T430 Owner's Thread

The slice plugs into the bottom of the t430 where you sually connect the t430 to a dock for instance. It does not have its own power connector. I will make sure to change the threshold settings and I believe my blue tooth is always activated which is annoying.

 

Also, where is there a setting in power manager to turn off bluetooth? I cant seem to find it unless I just disable it from device manager. Thanks!

 

Fn + F5 shows window for turning on/off WiFi and/or Bluetooth.

 

Thats what I thought but for some reason it never works for me haha. I installed my bluetooth and wifi drivers right after a clean install however that combo of keys never brings up any options. Maybe I have a setting turned off but thank you.

Power manager also seems to be causing problems so I uninstalled it . My computer would start up extremely slow even if laptop was set to optimal performance. Right after uninstall my boot time went back to normal. Not sure why but I will mis those threshold settings I had just set up!

 

You must install Hotkey Features Integration ( T430 drivers page, hotkey installer, hotkey readme).

Clean install of Windows is not that "clean" without certain Lenovo drivers and applications.

 

I was almost positive I had already installed that but I could be very wrong. Thanks and I will definately check that after work!

Has anyone found a compatible lcd display to upgrade t430 screen? I have already upgraded cpu , ssd, ram, but my only conscern is the screen. I put in a hd+ one in a t430 I sold but it was an oem screen. Is there any aftermarket that are better and compatible that are fhd or hd+ ? Possibly IPS?


Also, what in power manager could cause the computer to slow down rediculiously despite having optimal performance? As stated before the boot time increased to about a minute after installing the program.

Thanks

 

Thinking about buying one of these but hate systems that show fingerprints - does the T430 show prints on either the lid or palm rest?

 

On the lid. (The greasy prints stay in the rubberized material. The more you wipe it, the worse it looks.)

Also, watch out for the "so so" screen.

 

Hmm I think that would drive me insane! Why don't manufacturers use matte materials throughout?!

 

Driven by "corporate/business" requirements?

 

As far as I know there is no full HD 14" screen, the best you can get is 1600x900 and you can't really get anything better than that unless you use Alienware M14x's screen, which has better colors (I can vaguely remember reading something about it on this forum) but it's glossy. I don't think there's a 14" IPS screen either.

Try reinstalling your power management software, never had any issue with it.

 

It is matte material, the rubber finish is actually a loved feature of the T series. The palm rest is just regular hard plastic that doesn't show any signs of fingerprint, but I'd rather it has the rubber finish.

 

T420 and T430 ultrabay supports SATAIII

 

Ok guys, why should I buy a T430 over a Latitude E6430? Shoot...

 

Personally I like T430's design better, keyboard feels better, base model has 6-cell vs Dell's 4-cell, and it's cheaper with coupons. But you can't go wrong with E6430, it's a nice machine with many features missing from the T430 (full size ExpressCard, HDMI, and eSATA).

 

I have both a T430 and a Latitude E6410, and while I like the metal case of the E6410, my T430 is more portable and has better cooling management (the temp never went above 85C). Fan noise wise, T430 is quieter also (even without tpFanControl).

 

Thanks, which us the most comfortable to use?

 

Most comfortable to use? A T520 with FHD screen and "old" keyboard.

 

LOL... between the E6410 (I also own an E6400 and love it) and the T430? The E6400 is the benchmark for me.

 

The E6410 is really no means by which to judge an E6430 (which is what you are considering, right?); they are totally different machines in totally different chassis. I also like the T430 more than E6430 in a physical sense, but I consider Dell's warranty program to be way better than Lenovo's.

Concerning the comfort of a T430 and an E6430: if you're really big on the whole TP keyboard thing (especially if you are a TrackPoint kind of person), the T430 is obviously the way to go, but I don't think you should expect anything "bad" from the E6430 either.

 

Thanks, the two in contention are the E6430 and the T430. I was only asking how the keyboard of the T430 compares to that of the E6410 because I have an E6400 and that in my book is perfect in terms of size and typing comfort.

I'm trying to find a more suitable replacement for the XPS 14 UltraBook that I bought in the summer. I should have stuck with my tried and tested Latitudes rather than get suckered in by a marketing gimmick. Looks great, built well - but the keys have the tactile feedback of an iPad!

I like the T430 due to its smaller footprint than the E6430 - it's more like my old E6400 than the latest Latitude. However, my only reservations are: unknown quantity with the keyboard,the ABS palmrest compared to the mag alloy if the E6430 and the potentially fingerprint prone rubberised lid.

With the E6430 my concerns are its large size - it's as big as and old 16:9 15 incher, and I gather its lid is also a bit fingerprintastic?

So which to buy...

 

Funny, you go to a ThinkPad forum and ask those who frequent the ThinkPad forum whether you should buy a T430?

If you happened to see my ThinkPad collection since the IBM days, you would know my answer. Not all of them are good. Each of them is bad in at least one way. But I like them.

At the same time, I LOVE my Dell XPS 15 L502X (2011) with FHD screen (B156HW01 V.7).

You can order a T430 and, if you can't stand it for some reason, you just return it, or sell it (as you are selling the XPS 14 now because you can't get used to the keyboard).

 

If you order before 2013, you have a 30 day no questions asked return policy. They will pay "expedited" shipping to you and if you decide to return, Lenovo will pay return shipping, too. If you are considering a machine, now is a good time to buy for a lot of reasons.

 

Actually I'm posing similar questions in the Dell forums. I also posted in the What laptop should I buy forum - but people there tend to ignore your question and start suggesting Vaio's or some other brand I'm not interested in. It's tricky when you can't just see these machines in a store.

 

Could I order the t430 and install a gpu at a later date? I am trying to keep the cost down, but I would like the option of adding a dedicated gfx card in the future.

 

If you mean upgrading to the NVIDIA NVS GPU graphics later then no you can't since the GPU is soldered to the motherboard. But if you really want to expand on the graphics performance you could buy one of those eGPU setups with a desktop graphics card plugged into the Expresscard slot.

 

Very rarely do laptops allow upgrading the GPU...CPU, yes, but not the GPU. And the T430 definitely doesn't allow it. The 5400 is only an extra 50 bucks anyway, I'd just get it now if you feel you might need it. Worth the investment.

 

Yea i agree the 5400 is worth it just incase .

As for the cpu , to save yourself some money and depending on what you plan to do with this laptop , try and upgrade that yourself and resell the one it comes with. I upgraded to a i7 3612qm no problems but was nervious about the heat , but it actually produced less heat than the i3 mine came with when checking speedfan. It seems like the t430 can handle up to the i7 3940xm with no heat problems coming from various sellers on ebay, just get a good power adapter with high wattage to accommodate it.

Speaking of cpu upgrades, has anyone from this forum gone above the 35 tdp range yet? I would like to know your temps if so. The t430 has such a nice cooling system(nice fan + pipeline heat dissipation) compared to dells latitude series. Same goes for t420 as well

 

I'm trying to spec out a T430 because my current machine seems to be on its way out. Thoughts on the pricing for the specs?

Before taxes and shipping, it comes out to $703.20 -- seems reasonable to me. The only option I'm on the fence about is the GPU, but I'm still trying to figure out just what the HD 4000 is capable of. I've heard it performs reasonably well for most tasks. I don't play many games, and when I do, they generally aren't most recent releases. The price difference for the GPU is only $40 which isn't bad -- any thoughts?

Intel Core i5-3210M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
UltraNav without Fingerprint Reader
320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable
6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
None
ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n
Mobile Broadband upgradable
1 Year Depot/Express Warranty


Note: I have seen that this machine has been available for less before: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/785...drw-nvidia-nvs-5400m-wifi-n-6-cell-win-7-prem but how often to these deals come around? Is it worth it to wait -- any ideas when the T440 will be announced -- CES next week?

 

If your contemplating this hard about getting the gpu or not , then you might feel some regret afterwards if you didnt get it. Its not like the 5400m is going to perform at a desktop gpu level but if your paying over 700 for a laptop , then you might as well throw that in for resale value and incase you do need it. Look at the benchmarks, the hd4000 does do very well for an integrated gpu but it doesnt have the extra performance gain you might one day need from the 5400. In fact 90% of the time I do not use the 5400 but I felt it was better to be safe than sorry incase I did decide to use a graphic intensive app or game and just other day a friend wanted to play some CoD and I could with playable settings.

 

the wireless card Thinkpad 1x1 b/g/n is not as good as the other intel cards (e.g. 2000)

 

That's a good price. It's lower still, if you don't need the NVIDIA. (The NVS 5400M is not that hot over the HD 4000. That $40 can get you a second 4GB RAM stick.)

The "free upgrade" to Intel Centrino 2x2 WiFi is an absolute "no brainer."

 

Nvidia optimus does give you option to support more than 2 dispays natively.

 

Thanks everyone for the input! Just as I'm about to make a decision, I noticed that the T430u seems to be on sale as well $575, but lower res and no gpu -- tough decision. Since the machine is only supposed to tide me over until the Haswell machines are out, the T430u seems like a better choice... but if there are delays and the T440 simply doesn't deliver, the T430 makes more sense.

 

Lenovo has released a new BIOS / ECP; version 2.50 which reduces minimal fan speed to 2556 RPM.

 

Holy crap, I'd basically given up on this!

Just tried it and it really does do what it says on the box; the spinup is still a tiny bit obnoxious, but it's much, much, much better.

Why did it take almost two years to do this?

 

Why would anyone ever pay $40 bucks for 4gb of ram when you could get it for $20 anywhere else lol? The nvs 5400m seems like a no brainer at that price but to each his own. If your ever going to do cad it is almost a 40% increase in performance , and notebookcheck shows over a 20% increase in gaming performance.

Dont get me wrong its nothing superb but for 40 bucks it seems like a steal. Use the extra money saved from not getting the nvs for a better wireless card as indicated above , as for the ram I would leave that to a DIY kind of thing( no offense Kaso, it just seems like giving money away).

 

FYI I've owned ThinkPads for years and I always add my own RAM and do all sorts of upgrades. I did not tell OP to pay Lenovo for extra RAM.

Whatever.

 

I dont believe I questioned your ability to do upgrades nor your ownership of ThinkPads, $40 just seemed a bit high for 4gb of ram so I assumed you were referring to Lenovo putting it in , but after checking their website they charge $80 which is just outrageous. Either way my post still stands as to DIY in regards to ram and save some cash to use towards better wireless card.

 

DIY upgrades in general, SSD being a great example. Or, just save some cash for saving's sake. Whatever.

 

^^^ I hear ya!

Well my t430 slice battery still will not charge. It says battery #2 plugged in , not charging. Is there some setting to enable it to charge or could the battery be dead from not using it 3 months? I didnt think it could degrade that quickly but it seems like it has! I do not have power manager installed however I do have the latest power management drivers installed. I just cant seem to get it to charge. When I take the main 9 cell battery from the primary bay and just hook the slice battery up with the power cord on , it states no battery detected. However when I have the main battery in with the slice it states battery 2 is detected but not charging as stated above. What to do people??!!???

 

I'm assuming you bought your CPU from eBay? Which seller did you get it from/any idea how reliable they are/are they new?
And any idea if doing this would void the warranty? Laptops don't seem to have stickers on the screws anymore...wonder how they tell if you've opened it.

 

Try installing the Power Manager? It's a good piece of software, one of the only Thinkpad stuff I keep. Who knows, it might fix your issue.

 

You asked about this three weeks ago. If you cannot get your slice to function properly perhaps you should call Lenovo for a replacement. See if a replacement slice solves your problem.

 

Yes I got it from ebay, but I have done it more than once that way. I usually go through upgrademonkey or a guy named bestbuy, both offered good discounts from what their asking prices were originally. They are brand new and you can buy engineering samples, quality samples, and OEM. I prefer the quality samples to reduce cost and its pretty much the final revision of the cpu so its trustworthy. I have never had a complaint about a QS I have put in and I am typing on one now .

As for the power manager, I did install it but it did not fix the problem and in fact caused my laptop's boot time to increase from 17 seconds to about a minute. Must have been a setting but it did it even on optimal performance so I just uninstalled since it did not help.

I have called lenovo but after being put on hold for more than 30 minutes I gave up and figured I would ask again, so here I am haha. It just seems impossible for lithium ion to degrade that quickly from non use so it has to be some hidden setting I must have changed(accidentally) .

I guess I will keep messing around with it.

 

Not sure why your boot time is affected that severely by the power manager. My 5400rpm drive boots up in less than a minute (I always install Power Manager). I hope you get your problem resolved. I do not have a more recent ThinkPad so I cannot help as much as I would like. I know the more recent Thinkpads have some added new features versus my T400 and X200. Good luck

 

Well I boot from an ssd and right when I installed power manager it would have my computer stay at the starting windows 7 screen after clicking user. Would take about a minute then finally start up , but right when I deleted program it went back to normal. I then installed it again after posting on this forum after having problems with slice and my boot problem came back so it was definately power manager. Not sure what setting was causing this or if there is problem with the samsung 830 and power manager. However, I am sure since the 7mm ssd market is kinda of sparce in comparison to 9mm that most t430 users use this drive and have not had a problem so it might be specific to a setting I have and am to dumb to figure out . I will call Lenovo again this week but their hold times tend to be pretty long but I did pay over 140 for that slice so it might be worth the wait.

Thanks for everyones help and if anyone gets any ideas as to the problem for the slice or power manager I would love to fix this!

 

Their CS is 24/7...I usually call around 10pm or later and there's no wait. As for Power Manager, I boot from a Vertex 3 and don't have any issues, Start time is like 20 seconds or something. I ended up just sticking my SSD in the optical drive caddy because I took it from another laptop and didn't want to buy another SSD...(not to mention 7mm and mSATA SSD drives don't really go on sale much).

 

You can also try to email your question to them, they are pretty good at answering emails too. Good luck.

BTW do you happen to have the ebay link of where you purchased the CPU from? I'm thinking about getting one too but initially not sure how well the machine will handle something like the 3612QM.

 

I am about to purchase this caddy. New 2nd SATA HDD hard drive Caddy Adapter For IBM Lenovo Thinkpad T430 W530 T530 | eBay

But reading throught ny computek's reply i just realise that it is only a sata connector.. Would it make a lot of difference?

This is his reply

Hi.
Thank you for visiting our store.
Please be advised that the HDD size for the caddy is a 9.5mm in thickness and SATA interface connector.
your hitachi deskstar interface should fit, but were not sure with the thickness.
We hope you understand.
We will be waiting for your feedback.
Thank you and happy holidays!
-Rudolp