ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

It may be of interest to know about the manufacturing dates of two of the parts inside my X220.

Hitatchi 7200rpm 320GB drive was made on 16th May 2011 in Thailand (drive pulled and an Intel X25-M popped in).

My 6 cell battery was made by Sanyo on 19th May 2011 (info in Power Manager).

They almost waited for me to order!! (ordered 23rd, shipped 26th). These babys are flying off the production line.

 

You wanna try buying decent monitors here in the UK. Was utterly delighted that the IPS option in the UK was a measly £33 - the starting price of the lappie is high here though.

Regards,
Tony - Who has spent a small fortune on monitors over the years starting with the brilliant Taxan 795 with a Trinitron tube about 20 years ago.

 

Where can i buy the additional 6-cell battery?
And is the Multitouch display really so bad? Cause as ive said i wont use it a lot outside anyways

 

What is the difference between the always on USB port and the regular other USB ports? Is it just that the always on USB has the ABILITY to become always on (as enabled in BIOS)?

 

Always on means that you will be able to charge through the ubs port even if computer is off. e.g. like charge your ipod or cellphone. The setting is in the power manager-->global settings.

 

You should be able to purchase this "slice" battery at tons of places online.
I'm not saying by any means, that the multitouch display is bad, it's an IPS screen as well and it surely is amounts the better laptops screens out there! I'm just saying that the touch-layer is known to induce some scatterlight that decreases real-world contrast.... the video shows quite well what might happen indoors with a bright window to your back.

I've seen it with my own eyes and many in the sister-forum ( http://forum.tabletpcreview) and other long-time tablet users claim, that Fujitsu i.e. does a noticeable better job with the multitouch-screen readability under suboptimal lighting conditions. This, the 16:10 aspect ratio plus the unobtrusive extra battery (the x220t + slice looks like it was never intended to be combined!!) convinced me to go for the Fujitsu.
I'm certain the X220T is not a "bad" choice at all. Still, I think the Fujitsu is better (for me).

 

Probably Fujitsu is better but i need to go with Lenovo or HP (student cash back...)

So over all for the x220t, would you go for the MD screen or with the outdoor screen with better brightness but no multitouch?

The problem is cant go to a shop and look at the x220t, there simply is no shop showing this notebook

 

the outdoor screen is overdue for two months now... I don't believe that you can purchase that one anytime soon anyways. But I'd love to see them finally ship so people would finally know if it is really worthy of the wording.

 

Hi,

I'm currently owning a 2.5 years old x200, with a C2D 2.4GHz, and am considering a x220 with an i5 inside.

Did anyone go for a similar upgrade? I've read (yes!) the whole thread but didn't find much about that.

I'm particularly interested on comments about the performances improvements, and impresions about the reduce vertical screen real estate. Any other comments are welcome too of course.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Unless you're pushing the CPU frequently, I don't think the i5 will offer much of a performance upgrade over a C2D. Now if you want the better screen, that's probably a better reason to do it. There is of course the AFFS mod available for the X200 if you're inclined and have a modicum of skill. You also won't lose any resolution with the AFFS mod. Personally I like the 1366x768 resolution as it allows me to run the sidebar and FF sidebar at the same time without having a scrollbar at the bottom. To me 32 pixels isn't that big a deal and the stick is so easy to scroll on. You'd probably only notice if you used them back to back.

 

Problem resolved.

 

Thanks. I am pushing the CPU with real time music making, and start hitting the wall with the x200.

If anyone has followed the x200 to x220 road, please share your impressions.

 

what functions do you refer to when you say push the cpu?

 

I received my machine on June 1 -- i7-2620, 4GB RAM, 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, IPS, lots of other bells and whistles. I plugged in the 9 cell battery and the ac adapter, and the machine wouldn't turn on -- no signs of life at all, and no battery charging lights. Tech support asked whether I had tried turning the computer on without the battery but just plugged into ac. in that mode, it turned on! So then they recommended some type of deep discharge procedure -- no battery, no ac adapter -- then push power button 14 times, followed by holding it down for 2 sec. Then reinstall battery and plug in ac adapter to let battery charge overnight. Any idea what that procedure does? Since then, the computer seems to work fine.

I installed an extra 4GB of RAM yesterday, as well as an Intel 310 MSATA SSD. The machine recognized the RAM, and the Windows Experience Index for memory operations even increased from 5.9 to 7.4. The computer doesn't see any sign of the MSATA SSD, however. I will post more details about that problem in
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/582887-x220-msata-not-possible-i7-usb3-0-a.html

 

I think their "deep discharge" procedure theoretically tries to expel any kind of static electricity when you try to turn "on" the computer so there is no current running through the system with the computer unplugged and battery removed. I've done this process generally for desktops when I unplug the computer and press the power button; there have been a few occasions when the computer whirred to life for a millisecond then turned off.

It could also be some kind of code to the CMOS battery to reset BIOS?

Fourteen times though? I dunno, that seems excessive.

 

14 times? That is such a random number, or maybe it's just me!

 

Just recieved my x220 yesterday. Observations:

Very light and very quiet
Great keyboard
Crappy touchpad
The screen is bright and crisp, but the drivers suck. I am seeing jagged edges on videos, dvd's, etc. My HP DV5 screen blows this one away.
The default fonts are tiny. Why does the iPAD look so much better?

Battery life is awesome.

Sound is horrible. My AM radio is louder and more crisp. Even with my Bose Headphones, i can barely hear anything while on a plane.
I purchased an i5 2540M, but they sent me an i5 2520M!
This one is going back, and I'm thinking of getting an AlienWare 11x. Anyone done comparisons between the X220 and AlienWare?

 

do you have an i5 or an i7? 6 or 9 cell? also, what is your battery life so far?

 

Anything that runs the CPU at or near capacity, say video encoding would be one example of this. Typical notebook usage i.e. Office, Media and Internet do not do this, which is why a Merom Core 2 Duo is as good as a i5 for those tasks. There memory and hard drive play a larger role in the perceived speed of the system.

 

ship date hasnt changed yet. still june 10th. been 25 days now :/

 

i got multitouch so i could use it as a tablet with my hands (iPad etc)

6 cell is more than enough for what you want, but check to see if the 9 cell isnt too much more money

msata is supposedly having problems with the x220, so i wouldnt go that route. i personally just bought an intel 320 series 160 GB, so id say thats the best thing to do.

 

Howis the MT display outdoors comparing to an ipad 2 display?

 

This is the TABLET we're talking about here.. they don't have a 9 cell... they have a 3 cell and a 6 cell.... (52 and 52+ respectively) Lenovo Support - ThinkPad Battery 52 (3 cell), ThinkPad Battery 52+ (6 cell) - Overview

Also, I have an 80GB 310 mSATA in my x220t and I've had no problems.

 

^^^ The ThinkPad X220T ( tablet) 6-cell battery sticks out the back, like the 9-cell for, say, T420.

 

oh for some reason i thought he was referring to the x220 non tablet, which is why i said the msata ssd is having problems with the i7 usb 3.0, and the 9 cell is too much.

yea i dunno why i didnt see that he was talking about the tablet considering he asked about display type. doh!

 

I just ran a test on my crucial M4 drive with ahci vs ide ... AHCI is definnitely faster, and I boot in a good 6-7 seconds quicker!

If you want to see numbers :

Lenovo X220 IDE vs AHCI comparision with SSD Sata 6GB/s | Vivi The Mage


anyone have the wifi registry tweak for the 6205 yet?

 

What is this registry tweak you speak of, and will it resolve my x220t w/ 6205 downstream trickle?

 

if I know. I just heard that the stock lenovo install has some magic registry edit to help battery life?

 

Go to Lenovo's X220 driver site and download whatever is in the wifi section. Their update manager doesn't say there are any updates, but applying that patch fixed my trickle. Not that it matters since I switched to a Killer 1102N card but, that was how I originally fixed the 6205 problems.

 

Did you have to modify the BIOS at the end?

 

I'm unclear about the relationship between Thinkvantage recovery functions and similar Windows functions. I have created a backup and restore points on the hard drive with Thinkvantage. Do I still need to do the same in Windows? Is it the same thing? How does the Q hard drive partition with Thinkvantage recovery (9.76 Gb) fit into the picture? Do Thinkvantage backups affect what is on the Q partition? Is doing a windows backup the same as creating an image of my C drive? My computer is showing 229g free of 286g available. My Thinkvantage initial backup used 15.1 Gb. I have tried to create a backup via Windows onto a 16Gb usb flash drive, but it does not complete due to not enough memory. For those who are using an external HDD for backups, about how much space should a backup require assuming a new computer with few personal files and one or two programs?

 

I hate to say it guys, but I believe I have discovered yet another strange power-related issue with the x220. When using a Lenovo 90 watt adapter (non slim) I get a strange whistling sound from under the keyboard. I got this adapter so I could get full turbo boost without the battery installed.

This whistling sound is present regardless of whether the battery is plugged in and does not appear to be related to the fan. Rather, it sounds like power supply interference or something else electronic. I can barely hear the whistling at normal typing distance, but it is definitely there and I can hear it very clearly when I put my ear next to the keyboard. Can anyone else replicate this problem?

 

I went from a C2D in an X61 to the first gen i5 in a T410s and it was a huge improvement in the software I use (mostly Ableton Live and Native Instruments Komplete 6).

The new gen of core processors is supposed to be even faster, so I think it would definitely be a worthwhile performance upgrade, especially if you are using a lot of VSTs or effects and don't want to have to deal with the hassle of freezing tracks in order to get acceptable playback.

 

Read 2nd post on this thread. Same issue.

 

Thanks. I'll comment on that forum as well.

 

The voltage supply circuitry appears to be more microphonic than normal on this particular laptop. Many other people are reporting loud microphonics, too.

This is a common issue for many electronic components.

 

What patch are you talking about? There's nothing like that in the wifi section of the drivers page.

 

So who's thinking in returning the X220 because off all the issues being reported lately (i7 throttling, refresh rate switching automatically when unplugging, fan noise/pulsing, noise in general from the laptop, 90w adapter and touchpad issues, etc.)?

I have the i7 and I think I'm deciding in keeping it. I do have the throttling issue, but lately only happens sometimes during the gpu/cpu stress test. Fan noise is only bad when you are doing a lot of stuff at once like stressing the cpu for long time or during benchmarks since the power settings are in max turbo/max performance. When im just browsing, word, excel, music, videos or anything of that sort I dont hear the fan making any noise. I also have the refrest rate switching to 50hz when unplugging the ac power. For that one, i have no fix other than disabling the exe that runs at startup to do this.

At the moment, Ill just wait and see if lenovo can fix many of these issues soon enough. If not, then my stance on this might change.

By the way, I just bought the g skill 4gb stick of ram on newegg for $31 shipped. Good deal for anyone looking to upgrade to 8gb ram like me.

So whow you guys feel about keeping/returning your X220?

 

Most excellent question and I, too, would like the answer. I use Acronis but the 2011 version is horrible (take a look at the Acronis forum) and would like to go to the Lenovo or Windows system.

You might post this question as a separate thread. These multi subject threads are only good for getting simply questions answered and really aren't even too good at that.

Perry

 

I returned mine and paid the restocking fee. The novelty of the IPS screen and small form factor isn't worth the fan noise problem. What's the point of getting a fast processor if any time you stress the machine the noise becomes so annoying that you can't bear to be in the same room. If all I can reasonably do is browse the web and watch youtube videos then why not get a tablet? Certainly a $900 high-end laptop should not be limited like this.

At this point I'm giving up on getting a laptop with a decent screen. Maybe the way to go is to get a fast desktop with a nice monitor (24 in Dell UltraSharp IPS monitor is <$400) and combine it with a tablet with an IPS screen like the iPad2.

 

Good point. Thanks.

 

Thanks, that helps a lot. I also, incidentally, use Ableton Live for my music making. I'll still meditate over it a couple of days..

 

Hey guys sad news today, my X220 took a nasty hit on the corner, and the palmrest was damaged. Worse, one of the pieces of metal holding the top edge of the screen SNAPPED IN HALF. The palmrest area doesn't look too bad, I'll take it apart and get it to fit again later today but the broken screen thing just broke my heart

 

Yikes! Well, at least as with all thinkpads, you can basically rebuild them from scratch with replacement parts....

 

Yea I'm a little disappointed since it wasn't even that strong of an impact, but it managed to do some pretty serious damage. At least it looks somewhat easy to repair. I think I saw people commenting on how they didn't like the 2 piece screen...I AGREE. First casualty.

I don't think I'll replace the parts though, it's just a few tiny chips of plastic missing from the palmrest. The screen is going to require some more creativity if a dab of epoxy doesn't take care of it.

Just imagine what a Macbook owner would be going through if this happened though...I find it funny in a sadistic way.

 

Update: Aw crap I opened it up, the chassis is bent at the corner slightly :/ this is going to be tough to fix. Expresscard port survived though, fully intact just not sitting flush with the edge.

Update 2: Okay I straightened the corner out with pliers but there's a little dent that I can't take out. The edge of the chassis formed a hairline crack but that's not really a big deal as it's not load bearing. I'm going to put a little super glue to keep it strong. Still trying to think of how to repair the screen...

On a side note, wow there is a good deal of empty space in here, must be used for crash protection...pretty intense design.

Update 3: I removed the broken piece of the lid, and I was slightly relieved to see that the metal had broken cleanly, no shards to damage the screen itself. I must say it's scary seeing that the ledge of the screen is held to the rest of it by 2 little metal pieces jutting out and nothing else...well if you don't count the aluminum foil over the antenna cables. This is quite disappointing since I can see this sort of accident happening very often (hitting the corner against something) and just a quarter inch more metal would've made all the difference...If it bent I could've just bent it back and filled the gap with some epoxy but this is a real problem. Random : The screen magnet is really strong! lol I had a bit of trouble pulling the screw off it.

Side comment 2: I cannot believe that they are having the cooling fan intake be the gap at the edge of the keyboard...how the hell is air supposed to get in?

 

I agree with you on the fan noise that would drive me insane. I got the x220i and i guess because of the slower processor i cant even hear my fan when at full load(thank god). I returned a e420s because of the atrocity that lenovo calls a "screen" included with that notebook. It was the worst panel ive ever seen on any computer. My over 4 year old hp dv6000 had a better screen. I do quite like the IPS panel on this x220i though. I have a little light bleed in the bottom right but complared to most laptop screens i still think this screen is above avg. As far as your comment about the tablet id stay away from the ipad if your picky about screen quality. The ipad2 I borrowed from a friend had awful dot pitch and way worse light bleed around all the edges. I was amazed at how bad the screen door effect was web pages. Both my touch and droid x had better looking screens. Anyway just thought id share my thoughts on the screen.

 

I returned my i7 x220 without a restocking fee (uk). I'll consider buying again if/when they fix the throttling issue and, maybe, the fan issue too.

Petrov.

 

About the fan noise, one thing I really can't figure out as I noted in my previous post is the air intake. After further examination, I realized the air intake is not the edge of the keyboard. When I opened my X220 up it looked like the air intake was literally sealed away. I can't find any sort of gap where air could possibly get in. I have a feeling this has something to do with the super high fan speeds.

 

Yep, at this point, I'm pretty confident that the amount of noise is by design. When the computer is running on battery for everyday tasks, the machine is silent for all intents and purposes. But, when its time to bring the power for a serious computing task, this machine will generate a lot of noise.

As someone on the forums mentioned before, the amount of noise this machine makes is not very much different than a macbook, running at full throttle.