T430 Owner's Thread

Hi guys!!

Sorry to bother.
I've been thinking lately of buying this model of Lenovo.

Has anyone used it for CAD or 3D modeling?
Will the Intel HD 4000 GPU be able to handle that?

I'm a little short in the budget and i saw this one as a pretty affordable laptop.

Thanks in advance!!

 

ooooooh!!! thank you for sharing that. i didn't know there was a add-on soundbar for that monitor.

 

I wouldn't recommend it. Get a laptop with at least an entry level quadro video card to save yourself from frustrations later on.

 

Hey guys, how do I check if my t430 has bluetooth or not? when I press the fn + f5 key it gives me option to turn on the 802.11 on or off. Is that the same thing as bluetooth?
I'm thinking about getting a bluetooth speaker and was wondering if it'd work with my laptop as well as my phone.

Thanks!

 

802.11 is wifi, NOT bluetooth - although they're often on the same card. I think the prompt those keys bring up will mention wifi as well as bluetooth if you have it (that's the case on the x120e/x131e's I've dealt with anyway, win7). You could go into device manager (search it in the start menu, or Start+R, type "devmgmt.msc"), and look for bluetooth adapters.

 

Has anyone put Windows 10 on a T430s? Anyone planning to once the final version is released? My understanding is Lenovo usually supports three Windows releases, so hopefully we can expect to see drivers in the not-too-distant future.

 

I'm not sure why it wouldn't work. I know a guy who put one of the earlier Windows 10 betas on a Core 2 machine (HP 6530). It autodetected just about everything, as did 7. (That model originally shipped with Vista.)

 

Hi,

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VMFPLY2...olid=RCNFBZUBBVCZ&coliid=I2SO3Q35ZZIP9U&psc=1
I'm considering getting this mini-dp to hdmi cable for my 1080p monitor an t430. it says dp 1.2 but i can't fin the exact version of the dp on the t430.... can anyone help me?

 

For those that have two hard drives: mSATA + HDD and have the mSATA as the boot drive = is it stable on windows 7?

my mSata is currently empty and i want to upgrade to a 256 mSATA + 1TB HDD and have mSATA as the boot drive.

I asked because it is clearly not recommended in the user manual for our laptop:

 

It was stable for me. But I was getting sata 2 speeds on msata port so just bought a 2.5 inch SSD

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

I just added a new T430 to my thinkpad collection but it came without a HDD.

It looks like the digital river links are no longer active. Where can I get a Windows 7 Pro iso? It has a valid COA, I just need the OS for a clean install.

Please PM me if you don't want to post in the thread. Thanks!

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

Try this link.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

Anyone on windows 10 and t430? how is it right now after all the updates and drivers optimizations?

I upgraded mine to 10 1 week after launch and used it for 1 month. It had too many bugs and battery was abysmal. I reverted back to 7 and still happy with it. I have a surface pro 4 but I'm not liking the form factor. It's thin sure; but the OS with all the animations makes me feel like its an eye-candy OS more than a productivity enhancing machine. I miss the thinkpad keyboard. I'm happy with win7.. I don't know what I will be missing by not upgrading to 10...

 

Ok, I bit the bullet and reinstalled win10. So far the battery lasts as it would in win7.

I downloaded the chipset, the wlan, lenovo system update and power mgt drivers from here:
http://support.lenovo.com/ae/en/pro...pad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t430?beta=false

and let the lenovo update to install the remaining drivers. Everything seems to be working as it should. I'm happy and will be keeping this configuration.

 

I did it too, two days ago, the upgrade went smoothly, also I've used the System Update. The only (big) thing that it is drawing me back is the font rendition in Windows 10: my T430 is almost unusable because of this, tried to play with CearType and "smooth edges of the screen fonts" on/off but the fonts are blurry, they miss the sharpness. I can't believe this, I didn't have blurriness with XP nor with W7 and now they managed somehow to broke this thing. My res. is 1600x900.

 

I have the same resolution and I didn't have to change anything in the settings. I have the built in graphics card thou. It is the same clear fonts in win7 and in 10. I have cleartype enabled as default. Just keep trying.

windows 10 on the t430 with 16gb memory is rocking!!! my only gripe is that this thing is huge. Tempted to switch to the x250 or t450s.

 

It improved a bit after I've applied this fix, but I came back to Windows 7 a couple of days ago. Maybe some other time, but I still use Windows 10 on my Surface Pro 2. By the way, my brother's T450 HD+ screen has the same blurriness on Windows 10 as mine.

 

Based on the link; do you use 125% DPI? mine has always been at 100%.

 

I was at 100% on laptop but "xpexplorer w10 dpi fix" has also option for 100% dpi scale. Maybe I see things, still I don't see them on W7.

 

Is it possible to downclock ram on this machine? I bought some fast modules, but I'd like to see how they perform at lower latency.

 

hello guys, i read through many pages. Sorry if i am asking a redundant question.

Has anyone installed classic 7 row keyboard on the T430, flashed the bios and got all the keys working correctly?

or is it destined to have some keys not mapped correctly and will never work?

thank you guys.

 

Some of the keys will not work due to nonexistent electrical connection resulted by the retarded move to 6-row keyboards.


NMB is the best manufacturer for classic thinkpad keyboard, same caution applies when buying this FRU from ebay or similar due "compatible" scam (different FRU listed as "equivalent").

FRU: 45N2211


I have T430 installed with the NMB keyboard (navi-move on ebay got me the correct FRU, might've been luck though), haven't gotten around to EC flashing it though.



EC mod to remap keyboard keys:
https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec

 

hi mobius.

that is fantastic information. exactly what i was looking for.

i'm also thinking of getting a T430 for my collection and doing the 7 row mod. the classic keyboard is a dream to type on!

i been using my new (old) t420 with 320gb hdd (slow slow slow) and enjoying typing long emails and word docs

when you installed the classic keyboard, is the upper portion where the volume controls are, stick out a bit? is it flush and look factory installed?

Also, are all T420 stock keyboards NMB brand?

 

T420 have 3 brand for keyboard manufacturer. People say that NMB is the best but I haven't tested the other brand.

I have NMB keyboard.



About the volume controls, you need to see this guide.

http://www.instructables.com/id/ThinkPad-T430T430sX230-Classic-Keyboard-Mod/


That will guide you to mod the 7-row keyboard to fit the T430.

I would also like to add that I bent my NMB keyboard ever so slightly on the F2-F5 region due to a VERY slight bulge, you may or may not need to do this. Some hand fitting is needed for these keyboard to fit.

I'll post pictures once I get my T430 up and running (@ me tomorrow if I don't post). I don't have it on hand right now.

 

awesome! thank you.

please post and give us information

the T430 with the classic 7 row keyboard is the IDEAL DREAM.

the T430 is supported for Windows 10 and has USB 3.0 native

 

HI mobius.

Is it worth it to buy a t430 with Nvidia?

Or is hd 4000 good enough?

 

iGPU is better due to less points of failure. Less heat is also an advantage when you're planning to run quad core.

 

im leaning towards the HD 4000 on the T430 is good enough for most purposes. nvidia also draws a lot from the battery as well.

OR

there is a fine example of T430 for sale, and it has nvidia. just turn off nvidia in the bios? and force the HD 4000 to be used?

 

hi mobius,

what is the specs of your T430?

 

That can work. I'm not entirely sure if turning it off in the bios results in optimus or actually turning the nvidia gpu off.

Safer to buy without the nvidia.

i5 3320M (dual core, waiting for quadcore cpu)
8GB ram I had lying around
256GB 850 Pro
2TB hdd (adapter broken, waiting for replacement)
Intel 7260AC (after the bios is unlocked)

 

3920XM
@Starlight5 @PatchySan @yaonyc





Album for all pictures: https://imgur.com/a/lhmyo

 

Holy ****.

Slice+100wh+ultrabay battery to run that monster?

edit:
Has anyone tried to anything similar with T440p? Would the cooling system be enough for overclocked 4940xm?

 

Stock 6-cell battery is fine, on battery the CPU is set to low performance to conserve battery.

T440p, need to cool the internal VRM because of FIVR system. @D2 Ultima basically impossible for the cooling system of either T430 or T440p to run XM cpu overclocked.

 

I basicly did not understand anything but will google this. and thanks for the super quick answer.

This was like 2 days off cause I got myself allready T440p without anything for 50€ and W540 with 3k screen to install that 49XXxm on it. But today I was looking at CPU passmark scores and saw that you could basicly do the same performance with a bigger battery with T430 also, only issue is that getting working IPS screen will be hard. If I get W540 to run 49XXxm (do not have the processor yet) decently I might just get rid of T440p and try out modding t430.

 

Ah interesting.

CPU need power, that power needs to be supplied by a circuit component / group on the motherboard.

The circuit component is moved inside the silicon of haswell and broadwell series CPU which drastically increases (effective) heat output.

 

Aah. Thanks for explaining dude. That also explains that Medium article on that T430 and how he can manage the heat. Kinda annoying if you want IPS screens though.

 

@RMSMajestic say there will be new version of T430 screen mod. LVDS => EDP board, but no idea when they will be ready.

 

Sweet. Thanks for the info. I think I have to go your way later.

 

Also. Found this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SAN...2.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.262.7DhuGM

I dont know if anyone has any info about this if it works allright or not.

Just made some calculations and if you start from scratch this is not going to be really cost-efficient but building T430 with better performance than allmost any generation with 188wh battery would be kinda funny. That lack of IPS would be my only issue and that would fix it...

edit: actually you get more if you use that ultrabay 32wh too.

 

T430 cannot use ultrabay battery.

That kit is a copy of Javi's -S FHD kit, dunno if it has flickering issues on AC power. But @RMSMajestic claims so.

 

Ah, okay. Need to reconsider and thanks for the T430 ultrabay info. I got mixed up.

 

T430 iGPU model board view diagram / motherboard schematics PDF


Mega .nz/ #!utpXTSLJ!8T8l7-kqEmeo-wG8T_QQfwqADa0muZ0KrQ1hNI5N0Xo

 

Hi,
I have a different laptop (yoga 520) which also has the Battery conservation mode option in Vantage utilty, but I just discovered that in the ThinkPad version you can also customize the threshold percentage which is great (on the yoga it's locked at 55-60%), this is a screenshot I found for the T430:



I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to force that setting also on my Yoga... I made a few tests and my version of Vantage saves the Battery mode in a string here:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lenovo\ImController\PluginData\IdeaNotebookPlugin
It's a string called BatteryChargeMode

I would really appreciate if someone with the thinkpad who has customized its threshould could have a look in the registry for me... probably probably the registry key would not be called IdeaNotebookPlugin, but I guess it will be something similar in Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lenovo\... or in the worst case a CTRL+F for "BatteryChargeMode" should do the trick. I would like to know what strings are in that string... just to make an attempt at creating them manually.

Thanks in advance!