T430 Owner's Thread

I was given a brand new T430 at work last week and I can't believe how terrible the display is on this laptop. I've got the base display at 1366x768 and it's close to unusable. I've tried everything to tweak the settings but no matter what I do the results are just horrid to look at. I feel like my eyes are straining to focus on the screen because everything is so blurry, washed out or just lack of clarity or crispness and it's giving me headaches. My previous laptop was a Dell Latitude D830 that was 4 and a half years. The display on that D830 blows this thing out of the water and I'm about to go tell the IT guys they have this thing back and I'll stick with the old Dell until they have something with a better display and higher resolution. It's really too bad because besides the screen this is a great machine. I love the keyboard, it's light weight yet extremely solid and has a nice texture on it. I feel sorry for anyone who bought a T430 with this display with their own money.

Maybe the D830 just has an exceptional display and I've been spoiled all these years and didn't know it? Could be that I use a Sager with 1080p display for personal use too. Of course the IT guys look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them the display is giving me headaches and swear there is no way the D830 has a better display.

 

Tell the IT guy to return it and not exchange it for one with 1600x900. It will not relieve your headaches.

There is the belief that business people like yourself want and demand these kinds of low-quality screens from Lenovo. I find it delusional.

Good luck.

 

It's crazy but most people don't even think twice about it, they get a laptop and just use it. I think it's because the majority of people have no clue that there can be such a drastic difference in the quality of laptop displays from one manufacturer to another. There are a bunch of people in the office with this same laptop and only one other person told me that she can't stand the display, of course she's a web developer so she probably knows the difference. Everyone else I asked how they liked the T430 said it was great, they loved it.

 

Have you relooked into any compatible screens to swap it with? I had read of people trying to swap it with x1 carbon months ago and it was not "compatible" however was there any other alternatives ? I know this topic has been exhausted since the day the laptop came out but figure I might as well ask since I am stuck with my t430 for the next few years.

 

Did they also give you an external monitor too? If not you should ask for one as 14" is too small for office works.

There are some ways to improve the colors on T430, e.g. by setting gamma to be less than 1.

 

I read that with the prefix: IMHO. If that's a universal truth, any 14" laptop should have "external monitor" options.

That trick only applies to (some) of the HD+ 1600x900 screens on T430.

 

Do you really need to swap it for a 1080p panel? I have the LGD HD+ panel in my T430 and I think the display quality is perfectly okay.

 

Lol, I mean I wouldnt complain if there was an option for a 1080p upgrade . I have seen one of the 13" sony z 1080p screens and it looked pretty good . On a 14" I figured it would look even better.

 

I had mine t430 originaly equiped with ultrabay dvd. I changed it to ultrabay with hdd.
And every time my pc resumes from sleep windows message pops up to tell me that HDD can be safely removed.

I have to restart pc to get my ultrabay hdd working. How can i fix this?



Another problem - airbag protection.

I have in 240 gb internal SDD and 500gb ultrabay HDD.

How can i configure to apply airbag protection only to ultrabay HDD?

 

Both great questions for Lenovo and I see you've asked them in the correct place at http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T5...emoves-after-resuming-from-sleep/td-p/1002689

 

I wish lenovo would have better support.
But one can never be wrong asking in more than one place about problem.

I find a "fix" that paging file could be set in ultrabay hdd, and windows then pops message: can't remove disk because it's currently in use.
But that's not a solution to the problem. It shouldn't try to remove disk in first place.

 

You need to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Not just the driver, but the actual manager/program. You can't find this on Lenovo's driver site. I don't remember where I downloaded mine. Also, I tried once to update it using Thinkpad System Update, and it corrupted it. So yeah...once you install the actual program then the sleep issue stops. If you can't find it I can send you the file if you want.

http://www.mediafire.com/?8x92nl2cq67762m

^that's the Intel RST.exe file.

 

Thank you very much! That solved my problem with sleep issue. You are the best. Strange that lenovo "Support Specialist" just told me to make sure that i have up-to date bios and chipset drivers.
As for the buissiness laptop t430 isn't very user friendly.
Windows update offers me more updates for drivers than lenovo update utility.

Again, thanks for the help.

 

Hi,

I bought a intel 520 240gb ssd to upgrade my samsung 830 128gb and decided to do a fresh install of windows 7. I installed all the drivers and decided to do the bios update since I hadnt done that. Since the reinstall and bios update my idle and cpu temps are now around 60c for all cores and about 55c to 60c for gpu. How is this possible? I changed the bios thermal power setting to performance for both ac and battery ,yet still nothing.

My temps before the install idle in the 40c for core0 in speedfan , then the following cores in 20c or 30c . I even reinstalled windows one more time thinking there could be a bad driver or something. Last time I took laptop apart which was about a month ago there was no clogged vents or anything so it must be software related . Could the BIOS update have anything to do with it?

Thanks in advance

 

Can you put your old drive back in and see if the temps revert to what they were?

 

I sold the drive already unfortunately. I have a spare hdd 5400rpm I could put in and install windows on it if you think it will create a good comparison.

 

I put in hdd and installed windows 7 on that and still temps seemed way to high. High 50s then when I would open internet explorer on that the temps would go up about 10c or so each core.

 

The bios update said it had fixed thermal management and power , is there a way to downgrade bios to see if that was problem. It just seems so strange that temps are about 20c higher than before, and I check my temps regularly .

 

I have the 2.5 bios and don't have issues. Check your power settings and make sure both battery and AC are set to Balanced. With balanced, they will ramp up and down your CPU as needed. This might lower your temps.

 

I thought balanced reduced fan speed where as performance , maximized fan speed( which would reduce temps more than balanced?) . I could have it mixed up though. I may re apply new thermal paste and clean heatsink out but I doubt it will help since it was clean about a month ago and my house isnt very dusty.

Any other ideas? Any good cpu monitoring programs to see if their being used more than they should? Task manager shows 2 of the cores are parked but I do get a high percentage spike every once in a while.

thanks

 

Just use Task Manager and look at the percent CPU utilization. If it isn't close to 0, then high CPU utilization could be an issue.

 

cpu usage goes from 1 to 15% sporadic just from using google chrome so nothing substantial. I put new thermal paste on and clean out vent but wasnt much dust. Core0 on speedfan is idling about 52c and the remaining 3 cores around 45 which is an improvement. GPU is about 50c which seems average.

 

Just to be sure though, the bios setting for balanced provides better cooling? Or does that reduce noise fan by reducing fan speed thus not as good of cooling?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

In my Power Manager, I have System Performance set to Balanced, which is the setting that allows ramping of the CPU. There is a separate setting that is Optimize Fan Control To which would be what affects how the fan is used...However I'm using TPFanControl anyway.

 

Maybe you encoutered problem with dynamic contrast? I can't find where to turn it off, as it just messes with display quality.
I have fixed display by setting gama to 0.9, now it's allmost usable, but that dynamic contrast just kills everything..

BTW Dynamic brightness is turned off on all selections.

 

So is there anyway to undo bios update? Temps are still out of control, idling at 50 to 60c , compared to the previous 30 to 40c. Only thing I cant think of to maybe fix it. I have performance on low to try and reduce temps but still no.

 

btw, just like to mention that my computer idles at 55-60 when on AC (and using external monitor), and at 40-45 when on battery.

 

I'm idling in the low 50s as well, but I'm also using two external displays with the lid closed. My only other guess would be something to do with the GPU/Optimus not powering down properly since CPU utilization isn't excessive. I'm not sure what to check for in that regard, though.

Have you actually tried just re-flashing the old BIOS and verifying that you can't do it? I know Dell usually lets you do it, but I haven't tried with Lenovo for a long time.

 

No I may hold off on trying to reflash bios because I am not sure if its possible or not. Well your guys idle temps make me feels a little better but mine are still relatively high compared to what they were. So what can I do besides using tpfancontrol to increase fan speed. In the bios for thermal fan management, is balanced result in the fan running longer? Or does maximize performance do that?

Then for power manager, does optmize fan control set to balance result in higher fan speeds or longer fan usage compared to maximize performance. I keep getting confused as to what perfmance actuallly is refering to. Performance of the fan ? or cpu performance?

 

You should try to down-flash the BIOS. Basically if you get the flash executable for the older BIOS revision and that thing allows you to flash an older revision, it will work. You need to try the flash to see if it will allow it.

As for the "balanced" and "performance" thing: I believe "balanced" should run the fan less and "performance" should run the fan more. In my limited testing of the feature, I've never seen it do anything, but I'm only in the TP boat because of TPFC, so likewise, limited testing.

 

Has anyone ordered a second drive caddy from Ebay? I found this one:
New Second 2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Caddy for IBM Lenovo ThinkPad T430 W530 T530 | eBay

But for only $10, that seems to good to be true.

 

I have two of those. They work fine. No need to spend $60 or $100 for an UltraBay HDD/SSD caddy adapter.

(Stricly speaking, it is not just a caddy. It has a caddy to hold the drive and provides a SATA adapter for the drive. The whole thing can be inserted into the UltraBay. Hence, "UltraBay HDD/SSD caddy adapter" .)

 

Awesome, I'll get one then.

 

I'm still waiting for mine to ship. I ordered it 02/01/2013.

Here is what I ordered, total is $1246.27.
---
Processor Intel Core i7-3520M
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Operating system Language Win7 HP64 English
Total memory 4 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (1 DIMM)
Hard drive 320GB HDD 7200rpm
Optical device DVD Recordable, UBE w/SWR
Battery 9cell LI Battery TWL70++
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 w/ antenna
WiFi wireless LAN adapters Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205
Wireless WAN accessories Mobile Broadband upgradable
Warranty Type 1 Year Depot/Express Warranty
AC Adapter and Power Cord 90W AC Adpt US (2pin)
Camera T430 720p HD Camera Mic
Display Panel T430 14.0HD+ Anti-Glare, WWAN
Keyboard Language KYB US English
Pointing device T430 UltraNav without FPR
Publication Language Pub; US English
Security Chip 2 Security Chip Enabled
Storage Adapter No Micro Solid State Drive
System Unit T430 NVIDIA Optimus with 1GB
System expansion slots T430 Exp CS & 4-1 CR
45K5980 1YR Onsite + 1YR ThinkPad Protection

 

I just got my T430, and I am having a ton of trouble getting Windows 7 installed on an Ultrabay drive.

Previously, with my E6420, I had Linux on the primary drive, and Windows 7 on the second drive. I wanted to do the same thing on my T430 but to no avail.

When I go to install Windows 7 on my Ultrabay drive, it refuses to install on that drive, saying "setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition."

I tried removing the primary drive so that Windows could only see the Ultrabay drive, and that worked to get it installed. However, when I put the primary hard drive back in, it refuses to boot. It's almost as if Windows 7 insists on being on the primary drive, even though it was not an issue on the E6420 for Windows 7 to be on a secondary drive.

Is there any way to force Windows to be on the Ultrabay drive?

 

That sounds like a CDB issue. CDB stands for configuration database and it it the set of entries used for boot. Those entries can have hard coded volumes and drives, or you can set them to search for the volume needed at boot. There are many tricks that can be used in the CDB entries to do things like boot a VHD, boot Windows Server but without a hypervisor, etc.

This is probably your research item. I have no doubt there are some linux how-tos on the subject.

If you don't get it figured out, chime back in after the weekend and I'll see if I can come up with some good examples. Maybe I'll runs some tests with my T430s and see if I can repro the issue.

 

I'm currently using my optical bay as a primary drive...this shouldn't be an issue. Are you sure you changed the boot order in your BIOS?

 

I booted directly to my ultrabay drive by pressing F12 at the BIOS screen. If my primary drive was present, Windows would fail during boot.

If you are currently using the secondary drive as primary, did Windows create a 100MB partition on your primary drive? I bet it did.

 

Well it created a 100MB partition on my Ultrabay drive...hasn't touched my main bay one.

 

That's amazing, I wish mine behaved that way. May I ask how you installed it (did you remove your main drive first) or if you have configured anything in the BIOS I may not have been able to find?

When I went to install Windows 7 on my Ultrabay drive, it created the 100MB system partition on the main drive. Then, I started over but with only the Ultrabay drive installed and it created all the partitions on that drive, and worked perfectly but Windows would refuse to boot if I installed the main drive back into the system. Defeated, I installed Linux on my main drive, making sure to leave no space unpartitioned. I then tried to install Windows 7 on the Ultrabay drive, and it complained that it could not create a system partition (probably wanting to create the 100MB partition on the main drive).

This doesn't make sense to me, because Windows 7 didn't care on the E6420 I used to have. I was able to install Windows 7 on the secondary drive and all of it's partitions without it wanting to touch the main drive. I even tried to disable UEFI on my Thinkpad, and still no go.

It seems that Windows wants to be on my main drive, but I *REALLY* don't want it to touch my main drive.

 

I'll try to describe what I remember of my install process.

First I made recovery disks (although I doubt I'll ever use them). Then I actually did a clean install onto my main bay hard drive. I had intended on switching to a SSD, but my SSD was still with my old laptop being which was being repaired. When I got my SSD back, I did a Secure Erase on it, then left it to the side for the moment. I then shrank the partition and did a backup of my original hard drive using Windows 7 Backup and Restore (I should have done a clean install but was too lazy) to an external. Took out the main bay drive, slid in the Ultrabay with the SSD, then on the first boot changed the boot order in the BIOS to put the Ultrabay first. Then I used F12 to temporarily boot from my USB flash drive containing Windows 7 and restored my backup to the SSD. Took out the flash drive, booted up the computer and it worked. Ran the Windows Experience Index to make sure Windows recognized it was a SSD. Put the main bay drive back and then booted again (still from the Ultrabay drive), and proceeded to wipe the main bay HDD and encrypt the whole thing for my data...haven't had any problems since.

Have done the same process with another SSD when testing it out, and have also installed Linux on a separate partition on the Ultrabay SSD.

I don't know why you would have problems, so long as you have the correct boot order in the BIOS. Windows 7 install should allow you to erase any existing partitions and write everything including the system partition to the Ultrabay drive.

Just realized that I never actually did a clean Windows install to the Ultrabay drive...I'll run that tonight and see if it gives me any problems. I doubt it will though.

Edit: just did a clean install onto the Ultrabay with no issues. Left the HDD in the main bay throughout the install. System Partition and Windows were installed onto the Ultrabay SSD, leaving my mainbay HDD untouched. Something you may have missed, during the installation, make sure to choose Advanced or Custom, whatever it's called and choose the partition you want Windows installed on manually. It'll actually show you where the System Partition and OS partition will be created.

 

I really appreciate the help. I'll try it again tonight, but I did the custom partitioning just as you described. What type of Ultrabay drive do you have? I have an SSD in an Ultrabay caddy, is that the problem?

 

I just have an SSD in a generic optical drive caddy from eBay. There shouldn't be any difference or issues from that seeing as they're just passive adapters...no active electronics in them. Just converting the regular SATA connector to the optical drive variation.

 

In regards to the boot order that you mentioned, is that any different than pressing F12 at the BIOS screen to select the caddy drive as the boot device?

 

I'm unsure if that would affect the installation environment, but it's usually better to change the order in BIOS instead of using F12 every time...if only for convenience. I usually only use F12 for one-time boots to flash drives or CDs.

 

This may be a dumb question, but I'm wondering if there is a way to disable the trackpad on my installation of Linux Mint? It's kind of annoying having both trackpoint and trackpad enabled at the same time.

 

Have you checked the BIOS? I seem to recall something in there about pointing devices...
And I also know KDE has an option to disable it as well. You might be using a difference graphical frontend though.

 

I was FINALLY able to get it Windows 7 properly installed on my Ultrabay drive. The boot order DOES matter, and I'm not sure why. But it only seems to matter when installing Windows 7. After Windows was installed, I could set the boot order to anything I wanted and it would still work. I have no clue why this is even important. Strange!

So I have two remaining questions about my T430:

1.) I notice there is a gap between the bottom of the keyboard and the palmrest, maybe 2mm or something like that. Is that normal? I assume it is since the keyboard screws line up but just thought I'd check to see.

2.) In my Windows 7 install, I have the option to "safely remove" my Ultrabay drive. However, that is my Windows OS drive so it shouldn't give me the option to remove the OS drive I wouldn't think. Is this normal?

Thanks everyone!

 

1. No, that is not normal. Sounds like the palmrest isn't seated properly.
2. Uh, even a Linux guy should know you can't remove the drive of the active OS.

 

The keyboard (not the palmrest, Thor) is likely not seated properly. In any event, most current-generation ThinkPad keyboards do leave a small gap even when seated properly.

Sigh.