T430s owners'/would-be owners' thread.

You can consult the well-illustrated ThinkPad T430s Hardware Maintenance Manual (PDF) to see how easy it is to replace/add the RAM modules and to swap the stock HDD for a SSD. Doing such upgrades yourself does not affect the warranty.

 

The ram slots (2 of them) exists under the bottom quick access panel, hdd is in the hdd bay covered by a hdd cover (with a screw holding it in place).

 

As the other gentlemen have indicated access to the SoDIMM slots on bottom, and the primary drive bay are easily accessed. I converted my 4GB RAM 320GB HDD model to 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD in about 15 minutes. The most time consuming aspect was removing the 4 screws holding the hard drive in the Lenovo wrapper, then screwing them back into the replacement Samsung Series 830 7mm SSD.

After the upgrade was complete, I test the factory DVD set I had created to conform it works. Then I flattened the SSD and installed Windows 7 from scratch. The machine is working nicely and I'm sure it will receive the wife critical approval this weekend.

 

I have a similar problem. It started with the mouse buttons of the USB mouse randomly giving wrong signals like changing left and right or even staying pressed. The buttons above te touch pad also give wrong signals. Then I noticed that the 2 buttons below the mouse pad don't work at all while. I could at least disable the lower button pair in the UltraNav settings. Now the buttons above and the USB mouse buttons work normal.

The touchpad tap function also didn't work when the touch pad buttons were enabled.

My concluson is that the lower button pair is controlled by the touchpad driver while the upper pair just replicates the external mouse buttons. The touchpad buttons are probably defective.

Should I open the laptop and check the connectors or better call a support guy to do that and replace the touch pad?

To exclude a driver issue I installed the latest drivers and even tried with the original Win7 installation. I had kept the HD untouched after replacing it by an SSD, so I could put that back in and check. Same problem.

 

This will be my first Thinkpad.

I have been considering getting a T430s this year, when the prices are right. I have a Latitude E6420 laptop at work, but a similarly configured T430s ends up much cheaper than the E6420. A lot of features, which are default on the T430s are add-ons on the Dell such as backlit keyboard, GPU, Bluetooth, 1600x900 LCD panel etc.

I have a couple of questions. I am intending to buy this laptop to function as a laptop/desktop replacement. I will get a Thinkpad mini dock series 3 docking solution that will enable me to hook up my dual monitors. I also have a few external hard drives with data/photos which will always remain connected.

1. Should I buy a SATA hard drive or an mSATA hard drive to replace the default 320 GB drive?
2. What is the best way to install the OS on either? Is cloning (with Acronis) or using Rescue/Restore a better option?
3. Should I install Windows 8 from scratch? If so, does the Windows DVD get shipped along with the computer? I have read that not all factory installed features can be installed if you choose not to do a factory image restore?

Thanks

 

Installing the Win 8 from scratch may not be the best idea if you care about retaining the Thinkvantage Power Manager. mSATA can be chosen if you want to keep the 320 gigs hdd. But mSATA is only SATAII (3 gbps) rather than SATAIII (6 gbps).

 

Thanks. In that case, would it be better to do a cloned image or create Rescue/Recovery disks? Are there some concerns about misalignment, which is what I have read. I am no expert, but sure would like to say some money by not buying an overpriced SSD from Lenovo.

Would a regular user (lightroom, browsing, watching movies, some CAD) notice any appreciable difference between SATA II and SATA III. Also would there be a performance gain if a 6 gb/s drive is used in SATA2 vs a 3GB/s one?

 

You should clone the system image using Acronis or Apricorn. You're better off buying a SSD yourself: Samsung, Crucial or Intel.

Last two questions: (1) No. (2) You should buy a SATA 6 Gbit/s ("SATA3", "SATA 3", "SATA III", whatever, sigh) SSD regardless.

 

I would not recommend purchasing a T430s or any Lenovo product for that matter to anyone.

I purchased my first "business-class" laptop from Lenovo because I was tired of poor quality consumer laptops and bad customer service. I was familiar with Lenovo/IBM because I was a hardware repair technician for many years and serviced a lot of their equipment back then. My experience with Dell was okay, HP terrible, but so far Lenovo has been the absolute worst of the three!

As of right now, my T430s is sitting on the shelf at in IBM repair depot on a parts hold. This my laptop's second trip to the depot after 3 months of ownership. I called the repair before sending in my laptop again, like I was instructed to do the first time that I called to complain about it not being fixed properly the first time (and them replacing my perfectly fine new hard drive with a refurb). They could not even tell me if they had the part my laptop required in stock. I have to send them my T430s first and then they will bother to look for the needed part which of course they do not have the depot so I have been without it for a week as of today. Also, the folks at my local IBM depot are incapable of doing any type of troubleshooting and probably cannot read english. Eventhough, we are both located in the U.S., the part of the country where the depot is is not known for it's intelligence and the quality of service accurately reflects this. There is no communication between IBM and Lenovo what so ever. After Lenovo stated that the matter was resolved and new replaced board were available, IBM was telling me that they had never heard of the problem. What???

As some of you may recall my T430s, is affected by the random BSOD/Stop 101 error bug. I cannot tell you how infuriating it has been to be stuck with for the past 3 months using a defective product that the manufacturer has made aware of and instead of lifting a finger to notify it's customers and issue a recall, Lenovo tried (successfully) to cover up the problem. They decided to keep selling the T430s with newly manufactured systemboards and to completely ignore the fact that there are hundreds of defective T430s being used by people today who may have no clue that their is some wrong with their laptop. Why the media (Cnet, PC Magazine, Notebook Review) has ignored this issue is puzzling considering how many high profile businesses must have been affected by this but of course they were taking care of right away by Lenovo. It sucks to be Joe Shmo, "Mr. One laptop purchaser". I'm surprised there hasn't been any talk of a class-action lawsuit over this.

Anyhow, I do like my T430s. The build quality is excellent. The screen sucks but I knew that beforehand; watching any type of video on it is cringeworthy. It suits my purposes otherwise (between BSODs), but at this point it would take an awful lot for me to even consider buying anything else from Lenovo again.

 

Replace your default hdd, msata is sata II, main is sata III, faster course and 8 Os clean install.

 

Yes, the Thinkvantage Power Manager is a must-have, IMHO.

 

Really appricaite your input. Im not having the BSOD/Stop 101 error you have encountered but my Panasonic battery has need a firmware update that was not listed under the thinkvantage update or power manager applicatoin. Im now having an issue with the "0271: real time clock error - check date and time settings. Press Esc to continue or F1 to enter Setup." Im tempted to send it back to lenovo but what exaclty should I request if I were to do so? Curios if I have one of the defective boards your speaking of.

Thanks
Craig

 

Hey guys,

I'm thinking about replacing my 14" T61 widescreen with a T430s, but I've got a few concerns.

1) Reviews mention that the screen is pretty poor. If any of you have had a T61, how does the T430s screen compare? I'm not looking for the same quality you'd find on a Macbook Pro with the retina display, but I do watch movies on occasion, so I want a half-decent screen.

2) Speaking of watching movies, how well does the T430s do playing 1080i? My T61 is barely capable of playing 1080i, so this is the one area where I'm looking for a lot of improvement. I don't play PC games, so that's not an issue. I just want to make sure it'll play my movies without overheating, and that the playback will be smooth, not choppy.

I'm going to try to find one in-store to try out, but I'd also like to get some opinions from here from people who have a bit more experience with the T430s, and hopefully the T61 too for comparison's sake.

Thanks!

 

1) The LG and Samsung HD+ screens are actually pretty good, whereas the AUO HD+ is average. The real concern is not knowing beforehand what will be included in one's particular CTO. Just last weekend, I helped a friend set up her new T430, which has a Samsung HD+ screen. I installed a color profile and tweaked Intel graphics settings only slightly (gamma down a tiny notch and saturation up a tiny notch). The screen shows really nice now. The dreaded "griddiness" or "screen door effect" is virtually non-existent. Of course, viewing angles are limited -- no surprise here.

2) The Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics on the friend's T430 plays 720p and 1080p movies really well -- smooth and cool. You could opt for NVIDIA discrete graphics, but I doubt whether it will add any significant graphics power, given that you don't do video games.

(The T430 observations above apply equally to the "s" version.)

 

An alternative is actually an 22" external monitor. Bigger, more resolution, and can be reused.

 

Thanks for the quick replies!

That's great to know, thanks! I'll have to read up on those graphics tweaks as well once I've got it in my hands. Not too concerned about the viewing angles, since if I'm watching with company, I'll just stream to my TV, or otherwise connect my laptop to it.

As for the screen that my specific model will come with, I'm assuming it's pretty much a gamble? So if you get the AUO screen, I guess there isn't much you can do, eh? I'm not sure how to tell which screen my model has. Could you elaborate a little bit on that?

Great suggestion. As said above, I'll probably use my TV if I'm watching movies with company. Still, I'd like a decent screen for regular use since I rarely actually use my laptop at a desk. 99% of the time, I'm using it on my couch.

 

Download and run HWiNFO64. Look under Monitor in the second window (resource tree, in the same style as the device tree in Devices window).

 

May I enquire why is this a must have?

Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2

 

ThinkPad Power Manager and ThinkPad Power Management Driver know more about ThinkPad battery and can offer more options to tune system usage/performance versus battery life. The Windows-default Power Manager is not as sophisticated.

 

I Google and found ZaZ quite in depth explanation on Thinkvantage, thanks Kaso

Sent from my HTC One V using Tapatalk 2

 

Hello all,

I'm considering purchase of a ThinkPad T430s (duh!) with the following configuration ($1,139):

Processor: Intel Core i5-3320M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
Operating System: Windows 8 64
Display Type: 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
System Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 with Intel Core i5-3320M Processor
Total Memory: 8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM)
Camera: 720p HD Camera Mic
Hard Drive: 320GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Ultrabay: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim w/ SW Royalty for Windows 8
Battery: 6 Cell Lithium Battery T81+
Bay Battery: 3 Cell Ultrabay Battery
Power Cord: 90W AC Adapter - US (2pin)
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 with Antenna
Integrated WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN

Planning to replace the HDD or the Optical Drive in the Ultrabay with a Crucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive assuming that's easy to do (I've never opened up a PC or a laptop before). Any advise here would help!

Thinking of taking the Battery Warranty but not sure if that requires the overall Warranty to be taken also.

 

if you upgrade to the i7, you would get Thunderbolt port.

 

Assuming of course you don't order the Optimus GPU chipset. It needs to be the Intel HD 4000 iGPU only from what I've read.

 

The one pencil ordered doesn't have the optimus nvidia.

 

$190 for a i7+Thunderbolt. Can someone please educate me on what benefits I get out of it vs the standard ports already present?

 

$170 dollars sound steep, but Thunderbolt port is main good for something like eGPU.

 

I don't think I'll be needing an eGPU soon (don't play games much).

Any recommendation for a 128/256 GB SSD to swap in the default HDD with?

 

Sounds like a used car salesman (who doesn't care what the buyer really needs).

Great. Be firm with what you want. Don't let the salesman push you.

By the way, your choice of i5-3320M is great: 2.6MHz dual core with VT-x and VT-d support. Also, it makes sense to get the integrated HD 4000 if you don't need "high-end" graphics support. (Actually, the NVDIA N13M-NS is not that hot, so unless you really need multi-display support, why bother?)

Samsung 830 and Crucial M4 are quite good. 830 may be hard to find now, but M4 can still be had for lower prices these days.

Very easy to do. Download the well-illustrated ThinkPad T430s Hardware Maintenance Manual (PDF) and take a look.

This is an idea for UltraBay caddy adapter.

 

@Kaso, do you even read the things you quote? Surely you have better things to do with your time, then to troll?

What i said was that $170 price for the upgraded sounded expensive, and that the thunderbolt is mainly good for eGPU.

 

What the good of this? Why bring it up? Troll?

 

In my case, I would have been interested in Thunderbolt to use a higher speed external enclosure. The search for faster I/O and flexible storage options is always paramount for those of us that use virtualization daily.

Considering the NVIDIA GPU has to be manually tasked in order to be used, and the Intel GPU drives the max of three external LCD panels, the non NVIDIA configuration makes sense.

The only problem I see with the i7 option is the additional heat and fan noise.

At the end of the day, I can live without Thunderbolt and take solice with a cooler quieter T430s.

 

Thanks Kaso.

I read somewhere else on this thread about different sizes of SSD's 7, 9 mm some of them not compatible with T430s. Would the one available here work?

I'm hoping replacing the hard disk does not void the warranty!

I'm thinking of using the SSD in HD bay and putting the default HD into the Ultrabay using the caddy.

 

It is best to stick to 7mm-thick drives, especially for T430s. (ThinkPad configurations are sometimes built with 9mm-thick drives, depending on the stock at hand, I suppose. The real difference is in the "rubber rails" that they use to hold the drive in its slot. It is more convenient to fit a 7mm-thick drive with a pair of rubber rails meant for 9mm-thick drives.)

For 7mm, you need Crucial CT128M4SSD1 (note the 1 at the end), not the one you showed the link for.

You can upgrade/replace the stock HDD without voiding the warranty. (Make sure you burn the Factory Recovery discs -- 1 boot CD + 3 data DVDs -- soon after you see the Windows desktop for the first time. After that, you can clone the system image onto a SSD and, then, you can put the HDD aside or put it in an UltraBay caddy adapter.)

That is a very popular arrangement. All my ThinkPads are like that. I rarely, if ever, use the optical drive after burning the Recovery discs.

 

I didn't know about T530.till now (thanks ZaZ). For 100-150$ etc I can get an FHD 1080p screen but is it worth taking over the T430S?

If not then I'll get a MiniDisplayPort to HDMI adapter cable for watching movies/videos on my TV.

I'm getting Superlux HD681 headphones to take care of audio which I hope will work well with Dolby HT v4

Also, I'm planning to buy the Samsung 830 256GB SSD with laptop kit to replace the default HDD, which I would place into an Ultrabay caddy. Of course, at $44 the caddy I linked to seems pricey so would appreciate any other options which would work with the T430s.

 

if you don't mind the extra weight of the T530, then FHD panel of the T530 is much better than the T430s LCD panel.

Superlux HD681 with 32 ohms impedance? I got the AKG 240 version with the 56 ohms impedance, it worked well with the T430s, so the Superlux should do just as fine.

 

This one may be a less expensive alternative.

 

I won't be carrying it around much so weight should not be an issue. If I use my T430s config with the 1080p screen for T530 the price is coming to $110 extra

Do you know if this would work with the T530 also?

 

The caddy Kaso linked is 9.5 mm, it can be used in the ThinkPad T530, but there would be a gap due to the T530 taking a 12.7 mm ultrabay drives.

 

What I suggested earlier is for the T430s only.

For the T430 and T/W530, you must consider this one, which is of the correct height.

In that case, I strongly recommend the T530 with FHD 1920x1080 screen.

 

See http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147189. Pretty good deal on that drive.

 

How would thunderbolt help with virtualization? I ask because it's preferable to streamline workflow from somebody who's done it before and knows better.

 

My bad, it's $200 extra over the 1600x900 but I'm still planning to go with it.

Thanks. Does this come with laptop kit (cable, software etc)?

 

Buy the default one-stick 4GB RAM and add a second stick yourself. Less expensive. (Don't worry about different brands.)

 

Using large virtual machine blobs aren't easy. Copying and moving them around is a pain. Starting and loading them is time consuming. Virtual Machine performance is usually governed by several well known factors. CPU, Memory, and storage speed.

Thunderbolt connections and enclosures will help reduce the I/O bottleneck.

 

I don't know, what does your research tell you?

Samsung packages their drives in several package types. I was pointing out a good deal on the drive. I assumed with your Ultrabay adapter, you could copy or clone to your hearts content. I certainly could.

 

You don't need a laptop kit. Why clone a fresh installation to a new drive? You could just download the ISOs from DigitalRiver an make a fresh install on the the SSD. That's what I made. The Windows license key is under the battery.

 

FYI, that probably isn't true on the machines that come with Windows 8.

 

Roger, didn't realize there was THAT much of a price difference.

Silly me Thanks for pointing it out. I'm assuming putting a 7 mm drive into a 12.7mm caddy will not cause problems.

Can't I use the Recovery discs if the Win 8 license is a problem?

 

ok, I don't know about Win8. It really has no license key and cannot be installed form a fresh ISO? One more reason not to use Win8. Win9 will hopefully be ok again and make Metro an option instead of the default.

 

Using a 7mm drive in a 12.7mm HDD/SSD adapter should not be a problem. It certainly isn't in the one I have.

As for the Recovery Disks, sure, if you have a working set you can always use them. However, if you ordered and received the T430s with Windows 8, the Windows key should be embedded in the BIOS/UEFI implementation.

I ordered my T430s with Windows 7 so I don't know for sure.