) because it would waste their time and money to do something so trivial. Do you really think that Lenovo would put the RAM/HDD panels and provide detailed information on how to upgrade components if it would void your warranty? Sure, Lenovo won't cover the parts you replaced with the machine's warranty because you didn't buy those parts from them, but everything else is under warranty still.

At any rate, I don't expect a ThinkPad to die in anything under 2 years, and by then I'd be upgrading or itching for one anyways.

 

Because it doesn't pertain to a ThinkPad W520. It's a generic issue and is applicable to all other ThinkPads. Please move the discussion out of this thread. Thanks.

 

Sorry if I bothered you or anything in this forum with my question or if it looked intuitive to everyone except me. I promise you no more questions!

 

If you ever need to send in your laptop for repair, and the hard drive isn't the issue, then tech support should advise you to remove your hard drive yourself before sending it in to mitigate the chances of data loss.

 

The i7-2720QM to i7-2960XM CPU upgrade has been a bit problematic. It turns out the CPU is thermal throttling with the original heatsink. In normal usage the CPU temps are fine but when it turbos up the processor's temp jumps to 90-95C. I'm going to re-open the laptop tonight and attempt to re-apply the thermal compound and try again. If this doesn't work then either the (original 45W) heatsink is faulty *OR* I really do need to see about getting the 55W unit.

 

Hey man, it's cool. It's a good question but it belongs at the root of the forum not buried in this owner thread.

You aren't the first person to ask it.

In fact, the usual advice on sending a machine in for service is to NOT send your HDD or SDD. Most people don't know how to remove all of their personal information.

I typically drop a similar drive into the bay and run the factory disk restore and send it like that.

 

True although I'm equally concerned about data being lost altogether. (I still remember the story from IBM's CompuServe forum told by the guy who lost his entire TP when the FedEx jet it was on burnt up on the tarmac. And he hadn't taken a backup before he shipped it out.)

Never send anything to EasyServe that isn't part of the problem.

 

@hrana, I'm sorry to hear this. What thermal compound did you use? Also, make sure you don't apply too much or too little.

 

Thanks for the advice. Now, I got the 2.5 GHz processor. Should I expect a loud noise fan with that and does it make a difference if I got the stock processor?

Thanks again!

 

The Intel Core i7-2860QM Processor (2.50GHz, 8MB L3, 1333MHz FSB) should run rather quiet and cool in the W520 unless it is under heavy load. This largely depends on the Lenovo ThinkVantage Power Manager profile in use.

If you run Power Manager Turbo Boost+ setting enabled, the fan rpm is set to run at the maximum level. On the W520 I believe this is 4500rpm. Everything above 4000rpm is noisy unless you are in an environment with a lot of noise.

 

Hi guys,

Only had my unit since last Thursday, but just thought I would throw up some opinions here regarding my impressions and findings so far:

Good:
1) build quality that makes me feel like I could club someone over the head with it.... then sit down, open the lid and type a letter of appology.
2) I'm fairly anal about my screens and the stability of them - I've had many, many laptops and this is the best of the lot. Excellent hinges.

Bad:
1) Sightly creaky, but I think that is just the expansion/contraction of materials as there is next to no flex on the chassis.
2) upon taking out the second disk in the ultrabay (I got the raid option) there is a standard 9.5mm caddy in there with some taped on foam pads to stop it from rattling around.... not the best imo. Although I would never had known if I wasn't curious enough to take it out.

Ugly:
Argghhh CPU/GPU throttling.... most prominent on battery but definately does it on power as well This is a deal breaker and is unacceptable.

-----------
Current Position:

After getting fairly hacked off with the CPU/GPU throttling I was all ready to pack it up and ship it back to the depths of hell from which it came... but I decided to give it one final clean install using only the latest/greated drivers from manufacturer websites instead of the Lenovo certified ones on their website.

I grabbed latest versions of:

Intel Chipset (file version 1.1.47.0)
Intel HD Graphics (15.22.50.64.2509)
Intel Storage Manager and Control Center (10.8.0.1003)
Nvidia Graphics Drivers (285.62)

Hardware config is:
Bios 1.35
Win7 x64 SP1
2670QM
Quadro 2000M
2x 8GB RAM
WWAN
Raid Option (currently AHCI mode with SSD in Bay1 and 7.2k disk in Ultrabay)

Anyway - to the point. I have been using it all day and it seems MUCH MUCH better. I have been doing a few benchmarks using HWMonitor but I won't know for sure until I get home and can get some games going. Can't really get away with that in the office

 

I've had the same problem with my i7-2720QM and BIOS 1.26. Always stuck at 800MHz unless I ran F@H or Minecraft (odd...).

What I did to solve that was to update to BIOS 1.34 and then disable CPU power management in the BIOS, plus using "Max Performance" in ThinkVantage Power Manager. Now I'm hovering at 2.99GHz even at idle. I do turn it back down to 800Mhz when I'm on battery, however.

 

Sorry to hear! I also wanted to swap my 2720 for a XM later on. But I'm afraid that the coming summer will be more difficult than now, even with the 2720.
So how much is the 55W unit? How is the noise? Can TPFC control the fan? Oh and would you mind to take some photographs of the heatsink removal? That would be great. I'm planning to put better thermal compound on it soon.

 

What type of throttling are you seeing?

 

I know what I will ask may look a very naive question to people here but can someone please explain in a simple language what "CPU/GPU throttling" means?

 

The 55W unit is noisier. I wanted to upgrade to a W520 2920, but then downgraded back to the 2820 because of the noise. (I work at home in a very quiet environment.)

 

Generally, it means that the CPU/GPU is limited in certain aspects, usually in clock speed (ie. 800MHz vs the advertised 2.2GHz, or whatever).

 

Thanks. By the way, can anyone tell me if it really makes a difference if I do a fresh install of Windows because I usually do not like to do that and just prefer to stick to what I received but if you tell me it really makes a significant difference, then may be I should change that!

 

Thanks for your reply Huberth, same here, my place is very quiet. That's bad news for me, perhaps it will be better to upgrade to the very last 28xx, later on. Anyway, I will try to remove the stock thermal compound, spring is coming...

 

Does the throttle only happen when the cpu is stressed and hot?
I only wonder because mine idles at 3.39.

 

I re-applied the compound and the same issue resulted. It seems like the heatsink either can't cope with the higher heat output or the heatsink itself is faulty. I called Lenovo for parts this morning and ordered the 55W unit.

Of the 3 part numbers listed in the hardware repair manual here are the results:

04W0437 (discontinued)
04W1574 (available... $297.00!) --> this is what I ordered.
04W1575 (discontinued)

I paid north of $1100.00 for the processor and then got stung with a $300 heatsink. This is going to a very pricey upgrade.

Yes, TPFC can control the fan. I can take pictures but honestly the hardware repair manual is really the best source along with the Lenovo repair videos.

In my case, I don't have a choice.

On the modem issue... I was able to install the standard Lenovo modem inside the W520 without any issue. The motherboard has the socket in place along with the screws. I was missing the RJ11 rention bracket so the RJ11 jack on the back is a bit loose. I had to buy a ~$30 bag of parts (04W1584) I didn't need to get the bracket.

 

Thank you hrana, 297.00 - that's awfully expansive! Found the maintenance manual, I'm going to read it now...

 

I'm getting ready to install a SSD. I was following Hearst Guide To Clean intall for windows7. It states

"Another word of note is that Fingerprint users are advised to use Legacy BIOS mode as there is no official way to get it working under UEFI mode at the time of writing."

Is this still the case even if I update to BIOS 1.34?

Here is the link to guide.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/642274-hearsts-guide-clean-installing-windows-7-thinkpad.html#Prep

 

............................

 

Just call them and say you need the 10% and you will buy it. otherwise you can sign up for their email list and get 10%.

 

Hi All,

I'm trying to add a "Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid State Hybrid Drive" to my w520 in the optical bay. I'm using the Second Hard Drive (or SSD) Caddy for the Lenovo Thinkpad W520, W510 from newmodeus ( 2nd HDD or SSD Caddy - Lenovo ThinkPad W520, W510, T510, T520 [TP-W510-T510] - $46.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks. Thinkvantage tools is able to see the hdd, but the hdd is not showing in the windows explorer? Any ideas what could be the problem?

Thank you.

 

Is the drive formatted?

 

You may still have to format it...

Right-click My Computer > Manage > Storage: Disk Management

 

As a matter of ignorance of the differences between the wifi cards, I ordered my laptop with the “Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 (2x2 ABGN)” which would not actually useful for me in the absence o WiMAX. I should have ordered the “Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)”. My order ship date is still a month from no but I am sure Lenovo would not allow me to make any changes. Do you think it is worth to cancel and place a new order for that component?

 

What is the best SSD brand in the market especially for the 512 GB. Is the Crucial a good one? I see it has very good reviews.

 

Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW480A310 2.5" 480GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Intel SSD 520 Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

Unless you got some outrageously killer discount they won't honor on the second order, I would re-order.

 

After formating, it's showing. Thank you.

 

Hey guys new W520 owner - and I inadvertently selected the default wireless card (DOH the 1x1 agn) and was wondering if I get the 6300, would the laptop already have the required 3 antenna wires? Or would I have to source that too?

Also anyone know a source for the 6300 wifi card? I've found a few places but not sure if its legit. I'd rather not flash a custom bios unless I absolutely have to. Thanks!

I searched on IBM's site http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/default/PromotionDisplay?promoName=parts_r&catalogId=-840&storeId=260785&langId=-1with the part number 60Y3233 will this work?

 

The price is not a big issue as much as is the time to ship. My current ship date is 3/6 due to the 500/7200 HDD and I placed the order 10 days ago. I was hoping that it ships earlier than that and I am afraid if I re-order that it may take much longer (even if the estimated ship date would still be 3/6) since I would have lost 10 days of processing that could make a difference in making this ship date earlier. Do you know what I mean? I really need your advice on what to do.

They just added the option of 320/7200 HDD which is available in stock making ship date 2/29 but very honestly, I cannot afford buying an SSD at this point (may be within 2 years). On my current PC, I have about 200 GB of data. Would you please advise me which way to go now regarding my current order? Thanks

 

not sure about yours but mine had the 3 wires. i ordered the advanced n and found out that there was one spot in my house that i was having trouble staying connected. ordered the ultimate n and plugged it in and it works great.

 

Hi guys...

The changes yesterday involving drivers and stuff definately made a difference, but it was also definately still throttling. I'm new to this thread and not really sure what has been said/done previously (I'm not reading 500+ pages ) so if the following helps anyone then great - if not then, oh well

Right it definately throttles and there definately isn't a dam thing you can do about it unless you want to start loading custom bios, using Throttlestop, etc. However for me personally I don't care about the graphics when on the move, only the CPU. I was just about to send the laptop back when I found the following:

1) The CPU *CAN* use turbo boost when running on battery.
2) The CPU *CANNOT* use turbo boost when running on battery if the discrete graphics are in use for *ANYTHING*

Unfortunately, many of my initial tests were done sat at my desk, using my big monitor and simply plugging/unplugging the power into the laptop and then running various benchmarks. Looking back this was an obvious mistake as the display port uses the discrete graphics, which in turn enables the CPU throttling 100% of the time. In addition to this, even when I disconnected the monitor, I still had the Thinkpad power monitor open so I could make changes and stuff... clearly another mistake because due to the *stupid* coding of the app it defaults to the discrete graphics.... limiting the CPU Thats a great power app right there. gg Levnovo

It was only when I unplugged the external monitor *and* closed the ThinkPad Power Configuration Utility I noticed the laptop was using turbo boost and put 2+2 together.

Basically as long as you don't have any applications open that use the discrete card, your CPU is not throttled at all. The following screenshots show:

1) The laptop running on battery power, using turbo boost with no programs using the discrete graphics:



2) The laptop running on battery power, unable to use turbo boost because programs are using the discrete graphics:



NOTE - the application showing which programs are using the discrete CPU is built into the Nvidia Control Panel. Just enable it from the menu:

Desktop->Display GPU activity icon in notification bar


3) The laptop running on battery power, with the application closed and the machine once again able to use turbo boost:



Anyway - hope that helps people, if you are being CPU throttled when running battery, check that some random program isn't using the GPU using that little monitor, if it is and it clearly doesn't need to you can always just use the control panel to specificly force it to use the integrated graphics instead.

For me, wanting to run multiple VMs on the move, this makes the machine useable again No more CPU throttling on battery for me

 

This is by design. Lenovo has stated that.

 

well not how I read it. perhaps I have misinterpretted it, but if so they I'm willing to wager there are others in the same boat that my post above could help clarify things for.

Lenovo have stated that turbo boost is not supported in battery mode full stop:

W520 TurboBOOST not working on battery or after up... - Page 38 - Lenovo Community

it also seems to be the general understanding of the community:

W520: No Turboboost support on battery - Lenovo Community

Feel free to educate me, I'm very open to it

 

Anybody know how I can get my trackpoint button working on my W520? It just doesn't work anymore. I checked the BIOS and it's enabled, checked the FN key menu option but it won't let me turn on the trackpoint (only the trackpad). I can disable both the trackpad/trackpoint but I can't enable the trackpoint and/or trackpad.

The driver shows itself as working properly and I tried reinstalling the software with no success. I even tried a spare keyboard to see if it was hardware related and it still doesn't work. Only the touchpad works now. I haven't done anything to the computer. Anybody with suggestions? Thanks.