ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

I have the i5-2520 and ran 3dmark06 5 times back to back. Only saw minor throttling down to 2.9ghz from 3.2ghz when hitting high temps ~90oC, but it was not a permanent throttle.

 

Yeah, so I noticed, lol. An external ODD is not that much more expensive. But for my purposes, I think I'll get more usage out of the 16GB stick. I'll just backup the image on another computer and use the stick for other purposes, until/if I need to do a restore.

Good point about Windows 8. Will Lenovo support Windows 8 for this laptop, though? I haven't used a ThinkPad since the IBM days, so I have no idea how they support their business-class kit. (Not that it makes a difference, of course, if one plans a vanilla install.)

 

thanks for doing that. Roughly what temp was it in the room?

 

is the solution to apply better thermal compound to the i7?

is 3dmark06 the only benchmark that causes the throttling? i guess it happens in some real world uses too.

also, when would be a common real world usage where this throttling issue occurs? I'm trying to figure out whether i should keep the i5 model or the i7 one based on our usage of the machine. i don't intend on using really intensive programs ( i have a desktop for that) but would watching a HD movie trigger this problem and produce stuttering?

 

Seems like it is mainly the i7 2620m that has the throttling problem. Read mellospace's post on lenovo forum.

X220 cpu throttling problem - Page 5 - Lenovo Community

 

no prob...temp was 72-73F

 

Yep, I'm seeing the same thing. What's funny though, is I can't seen to hit 3.4ghz on my i7, even though it is supposed to turbo to 3.4. I only seem to max out at 3.2. I wonder if the heatsink/fan design of this laptop is just too taxed by the i7...

 

The dual-core turbo frequency actually tops out at 3.2; only the single-core turbo reaches 3.4.

 

im not 100% sure on this, but i believe if you copy the image it will not work. i think i read it on the forum.

business notebooks are supported much better than your average consumer grade one, so i certainly expect windows 8 to be supported, going by past thinkpads

 

Thanks, this is what I thought too, but I had a hard time confirming it with google searches.

 

Why is my X220 showing the AC adaptor plugged, but not charging the battery to 100%?

 

See: Lenovo Power Manager

Battery tab.

 

Is the OFF setting with or without the box checked?

 

Does anyone know the actual color gamut for the IPS screen? I tried searching everywhere but couldn't find it.

I have been comparing this display to my HP ZR22w and have noticed a yellow tint (which I can't figure out how to fix) as mentioned in a different thread as well as lower contrast and color accuracy. I was hoping it would be better given the great reviews (and it is definitely better than standard laptop screens), but it still look mildly washed out when sitting next to a good desktop IPS screen.

I wish someone put a high-gamut IPS screen in a 12-14" laptop!

 

Off means: the box is Unchecked.

 

Since the demise of the T60, people here have complaining about lack of good screens offered on ThinkPads. Now Lenovo has offered a very good screen on the X220 and that's not good enough? How much is enough?

I'd just say the number of people who want a high gamut screen is very small and is probably not worth pursuing if you wish to make a profit.

 

I play civ 5, and that causes throttling for my system (even more quickly than 3dmark06 runs). It's the only game I've got installed.

Petrov.

 

Sorry, I am just jumping into the notebook world and didn't mean to offend you...but it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to have it as an upgrade option given that there are such nice screens in the Dell Precision/HP Elitebook lines. Those laptops are also so expensive that you would think they don't make profits, but they obviously do otherwise they would not keep refreshing him.

 

High gamut, no. But i'd prefer something that is a bit closer to sRGB. Honestly the screen on the x220 is half decent... It's the resolution that bothers me

 

I was not offended in the least. People have been saying that about the IPS option for years, but until the X220, Lenovo never did. I don't know much about laptop production, but I suspect it's as simple as some would presume.

Actually, laptops right now are dirt cheap. If you bought a ThinkPad 10-15 years ago, now those were expensive.

 

Bad news for Petrov, good news for me (since I was planning on getting an i5 anyhow). Thanks for pointing that out, and thanks to mellospace for the good research there.

Petrov, you gonna try to get yours swapped out for an i5?

 

Here is the color gamut, as measured with an x-rite i1Display2

For the un-initiated, the dotted line is the standard sRGB gamut, the solid line, the x220 ips display.



EDIT: For those who wish to learn more about the CIE 1931 diagram. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931

 

floz23 - great work!   that's not surprising at all.   the X220 was neither built nor advertised as having a graphics display, just a premium IPS option.   i'd like to think that it's still good enough for most people to be happy though.


on another note, for those who are experiencing low sound volume on your X220, a KB article has been published on the lenovo forum to address this issue.   you don't need the conexant software installed to correct volume.   i'm currently using the microsoft HD audio driver with no issues.

Correcting low audio volume in X220 speakers - Lenovo Community

 

Thanks Erik!

Will give it a try later but I may end up buying something like this to really boost volume (even though mono):

Wavemaster MOBI green mobile Active Speaker with: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

Altec Lansing iNMotion iMT237 Orbit Speaker Docks: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

XMI X-mini II Mini Speaker: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

 

I wonder if this will affect the quality of music played over the headphones since it will be reducing dynamic response. I only have the speaker option in the windows control panel so it will affect both compared to separate speaker and headphone options in the Smart Audio settings. I guess I will need to do some critical listening to see the effects. Currently the headphone output on the X220 is very good with my earbuds.

 

headphones are their own device with their own set of controls and can be equalized separately.   you can do the same trick if you find headphone levels low for some reason.

in testing i found that the loudness equalization option for headphones actually reduces volume rather than increasing it.   so, you'll likely want to leave this unchecked for the headphone device.

 

Ignorance was bliss. Man, I was excited to have ordered i7, 160 gig SSD 220 t with all the bells and whistles such as bluetooth, camera, etc. But, now I am all worried after reading about the throttling issue. Am I better off cancelling the order and going with i5 or do you think eventually this problem will be fixed via firmware/bios/driver updates?

 

i'm in the same boat as you. I have two machines, the i5 and i7 waiting at my door this afternoon probably. I ordered the i5 first, then the i7 had a steal of a deal where it was only $100 more. i'm not really sure what to do at this point either. not going to open either until i reach some sort of conclusion here. huge thanks to petrov for hammering away on this issue

how likely is this i7 issue going to be resolved with a bios update?
from my experience w/ lenovo, they are pretty unresponsive when it came to their ideapad laptops. took them about 1.5 years to come out with windows 7 x64 drivers for the model i had... not sure about their thinkpad line though

 

wow, awesome floz! thanks for that help! and yes, it would be nice if it was at least sRGB...but still better than other options nonetheless

 

I know the Dells had issues with this using a 65W power supply for their XPS line last year and i7 processors. I'm wondering if this is the same issue.

 

Well, I haven't looked into it either, but I just assumed using dd in Linux/GNU would work. We'll see in a couple of weeks!

 

petrov wrote in another thread

could you test HD movies? this is the only potentially graphics intensive activity iintend on using with this machine. if it only shows up during graphisc intensive activities, i may just opt to keep the i7. i'm still not sure. this problem is really making me rage

 

It seems logical to go for the i5. I will be sad to lose usb 3.0 and I would expect a refund for the difference, obviously.

I think I would go for the i5 at this stage, as I think any i7 solution is just going to be to prevernt turbo boost. I think I'd rather an i5 which allows turbo boost of both the cpu and gpu, than an i7 which disables it entirely. I am not an IT professional (hobbyist only) so my opinion is just a layman's guess.

Impossible to answer, just dont leave it so long that you cant return the goods for a refund, no questions asked. And, my pleasure!

Petrov.

 

hi all the experts here ,
i am stucked at the dilemma of whether getting i5-2520m or i7-2620m, will be getting tablet for it, would love to listen to all the opinion with all kind of reasons! Thanks

 

my 2 cents' worth;
I tested my i7 and it went through the benchmarks without throttling.
At this point I can only imagine that perhaps his unit's heat dissipation (ie thermal paste) wasn't working properly.
The temps went high and hence throttling?

 

Thats good to hear. So according to my reading comprehension, that makes 2 people with the i7 and without the throttling problem because i think floz23 also has an i7.

So did you also perform the test by running 3dmark06 back to back many times and didnt have the permanent throttling issue?

At the moment, please do not count much on my posts since I have not tested anything yet. I just say what my opinion is from what i have been reading lately but i am no expert. I have an i5 in the box unopened since i am thinking about returning it and dont want to be charged restocking fee. Also, got my i7 delivered. Just that i shipped to a friend in NH to avoid paying $80 in taxes. Hes coming here on Monday, thats when Ill get my hands on the i7 and be able to start testing for the throttling issue. Hopefully, it does not have it. If it does, then i guess ill be keeping the i5 since i have not yet seen anyone with an i5 having the throttling issue.

 

Keep us posted..
Petrov's suggestion to go with i5 makes sense, but I have been using my good old X60s for about 5 years and really eager to get my hands onto something new. My estimated ship date is 6/24 and will wait a couple more weeks for more information on throttling issues before cancelling the order. I really don't want to cancel and hoping Lenovo will acknowledge the issue and put a fix in place if there is really a problem

 

If you read this review of the T420 which has the same i7 processor, it is stated in the emmissions part that they also only reached 3.19ghz and not the 3.4ghz max in single core rendering. For some reason, its not getting there.

Also, they had problems testing for the graphics performance. Not really sure what it means, but they came to the conclusion that it was defective unit for some reason and need another machine to perform more testing on this issue. Read the grahic performance verdict part.

 

would you guys with the i7 problem be willing to open your laptop up and apply a better quality thermal paste?

i really would like to keep the i7 model for various reasons (usb3.0, 1x4gb dimm instead of 2x2gb, 7200rpm hd). Hell, I may even try this later today.

 

spam123, this is really interesting given you've got an i7 - could you please describe the benchmarks you ran (how many, gaps between) and how you monitored the throttling (or lack thereof)?

Many thanks,
Petrov.

 

If you suspect that to be the case, you should compare temp measurements of Wprime, for example, with Petrov (bearing in mind ambient temps too).

 

hello guys,
just finished reading the 89 pages of posts...the i7 throttling issue really made me worry. I bought an i7 x220 and get it delivered to my friend in the US, and he will bring it to me in a month or so. I would really like to run the test, but my friend is not a tech guy and he doesn't have much time to learn running the test. So far i don't see the hope that the issue can be solved, so my concerns are: can i change it to an i5 model (since stability is more important to me)? if so, do i need to run all the test to convince lenovo about the throttling? and before how long can i make the change?

Any help would be really appreciated. Thx a lot.

 

Because I'm an idiot I decided to rip the X220 apart and throw some Arctic Silver 5 on the CPU. God I hate taking apart ultraportables. This wasn't for the weak of heart, but I figured what the hell, I haven't seen anybody else gut one yet. Sorry I don't have any pics, but as usual, there was a ton of thermal paste on the CPU from the factory. I cleaned that off using my thermal paste cleaning kit and applied a thin layer of AS5 to the CPU core. Here are my results.

App________Before AS5____After AS5
Furmark____76-79 C_______75-76 C
Prime95____93-96 C_______87-88 C
Both _______N/A__________N/A

In my opinion, not worth the hassle for the common Joe Sixpack out there thinking about reducing the temps by reapplying thermal paste. Maybe over time it will get better (as I've read sometimes happens after AS5 burn-in period), but it didn't help my insta-throttle problem when running Furmark and Prime95.

 

Here's an interesting off-topic (though related) question: what 3DMark06 scores are you guys seeing? I am now using driver version 2361 (from Intel's site) and am getting 4,900+ in my runs.

That's amazing!

Also, so far, three runs in a row and no throttling. But unfortunately I have to stop for a bit now.

 

quite the contrary, i think that a near 6 degree C difference is worth it for people who are willing to open up their laptop and apply some AS5. I will most certainly be doing it with this laptop, whether i decide to keep the i7 or the i5 models. Don't forget, theoretically the max temp a sandy bridge CPU can handle is 100C, so your AS5 is def making a difference in preventing the proc from hitting that barrier. before applying the AS5, just a little dust or what have you could potentially cause the proc to reach it's ceiling temp.

 

I actually did post the temps after running coupla benchmarks - but can't find the links to them *perhaps we should create a separate thread to talk about heat/throttling issues*

I've also shipped the unit back to Lenovo and will be receiving another with the fingerprint reader around the the week of June 6.

As far as I can remember;
1. At Power Manager, I set the active profile to the first option (can't remember the exact name) - something like varies according to power source;
at the basic settings, slider all the way to the left for Max power,
then at the bottom I enabled Lenovo Turbo Boost.
When I clicked on it, the fan kicked in (very distinctive ramp up).
When I disabled it, the fan turned down.
This implies to me that it's working correctly;

2 I've tried wPrime (works on my AMD 1090T desktop which I overclocked to 4GHz) but doesn't run on X220;
so I tried Prime95 with 4 threads to fully stress the duo cores on the X220.
Min/Max for about 39mins of continuous run were about 34C to 90C

3. I've also tried 3dMark06 per Petrov's request;
initially I tried 2 runs with a cool off between; min as usual but max didn't reach 80C. Petrov asked to perform it back to back, and I think someone else provided the temp readings so I didn't post mine - but essentially the max CPU reading didn't go beyond 80 as well.

4. To log CPU frequency/throttling, I used perfmon, added counters for 4 "cores" of Processor Performance in a user defined data collector set, and then started the logging prior to running the tests; All of the cores showed constant 2701;

5. To check temps, I used CPUID's Hardware monitor

I also asked about the supposed i7 turbo boost that's supposed to boost freq to 3.2 or 3.4; has anyone managed to verify that OC did occur?

 

One question, when running both at the same time, your system throttles to what exactly, 800mhz or 2.7ghz (or 2.5ghz if i5)?

 

Since I was going to return the unit I hadn't updated to latest drivers, but accepted whatever updates that the ThinkVantage made.

Score is 3300 something each time - bear in mind that I was also using 4GB stock RAM.

 

Wow, thanks for doing this. I think there were some pictures somewhere else in this forum, of someone who did the same thing. There was a thermal pad on the "north-south bridge" chip. Did you touch that thermal pad at all? Or did you just replace the CPU thermal compound.

Also, when you put the unit back together, did it go back together solidly? I'm afraid of making my unit "creaky."

Also, another advantage, I assume doing this will keep the fan a little quieter, too

 

Not sure this will mean too much but my max temp doing half hour of continuous wprime was 82/82. I remember that Petrov's was 95/93 for same test in similar ambient. CPU was i5-2410