Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

Here is a W510 outside with the same FHD screen, courtesy of NotebookCheck.net.



From personal experiences, you don't want to use the W520 in direct sunlight. Not only does it make your entire back side feel hot, it is pretty hard on the eyes.

 

Is that at full brightness?

 

From the looks of it, yes. It looks brighter than my HD+ screen, since the FHD 270 nits instead of 220, so yeah, it should be.

 

Nope, just tried. Booted the machine on battery into Windows 7 and then ran Prime95. CPU speed did not go any higher than 1.5GHz. You yourself have a i7-2720QM CPU?

 

Has anyone else had problems with the Gobi 3000 broadband modem disappearing from the system and getting a "USB device not recognized" error?

It has happened to me twice now and I am wondering if I have either a bad motherboard or bad Gobi 3000.

I am using an existing sim card from a AT&T laptop connect plan I already had. I got it to work today and used it for 3 hours. No problems. Tonight I am getting the error again.

Update: I have since found a solution for this. Please see the following thread if you are also having this problem.

http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/Gobi-3000-problems/td-p/485713

 

Yes. With bios 1.26, if I boot up on battery, set my power plan to maximum turbo (the battery setting) I get the full range of the cpu (minus the turbo boost).

 

I'll be pulling the trigger buying a ThinkPad W520 in a few days. I plan to use W520 as desktop-replacement as well as 24x7 on home server with external monitor and (eSATA) storage devices.

Briefly the specs go like these:
Thinkpad W520: i7-2720QM, NVIDIA Quadro 2000M, 15.6" FHD 1920x1080 LED, 8GB RAM, 320GB HDD etc.

While customizing my W520 at Lenovo.com, I saw "ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 " offered as an option. The description of the dock fits perfectly my needs - helps connect many additional peripherals effectively making W520 work like workstation.

However I just read negative Amazon customer feedback re incompatible AC adapter that the dock comes with. As such I am extremely interested in knowing your user experiences with the combo (ThinkPad W520+Mini Dock Plus Series 3). Does the latest series of the dock work well W520?

Thanks for advising!

 

But is it workable? Can I sit and program outside, that dont stress anything and if I turn dedicated off then I should be fine. Then I can combine programming and sunbathing in one ^^

 

I've used my W520 outside plenty of times. Works great. If you look at the glare off the case that shot above is with the sun shining DIRECTLY on the screen. It really is bright enough to manage, especially if you get the sun not straight on it.

 

If the sun isn't directly behind you, yes, it is usable.

 

Lenovo Employee Pricing + Additional 12% Off: MasterCard MarketPlace

 

Crap man, it doesn't seem to be the case on mine. In Windows 7 the max is 1.5GHz, as well as in Linux. I've even done the CMOS discharge after updating to 1.26. Any ideas?

 

What brand ram have you guys been using to upgrade with? Was looking at adding 8 gigs to my 4gig setup

 

Also has anyone used a owc ssd in their w520?

 

Ordered my W520 today.

Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)1
ThinkPad PC DOS License12 (I can get license through employer)
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)8
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm4
DVD Recordable5
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
Color Sensor

Estimated ship date 7/28. I'm thinking it will ship before then but I might be wrong. Can't wait

 

Appreciate the pic of screen outside about what I expected but then again who actually uses a screen in direct sunlight? Most people are in some kind of shade unless you love getting baked by the sun.

 

RAM is RAM, brand doesn't matter, only price does. Only real difference in the different RAM sticks is the DDR3 speed (1333MHz, 1600MHz, etc) and CAS (7, 9, etc. Most 1333MHZ sticks are 9). I bought some Mushkin 1333MHz sticks to make a total of 12GB with the stock Samsung stick and the combination works well enough for me.

 

I haven't seen this yet but does the w520 have a program built in for an easy clone of the initial drive so that I can just install everything on my ssd?

 

Not that I could find. It has a backup partition, but that would probably only work on the shipped drive. If you bought an Intel SSD, you can go to their website for a free download of a cloning software.

 

I'd still rather stick to well known brands like G-Skill, Samsung, Mushkin, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial, and Patriot.

 

Fan control? Did you set it to max performance?

I don't know man!

 

I had my first look at the FHD screen today. (It was on a T520, not a W520, but I don't believe that will make much difference in viewing experience of static pictures, which is what I did.)

Yeah! Very nice screen. Colors are BRIGHT! Makes my son's T410 screen (1200x800) look pale by comparison. Colors are even brighter than my T60p FlexView IPS. In fact, the colors almost appear iridescent, "radio-active", as some have called it.

There has to be a way to adjust the color saturation, right?

 

If I get a W520 with 2720QM and Quadro 1000M can I make do with a dockingstation with 135W powersupply? or will that make it throttle? (Can save 50euro)

 

You can turn down the saturation in the nvidia control panel. The other way to go is to color calibrate the screen and then view your photos using software that is color aware (ie: Photoshop, Firefox with the right plugins, etc...). Photos in photoshop after calibration look exactly how they should, the colors are not over saturated.

 

Just placed my order using the Mastercard Marketplace discount. I think this is a steal:

4270CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
07/29/11 $1,207.93 $1,207.93
0A68541 SBB ICI7-2720QM
45M3090 VBB GENUWIN7PROFES.64
0A68625 SBB GW7P64 E
0A68534 SBB 15.6HD+ (1600 X 900) LED
0A68893 SBB NVQ1000M GR
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
0A68526 VBB FINGERPRINT READER
0A68558 SBB 720P HD CAM INT MICR
0A69620 SBB I RAID-NOT EN
0A68553 SBB 500GB HDD7200RPM
0A68547 SBB DVD RC8XMXDLLRULTEHATA
0A68529 VBB ECS+4IN1CR
45M4816 SBB 9CELLLI-ION BATTERY
0A68904 SBB CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0
45M4804 SBB IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
0A68564 SBB LANG PCK US E
0A68537 SBB FINGRPRNT READER

 

Just ordered
1 x Danish keyboard 35.90EUR
1 x Upgraded warrenty to 3 year onsite NBD 27.00EUR
1 x ThinkPad T420/T420s/T520/W520 Mini Dock Plus Series 3 - 170W #0A90204/433710G* 168.00EUR

Thinkpad W520 4282W16 i7-2720QM (2,2GHz),
4GB
15,6" FHD LED 1920x1080
2048MB NVIDIA Quadro® 1000M
Intel 6300n
X-Rite® color calibration
9-cell battery
Win7 Prof. 64
1,654.00EUR

 

Holy crap. That machine (after currency conversion) is $2236.99 CAD. That's $900 more than what we can get the machine for (which is enough for a T520 with a FHD screen + some other stuff).

I feel sorry for you guys in Europe.

 

Thanks very much, infinus. I would guess the control panel is eye-ball reckoning and takes the place of a machine calibrator.

 

It's the same pretty much everywhere outside of the U.S. Here in Korea a T520 with an i5 and the FHD screen -- and no other special goodies -- goes for US$2200. Thank your stars you're living in America.

I'm going to probably buy a machine (W520 or 8560w) in America, then have it sent to me in Korea, but then I have to pay shipping (~$150) *and* a duty of probably another US$220+. You don't know how good you got it living there!

 

But is your price with 3 year onsite warrenty? At least that changes it, 3 years is mandatory in germany so they cant offer lower (which raises the price) but yes prices are a lot higher in europe, and this price is discounted here, if I wasnt a student it would be 300-400 euroes higher

 

You have a point, I'll just upgrade to the better wireless card then.

What are the conditions of this, just use a mastercard?

*for people looking for the link go back to huberth's post that I quoted, I had to remove the link from this one.

Also should I go with the:
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Or
Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250?

I'm thinking ultimate-N as the other one is Advanced-N + something that I don't think I need, but if anyone knows what it is talking about please let me know.

 

QUESTION REGARDING WINDOWS UPDATES

i used to faithfully update all Lenovo Updates, and all of the Windows Updates. Then I had someone in tech support tell me that I would be better off if I made no updates, unless absolutely necessary, and all of my problems, and reinstalls of the OS, just went away.

I know that there is a lot of proprietary software provided by Lenovo, and that is most likely the problem. I don't use Access Connections, so whn bother?

QUESTION: Are any members of this forum making all of the Windows AND the Lenovo updates? If so, have you been experiencing any problems, or corruption? Have you had to reinstall the OS?

I asked a tech support rep about his opinion, and he said he would not do the updates if the computer were hi

Without doing any updates, my laptop has been working great. I would love to hear of any downloads that people are particularly pleased with?

THANKS!

 

unless you don't NEED wimax i would say the 6300 wifi card is better option, because only this one has 3 antennas and has greater max possible wifi speed (450 mbps). both support 5ghz wifi, but 6250 has only 2 antennas and 300mbps max wifi speed.

i bought here in EU this laptop with 2820qm, q2000m, fullHD, 8 gb ram and even with hspa+ ericsson modem for 1300 euros with 3years IOR. it came even with color calibrator. i like the fingerprint login. i already ordered (and received) recovery dvds, so the warranty should be valid.

except with low cpu frequency "issue" and cpu/gpu throtlling at high usage, quite good. but i hope these two will be fixed yet asap, because i didn't buy powerful quad core cpu to have it running at 800 mhz. i'm waiting for official release of 1.26 bios.

 

Windows updates should definitely NOT be giving you corruption and reinstall type problems. Systems without the latest security patches are greater risks in my opinion. Not installing security patches from Microsoft is probably the worst advice I've ever heard tech support give.

I would say drivers and such may be slightly less critical but even those can contain security fixes. I don't think there would be anything wrong if you were to read the update description and only install it if it was patching a problem that may impact you. Regardless, my machine is fully up to date and I have no issues.

It sounds like you think that updates are causing your machine to have problems? How certain are you that it's the updates? I've never had a problem from updates.

 

So I just bought the W520 anyone have any suggestions for some of the first things I do? I'll image the drive if it doesn't come with an OS install CD, anything else? For those interested I did end up going with the FHD screen and Ultimate N. I'm considering partitioning it so I have a OS partition and a program partition, I'm not sure if I feel like it though. I'll also update the BIOS to 1.26 if it isn't already.

 

I just purchased a ThinkPad W520. I added a 120gb msata and swapped out the standard internal drive for a 750gb one. I then put an additional 750gb drive in the ultrabay i ordered. T

The problem is I only seem to be able to have one drive working at a time.

If i pull out the internal drive the ultrabay drive works fine, if i put the internal drive back in the ultrabay drive stops working. I am not trying to put them in a raid configuration, I just want two separate drives inside the machine to carry a lot of data.

has anybody had any issues like this?

 

Have you tried (right-click) Computer > Manage > Disk Management > More Actions > Rescan Disks? Put both drives in, boot up, and run it to see if it will detect the two 750GB drives.

 

Both the drives are detected and I can see both of them in Disk management however if both are inserted the ultra bay shows up as online but I cant assign it a drive letter. In fact if I do anything it says:

(X) The operation failed to complete because the disk management console view is not up to date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the disk management console and then restart dis management or restart the computer.

If I pull out either drive or swap them or whatever combination I can only get one of them to work at a time.

 

Well, you could try refreshing the page using the same directions, but hitting Refresh after you run Rescan disks.

 

Yep, set everything to max and still no go! Arrrgh!! Any other BIOS 1.26 users with a i7-2720QM CPU able to get at least 2+ GHz while on battery??

 

As mentioned previously in this thread, I would not try to override the system default of underclocking while on battery. That is a huge current to draw from those cells and you're greatly limiting their life by letting them get hot. It could also get dangerous if a cell bursts open.

 

Hi guys, I ordered W520 yesterday with the help of CS. I just checked the build, did he forgot put color sensor I mentioned before in it? Thanks!
------------------------------------------------------------
0A68541 SBB ICI7-2720QM
27R1799 VBB PC DOS LICENSE
39T7676 SBB DOS 2000 FLYER - NO
0A68535 SBB 15.6FHD (1900 X 1080) LED
0A68894 SBB NVQ2000M GR
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
45M4839 SBB KEYBOARDUS ENGLISH
0A68526 VBB FINGERPRINT READER
0A69621 SBB I RAID-CONF BY LENOVO
0A69622 SBB PRSATA RAID 0(2 HDDS REQ
0A68901 SBB DR HDDS320GB HDD7200RPM
60Y7204 SBB RAID VIA BAYADAPTER
0A68529 VBB ECS+4IN1CR
45M4816 SBB 9CELLLI-ION BATTERY
0A68904 SBB CPNAMLC+ 170W AC AD
45M4804 SBB IN.CENT.ULTIMATE-N 6300
44C7950 SBB INT WRLSSWDAREANTWRK UPGR
0A68564 SBB LANG PCK US E
0A68537 SBB FINGRPRNT READER

 

I cant see it at least :/

Its name is: huey™PRO Colorimeter by X-Rite® color calibration sensor in palm rest

 

The first mSATA SSD with 6GB/s is just announced: RunCore outs T50 6Gb/s mSATA SSD, SandForce speeds included -- Engadget.

 

Thanks, estimate shipping date is 07/28...So I'd better send an email to ask about it

 

Can anybody confirm whether the W520 has sleep-and-charge capability?

I'm considering upgrading from a Sager NP8660 and one of the great things about it is that I can use it as a 65 Ah extended battery for my phone for long trips without access to a socket.

 

Yes, the W520 has an "always on" USB. Not sure (doubt) if it will charge while sleeping on battery mode, but am sure it will charge while plugged in and either sleeping or shut down.

OOTM

 

Isnt the mSATA standard capped at sata2? At least its capped at whatever pcie is in the machine so for current laptops its "v2.x: 500 MB/s (4 Gbit/s)" unless there is something I dont understand

 

Well essentially its just a different connector, so its not too hard to combine the current mSATA spec with SATA III. Though right now I don't think that there is any laptop on the market that supports SATA III over the mSATA connector. This year's Thinkpads, including W520, definitely do not. In particular because Intel's current chipset has only two SATA III ports available. But I'm sure the next generation of laptops will work just fine.

 

The number of sata ports is not an issue, the mSATA goes throug hthe pcie slots, but bandwidth can be an issue(pcie only being 4gbit). Its teh same that you can get extra sata ports in a desktopmachine if you put a controller in the pcie slots.