Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

I've got 433820U with 135W, thought I'll use 170W adapter from my W520 for the dock, but just realized that it cannot be plugged.

Anyone knows how much "load" 135W docking combo can take or what's the limitation comparing to 170W version?

Thanks!

- ngm

 

That is probably not a good idea. Also, yes, the HDD is also under the left palm rest (beats me why they crammed a lot of the heat producing parts into the left side), but my HDD has never run above 45C, so it shouldn't be contributing too much to the heat. If I remember correctly, roughly half the CPU is under the palm rest, and the entire GPU is under it (although, the GPU is on the very left).

 

My understanding from the official Lenovo open box video is that the 170W requirement revolves around using a W520 with the extreme quad proc and a RAID configuration. 135W wasn't enough.

 

Quick question:

When my W520 arrives (and after I create restore disks), I'm thinking about removing the HDD and replacing it with my previous laptop's HDD to move my files off of it to an external HDD, then return the Lenovo's HDD to the W520.

Are there any problems with doing this that I should be aware of, such as driver issues, etc?

 

Yeah, I remember reading that somewhere as well.

Will test it later and report back.

Anyway, thanks everyone for enormous contribution here. It was though picking up everything within this huge thread but still better to find it somewhere.

So far, I can confirm v1.24/v1.25 BIOS issue with Turbo Boost on 2720QM. The latest one working for me is v1.22.

- ngm

 

Anecdotal evidence seems to be that the 135W dock works perfectly fine as long as you don't have the Extreme Edition CPU since that has a higher TDW. I can test this as well once my W520 arrives.

 

I have been running the W520 in a 135W dock and with 135W power adapters for three months. No issues here.

 

Very good.

I'll be attaching to monitors and two external hard drives to the dock. Hopefully it's going to handle it.

- ngm

 

Guys,

What about HyperX 1866 MHz and stand-by issue?

I heard it's fixed in v1.25 but I can use only v1.22 because of Turbo Boost cap.

- ngm

 

Good to know. Thanks.

 

There is an very interesting thread at:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...ngston-hyperx-memory-review-discussion-8.html

HyperX 1866 MHz works OK on my W520 i7-2820 but causes BSOD (blue screen of death) on wditter's W520 i7-2920.

Which CPU do you have? I recommend going to "UserCP" (User Control Panel) and putting your system info into your signature.

 

No prob... here it is

I didn't have too much time to test HyperX, but there is definitely something weird around stand-by. It's not constant issue - right now every time I send it to sleep it gets back. But this morning I had few attempts where it didn't want to resume, drive was spinning, heard the fan but no video.

Will dig more into it.

- ngm

 

By the way, it resumes amazingly fast.

- ngm

 

I could only reproduce the standby issues when the Win 7 power options were set to "Balanced".

No standby issues here when set at "High Performance"

 

I am new to this forum. I ordered my W520 two days ago; could not wait to get it. I have a question regarding the RAM compatible with the Lenovo. I am thinking of getting four of these: Mushkin Enhanced 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit . Will this work with the W520? Is anyone using it on their laptop atm? I have peruse the thread but could not find the answer. TIA.

 

Just ordered one of these, can't wait to get my hands on the beauty - my 2nd Thinkpad after the R51.

Just wish I could afford the Extreme edition!

One question - does the ultrabay HD replacement support SATA-III?

 

I currently have 2 x 2GB Samsung 204-pin RAM in my W520 (DDR3 1333), so the Mushkin Enhanced 2 x 4GB RAM 204-pin is compatible (note that the W520 only has 4 DIMMs for 4 RAM sticks).

 

Yes (10char)

 

The deal is still live, it is not dead yet.

 

And yet again, there is no stock

 

Well, I have no idea how many they have in stock and when they restock. But the rebate works as long as you buy it before 6/21/2011, the rebate form can be sent over that day and up to 7/12/2011.

 

Tried Balanced on Windows few times with and without AC, seems it's working.

- ngm

 

Just experienced issue with resuming.

Pretty much everything it behaves like I turn on the machine i.e. keyboard light turns on for a moment, light around power button gets solid and I hear fan but no picture, no led indicator on fingerprint reader and it doesn't react on FN shortcuts nor I can turn on / off volume and mic buttons.

It was on Maximum Performance on AC.

All I can do is to turn it off.

- ngm

 

Can somebody please help!

My w520 was working fine till y'day and I had a windows update (which took for ever) and I ended up cancelling it. Since then my ethernet port driver is no longer working.

I downloaded the latest drivers from lenovo and also intel and installed. But still of no use. When I tried to do windows driver update it fails as well. Attached is a screen shot.

I tried to rollback using system restore but that fails too saying windows was not able to restore to any point that I select!

I dont want to reinstall again...

how can I do clean install of the LAN network driver? Also not sure if its all related but even my working wirelss adapter is not shown under network and settings in control panel!

Has anyone solved this issue before?

thanks
Anand

 

Anyone able to get audio over the Displayport -> HDMI? With my W510 I'm able to do achieve audio using this method, however I'm not sure if I missed a step somewhere as it's not working with the same cable and monitor on the W520. Using the stock drivers that came with my recently arrived system if that means anything...

Also for Linux users, in the beginning when the Linux kernel loads up does it load slowly?

Running on BIOS 1.24 and overall it seems a little sluggish compared to my W510 when it comes to booting up and getting to the BIOS. Anyone else?

 

It should be faster than the 510. Is it sluggish both at cold-start and warm-boot?

What is your configuration? (Hint: you may want to put it to your signature in the "User CP").

You can turn on Diagnostic Mode in BIOS to see where the slowdown occurs.

 

Hrmm, not sure if I noticed a difference, but I'll check when I get home if it matters whether it's cold or warm. One thing that I thought was odd happened twice this morning... after having Linux reboot, the machine goes through the warm boot process and right after it displays the one line about the Thinkpad Protection System the system shuts off. I had to press the power button to turn the machine back on... not sure if this happens when rebooting Windows 7, something I'll have to try as well when I get home.

Will have to also double check the diagnostics in the BIOS to see if everything is kosher.

Another thing is during the startup of the machine, the W510 would tell me to press F1 for BIOS, F12 for boot options. On the W520 however, the F1 is displayed but nothing on F12. Am I missing something here?

 

Run the Thinkvantage System Update and make sure all the drivers are installed. Worked fine on my W520 with the proper drivers before I sent it back. Upon plugging it into the TV the system near instantly switched audio to the TV.

 

One of the first things I did when plugged the machine in to my Internet connection... there was a video driver update through Microsoft that I did skip... I'll go ahead and install that tonight and see what happens.

 

The Microsoft Video update is the newer Nvidia drivers.

I actually find the Lenovo drivers more stable with Adobe Flash player.

 

Do you have an Intel 510 SSD? My system hangs at the " Thinkpad Protection System" (Air Bag) diagnostic check for 40 seconds at warm boot. Probably waiting for some signal that the HDD has spun down, which the SSD does not provide...

 

What happens with Flash when you use the newer nVidia drivers in terms of stability?

Nope, I actually have the 500GB Seagate HDD... while my wait isn't close to 40 seconds, there is somewhat of a delay. I'm reading from the lenovo forums that the 1.24 BIOS prevents Turbo Boost activation and I'm wondering if this has anything to do with my "sluggish" BIOS and "sluggish" Linux boot. What BIOS version is everyone running at?

 

1. I get a freeze when running a YouTube video in full screen on a dual monitor setup with latest NVIDIA driver, but not with Lenovo driver.

2. Suggestion: put current BIOS version in your signature

 

I use the nVidia Verde drivers w/ my W520 (latest BIOS) and YouTube works fine (although I don't have a dual monitor config).

 

Does the "Search this thread" box (below) work for anyone? I can't make it give me any results

I get:

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

 

Unfortunately with all this knowledge embedded in this forum the search doesn't work.

 

I tried the Search function, it found no results. So, if anyone wants to search this thread then go to Google and search

Code:

>what you want to find in this thread< site:forum.notebookreview.com "566338-lenovo-w520-owners-thread"

 

I would like to move the current contents of the entire C: drive (less than 40gb right now) on my W520 to the 310 mSata SSD drive in the slot where the WWAN card would normally go. What is the process/procedure to doing so?

Thanks

 

One possible way is just to get a Linux disc/USB and running the live CD and just literally copying and pasting (I've done it before with 2 500GB HDDs, it worked perfectly fine). However, I've heard things about an SSD's alignment getting messed up or something. You can try using an SSD alignment aware disk cloning software.

 

It has been almost a month since the last official BIOS 1.24/1.25 release, and their engineers still don't have any fix for any of our issues listed so far.

Not even one issue got fixed yet....

I am starting to feel they are becoming incompetent. Such a let down on a great machine.

 

I have to agree with this... I'm sure we'd be complaining if they screwed up the next update or left things out but I think we've been fairly patient so far.

 

There is something new up on the Lenovo drivers page (dated 15 Jun 2011):
KB2397190 15 Jun 2011 1.00
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-77167

which links to:
Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) Update Module KB2397190 (WW) - ThinkPad
Additional information:
Brightness setting for "Plugged in" profile is changed after restart Windows 7 on battery.

Which links to:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2397190/

(doesn't seem to be a big deal ...)

 

I agree. It is a great machine.

If (!) Lenovo decides to put its support behind the W520, it could move Lenovo into a leadership position in the desktop replacement notebook market.

 

Interesting... the DP -> HDMI cable I used for my W510 worked fine, however with the W520 the connection is seen as a DVI connection in nVidia's Control Panel, therefore no HDMI audio! What cables do you guys use that have confirmed HDMI audio working?

Haven't booted into Linux yet, but right now it looks like everything in Windows 7 is working good with the exception of my DP -> HDMI cable. I think I'll still with BIOS 1.25 for now, as the extra Turbo Boost isn't quite needed right now. Restarted the system several times with Windows and so far everything seems snappy. Will see if this changes once I get into Linux.

 

I have this (DP >> HDMI w/ Audio) and it works fine when I connect my W520 (works in Discrete only and Optimus enabled modes, haven't tried integrated only yet) to a Sony Bravia TV, so I would highly recommend this if you want to convert DP to HDMI.

 

Thanks for this, I may spring for this depending how much I need HDMI in Windows... I just figured something out. Apparently the combination of the DP -> HDMI cable I have and the nVidia Windows drivers don't like each other. I tested this by setting up HDMI audio in Linux and it works fine there... Perhaps I'll file a bug report with nVidia first before making any purchase since this cable combo worked fine on my W510 in Linux and Windows and I remember it breaking when I updated the video drivers on that machine as well. Never had tried the latest video drivers, but something tells me it would not have been any different.

 

I installed Ubuntu 10.04LTS.2 on a seperate HDD recently, in that installation I installed the 64-bit nVidia Quadro 2000M drivers (discrete only) and it output 1920x1080 w/ no issues. In my Windows installation, both the original Lenovo nVidia drivers and nVidia's Verde drivers work w/ this adapter.

 

Yeah, I'm guessing the nVidia drivers in Windows got more picky as to what you have connected. There's mention of the cable being sold by Lenovo as "certified" to work, but at their price I'll look elsewhere. Being that I'm mainly a Linux user, I can live with no HDMI audio in Windows for the time being. It'll be of concern once I get back into some gaming though, so I'll look into your adapter.

 

I just got Lojack for Laptops Premium http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.h...12106-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 : 1 Year for $17.69 (instead of $59.99)

Lowjack installs in the W520 BIOS and uses the Intel vpro technology to track and recover lost or stolen computers, and remotely delete sensitive data (premium version only). Because it is installed in BIOS, it can't be disabled by the thief and works even if the HD has been reformatted, etc. It comes with Computrace's Service Guarantee of up to $1000 (money guarantee applies to premium version and only in the US, Canada and UK). The version 15 CD I received supports XP, Vista and Windows 7. A great way to protect your investment in hardware and your data.

 

That's a great find...will probably get one for myself.