Lenovo Y50 Owners and Information Thread

First impressions?

 

Hey, guys. My Y50 UHD version just arrived yesterday and I must say I was disappointed originally by the 48hz lock, but as eugeneNYC showed us, it's proven to be a software lock. So hopefully there's hope, I hope. The display is gorgeous and the viewing angles are spectacular. The battery life, for me, has been around three hours on browsing and watching flash videos. The machine screams performance and is the slimmest, lightest laptop I have ever owned. There were some annoying scaling issues with applications like Steam, Teamspeak, etc, however.

 

The actual Lenovo box is 17.5" W x 13" D x 5.5" T.

Mine was shipped inside of another box, and that outer box was 18.5" x 15" x 6.5".

Hope that helps.

 

Ok, just tested it. You were right, if its a dark scenario, and you move further to the side, it is very noticable. But I dont see how you would ever notice while gaming, since you have to move a lot (more than just readjusting your seating position) and from there, you would not be able to play with mouse & keyboard comfortablely anymore. I can see how it might be a problem when watching a movie and you change your position alot (from sitting right infront of the laptop to laying down besides the laptop or something like that) but once again, this is not noticable as long as you are not extremely trying to.

 

As requested, I am posting with my keyboard RMA results. My issue was that I kept getting missed keys (i.e. normal typing had many letters not show up even though the key was pressed) ~5-10% of key presses. This likely occurs with off-center key presses - in fact I could reproduce the issue easily by pressing the corner of just about any key multiple times. 50-70% of the time it would register correctly (give or take) when pressing the corner or side of the key.

I called customer support, and painfully described the issue (although I was very clear in my explanation, the support agent just didn't seem to understand the issue). They required me to allow remote login to my computer and they tried uninstalling and re-installing drivers. After a reasonable amount of time, I was issued a RMA. I was given an email to take to fedex where they packaged the laptop and mailed it to Lenovo on June 30th and returned by fedex today.

NOTE: My computer was a 16gb, 4gb 1TB HD. I replaced the HDD with a 512GB SSD and prior to this process, and left it in for the RMA process. That did not cause any issues with warranty.

Included in the box from Lenovo was a "Repair Action Report" with indications that they understood the problem, the technician was able to reproduce the problem and that they repaired the problem with the keyboard/touchpad. (ie: "The following items were repaired or replaced: Keyboard and Touchpad").

Upon testing it myself, it appears that I am not receiving quite as many missed keys, but the problem still happens about 2% of the time. This is still annoying because the key is being depressed, and gives the tactile feedback of the "click" but on occasion doesn't show the letter pressed. Testing by pressing the corner of a single key multiple times it still only registers a letter about 50% of the time, even though the key was 'clicked'.

So, in conclusion - my issue is still present, but appears to be lessened by a small degree.

 

Battery is only 3-4 hours. Thats my only complaint. Keyboard problems are not an issue as I'm used to a lot more pressure from a mechanical keyboard. I do have the same unregistered clicks that other people have though. Again, this is not an issue for me as Im used to clicking hard

Display is not bad at all. Colours look fine compare to my cheap LG and Asus IPS monitors. Not sure which display I have or how to find out though.

Build quality is great and I've already replaced the slow HDD with my Samsung 840 240gb.

 

Thanks. What kind of usage would get you to 4 hours?

I've narrowed my search down between the Acer V7 (850m & 6.5 hour battery) and the Y50...

 

Hi I'm new to this so I'm not sure what to do. I downloaded your profiles and I extracted the profiles to the desktop. But I'm kinda stuck at what to do. Sorry if I'm bothering you.

 

I looked at that one at future shop. The battery there was only claiming about 3-4 hours with nothing open. Also the keyboard was terrible.

I'm quite happy with the Y50 atm. I could probably get to 4 hours using one note and skype text chat. The screen is definately not as bad as it could be. The MSI GE40 I had before was much worse and that laptop was about $300 more than this one.

 

If your talking about the MSI ge40 with the 850m right now, that's just not true. Gaminglaptopsjunky reviewed it and its an IPS screen with around 70% adobeRGB. The y50 FHD has around 45%.

 

Thanks, that's exactly what i needed.

 

Anyone been able to track down a Lenovo Wifi 7260 card in the U.S. yet (part #20200552)? I've been searching threads, google, etc. and only see european vendors (who also show it out of stock mostly). If you are a lucky one to have found one, where and how was the install?

Thanks for your thoughts - even if just to say "nah, haven't found one!"

 

Is it possible to remove the normal 2.5" HDD and put 2 mSata drives in this machine with a dual drive adapter thing?

Would this work?
http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables-Motherboard-PCI/dp/B00AYI276I/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_5?tag=hardfocom-20

 

It should work. You should know the limits the SATA6 though.

 

Hey guys anyone tested the 340.43 beta drivers??

 

SATA 6 limit- what do you mean- would I have speed limitations being both through the same port?

Ie 6Gb/s limit per SATA port (theoretical 572Mb/s) - ie both drives will run at half the speed?

Can they be set up independently (not as raid)?

 

Yup you are correct. They can be setup independently but you will still be limited by 6gb/s/

Also I just did a benchmark on unigine heaven.
Went from
FPS:
37.0
Score:
932
Min FPS:
8.0
Max FPS:
67.6


To this after the latest nvidia update.
FPS:
37.9
Score:
954
Min FPS:
12.2
Max FPS:
65.0


Not much but still a little better.

 

Would that 6GB/s limit actually be noticeable day-to-day? Or only when using both drives at once?

Thanks for the benchmarks- good to see minor improvements.

 

hi guys, i have been using my lenovo y50 Anti-glare display for a week now. I notice there are some hairline scratches on the glossy bezels. Anyone know how to clean it or remove scratches safely?

I saw some posts of ppl using Meguair's Plastx to polish and remove scratches on PS3 glossy consoles.
Will it work for y50 glossy bezels?

I've tried using brasso on a small area, it removed the scratches but resulting in forming some "cloud" but not very visible.

 

The glossy surfaces on Lenovo's notebooks are extremely soft, it was the same with Y500/Y510p. I don't think polishing will make it as new again, it will probably make the whole surface "cloudy" (dull?).

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?25235-Playstation-3-vs-PlastX/page3
But maybe take a look at this topic. He has tried a combination of two products and it worked as far as I can tell.

On the other hand, the scratches will return the first time you wipe the bezel clean.

 

You likely wont notice a difference as one SSD is already worlds apart from a regular HDD. Why are you choosing to go with 2 MSATA SSDs? Why not put the money in to one massive 840 Evo or Crucial?

 

Wow Thanks alot bro. Some good tips there.

I was thinking to get some stickers for the glossy bezels

 

I will look into it- what I was thinking was a 500-750GB for now, then a 1-1.5TB later down the track (both mSata).

The dual mSata adapter says:
"For individual drive configuration, the SATA port must be Port Multiplier compatible. SATA port on most laptop systems are not PM compatible"

Any idea if the Y50 is PM compatible?

 

You notice it very easily while gaming on darker backgrounds. A SLIGHT shift of your head in ANY direction results in rather severe colour-shifting. This is just a fact of this display.

Whether or not that bothers you is an entirely different question - some will be bothered by it, others won't.

Download the following screenshot, and set it as your desktop background. Then set yourself up so you're staring right in the middle of the screen, straight-on. You'll notice the statue in the top-right corner is almost completely colour-shifted. You know a panel is bad when there is colour-shifting and you haven't even moved your head at all yet.



That's the very definition of bad viewing angles. A decent panel allows you to have at least a small space where the entire screen is fine. This panel (the AUO) doesn't have that - no matter how you look at it, there will always be a portion of the screen that is colour-shifted. And I'm not the first person to notice this - check out alaskajoel's review.

Personally, I've initiated an RMA, mostly due to the poor viewing angles. This panel has by far the worst viewing angles I've ever seen on any device. There might be worse ones out there, but I've personally not seen them.

 

Just noticed after receiving this back from lenovo that in addition to not being fixed, the touchpad no longer works the same as it did. It used to have 2 finger scrolling, and you could click anywhere in the top of the touchpad to right-click... neither of these functions work anymore. Another call to lenovo, and now I have to return it again, except for now I have 2 problems.

So essentially, I sent the computer to lenovo - they didn't fix the original keyboard problem, they broke the touchpad, and sent it back to me.

 

I installed them, they seemed to work just fine. Although the only game I tried them with was Diablo 3.

 

I believe it is available in the Windows app store. You can download it after re-installing your system.

 

Aren't you going to replace the panel just like what others did instead of returning it?

 

I am having issues with my UHD screen. Yellows appears to be on the green side. Another issue is that I can not hook up the PC to my samsung tv. It appears to detect the display, but I get absolutely nothing. At the risk of sounding like I have no idea what I am talking about, is it possible that this display only outputs 48hz and my LCD TV can not accept the signal? Have never had this issue with any other laptop. thanks in advance

 

Has anyone been able to get windows 7 to work yet? I've been able to install every driver except the Nvidia drivers.

I even tried this, but it only works for windows 8. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

I'm in the same position as you. Really frustrated because I still can't install the NVidia drivers on windows 7 after following heibk's instructions.

 

Can someone please confirm that they can use 2-finger scrolling in a browser, and click anywhere on the touchpad (except lower right corner) to instantiate a left-click?

Also, I can now just tap the touchpad (not fully click) to get a left-click - is this also what everyone has? I am probably remembering wrong, but I thought before I sent it in for RMA just tapping the touchpad didn't do anything, I had to actually fully click the touchpad.

 

Just tapping the trackpad should always work, and yes, everyone should have that. Two-finger scrolling on the other hand required additional drivers if you installed a fresh copy of windows but worked out of the box.

 

If this was the only laptop I had, probably.

But I have a Shark 3, pretty much the same specs, but with a MUCH better display. Changing the panel on the Y50 would end up costing me well over $100, which would then make the Y50 more expensive for the same specs (but without an optical drive, extra HDD slot and no mSATA slots).

And let's not forget that by changing your display, you void your warranty on the display. You may also run the risk of voiding your entire laptops' warranty. Certain companies are very stingy on the warranty - change a single thing, and your warranty is void (think Dell). Not sure how Lenovo would handle this (assuming they even notice you changed the panel).

 

Thank you 0x33B5E5, I never put on a fresh copy of windows - so I should still have the 2 finger scrolling. Back to Lenovo it goes to fix both the keyboard (again) and now the touchpad

 

Honestly it just sounds like the touchpad driver isn't properly installed... You should check that before sending it back again.

 

I am going to purchase the Y50 soon. I am debating between the FHD touch or UHD models. I spoke with a Lenovo rep earlier today and he claimed the Y50 UHD Touch models will not be available to buy on their site until the last week of July. I need to get something before then. I have never owned a touch screen laptop and, while I think it's cool, don't think I would use it that much.

So, do you all think the UHD is worth it and substantially better than the FHD touch screen quality? Or is it impractical because many applications cannot handle the UHD screen?

 

Oh yes, I did it, and Lenovo techs did it via remote desktop. Could have sworn it was a driver issue - but uninstall/reinstall didn't work.

Question for people who claim their keyboard works perfectly: Please open notepad (or anything to type on) and pick a key (try "m") and press the lower left corner 20 times (or lower right corner). Then count how many 'm's printed out. I really want to find people who can do a test similar to this with multiple keys - and get letters printed out 100% of the time.

Lenovo replaced my keyboard and trackpad - still has the same issue. I believe it is a flaw in the mechanics of the keyboard, and the people claiming they have a 100% keystroke rate may not be replicating the test as I do it. I have now sent my laptop back for a second time solely because people are reporting that their keyboard is 100% - so that is giving me hope, but I need to know if it is actually false hope so I can quit wasting my time.

Much appreciation goes out to those who believe they had a 100% keyboard that do the test above and report back their findings!

 

Just got my Y50 delivered, and first impressions are:

1) Sleek and stylish, but it's a fingerprint magnet.

2) The keyboard has some serious mushy flex to it. Just typing normally, you see the surrounding keys bend. Yikes.

3) Seeing as how the AC power is on the side, a 90-degree plug would've been optimal.

4) My display panel looks really good, despite being a bit on the bluish side; no screen door effect or dead/stuck pixels I can detect...I was expecting much worse! (Hardware ID shows as CMN15C4)

Installing the SSD tonight and slapping Win7 on there.

 

But that's not a representative test of actual usage at all. I've done a typing test and I typed at 70 WPM with 1 error, and that 1 error was simply due to forgetting to capitalize a word.

 

Has anyone tried deleting the D: partition that the hard drive comes with, and then extending the C: partition into that space? It looks like the D: drive is just for drivers (which can easily be copied somewhere else) and not for recovery stuff or anything so I'm assuming this is safe to do, but wanted to ask first.

 

So I´ve been trying what you suggested (though not with notepad, but with this text field here, LOL) but I got almost no problem. 3 runs with 20 hits each, and I had 19, 19, 20 registered (though I can replicate your problem, when pressing extremely lightly, only the very upper corner pushes in, not the whole key. But if you push your keys like that, you are doing something wrong... But I have tried it with ever other laptop in my house, none of which really struggled with registering my letters. My Asus n61 seems not to register either, if you dont fully push the key down (again, that´s not how you should hit a key)

 

Yea, There is actually a few more partitions. I went ahead and wiped everything. created a main C and a Backup D drive in case I need to wipe in the future. The computer is a lot faster after a wipe due to the bloat that it comes with.

 

Actually I read on some forum that the UHD screen has some trouble with yellows. I brushed it off since nobody said anything about it but now I'm curious. Can you expand on that a little?

 

I borrowed a colorimeter from my dad. I'll play with it when I get home and measure the sRGB values of the 4K screen.

 

Mine measured 97 percent. Would be an oddity if yours was any different.

 

Best I can tell you is the yellows have a bit of a greenish hue. I hooked it up to an external monitor running duplicate and it is very noticeable. I tried to back down the green a bit and it really did nothing. Going 100% brightness helps a little. Really did not notice it initially until I went to the Jayski.com (nascar) website. Windows really does not let you play much with the settings. And of course the Nvidia Control Panel only lets you change 3D settings, or at least that is what I am experiencing....probably due to Optimus?

 

On a sidenote from the current discussion. Heres a comparison between my LG 22" AH-IPS monitor and the Y50
Completely usable for people who aren't in to visual design.

 

So is that the 1080p display? Are there people here that are actually satisfied with the 1080p display?

I would like to buy the Y50 and I will be using it mostly with an external Samsung PLS display so at home I will not have any problems with the display. But on the road I will have to deal with the internal screen.

 

Yup and I'm happy with it. I have my desktop for if I need a colour accurate screen. 1080 on both.