Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

My W520 should arrive on monday!! Can't wait!!! For those of you that have a FHD screen and a BLU-RAY drive/burner. Have you had any problems? What blu-ray model and make did you get and where? How good do the movies look? Thanks in advance... it would be a shame to waste a FHD display without the BLU with the RAY

 

I am having trouble doing a clean installation of Win 7 on my new W520. I have a RAID configuration and 80 GB Intel 310 installed. When I try to install Windows 7 from a retail DVD using external USB DVD burner, once I click on Install now I get an error "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing". When I try clicking on Browse to look for drivers, for some reason it's not picking up USB flash drives I plug in or DVDs I put in instead of the Windows 7 installation DVD.

I tried slipstreaming drivers into the installation but I must be doing something wrong because when I then burn the slipstreamed ISO I get the same error and I can't find the slipstreamed drivers when browsing X:\ drive (where boot.wim gets mounted during the installation).

I even tried turning off RAID and switching mode to Compatibility or AHCI, but got the same error. I know a lot of people did clean installations so I don't understand what drivers am I missing.

Any help would be very appreciated.

 

Which USB port are you using? Use the yellow one in the back.

 

You sir just saved me couple of hours of sleep tonight! The installation picks the USB drive up when I plug it in the back port, so I hope it will be just a matter of finding the right drivers that are missing.

Edit: Better yet, if I just plug the drive into the yellow port, it seems to work, without asking for drivers. It just had to be something so freaking simple...

 

I must say that I am not exactly thrilled with 16Gb kingston HyperX 1866Mhz (2x KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G).

Yes, the performance is way better than 1333Mhz, but in return I often get memory bleeps when switching on my W520 (4276-23U i7-2920XM, 16Gb RAM, NV2000, Intel SSD 510). Especially powering on the machine by using the fingerprint power-on feature often fails.

Once the machine is up and running, there are no issues, but powering on the machine is unreliable at best.

Any suggestions?

 

Memtest86+, and if errors show up it's time to open an RMA with the seller/Kingston.

 

OK, I was able to install Windows on the 80 GB Intel 310 with SATA mode switched to AHCI. When I switch it to RAID, Windows doesn't boot up. I tried loading the RAID drivers during the installation, but it wouldn't find any drives. BIOS detects both hard drives and the SSD. Any ideas?

 

I have the FHD screen and have been watching bluray movies from the hard drive. The picture looks fantastic. I also have the color sensor and while the colors where great before calibration they were even better after. The speakers are mediocre but I am using a good pair of in ear buds so that is not a problem. Overall the W520 makes a great entertainment setup.

 

I just did it yesterday. You just have to register for the Barnes & Noble partner account, configure your W520, and activate the "BESTSELLER" coupon code before checkout. You should save a significant amount of money.

 

Cool. thanks. Looks like mine arrives Monday.
In light of the interests of most of the posters in this thread, it probably sounds crazy, but... I plan to use the thing pretty much just as it is.
But I might dust off my inner geek and try adding SSDs and what not to it down the road.

I am interested in the RAM situation though. I ordered it with 4gb in a single slot... seems like that used to be a no-no performance wise (two dimms needed for paging or something?). So...
1. Am I going to take a performace hit until I get another 4gb in there?
2. I read somewhere that the unit can support 32gb of RAM... how in the world do you do that?

 

On creating a RAID 0 setup the Lenovo W520 Hardware Manual says: "All existing data will be erased while the RAID volume is being created."

The Intel RST page: Intel® Rapid Storage Technology — What is a RAID ready system? says: "a RAID ready system is a configuration that enables a seamless migration from one, non-RAID Serial ATA (SATA) drive, to a SATA RAID configuration. A reinstall of the operating system is not required."

Which is correct?

 

Anyone using Thinkpad Fan Control (TPFC 0.62)? Leaving it on smart mode the fan is basically off on my system as it mostly runs under 60 degrees C whilst browsing / using office etc - i.e. with SSD the machine is silent.

 

Does anyone know in optimus mode if one can disable automatic switching and manually control which card is used?

 

After playing with the new lappy, here's my first impression. SWEET! Battery life is very good, 4 hours general use (browsing with wifi, installing apps, working with Flash). In installed Win7 Pro from a retail DVD, installed drivers, updated both to 80gb Intel X25 SSD. I'm getting read/write speeds of 225/80. I have the 2720QM, 2-2gb and 2-4gb 1333 RAM in dual channel config, and everything is running incredibly snappy. Same or even better than my i2600k desktop. Screen is nice, set dpi to 125% and have no problems reading text. Keyboard is the best I've ever used, with no flex in regular use. Even with the 9cell, the laptop seems pretty light and not overly big. With the 16x9 ratio, I can imagine taking this on a plane, without tilting the screen toward you. For those interested, I was able to enable GPU acceleration for the Mercury Playback engine with my 1000m (google studio 1 mercury playback). I'm really looking forward to testing out video conversion using quicksync. Some minor quibbles are that the battery is a little loose and the screen has a little bit of flex (unlike the unibody macbooks) that doesn't give a strong sense of solidness when picking up the laptop.

 

If you want to temporarily override Optimus' choice for an application, right click on the application and choose (assuming the context menu is enabled). You can set your choice permanently using the Nvidia Control Panel.
from: w520 Optimus Switching - Lenovo Community

 

The quad core W520 does support up to 32GB RAM (assuming that your wallet does too). There are 4 slots and each one can have an 8GB SODIMM. You are generally better having memory in all 4 slots because of the way the quad core memory channels work with multi-threaded applications, but I don't have any benchmarks of the laptop in high stress mode to prove that.

 

Asked and answered many times for the Optimus based machines. Yes, this is controlled in the BIOS.

 

That sounds like bad RAM. I would call Kingston tech support for advice.

Have you followed Intel's instructions? Intel® Rapid Storage Technology — How to install the RAID driver during Windows Vista* installation (This applies to Windows 7 as well)

Performance of single-channel vs. dual-channel is debatable for real-world end-user-based usage so calling it a "no no" is a bit of a stretch. Are you going to take a performance hit with 1 4GB DIMM? Not really. That is enough RAM for Windows 7 to happily chug along. Above that is an area of diminishing returns unless you're doing something specific (large data sets, memory hungry applications, etc.) Yes you can put 32GB of RAM in the W520 but, as I've said before, if you knew how much 8GB DIMMs cost then no one would ask this question (we're talking a couple thousand for a full 32GB config). The upgrade to 8GB is the best bang for your buck right now. 1333Mhz is fine. You could always get 1600Mhz or 1866Mhz RAM but the price may not justify the performance changes.

If your operating system resides on a drive being added to an array then a reinstall is required because you'll lose all the data on the disk. If you create an array of only data disks then you'll lose the data on the disks but, obviously, a reinstall of your operating system won't be required.

 

I didn't read them before, but that's exactly what I've been doing and the problem is that once I try to load the drivers during the setup, it doesn't find any hard drives. If I switch SATA to AHCI mode, it finds the drives fine. BIOS/UEFI can see the drives when SATA is in RAID mode just fine. Did you setup your RAID using UEFI Windows installation?

 

1. Anyone using Seagate Constellation.2 ST91000640NS 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Enterprise-class Internal Hard Drive or Momentus® XT Solid State Hybrid Drive (32MB Cache enabling the drive to deliver SSD-like performance along with higher capacity ST95005620AS) on W520?

2. How about One ST91000640NS and OCZ VTX3MI ? Both SATA 6.0GB/s on W520 ? Will they cause any problem or work well together?

3. Anyone have Lenovo W520 pakage #427639U around $ 1900 -2820QM ? #427637U around $ 1700 - 2720QM ?

THANKS !!

 

Yes. That's what I thought too. But here is another article by Intel that says:

"Intel® RAID Migration Technology - Seamless migration from a single hard drive to a RAID 0 (or RAID 1) dual hard drive array without requiring OS reinstallation. Additional migrations to higher levels of RAID are also supported" (from: Intel® Matrix Storage Technology)

 

15mm high -> will not fit into the W520. But should work fine as external storage ;-)

 

Riko,

What make, model, and size drives are you trying to RAID? My impression (and I could be wrong) is that you can only RAID two drives in the primary and ultrabay via the hard drive adaptor.

I didn't think you could RAID a mSATA drive.

Is that what you are trying to do?

 

I did and that was inconclusive. At one point I seemed to have a flaky module, shown by boh Memtest86+ and Lenovo Toolbox. Hoewever when retesting in pairs of two, the issue did not return. back with the four of them put in, I coudn't reproduce the issue. Will have to keep my eyes open for reoccurring memory issues I guess. Perhaps a module may have been improperly seated in its slot. Who knows, we'll see.

 

No, I am trying to use two WD 750 GB drives, one in primary bay, one in ultrabay adapter, plus install OS on the mSATA drive.

I spent some time researching this, and I am starting to believe that RAID SATA mode is not compatible with UEFI on W520. I was able to install Windows when I switched SATA mode to AHCI and left boot options set to UEFI only, and I was able to do the installation with SATA mode set to RAID and boot options set to Legacy only.

If that's really the case, I just wish this was mentioned somewhere in the manual or knowledge base

 

i got two 4 gig sticks from crucial and had a blue screen after i installed. took one out still had blue screen. took both out booted fine. put the one that i took out first back and it booted fine. guess it doesn't matter where you buy em.

 

My question implied that I had set the BIOS to optimus mode. I don't want to reboot. On the Alienware M17X R3 there is a function key for manually switching between dedicated and integrated graphics.

I was more asking if anyone had made a utility that overrode the default behavior of optimus to allow manual override. Which if not I'm certain will be written.

I personally know when I want battery life / eco settings and I know when I want CUDA or 3D I don't want it per app. I want control, without a reboot.

 

Is this a good price for a W520? $1497.69 for:

Processor: Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
Display type: 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
Color sensor: No Color Sensor
Total memory: 4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard US English
Pointing device: UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader Edit
Camera: 720p Camera
Storage subsystem: Internal RAID - Not Enabled
Hard drive: 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm

 

I read up on this and it looks like migrations are possible. HP has a tutorial here. I've always used real RAID cards so migration was never on my radar. I was mistaken and apologize for it. Good catch.

If you get any error then that is reason enough to RMA the module. But...

This is quite strange that 2 people are having issues. Can you RMA the Crucial modules and try again? Are either of you mixing and matching modules? What happens when it's only the new RAM and the original stick(s) is/are taken out?

I won't have my RAID-enabled machine until Monday. I also have the Intel 80GB mSATA drive so I can test it out a similar configuration. If you can boot into Windows installation but can't see the drives then it makes me wonder if something else is wrong.

It might be worth contacting Microsoft and/or Intel for help. This sounds like a driver issue not a hardware issue but I could be wrong.

 

If you get any error then that is reason enough to RMA the module. But...



This is quite strange that 2 people are having issues. Can you RMA the Crucial modules and try again? Are either of you mixing and matching modules? What happens when it's only the new RAM and the original stick(s) is/are taken out?







crucial already sent an rma. i just got a bad module. tried to boot with just that sodimm and blue screened as well. just bad luck. i've probably bought 100 crucial memory dimms and this is the first bad one i've gotten. I should get the new ones next week and will post results.

 

If it's on the W520 or any of the other Lenovo Optimus systems, it escapes me. The W520 does have an interesting option when in Optimus mode. You can launch an app against a specific GPU. For instance, you could launch Photoshop against the NVIDIA 2000m instead of letting Optimus decide. Also saves the BIOS switch.

That sucks if it's true. Which brings me to a question. Are the two drives you mentioned tied together in a RAID volume faster than a single Intel Series 320 600GB SSD? I know which is cheaper but I was curious about the I/O difference.

 

Intel has a data migration tool in the same drivers section where you download the Intel toolbox. I didn't use this tool since I did a clean install but I believe this would be the only you wouldn't lose data when enabling RAID. The second you add two disks to an array through the BIOS, you will lose all data on those disks. And whenever you break the array to run in ACHI mode (to update firmware, etc), you will lose all data on the array immediately.

 

I don't know if it will be the same with your HDD, but when I created a RAID array with my Intel 510's, my RAID array wasn't visible until I added a partition to it through Administrative tools in the Control Panel. Have you tried this?

 

Looks good to me for a W520 with the 2000M GPU and the FHD screen. You can always add more memory or a bigger HD (or even an SSD) and an external color sensor that is better and more versatile.

Was that a quote from Lenovo directly or a dealer?

 

When I have SATA in RAID mode and boot configured for UEFI only, I can't even install Windows, so I can't go into the control panel. Were you able to setup your RAID array with UEFI Windows installation? You would have to switch the boot to UEFI only and do a clean install of Windows 7 64x, otherwise Windows will work in legacy BIOS mode and in that configuration (Legacy), RAID seems to be working fine for me.

I will run some benchmarks and post results. I do know that 600GB SSD is well outside my budget

There is one thing that makes me wonder if it's a driver issue or more of a firmware issue. I noticed that when I switched to UEFI only mode, the Intel Rapid Storage RAID configuration screen didn't show up when the computer was booting up - the one where you'd press CTRL-I to setup your RAID. Once I switched to UEFI / Legacy or Legacy only, it showed up on reboot. Maybe such a combination (UEFI Only + RAID) is disabled in the firmware. It would be a lot easier if something like that was documented.

 

I'm starting to write up a FAQ for the W520. Here is a rough draft of the questions (in no particular order). I'd appreciate feedback on any questions I should add.

W520 FAQ

1. What’s the difference between the W520 and T520?
2. What competitor options exist?
3. How do I get the best deal on a W520?
4. Is the upgrade from the i7-2720QM to the i7-2820QM or i7-2920XM worth the price?
5. I thought the i7-2920XM could be overclocked but why isn’t it possible on the W520? (ThrottleStop)
6. What’s this I hear about issues with RAID on the W520? (factory config and UEFI RAID BIOS)
7. What’s this I hear about the modem issue on the W520?
8. What is the difference between the Quadro 1000M and 2000M?
9. What is an mSATA?
10. Can I have both the WWAN and mSATA at the same time?
11. What is this I hear about mSATA performance and SpeedStep issues?
12. What is UEFI boot?
13. How do I get 10 second boots?
14. How many external monitors can I connect to the W520?
15. Does the W520 use the B2-stepping chipset that was recalled by Intel or the newer B3-stepping chipset?
16. What is Optimus and how can I change how it works?
17. Is the color sensor worth the cost?
18. What is the difference between all the wireless card options?
19. What hard drive caddy options are there?
20. Can I add a Blu-Ray drive to the W520?
21. What battery options does the W520 come with?
22. Where can I read reviews?
23. What RAM upgrade options are there?
24. Is there a benefit to using 1866Mhz RAM?
25. What screen options exist?
26. Where is the HDMI port on the W520?
27. Does DisplayPort transmit audio?
28. What SSDs are compatible with the W520?
29. Where can I read reviews of the various SSDs options out there?
30. Where is the hardware repair manual? Where can I find part numbers for the various parts of the W520?
31. Are there videos on how to take apart the W520?
32. Where do I find drivers for the W520?
33. What is the difference between the blue and yellow USB ports?
34. How do I do a clean install on the W520?
35. How long does it take to ship?

 

I did not use UEFI only mode. I have my BIOS set to UEFI/Legacy but I have a feeling it's booting under Legacy. I also have problems UEFI when installing windows with RAID so I decided to just go back to Legacy.

 

hrana, you've put together a good starting list. I would suggest grouping items related to pre-purchase, installation and third party options (i.e. memory, SSDs, caddies, etc.).

You may want to add information on the power supply and docking station requirements for those who may be upgrading from prior Lenovo units and may not be able to use some older items.

 

That's great. I would add questions on power supplies for the unit, which one works and which one does not, and whether lower wattage (90w...) can be used or charge the system, etc.

Edit: I just note that BDKC1 mentioned the power supply as well. In addition to the docking station requirements, it would be good to give specs on what it can do, like drive dual monitors with the laptop screen active, etc; whether it has USB3 ports, etc.

 

BDKC1 & gnimble: Thanks for the feedback. I'll add those items. I'll post up a draft in a few days where you two (and anyone else) can help out with organizing and editing. Then maybe the mods could sticky it for us.

 

Looks like a solid price to me. What is the warranty on this one? Does it come with the 9-cell? If it does, I might be interested in where you managed to get this quote from.

 

Maybe could be used with e-SATA conector on the left side of the W520 !
Does anybody has tested that port performance ?

 

I think your list looks awesome and is a really, really good start - thank you for taking this on as it will invariably help a LOT of people (myself included!). Personally, I would guess that question 34 is probably one of the largest, most complicated and certainly most important questions for a lot of people. I think that this could even be divided into its own sub section as BDKC1 suggested. For someone like me who's fairly technical, but a bit out of date and definitely not a full on hardware guru as many people in this thread are, here are some of the questions regarding OS installation that I've been researching:


34. How do I do a clean install on the W520?
34a. What is the difference between a clean install using the recovery disks and a clean install using the OS's installation discs? (Lenovo EE, boot times, SSD alignment, etc...)
34b. Best method for OS clean install on mSATA
34c. Best method for OS clean install on SSD or HDD in main bay or ultrabay
34d. Boot performance differences between say an 80GB mSATA Intel 310 and a SATA II or SATA III SSD in the main drive: i.e. if you have the 310 and a another SSD, which one makes the most sense to boot off? Or is it worth spending an extra $100 to pick up a 120GB Intel 510 or 160GB Intel 320 (or equivalent SSDs) instead of getting the mSATA Intel 310 and have more storage and faster overall performance (or being able to keep your WWAN wifi).
34e. Best file systems to use for your drives and how to configure them (and can each drive have its own file system or do all drives in the W520 need to run the same file system?)
34f. Windows XP Mode - what does it do and how to install / enable under Windows 7. Are there any concerns with specific disc file systems?
34g. Page file or no?
34h. Where to put the page file (if yes to 34g above) and / or user / temp files (i.e. assuming that there are at least one SSD and one HDD in the system)?
34i. What to turn off / remove caching, indexing, defrag wise, etc... (primarily regarding SSDs of course).
34j. How to keep boot times fast and not have them increase over time.
34k: Step by step instructions (please!) for setting up bios, installing OS, updating drivers, deciding which Lenovo drivers / software to install (i.e. Lenovo EE, rapid boot...), what these drivers do and which ones are worth installing, etc...

Some of these are kind of "standard questions", but I think the ability to have up to three drives in the W520 presents options not available in most other notebooks.

This would be a huge help to me and I'm guessing (based off some of the posts that I've seen here) to a lot of other people. There seems to be a lot of talk about:
-How to physically configure the W520 (which I think is covered pretty well by the FAQ subjects so far)
-Any weird issues with the W520 (which I also think is covered pretty well in your suggested topics for the FAQ)
-And a lot of interest in how to make the best install. Obviously some of this would be covered under the "10 second boot" topic and the msATA topic, but perhaps this will help flush out the "what type of install and how to do it?" question as they're probably the biggest tasks that any enthusiast or IT professional will handle when setting up a W520.


And perhaps ...

36. Maybe a Linux specific section as well?

Hopefully that's useful!

 

I have 4 identical Kingston 4Gb 1866Mhz HyperX modules, so no mixing different flavours. This morning at boot, Lenovo Toolbox (again) showed no issues. Odd behaviour, erros that come and go ...

 

@biff2bart: Awesome feedback. I'll be sure to include it. I'll hopefully have something ready to share soon then I'll let you guys tear into it.

@wditters: Have errors returned after retesting in pairs and reseating all 4 modules? I'm hoping it was just a poorly seated module.

 

I used it with an eSATAp (power + eSATA in one cable) external enclosure and it worked flawlessly. SATA II / SATA 3Gb/s only, of course.

 

1. Did you find any differences between SATA and eSATA, did you run some benchmark software ?
2. Can you tell me what is the HDD that you test it (model type eventually) ? And what HDD enclosure did you used ?

Thanks

 

I didn't notice any difference between eSATA and the internal SATA speed-wise. I didn't do any benchmarking, though.

I used a Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS in a [URL="http://www.amazon.de/Delock-Geh%C3%A4use-Zoll-Power-eSATA/dp/B001TA1LEO]Delock power over eSATA[/URL] external enclosure (avalable under different names in different parts of the world).

 

Guys, I'm about to purchase a Lenovo W520 and I need some info on the graphics card that it comes with - in this case the NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory.

I won't be using it for any type of graphical modelling applications but will be using it to play the occasional game. I read that this graphics card is optimised for graphical modelling type applications and not for games.

However I will be happy if this card can achieve the same performance as the NVIDIA 540m. According to this, this card will achieve the same frame rates in games as the NVIDIA 540m
Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Would people say its games performance is comparable to the Nvidia 540m?

 

In a matter of RAM performance, here are some interesting results : The Best Memory for Sandy Bridge Real-World Performance

My conclusion - it would be really hard to measure real world performance gain between 1600 mhz CL9 and 1866 mhz CL11, so it is not worth the price. Even W520-stock-alike 1333 mhz CL9 vs 1866 mhz CL9 (not available in notebook world) is like 3% performance gain and 10% in heavy muli-task. The 1866 mhz RAM with CL11 latency (like Kingston HyperX KHX1866C11S3P1K2/8G) would probably be less than 2% better than stock W520 RAM (5% in heavy multi-task). Of course, if your work is to run constantly SiSoft Sandra Average unbuffered Memory Benchmark on your laptop, the 1866 mhz memory will be a great deal for you