ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

I bought the Displayport to HDMI converter from Monoprice: For only $6.30 each when QTY 50+ purchased - DP (DisplayPort) Male to HDMI Female Adapter | DisplayPort to HDMI | DVI | VGA Adapters

I can confirm that this indeed does pass sound through to HDMI just fine without any configuration. (In fact it automatically switches sound output as well, don't need to fiddle with playback devices).

(x220 tablet, i7, factory install)

 

FWIW, I'd recommend one of their cables that has the adapter built in. The long rigid adapter just seems like a bad idea.. and if you get a cable w/the adapter built in, it's one less thing to carry around.

 

Probably, but this is one that is confirmed to work, as in people have complained about certain converter cables that don't pass sound through properly, etc, and with the cheap nature of these we can't really trust the manufacturer specs on it. If other people can confirm Displayport to HDMI cables, then we should post those.

 

Just out of curiosity, has anyone experiencing the throttling issue looked into ThrottleStop?

A large chunk of us Acer users were experiencing throttling unrelated to overheating, and this software cleared things up pretty much instantly.

 

Some people wanted to see some benchies of the M4 128GB in the x220 .. here they are :

Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 128GB in x220 – modded to 7mm | Vivi The Mage

 

Update on the throttling issue...

Got this from user tatyau from the lenovo forum...

"I got the same problem about the stuck cpu speed. Here are some interesting finding.

(1) When the cpu is locked at 800mhz, it shows "Balance" as system performance in Lenovo Power Manager. But in Windows Power options, somehow the cpu is set to 5% to both Min and Max processor states. If I put 100% back to Max processor states, the throttling will be to normal immediately.

(2) Back to Lenovo Power Manager, even if I select "Energy Saver" as profile under advance mode, when I go back to normal mode and move the power bar a little bit, the profile stays as "Energy Saver", but he cpu number is changed again in Window power options.

(3) When the system starts from boot, the system will select "High performance", minutes later, it jumps back to Energy saver.

I think it is total software related problem, something wrong with Lenovo Power manager profile or rapidboot."

Also I believe someone here mentioned that by changing the power settings when on the perma-throttle that it will go back to normal without a shutdown (I think he said sometimes only). Sounds pretty similar to this case. See floz23 comment on page 91.

I think you guys should look into it. If this is really the case, I think maybe if you can try to disable or uninstall the lenovo power manager, then just use the windows power manager alone on high performance and see what happens by testing with occt. Or you can also try to make all the settings the same on the lenovo and windows power manager on high performance and then test it again. Hopefully we can get something out of this.

 

Someone experimented the throttling issue under GNU/Linux?

It will be nice to have some feedback under Linux too, maybe this issue only affects Windows...

 

You could be on to something here...

 

Coventional wisdom re throttling on the x220 suggests it's more likely to be power manager or power source related than thermal. Our throttling is occurring at low temps (sometimes sub50C !).

Thanks for the tip though, probably worth testing anyway!

Petrov.

 

Any tips from anyone how to temporarily disable the lenovo power manager? Not really keen on uninstalling it if I don't have to...

Thanks,
Petrov.

 

I should be getting my x220 this week. Is there any way of transferring over the factory install via USB (or any other than optical) to the c300 ssd(modded) which I plan to install? I don't have an external optical drive and don't want to but one just for that. Thanks

 

Well, according to this thread, it's better to just uninstall it. They say if you want it again on the system, you can easily install it back. Hopefully it is the same way on the X220.

 

I had the same question/concern, and was told that you can use a 16GB USB drive for the recovery disk.

 

My X220 came in Thursday night, and so far, it's remarkable. Battery life is nothing short of incredible, I've yet to drain it below 70%, even with hours of use. The keyboard, after using a netbook for weeks, is a dream to type on. The IPS display was the best $50 I've ever spent on an upgrade: it's absolutely beautiful, it looks at least as good as my 24" Asus. Temperatures are reasonably good, although admittedly not remarkable.

The only issue I've had so far is that my Intel 310 SSD seems to have come defective. It wasn't recognized by the BIOS or Win7 installer, so it went back to Newegg for a replacement. The 5400RPM in here definitely is a huge step back from the X25-V in my old system, although it's certainly not miserable.

 

The X220 Tablet no longer offers the Guerilla Glass (Outdoor Display) or is this just a bug?

 

Do you have the 6 or 9 cell battery?

 

I think they are having trouble keeping up with the supply on the Gorilla Glass screens. I ordered mine a few weeks ago from a Lenovo business seller (4296-2ZU). No word yet whether this will still go through given the supply issues. Some people have reported cancellations or discontinuation of their model. I will wait and see. I have no desire to get a multitouch display and may consider other options if they cancel on me or if the order is delayed more than another month.

 

9 cell
~50% better battery life for an additional $30 seemed like an obvious choice to me

 

re: disabling powermanager

try running msconfig in the windows start menu--it allows you to manually choose which services start on bootup. It's less permanent than actually uninstalling powermanager (or any service for that matter)

 

Just got my X220.

The trackpad is miles better than the Acer's horrid ALPS pad. Two finger scrolling just works!

But one problem: two finger and three finger TAP require physically pressing the pad down; just tapping (as with one finger click) doesn't work. PEASE tell me there's a registry setting that fixes this.

 

Does Lenovo power manager do something special that is better than Windows power manager?

 

Power manager gives you way more options to customize settings, control fan speed, display the green battery meter in your taskbar, see battery stats, see computers watt usage at any time, ect. So yes it is special and useful to keep around.

 

I think my last post got deleted, but it was a serious question.

On my new x220, the quote books and the box to the left of this post appears to be a one color.

On my previous machine, an Acer 1830t, they appeared to be a completely different color. Until today, I'd have sworn they were intended to be that color.

I'm intentionally not naming colors, so as to not bias responses. But What color would you call the color of the panel containing my user name, immediately to the left of this text?

 

The Quote box and User Profile box on left ARE same color.

 

Yes, yes, I know that. But what color is that? They're not red, they're _____?

 

Depends on skin. vBulletin skin is light pale blue/gray color. NBR skins are light pale aqua green color.

Change skins from the dropdown on bottom left corner of the page.

 

They're a light aqua blue/green for me.

 

RE: Throttling issues (my experiences so far)

Just got my X220 i7 (65W battery) a few days ago, didn't have time to test it until now. I ran a few short tests 5-10 minutes and wasn't able to get the throttling effect at first (the OCCT test).

However, I left it running for about 20mins (went to take a shower) came back and there it was, throttling down to 800MHz.

Adjusting the power settings in the power manager did not bring it back up. HOWEVER, unplugging the AC immediately brought the CPU back up to regular speeds and stayed that way after i plugged back in right after that. (OCCT was not still running).

Will run more tests, plug/unplug with OCCT running, borrow a 90W adapter to try out, etc.

 

Oh WOW. On my old Acer 1830T, the NBR scheme is blue, and almost indistinguishable from the vBulletin Default scheme.

I set both the Acer and the X220 to NBR scheme, and used the ColorZilla color picker to verify.

Apparently I've spent the better part of a year looking at the world through blue-tinged glasses.

WOW. Half the web looks different. Wow. Just another reason never to buy an Acer again.

Edit: and the Firefox 4 default theme is gray, not blue!

 

Where is watt usage located? Thanks

 

Are there any special instruction for doing so or is it just as simple as running the recovery thing on the usb? Can you use an external hard drive? Thanks.

 

It shows in the middle when you're on the baisc layout.

 

I haven't received my machine yet, so I cannot give you definite answers. Someone else will need to verify. However, I doubt there would be special instructions for making a recovery USB stick, since there is no internal ODD with this model. As for an external hard drive, I think a third-party disk-imaging program, such as Acronis, would be your best bet.

 

this made me lol so hard. are you sure you didnt set up the colors like that on the acer?! my mind would've been blown if it happened to me.

 

Many laptops have blue-tinted LCDs. My x201 and t61 (14" widescreen) definitely do. You get used to it. Also, it is possible to adjust this to tolerable levels through calibration.

 

I get the exact same results as ChaosPhoenix and I have a X220, no tablet, 9 cell, 65 watt charger. I only noticed it go down to 800Mhz a few times throughout the hour, and only for like a second each time. Phew, I think I'm lucky. If you guys want to know anything about my setup then just ask.

The only downsides to my X220 is the slight hum of the fan (but I guess it's consistent and not that bad), the trackpad (not too bad, tap and movement isn't bad but scrolling with one finger vertically works only about 20% of the time, two finger works about 80% of the time when I'm using it on a desk), and the webcam crashes on some programs (Windows Live Movie Maker = Crash, Google Talk = Crash, and the worst part of the webcam crashes is that I lose sound completely and I have to reboot the computer to get sound back. I think Skype works though.)

 

It seems to be only LED LCD screens have this blue tint. I think this is because white LEDs are actually filtered blue LEDs and the purer white an LED is, the more expensive it is.

 

jran123,

if you're asking about reverting to factory install on your C300 SSD;
1. there's an executable at your Q: drive that will create the factory recovery;
if i remember correctly;
- first it unpacks and then creates a boot disk to your usb or whichever media that you choose;
- then it will ask you if you want to create a data disk (i think this will be the factory image for your model)

Notes -
2. You can only burn the image ONCE; I suppose there's a hack somewhere that will override this but I haven't bothered to investigate

3. the total size required is about 9 to 10GB; so 16GB stick is necessary;

4. the original factory install didn't boot for me; and I was limited to only creating 1 image, so I created a new bootable 2.5" HDD according to this
How To make Bootable USB
then copied the contents of the usb stick onto the HDD

5. Someone commented that the factory image properly aligns to the sector *for SSD*
I've no experience with that and would suggest you
Beginners Guide | The SSD Review

 

Those having problems with one finger scrolling, try this:
Control Panel
Mouse
Ultranav
Touchpad Settings
Smart Check Settings
Disable: Scrolling Region Filtering

 

I've had my X220 in my hands for jst short of 24 hours; this is mu initial summary:

Best laptop EVAR.

Especially in comparison to my terrible Acer 1830T.

Highlights: great keyboard, tactile response but not too noisy. Real keys, not chiclets. Love that the "Fn" key is to the left of "Ctrl". And the keyboard and trackpad together utilize all the available depth of the laptop's chassis. No wasted space. The little depression or finger well in front of the arrow keys? Great attention to detail. (Though I would swap the back and forward keys with the home and end keys.)

Great trackpad, my only dissatisfaction being that two-finger tap isn't supported (two-finger click is, which minimizes the issue.) Otherwise, everything JUST works (in great contrast to the 1830T's terrible ALPS pad). In particular, two finger scroll is effortless and immediate. Including three-finger swipe to go back and forward in the web browser!

But best of all, the screen! Incredibly bright and clear. And the colors are correct. As I noted in another post, on my Acer 1830T, the "NBR" theme on this forum looks blue, it was only after using the X220 I realized it's green.

On the X220, the color white is a clear bright white very similar to the light from a "natural white sun light" light bulb. It's just a joy to look at.

That said, I've gotten a series of Windows Blue Screens of Death, mostly while using an ad hoc wifi connection and Windows networking to copy my user data from the Acer to my X220. I'm hoping this is a matter of drivers not being up-to-date.

My only other complaint is that the positioning of peripheral ports seems haphazard, and most are farther to the front on the machine than I'd like. Most of this seems to be a result of making the hard disk so easily removable; its hatch takes up most of the space on the right side of the case.

I can't really estimate battery life yet, but it's looking to be at least 5 hours on the 9 cell, at full brightness and with a USB WWAN dongle.

I haven't measured the temperature, but it's barely noticeable at all when I put my hand to the bottom of the case; the Acer 1830T, on the other hand, is almost painfully hot. (Edit: Core Temp says that max temperature is 59 C.)

And the case and hinge feel very solid. I can't see why I'd need a latch, and I wouldn't want one.

Overall, the X220 is just a joy, so far.


And having the trackpoint is a nice addition.

 

My mind was blown. The difference is so stark, I put it down to to some difference in Firefox configuration from one machine to the other.

I reset all the color configs on the Acer to the default, and green is still blue.

 

I would also like to say that the X220 is pretty much perfect. The only way it would be better is if the screen was 13.1" or 13.3" and the touchpad more Apple-like.

The quality of the IPS screen is remarkable and I think it might even be better than my Dell 2007WFP IPS monitor. No longer do I have to acclimate to crappy colors when I'm traveling. The viewing angles are awesome as well, and I don't need to worry about adjusting the screen if I slouch back in my chair.

The keyboard is great. It has a good amount of travel with no detectable flex when typing. If I really push on a key for the sake of checking flex I can feel it sometimes, but it is not present in regular use. The presence of an actual print screen button is nice, as are the oversized delete and escape keys. The only improvement would be more solid volume toggle buttons and swapping the FN and Ctrl buttons in both size and function (I know you can do the latter in BIOS).

The battery life is great, as I'm getting about 7 hours with the 6-cell.

The TrackPoint is much better than the one on my Dell E6500 as it sticks up higher and does not continue moving after I let go. By the way I got the TrackPoint collection and use the one with the lip--I think it's much easier to use. An added benefit is the middle button which makes scrolling so easy. While my Dell E6500 has one as well, my HP 6930p does not and it's a pain to scroll when not using the touchpad.

The touchpad on the X220 is pretty good. It's much better than the ALPS one on my E6500 in that it is actually pretty consistent. Both the one- and two-finger scroll could be better, but I tend to use the middle trackpoint button.

The fan on my X220 is nearly silent. It's on and running, and I can hear it if I put my head down to the keyboard, but otherwise it's rather quiet. My mother who is sitting 4 feet across the dinner table from me can not hear it.

The amount of ports on such a small laptop is quite astonishing. Very rarely do you get almost all of the ports you need on such a small unit. The addition of eSATA would be nice, but is not a big deal.

The aesthetics of the laptop are great. I love the plain, functional look of business laptops and Lenovo is one of the best at that. It isn't tacky-looking like the new Dell Latitude line and doesn't have the randomness look of my half-metal HP 6930p. Another awesome feature is the lack of super bright blue LEDs throughout Lenovo's products. I had my E6500 and 6930p laptops and docks on my desk in my bedroom and I literally have to cover them up with clothes as they are so bright. I'm so glad to see there aren't any distracting LEDs near the screen as well.

Overall, I'd have to say the X220 is the best laptop currently available in the category of smaller laptops (11" - 14").

 

Stick one of these in the expresscard port whenever you need to hook up to an external drive:

StarTech.com 2 Port Flush Mount ExpressCard 54mm eSATA II Controller Adapter Card Storage controller- eSATA-300- 300 MBps

Or you could get a usb 3 one, although may be better to wait for an expresscard 2.0 card to come out (imminent?), assuming 2.0 is supported on the x220.

 

There is a new UEFI BIOS and embedded controller on the Lenovo website (I found by playing with URLs). http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8duj06us.exe

Maybe it fixes the throttling and fan problems? I haven't installed it yet as I'm away from a power outlet.

Edit: It's supposed to fix the fan noise: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8duj06us.txt

 

Using this along with "Reduced noise dynamically" when plugged in definitely works. The fan is quieter.

 

Is anybody having a sort of 'screen flickering' issue? I'm not 100% sure that it's there and it's not my eyes playing tricks on me, but people have been reporting problems with the screen (ghosting, bleeding, dead pixels) so I'm wondering if this isn't another one. It's not apparent at full brightness, but is at about 13 and below.

Otherwise- loving this machine. Will put a full review up here and on my blog in the coming wk.

EDIT: Ah wait, it's lowering the refresh rate. Wow, who thought that would be a good idea!? Battery life is important, but so is my sanity.

 

Thanks a lot! I didn't have any problem with fan noise so far with my i7, but hopefully this'll act as a preemptive strike for when I've gotta do some real computing.

 

where can I get the software for the camera? I have the driver, but I was hoping for some software to play with it in?

 

Perhaps try a videochat in Skype?

 

i was hoping for something in the control panel like on my dell's....I don't recall looking for it before I imaged it, so I don't know if it even had one on the stock build?