Lenovo Y50 Owners and Information Thread

Thanks for the detailed info ... I don't normally care about gestures as I probably won't be using them anyway, but the lack of dedicated buttons may seem like an issue ..

What about sound reproduction quality and battery life (when not gaming) ?

And I assume the laptop will remain cool even if I'm doing light things (e.g. word processing, excel file editing or internet browsing) even for several hours ?

 

There are a couple of reviews here on these boards where most of this stuff is already covered...Anyway, hare is my take:

Sound is great when the proper drivers is installed and proper software enabled(Dolby) and when its working I say the latter because sometimes I have that weird issue when the laptop come back from sleep the speakers remain off and only the subwoofer is working. A restart fixes it. I've never mention it because I haven't seen a single report for such issue happening to anyone else so maybe its just my machine.

Battery life - I've never measured it because I rarely use it on battery. I think it can hold around 3 hours but I can be wrong, check the reviews.

Mine stays pretty cool with simple non-CPU/GPU intensive tasks, always around 45-50ºC(ambient around 20-25ºC)

 

I've been able to use the battery for Web browsing and excel work for about 4 hours with 50% btightness. I also use the Lenovo power management tool and have it on power saving mode. I also have the SSD model which might help with battery life as well.

Temps have been great for browsing and non gaming tasks. The metal exterior always makes it feel cool to the touch and hasn't made my lap feel hot.

Like previously stated the dolby sound definitely helps when playing louder music. Bass isn't amazing but it's a laptop. It's at least clean sounding.

 

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to have a kind of dual-driver mode. When using the speakers, it uses the RealTek driver, while headphones use the normal Windows driver? I know it's far fetched but that'd be neat and take care of the hissing sounds I'm having. On my previous laptop, these hissing sounds were negated by auto-muting the speakers when there was no signal. Looking at the Dolby UI (having it open, then playing a short sound) it looks like the intent is for the dynamic EQ to mute the sound, but it doesn't...just goes to -12dB or something. Anyway, it sucks because Dolby made a huge difference when using earbuds...oh well.

 

Some problems I had and the solutions:

When typing, if you hit a key too hard (or so it seemed) it would do Ctrl+whatever key you pressed (mostly t in my experience, really annoying because it would open a new tab in Chrome lol). I actually found it was somehow my palm swiping the side of the touchpad and disabling the switch window gesture seemed to do the trick...weird...

Also, decreasing touchpad sensitivity helps some of the problems, as well as messing with the palm tracking setting, and if you have a hard time with right-click then you can maybe do the two-finger right click...anyway, these touchpads seem to be very finicky as I have a Synaptics and it seems to work fine now after tweaking...

Also, I'm pretty happy with the laptop overall, but I did luck out on some things (7260AC wifi, touchpad) and others I did not (Chi Mei screen, hissing audio).

 

The audio is ok on mine with headphones using the analog output, no hissing. Do you use the analog or digital output?

 

Can you please elaborate on this ?

Seems to me that Lenovo have a lot of quality control issues, with every laptop having its own set of hardware components and issues ... This is something unheard of in mass production electronics .. Either all get the issue or none do ..

 

Analog...It's really faint but annoying for me.

Yeah, It's not that unheard-of. My previous laptop (Asus) had it but they fixed it with a driver update. Lenovo just hasn't yet. They really should get on top of their driver updates...

 

So I assume this is a software issue and not a hardware malfunction ?

And do you hear it when you're using the headphones or when you're not ?

 

Only with headphones...

 

Hey! I just tried out throttlestop because i noticed a serious slowndown in age of wonder 3. I watched the processor speed in the task manager and it really throttles to 1.75 Ghz when the processor reaches temperatures over 65C. I didn't change any of the options but the mutiplier to 28-29. So my Processor runs all the time at 2.85 Ghz and the slowdowns ingame were gone. The question is: My cores reached temperatures of about 85C....is this already too hot and will lead to damage or is everything fine? Is it normal that the processor runs always on 2.85 Ghz? How do i know if I exceed the power capabilities of my machine? I dont want to high too high voltage and fry everyting. I read the throttlestop guide which explains all the options but I still dont understand everything properly as you see =)

 

Makes me wonder if some type of cooling pad is in order. Has anyone used one yet with this model? Am I correct in assuming the air intake vents are the ones on the bottom?

 

Is this throttling also done when doing tasks like Bluray playback, editing PSD files which are 250 MB in size with dozens of layers, etcetera?

 

Throttling depends on the temperature, not the task performed. If the above tasks are CPU intensive and the CPU reach 65°C it will throttle.

 

those that use lenovo settings, why is it everytime i turn on my laptop, the settings i picked for display which is 'photo mode' won't be automatically set everytime i use it. I have to press photo mode everytime I turn on the laptop to get the mode I want. Is there a way around this?

 

Hello everyone, I just ran into a problem here.

I just updated my drivers with Driver Booster, one of them is the Realtek drivers, and now I noticed that the audio quality isn't as it used to be.
and
I tried to open Dolby, as it fixes the problem but an error popped out saying.
"Dolby audio driver version is 7.3.6.1 and the software app is 7.5.1.1, please install a compatible combination."

Any help would be appreciated. TIA

 

That throttling issue is ridiculous. I mean it makes sense if there were temperatures of 95 C or something, but at 65C. Everything should be fine till 90C or am i wrong with this?

 

Download and install the audio driver provided by Lenovo. The error you get explains it all, the Dolby software require a specific Realtek driver version updating to a newer or older one disables Dolby..

 

Right, but I guess Lenovo did it for some reason. Not sure what would that reason be, maybe because of the cooling system design and thin form factor the heat would not be dissipated effectively and a lot of heat might reach the keyboard and make it uncomfortably hot..but of course I'm just guessing here. Based on other weird issues the model has it might as well be just poor engineering and/or not enough quality control even on engineering level.

 

Intel designs their 4th Gen mobile CPUs so they can run at full speed, including Turbo Boost, until the CPU reaches a peak core temperature of 100°C. Intel calls this temperature the "maximum safe operating temperature".

Intel CPUs can throttle the amount of turbo boost they use based on power consumption but for most games, this type of throttling should rarely if ever be an issue.

Based on what I am reading, it looks like Lenovo has decided to ignore Intel's built in safety features. Lenovo decided to create their own throttling limits in the Y50 based on temperature or power consumption that are much more conservative. Without talking to the engineers responsible for this, it is impossible to say why they did this.

The decision to run ThrottleStop to try and fix these problems is up to you. I have been running it on my Y510P for the last year without any issues. I paid for a Core i7-4700MQ and my expectation was that it would be able to run at its full Intel rated speed so I use ThrottleStop to correct that issue.

The core temperatures on my Y510P 4700MQ have gone as high as 100°C. Big deal. My 4700MQ still runs 100% reliably. If Intel thought temperatures like this were going to damage their CPUs it would be easy for them to lower the thermal throttling temperature. Intel CPUs do a great job of looking after themselves.

 

So if i understnd correctly my intel 4710hq would throttle itself down if temperatures are way too high regardless having throttlestop turned on?

 

Guys I have one more question: how is the performance of the stock RAM that comes with the Y50 ?

I know I'm going to need 16 GB RAM sometime pretty soon, so I'm trying to decide if I should get an 8GB model and upgrade it to 16GB on my own with better aftermarket RAM, or just get the 16GB model now.

Suggestions ?

 

Correct. ThrottleStop cannot be used to disable the thermal throttling that Intel builds into their CPUs. ThrottleStop only lets you control the throttling schemes that laptop manufacturers like Lenovo continue to use. No matter how you have ThrottleStop setup, your CPU will throttle if any core reaches the thermal throttling temperature. For the 4710HQ, Intel has set the throttling temperature to 100°C.

ARK | Intel® Core™ i7-4710HQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz)

Intel also allows manufacturers to use an offset value so they can choose to lower the thermal throttling temperature by up to 15°C. My Y510P only uses an offset of 1°C so it starts to thermal throttle at 99°C instead of 100°C which is reasonable. Randomly disabling Intel Turbo Boost is not so reasonable.

On the main ThrottleStop screen, to the lower right where it says PROCHOT (processor hot), there will be a number that indicates what temperature your laptop is designed to thermal throttle at.

If you are seeing throttling at a core temperature of only 65°C, that is usually being triggered by power consumption.

If you have any more ThrottleStop related questions, head over to the ThrottleStop Guide thread. The link is in my signature. The NBR mods have told me that they prefer this so individual threads like this one do not get off topic.

 

Thanks for the help ATG, downloaded the driver from Lenovo and the setup did all the work. Now it's working. :thumbsup:

 

I just manually updated the audio driver and I lost my Dolby equalizer settings from Lenovo settings. How do you get it back? on windows 8.1

 

I can vouch for this. the first one I got came with an ELAN touchpad and when I installed the asus driver for it everything works beautiful, the sensitivity is just right, all the multifinger gestures work and it feel about as good as a mac. but then my unit broke and I got a replacement one yesterday, with a synaptics touchpad. this one just feels much crappier and the multi finger gestures just don't work at times. with the elan touchpad I can just tap to get 2 finger right click, but with this one I have to actually click. the elan touchpad is also more clicky whereas this one it's kind of dull when you click

 

Alright I'm having a bit of a panic attack with my brand new comp so please help!! I bought the top of the line UHD touch 16gb ram 4gb VRAM 512SSD. I bought it for Photoshop and some video editing I'm not a gamer. Even with all the amazing specs its bogging down freezing for a few seconds occasionally video can studder at times and Photoshop actually sets off the thinking wheel and a few second wait during adjustments....my sandy bridge i3 is smoother at pshop. I also can't tell if the GTX is being utilized or not on Photoshop. Ive done all windows updates intel wifi update, didnt find and lenovo updates. Please can someone just calm me down and help me speed this puppy up!

 

-use High Performance power mode
-force the laptop to use the GPU(in Nvidia Control Panel)
-monitor the CPU temps and check it when you get slowdowns, if its around 65°C the CPU is throttling and that might cause the slowdowns, in some Y50s the CPU could throttle to as low as1.6Ghz

 

The solution is in the post right above yours - install the driver from Lenovo and do not update unless Lenovo publish a newer version.

 

What should I use to monitor temps? I think I forced the GPU though NVIDIA but it was still spinning the wheel.

 

There are many programs you can use, but HWMonitor is a popular choice. It let's you view CPU, GPU, HDD temperatures and more.

HWMonitor CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

 

Had a question which got ignored earlier, so asking again

How is the performance of the stock RAM that comes with the Y50 ?

I know I'm going to need 16 GB RAM sometime pretty soon, so I'm trying to decide if I should get an 8GB model and upgrade it to 16GB on my own with better aftermarket RAM, or just get the 16GB model now.

Suggestions ?

 

Average user does not care about RAM speed because normally faster RAM doesn't make any difference in normal everyday tasks so I doubt you'll get an answer about that anytime soon.
I have 2x4GB in mine, here's the specs, maybe that can help you out:

Code:

DIMM #				1
	SMBus address		0x50
	Memory type		DDR3
	Module format		SO-DIMM
	Manufacturer (ID)	Samsung (CE000000000000000000)
	Size			4096 MBytes
	Max bandwidth		PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
	Part number		M471B5173DB0-YK0 
	Manufacturing date	Week 22/Year 14
	Number of banks		8
	Nominal Voltage		1.35 Volts
	EPP			no
	XMP			no
	AMP			no
JEDEC timings table		CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
	JEDEC #1		5.0-5-5-14-19 @ 380 MHz
	JEDEC #2		6.0-6-6-16-22 @ 457 MHz
	JEDEC #3		7.0-7-7-19-26 @ 533 MHz
	JEDEC #4		8.0-8-8-22-30 @ 609 MHz
	JEDEC #5		9.0-9-9-24-33 @ 685 MHz
	JEDEC #6		10.0-10-10-27-37 @ 761 MHz
	JEDEC #7		11.0-11-11-28-39 @ 800 MHz

Oh yeah and remember - Lenovo could be using different brand of RAM in the Y50 just like they use several brands of touchpads without any apparent pattern..

 

I don't fully understand the memory latency timings, so I'm hoping someone can just tell me if this is good RAM or not

But yeah you're right, it's very probable that different laptops can have different memory modules in them ..

 

Got two more questions:

1) Is $1099 a good price for Lenovo Y50 (59421855) ? Or should I wait for a price drop maybe ? What about this one on Amazon for $989 ? The difference is that the first one has 16GB RAM rather than 8GB, and a slightly faster processor.

2) Do all non-touch 1080p Y50's come with a matte screen, or is this random too ?

 

According to information I find online the RAM in mine is a pretty good one...whatever that means. Google it.

As far as I know all FHD versions come with matte AUO3.6 or ChiMei(Innolux), check here.

 

Alright so I used ThottleStop to bypass Lenovo's throttling scheme, it seems its working fine and now I get 3.2Ghz basically all the time. Temps are ok, for example when playing Sleeping Dogs I get around 80C for CPU and 70C for the GPU.
The keyboard would get a bit hot under the AWSD keys but in my opinion its not a big deal at all, its not too hot and it doesn't bother me. So far I can't find any negative effect by removing the throttling limitation so I'm puzzled about why Lenovo did it. My latest theory - removing throttling will drastically decrease battery life if you run CPU intensive tasks while on battery. Does it sound plausible?

I haven't had the time to test realtime performance difference with and without Lenovo's throttling, I'll let you know in a few days.

 

Sounds awesome. I was skeptical at first, but now I might give it a shot. Can you link to whatever resources you used to set it up? Have any issues setting it up?

I'm not computer illiterate, but I freak out about goofing my machine.

 

Hi. Im about to purchase this notebook. My question is that is the touch FHD version has better screen than the non touch version? Please enlighten me. Thank you pals.

 

Although I don't technically own a Y50 yet (will purchase really soon though), my understanding is that ALL Y50 screens (FHD/UHD, touch or nontouch) are crap in some way .. Plus, no one has been able to successfully change the screen on a touch model ..

I was in the mood to get a touch model myself, but in light of the above I might have to settle for the nontouch model I guess

 

I've noticed some members are a bit impatient about their questions. As per the forum rules please wait a reasonable time(24h) before asking the same thing again or bumping your post/thread.

 

Apologies ATG, I didn't mean to sound impatient .. I'm going to be ordering the laptop within the next few hours, so I'm coming up with all these questions

 

Also had another question .. Anyone can answer whenever possible ..

How much graphics performance difference would there be between the 2GB and 4GB models of the GTX 860M when I'm doing non-gaming graphical work, such as photo/video editing, etc. ? Would there be any significant difference when I AM gaming (rarely) ?

Note: I'll have a FHD screen, not UHD ..

 

Hey ATG,
That's awsome! - could you please let us know which version of TS you used a(6 or 7 beta?)and post the screens with settings? I am a noob when it comes to setting programs like this
Thanks a lot

 

Sure.

Spoiler

 

ThrottleStop 7 supports overclocking and CPU voltage control for Intel's 4th Gen CPUs. The beta has been out for quite a while and it is very stable so don't let the beta word scare you.

When using ThrottleStop 7, you need to be aware of a couple of bugs in Intel XTU and CPUID HWMonitor. If you adjust your turbo boost multipliers or your CPU voltage using ThrottleStop and then you start up Intel XTU, what XTU reports will not be accurate. XTU assumes that it is the one and only program that can make these adjustments so it does not read the current values from the CPU. It just assumes that your CPU will be using the same values that it was using last time you ran XTU. If you make changes in ThrottleStop while XTU is running, the same thing will happen. XTU will continue to report the previous values. This is definitely confusing because everyone assumes that Intel wrote XTU so it must always be right. It is not.

The problem with CPUID HWMonitor is that it is not reporting negative offset voltages correctly. It appears to report positive CPU offset voltages correctly but it does not interpret the data in the voltage register correctly when you switch to a negative offset. Here's an example.

http://i.imgur.com/l1GA4Su.png

A typical and generally safe and stable offset voltage would be approximately -40 mV. Without ThrottleStop running, I used XTU to set a -40 mV offset and HWMonitor reports that as +2.007 volts.

If I was actually feeding my CPU an additional 2 volts, it would have been dead a long time ago. Last time I checked HWiNFO, it also had this same reporting bug. If you look at the VID voltage after applying a -40 mV offset voltage, you will see the VID drop by approximately this amount.

The offset voltage feature in ThrottleStop has been thoroughly tested and it is definitely working correctly. It is just not being reported correctly by two of the most popular monitoring apps.

When using Intel XTU and ThrottleStop at the same time, trust ThrottleStop. It checks the turbo multipliers and CPU voltage more frequently than Intel XTU does so ThrottleStop will remain accurate.

Thanks ATG for testing out ThrottleStop on your Y50. Your temperatures were great so I do not agree with Lenovo's decision to disable Intel Turbo Boost while gaming. ThrottleStop lets the user decide if Turbo Boost should be enabled or not. ThrottleStop allows an Intel CPU to run at its full rated speed which is exactly the way Intel wants all of their CPUs to run. Using ThrottleStop will not interfere with the thermal throttling temperature set by Intel. If a CPU ever gets too hot, it will throttle to protect itself from damage.

 

Hey guys, for those who bought their model with the external dvd drive (LG GP60NB50), are you finding any compatibility issues with it and the Y50? it doesn't seem to work for me, although the drive itself does work when plugged into another machine.

 

I bought the model that came with the external DVD drive, and I was able to just plug and play

 

I'm in the same boat as vamp1980, and I'm also a noob, so I just wanna make sure I'm understanding it right... Looking at my TS (no settings changed), it looks like you,

-unchecked BD PROCHOT
-checked Log File
-checked Set Multiplier (but didn't change the value? mine's at "36T" as well)
-clicked "Turn On"

Anything else? It seemed like a few other people in this thread were changing values and numbers, but I don't see where you did that.

Sorry, I feel like a child needing everything spelled out for me. I'm just not intuitively understanding it, even after reading the TS thread. And if I ruin this laptop, I'm in serious trouble...

 

Hmm I think the newest version of the bios turned the thermal settings much harshly. my cpu now runs at 1.8ghz when playing crysis and the temps were around like 68C

EDIT:
yeah this has definitely made it worse, now running a stress test this thing is maintaining that 80C temp on the CPU and throttling it to 800mhz