Lenovo Y470 and Y570 Official Owners Thread

Interesting - Any attempt/luck at stabilizing the cable and mitigating the recurrence of display artifacts?

 

While you're at it, could you post some pictures of the LVDS cable or tell us if it has all 40 pins? That would tell us if the y470 supports higher resolution screens, which many people want (including myself). I started taking mine apart when I put more ram in it, but I chickened out before I got that far because I can't afford to break something when I'm leaving for college in a couple days.

 

I'm not sure if anyone here plays Minecraft, but maybe you guys can help anyway.

Minecraft runs great, at around 100FPS on Far and Fancy graphics, but every once in awhile my game freezes up for around 5-10 seconds. This isn't a huge deal since this only happens every 5-10 minutes, but it is a little annoying.

I updated to the NVIDIA video card drivers that are hosted on the Lenovo website. Are those the most recent ones? I don't really want to go back to the default drivers, because my FPS went up a lot after updating.

Thanks!

 

NVIDIA just released new drivers 280.26 on their website. I've been using it since last night. No bench marks but they seem to be working well

 

Definitely not my issue, screen location does not matter. My PC cannot even run Minecraft in it's current status. I cannot run any 3D benchmarks or Windows Experience Index without my PC locking up completely and crashing.

 

Was suggested getting the Y470 after I made thread needing a laptop for college. Any huge negatives out there or other suggestions? I can get the i5 for around $674.00 before tax.

 

I have the same one as you are thinking of ordering, and I have had no problems with it yet. I can't say anything about the battery life while taking notes and such since I haven't started school yet, but in general the battery life has been good.

Also, the gaming performance and overall speed is really good. I can run pretty much anything that I throw at it.

The only problem I had was that my music sounded pretty bad, but I just fixed that by changing the surround sound settings from movie to music. Now it sounds great.

Everything about this computer is awesome! At least for me.

 

Thanks if no one else suggests anything, I'll probably get it. How often do these go on sale though? Because I see that it says Weekly Sale and I used a 10% off as well. But I see that people say 20% off are common too.

 

Anyone mind sharing a 10% or 20% off coupon code?

 

logicbuy usually has the 10% coupon... the 20% coupon is when lenovo puts it up... I got mine with the 20% back in the july 4 weekend sale

 

I can't seem to find this option in the nvidia control panel, only specifying specific programs to run nvidia. Am I looking in the wrong spot?

 

Thanks, I downloaded and installed that driver, and now my Minecraft problem is fixed.

 

So i just received my y570 and so far it seems good, fast and doesn't overheat. I do have a few complaints though. The screen is a little flimsy and seems very fragile. It is also a glossy screen so you can see your reflection which is a little annoying. Also the keyboard seems a little cheap and the layout gets a little getting use to. and no back lit keyboard so...

 

The top of the line y470 i7/blu-ray, 8gb DDR3, etc. was just $839 yesterday. It'll be back down their again this month. Patience...

 

I haven't seen anyone mention any problems wiping the drive and installing a clean W7 install. Is there any issues, such as disabled proprietary features? Or can you just re-install all the movie mode,etc. (assuming that it isn't just built in)

 

Not advisable absent "a lot" of expertise and time.

 

intalling power management and one key theater software will enable the features on a clean install.

 

NVIDIA released a new Verde driver a couple days ago, I downloaded it since release but have not installed it yet. I'm almost certain the drivers will work with the Y470/570 GT 550/555M because I reported the problem with the older drivers not installing on my Y570 about 2 weeks ago with NVIDIA.

Link: NVIDIA DRIVERS 280.26 WHQL

 

I get the exact same issue on i5 4gb ram with javaw.exe activated in optimus. This is with 64 bit java.

 

Try updating to the newest driver from NVIDIA here. It fixed the problem for me!

 

I was wrong, it's not the cable. I didn't look into as close as I should have.

It's worse. The left hinge is right below half of the Samsung K4W1G1646E-HC11 gDDR3 ICs (4 out of 8 total, two on each side of the motherboard). Any flex or movement from a loose hinge will put some force on the sticky pads between the hinge screws and the ICs. This explains the artifacts I see when adjusting the angle of the lid. Overall, this is an awful design choice. Practically all of the rigidity of the laptop comes from the electronic components that are fastened to it.

 

Just received my Y570 from China yesterday and I am missing the mSATA connector on the motherboard. The pad is there but the connector wasn't soldered on. Crap!

 

Well, i just got off the phone with Lenovo again. I have to return this laptop and get a refund and then buy it again. For some reason odd reason, they can't just send me a new one after I return this one. First they said, "Oh, we don't know who we sent your laptop to, so we'll just have to give you a refund", why would i want a laptop that someone probably has already used to begin with. So, i said "Can't you just send me a replacement" and somehow they can't do that.
Thanks for the hassle Lenovo >.<
AND, i had gotten a special price on this one, and i don't know if i can get that price again(I got an extra 10% off for buying a 2 year warranty). And it was a hassle to even order it to explain the whole price match guarantee thing they have TO THEIR OWN SALES REP.

I don't know if i even want to bother to try buying another one.

 

Salwin2: Is it missing the mSata connector, or is it missing the TV tuner mini-PCIe? The TV tuner is under the little panel, the mSata is under the big panel.

 

Are you guys sure the new drivers released from NVIDIA are compatible? Because it says on the notes "Notebooks supporting Hybrid Power technology with Intel chipsets are not supported by this release." Just curious.

Also, i've been getting stuttering on l4d2 which is very annoying. I'm dling sc2 now and I'll post results when it finishes. Anyone else getting these problems?

 

It worked for me

 

@ gifdog

I think OP is missing the TV Tuner mini-pcie, I'm unsure but I thin only the RapidDrive versions come with the TV Tuner mini-pcie soldered on.

 

The stuttering most likely has less to do with the graphics card, and more to do with l4d2.

I am a l4d2 aficionado and I know a couple of things that cause + can solve stuttering.


First, make sure you update to the most recent graphics driver.



Then go to your settings and make sure your shader detail is set to "Medium" or "High". If it is set to "Low", then the game won't allow multicore rendering to be enabled. Enable multicore rendering.

If that doesn't fix your problems, the command "cl_forcepreload 1" might do it. If you already have "cl_forcepreload 1" on try "cl_forcepreload 0" (some computers like one or the other better).



And to top off all that, for some computers, multicore rendering causes stutters! So you can disable that and see if it's any better...

All in all, l4d2 is a pretty glitchy game. It's def not the graphic card though if you don't get stuttering in other games.



Oh and you can do -lv in your launch options to improve fps (if needed).


EDIT:
And something else that can cause less frequent stuttering is the Steam overlay/Steam going on/offline. If you set your status to offline while in game this would fix this potential issue.



EDIT2:: if the stuttering still persists... try playing in window mode.

 

Is there any way to turn down the sensitivity of the trackpad's two-finger scrolling?

Whenever i start scrolling, it seems to 'snap' to the top or bottom of the page... I've turned down the scroll wheel settings to 1-line increments, didn't seem to change the behavior. I've tried the latest drivers from lenovo.com, as well as the latest generic drivers from synaptic, neither changes behavior...

Thoughts?

 

Go into the the Synaptics Touchpad settings, either by notification icon or Control Panel > Mouse.

You'll be able to changed and turn off in the settings.

 

Ok, another ssd question, is there enough room to raid two ssd's in the hdd bay?

 

RAID two SDD's can be done with a caddy if you do not use your optical drive. And if you have money left to spare you can still get a mSATA SSD as a third not on RAID.

Edit:

Personally, I'm waiting on the Intel 'Paint Creek' mSATA to come out. It'll probably be 20% cheaper than the Intel 310 currently on the market due to 25nm chips being used.

 

Thank you Nemix77. So I can raid, but not in the hdd bay and I would have to remove my optical drive too. Well that won't work for me.

 

Just to clarify, mSATA SSD's do not use the Intel RST driver thus you cannot RAID a mSATA SSD with a 2.5" SSD.

The only way to do so is to use a caddy which makes you loose you optical drive or use a eSATA SSD which defeats the purpose of RAID if you have an external eSATA drive with you all the time (accidental disconnects will result in permanent data loss).

You can check which SATA connections use the Intel driver by going into the Intel Rapid Storage Utility and mSATA is not listed thus not using the Intel driver when using mSATA storage devices.

PS. This is the theory of how to get a RAID setup if the chipset on the Y470/Y570 indeed supports RAID configurations, I'm unsure and un-aware of anyone who has done this ATM. ***Try at your own risk***

 

i am also getting some hissing feedback on my earbuds/headphones (Y570). the audio is great but when its silent there is definite hissing...

 

This and the other reports are confirming the fact that this is indeed a problem on both the Y470 and Y570.

Do you guys want to team up and send Lenovo a message or something? I think if we act together, they might pay more attention and officially address the issue?

My guess is that there's terrible shielding from the CPU and trackpad.

 

I'm very close to getting a y470, but I'm not sure if I want the i5 or the i7...

$730 for i5 vs $900 for i7

$170 for better cpu, 250gb more, and bluray .... And the latter two aren't that important to me.

CHOICES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hey guys, just got my Y470 on Thursday. i7/8GB/750 HDD

Observations: Music quality sucks off of the headphone jack. I have no idea why this is considering the boatload of extra crap that's advertising this machine as an entertainment machine.

Screen is more than fine. No problems at all.

I like the look and feel of it. Also, best speakers in a laptop I've ever heard, hands down. Better than the Beats on the HPs.

Some questions:

1) Where exactly is the mSata connector (if there is one)? I have a little empty slot on the left side of the bottom and the bigger cover that covers the HDD, RAM, etc.
2) What mSata has proven to work best?
3) Where can I find a list of the latest drivers? The Lenovo driver finder didn't work for me.
4) Has anyone been able to get their Windows Experience rating with the 550?

 

I had the exact same problem as you with the music when I first got my Y470. Here's how you fix it:
1. Go to Control Panel
2. Go to Hardware and Sound
3. Go to Sound
4. Click Speakers and then click Properties
5. Click the SRS Premium Surround Sound tab
6. Change the setting from Movie to Music

Tell me if that works!

I'm afraid I can't really answer your other questions though.

 

@Kobefan1991

Go to NVIDIA downloads site for the latest NVIDIA Verde driver, all other drivers and work fine with stock.

They are many mSATA SSD's on the market, no one is here to tell which works the best cause if it's mSATA it'll work.

Where the mSATA sot is has been talked to death on the thread, you just need to go back and read some of the posts.

I don't see why you cannot get a WIE rating out of the box with your Y470, all other members have not had any problems.

As posted above...please review the thread before asking the same question, there's plenty of info on this thread and all of the questions you're asking have been answered on many occasions.

PS. If you need more information and answers, head over to the Lenovo forum and browse though their threads for Q&A's.

 

I have to agree that this thread is getting bloated with repeat questions - ie: screen quality, mSATA/re-installing Windows, etc... I'd like to see this thread become more useful to people who already own 4/570's

 

Bios modding for changing WiFi Card here and Google Translate

It's working, changed default Intel WiFi Link 1000 BGN with Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230.

Intel WiFi Link 1000 BGN

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0084&SUBSYS_13158086&REV_00
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0084&SUBSYS_13158086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0084&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0084&CC_0280

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0091&SUBSYS_52018086&REV_34
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0091&SUBSYS_52018086
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0091&CC_028000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0091&CC_0280

 

I've not experience and problems upgrading the WiFi on my Y570 to 5Ghz, if you want to know which cards are compatible view the Hardware and Maintenance manual: http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/sa/en/Guides/Guide_list.aspx?CategoryID=867235

5Ghz cards that are compatible providing you buy genuine OEM WiFi cards and not some fake knock off from eBay:

Intel 6205/6250
Atheros HB97 (AR5B97)
Realtek RT5397 (3x3 MiMO)
Broadcom BCM43227 (I think this one is 5Ghz)

PS. It's pointless upgrading to a Intel 6230 cause the Y470/Y570 already has a built in Bluetooth adapter why would anyone need another and have to go though a BIOS mod to get the card working???

If anything a BIOS mod for a Intel 6300 would make more sense since it uses 3x3 MiMO with additional antenna.

 

for my y470, Intel 6230 isn't working without modding. (BIOS v2.06 - IQY0206AX64)

 

You shouldn't have bought a Intel 6230 in the first place, why would you need a 6230 when the 6205 is fully compatible, cheaper, does the same without built-in Bluetooth which your Y470 already has...rookie mistake.

So for anyone else reading and want to upgrade their WiFi card for whatever reason please check out the Hardware and Maintenance manual for the Y470/Y570 posted above before upgrading to make sure the card is fully compatible.

Make sure you get a genuine OEM card from reputable or trusted seller or else chances are the card will not work correctly even if it's listed as a compatible card in the Hardware and Maintenance manual.

 

Already have-it...before the y470 ). And if I have-it, why do I need to buy a compatible one if the bios can be changed?

 

It's not like you cannot re-sell your card. You just chose to keep it and try to look up for a BIOS mod, it's pointless posting such a link to a BIOS mod in this thread which may cause others go out and buy a Intel 6230 thinking it's the only 5GHz card compatible with a mod.

By modding the BIOS not only are you voiding your warranty if Lenovo finds out but you may possibly run into unknown complications in the future.

It's a risk your taking that other members should not follow...

 

OK, got the point...I don't want to mislead; It's possible, can be done with almost any cards, but it's safe to stick to the compatible parts. BIOS modding is not recommended, but this kind of info could be useful for someone. On his own risk . Better safe than sorry.

 

That's more like it...I totally agree.

No grudges or hard feeling my friend.

 

I can't play CoD Black Ops? It keeps stuttering... Am I doing something wrong? I installed the very latest Nvidia driver (not the one on lenovo). It says that GPU is turned on for CoD.