Second-hand thinkpad x301 owner's thread.

That 60Wh battery has been floating around for quite some time. I was wondering if it was real, now we know it's a fake. 40Wh is about the capacity of a new battery. (43Wh)

2h is way too little. I get 2,5h out of 35Wh when I do some heavy surfing, listen to some music and watch Youtube. You should get more than 3 hours when you just do some surfing.

The only way to extend battery life is to swap the DVD drive for the bay battery with 23Wh. Should give you another 2 hours.

 

Do you recommend using the Ultrabay battery? I'm considering an X301 as a back-up Thinkpad.

 

If you just use the X301 as a backup I don't see any need for the bay battery. It's only advisable if you use it as a primary machine and need to take it along very often, thus relying on battery life.

 

Okay cool. What do you think is a fair price for an X301 with and without an SSD (in Germany)?

 

Mine cost 200€ without SSD and dvd drive but otherwise good condition. So around 200-250€.

 

You probably can't use the PM system because what you have produced so far is spam.

 

In my personal life i have 2 notebook`s (apple/toshiba) but with Thinkpad X301 It was love at first sight !!!
Thx to all who share with us your experience with this little brilliant piece of technology wich is x301.

I want to make an upgrade to my Thinkpad X301 64GB SSD, my friend have an mSATA Samsung SSD 256GB (model MZ-MPC2560) for sale on a good price, and i thinking to buy it from him!

I want to use it with a mSATA to MICROSAta adapter :
this is the SSD model : Samsung mSATA Mini PCI E 256GB SSD MZ MPC2560 for Dell M6400 Samsung 900X3C | eBay

this is the adaptor : Convertor mSATA SSD - micro SATA de vanzare in magazinul online Conrad - German Electronics

i need your expert advice, is this configuration compatible with my X301 ?

And in other word 600X, could I get your color profile and the modded BIOS? [ i know is my first post, may i wait till i count 5 ?! ]

thx in advance !


PS: pls excuse my bad english !

 

The mSATA adapter looks similar to my one, I'm using this setup with a 256GB Plextor mSATA SSD and experienced no problems in my X301. You will need to make a tab (I used black electrical tape) at the end so you can easily remove it in the future.

 

PatchySan thx for your reply !
good point about the tab made from electrical tape at the end - i noted :thumbsup:

and ..oh - Merry Xmas Everybody!!!!

 

I just applied new BIOS (thanks to 600X) and now I have a concern about CPU temprature.

I sligthly cleaned dust and now it is 62-64C without workload @1.6Ghz. Is it too high or normal?
And I noticed that X301 has emergency shut off when temprature reaches 90C.

 

Just send me a PM once you are able to.

It shouldn't go above 50. Have you tried renewing the thermal paste?

Also try switching on speedstep again and see if it makes a difference.

 

62-64c does seem a bit high for idle temps, did you fully clean the heatsink? It probably be wise to apply a fresh set of thermal paste on the CPU for good measure. Disassembly instructions can be found on the X301 Hardware Maintenance Manual.

 

Thanks guys!

I read manual several years ago when I looked into the CPU replacement and I figured out that reaching CPU is really difficult operation because we need to disassemble almost whole X301 including LCD. Or it's really simple in fact? Please advise if you did it!

One more question is about ThrottleStop. I found that it reset multiplier to 6.0 after resuming from stand-by or hibernate mode. I tried to find solution in the internet but I couldn't find if anyone faced with the same issue.

 

The CPU is soldered and not replaceable. The entire board needs to be replaced if you'd like to replace the CPU.

 

Do you know if there are any aftermarket Bay Batteries that surely make smooth transition to Main Battery when threy are empty? Some chinese batteries that have been tried shut down the machine when Bay Battery reaches 0% even though Main Battery has power left

 

I wasn't even aware of after market bay batteries. My tip is to just take along a few 6c batteries. They last longer than the bay and are cheaper to come by.

 

Hello 600X and Others !
How did you get the ThrottleStop to resume multiplier to 8x after sleep and hibernate modes?

 

I don't use ThrottleStop so you'll have to ask someone else.

 

Anyone tried an intel SSD larger than 160gb in their X301?

 

I have an **x300** with a 256gb toshiba THNSFC256GAMJ ssd. (I have the hacked
bios for the x300 which sets sata to 3gbs as well)

 

Yes. Quite a few people, actually.

Check here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=97946

 

can someone tell me if this bay battery is ok for x301? :

Battpit™ Laptop / Notebook Battery Replacement: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

i understand that exist some problem with the compatible bay battery , once the secondary battery is drained the system goes immediate shutdown rather than using the primary battery !

 

So I snapped up an X301 for myself now . A little high at 290€ but they seem to have gained popularity and are selling for over 250 on average now. I basically insta-bought it as soon as the seller put it up, lucky as there were already 6 people monitoring it even though it was a brand new entry.

 

Quadrahelix congratulations for your X301 !!! :thumbsup:
welcome to the club

 

Grats. Funny, in some small way, threads like this helped the resurgence in interest in the X301. I love mine and use it 8hrs or more every business day. With Lenovo going to a new KB, the X301 looks even better. I have no idea what I will ever replace it with.

 

Thanks . I've seen multiple references to a third-party BIOS, what is the advantage of using a different BIOS?

 

Right now there is not real comparable replacement to the X301. The 13" E6330/E6340 is so thick and heavy, nothing like X301. Only the new X1 Carbon comes close, the X1 is a pretty poor replacement for the X301. But with the X1C, you get the new keyboard, which I refuse to touch.

Lenovo whitelists WLAN cards, you could install non Lenovo branded WLAN cards, like Killer WLAN cards or if you have a higher end WLAN card but it doesn't have a Lenovo variant, you could install it. Lenovo whitelists same generation WLAN cards as well.

 

I have an X1, and while it certainly follows the footsteps of the X301, it still is a different kind of machine. Still a better replacement than the X1C though, at least in my opinion. The X1C is more of a generic Ultrabook whereas the X1 still has a heart and soul.

 

Does the X301 play nice with Windows 8, as far as drivers go? I have Win8 on my X230 and I have one or two minor issues with drivers. I don't use Access Connections. On my X230 I use the Win7 Energy Manager to switch between Max Performance and Max Runtine, but I would expect to permantently leave the X301 on an energy-saving mode. So I wouldn't necessarily need it either.

 

I use my X301 with Win 8. Almost everything runs OOTB. I also use the power manager. The only thing that needed a workaround was WWAN.

 

Okay awesome, thanks. Apparently my model will have a WWAN module but I doubt I will be using it. Can you describe what you had to in case I decide to throw in a 250mb SIM?

 

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=107123

 

Hello Guys!

Who tried to disassemle X301 to get access to CPU? Is it really complex or in fact it's easy with Hardware manual?

 

I have already disassembled my X301 completely to exchange the thermal paste. I definitely recommend using the HMM. It's not very difficult but it is very time consuming because the X301 uses a lot of screws and is made up of many individual parts. For example, even the VGA port is detached from the mainboard and needs to be removed separately.

 

Is there any way to preserve the color calibration settings? Every reboot seems to reset them to the terrible factory blue hue.

Also, is there a recommended calibration profile for this machine? I can't seem to get it right.

Thanks

Edit: Also, is there a Middleton BIOS or something that can speed things up? I have a 250gig Crucial SSD installed (Win 7) and it really seems slow. If not, does the X300 Middleton BIOS work on this machine?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...s-cap-willing-pay-solution-8.html#post6501443

 

You need to disable the Intel Driver otherwise it will override the color settings. In Windows 8, this is not necessary any more, only in older Windows versions.

The X301 already has SATA II.

 

As far I'm aware there is no SATA cap that was seen on the Merom based ThinkPads so a modified BIOS is not necessary (also please don't flash the X300 BIOS as you will risk bricking the system). What sort of speeds are you getting on your SSD? Below are the results of my SSD on my X301 and I find it more than adequate for my day to day usage.

 

Did someone implemented pinmod to increase CPU frequency more than with BIOS mod?

 

The CPUs on X series are soldered on the board, not socketed, so unless one has access to a re-balling station and knows how to use it, there's no swapping the CPU let alone pin-modding it since there are no pins...

 

Pin Modding is possible, that way you can increase the SU9400 from 1,4GHz to 1,86GHz and the SU9600 from 1,6GHz to 2,13GHz. Links can be found in the start post.

 

Well, I can't make heads or tails out of the thread since I don't speak Chinese and the Google translation is gawdawful, but from little that I'm gathering it's not a conventional pinmod...

 

Luckily a few people have done this Core 2 Duo "pinmod" in this forum. So if necessary you can just ask someone who did it before or look at some English instructions: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...itude-e4300-owners-corner-48.html#post8150336

 

600X, could you send me your colour profile and perhaps a link to the modded BIOS? That'd be great. I'm expecting my unit early next week.

 

Just wanted to say, I also bought a Thinkpad x301 on ebay after reading this thread. Excited for it to come in!

 

I was looking at a used X301, alot of them do have some kind of crack/defect along the chassis, and debating between an X200 tablet or another cheap ultraportable.

 

I just finished to install WinPro 8.1 x64 on my little X301, everything run smooth and OOTB !
The only problem that need some workaround is WWAN and Bluetooth, but with a little search and guide found here on forum everything is ok now !
I use Chrome browser and try to play some video on youtube, 720p and 1080p , but it seems that he is struggling to play these sorts of video !?!
I use the video driver installed default by Microsoft after some updates, on Intel site they say i have the latest driver.
Someone who experience the same problem with HD video ?
any suggestions are welcomed....

I also thinking to buy a half mini pci - BroadCom Crystal HD High Definition Video Decoder Card 'BCM70015 /AzureWave AW-VD920H
So has anybody installed BCM70015 in the Half Mini PCI-e slot?

 

Could you describe the problems you are experiencing because my X301 plays back High Definition content fine including in 1080p mode. That said I am using Windows 7 Professional x64 with Lenovo’s Video Driver and not the generic video driver found on Windows Update.

 

My X301 has no problems with 1080p flash either. I'm using Firefox and Windows 8.

Note: Windows 7 and 8 already have the Intel drivers. Generic drivers are only used when the GPU is not recognized by Windows, but that's not the case with the 4500MHD.

 

The generic video drivers will work fine out of the box but I'm just picky and wanted the brightness display to work as well which is only visible with the Lenovo driver.

​

 

On the topic of the On Screen Display, has anyone got the FN-F5 combo to work on Windows 8? I want the Lenovo overlay that shows the Bluetooth and Wifi switches, not this Metro crap that Win8 gives you ( I have an X230 with Win8.1 Pro 64). Right now pressing FN-F5 toggles the Airplane mode which also switches the battery mode to airplane which is retarded. The hardware switch achieves the same thing. I had at some point installed some OSD driver which fixed this specific issue but it broke some of the other FN shortcuts such as lock (F3). Help.