T440p Owner's Thread

I have the LG screen, and the first black box that is distinguishable on that page is #8.

 

Viewing angles are very good. Especially the vertical viewing angles are nearly perfect, but the horitontals viewing-angles also are good.

The black-levels also are good, the first of these boxes I can see is number 5 (very difficult to see but it is there, number 6 is better visible).

 

Here are what my viewing angles look like: https://plus.google.com/114953711012941829470/posts/UbVDthj8Q6W

The horizontal angles are pretty bad. Verticle is OK from above, but from below it's awful (the photo doesn't do it justice).

I'm thinking about requesting an AUO screen from Lenovo -- if it's the same one I had on my W740SU it's a lovely screen. This one just screams cheap.

 

I don't have any glaring driver issues but I also am only using this w/ 802.11N as I don't have an AC WAP. I've used it w/ an Asus RT-N16 and RT-N12 WAP thus far and it seems fine. I just updated the wireless driver to the one from Intel's site primarily to get a more informative and convenient system tray icon. Doesn't Lenovo have a full-on wireless utility w/ signal levels and all that?

Drivers were all updated w/ the Lenovo utility. I haven't manually searched for drivers on lenovo.com so whatever the utility thinks I should have is what I got. There were several drivers and a bios update necessary when I got it.

I haven't noticed any major bad behavior when shutting down, closing the lid, restarting from sleep but my use case is such that I don't actually do that a whole lot. I pretty much have it plugged in most of the time and running.

 

I'm curious as to how you negotiated this repair request. I can see requesting that backlight bleed be fixed but how did you go about getting them to specifically agree to replace an LG panel with an AUO panel? Did support require a lot of handholding to explain the panel differences or did they already know exactly what you were talking about?

 

Er, the first box that is easily distinguishable on that page for me is #1. LG panel, brightness level set to max. Are you guys wearing sunglasses? On a 6 year old laptop with a very dim LG TN panel I can begin to see edges on #4 but #5 is fully seen.

 

Oh well, you are right, I have forgotten to turn the brightness on to maximum. :wub: Now the first one is #4 for me.

 

Not for me -- with the brightness turned all the way up I can consistently only see #8. And I don't think it's my eyes, I'm pretty sure the screen I got is awful.

 

Ok, tried it on my dell venue 8 pro and t440p (I've got the LG panel) and they look the exact same (meaning the first box I can see is #5)

Then... I started messing with the gamma in the intel display settings... I changed the Gamma to 1.2 (so I guess the effective gamma would be 2.2?) and I can now see #3 (maybe 2... )...

I may leave it there and see what I think about that gamma setting... so far I think I like it... (most of my time I'm in IDE's using a dark theme... so this may help)... I might break out my calibrator eventually...

Ok, just checked on a desktop IPS display and with the gamma set to 1.2 in the intel settings it looks pretty much the same...

 

Hello,
I am considering getting the t440p. Could you please comment on the specs of the machine I am thinking of? Here is the link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...vo-t440p-following-specs-feedback-please.html

 

I just said the bleed was unacceptable for the work I do and that I had heard the AUO screen was less likely to have this problem. Gave them the part number and it all seemed fine (in follow-up call they confirmed they had shipped the correct FRU, but I will definitely check the part once the tech arrives). I think because I have an onsite warranty it was easier to request a specific part since they have to ship it to a local technician. For the depot repair perhaps they simply use whatever's on hand at the service center so requesting a specific FRU is harder.

 

I'm probably going to return mine. I'm just not impressed with the performance (especially graphics), the battery life, the trackpad, and the inconsistent fan (I mean, should it really kick on at high speed when I'm typing on a static web page?). I do like the build, love the keyboard (save for the smushed-together F-key row), and the overall build quality, but I just don't feel it's worth the money. Shame.

Not sure what I'm going to do, as it's prety much between HP and Dell, and I have no idea what the hell Dell has done to their configuration tools at their site. Or...I just stick with my trusty T420.

 

Well, just because you are typing on a static web page, it doesn't mean there aren't other things the computer is doing in the background (like indexing). You should just give it a chance to settle down (and maybe a firmware update). Dell or HP?? Really?? For all the faults of the Thinkpad, from a price/performance ratio, I can't imagine those choices being any better. You just wind up trading off one thing for another, and the Thinkpad strikes a time tested balance between all things geared for business productivity.

I've had my T540p for a couple of weeks now, and after going back and forth between this and my W530, I stuck with the T540p. For all of its flaws, its still a decent machine, and for $1,300 can I really do better with Quad CPU, 3K display and Wireless AC? I don't think so...

I would say just give it some time, stick with your T420 for awhile if need be, upgrade it more if you can to buy you some time, but don't jump ship, the grass isn't any greener

 

I'm upgrading from a T420 (which is pretty fast thanks to an SSD+HDD and lots of RAM), but despite the slight crappyness of the T440p it's miles ahead of my T420 in almost every respect IMO. I think the T420 looks better, but it's not necessarily built better and it certainly doesn't perform better, even graphics-wise.

I think the T440p looks kinda cheap, has a ridiculously flexy lid, and I've had problems from the get-go with the display and fan, but I'll be hanging on to mine because it's the best quad-core option for the money (and weight) right now.

 

Hey guys, I'm getting a t440p with a 4700MQ through/for work; does anyone have any experience with how well the chassis handles the 47W quads? I Googled for a while, but it might be no one has actually received one?

 

Owners, would someone please give me the approximate dimensions of the 65W power brick. Length and width. And, with the cords velcroed up, what is the circumference of the bundle?

(I'm trying to determine what size stuff sack with cord-pull to get for it.)

Thanks!

 

It has no problem with cooling.... if it didn't I wouldn't have gotten it either

 

I think a lot of people on this forum ordered a 4700MQ T440p, me included, and I've read nothing bad about the cooling.

 

Hey guys. I have a 4700MQ with FHD and AC wireless. I have put in the ultrabay hdd adapter and put the original hard drive in there with a ssd in the main slot. Everything works great except for when I put the computer to sleep. After putting the computer to sleep the second hard drive (hdd in the ultrabay) can no longer be seen in my computer until I restart the computer.

Does anyone else with the second hard drive have the same issue? Does anyone have any recommendations on how to fix this? I've looked around on other forums but the suggestions didn't seem to work. Any help is appreciated.

 

Are all drivers/software (Intel and Lenovo) up to date? One other solution I read about for previous gen Thinkpads is to install the Intel Rapid Storage Technology package.

 

I will order T440p soon, as I need a quad core CPU very much. My main concern is with cooling as I will run lots of CPU (but not GPU) intensive applications but there is few discussions about it. Please share your experience. Thanks.

 

I have a 4800MQ with Nvidia graphics, no problems here. The computer stays cool and the fan doesn't really spin up all that often.

 

For those who are using the Ultrabay caddy for a second drive... what spacer/rails are needed to secure the drive in place?

Lenovo's caddy comes with nothing, and there's so much space around the drive in the caddy that it's clearly gonna move around and disconnect if it's not held securely in place somehow.

 

I recently reinstalled the Windows on my T440p, does anyone know which driver enables the Fn hotkeys (brightness control, etc)? Only the volume ones seem to work right now.

 

Brightness is a part of the display driver... you need the intel driver and the nvidia driver (if you also have the 730m)

 

since I've got a 2nd ssd in the ultrabay, I put the ssd in there, then used the stick on spacer to that the back of the caddy is pushing the whole thing forward...

 

I tried using the plastic drive surround from the main drive bay in the caddy and the HDD is still able to move far too much. Not sure what the heck we're supposed to use to ensure a HDD is firmly mounted in the caddy. Because the drive is 9.5mm I can't use a spacer (makes the whole thing too thick for the ultrabay). It needs something around the drive to fill the huge gap in the caddy. Grrrr. Hating Lenovo right now... they sell a caddy with no mention of any need for additional spacers or rails and no listing for any suitable parts to fix the problem.

 

I had this same issue and called in to IBM, the lady in tech support had no idea either, said there was no mention of needed any spacers or rails in their docs. The only thing she did was offer a refund on the part, since all I have in there is an SSD (no moving parts), I just stuffed the outside with some adhesive rubber foam I had lying around.

 

Yup, no mention of any spacer anywhere (even the plastic part surrounding the main drive apparently has no name or part number). So now I have a brand new computer that needs a new display, a new fan and that has a useless ultrabay caddy. Nice one Lenovo!

I guess I'll have to fashion my own spacer or cut down some old rubber rails.

 

regarding cooling on the 4700+ CPUs - what are you guys idling at?
typically, on high performance, at idle in a 70F room, my CPUs runs roughly 52-58c and GPU around 50-54; no fan spin up.
if I use TPFanControl and let it sit on smart 2, Fan spins up to 3 and I'll idle in the mid 30s.

That similar to others experience?

 

Right now I'm kinda idle and my cpu package is at 55c (that's on the dock though, not sure if that matters much..)

I'm not using TPFanControl

 

sounds inline with what I get. thanks!

 

For anyone curious whether the T440p fan assembly heat pipes are copper, I can confirm they are but are painted black on the top surface for some reason (why would Lenovo bother to do that?). Turn them over and it's raw copper, as the photo shows. The heatsinks themselves are copper covered with what looks like an aluminum cap. Lenovo was also a bit conservative with the thermal paste IMO.

 

I'd say that looks liberal with thermal paste

 

Actually I take back my thermal paste comment... the small rectangles of paste on the new fan assembly are the exact size of the heat spreaders on the CPU and GPU, so Lenovo was as generous as it could be!

As an update on the repair... new fan assembly was installed and is quieter than the old one but still not as silent as my T420 fan. It'll do. My LG panel with major light bleed was replaced with an AUO panel that has almost no light bleed. Not even the boot screen shows any significant light bleed, except a very small amount in exactly the same place as one huge patch on my LG display (which suggests perhaps that the lid itself is somehow pushing on that part of the display panel).

The tech mistakenly thought the entire keyboard and palmrest had to be removed to get to the screen bezel, but that's not the case. Still, it was interesting to see how the machine is put together, and it all went back fine. The screen bezel is clipped on, not stuck on, and comes off pretty easily. For some reason Lenovo did not ship a new bezel with the new panel, so that'll have to be replaced separately (the old bezel went back on OK but is bulging in a few areas).

 

hey pipspeak! thanks for the update
aside from the reduced lightbleed, do you notice any other (major) improvements with the AUO panel from the LG?
do colors/contrast seem similar, or also better?

If I'm not horribly concerned with lightbleed on my panel, wondering if it'd be worth the trouble. the only thing I wish was it could get a bit brighter, currently set it on max with my LG, although it seems to be what I'd use anyway, and not a setting higher.

was the fan replacement worth it? did it seem like a tricky upgrade to do oneself?

thanks

 

Color seems slightly warmer (though I have not calibrated it yet), max brightness is slightly higher, "screen door" effect is non-existent (though that never really bothered me much on the LG) and vertical viewing angles are definitely better (do not notice much difference horizontally). if not for the light bleed on the LG panel I probably would not have changed it, but I also did not really notice the spotlight effect some people are talking about (however I didn't use the machine much so it might have come to bug me eventually).

Panel upgrade was easy. The bezel pops off easily simply by prying it from the inside edge with your fingers (just be sure to order a new one with the panel). The panel itself is secured by a screw at each corner and the connector is easy enough to unplug. It took about 15 minutes to replace. After taking off the panel, however, I did get to see just how flimsy the lid is. It's really an area Lenovo cheaped out on. The photo shows the complete lack of any bracing in the lid (along with the white back of the LG panel just removed).



The fan replacement gave me a slightly quieter fan and is also easy to do... again, only four screws to remove the entire assembly, then just clean off the leftover thermal paste, line up the new fan assembly and screw it down (new fan assembly comes with two neat rectangles of paste already in place). Another 15 minutes, tops.

 

thanks for your reply! will they be replacing and assembling the new panel housing as well? when will they be able to do that for you?
regarding the spotlight /screendoor effect.. what exactly is that? I'm trying to look for it but don't really notice anything with spotlights or "sparkles" - does it affect all LG panels?

thank you again for your documentation, photos and insight!

 

I have the an lg panel too and my experience sounds like pip's new auo screen... maybe there's greater variation in the lg panels...

I'm very pleased with the whole thing

 

I finally have everything up and running on mine! It's incredibly fast with an ssd as the OS drive

I have the original HDD in the ultradrive bay in a caddy from lenovo. Because there were no rails that came with the caddy, I used a piece of styrofoam from an egg carton to take up the extra vertical space so the HDD wouldn't shift around. Do you think this wold be a problem for heat or anything with the HDD?

 

Hmmm... I would use some sort of hard plastic instead. Styrofoam would not be my first choice. I actually ended up buying some rubber rails for the old T-series off ebay for about $4 so hopefully they will do the job. I'm still angry with Lenovo for selling a caddy with no associated drive carrier.

 

If I press power button, it won't put laptop into sleep. Anybody has this problem? I've checked all the power settings. They look fine. Sleep from the menu or timeout works fine.

 

Same issue here, Windows 8.1 Pro

 

Mine works fine. Did you try setting up a custom power plan and double checking all the advanced settings?

 

I did the custom power plan with everything checked out in advanced settings. Still, nothing happens.

 

I presume you have the latest Lenovo power management driver and the latest BIOS (1.17)?

 

That is correct.

 

I figured out.. Instead of just "click" it, you should "hold" it for like half a second to take effect.

 

Just got my T440p and so far not really loving it. Don't get me wrong, love the looks and it seems really solid built but I come from Macbook pro and the touchpad feels awfull compared to my old computer. I do most of my work holding it on my lap and I really want the touchpad to work. Any tips on how to get it feeling similar to macbooks?

 

I've always been a tap-to-click person (on Mac and PC touchpads) so I don't mind the new T440p trackpad -- it's big, smooth and responsive. If you're a tapper rather than a clicker, it feels almost as good and works almost as well as a Mac trackpad IMO.

If you're a clicker I imagine it could get annoying really fast. The click is more of a clack and the travel is just a bit too much IMO. I quickly got tired of using it as a clickpad and reverted to touch only. When I used to be a clicker I would often use two hands... one to move the cursor and the other to click the buttons simultaneously. I found that a very fast way to navigate when browsing, for example, but it's now impossible and the click-hold-move action on the new trackpad is almost too clumsy to use.

And don't even get me started on the swipe-from-corner annoyances of Windows 8