ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

has anyone tried using adobe programs such as maya? Like doing a render... will it have the throttle issue? just curious ..

 

It's hardly full-featured, but if you install the SimpleTap app, it has a camera applet. You can see the video, and snap a still, but it doesn't save video.

 

Wow, just installed. Does seem to work so far for the fan noise issue! I'm gonna test the throttling now....

EDIT: Throttling still present under very heavy load. Fan noise is MUCH improved.

 

Me too. Fans are down from around 3500 to under 2000! Much quieter, cannot hear the whooshing anymore!

What a difference 500 rpm's make.


[Problem fixes]
- Fixed an issue where expected serial number might not be stored in serial
number field of SMBIOS type 3 structure depending on system setting.
- Fixed an issue where Windows screen saver might not be run.
- Fixed an issue where some system settings aren't configured by WMI.
- Changed thermal setting to reduce annoying fan noise.


Edit only bad thing is that browsing temp has increased from around 40 to 52 celcius!

 

OK, as I have an i7, I guess i should see if it throttles.

Can someone give me precise instructions to duplicate the throttling, and tell me what I should look for to confirm throttling?

FWIW, my bios is the 8det42ww 1.12, and I think I just barely noticed the fan once, in a very quiet room.

 

The fan is almost fully silent now. There is still some air pushing, but no sound at all. This is on battery with it set to "reduce noise dynamically" and I'm just surfing the internets.

 

Same here, although still the whine if you put your ear to it. Otherwise deadly quiet.

 

Thinking about this point, people should know that this IPS screen is not a wide-gamut lcd, like the 2007wfp is. In fact, the x220's gamut is a bit less than sRGB, which, while NOT a deal-breaker, is not ideal for some types of color-critical work.

I posted this before, but here is the measured color gamut for the x220, as taken by my i1display2.

 

Works perfectly, thanks!

Now I'm going to try and make the fan more silent and hopefully a fix for the webcam will present itself in the future.

 

try the free yawcam

 

See the new bios that was posted a few posts ago. It does help with the fan speed.

 

You can also use the Control Panel>Lenovo - Web Conferencing to play with the camera.

If it's not installed on your system, download it from here:

Lenovo Support - ThinkVantage Communications Utility for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad, ThinkCentre

 

Actually I don't like the Fn key to the left of ctrl because it's different from the desktop keyboard, and my pinky always hit the wrong key.
Had the same issue on the Asus which led me to buy replacement keyboards off ebay.

What's neat about X220 is that they actually allow remapping in the BIOS;
but while it's booting up, I think it's not mapped, so I can't go Fn+S to go into setup. LOL. Confusion!

 

1.15 didn't seem to do anything about my fan speed/noise. You sure that was an update in that one?

I think these guys are benefiting from the "Reduce Noise" activation.

 

No, there is a new Bios 1.16--the link is a few posts back. It was just posted Friday, it will probably be on the main site next week.

 

Because we are using 1.16.

 

Thanks guys. I looked and didn't see a new one before I made the previous post. Guess I needed to search a little harder.

 

Hi guys
i am ready to order a tablet anytime from now
but would like to know which screen should i go for?
I am not sure about how many types of screen which available for x220 tablet

 

I see you run the C300 in Sata III mode. Would you mind to post a benchmark for the SSD, such as with Crystal Diskmark or AS SSD ?

 

I will when I get a chance. I currently actually don't have the C300 in my system (replaced it with 80gb mSATA and 320gb HDD). I'm out of town right now so when I get back, I'll swap out the 320gb hdd for the C300 and do a benchmark.

 

Hey guys, even on 1.16, I'm still experiencing "pulsating" in the fan noise, which is mildly annoying in a quiet room. Do others have the same thing going on still?

It pulses about once every 3 seconds.

 

Also, I did find that the Throttlestop program will prevent your cpu from throttling to 800mhz. Enable it, and set the multiplier either 27, or turbo mode.

 

i can confirm that this new uefi/bios makes the fan a lot quieter. i can barely hear it now.

 

I agree, I still get the pulse as well. I wonder if this may be related to the power supply? Or just a silly BIOS fix that Lenovo can't figure out. It was definitely quieter, but I went back to tpfancontrol (which still has the pulse, but overall quieter).

 

I think, in the end, this will require the fan to be replaced in order to get the performance we want. A few others here are doing it... As soon as they report back, I'll make the judgement on whether or not I attempt to get my fan replaced.

 

Running at <2000RPM I hear absolutely nothing mecahnical. If I put my ear directly in front of the vent I hear airflow, but nothing at all from the fan. I'm in a silent room. I guess I got lucky. When it speeds up if I'm hammering the processor then yes it's loud (like it was at idle before the BIOS update), but I expect that. I'm extremely happy with the bios update.

Edit: I actually can hear it very slightly, but it's almost unnoticable. The processor whine (which is also very faint) is louder than the fan. Above comment still applies.

 

Here it is, C300 256 GB on the same X220T configuration.

- ngm

 

How does HyperX work on your X220 T? Any perf difference you can feel?

What's your score at WEI for RAM?

Thanks!

- ngm

 

floz, I tried Throttlestop and, yes I could prevent CPU throttling, but then when I used it the GPU would never get above 650mhz. The result is basically the same - whether CPU throttles and GPU goes up, or vice versa, has about the same fps impact. It's only when the CPU stays at stock and the GPU boosts to 1300mhz that you actually see some sort of lift in performance. Sadly, Throttlestop doesn't help achieve that in my testing.

I think, therefore, that using Throttlestop may be a bit of a "false dawn".

Petrov.

 

A 'pulse'! First time I've heard that one

Vin was right about a 500 rpm reduction making all the difference.


Almost the same for me. The whooshing is barely audible and is a massive improvement on 1.15. Some whine still audible, if I put my ear to the vent, but the sound doesn't carry and is a non-issue.

It also appears to have completely stopped the ramping up during light tasks.

Only negative is that real temp reports a 7 degree celcius rise (approx) on both cores while browsing. Before it was around 38 to 45. Now its around 43-50. I can feel proper heat on the underside for the first time.

 

Does anybody experience a problem with the battery not properly sitting in place? Does anybody have fixed this issue with some tape or something in order to make the battery that 2mm thicker in order to make it stay completely still?
Thank you

 

Yes, quite a few people have noticed this, including myself. It's a bit povo.

----------->

More practical throttling info. I've now installed a second game on my x220 (i7). It's Dragon Age: Origins (the first one, a few years old now!).

This game also induces perma throttling on my i7 system.

I'm kind of sick of hearing people on the forums claiming that the throttling issue is only with people stress testing their systems or playing Civ 5. It just so happens Civ 5 was my only game installed. Now both games - neither of which is particularly cutting edge in the graphics department - induce perma throttling.

Again, only an issue on i7's - but a very real, every-day issue - not just one for perfectionists and stress-testers.

Any other games people think I should use to see if they induce throttling (sigh, as if there wasn't sufficient evidence of its practical day-to-day impact already...?

Petrov.

 

It might be interesting to see if the author of throttlestop can do anything about this, since he hangs out on these forums.

 

Mine is exactly the same way. I've just trained myself to ignore it

I havent gotten around to finding a fix yet.

 

Petrov, have you tried uninstalling Lenovo power management?

 

Nope, on the main grounds that othersteve said he'd tried uninstalling and disabling it (IIRC) and it didn't help at all. In any case, the Lenovo engineers are onto it so hopefully they'll come up with a solution soon (see the lenovo forums themselves).

Petrov.

 

Hmm...good thing I'm not planning on playing games then? Still, I wanna test this to see how I can induce the throttling. Should I just run Prime95 or BOINC or something?

 

OtherSteve did a great summary on the issue and how to test it:

Lenovo X220 i7-2620M CPU/GPU throttling: the full details and [email protected]

Petrov.

 

Thanks! I'll get on it.

 

Can someone confirm that the factory installed option 160GB Intel SSD is indeed the new 3rd generation 25 nm Intel 320 Series and not the older 2nd generation X-25-M series or other? Can anyone provide the actual model number for the 160GB Intel SSD factory installed in their X220? Thanks.

 

Hmm. I couldn't reproduce the CPU throttling. However, GPU stayed around 667Mhz throughout - never got up to 1300Mhz, which according to that article is what prompts the throttling to begin with. Did I miss some setting?
Anyway, CPU fluctuated between a multiplier of 30 and 34. Interestingly enough, it did throttle down to 800Mhz briefly, when I ejected a USB thumb drive, but ratcheted back up after a couple seconds. Maybe I should run the test for longer? I stopped after 600 seconds.

 

What did you use to stress test?

 

I'll be doing the testing tonight and I have a question. I know I should get the throttling by just running occt gpu stress test. But in case I don't, I would like to run a cpu stress test at the same time which will be prime95 but I have never used prime95. Is there any setting I have to change in prime95 or do I just run the program and it will start the test automatically? Thanks to anyone for your input on this.

By the way, I have already downloaded prime95, furmark, 3dmark06, cpu-z, hwinfo32 and coretemp so I'm ready to go. Now just waiting for my laptop which I will have later today.

 

I followed all the directions per petrov's link: HWinfo32 and OCCT with the power plugged in and power profile set to Max Performance.
The machine is a doorbuster i7 plus an 80GB Intel 310 SSD.

 

mellospace and LastSilmaril:

I find the throttling happens almost instantly when I stress both the GPU and CPU at the same time. I have not used prime95 ever, and prefer to use IntelBurnTest which is based on Intel's own stress testing methods.

Start occt gpu test, then add intelburntest to the mix, set it to "High stress", set the threads to 4, and select "Burn". You should see almost instant throttling to 800mhz/650mhz. In hwinfo32, you will see, in the sensors page, that your CPU's TDP will go straight to about 42watts, then in a few seconds, it will be throttled down to 35watts, which is the MAXIMUM TDP of the processor.

On a 65watt adapter, at this point, your cpu is not running properly. At a super-maximum load, your cpu is rated to 2.7ghz/650mhz, which is the behavior I see when I run on a 90watt adapter. The nice turbo boot stuff is when your processor is not running at 35watts, and it can boost the mhz, in order to maximize the entire power envelope (35watts) of the system.

So, it does seem to be power related, maybe the 65watt adapter simply can not supply the proper wattages to the system, under super-maximum loads.

 

Hey, can you post a screenshot of hwinfo32 while running occt just to see your gpu clock speed and bios version. Thanks.

Ok, I might try IntelBurnTest if it is the case that occt gpu stress test won't cause the throttling. Thanks.

 

Some people are reporting that it does. It has for me too, but sometimes it doesnt, or it takes a while. Stressing both the GPU and CPU at the same time will cause it almost instantly.

 

Yes, I know for many it does. But since lately some people are saying they are not experiencing the throttling with the occt test, just want to have more options and be sure if my system has it or not. Thanks.

 

I had to call support for a new keyboard. My center button wasn't working well. It should be here Wednesday.

 

Hm. So I woke up this morning and took my Thinkpad out of standby and it was somehow perma-throttled to 1200Mhz.. any ideas anyone? I have no idea how it got stuck there.. but its different from the 800Mhz everyone else is getting stuck at. I can confirm that TStop does take me out of it, but after turning off TStop it goes back..