Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

It's a fine lenovo tradition, but 2-3 layers of black electrical tape on the battery fixes the problem.

CPU speed on battery can be controlled via a free ThrottleStop utility.

Audio wise, try Smart Audio control panel item (if not there by default, you can install it) and reset equalizer/phantom speakers/3d immersion etc. to your liking. If better audio quality is needed, DisplayPort->HDMI output or an external sound card is the way to go anyway.

 

Thanks for the pointer. Appears these gizmos have improved somewhat compared to what I used. The ones I tried(diff brand) were spec'd similar to the older series listed in the review.

I need a lot of screen real estate, with most of the display static or slow moving or just numbers/data, so could be these are worth revisiting.

I've been using Matrox splitters and ViDock, but I want to eventually go to a W520, which is somewhat limited on ports. So, I was figuring ViDock, which would be expensive with the video card I have in mind. However, if these USB gadgets will do the job, I could try several of them through a powered USB hub and see if that does the job. Shouldn't be too much in the way of bandwidth issues, but you never know 'till you try it all.

 

FWIW, I regret my decision to take Quadro 2000 + dock, and still having to deal with USB gadgets. Especially as USB3, powered eSATA and ExpressCard are only present on the laptop itself, and even S/PDIF is gone from the dock.

If I did it again, would have taken Quadro 1000 + some mid-range ATI video with Eyefinitity and one of the new ViDocks. Same money, easily 4-5 external monitors, easy upgrade.

 

Hi again
Thx for the post hubert.

I have really looked around, but I really can't find 1866MHz cl9 ram, do they exists in 4 GB blocks? Or is the choice between 1600MHz cl9 and 1866MHz cl 11?

About SSD I would like recommendations for other good choices than Intel 510's.

 

from:
AnandTech - The Intel SSD 510 Review

SSD Failure Rates
Intel Corsair Crucial Kingston OCZ
0.59% 2.17% 2.25% 2.39% 2.93%

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Actually, I may end up doing a combo of these:

* ViDock(older, already have) w/cheaper, affordable card - 4 monitors
* Laptop ports itself - probably 2 monitors
* USB - ?several? monitors.

Right now, I need ~8 WUXGA(1920x1200) monitors, and on the W700 I have, it has ports + up to two ExpressCard slots, so expandability is just a matter of adding $stuff$ incrementally. However, since the W520 is more limited on both ports and ExpressCard slots, I have to concentrate monitors more, which means $more$ in things like higher end ViDock/video cards or 30" 2560x1600 monitor(s) into the W520 itself, etc. Not cheap. That's why the USB route is apparently worth investigating again, as at ~$75 a pop, that's cheap $$$ to add a monitor. Decent 1920x1200 monitors can be had on the used market for $100-150, so the end result is much cheaper this way. Since I already have some monitors, going the USB route would only involve buying the USB adapters.

Dunno exactly when I'm gonna have $$$ to purchase a W520, but in the meantime, am investigating all of the alternatives.

Thx for the tip...

 

Hmm, so 2xOCZ in RAID-0 have a failure rate at least 6% ( 1-(1-0.03)^2) .

Btw. what are the applications that so dramatically benefit from doubling transfer rate from already fast 300-500MB/sec , so it's worth putting SSDs to RAID 0? Can't think of much except file copying and saving a few seconds when waking up from hibernation with 16GB RAM.

 

Shifting back and forth between drawings in CAD and inventor with both progs running, then very big reads are an advantage when presenting it.

..And then I just love chucking my money at laptops.

I am thinking many different and have read a lot of reviews. Huberth, sorry for the miss spelling before. It does seem the intel is still doing quite well stability wise.

 

plus 1 on the intel. it is stable and I have been having very good results with it. it's not the fastest but reliability is a greater concern for me than having the fastest possible speeds on an unreliable platform.

 

But these must be really big reads, in order of several gigabytes, that require virtually no processing, otherwise the CPU will become a bottleneck . Even something as simple as encrypting the data with Twofish is below 500MB/sec on quad core Sandy Bridge.

I understand the "spending money" part and the speed/noise/vibration benefit, so dual SSD is what I have as well. Just curious about the RAID-0, where disadvantages are obvious (increased complexity, much reduced reliability and possible lack of TRIM), and practical benefits over a single SATA3 drive not so much.

 

Too quick to uninstall the Lenovo stuff. Fn+F8 lets you disable the touchpad xor TrackPoint. Disabling the TrackPoint should be enough. This is provided by the UltraNav utility.I use iPod headphones (which in itself is pretty bad) so I can't hear any W520 sound output issues, but AFAICT it's fine to me. Have you tried tweaking the sound card's audio output to 24-bit, 192000Hz and disabling all enhancements?[/QUOTE]


thanks, and yeah, I lost the mouse disable option with a removal
will reconsider

 

will do, thanks

 

PCMarkVantage scores:

W520 with single Intel 510 SSD: 16,302
Intel HD Graphics 3000 Mobile video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor,LENOVO 4270CTO score: 16302 PCMarks

W520 with 2 240GB Intel 510 SSDs in RAID0: 19,228

NVIDIA Quadro 2000M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor,LENOVO 4270CTO score: 19228 PCMarks

 

Yes, benchmarks will of course show it (although these two may be at least partly affected by Intel 3000 vs Quadro 2000M). And disk transfer benchmark will show almost 100% better score.

However, I wonder what is the real software where the modern SATA3 SSD in RAID-0 in a laptop have so significant and noticeable benefit over JBOD setup, so the risk and disadvantages are worth it.

Significant and noticeable is, for example, time savings of 5 minutes over 8 hours of use.

 

cmpengr: you got it i can see now nvidia quadro 1000M in system info when running vlc(1080p-mkv)/cs5/powerdvd. thou there are plugins like Bullet of pinnacle studio that wants to detect the high performance (discreet) graphics before loading the program thus posting an error. so i have to switch to discreet in the bios before using pinnacle. anyway i'll get used to it lol. thanks mate. solved my problem.

jhwelch: that's what i did for a couple of days, it helps too and i should have been satisfied with it 'till i tried cmpengr's suggestion which makes my system run stated softwares now smoothly...as it should be. thanks for the reply

 

Ooops, I didn't realize that one of the tests was with the integrated card.

Here are the PCMarkVantage results with with a single OCZ Vertex 3: 16.006
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2820QM Processor,LENOVO 4270CTO score: 16006 PCMarks

The system definitely feels faster with RAID0.

 

Netwebber, thanks very much for this! I thought I'd get a notification of a reply, but I guess that's not how this forum works. I'll hopefully be able to get a new laptop via work in a few months. So the W520 is very high on my list. I've only used my T221 at 1920 x 1200 because that's the highest resolution my current set up (T60 + dock) can output. Very excited to be able to use it at full resolution in a while.

Do you know if the Quadro 1000M would be able to ouput 3840 x 2400 as well? I guess my general question is more, is there an easy way to check the max resolution of graphics cards. I know very little of graphics cards since I'm not into gaming or other applications where graphics performance is important.

Thanks again for your help. Also great to hear about this Yahoo group, I didn't know of this community and just joined. I'll get that Cirthix adapter in due course.

 

You're welcome.

I don't see why the 1000M wouldn't work--you don't need a 2GB frame buffer; that extra space is for textures. The two cards have the same architecture and drivers.

There is technically no maximum resolution--you can create custom resolutions and trade off refresh rate for more resolution. It just depends on whether you have a display that can sync to the input. You could have something like 3840x144000 resolution at 1Hz with dual-link DVI. I suppose refresh rates of less than 1Hz are also technically possible. As Cirthix has pointed out, Desktop Window Manager crashes at low refresh rates so there's a practical limit there.

Sorry to hear you've been running your T221 at 1920x1200. Text quality in that mode is worse than a regular 1900x1200 23-24-inch monitor. That's because the Cleartype engine tries to address subpixels and ends up addressing whole pixels. (Or, more accurately, tries to address whole pixels with a predicted subpixel structure but ends up addressing groups of four full pixels.)

I just switched to gdipp and love it--there's an option for grayscale font smoothing.

You should be able to run the T221 at 13-15Hz with a T60 dock without the adapter, or at 24-30Hz with. It's definitely dual-link (My old laptop is a T400 which uses the same dock). Try Powerstrip.

 

Has anyone done this to the W520 yet?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ning-windows-saving-2w-power-consumption.html

Curious how much can be saved on the Sandy Bridge platform and whether it'll work with Optimus.

I'm sure I've asked this previously, but I've posted it again because it looks promising (and I have no clue how to apply the steps XD).

 

Hi has anyone tried kingston hyperx ssd 240gb in W520? considering getting this or Crucial M4 256gb

 

wow !!!!!!!!

 

have not

but have a brand new Crucial M4 in my hand for a new install on my W520

(NO I am not fondling it, surely that would produce some static...)

I am exhaustively searching, reading, researching so I can do one good first install and it will all run all great.

My brain has melted, seriously.

I will report my best findings and advice after my 'install' goes well ??!

 

BIOS 1.32 has been released:

readme: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8buj10us.txt
windows EXE: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8buj10us.exe
bootable ISO: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8buj10uc.iso

Specifically, it fixes the the issue of bad performance on battery when you cold-boot on AC power. It does NOT fix the issue of bad performance when you cold-boot on battery power (the team is still working on that issue).

Summary of Changes:
<1.32>
UEFI: 1.32 / ECP: 1.18
- (New) Improved system performance when a heavy software was executed with the 65W AC adapter.
- (New) Added support for some USB keyboards with a fingerprint reader.
- (New) Added support for the option to change product name and version format in SMBIOS.
- (New) Disabled keyboarding while the lid was closed to avoid unexpected key input when the computer was held with the lid closed.
- (New) Added support for Airplane in-seat power mode of ThinkVantage Power Manager.
- (Fix) Fixed an issue that might cause slow system boot.
- (Fix) Fixed an issue where the BIOS Update Utility failed to update the BIOS when DEP (Data Execute Prevention) was enabled.
- (Fix) Fixed an issue where the computer might fail to boot when connected some Smartphones with the USB port. The following smartphones were tested: Motorola: Droid 2, Droid X HTC: Nexus One, EVO, Droid Incredible, Droid Incredible 2, ThunderBolt, Aria Samsung: Captivate, Galaxy Tab

Source:
W520: Speedstep not working properly (on battery)!... - Page 22 - Lenovo Community

 

So far I haven't had an issue with power while using battery (though, I haven't needed it). However, the possibility of a faster boot time looks interesting. How much faster would a SATAII SSD boot if I moved to BIOS 1.32?

 

So my W520 had it's second random shutdown in sleep today. It hasn't shutdown on me at any other time.

Basically, I put it into my backpack in sleep, walk to/from class, take it out, and it'll be off. The only striking fact (no pun intended) in both cases is that the backpack had been dropped or taken a significant tumble (both times onto concrete floor) in some manner with the laptop inside.

Maybe there's a correlation here? AFAICT, the issue isn't serious for me. Maybe the drop loosens the battery for a split second?

 

I've dropped my laptop several times already (every time the laptop was turned on), and I've never had it shutdown like that (using the "stock" battery without any tape to keep it on tight). Maybe your individual laptop could be defective, Colonel? I'd chat with a Lenovo rep to see if they have any suggestions.

 

I doubt it's the battery. With mine, no matter how I wiggle the battery it doesn't lose contact. Maybe it's the drop sensor? I'm not too familiar with how it works. If it detects a drop maybe it turns off the laptop to protect the hard drive?

 

Does this mean the W520 can run properly with a 65W adapter? In my experience even the 90W adapter doesn't work with the W520.

 

Wiggling it while on doesn't seem to cause it to lose contact either. The sensor shouldn't be on in sleep though...

I just reseated the RAM, in case it was just loose RAM. Hopefully it doesn't recur or worsen. It runs fine for days at a time when on though.

I suppose the W520 could run on a 65W adapter as long as you kept the consumption low. You should only encounter issues if you try to draw more than 65W from it, and the W520 is pretty light on juice at least when on battery.

 

I'm pretty sure you've already checked this, but, do you happen to have hibernation turned on so that the system goes into hibernation after an amount of time? (Or shutdown after a certain amount of time).

 

I have; it isn't set. The computer presents me with the "Launch Startup Repair" or "Start Windows Normally" on the next boot.

Furthermore, with the new BIOS, I seem to be getting lots of 7E BSODs if I run the Windows Performance Toolkit boot trace. Not sure if it's directly related.

Battery life seems to be up too.

 

The quad-core version does not work from 65W, with any BIOS including the new one.

Perhaps the 65W note is a mistake, or is only supported with dual core W520 config (dual core T520 works with 65W fine).

 

Perhaps you had a BSOD when going to sleep/wake up/instant resume etc (some driver/hw/power management issue, sleep/wakeup is a very complex state) and the system just rebooted? It may help to remove "Automatically restart" check in startup and recovery settings.

 

I installed BIOS 1.32
Installation went without a hitch.
Unfortunately I still have the 40 second warm-boot startup delay with the Intel 510 SSD

 

Ditto the delay.

 

Hi Netwebber

Thanks again for further clarifying this!

So now I understand graphic cards trade-off resolution for refresh rate, I didn't realize that. Also to clarify, the T221 is at my girlfriend's place, who lives abroad. I've actually only used it for a few days to test it was working properly, but not otherwise.

The dock I have is the advanced mini dock. I thought the resolution was limited to 1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1600, as stated at
ThinkPad Advanced Mini-Dock - Overview
So this is not correct?

I googled Powerstrip and found this shareware program:
EnTech Taiwan | Utilities | PowerStrip
It seems like a fairly straightforward program to specify custom resolutions.

The graphics card I have in my T60 is the X1400 (128MB). My T221 is (I think) the DG3 variant. So you're saying I could just use the mini dock and, using powerstrip, run it at max resolution? I understand the refresh rate will be lower, but planning to use it for photo-related applications, so think I could live with that.

In any case, it will be several weeks or months before I will have access again to the screen, so I won't be able to test it unfortunately : (

 

The system definitely goes into sleep; I wait for the speaker and mic mute lights to turn off before closing the lid. The Standby icon on the lid is definitely on.

Taking it back out of the bag, the Standby light is off.

Potentially but less likely related is a strange inconsistency in the W520's behavior w.r.t. resume. Sometimes, opening the lid will cause it to resume automatically. Other times, I need to tap Fn. Once or twice so far, Fn didn't work and I've had to tap the Power button to get it to wake. It hasn't gotten stuck in sleep so far.

In addition, there have been one or two occasions where the UltraNav wouldn't respond after resume. It would work after sending it back into sleep and resuming it again.

 

Actually some of us are suspicious the ThinkVantage Active Protection System might be a possible culprit causing the sudden death syndrome. I have it turned off on my system since the last SD.

 

I'll see if it recurs in the future.

In the meantime, I updated my Intel graphics driver, and now my screen is all super bright and stuff. Grr.

 

The max DVI spec of 2650x1600 is for a 60Hz refresh rate. A dual-link DVI can drive higher resolutions at lower refresh rates. For example, there are monitors that run at 2560x2048 at 50Hz.

Unfortunately Cirthix's adapter won't work with the DG3. You should check whether you actually have one of those, or possibly the DGP (which is identical to the DG5).

You should be able to drive the T221 at full resolution at 13Hz with the X1400. You could also purchase three USB 2.0 to DVI adapters ( such as this one) and connect them to each DVI input, in addition to your dock's DVI port. You'll have four 1920x1200 sections you can arrange into a rectangle with Windows. That'll work for everything except full-motion video, and without special software your taskbar will be limited to half the width of the screen. It'll also tax your processor quite a bit.

But now we're getting off-topic. Feel free to PM me.

 

What do you mean super bright and stuff? Which driver did you install? One from the support.lenovo.com site or Intel.com?

I want to avoid super bright and stuff. Doesn't sound good.

 

The one off of Intel's site. I was having some lag smooth-scrolling Firefox when maximized, so I gave it a try.

0% became the old 50% in terms of brightness. Quite annoying in a dimly lit room. I usually use 4/15, and the driver essentially forced me up to 8/15.

ADDENDUM:
Anyone daring enough to disable GPU thermal throttling on the 2000M?

 

Great to hear about other options, thanks for these recommendations. You're right, this is a W520 thread, still interested in getting one, but glad to hear I won't need it to drive the T221 at max resolution.

I'd wanted to PM you initially but it seems I won't be able to do that until I have "five quality posts", at least according to this http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...-send-private-messages-create-signatures.html

In any case, thanks again for all your help, much appreciated!

 

Hi chenxiaolong,
I am in a similar situation as you. I bought a pre-configured system, otherwise would be more expensive where I live. But now I would like to upgrade to a Intel Centrino Ultimate 6300n, which I already bought. I checked on the forums and found you have the same problem.

My system is a Win7 64 bit. I am in the process to flash the BIOS. My questions are the following:
1) When you opened your laptop it had the three antennae? Or has it two?
2) How successful were you flashing the BIOS or you found another alternative?

Many thanks in advance,
Finfo

 

So does that mean if my W520 came with a Half-Mini Adapter Card, I won't be able to upgrade to the Intels 6300? ?

 

What I understand so far is that wireless cards that are not sell from the laptop vendors, Lenovo in this case, are white listed in the BIOS. Therefore at boot there is a cheking of your wireless card number and if is not in the list, an error appears and you cannot boot the laptop.
Up to know there solutions are:
1) buy a card from lenovo. problem: first if they sell it to you, second much more expensive
2) modify the number of the wireless card so it coincides with the ones in the list. A bit difficult procedure I believe, but can be done.
3) Add your card number to the list
4) Avoid the BIOS to check on the list

3) and 4) requires BIOS mod. In this forums there is info about it.
My Digital Life Forums
Seems doable and not so difficult, but could potentially brick your machine.
I am still researching before proceeding.

Hope this helps

finfo

 

Thank you! I already have a 6300 from the W510. My W520 came with the mini-half wireless network card. So I don't think I need to do anything if I use the W510 6300 card. I think you are talking about non-lenovo 6300 cards. If you buy those you will have to do some juggling

 

LOL, thats hilarious

 

Well folks I am extremely happy with my machine after a week or so of ownership and a few days of proper use.

The only issues I have are the cpu throttling, and when I disconnect the power cord the screen goes black, hangs and flickers, then get my screen back. With the SSD mind you.
Doesn't do it with a HDD. Sucks !!!!

Otherwise not a burp. Its a speed demon and has a lovely screen.

Not too mention this thing stays VERY cool no matter what I throw at !!!

The keyboard is a tad different from the good ol' TP kb's but I have grown quickly accustomed to it and actually like it.

Happy it doesnt have too many green lights on the dashboard flashing too.

Coming from many years of Dell Latitudes, recently a few E6510's, I must say I am very pleased with the decision to switch.

Wooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!

 

Regarding the screen blanking, are you using Optimus or Discrete?