Lenovo Y470 and Y570 Official Owners Thread

@ DanVan

If you don't want to deal with downloading the Windows 7 original ISO, re-installing the OS, programs and drivers then follow these instructions:

1) Make sure you have at least 3 blank DVD's for burning factory restore recovery discs and a small Phillips screw driver.

2) Once you receive the laptop, gone though default setup procedures into Windows and connected the laptop to the internet. Download all updates for Windows (Repeat in necessary to make sure you get all the important Windows updates).

3) Once Windows has all it's updates, press the OneKey Recovery button next to the Power button on the top left side of the laptop. This will bring up the Lenovo OneKey Recovery application, using the program make default factory restore discs (2 discs are required for the complete process).

4) Once you've successfully burned the default factory restore discs, you can now physically remove you're default mechanical hard drive. To do so: a) Make sure the power adapter is unplugged, remove the laptop battery and then with a small Philips screw driver remove the bottom panel screws and then the panel itself. b) Once the panel is removed, remove the screws holding the hard drive then remove the hard drive itself by pulling on the plastic tab up and outwards. At this point, you will need to remove the bracket on the hard drive (screws involved), then mount the bracket unto your new 2.5" SSD, then install/screw the physical SSD drive with bracket back into the laptop and re-close/screw the bottom panel back on.

5) Once you've got the SSD installed, all you need to do now is run the default factory restore discs and restore the laptop back to it's factory settings.

I'd still recommend downing the original Windows 7 ISO and reinstalling Windows, programs and drivers as fresh if you're up for the task but default factory restore will suffice if you don't want through all the trouble of a fresh re-install.

PS. By installing the SSD drive you do not in anyway void your warranty unless you physical damage your motherboard or other critical components that would not allow the laptop to boot during the hard drive swapping process (which is really hard to do) and even then you probably can still get a replacement laptop from Lenovo if anything goes wrong.

**The above hard drive swap method also works for upgrading to larger mechanical hard drives and Momentus Hybrid hard drives . **

Let us know how it turns out if all goes well on your Y470 and SSD order.

 

@Nemix77
You really went above and beyond! That guide is simply perfect, it will help me and I hope it helps others. + 1
Thank you guys so much, I cannot wait to get my y470, been shopping laptops for the past 2months and nothing right now comes close to the power/price range of the y470

 

Always glad to help if I can and welcome to the Lenovo IdeadPad NRB community thread.

 

Great to to be here, I hope to contribute to this thread when I get my y470. It makes me happy the 470/570 has such a big following.
Does anyone have recommendations on a cheap usb 3?

 

External with hard drive or external enclosure?

If it's a USB 3.0 enclosure for the spare hard drive that comes with your Y470 then here are two I'd recommend but not cheap:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817620030

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817620033

What's makes these enclosures unique is that you can swap out the the hard drive inside the enclosure very easily without the need for tools plus the adapter works with any SATA drive 1.8", 2.5", 3.5" and SSD's.

You might be able to find the same INEO enclosure models elsewhere for less or you can look on eBay or DealExtreme for something a bit cheaper.

 

Oops sorry should have been more specific. Just a jump drive, around 8gb. I know I've seen them for like $8

 

Flash drives:

Newegg.com - Kingston DataTraveler 100 Generation 2 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model DT100G2/8GBZ

Newegg.com - Transcend JetFlash 500 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Blue) Model TS8GJF500

Anyone would do, the Kingston is a bit faster but the Transcend is smaller and easier retractable design.

If you care about speed than get this, I have one myself:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220252

 

Those are nice, but would usb 3.0 make a big difference?

 

In short yes, USB 3.0 flash drives would provides better read and write speeds but since you're only getting a 8GB USB 3.0 model only the read speeds would be better (useful only if you use the drive for OS or running program off the flash drive).

Where USB 3.0 really shines is with flash drives beyond 32GB and hard drive enclosures because the drives have write and read speeds above 30mbps.

Here's a good USB 3.0 flash:

Newegg.com - Patriot Supersonic Xpress 8GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model PSF8GXPUSB

When compared to the Patriot XT 8GB USB 2.0, you're really only getting better reads speeds 50mb vs 30mb (USB 2.0 cap). However, you're getting 2 years warranty with the USB 3.0 model and Limited Lifetime (5 years) warranty with USB 2.0 model.

It's up to you really, if I had the choice the probably go for the USB 3.0 model just because it's USB 3.0 but really any would do if you're not looking for speed and newest technology.

Another USB 3.0 flash drive 16GB the sweet spot for both speeds and price on USB 3.0 flash:

Newegg.com - Transcend JetFlash 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model TS16GJF700

 

Yea before the HDD prices shot through the roof, I was able to snag a 500GB WD My Passport for $50. It is USB 3.0 and make a huge difference in speeds compared to when it is running only 2.0. That was another selling point for me and this laptop.

 

Great to know! Thank you, I will just keep this 16GB sandisk my dad got me for Xmas. EDITED for autocorrect

 

EDIT:: never mind

 

Anyone know if you can set certain folders to back themselves up in the onekey recovery partition so you wouldn't lose them in a restore?

 

hey guys i want to get the y570 with 900 dollar budget and have a couple of questions...

which one should i get? i edit videos with after effects/sony vegas and do some photoshop work, play games, and watch videos.
does anyone have overheating issues with Y570 or Geforce 555m at all? cause the laptop i have right now is crap. GPU temperature is 80 at idled and sometimes the fan turns on randomly when im not doing anything which bumps it up to 93. also when playing games my FPs drops to 10- and i have to wait for about 5 minutes to go back to normal FPS. probably the heaviest game i will be playing is NBA 2k/TF2. so i was just wondering do you guys get smooth FPS for 2-3 hours of gaming?
does the fan go off at random times? eg just surfing through the web, not watching videos.
i heard in other websites and reviews that optimus is a bi*** and sometimes it doesn't activate. should i be worried about this?
where would the best place to get the y570? newegg has it pretty cheap but i looked at lenovo website and they got some discounts, do they trick you or something? lol
thanks.

 

Hi. New Y470 owner here.

I have the i7 2670QM, 4G DDR3, nVidia 550m version. My unit is only four days old so I haven't really explored the extent of its capabilities. I have yet to install games and video/photo editing programs as well. So far the only things I've done are to delete/disable some bloatware, install AV and other essential software and watch movies. I also made sure to tweak the right settings to make Win 7 faster (managing start-up, disabling index search etc..)

I am slightly bothered (and slowly getting frustrated) by the relatively slow boot time -- an average of 40-45 secs -- though one time it managed a decent 35 secs. A coupla times I got a 60sec boot time which is VERY frustrating. This has happened repeatedly even after optimizing the system.

Perhaps I raised my expectations too high?! But c'mon! My Acer Veriton desktop (dual core E5500) regularly boots in 30-35 secs and feels snappier in opening programs, pictures, folders etc. With my specs I was hoping an average of at least 25-30 secs or is that asking too much? I mean this is an i7 for cryin out loud. Oddly, my WEI is around 4.9-5.0 which is pretty decent(?)

I'd like to hear from other Y470 users who have the same specs as mine. Are the numbers/figures I'm getting normal? Any other suggestions on how to improve my unit's performance? (inc boot time)

I don't have plans to upgrade to a 7200rpm HDD or buy a 64GB SSD in the near future (except maybe upgrade the RAM to 6 or 8G) so I'll have to deal with my stock specs for the time being.

Will certainly appreciate comments or suggestions from you kind peeps here.

Thanks!

 

Hi All,

I just ordered the 470p i7 2670QM, 4G DDR3, nVidia 550m version.

I'm wondering if I should upgrade the ram to 8gb or leave it and just install an 80gb sdd? Or should I do both? I will be using it mostly to watch movies and play games. Also is 80GB a good size for an SDD? My plan was to install windows and major programs on it but have enough space left over to have up to two games on there, deleting and replacing them when completed. (Someone mentioned that fragmentation may be a problem on SDD drives - is my game storage plan therefore a bad one?)

If I upgrade the Ram should I get the same 4gb ddr3 1333 or the faster ddr3 1600? Also is it easy to install the ram myself...I am in no way a hands on techy person but can follow diagrams

Thanks for any advice.

 

@merderoms

Boot times everything to do with harddrive speed, no one of getting around that? I'm assuming your desktop has a 7200rpm hd, he'll maybe even A 10400. I would suggest a Ssd upgrade which would get you boot time of 10-20 seconds. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please

 

Boot times are dependant on hard drive speeds, yes, given that the RAM and CPU don't bottleneck it. Most people often overlook the hard drive as part of the process though. Loading time is determined by how fast the hard drive can feed the RAM, and subsequently the CPU, data, and a SSD does it much faster. My desktop, for example, with an overclocked i7 920 and an Intel 320 SSD gets to the logon screen within 9 seconds. With a WD Velociraptor (note that this drive spins at 10,000rpm as opposed to the more common 7,200rpm), it used to be at least 23 seconds.

 

I would go for the i7 model with 8GB ram. I have had no issues with heat on this machine and I game a lot on overclocked settings. I keep my fan on highest setting at all times, but while browsing and what not, it rarely speeds up. If you keep the fan on Standard, you wont notice it. Optimus has been nothing but great for me. Even if it doesnt automatically detect, you can add a game/program to it. Real easy. I got mine from the Lenovo Outlet.

 

I am selling an old Dell laptop tomorrow afternoon and will have $120 to spend on an msata SSD. What should I get? Intel 40GB? Bulletproof 64GB? I can goto Microcenter and pick up a 30GB OCZ Nocti...but it is OCZ lol.

 

Just wanted to throw my two cents out there as a new Y470 owner. Picked up the i7-2670QM, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HDD drive model for $750 USD. PHENOMENAL deal for the money, the laptop literally costs less than the sum of its parts. It feels nearly as fast as my desktop i7 most of the time, though I have not done a lot of gaming on it so far (Minecraft and Bastion are the only things installed). I have not experienced any of the issues other people seem to be reporting, so I'd like to share my performance tips as someone who has reinstalled Windows more times than I can keep track of:

1. ALWAYS do a clean install of Windows. Even if you uninstall everything from the factory install, there is a good chance files or even running services will remain on the system.
2. Get as many drivers as you can from the component manufacturer, NOT Lenovo. I found that many Lenovo's drivers were out of date from what the component manufacturer had released. The important ones are: Intel (Chipset, Wifi, HD Graphics), Nvidia (GT 550M), Broadcom (Ethernet), Realtek (Audio)
3. Only install what you need. The only Lenovo software I installed was the energy management software.
4. (Optional) Tweak services and startup programs. Windows 7 is pretty good about disabling unneeded services compared with Vista, but I still get rid of a few things: disable system restore (I make my own backups), disable indexing on drives that don't need it, disable windows defender, and tweak the hell out of startup programs in msconfig. Do you really need the a bunch of updaters running in the background? No, no you don't.

 

Well, it's always come to this with laptops, unexplainable SSID blindness to your own router. Anyone have things I can be trying? This is why I hate and avoid wireless networks at all costs.

Network is running 5.0Ghz, a and n, with WPA2 and WPA AES security.

 

thanks for the reply man! do you think overclocking is necessary and worth it? if so what program should i download?

 

OC'ing is not worth it and extra risky on laptop platforms. It's like asking, can I overclock a Dell (the answer is no, unless you want to risk burning out the motherboard. those low-grade boards burn out quick )

 

haha thanks, i have no knowledge of overclocking so yeah.

 

Overclocking is not needed at all. If you have been doing it for years like I have, it becomes an addiction. As long as you keep track of your temperatures, you generally will not have any issues.

 

I believe that our stock wifi adapter only operates in the 2.4GHz range.

 

I know I keep posting in here with Qs, but I did the factory recovery discs with one key, and it only burned 2 DVDs and said 100% complete. It says it needed 3 and I thought I heard people on here say it would take 3, is that right? I am confused.

 

My Y470 took three. I created the factory restore directly after I got the machine running. Here is the rundown of the files they contain.

Disk1
File Folders:
BOOT
EFI
SERVICING
SOURCES

Files:
Backup.000 through Backup.038
Backup.wsi
Backup0000.dsi
backupInfo.oki
BOOTCTG.BIN
BOOTIMG.BIN
Bootmgr
Lang

Disk2
Files:
Backup.039 through Backup.080
Backup.wsi
Backup0000.dsi

Disk3
Files:
Backup.081 through Backup.108
Backup.wsi
Backup0000.dsi
And one file with a number code, containing 0Kbs
HTH

Cheers!

DragonRider

 

Hmm mine:

Disc 1:
File Folders:
BOOT
EFI
SERVICING
SOURCES

Files:
Backup.000 through Backup.038
Backup.wsi
Backup0000.dsi
backupInfo.oki
BOOTCTG.BIN
BOOTIMG.BIN
Bootmgr
Lang

Disc 2:
Backup.039 through Backup.78
Backup.wsi
Backup0000.dsi
And one file with a number code, containing 0Kbs

Could you possibly post your info.ini contents?

 

On my i570...

I just went and disabled the smart power-saving hard disk setting. I went through and made the changes to the registry to re-enable the parked cores. I rebooted, then reinstalled the 285.62 video driver. I rebooted, ran 3dmark06, and my score went down 2k points.

What the heck?

 

How do you re-enable the parked cores in registry (ultra noob question)? ...specifics please...

 

Disable CPU Core Parking For Multi-Core Processors | Faster 7 Episode 20 - YouTube

3DMark06 just jumped 500 points in another run. I had ~9700 a few days ago. I'm down to 8200. I changed all the settings in this video to 0 in the registry.

 

I personally would leave the parked cores alone. They are activated when used. I have 9991 points stock and 11412 overclocked to 900/1750. I also have the smart power-saving hdd setting on.

 

wildcard, can you go through that video and tell me what your default setting for those registry settings are then? Or someone else?

 

my ValueMin is 0 and ValueMax is 100. Even now I have 2 cores parked (CPU 1 and 3). But once I load up BF3, all 4 are working.

 

There are multiple sets of keys with that string, did you check them all or they all are 0 and 100?

 

Yep all of them. It is done for a reason to save power. But once you start using an intensive program, they will do their job.

[XtremeHardware.It] Core Parking on Windows 7

Check that link to read up on it and there is a lot of differing opinions as to the correct way to disable core parking and whether it actually does anything so...I would just leave it alone.

 

Tried those settings, brought 3DMark 06 to 7k. I restored to a point yesterday before I started changing stuff and it's 7400. What did I do that brought it down so low? I was getting 9700 this weekend.

 

you sure you have the 285.62 drivers and optimus is working correctly? You do not have some Antivirus or other background programs going on? I dunno what the issue could be.

You sure you have it on High Performance energy profile? I suggest reinstalling Lenovo's energy management software.

 

Im going to wait till the intel 320 120gb goes back on sale, it should be around 120-130 on sale. 5 year warranty is enough to satisfy me at that price

 

yea but I do not want to lose my 750gb HDD. Needs to be msata. And I already decided on the MyDigitalSSD. Best performance for the money. The 30GB OCZ is junk, the Intel 40gb is no where near as good as the 80gb, but too expensive.

 

Just recieved my y570 today and its awesome! Everything I wanted and more! I'm not exactly a screen junky, but I think the screen is more than adaquate for its size, and the option to export 1080p to an external should cover anything in that area. Off to go art it up but just had to say great laptop and thanks to everyone on this forum for the knowledge base they've given us!

 

It looks like you don't have as many backup files as I do. Did you create the factory restore disks, after you had "dumped" some of Lenovo's bloatware? As I've said, I created mine, directly after I started up my machine, on it's initial boot. I bet that's the reason you don't have as many disks as me.

I don't delete any of the bloatware. I only customize the start menu, and get rid of the desktop icons. Even though I don't use Lenovo's R.I.C., or "smile" dock, I "might" in the future.

I still have 363 GBs free on my C: drive. I'm such an old codger. I started out in this industry working on an IBM PC using DOS in the 80's, with 5.5" floppy drives! To have such an abundance of drive space, seems like a dream to me. :laugh:

Here is the info.ini file. I don't know what you can tell from the information in this file.

[Build_Info]
SR_No=PRC090401-02
Setup=13522
Branch=Lenovo
MUIXML=090527_LenovoNB
OLReg_Skin=v090120
OLREG_RC=-
PhaseII_RC=-
Lang=090827_OKR7_x64
Help=090924_LenovoNB
TrialDlg_RC=-
Version=1628
DisplayBuildNumber=1628
TrialDlg=-
kernel=101628_Lenovo_NB_x64
SystemRepair=-
Factory=Lenovo_Factory_101628_NB
PhaseII_RDdata=-
PhaseII_PEImg=-
MUIStartMenu=090513_X64
PEImg=104028_Lenovo_NB
OLREG=-
SR_Ver=5.60.162801

DragonRider

 

Hi everyone,
I just recieved my y570 and have to say I am a little disappointed. I really like some of the features (msata, esata, 555m) but I think the build quality is a little lacking. I was a little disappointed with the amount of plastic used in the case. The three keys on the left hand side (shift,capslk, and tab) all seem to be loose. My biggest complaint is the battery wobbles around a lot. I read on an amazon that a reviewer had this same issue. Is this normal, or did I get a lemon? I am wondering because if I did I am sending this back before the 21 day period is up.

Thanks in advance

 

I don't have the patience to figure out what I already screwed up. I'm only 4-5 days into this new install, so I'm going to run the restore partition and reinstall windows.

 

Wow, I have no such problems on mine. You may want to return it for a new one.

 

Hmm I think I'm actually going to hold off on an ssd till I can find a reliable one(read warranty). => 120 that is atleast 1$/gb. Is that asking to much?

 

can any1 else confirm that they had no overheating problems after 3+ months of gaming? im seeing threads that they people are getting overheating problems in about a month of gamin so idk. its kind of discouraging but im really interested in this laptop. can someone tell me what their temp for GPU and core? btw the games i play arent that heavy, its like medium-heavy.

 

Just completely reinstalled Win7 on my y570. Set Lenovo energy to high performance. 3DMark06 on fresh install was 7600.

Installed 285.62 drivers, changed default graphics to 555M and default physX to recommended setting....again 7600.

One thing I noticed searching through the thread's old posts was the lack of tangible information regarding benchmarks and gaming. Most comments on gaming were of, "It ran really well at these and those settings." Even a search for 3dmark or 3dmark06 comes up with nothing.

Maybe I'll try reinstalling the video drivers.