New Y460 and Y560 Ideapads

hmm.. I'm not exactly sure to be honest with you I'll time again how long it takes until mine dies

I'll try to make it pretty detailed and take screenshots of everything lol. We'll see what happens

 

hay all, really liking my y460. Can who ever can do a few tests for me and report back to me. First is when you have your battery out and laptop hooked up to the power adapter can you turn on your ideapad? Also is anyone getting a message "pluged in not charging" message sometimes if you scroll over your battery indicator in the tool bar? Thanks for the help! So far everthing else has been a dream. Games very well, multimedia is great and overall a great laptop.

 

Is that feature only available to i5 version of the processor?

Yes it does. They both have the same hinge.

 

I've been noticing that lately with the battery. When I plug in my laptop and start it up, it'll show not charging. But I just unplug it and plug it back in and all is good. Not sure what would cause this...

 

well if there was some more dang ppl paying attention to this thread lol!...anyone else? I think it may be driver releated/firmware/power plan something...I made a post here( link), someone else has the same thing too over there. Hope we can get this sorted out quickly...Its not like its a hardware defect, its just for some reason the battery charging wont initilize for what ever reason, sounds like an easy enough problem to fix, everything else is a++ on this machine, but something as basic as not being able to charge the battery is just fundamentals.

 

From what i have seen the switchable graphics is only on the i5 and i3 models.

 

Here's an update after having my y460 for about 6 months:

The notebook's great - I'm a pretty heavy user using multiple virtual machines and routers and the thing never skipped a beat. The model was the i5 with 4Gb ram.

My major gripes with it was the flimsy keyboard - Macs, thinkpads, sony's pretty much kick the keyboard's butt. Not a fan but you get used to it pretty quickly. The heat can get pretty high when the cpu is pegged but you get used to that as well. I didn't normally have it on my bed/lap when I stressed it.

I'm talking about it in the past tense as the monitor backlight failed on me - the computer still worked but I just couldn't make out anything on the screen! Sent it back to the repair centre where everything was meant to get fixed... only the problem was that my notebook somehow got lost/stolen from the repair centre! No idea how it happened and didn't get any details but Lenovo just sent me a brand new one - even better is that they pimped it.

Now I've got a y460 i7 (2.66 up to 3.33Ghz), 8GB of ram with the 640GB + 32GB SSD rapid drive, sweet!

Haven't tested the battery yet - I'm expecting the i7 to have an impact on that but I am interested in the rapid drive. What I'm doing right now is replacing the standard 640GB HD and replacing it with a 500GB Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive... So I'll be running the Seagate hybrid (500GB with 4GB SSD) along with the built in 32GB SSD for a hybrid powered hybrid setup! If the notebook decides to divide by zero and the universe explodes when I turn this sucker on you'll know it's me

 

I Really like the keyboard on it, theres a bit of flex on the right but besides that its solid as a rock. You have to compare it to other laptops in its category I would think. No macbooks have an 1 gigabyte dedicated 5650 chip in them and if you look at other keyboads Im sure you would be thankfull how nice it actually is. Lenovo knows how to make a keyboard, they make the best with there thinkpads. If I was to review the machine right now I would say taking into consideration whats on the market for keyboads I would leave the keyboard slight plus to neither pro or con. I know exatly what you mean by the flimsy remark but you have to take into consideration this laptop has everything but the kitchen sink added to it.

That bites about the backlight. Backlights are a pain to DIY fix, Iv seen videos of it done.

 

Switchable graphics is on all dual-core i-series processors. The quad-core i7s have two extra cores in place of a GPU.

 

Has anyone update the ati graphic driver with switchable graphic ?
Mine is last updated from Lenovo driver download which is
AMD Graphics Driver 8.752

 

I have the same driver, my video card switches just fine from integrated to the ati.

 

The problem is most likely due to Windows 7 and your Power management. Every once in a while mine will say I need to replace the battery and it won't charge. There is nothing wrong with the battery, just Windows 7 incorrectly reads the battery.

Your problem is likely a little different than mine. Try this: Plugged in, not charging Windows 7 solution : Jeffrey Palermo (.com)

I'm 99% sure it is a software issue rather than a hardware issue.

 

Hi all,

I recently received my new Y460 (i5 460M, with Radeon 5650 switchable graphics, Win 7 Home Prem x64) but I have a couple questions.

1. When I'm running Intel's integrated graphics and unplug from AC power the screen flashes and turns off for a second before coming back on. This puzzles me since the gpu isn't switching to ATI graphics, it's just switching from AC to battery. I expected screen flashes when switching gpu's but not when unplugging from AC power... Every other laptop I've owned never had screen flashes when removing the power cord. Does this happen for everyone else? If so, is there a way to stop the flashing?

2. Also, I've noticed that when I'm running ATI graphics and then switch power profiles (e.g. from High Performance to Energy Star, etc.) the screen brightness doesn't change. I have the profiles set to different brightness levels in Lenovo's Energy Management tool and the brightness levels do change fine when running Intel graphics. They just don't change when switching power profiles under ATI graphics. Has this been anyone else's experience as well? I did previously update the ATI graphics driver to the latest version (10.12) via AlbuquerqueFX's suggestion ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/453345-new-y460-y560-ideapads-178.html#post6699303)), so I'm not sure if this is just a side-effect of the new ATI driver or not (I can't remember if it had this problem under the old ATI driver). Incidentally, right now when I'm running ATI graphics screen brightness options disappear entirely under Windows 7's "Power Options." They only return when I switch back to Intel graphics. Weird. Can anyone else comment on this?

Thanks!

 

Just ordered a y460 I want to replace the Hard Drive with a 7200 one but I don't want to lose the graphic switching, is that downloadable from somewhere or will I need to clone the drive. If so how do I clone a drive? thanks

 

1) The reason why it the screen goes blank when pulling is because the screen changes from 60Htz to 40Htz. I don't know if there is a setting to change this or not.

2) My brightness hardly ever does what I tell it to. I'm running 10.4? The only thing that may effect this is the Windows power management. Check the settings in there and see if the settings are different than Lenovo's power management.

Here are all of the drivers: Lenovo Ideapad Support & downloads - Drivers & Downloads

No need to clone the hard drive unless you already have the hardware and software needed to do it.

You can always make a your own Windows 7 disk and do a clean install. http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/428068-legal-windows-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

 

@yoyoms
I also switched the factory 5400 rpm Hard Drive with a 7200 rpm one. When I did it I installed the new drive, put the old one in a 2.5" external hard drive enclosure, and cloned the drive using a free Clonezilla Live cd. I just followed the instructions for using Clonezilla on this website: Disk to disk clone
It worked well!

 

Thanks for the info! I'll spend a little time and see if I can get the screen frequency to stop changing automatically. If anyone knows how to do this I'd love to hear it. Interestingly the auto-frequency change for the screen only happens for me when unplugging on Intel graphics. When running ATI graphics there is no frequency change when unplugging. Is that the case for you as well?

The brightness settings are the same in Lenovo's power management and Windows (running Intel graphics). However, when running ATI graphics there is no way to check the brightness settings in Windows power management. The brightness settings are simply not there when running ATI! I get the feeling that this is why the brightness levels don't change when unplugging while running ATI graphics. Can anyone else check to see if these brightness adjustment options are present in Windows power management when they're running the ATI gpu? It could be be that the ATI driver upgrade I did (v10.12) may have messed this up if these settings are gone on my machine alone.

 

Here are all of the drivers: Lenovo Ideapad Support & downloads - Drivers & Downloads



I'm guessing that the AMD graphics driver is what makes it switchable...Do I download them in order I'm leaning toward this method since I can get a windows 7 disc and the clean install looks like the easiest method

 

You're going to want nearly all the drivers so your system will run correctly.(Intel, AMD, etc.) You should have all of the drivers already on your computer. Mine came with a partitioned drive that had them all there. But if you don't or don't have a place to put them; yes you can download them from the site one by one.

 

Theres also software that comes with it called onekey that will let you take an image of the entire system for factory settings which is like 12 gigs I think or more, and then if you have a set of duel layer dvd's you can burn them all on 3 or if you have an external drive just put the image on that.

 

thanks for the help

 

Ahhh okay, yeah tha makes sense. Thanks a bunch

 

I ran both 3dmark programs out now, 11 and 06. I had 44 processes running in the backround so take note of that and this is stock drivers/clocks out of the box.

Result
3dmark11 didnt use the entire screen.

Result
3dmark06, what can I say its been out mega long time, I ran my alienware p4 3.2 ghz machine on it and scored 760 5 years ago at 800x600resolutions. After gaming considerably on the machine and instaling some stuff, I had a 7604 score i think out of the box when I first got it but Iv got more processes running now.

 

Yeah 3dmark11 ran at a strange aspect ratio that did not take up the whole screen for me because of ATI's scaling; I changed the native resolution to 1280 x 720 and it ran at the correct aspect ratio. However both times I got around 1300 for my score, so it didn't seem to affect it.

 

Are you guys running stock out-of-box factory drivers? Jeffrey, you are, right?

I can't wait til when mine arrives! in March 29th (sigh)

 

yup, I sure am. On a side note I bought call of duty black ops today and the game is great , Iv never played an COD game but this laptop runs it all maxed out with no slow downs(besides 8x AA(i use 2xaa)) but I wouldnt doubt that it could run it at 8x. Ill post a video of it in the gaming section tomarrow.

 

I love almost everything about my new Y560 (much better than my 460, mostly due to the larger screen) except for the GPU temps. When running Prime95 and Furmark, my CPU maxes at about 85 which, as far as I can tell, is normal, but the GPU climbs to 95+. Can anyone else with an i7 y560 confirm what temps they are getting when they put it under the same load?

 

If your in a heated room that will make a big difference, let the room cool down before doing stress tests to get an accurate number. Electronics and heaters dont mix, you need to keep your lab/computer office/what ever cool like more then usual especially when stressing them. Of course this is bias to some extent, just like a datacenter has to keep pushing air through it to keep tempertaures below 60 degrees fahrenheit your laptop should get the same treatment.

In the winter time I actually keep a window open when gaming for 4-10 hours at a time. Keeps my temps below 80 celsius most the time.

 

I'm in CA so no need to use a heater, temps inside are pretty normal. I modded the VBIOS to undervolt the GPU which helped a bit, but I still think I'll re-paste the heatsinks to see if that helps any more.

 

y560
740 qm tdp 45(per core)
idle: 3h 25 minutes
video:2 h

i5 35 tdp (per core) and has switchable graphics

syberia: how do you mod the vbios on the y560?

 

A couple of people have gotten new motherboards when they sent theirs in due to too much heat. I don't feel like digging through old posts, but someone had temperatures were near yours and dropped after being fixed. See what the paste does of course.

 

Well it's entirely likely that the "new motherboard" didn't fix the temps at all, rather the fact that they had to remove and reseat the heatsink did.

 

Im confused, you had a y460 a week ago now you have a y560 that has already had a mobo exchange?

The temps in your room may be to high for your laptop especially since you live in a place like CA. Just using a cooler isnt going to cut it if you even are. You will have to air condition the room more then the rest of the house and keep it cooler where ever it is your going to be doing your intense stuff with it I would think. If your tems arnt going above 95 which is very resonable then I dont think there is a problem. I know jokers(here on NBR) m17x he said reaches 91 celsius when hardcore benching. It happens, you just have to counter act it.

 

No, I have a Y460 which is having its motherboard replaced at the moment. As soon as I get it back, I'm going to sell it while it's still in nearly-brand-new condition to hopefully get back most of the money I paid for it. When I sent it in, I also purchased a Y560 for myself to keep, because I didn't like the 460's small screen.

And despite living in CA, it's only 50-60 degrees right now. If that's "too hot" to be operating my laptop, then as far as I'm concerned it is improperly engineered and I'll be wanting my money back. When it's 90 degrees out, I run the A/C for my own comfort as well so that's not an issue

As long as the maximum it hits is 90 under the highest load possible, I'll probably just live with it. I never game without it being on a smooth, flat surface anyways. I just with they made a 9-cell or even 12-cell battery for these, both for the additional running time it would provide and because it would elevate the back of the unit, allowing for extra cooling.

 

I don't think you'll be able to mod the VBIOS with a quad core. =[

 

I just did it yesterday, so it is possible. You have to extract the Radeon VBIOS from a freshly downloaded system BIOS update, edit it, put it back together, and flash it. If you look at page 8 or 9 in the 5650 overclocking thread in the gaming forum, you'll find more instructions.

 

Sweet...I had heard differently, but you are living proof that my sources are wrong. My guess is he was referring to the software undervolting.

How much of a difference did the undervolting make? Seen any stability problems?

Also, let us know if re-applying paste was beneficial, and which type of paste you used.

 

Well, the undervolt lowered my GPU temps by at least 5 degrees (I say at least because I stopped Furmark at 95 degrees with stock voltage but it was still rising); it holds steady at 90 not with both Furmark and Prime95 running and the CPU has cooled off by about 3 degrees as well because there's less residual heat being produced by the GPU.

I'll be re-pasting the heatsink today more than likely, as well as putting some rubber "feet" from Home Deopt on the underside of the laptop to raise it a few mm off the ground to allow for more airflow.

 

I guess it dosnt bother me as much but 50-60 degrees is still hot and Im sure your room is hotter then that by a good margin. Your laptop wont cool it self if the room is to hot like I say. Besides there hasnt been any cases where the laptop has just stoped working cause of the heat that I have read. Unless you make it a major issue I dont think there is reason to think its not doing what its suppose to do.

 

Well, I seem to have solved my problem with a quick trip to Home Depot. I bought a pack of 3/4" thick plastic "feet" and stuck two of them to the back of the laptop, raising it off the ground slightly and allowing more air underneath. Now my GPU maxes at 82 and the CPU at 76. Those temps are acceptable.

Given that most people probably buy these things and don't even know how to check their temps, I'm a little annoyed that Lenovo would design such a poor cooling system. The same goes for Intel and their #$@& desktop quad core heatsinks.

EDIT: And now that I've spent a good 5 or so hours with the laptop in proper operating condition (Windows and all necessary software installed, temp issues fixed), my initial impressions are completely positive. In fact, I'm sitting here in bed next to the wife, sans clothes, with a handy little lap table/mouse pad to give me a flat surface and playing Bad Company 2. Performance is actually a bit better than the Y460 I used for a couple days before this, probably due to the extra 2 CPU cores. Running the same settings in BFBC2 that I was before, I now get a consistent 40-60 (and usually closer to 60) fps, where before I would dip into the high 20s during parts with lots of action or smoke. The difference in GPU alone can't explain this, as I was running 5730 clocks on my Y460 and am running stock clocks currently.

I find the extra 1.6" of screen real estate to be the main reason I like this laptop more; I don't have to squint to see enemies in my crosshairs. I wish I had a higher resolution for general Windows desktop work, though. Does anyone know if it's possible to swap a 900p/1080p screen from another laptop into one of these?

My max temperatures while gaming are now about 70 for the CPU and 78 for the GPU. And the damn glossy border around the keyboard is a fingerprint magnet. Which reminds me, is there another laptop, perhaps a Thinkpad or something, which uses the same size keyboard but is backlit so I could swap it in?

 

I received my y460 today

Haven't opened yet, but was more than satisfied and surprised by Lenovo's fast shipping (took 4 days).

Now all I need is a laptop cooler from Zalman and I'll be set

 

You probably don't even need one. My 460 wouldn't go above 80 on both the CPU and GPU sitting on a flat table when maxed out with Prime95 and Furmark.

 

True, but it helps the ram, wireless card, etc. from getting too hot. Plus, it doesn't allow the ink on the COA to melt.

 

That's what ABR is for

The first thing I do with any new computer is to make a permanent backup of the Windows activation information. Key code in a Word file and backup the activation with ABR.

 

As long as you have something like this you wont need a cooler. I also use a oscillating fan on the floor and shoot cold air up from the window, my temps jumped 15 degrees cooler after doing this rather then just letting it sit on the hard wood surface. The gpu and cpu intake is in between where the notebook pad rasies the middle up as you can see in the first picture.

 

Yeah I had the same thought however I didn't want to have to carry a separate cooler/stand around with me. I ended up just attaching some 1/2" rubber "feet" to the bottom of the laptop and even the small gap it created was enough to lower the temps significantly.

 

I was suprised how low my temps have become, they dont go over 75 celsius now playing 5 straight hours of COD black ops hah! This is really great, I just needed some more air flow underneath.

 

If anyone's interested in purchasing a (nearly) new Y460 with about a week's worth of use on it in 5 days or so (Lenovo replaced the motherboard and shipped it back today, just waiting for it to arrive), please let me know. Asking $750 shipped.

It has the i5 460, Radeon 5650m, 4gb RAM, and 500gb HDD. I'll throw in an extra power cord I bought for the thing but no longer need as well.

 

I thought they were going to just replace the bios chip?

 

Yes, I was surprised by my y460. I have it elevated by using an accounting textbook on one side and using dvd cases on the other lol (temporarily).

The fan is quieter than my retired/broken XPS m1330 when playing games and is MUCH cooler too. I was skeptical about plastic materials plus mixed reviews on the hinges but build quality is solid and superb.

On stock out-of-box drivers with bloatware I'm running Bioshock 2 on max settings w/o hiccups. Simply amazing. Besides, I like the SlideNav and VeriFace programs. Not sure about Smiledock tho.

My wireless connections is very slow. Perhaps changing it to WPA2 Personal with QoS enabled will fix it?
Wireless-N Not Working - Lenovo Community