T440s Owner´s Thread

I use this one. LINK HERE

I know its a bit expensive but...

1. its black so it matches the machine (I hate white accessories)
2. its always handy to have an HDMI cable in my bag for hotel room connections etc...

 

Yes. That is quite expensive. The white adapater plus a black HDMI cable will costs almost 3x less. And more importantly, is that the one you have used with a Lenovo T series laptop?
Cost is important as I will probably buy one for home and school (out of state) so when I travel I have less things with me.

 

Which ac adapter 45/65W have you all gotten, is it one of these two?

View attachment 105590

 

The cache SSD is a M.2 card (M.2 is a new port, successor to the old miniPCIe/mSATA port). It is right next to the WiFi card (also M.2). It is not built into the HDD.

T440s takes 9.5mm SATA drives.

 

thanks, sounds good then.

what would be the best thing to do with it once I replace the main HDD for SSD? just leave it there and forget about it or take it out?

also is it worth going for 4300U over 4200U? that laptop will be used for Office, web browsing only, but is expected to last at least 4 years, so bit of extra performance might come handy to prolong its life.

which wifi module comes in as standard? Broadcom? is there already an Intel alternative with that m.2 interface - google finds me N7260AC.

 

You can leave it in, it won't hurt anything. You can even format it and use it as a regular drive to get a tiny bit of extra space (eg. to put your page file/hibernation file on there to save space on the main SSD).

If you value ~10-15% performance more than $100, get it. Personally it seemed like a reasonable price to me so I got it.

The standard is Realtek I believe but you can get an Intel 7260N for the same price, or upgrade to a 7260AC - some people have been reporting issues with the 7260AC disconnecting randomly, including myself, so might be worth trying the N version just to see how it goes (most likely you won't ever use 802.11ac anyway). Personally as a Linux user I need Intel, everything else just causes driver headaches.

 

The 45W is definitely the smaller one in that picture, dunno if the 65W is the bigger one but that seems like a horrid design. I'd rather have it longer than flatter. Although my 45W adapter has no grounding pin and that one looks like it does, so maybe that's actually the 65W adapter and the weird flat one is something else.

 

Were you ever able to get the Samsung SSD to work properly? I have an 840 Pro and an 840 Evo here and am trying to decide which to return, or if I should return both. The 840 Evo seems like it might be more compatible and it's cheaper but mean time to failure is I think 1/4 that of the Pro, and too short for (my) comfort.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yes, I use it allot. Recently all of our projectors at work were switched to 80" Plasmas with HDMI, so its used with my w530 daily.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8.0

 

I had a question for anyone with a T440s and the Thinkpad BGN adapter (Realtek BT+Wifi chip). If you use an a2dp device (headset or otherwise), enable wifi, and stream audio from online, do you get severe to bad audio stuttering? It sounds like it's buffering or just has severe random latency issues transmitting over a2dp. HOWEVER, as soon as I disable wifi the a2dp device works fine again.

I called lenovo support who basically said they can only help with warranty + basic hardware questions.

 

Well, Bluetooth and Wifi both use the 2.4gHz band, so they could be interfering with each other.

 

Driver Version 17.0.12.52
FW Version 1.4

If you go to Scroll > Two Finger Scrolling > Uncheck Switch Direction.

That should return it to what you are used to

 

The cache SSD is under the internal battery.

 

Anyone know how to make the "F8" key not switch to airplane mode but just to turn off wifi? When hitting F8, it changes to airplane mode and thus also the power settings?

 

Get the 4300u if you want to get Intel VT support. That is useful if you want to run VMWare or other virtualization software. I got the 4300u just for that reason.

 

Some of the reviews complained about palmrest flex in the area above the smart card reader slot. Those of you that configured without that, is the palmrest on the left side devoid of flex. Those of you that have it, how much flex is there?

 

There is some minor flex over the smartcardreader, but not very much. Compared for example with the X220/X230 flexing-problems with the Expressxard-Slot, this is really nothing.

 

I have a question for current T440S owners. Is the current 18% off offer a good deal or when you purchased was there a better deal??

The reason I ask is there seems to be no mention of this deal in the forum.

 

That is a great deal. If you sign up for Barnes & Noble you can get 21% off. There is Barnes and Nobles thread in the lenovo forums check out the link there.

 

Ohh, I see what you mean. Yeah, I had this unchecked and it doesn't affect the three-finger swipe. Two finger scrolling is back to normal from the "natural" scrolling that was the default, but the three finger swipe is still backwards

 

OK, I'm going to open the question to everyone. Has *anyone* been able to successfully connect a Samsung 840 Pro or 840 Evo without any adverse consequences?

 

Forgive my ignorance here, but I cannot seem to find a "Barnes and Noble thread" with this information. Would you mind linking this information?

Thanks in advance.

 

https://shop.lenovo.com/barnesnoblegold/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/t-series/

 

A question about the Lenovo_Recovery and the WINRE_DRV partitions:

If I blow away my Win8 partition to use for linux, if, on the off chance I wanted to re-install Windows on a new NTFS partition, I would be able to use these somehow? Or do I need to create a recovery USB disk from within Win8? Basically I'm asking what's the minimum I need to keep to be able to use the OEM license that comes with this machine.

 

Thanks much!

I'm cancelling my touch screen order, and ordering a non-touch model now.

 

Anyone else having issues with Bluetooth mice stopping after a little bit? I have the Intel wireless AC card, and have had the same issue with Win8, now Win8.1, and Logitech, Lenovo and Microsoft Bluetooth mice. It seems to happen most while navigating menus/drop down lists, but may just be general. As far as I know, I have the latest Lenovo Bluetooth drivers.

Usually, they start back up fine just by navigating to the "Add a Bluetooth Device" page (without actually doing anything else)

 

Disable power management on Bluetooth in device manager.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8.0

 

You don't even need a recovery partition. Just install a fresh copy of Windows 8 and it should detect your machine product key. You can install all the drivers afterwards. To be sure, you can test to see if your computer can boot off an USB 3.0 flash drive with Windows 8 on it. You can also go with the super simple method of creating a recovery drive. All you need is a 16 flash drive.

 

Thanks a lot!!! I was able to cancel my other order and added a few more goodies

 

I'm still waiting for my T440s but I got an extra 65W adapter which arrived already and it looks exactly like the flat one in the picture. I actually like the design, a flat adapter fits into my bag much easier. The other one looks thicker.

Note, I'm in Germany but the only difference should be the cable.

 

I have not had any issues with my Samsung 840 Pro since installing Windows 8.1 Pro x64 from scratch. It has been working very nicely since Wednesday.

 

Mine has been running smoothly with an 840 EVO since November 21st. I had trouble cloning the built in hard drive so I ended up just doing a clean install (luckily I had a spare key lying around).

 

No problem. I RMAed mine and my new one says it will ship this Tuesday so I expect to get it next Tuesday the 11th! We will see.

 

It's very important to note you need an OEM install disk, not a retail one.

 

What's the difference? Can you summarize the main steps for a SSD installation?

 

Yeah, Microsoft is really dumb and separates the activation keys for OEM vs Retail disks. There's no real difference, but you can't activate a retail installation with an OEM key, and the key you have with your Thinkpad is an OEM key.

Actually, blargh, come to think of it, I had a System Builders disk that I had used to install Windows 8 on my desktop. Now I'm wondering if I could have made a bootable USB disk from that and installed fine, instead of using my spare Windows 8 Pro key. Microsoft's activation restrictions are seriously asinine.

Some Googling around says that the System Builder versions are not considered OEM anymore, and the only way to activate an OEM key is with the recovery image that your PC came with. I don't get this, but oh well.

 

I'm about to order. Could someone who ordered without the smartcard reader please tell me if there's still an opening there or if it's completely closed off. That would involve them stocking two separate base covers which doesn't seem the case.

 

So, to be on the safe side... I keep the lenovo_recovery and windrv paritions and I should be able to re-install windows at some point in the future?

 

From looking at the pictures online it seems that the slot is closed off by a piece of plastic:
http://www.thinkpro.sk/images/lines/1147753_605363336194971_757116299_o.jpg
It must be a model without the reader because how would you remove this -- there's no eject button or anything.
It isn't a trap door because models with the reader don't have that:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_rechts_27816a6cee.jpg

 

Thanks. I never noticed that plastic dummy card in all the pics I saw. I've ordered without it.

Didn't order Touchscreen because of the weight and hope I don't regret it. It looks a lot cleaner with the flat bezel, the lid seems to be stronger too.

All in all this was a good black friday sale. I don't remember who the user was, but he saved me an extra $50 by telling us how to get rid of the 16gb cache that otherwise seems paired with the 500gb option. It'll still sting when these machines pop up in the outlet months from now for hundreds less.

 

Thanks for your responses on Samsung SSDs. I do plan on doing a clean install so your responses put my mind at ease.

 

My thoughts exactly. I couldn't find a compelling reason to get the touch version and there are several drawbacks (thickness, weight, looks, glossiness, price, probably brightness).

 

.. Anyone?

 

There are several answers depending on certain factors. First, if you build the Lenovo factory disk set using the Thinkvantage tool in control panel, you can always reset the machine back to the state is shipped in. My T440s shipped with Windows 7 Pro x64 and I have confirmed the DVD set I created works.

I have not tested how this is accomplished with Windows 8. Someone with have to articulate that process to re-install the full factory image using USB, DVD or external HDD/SSD.

Machines that ship with Windows 8 should have the installation key embedded in the BIOS/UEFI motherboard non volatile storage area. I forget exactly what it is called. with the proper media, you should be able to re-install Windows 8 with the embedded key. That install would be Windows only and the additional drivers can be obtained from support.lenovo.com and windows update.

 

There's a caveat with Windows 8.1 when doing a clean install. Windows 8.1 will not use the embedded Win 8 key during install. If you are installing from an MSDN VL image, the installer will not ask for a key, if you do a UEFI install at least. If you install from a Retail disk you can temporarily enter a generic key (which will not activate).

After install, you need to enter some commands to remove the previously used key and then to enter the key that is embedded in the MSDM table of the bios (I will post up instructions on how to do this or you can Google it). After a reboot, if the machine is connected to the internet, the machine will be activated. As far as I am aware, both VL and Retail will work with this method. I can personally vouch that VL works because I installed it this weekend.

 

That's what I wanted to know. Thanks for the info

 

Any T440s users experiencing intermittent WiFi drops? Running Win8.1 and used Thinkvantage System Update to make sure my drivers are up to date. Every few hours the WiFi will just stop working. The tray icon will still show connected, but I won't be able to load any sites or do any network activity until I turn WiFi off and back on again.

 

This ThinkVantage tool is not available for Windows 8. Instead, you have to use the Recovery Media creation tool built into the OS. This one however writes to a USB stick, DVD is not supported anymore.

More info:
Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo Think system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload

 

Or you could clean-install Windows 8 and do the free upgrade to 8.1 through Windows Store.

 

It definitely is - google "T440S drivers" and it's right there on the Windows 8 list. It's installed on my machine and working fine, though as usual on a newly introduced machine, some of the drivers aren't installed and will need to be added manually. I'd choose the clean install method every time, especially when Lenovo insist on installing crapware like Symantec Internet Security. It takes about an hour from start to finish if you are using an SSD.

Why leave a load of useless files on the drive when you can easily do it right from the start? I'll post up easy instructions soon but I need to be careful not induce a false-positive with the anti-piracy policy on this board.