Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

Look at the rest of the power profile for the answer.

 

I am getting Crucial M4 (Any reports of problems together with the W520?) and should I put it in the main bay or just keep it in the ultrabay?

 

Got a question have you guys run into this...every now and then while i'm using the laptop doesn't matter whether its just basic word or surfing I got my cpu light to stay on and the system freezes for about 30seconds. If I push ctl + alt + delete a screen pops up saying "preparing security options" and then it will finally come back on..If I don't push ctl + alt + delete it will just freeze and stay there for the 30seconds and then eventually I can use the system again just like everything is fine. Any thoughts on this?

 

Does anybody have Windows Server 2008 R2 installed as the main OS? How does it work driver-wise (especially bluetooth and color sensor/display calibration)?

 

are you running a hd or a ssd? if ssd it's a known registry issue. if not i'm not sure

 

It's an ssd. Is there any fixes for this? I know people have had some problems but never had them explain it like I did so maybe that's why I wasn't
assuming that's what it is

 

R2 works great using the Windows 7 x64 drivers. Don't expect Bluetooth to work. It doesn't. I don't have the color sensor.

 

Thank you!

Out of curiosity, do you know if it's possible to utilize BT from guest W7 OS if I use Hyper-V? I doubt it would work but..

 

I'm not 100% certain on that one. I'm pretty sure the answer is no because I don't think there's any emulation or direct device support in the integration services for Hyper-V. I have not tested that scenario. Probably time to Google or Bing that one.

Is this for a bluetooth mouse or other device? If you are looking for mouse support, I gave up on bluetooth due to the same reasons here. Instead I am using the typical wireless mouse and nano transceiver. It's better than the trackpad.

 

I'm using BT presenter. Well, probably dual boot would be the better option than new device..

 

Well just did the registry fix for the ssd's. Will see how this turns out and will let you guys know. Did this for my OWC 240gb ssd extreme sata iii

 

How many disks does the Lenovo Recovery create?
For me it created one disk with a WINRE.WIM file - 300MB.
This does not look right since the recovery partition is about 10GB full.

Can anyone provide more details around Lenovo Recovery disks. Thanks.

EDIT: Looks like that is something like a system checkpoint.

How do I copy OS installation / setup files. My choice would be to upload these to amazon cloud.

 

4 total. 1 boot (can be a CD or DVD), and 3 data DVDs.

 

I don't see anything else changing?

 

Well, I have that loose battery issue and lenovo said send it back and we will fix it. Anybody send theirs in for the same issue and get the loose battery fixed? Guess time will tell but anyone with the same issue plz update

 

All the batteries are loose to a certain degree. I doubt sending it back will do anything.

 

I don't see it as being much of an issue. The battery stays connected, and I'm alright with a tiny bit of wiggle that it shows.

 

Regarding the battery wiggle, today I placed some adhesive-on-one-side foam squares (~.5" x .5") on the case beneath the battery and it reduces the wiggle greatly. I didnt want them too tight, so I just did enough to take out most of the wiggle. I would think that any type of thin foam tape would work fine.

 

As long as you are using the 135W or 170W AC adapter, have the battery inserted, and don't have something strange set on the Idle timers, I don't know.

 

Yep, using 170W adapter w/battery. Odd I know.

Another thing I noticed today. When playing a movie with Media Player Classic, the keyboard volume controls no longer worked. Can someone else try this? They were .mkv movies.

 

MPC takes control of hotkeys. Not sure how to turn it off. VLC has an option for it.

 

I am using 14-17 watt (8/15 brightness) if I browse this forum :/ so I dont get how people can get 8 hours web browsing with 9/15

My second harddrive seems to activate often though, not sure why though I do not have any apps running from that

 

They work, but just for MPC itself. It has been like that ever since I started using MPC-HC like 3 years ago, and probably has been like that since MPC-HC was first released.

What browser do you use? I'm at like 9.5W-ish if I'm just looking at a webpage in FF 5. But if I start scrolling, I notice that my battery estimate drops to like 4hrs at around 90% charge (and go back up when I stop). So apparently it takes about as much CPU power to scroll through a webpage as running a light game or something.

 

Is there software that measures power use? Or do you need a hardware watt meter?

 

HWInfo64 will tell you how quickly your battery is discharging. So will the Lenovo Power Manager, but HWInfo64 updates much more often.

 

hello
I need your help once again xD
I have troubles with skype and audio. When I'm talking with skype the quality of my sounds become reeeeeeeeally bad. The volume goes up and down and the quality of the microphone is pretty low.
How can it be? I have this problem only with skype.

 

i use ff5 with addblocker, but might be the same if its standing still and there is no flash banners

 

Good info, thanks.

 

Can someone help me out ?
I installed this 83rf30ww.exe to check if my chipset is B2 or B3 as suggested by a lenovo admin here W520 with B2 stepping QM67 chips - HDD/DVD/mSATA a... - Page 4 - Lenovo Community

after installation he asks me to run WINmeinfo.exe but I don't see file like that.
Can anyone explain what am I doing wrong ?
when I ran a command
C:\Users\karthi>wmic idecontroller get deviceid
DeviceID
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_21CF17AA&REV_04\3&42FFD25&0&FA

looks like mine is REV_04 which is a buggy one

 

When you bought it?

 

I managed to solve the problem by disabling VOIP configuration in SmartAudio

 

Sometime in May

 

edit: nwm fixed

 

I noticed another quirk with my W520 today.

I set the battery to charge between 50% and 95%, yet I noticed it went up to 100% despite those controls I set in place.

Also, after startup which is pretty quick, the Power Manager seems to take another full minute to implement my settings such as screen brightness. I think the battery charging issue might be related. Has anyone experienced this or can shed some light?

 

Another thing...

Using TPFanControl for w520... Level 64 is very fast (4600RPM ish) but level 128 is actually slower? I don't really understand. I also don't understand what the Port Install file is for.

 

I have not tried the battery charge percentage yet, but I do notice that it takes about a minute after startup for the power manager to implement the settings, including the screen brightness. But I just restore yesterday due to another problem, so now I notice that the screen brightness is adjusted before I login, but it still takes time for the other setting to be implemented.

 

Does anyone else have problem with their color management? After I calibrated my screen, the color profile changes from default to the new one. But when I open the Intel graphic and Media Control Center, it changes back to the windows color profile. This also happen when I run something that requires permission to continue. I have to restart the laptop for the calibrated color profile to become active again.

 

I noticed this happens too when I disconnect and reconnect the battery in Linux. I have to go back into Windows once to fix this unless I disconnect again...

 

Recommend me a Hard Drive/SSD caddy please

I know, you must already be rolling your eyes... Indeed it seems that this is an often asked question. But I still have to ask

See, there are plenty of caddies on eBay, like
1. NEW SATA hard drive Bay LENOVO Thinkpad T520 W520 DV16 | eBay from ny-compu-tek
2. 2nd hard drive Caddy F Lenovo Thinkpad T420 W520 T520 | eBay from xijiaokeji
3. eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace from partslot-aus and
4. 2nd HDD hard drive Caddy F Lenovo Thinkpad T420 W520 | eBay from uq511

And then there are more expensive ones at $47 like the one from NewmodeUS: 2nd HDD or SSD Caddy - Lenovo ThinkPad W520, W510, T510 [TP-W510-T510] - $46.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Question is which one would you recommend. I'm looking for one that not only lives up to the full SATA III potential, but also something that fits well and matches W520's external color and texture too.

Thanks.

 

I'd recommend this because it fits quite well into the Ultrabay and I boot into the drive everyday with no system issues, it took me a few days to receive it through the mailbox.

 

Can someone help me out ?
I installed this 83rf30ww.exe to check if my chipset is B2 or B3 as suggested by a lenovo admin

after installation he asks me to run WINmeinfo.exe but I don't see file like that.
Can anyone explain what am I doing wrong ?
when I ran a command
C:\Users\karthi>wmic idecontroller get deviceid
DeviceID
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_21CF17AA&REV_04\3&42FFD25&0&FA

looks like mine is REV_04 which is a buggy one

 

Navigate to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\ME and run MEInfoWin.exe, if it doesn't exist, try running http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/83rf31ww.exe then repeat first step.

 

Should those of us who just bought the w520 in July/August be worry about the B2/B3 stepping problem?

 

I just tried to follow the steps on the lenovo forums and it did not work, so i tried it my way which happen to work.

1. Download the Intel AMT Management Engine Firmware, 83rf30ww.exe
link: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/83rf30ww.exe
2.Run it
3.Run Command Prompt as administrator
4.type "cd c:\drivers\win\me"
5.type "meinfowin.exe"

 

Lenovo claims that it never even shipped 1 W520 with a B2 chip. I see no reason to not believe them as other major vendors (HP, Dell) are running into the same B2 stepping identification "issues" in their business laptops and all of them claim that it is a BIOS mask to make the OS think that it is a B2 stepping so they do not have to update drivers. As well, the W520 was released on March 29, a month and a half after the B2 stepping fiasco.

 

I think you need to go back to the thread you linked and read it more carefully. Read the entire thing then try again. It contains all the information you need to solve your issues.

 

I agree with infinus on that one. I thought this issue had been put to bed long ago.

 

Thank you!!! It worked now.

This is what I got
Intel(R) MEInfo Version: 7.1.13.1088
Copyright(C) 2005 - 2011, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

Intel(R) Manageability and Security Application code versions:

BIOS Version: 8BET44WW (1.24 )
MEBx Version: 7.0.0.54
Gbe Version: 1.3
VendorID: 8086
PCH Version: 4
FW Version: 7.1.10.1065
UNS Version: 7.1.2.1043
LMS Version: 7.1.2.1043
MEI Driver Version: 7.0.0.1144
Wireless Hardware Version: 1.1.70
Wireless Driver Version: 14.0.1.2

FW Capabilities: 234249317

Intel(R) Active Management Technology - PRESENT/ENABLED
Intel(R) Anti-Theft Technology - PRESENT/ENABLED
Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service - PRESENT/ENABLED
Protect Audio Video Path - PRESENT/ENABLED
Intel(R) ME Dynamic Application Loader - PRESENT/ENABLED

Intel(R) AMT State: Enabled
CPU Upgrade State: Upgrade Capable
Cryptography Support: Enabled
Last ME reset reason: Power up
Local FWUpdate: Enabled
BIOS and GbE Config Lock: Enabled
Host Read Access to ME: Disabled
Host Write Access to ME: Disabled
SPI Flash ID #1: C22017
SPI Flash ID VSCC #1: 20052005
SPI Flash BIOS VSCC: 20052005
BIOS boot State: Post Boot
OEM Id: 4c656e6f-766f-0000-0000-000000000000
Link Status: Link down
System UUID: 8d500b81-50bf-11cb-a30a-d6d55deb96ec
MAC Address: f0-de-f1-59-8b-d2
IPv4 Address: 0.0.0.0
Wireless MAC Address: 00-24-d7-bb-f9-dc
Wireless IPv4 Address: 0.0.0.0
IPv6 Enablement: Disabled
Wireless IPv6 Enablement: Disabled
Privacy Level: Default
Configuration state: Not started
Provisioning Mode: PKI
Capability Licensing Service: Enabled
Capability Licensing Service Status: Permit info not available
OEM Tag: 0x00000000

If the PCH Version is:
600004, then your system is a B2 Stepping system
600005, then your system is a B3 Stepping system

Mine says 4 ? not sure whether is a B2 or B3. Can anyone confirm?

 

So it's been 10 days and my screen is still on backorder at the repair depot. Hmph.

 

Read up on the doc - I vaguely recall something about '128' being a reserved setting that turns or greatly lowers the fan speed.