Lenovo Y400 Owners lounge

The ThinkPads have excellent build quality, the IdeaPads not so much. Still not too much to complain about like you said unless one wants to get really nitpicky.

 

M14x has a 900p display option and so is the G46, When will Lenovo step it up and offer the 900p display for y400?

 

Seriously. Would be cool to at least have that option. 768 or 900. If they ever do, wondering if I can get one aftermarket... one can only dream

 

Shouldn't be terribly difficult finding compatible 900p and maybe even 1080p panels.

 

Since you mentioned it, any drawbacks heat-to-screen wise in operating with the lid closed. I assume you just changed the lid close action in Windows to do nothing?

 

Yep just change that setting in the Windows power options. You should probably just turn the screen backlight off when using it that way since there's no point having it on with the lid closed. I've done it a few times with the screen left on when connected to an external monitor or HDTV and the screen doesn't get warmer than usual. And of course operating temperatures were the same since the laptop draws in cool air from the bottom.

 

What is the easiest way to turn the back-light off? I use the lowest brightness setting but would prefer the back-light off when downloading stuff or connected to the TV.

 

Oh come on, the Fn key combinations aren't that nonsensical are they?

It's Fn+F2.

 

Sorry, I don't have the laptop in front of me and I don't pay much attention to the Fn key combos sometimes.

 

I find that it's not too hard to figure out if you've used a lot of laptops because they usually have the same combinations or use similar/identical illustrations on the Function key itself.

 

I want to think my Alienware was a little different, so I need to relearn the keyboard. Like hitting Home instead of Backspace.

 

Maybe 'cause the Y400 is a larger laptop or larger keyboard?

It took some time for me to get used to the Y500 keyboard as well. They squished some of the keys on the right side so I used to always miss the right SHIFT and CTRL.

 

I got really use to my M11x keyboard where everything was soooo close together. Still getting use to all the keys so far apart.

 

Yeah the space between keys is typical of chiclet keyboards.

 

In Windows 8 (came pre-installed with mine), in power options, I changed the settings in "what the buttons do". "Close the lid" is set to "do nothing". Something like that. And the laptop screen is turned off automaticaly when I close the lid. I can see that it is turned off when the lid is 1/2 inch open.

It doesn't seem to cause any heat problem... I don't monitor, but you can tell by the fans noise. Nothing to worry about here... Even when I game, it doesn't heat more than if the lid were open.

 

Just picked up my Y400 with the 650m video card. Thinking about getting a msata 128 to install the OS onto, however Im not liking Windows 8 and thinking about doing a windows 7 clean install. Any issues with drivers using Windows 7? Or should I just try to find a windows 8 disc?

 

Have you tried 8 using a start menu replacement like Classic Shell (free). Having it boot to desktop and a start menu make it feel like 7 to me. IMO.

 

Traditionally, operating a laptop with its lid closed affected two things:

1) Cooling. Some laptop manufacturers design their cooling profile to exhaust a large portion of heat through the keyboard, and closing the screen will limit the laptop's ability to cool itself. This is not too much of an issue with the Lenovo Y400 / Y500, since this laptop model appears to draw cold air in from the bottom, and exhaust out the sides through heatsink / fan combos.


2) WiFi signal strength. WiFi antennas typically run along the side of laptop displays. So when you close your laptop display, you are also changing the orientation of your WiFi antenna. Should not affect you if you are still close enough to the WiFi access point.

 

Just use the windows 7 drivers from here: Drivers and software - IdeaPad Y400 Notebook

They all worked perfectly on my windows 7 installation onto a msata. Did the same thing yesterday with my brothers new Y400 he just received. Smooth install.

Just make sure you turn off 'secure boot' and set boot to 'legacy' and 'legacy first' in the BIOS before trying to install windows 7.

 

As you said, heat come out of the side, and fresh air from bottom, so no issue. And I am use a cable for internet, so no problem here. Didn't know those two things though... thanks for the info. And I am lucky I picked a laptop that doesn't exhaust heat from top of keyboard... I didn't know that before. That would have messed my plans.

 

As for myself, I didn't want Win8... I wanted to install Win7, but I never had as much trouble as that before, installing a new OS. In fact, I'm migrating from WinXP with a Pentium 4 so... Technology changed. I had trouble with UEFI boot mode

So I finally got used to Win8 and that's OK. Never tried Win7 though... Once you get rid of all the pre-installed junk, the start menu is quite cool. I think I may even like it better than the classic start menu.

I'm currently trying to install Ubuntu 13.04... That is a challenge with the Y400, since it has the GT 750M. THAT pisses me off.

 

I have never heard of any laptop that exhausts heat from the keyboard area. Imagine what that would do to your hands while gaming. I do know that some machines will suck in cold air from that area so closing the lid would affect the cooling on them. For example, the ASUS G74SX has air intakes along the top of the keyboard near the speakers.

 

Is there a size limitation on the mSATA drive? I notice Crucial.com not suggesting anything larger than 32 gb.

 

I think that only relevant if you are using the msata as a cache drive. If you are installing an OS to it... ignore that.

I have a 120gb in mine. And other do too, some even bigger. No problems.

 

I am considering using it as a cache drive actually. I got a 64 gn cache drive on my M17xR4 and it works wonders with my HDD nearing real usage speeds of my SSD.

 

Hi,

I just got my Y400 today with 16gb ssd as a cache drive.
What is the brand of your 16gb ssd that it comes with?
Mine is Samsung, but i heard that someone has a Sandisk one....
Does lenovo switch the 16gb ssd to a Samsung one from now on?
I also noticed that the transfer rate of my Samsung 16 gb ssd is 3gb/s,
But the transfer rate of the Sandisk 16gb ssd is 6gb/s....
Does this matter when you use it as a cache drive to boost up the 1TB Sata which has a transfer rate of 3gb/s only?

Thanks!

 

When I say "exhaust heat through the keyboard," it means that some amount of heat is expelled through the keyboard (due to the simple physics that heat rises). And this principle is understood by laptop engineers. I am not implying that laptop engineers intentionally put a fan / heatsink to intentionally push heat up through the keyboard.

It's just like how an automobile engineer understands that heat rises, so some amount of heat will flow upwards from the engine through the hood of the car. It does not mean that the automobile engineer will intentionally design the engine compartment to push heat through the hood of the car.

 

As of today, the highest-capacity mSATA drives you can buy are 256GB for ~$210 ( Crucial M4 256GB SSD on Amazon)

When it comes to real-world practicality, a Lenovo Y400 / Y500 owner is probably going to do one of three things:
1) Buy the laptop with the mSATA slot completely unoccupied, for cost-saving purposes.
2) Buy the laptop with the factory pre-installed 16GB mSATA drive as a cache, for cost-performance balance.
3) Buy the laptop and install an aftermarket 256GB mSATA SSD (and keep the 2.5" 1TB mechanical HDD) to get the highest performance & storage that they can get on this laptop.

In reality, you will find very rare edge-cases where someone will conicidentally have a 32GB mSATA SSD lying around to put into this laptop. Or, in cases where someone pays the extra premium to get a Lenovo Y400 / Y500 with a 16GB SSD cache pre-installed, but also pays the extra premium to install their own aftermarket 2.5" SSD.

 

I guess I am one of the rare cases. I got the 1TB + 16GB SSD and now am replacing the 1TB drive with a 512 SSD. I only got that configuration ont he Y400 because on the first day of the 750M sales they had it marked $50 cheaper than it should have been. In my time with the cache drive, I did notice faster boot times.

 

I just noticed the Lenovo website has been updated to let people know the display on the Y400 is an anti-glare type and on the Y500 is a glossy wedge.

 

I finally got to test Tomb Raider last night. (Bought for only 20 bucks and was able to activate it on Steam)

High Preset (Benchmark Tool) ~55-60 fps.
High Preset (In game) ~about the same with a rare drop to 38fps depending on the environment.

High Preset with Tessellation turned on I got about a stable 34-38 and dipping to 29 in some areas.

 

I called BS on the Y500 having an "anti-glare" screen as it was advertised on the website and turns out it is indeed still a glossy screen. I call BS on the Y400 as well but we'll see. Make sure to let us know if the screen is glossy or matte when you receive your Y400.

 

My screen looks exactly the same as my previous 650m Y400. I saw no difference and its still glossy. I think you are right. I call BS too. Its definitely not matte on mine. Unless they just made the update but I highly doubt it.

 

Pretty egregious typo if you ask me and they did it for both the Y500 and Y400. Bait-and-switch is not cool.

I looked up the LCD panels Lenovo sources for these two machines in the Y400/Y500 hardware manual. All the ones I could get information on were glossy. The manual is dated September 2012 but somehow I highly doubt they've changed suppliers and are using a matte one now...

 

Just replaced the 1TB drive with a 512 SSD. So fast! Getting the bottom off was tricky with all the tabs. I think I got them all snapped in but I might have missed some. Screwing it back on should be good enough right even if I missed a few snaps?

 

Yup.

As long as the bottom panel stays on, then it's doing its job!

 

I guess they had my exact config in stock because it has already shipped via UPS

 

I wanted to buy a Y400, but all the current models come with Windows 8. if i install Win 7, does the laptop come with a Windows 8 CD or is there a way to extract it from a hidden partition or something?

 

You could always just keep the stock installation intact, then create a new partition of the correct format, and install Windows 7 on the new partition. Or, clone what's on the hard drive now if you have an external drive to store it on.

 

The problem with this is that I don't know if the drivers work on Windows 7. Especially the 750m drivers because Nvidia hasn't released them on their website.

 

is it possible to replace the lenovo y400 standard display with a better one?
if so how much would one cost?
still debating if i should buy it cause of the crap display

 

No, it is not possible.

 

You don't want to replace the display. If you want a higher-quality display, you're better off just buying a different laptop than trying to replace the one screen in the Lenovo Y400. It's going to cost a decent amount (in the $150 and higher range), cost you several hours of your time, be a relatively difficult process to research & perform (even for a highly skilled computer geek).

Most importantly, it will void your warranty. I don't mean "void your warranty" as in you're violating some kind of contract-fine-print of EULA. I mean that your warranty will be useless. Because any kind of repair that needs to be done to your laptop that you cannot do yourself will most likely require a motherboard replacement. And even then, in the best case scenario, Lenovo sends you a motherboard that you replace yourself. In the worst case scenario, you send your entire system back to Lenovo for a complete system swap. And when either situation happens, you'll go through a considerable amount of trouble because of your custom display panel you installed.

 

This. There are many laptops in the sea, so go catch another one if the 1080p is such a big deal.

 

Good analogy.

It's easier to get a new girlfriend, than to fix a crazy-in-the-head broken one.

 

Couldn't of been said better.

 

I once heard someone say something about "fish-in-the-sea; go-catch-another-one" that would work here too.

 

BUT there aren't much laptop that's 14" with good gpu or light as this. The only one i can think of are sony s13 and alienware m14x (but this one are too heavy and screen is crap)

 

The y500 is what a pound more? Solution.

 

its just that my lap top is 3 1/2 years old and it has a 16,4 screen 1600x900
was just wondering if its gonna suck to go back to 1366x768 in 2013