Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

Is there an option in the BIOS somewhere to show diagnostic information during boot instead of just the ThinkVantage logo? If there is, it might shed some light onto the cause of the delay.

 

Thanks for your help!
The "ThinkVantage Active Protection sensor diagnostics" is the culprit ...

 

Just a quick update on the B2/B3 stepping. Mark on the Lenovo forums has posted a way to confirm the stepping without ripping apart the laptop to look at the chipset marking.

I just ran it and the PCH Version is 600005 = B3 Stepping.

 

I uninstalled ThinkVantage Active Protection in the Control Panel (since an SSD does not need it), but the message
"ThinkVantage Active Protection sensor diagnostics start"
continues to come up as the culprit for the slowdown during diagnostic boot

 

I don't think this is the solution. It has never been installed on my machine.

 

I uninstalled the "ThinkVantage Active Protection", but the message "ThinkVantage Active Protection sensor diagnostics start" seems to be something performed by the BIOS.

 

Comparative analysis of KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G and KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G:

Peak bandwidth
14933.333 MB/s for 1866
12800 MB/s for 1600
16.7% advantage DDR3-1866

Column Access Strobe latency
CL: 11, or 11.786ns for 1866MHz
CL: 9, or 11.25ns for 1600MHz
4.8% advantage DDR3-1600

Page hit time, one 8KB page
CAS + tBurst (4 clocks): 11.786 + 4.286 or 16.072ns for 1866
CAS + tBurst: 11.25 + 5 or 16.25ns for 1600
1.1% advantage DDR3-1866

Triple burst chop read, one 8KB page
tRCD+CL+3*tBurst: 11.786 + 11.786 + 3*4.286= 36.43ns for 1866
tRCD+CL+3*tBurst: 11.25 + 11.25 + 3*5= 37.5ns for 1600
2.9% advantage DDR3-1866

Buy.com price
$138.74 for 1866
$106.74 for 1600
30% advantage DDR3-1600

I don't claim that this rough analysis translates linearly to a relative real world performance advantage. I do think that these numbers suggest that real world performance won't be dramatically different, assuming identical hardware and usage patterns. I plan to buy the KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G, unless someone can think of a compelling argument to dissuade me.

Feel free to check my arithmetic. I based my page read calculations on page 5 of Anandtech's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About SDRAM (Memory): But Were Afraid to Ask.

 

I looked in the BIOS and don't see anything related to active protection.

And regarding the Intel AMT messages, I have it completely disabled but still get the message flash right after the logo.

strange

 

Go back a page or two. I told you where it is in the BIOS

 

As indicated, both of mine are disabled as well. I still get the darn message.

 

I did notice that when I ran the ME program to identify the chipset stepping, it did show those as active or enabled even though mine are disabled in the BIOS too. When running the Intel Management and Security Status, it shows them as disabled.

 

This is excellent news. Mine shows 600005 as wells.
Now we are down to one issue left, the warm boot / cold boot thing.

They need to add an option in BIOS to disable "ThinkVantage Active Protection sensor diagnostics start" feature. It is not needed with SSD.

I believe the "ThinkVantage Active Protection sensor diagnostics" has nothing to do with the Intel AMT function. It is a Lenovo provided feature.
.
.

 

Thanks. That's probably what's going on here, too.

I believe I have another BIOS issue. For the display is says Laptop LCD only. No VGA, no DisplayPort, nothing else. So when my machine boots plugged into an external monitor, I don't see anything until Windows is up and running.

Anyone else "seeing" that?

 

Have people been recieving their W520's? I ordered mines on April 13th and the ship date was supposed to be April 25th but it still hasn't shipped yet. Does anyone know why the hold up is, and how long it should take to get sorted out? Does Lenovo allow changing the order to get it out the door faster? I really need this laptop ASAP as I'm leaving for Germany in 2 weeks... My build was:

Processor Intel Core i7-2720QM (Quad-Core) Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3,1333MHz FSB) with Intel Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.3GHz
Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
Display type 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare display, with Wireless WAN Antenna
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Optimus Graphics technology (2GB)
Total memory 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
Keyboard Keyboard - US English
Pointing device UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) Fingerprint Reader, Smart Card Reader
Camera 720p HD Camera with Microphone
Hard drive 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
System expansion slots Express Card Slot, 4-in-1 Card Reader & Smart Card Reader
Battery 9 Cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery
Power cord 170W Slim AC Adapter - North America, Latin America (2pin)
Bluetooth Broadcom Bluetooth 3.0 with antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN

 

I'm just going throw this out there. If I were to have hypothetically disassembled my old W520 then I could hypothetically confirmed that the chipset markings are in fact indicative of B3 stepping. Of course, I'd never do such a thing and we have confirmation through software!

 

I'm pretty sure that's normal. Even with my desktop (in dual monitor mode) the secondary monitor doesn't get out of standby until the OS loads (tried with Windows and Ubuntu). I tried once a long time ago with my netbook (the "GPU" is so weak that it was lagging trying to drive my 1080p monitor and play a video at the same time), and I'm pretty sure the same thing happened.

 

My order cancellation went through, so I pulled the trigger on a new configuration I've been working on with hrana's rep. She will extend this same offer to anyone else, or work with you to get a good price so PM me and I'll forward you her contact info.

It ended up being about $50 more, but this time I made no compromises and got pretty much the best system I could except for a 2720QM CPU, standard RAM, and no SSD. Since the faster CPU's deliver a marginal performance increase for much much higher cost, and RAM/SSD is more cheaply bought elsewhere, I think it's the best W520 you could configure without being insane about it. It's about a 15% discount off the current online deal. Nothing like the 30% deals she was giving out weeks ago, but better than another rep was trying to set me up with, and much better than you can get online. I'm pretty happy with it. She was also offering me 20% off on accessories, but no freebies.

Here's the config (includes 3-Year-Onsite+TPP warranty, which bumps up the price around ~$210):

Purchase date: 4/27
Estimated ship date: 5/18
SYS.4270CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM 1 1984.35 1984.35
0A68535 SBB 15.6FHD (1900 X 1080) LED 1
0A68536 SBB FINGERPRINT READER 1
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0 1
0A68287 SBB NO MSSDRIVE 1
0A68540 SBB NO MODEM 1
0A68541 SBB ICI7-2720QM 1
0A68545 SBB 4GB DDR3 SDRAM1333MHZSMM 1
0A68547 SBB DVD RC8XMXDLLRULTEHATA 1
0A68553 SBB 500GB HDD7200RPM 1
0A68558 SBB 720P HD CAM INT MICR 1
0A68561 SBB SMART CARD READER 1
0A68564 SBB LANG PCK US E 1
0A68599 SBB PCK MOW EXCEPT CH HK JP 1
0A68625 SBB GW7P64 E 1
0A68766 SBB WLAN MP 3X3 HALF (H1) 1
0A68768 SBB WWAN MP WWAN RD FULL F1 1
0A68771 SBB MECH MPARTS 1
0A68782 SBB GEO LABEL US WLAN BL 1
0A68809 SBB 15.6FHD LED B-L,11NWWN,C 1
0A68894 SBB NVQ2000M GR 1
0A68903 SBB COLR SENSOR 1
0A68904 SBB CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD 1
0A68945 SBB CLPLW520 WLAN/WWN/WPN 1
0A68946 SBB REAR CLPL W/ COLOR S 1
0A68951 SBB NVGRQ3TPM/AES 1
0A68966 SBB 2ND GIL(ICI7 VPRO PR 1
0A69620 SBB I RAID-NOT EN 1
0A71377 SBB SLBIDTP00002BFORROW170W 1
0A71678 SBB MS LABEL (W7ST/EE 2.0) 1
40Y9134 TPP TERMS AND CONDITIONS 1
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR 1
44C8401 SBB ENERGYSTAR 4.0 TIER 2 PACK 1
45M4804 SBB IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300 1
45M4816 SBB 9CELLLI-ION BATTERY 1
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH 1
75Y0162 SBB M W7 XP MD- E 1
75Y2143 SBB FCC LABEL 1

 

@m.antonius.primus: That's what I expected without running the numbers. On tasks where memory bandwidth is the bottleneck, you will see a performance increase. On other tasks it will be hard to separate the increase from the noise.

I did a similar comparison a few years back for my work when we were building a compute cluster. We ended up agreeing that the best thing to do is buy the cheapest brand name RAM at the highest supported speed that is reasonably priced, and then invest that combined savings in an extra server or two. In this case, IMHO you'd get a better return investing that money in RAM size (buy 4 sticks), SSD, RAID, or something else.

 

Can anyone think of tasks a software developer might perform for which memory bandwidth is a bottleneck?

 

It doesn't behave this way on any of the other ThinkPads I have in the lab or own. Only the W520.

 

Ditto. I will just have to stumble along on 4GB for a while.

 

Any of you guys have experience with the T400/410/420 or other 14 in. Thinkpad T-Series laptops? I want to love the T420 but talk about the less than spectacular screen and lack of quad i7 processor availability has me looking elsewhere. How does the W520 compare in terms of size and weight in everyday situations?

 

Answers from Keith Combs about the "monitor problems".
Lenovo ThinkPad W520 - mini review - Keith Combs' Blahg - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

[UPDATE for 4/20/2011] I have confirmed with Lenovo that although the W520 has Optimus, it does not have Hybrid Optimus and thus cannot support four external displays like my T410s (see that test). Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there you have it. On the bright side, I will test the T420s before too long and see if it really works.

See Lenovo Support - ThinkPad Multiple Monitor Configurations: NVIDIA Optimus technology for the official support document on the Hybrid Optimus technology and supported configurations.

 

In real life? no. There are some server applications where memory bandwidth could be the bottleneck (network switches, streaming, and caching come to mind). But presumably the applications you are developing on a laptop actually doing something with the bytes that they are moving around, in which case memory will not be the bottleneck.

 

Been reading awhile and I am really a newbie. It sounds exciting and even practical to run faster and up to capacity, but does that make the machine unstable somehow? Will it really ne as easy as just putting four sticks of RAM in the machine or is there something technical I need to know? I want to increase the RAM to 16GB when it comes but feel I would be safer ordering the Lenovo RAM because I am afraid I will somehow mess this up and am not smart enough to know what to do when it does not work..... Can anyone help?

 

Others more technically proficient than myself may have more insight, but from personal experience (on my old laptop) RAM upgrades are just about the simplest upgrade you can do. And, even without having ever built a computer from the ground up, I'm sure you could handle it. Someone else will correct me if I'm wrong, but all that's involved is shutting down the computer (unplug, remove battery and press the power button to remove any electrical shock hazard if you're worried safety), plug in the RAM modules in the slots (instructions can be found in the user manual, page 73 and 79 of the pdf), button everything back up and your done. Sometimes you might have to try and re-seat the RAM DIMM if you get an error when you reboot, but if you make sure the stick is firmly in the slot in the first place, you shouldn't get any errors.

The only hitch is to make sure the RAM modules you are purchasing are compatible with your computer. There are several third-party sites that can supply RAM modules at a steep discount to Lenovo and should do the job just the same. People in this thread have been reporting success with Kingston sticks (look page on page 128 for a listing), I personally ordered this stick from Crucial (PS - the Crucial link has a video showing how to install the RAM if you're interested). Of course, I'm still waiting on my 520 to arrive so I can't attest to how well it performs. Lately there have been posts regarding 1600 and 1866 MHz RAM. While the higher RAM clock speed does help a bit in performance, unless you're a real power-user you might never notice the difference. That's why I stuck with the 1333MHz stick. One final option that's been mentioned (by @maaku) is to just buy unwanted DIMMs from people on the forum.

Hope this helps.

 

hathdan, buying other than the "stock" recommended parts from Lenovo comes with some risk but can reduced by forums like this and learning from others experiences. The key though is you need to want to do the research and enjoy tinkering a bit to get what you want. In case of problems Lenovo may not be willing to help you with non-standard part issues and you would need to turn to Web searches and informal forums like this. I'm planning on buying the new Kingston faster memory and seems like a good lower risk add-on if others are getting it to work. Based on your comments though I think you may want to stick with the Lenovo configuration and what they provide. It's still a great machine!!

 

First thing you must do as always is unplug power and remove battery.
Then the rest is simple.

I simply took out the original RAM stick and put in the new Kingston pair.
I used slot 1 and slot 3 of the 4 memory slots available.

There are no setting to change in BIOS.
It was all automatic, the ram clocks itself at 1866MHz.

It was pretty much "Plug N Play" as advertised by Kingston.

The system is very stable so far, had it running 3DMark 2011 for 11 hours thru the night trying to stress it out. The RAM seems good and stable.
.

 

I have read the comparison of 1600 and 1866. How about 1333 v. 1866?

 

If you do heavy multi-tasking with several memory intensive applications, going from 1066 to 1866 Mhz can give you a 8% improvement, per this benchmark:

Memory Scaling on Core i7 - Is DDR3-1066 Really the Best Choice? - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

@kevinlau: Thanx a lot for the quick answer!

 

Thanks, huberth. This article got me stay with 1333mhz and go out for dinner one more time.

 

I'm posting this here since owners who've received their machines probably don't check the shipping thread anymore. How long after getting shipment notification from Lenovo did your orders actually ship?

 

Just got my new W520. Thanks to help from hrana and BDKC1, I managed to copy an image of C: to an external USB HD. It wasn't quite a virgin copy of the boot partition, as I had failed to enter BIOS setup to boot from a CD (I pressed the blue Thinkvantage button instead of F1). So, it booted under Windows and was partially set up for first use before I could make an image.

The bigger problem, though, is now I am trying to make some recovery disks. The recovery partition is out there, 16 GB worth. It shows zero files in Windows Explorer, but Properties shows 10.2 GB used. When I click OK to build the recovery media, a dialog box pops up that says "The files required for this program cannot be found."

Here's where the self-inflicted wound may have come in. When I booted for the first time after copying an image, I reassigned the drive letter of the Recovery Partition from D: to G:. Stupid, I know. After I tried to build recovery discs and encountered the "files not found" error, I changed the drive letter of the Recovery partition back to D:, but the error persists.

Have I hosed my Recovery partition? Is there still a way to successfully build recovery discs?

 

Does anyone have the HD+ screen & can comment on its quality? My T60 with the WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen was just terrible from a brightness & contrast perspective. I know the FHD display is supposed to be great, but is the HD+ display **BAD**?

 

I've seen many people around my university with T500's with terrible WSXGA+ screens (presumably the same as the T60), and many people with T510/W510's with decent HD+ displays. I've also checked out the HD+ display on the floor models in the University Bookstore, and they seem to be pretty good. They're much better when compared to the 1366x768 Thinkpad Edge 15 in the same store.

And they blow away the horrible 1366x768 screen on the E6510. I don't know what it is with that screen that makes it just so bad, and it's not just resolution. (Fortunately I've confirmed they won't make this same configuration mistake on the E6520 next year. They'll be giving it HD+)

There were actually two 1680x1050 screens available on the T500. One was made by LG and one by Samsung. The LG screen was supposedly noticeably better. I don't know if this was the case for the T60 though.

 

All of the T61p's I've used had the 1680x1050 screen and were what I would call normal. They do seem to lose brightness after a 2-3 years and I actually had one replaced under warranty for that reason.

Please ask at http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/569161-lenovo-w520-owners-thread-shipping-info.html

 

Guys, those who need great SSD go to Amazon. It has in stock (at least now) MAX IOPS OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 SATA III 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive 6.0 Gb-s VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G. Fastest drive with good 4k random read/write speed. This is newer model VTX3MI not just VTX3. Price is $296. These drives just went on the market Yesturday, and NewEgg had them in stock for $319 and they were gone in couple hours. Just heads up for those who look for decent SSD.
Amazon.com: OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 SATA III 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive MAX IOPS 6.0 Gb-s VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G: Electronics

 

I've got the HD+ screen on a t510 (which I'm dying to replace for a new w520), and I intend to get the HD+ again. It's quite good. Like the 1400x900 LED display on my t400, it's plenty bright and viewing angles are good. The only real difference between the two is that the dimmest setting on the t400's display is significantly dimmer (which I prefer for watching a movie in a pitch black room at night).

I would also add that, while I'm sure the 95% color gamut on the FHD display is nice, I feel pretty strongly that a resolution any higher than HD+ on a 15" screen would just be too much. I should also note that I use my laptop primarily for text-based work (I'm a lawyer), so people who are doing graphics-intensive work might disagree.

HTH

 

IMHO, if the text is too small just increase the DPI. You'll at least get greater clarity from the FHD screen.

 

I've just ordered a W520, but it looks like I could have done better Purchased online, and even spoke with a rep, but she offered me nothing above what I had already set up.
Would someone PM me with Hrana's rep info so I can call Lenovo and try to renegotiate?
Thanks,
-- The Wren

 

Here's what I ordered (via Amex Daily Wish deal):

Intel Core i7-2620M Processor (2.70GHz, 4MB L3)
Windows 7 Professional 64
15.6" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
Intel Advanced-N 6250

$1,437.00 + tax

After reading further on this forum, I realize that the max memory for this system is half that of the 2720, which I could get online for roughly $150 more after tax. Plus, this is only dual core (and I was thinking it was a quad).

 

I personally would have gone for the quad core, which is more upgradeable. However, I don't think you'll be able to do much better than the price you posted with the 2000M. E-mail me if you want my rep details (search my posts to find the exact deal I ordered if you're interested)

 

I'm pretty sure I can't PM yet (this is only my 3rd post, and I didn't want to post 5-6 in quick succession to enable PM)

Would you please PM me?

Thanks!

 

[Sheepishly answering my own question]

Now I remember. The Recovery partition was originally drive Q:, not D:. That's why I changed it, because I use Q: as a network drive on my LAN. And, the reason I couldn't see files in the Recovery partition is that Windows Explorer was set to hide OS files. Duh. I'm building my recovery media now.

We now return to regularly scheduled programming.

 

Are all of the Vertex 3 cases 9.5mm or do they have 7mm?

 

They all are 9.3mm

 

I receive my W520 last week while I was on travel. Finally got around to setting it up. I'm moving from a T510 (had a T61p before that). I have:
2720qm processors
2000m graphics
4 gigs + 4 gigs I put in RAM.
160gb intel ssd
FHD display

My impressions -

Speed:
Blistering. When set to the highest turbo mode this thing really hauls. Everything is lightning quick on it. I can post some numbers later if people want them. If I recall I scored a 7.5 on the windows processor score. I haven't been able to really test out the graphics yet however it's definitely the fastest laptop I've ever had.

Optimus:
Really seems to work well. I leave it in optimus mode in the bios and control the state through the driver. I updated to the newest Verde driver and can either just set in there which applications should use which card, or just flip it back and forth yourself, so that on battery it always stays with the Intel card. When that Nvidia card is on and crunching though, wow does this thing suck power and produce some heat!

Heat management:
Really good. I like how fast they let the fans spin under load. The Lenovo power manager has a turbo boost+ feature that lets you max the fans, or you can use tpfancontrol.

The only thing I dislike is the factory fan mappings. They keep the fan speed really low when everything is really cool, however add a little heat and the fans kick up to about 3000 rpm and like to stay there for a good long while. This is actually a little noisy in a quiet room. On top of that, I'm not sure I understand why you have to go into the power manager and kick the fans up to full speed yourself.... why not just have them ramp up there when needed? Without clicking the turbo button they never seem to go much past 3000 rpm. The turboboost+ button takes them up around 4500 rpm.

Using tpfancontrol though I was able to set everything up exactly how I wanted. I have it set to kick the fans down to low speed a little sooner, but to also kick up to max speed earlier. This has been working well for me. At max speed the system so far has stayed reasonably cool. During benchmarking the highest I've seen is 167 degrees F. I think I saw that the tjunc max temp allowed on these was 212 so there's some headroom there.

Screen:
Just as nice as my T510 FHD. Love the screen, wish it was IPS..... but compared to my T61p.... I'll take it. I really don't understand why anyone wouldn't want the FHD. The windows scaling works so well you can get text to be any size you want. The added contrast/color, and brightness (for outdoors use) is nice. I use a spyder 3 on it to calibrate it and it looks good.

Battery life:
I haven't done a full test yet, all I have is what power manager reports. On battery, with screen brightness at about 50%, on a power plan that is set to balanced for the cpu, and using the intel card, it sits in the 10-12 watt range while idle/reading on the web/doing light tasks. Occasional jumps to 20 watts or so and then it'll settle right back down. This puts me in the 7-8 hours of battery life range. No complaints on that!!!!

Lastly - one tidbit I noticed for any that like to run hardware monitors like I do. Be carefull if you are running any tool that reads the temperature of the nvidia card! Using the optimus test tool that nvidia provides (lets you know when the nvidia card is on or off) I figured out that temperature polling turns the video card on. So when I loaded a monitor to observe temperatures for awhile, I quickly noticed that my system power use had increased significantly. This was because the nvidia card (being polled every second) was staying on. I set the monitor to a 30 second polling window to eliminate that problem.

Hope that was helpfull to any of you still on the fence.

 

Good review Infinus

Hope I get mine soon, but my source still not able to get them, so prolly ½-1 month before I get mine, but should be worth the wait

 

ah looks like fan is running at high speed. W510 was running at 2600 or less but I return due to cpu whine otherwise it was okay.

I hope it is faster compare to W510 820QM & little more cooler when you use intel graphics because I don't need Navida all the time.