Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

I seem to recall in this thread someone indicated there is SoDIMM slot order on the W520.

When you move from one dimm to two on the 16GB capable W520, which slots do you fill first? Does it matter?

I looked in the hardware maint manual and I didn't see this documented.

My machine came fully populate but I have a friend doing an upgrade and ran into issues. I could certainly open mine up and figure it out, but I thought I would try for a quick response here first.

Thanks

 

Yes, they do.

 

Has anyone found the required tweaks to match the battery life of the factory image on a clean install?

Thanks

 

See this: Optimizing memory in W510 - which slots to use - Lenovo Community

 

Perfect. Thanks!

 

Short Test External HDD Speed USB3 vs eSata
I have performed a small test of USB3 vs eSata throughput speed. For that purpose I placed the Vertex 3 Pro 240GB SSD in Icy Box IB-250StU3-B external closure, connected to W520 via USB3 and this is the result:
USB3_VERTEX3PRO_SATA3
Then I placed the Vertex 3 Pro 240GB SSD in Icy Box IB-266StUS-B external closure, connected to W520 via eSata and this is the result:
eSata_VERTEX3PRO_SATA3.JPG
Conclusio - due to absence of wider variety of USB3 and eSata 3 external enclosures the final judging has a limited signification but IMO eSata with SATAII still beats USB3. Wondering if eSata with SATA 3 chips are on horizon?

 

wolfindersteppe, thanks for those tests. Very useful indeed and has swayed me to getting an eSATA enclosure rather than a USB3 one. The eSATA numbers seem about right for the 3Gb/s interface but I don't understand why the USB3 speeds are so slow since USB3 is supposed to be a 5Gb/s interface. Are USB3 advertised speeds just marketing nonsense?

 

Remember that USB3 have a lot of overhead, but it is far away from 5Gb/s speeds. But its still a lot faster than eSata though and its up to twice the speed in some areas but look at this

And doesnt it seem correct then? taken from USB 3.0 vs. eSATA: Is faster better? | ITworld

In short when you go from Sata (SSD) to USB you convert the signal and therefore loose performance, while eSata is Sata to sata and optimized for drives only.

Edit: if the slow drive in this test is the usb3 then I would think the W520 controller or the third party enclousure is bad as those speeds are really slow :s

 

Crunchgear came to similar results to yours:
eSATA is faster than USB 3.0 — at least right now

When I bought my RAID enabled W520, it came with 2 500GB hard disks. I swapped them with SSDs and bought these eSATA enclosures (for $20 each) and now use the HDDs for external storage (backup): <img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=212106-20&l=ur2&o=1" width='1' height="1" border='0' alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;]Accomdata eSATA Enclosure

Works great. Note: eSATA cable sold separately ($3.19)
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SY-CAB-ESA-SATA-Cable-21-Inch/dp/B002G1YNRC/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b

EDIT: This enclosure still needs a USB cable for power. A more elegant solution could be an enclosure with eSATAp (powered eSATA): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AVPUYC/ref=oss_product

 

I installed 275.33 from the Nvidia site, but was getting freezes with Adobe Flash player (YouTube video) running in Full Screen (dual monitor setup).

So I went back to the drivers from the Lenovo site (266.96) for now.

 

Is the CPU soldered on? Just wonder if we can hope for Ivy bridge support (if its worth buying the cpu alone when it comes)

 

From what I remember, way back in the thread, someone said that the CPU is not soldered on.

 

I have just bought this configuration

ThinkPad W520 - 1 Yr Depot Topseller Warranty
Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)1
Genuine Windows 7 Professional 6412
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
8 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)8
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm4
DVD recordable multiburner5
9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++60
Bluetooth 3.0
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)10
Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable65
4270 : 1 Year Depot Warranty - TopSeller

Price: 1818$ (including tax(CA))

I hope i will like my machine
But now estimated date is 6/27 which is not good

 

Did you order using the website or something? You could have gotten it cheaper if you called in. I got mine plus a 2yr TPP for a hair under 1800 (including tax).

Or maybe your taxes are pretty high (I know CA has high taxes, I just don't know by how much).

 

Yes the first thing is CA Taxes. I have nothing to do for it lol
2nd thing is your specs are not same as mine i think. At first look i saw your signiture you have 4 gb ram as i have 8 gb ram.
Write full specs and lets talk on them
By the way $1,656.65 without tax

 

Any ideas which specific driver is needed to address the missing driver for:

- PCI Simple Communication Controller
(other than installing
ThinkVantage System Update )

 

Intel AMT 7.1 - Management Engine Interface and Serial Over LAN driver (SOL) Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad T420, T420i, T420s, T420si, T520, T520i, W520, X220, X220i, X220 Tablet, X220i Tablet

 

As you know on default computer setup for laptops; they put several useless softwares. Generally when i buy a computer i format it immidiatly and make a clean install.
Are softwares in lenovo useful to have or is it better to make a clean format?
What are your thought?

 

Battery life is better with the factory image. I've just done a clean install to an SSD, but I'm strongly considering replacing it with a factory install.

 

That did the trick! *I tried the AMT driver here, but no luck*

I am thinking that you sir are indeed, as Wikipedia says, a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, destruction, fertility, healing, and the protection of W520 owners/

 

what else affects battery life besides Thinkvantage power manager? I'm on a clean install and imo it gets the same battery life as the original with only drivers/update/power manager/fingerprint/client security installed

 

Does clean install creates problem for warranty ? Do you have an idea about it? You wrote the cd key below notebook as serial thats all isnt it?

 

And a Mavericks fan.

 

Only your hardware is under warranty. Software problems in any way are not covered at all. Software provided is "as is". That's as far as they go. http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/thinkcentre_pdf/l505-0009-01-eng.pdf. Tech support may not even talk to you about any software issues - other than to make the restore disks - and may ask you to restore your machine to the factory state - and, if you are not careful destroy all your personal files at the same time - not their problem - it is yours. The up side to that is that is they have no attitude one way or another about what software you use, or how you configure it, or don't configure it - even alternative OS's like Linux - for they only warranty the hardware.

 

It shouldn't cause a problem for warranty but if lenovo support has a problem with it you can just restore with your recovery discs.

For activation i just used ABR Beta for windows 7 to backup the OEM certificate and key from the factory install: ABR Beta With Windows 7 Support | directedge.us

 

I'm trying to work this out actually. I'm not sure whether my actual battery life is worse, or just that estimated by Power Manager. Estimated life is around 5-6hrs with clean install compared to 7+ with factory. The clean install is on an Intel mSata SSD. Extra power usage from the addition of the SSD shouldn't factor too much, as the HDD is spun down most of the time.

 

No. When you send a laptop in for warranty work they typically wipe the drive and do a factory windows install - even if you already have a factory install. It's part of their troubleshooting.

 

Greetings dear w520s

can anyone of you who has both 520 and 510 say how much of a video performance difference there is between them?

danke theanks grazie spasibo.

 

From: Lenovo ThinkPad W520 - mini review - Keith Combs' Blahg - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

 

I just got my W520 but I'm using the intel 80gb msata drive as my primary so I have to go through the painstaking process of installing the drivers one at a time. Could someone please let me know if there is some sort of software that can automatically install the drivers for you?

Also mine came shipped with the 1.24 BIOS. I've read that this bios has been known to bottleneck the machine. Which is the most reliable bios and kindly post a link to where I can get it. I can't find it on the lenovo's support site (only the latest one is listed). Thanks guys.

 

If you want some actual numbers on graphics performance, you can take a look at the following scores on the W510 and two W520 options as tested on 3dMark06 and reported by Notebook / Laptop Reviews and News - Notebookcheck.net.

W510 - Quadro FX 880M:
Avg 3dMark06 score: 6399.2

W520 - Quadro 1000M:
Avg 3dMark06 score: 8213

W520 - Quadro 2000M:
Avg 3dMark06 score: 11615.5

So, it looks like the W520 with the 1000M graphics is about 28% faster than the W510, and the W520 with the 2000M graphics is about 81% faster than the W510.

This is only one benchmark, but it should give you a rough idea of the improvement in graphics from one generation of W series to the next, dependent on the graphics option you select.

 

My W520 actually gets around 9240 3DMarks in 3DMark06.

 

General consensus seems to indicate that the initial BIOS release (1.06) is the only one without some sort of throttling problem. If you are experiencing issues, it is possible to downgrade your BIOS via this link, just scroll down to the "Checking on Thinkpad Setup" section and download the 1.06 .exe file contained therein.

 

That makes sense. Since 3dMark06 is a gaming benchmark, driver updates can cause increases in performance that would affect the overall score given. Since reviews are often done on pre-release hardware and drivers, it stands to reason that a graphics card's performance would increase over time as drivers mature.

Thanks for providing your score!

 

thanks for the quick inf appreciate it. seems like a worthy contender. is there a 3d mark 06 test available from anyone? or could someone do it and post the numerals please its a nice review but numbers will speak for themselves for those who are like us are owners. thanks again edit: got it here thanks again http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-2000M.47316.0.html

 

3DMark 06 1280x1024 W520 i7 2820QM 11,656 points Review Lenovo ThinkPad W520 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Quick question (and hopefully, answered quickly ):

I'm thinking of buying these two RAM packages for my W520 today:

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ

Newegg.com - Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model KVR1333D3SOK2/8GR

...using them along with the stock 4GB RAM from the laptop. Would there be any issues with mixing together Kingston, G.SKILL, and the stock RAM together like this?

 

Which are currently the best coupon codes / deals for the W520?

 

You could try the Barnes and Noble discount through Lenovo. Otherwise, haggling seems to be the best discount.

 

Sure, ThinkVantage System Update should help with that.

 

Thanks bud.

 

You might want to consider this.

 

Nice! With that price after MIR, I might just replace the 4GB chip Lenovo ships and buy two of these kits instead.

 

I've looked through the threads and haven't seen anyone complain about the palm rest getting hot. If I missed it, I apologize, but does anyone else notice this issue? I've got the 500gb Seagate. It only gets hot when I'm playing graphic intensive games. I've been googling passive cooling and have discovered the following site:

Passive Cooling for laptop- part 2 (HDD)

Looks somewhat intrusive but having something dissipate the heat would be a good thing.

I have an HP 8540w for work and don't have the hdd heat under my hand.

Anyone have ideas about how to dissipate this heat?

 

The heat is coming from the GPU on the left hand side. The right hand side stays nice and cool because there's like nothing under it. If you take off the keyboard (and maybe the palmrest too to get a better view), you'll see that the both the CPU and GPU are under the left palmrest. The bottom side is far worse than the palmrest in terms of heat, by the way. I guess you can try turning on a table fan and blowing it on the palmrest, I don't know if it'll actually help any with the heat though. And in my opinion, it's not that bad. It stays cooler under full load on the left half of the palmrest than my netbook idling (WLAN card is right under it and runs quite warm).

 

Hello, quick question:
The lastest video driver on lenovo web site is based on nvidia version 266.96 driver. I realy need the newer 275.## driver. Is there any issue with optimus when upgrading video driver directly from Nvidia?
Do lenovo add anything special in it's video driver package which will lost from using directly Nvidia drivers? Will I lost the optimus feature?

Thank you

 

Yes you can use the Nvidia one. If anything it will be faster, more stable and less issues. I have been runnign 275.33 for more than a week now and it's very stable, in both dedicated modes as well as in Optimus mode,

 

Hm. Thanks for the reply. I read the Service Manual and it appeared that the hdd was in that spot. I'll take it apart tonight and have a look. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY like the laptop and it performs beautifully, just my left palm gets hot and I was wondering if anyone else had this problem.

This might be a dumb question, but adding some barrier material in that spot would be a bad thing wouldn't it? I can only assume the case design is such that heat is allowed to escape in any way it can. Insulating a heat release area is probably a bad thing, but it's just annoying.

I'm using a small washcloth on the palm rest to keep my hand cool, but I was looking to make the heat go away in a more permanent fashion.

 

IMO, I'm not so sure that's a good idea, since laptop internals tend to have little to no room for "extras" like that. Just my two cents, though take it with a grain of salt since I haven't received mine yet and thus haven't openned it up myself.

 

Have you used CPUID HW Monitor yet to measure the temperatures?

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

EDIT: I just noticed it even measures the temperature of my external eSATA hard drive (ST950042), but not the (internal) SSDs.