Lenovo Y50 Owners and Information Thread

Couple questions:

-Can anyone recommend a good cable for cloning the stock SSHD?

-What does a clean install of Windows 8.1 actually do?

 

A clean install just removes all of Lenovo's bloatware and ensures that you're running the most efficient machine possible. You don't really have to do it and from what I can tell you do lose some benefits (For example, I can't find a Dolby driver anywhere--can someone post a zip file of it?)

 

I actually had the Dolby thing in mind. Still, I'd like my new SSD to be as "fresh" as possible. Dunno what I'll do.

 

It really didn't take very long to remove the bloatware that came on this. For those who are concerned with a fresh install might just take the time to Uninstall everything. Right click and uninstall

 

I Got my Y50 today! Great laptop, but now I have a question.

I'll swap the 1TB HD For aA ssd 840 pro 256gb .

I used the Samsung Magician software , however it just copied the original partition , it does not copied the partition with the drivers and the recovery .

How can I do this ?

 

is the screen bad only on the y50 non touch version? is the screen better on the touch version?

 

Touch version (unless it's 4k) has the same basic screen, but we're pretty sure the touch glass is glued to the frame, making it much harder to replace. That's all I know.

 

is the touch version glossy or matte?

 

The Dolby driver is only provided in the Lenovo realtek package, from the website (or on your D: partition if you haven't removed it). It can't be found as a separate driver, since the dolby stuff looks for a "verified" realtek driver before it installs. The generic realtek driver doesn't have it.

 

Read PeterTWJ's post about the Y50 Dolby software here:

Dolby Home Theater v4 for most Lenovo Laptops - Page 18 - Lenovo Community

You could use his Dolby download, although it's not updated for the Y50.

 

Thanks, that explains it.

EDIT: GAHHH!

I remember why I uninstalled the RealTek driver...that dang hissing noise...

Is there anyone NOT getting any hissing with the RealTek driver? I really like the Dolby system but the hissing/static/whining/white noise is unbearable.

 

Mine are all stock and never updated yet, the realtek and Dolby, though I never usually hear any white noise or hissing sounds.

 

pardon me, why after i run the exe file and a text file showed up in it says NO KEY... how does it works actually?

 

i dont hav that kind of particular problem with laptop speakers, but do hav hissing sound when i plugged in earpiece or subwoofer

 

That text file will have your key. It worked for me and even worked on my friend's dell laptop.
Looks like you don't have key inside your bios.

 

owh thats why, mine is dos version,, haha, btw great app you've made.. thanks

 

I read a review on this laptop by Notebookcheck.net. It is stated in the review, that the processor in this laptop suffers from limited Turbo Boost capability, thus faring badly in CPU benchmarks (e.g. Cinebench R15). Turbo Boost is said to be active only for a few seconds before returning to its base speed.

1) Does your unit suffer from the same problem?
2) Please do a CPU-only benchmark on this model and post the results in this thread.

Thank you in advance.

 

Yes. It throttles as soon as the CPU temp reach 65C. No need to do a benchmark, as far as I know its like this by design and everybody who owns the Y50 experience this.

 

I'm close to pulling the trigger on a Y50, but I didn't like to know if the screen issue is also present in touch displays or not ? If yes, the the touch displays also easy to replace with better ones ?

I'll most probably be getting a Y50 with a touch 1080p display .. I don't think there's any point to having a 4k screen on a laptop

 

Yes, but a bit different, as I understand yellow is the most affected color, its mustard-like and not a proper yellow.

It seems the display is glued in and can't be easily replaced. So far there isn't a single report of a successfully replaced touch display.

 

Just got my new Y50 and... I can't use my standard Ethernet (RJ45) cables to connect it to my LAN.

What kind of cable do I need to buy?
Where can I buy it?
What keyword or acronym to search for on Google?

Thanks in advance.

 

can throttlestop solve this ?

 

Hey guys I have a question about the performance of my Y50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMV5FPYOcA

I play the same guy but only get 17FPS on the same setttings. I've upgraded my Nvidia and Intel drivers already. And I already set the game to the High-performance processor in the Nvidia Control panel. Can anybody help me?

 

Ahh that sucks. Lenovo should have just stuck with the 37W TDP quad-core i7s such as i7-4712HQ, instead of 47W TDP ones such as i7-4700HQ. This way, the processor can utilize its maximum potential without being bottlenecked by such poor cooling system. I'd rather lose a mere 200MHz than not being able to use Turbo Boost at its fullest capacity. Maybe I'd better look elsewhere.

This may be off topic, but does anybody know a good alternative, sporting a quad-core i7 stable enough to run Turbo Boost for a long time, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M (or its equivalent) and up?

 

Regarding the CPU throttling you could try doing something about it by using the ThrottleStop software but one must be careful because I suspect the temps will skyrocket.
I haven't tried it myself so no idea if/how it will work.

 

Ah, that's unfortunate .. I thought all Y50's screen changing is a piece of cake .. :/

Can you also suggest how good/bad the y50 1080p touch screen is if I'm NOT gaming ? .. I mainly use my laptop for work, internet browsing, and occasional photo editing or movie watching .. I mainly watch movies in my home theater ..

 

Sorry, I can't, I own the FHD version.
In my opinion the Y50 - all versions - is not suitable for any graphic-related professional work(video/photo editing and such, all that require accurate colors/contrast).

 

But once you replace the screen (for the non-touch models), such problems go away, right ?

 

Right, however some members experience issues with the new panels(ghosting, bleeding) and we're not certain if its the panel's fault or something happens during replacement. Such issues seems to be related to the AUO 1.2 replacement the people get, the LG ones seems to be working properly.

I suggest you read this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ideapad-essential/755626-y50-replacement-displays-compendium.html
I know its big but maybe reading the last ten pages of posts will suffice to get the picture.

 

Alright, I'll do that, thanks.

 

My Lenovo Y510P also has this "feature". ThrottleStop can be used to enable full turbo boost and you can also use ThrottleStop to overclock and under volt 4th Gen CPUs. If the CPU gets too hot, it will throttle just like it is supposed to. ThrottleStop can not prevent that Intel safety feature nor would you want to use software that disables the built in thermal throttling temperature. It only disables some of the throttling schemes that laptop manufacturers have dreamed up. Send me a PM if you need any help with your ThrottleStop settings or post your questions in the ThrottleStop thread. Version 7 has new features for the 4th Gen CPUs.

 

You might be splitting hairs for no reason. What are you going to be playing/doing that an 850m can handle but is going to be severely impacted by the turbo boost limitation?

 

I plan to do mainly music production and some mainstream gaming so obviously for the former I need a powerful CPU and for the latter, a GPU like GTX 850M to play current games on FHD and medium-high settings - I don't go for full-blown gaming rigs. I don't plan to get any higher than GTX 860M - it's way beyond my budget. Except there's a laptop out there equipped with a GTX 870M which sells for 1300 USD in Indonesia, which is highly unlikely.

 

Ahh behold, the great author of ThrottleStop! I've heard about ThrottleStop since several months ago (a bit late I know).
By the way, if I enable ThrottleStop the CPU will probably get fried, right? Then what do you do to improve Lenovo's bad cooling system and prevent the CPU and overall the innards from overheating? I heard Lenovo Y50 still uses shared heat pipe - something that doesn't deserve its place in gaming laptops. I think Lenovo should stick with 37W TDP quad-core i7s or improve its inadequate cooling system.
I haven't bought the Lenovo; I'm still hesitating whether I should go for Lenovo Y50 or HP ENVY 15-Q178CA. If the i7 in Lenovo Y50 were able to squirt out every little bit of juice it has without being bottlenecked by its cooling system, dang - I'd definitely go for it. THAT GTX 860M THO. The only proper gaming laptop that sells for 1200 USD in my area (Jakarta, Indonesia) while the next cheapest - which is the Asus G750JM - sells for 1600 USD there. Even the Asus G56JR with GTX 760M is at the same price point with the Lenovo Y50. Sure, corners should be cut to sell such gaming specs at a low price but I'd rather pay 50 USD more for a revamped cooling system.

 

I have a question about the Lenovo Y50 Touch. One of the reviews on Newegg claims that HDMI out does not make use of the discrete card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M), but instead the onboard video card. Can anyone verify if this is true? Gaming on a TV is very important for my next laptop purchase.

 

OK, I found the answer myself. It turns out that no special connector is needed. An ordinary RJ45 will fit into that "compact Ethernet port".

What confused me was the trickiness in which that RJ45 needs to be plugged in. The user manual does instruct "Hold one connector of the network cable to press the RJ-45 cover down gently" but that was so well hidden...

Oh well. Now I know.

 

It seems like it won't fit, but it does. There's a little hinge below that adjusts to accomodate the cable. Take a look.

EDIT: NM, you figured it out right as I posted.

 

Excluding screen replacement differences, can someone tell me if there are any other known/common differences between the touch and non-touch Y50 models ?

Any difference in operation, performance, build quality, temperature, bugs, etc .. ?

 

Wow. Not only had I not heard of ThrottleStop, but I was unaware that the Y50's CPU doesn't stay in turbo. Can anyone confirm that using this won't fry the Y50? Also, is this thing safe to download?

 

AFAIK it's safe to download and use (i.e. no viruses), but be aware of spikes in power usage and temps.

 

Sounds good. I took a glance at the description of it somewhere else and I'm not sure I know enough to use it safely. Are there any guides for using it specifically for the Y50?

 

Sounds like your laptop is using the integrated graphics. Have you gone through the thread to see how to make it use the dedicated card?

 

Intel HD strong enough to run Sleeping Dogs at High settings?

 

Nope. Try older drivers, latest Nvidia drivers are not so good for some people.
I use older driver and I get 40-60fps on High.

By the way is the game patched to the latest version? If I remember correctly a patch was released recently and it was about game's graphics optimizing.

 

Questions got overlooked on previous page to re-asking:

Excluding screen replacement differences, can someone tell me if there are any other known/common differences between the touch and non-touch Y50 models ?

Any difference in operation, performance, build quality, temperature, bugs, etc .. ?

 

Build quality, main components(CPU, GPU) and performance/temps are the same as far as I know. They share bugs as well - for example the big fan clicking bug is common for both - but unsure if they share all bugs.
Overall in my opinion apart from the screen they are practically the same machine.

P.S. If you compare the drivers for both models they are also pretty much the same, BIOS included.

 

I heard one of the two has a crappy touchpad, while the other one's touchpad is fine, although I'm not sure which is which here ... Know anything about this ?

 

No idea. As far as I know the Y50 is offered with 3 types of touchpads(Synaptics, Elan, Alps) but no idea if some are exclusive to the non-touch version and the other only for the touch version. The drivers that Lenovo provides seems to be the same for both version but that doesn't mean much because they offer drivers for all types in one package and installation is supposed to detect the hardware and install the proper driver. The touchpad model distribution seems rather random to me and not by model, or maybe its by region(for example Elan for USA, Synaptics for Europe, Alps for Asia or some other order)

I have the non-touch version and Synaptics touchpad and its awful. Not sure if its because of the Synaptics driver or the hardware or - most likely - both, but I can't stand it.

 

Hmm .. okay thanks ... Why do you say that the touchpad is awful in the model you have ?

 

Its possible that half of the issues I have is my fault but here is my complains list anyway:

-gestures doesn't work well, sometimes they work sometimes they don't. Maybe its my fault though, maybe I don't do it the right way..
-the hardware feels very cheap
-lack of dedicated buttons and having to click the touchpad is very annoying "feature" for me
-right click seems to be working only in the right lower corner, a bit to the left or up and its a left click
-double tapping(for double click, without pressing the "button") is really annoying because with the first tap(or maybe when I remove my finger after the first tap) I somehow always misplace the cursor a little so when I do the second tap the cursor is not over the object I wanted to double click on...

For some of these there are config options in the Synaptics software they don't seem to be working or at least not in the way I want them to.