T400: Heat/Battery life w/ Windows 7

Hey all,

I finally installed Windows 7 on my T400. It is running way hotter than it did with Vista & Lenovo's pre-configured stuff. I had a couple of automatic shutdowns prior to installing Lenovo's Power Manager (and turning off the Windows media sharing service) but it's still hotter than before. Battery life used to be well over 4h with Vista & now it's just bit over 2h.

I'm guessing that 1) I need to configure Power Manager better and 2) I may need to install more Lenovo specific stuff? Also, it seems that the integrated graphics are in use (blue icon in tray), but I did install the ATI driver too. Any tips would be *most* appreciated.

thanks!

 

If you are using switchable graphics, there is currently an issue with the drivers that switches on both the discrete and integrated graphics when resuming from sleep. A workaround is to switch to discrete graphics and then back to integrated, until Lenovo fixes this.

 

OK. Now for whatever reason I can't seem to switch to discrete. Tried reinstalling ATI drivers too.

 

Did you download them from Lenovo or ATI? You cannot maintain switchable graphics while using ATI's drivers. Go to lenovo.com and download System Update 4 and get all drivers and utilities and see how it runs after the proper lenovo issued stuff.

Other issue could be if switchable is enabled and when coming out of sleep. There still is a bug in the switchable driver where coming out of sleep the computer will use both GPUs which sucks up power and creates more heat.

 

I downloaded all my drivers from Lenovo - I'll try the System Update and see how it goes. Supposedly Catalyst is installed but only the blue Intel icon is showing in the tray. Right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Graphics Properties brings up the Intel config screen too.

 

I hate to say it, but I’ve become quite disenchanted by the switchable graphics hack. Microsoft, clearly, does not recommend it— http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2942—and the Power Manager-only method of switching is limiting. As such, I have simply moved to the internal graphics chip—and my ATI chip is nearly useless.

Nice idea, but poorly executed. I will likely not buy another switchable graphics machine in the future—unless I absolutely need it.

 

If you have a problem with either gpu driver,
1) manually download the switchable gpu driver
2) change to non-switch and dedicated gpu in bios
3) remove ATI driver
4) manually install the downloaded switchable gpu driver
5) reboot as requested
6) confirm ATI driver operating
7) go back to bios and choose integrated and non-switch gpu
8) reboot as requested
9) confirm integrated intel gpu driver operating.
10) Now that both gpu's operate properly in their non-switch modes, you can enable switch-mode.
Go back to bios, and enable switchable gpu operation for both gpu's (2 entries).

 

The switchable works fine on my T400 running Windows 7 (aside from the standby issue), so it's likely just a driver conflict/issue.

Uninstall the ATI and integrated drivers, let windows install the integrated drivers, then go through Lenovo's system update and download the switchable driver. See if that works.

Hope this helps.

 

Which battery do you have? On my T400 with integrated graphics and 6-cell battery I get about three-and-a-half hours of battery life, and that's with a custom-configured battery plan in Power Manager and Windows power options.

 

You need to have the switchable driver which has both intel and ATI software to use the switching function. between that and a configured power manager should fix most of your issues. As for the heat I have noticed no heat differences since going to windows 7 back in late October/early November.

 

Lenovo System Update ran fine, I updated most items. Overall it still seems hot, though I haven't had any shutdowns since the 2 after the initial install.

 

I had the exact same problem, I just upgraded the BIOS and switched it to integrated in the BIOS. Whenever I need to use the ATI graphics card (rarely) I just got into the BIOS and change it, the drivers seem to be glitchy and it didn't help with the battery/heat issue

 

Any tips on the heat? I really don't think the fan is running nearly as much as it should. I'm not too bothered about the switchable graphics issue - I'm ok with using the integrated graphics for now.