ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

I'd post in the thread that has the date of release in the thread title "April 19, 2011..."

 

There's really no thread protocol. Someone's just a crabby patty cause they're not going to get their way, but we can deal with that. I guess if it were me, I suggest starting your own thread. The big threads like this move so fast, if you post something and come back a few hours later, there might be three more pages to sift through and your concerns may not have been addressed.

While I would concede having non-owners post in the owners thread could perhaps be frustrating, but the only people who have a X220 are the ones who bought pre-configured machines, which is a very small group because the pre-configured machines are much more expensive than ordering through Lenovo. If only owners posted, this thread would probably be less than a page. Until Lenovo starts shipping CTO models, you're not going to have many X220 owners. These threads have always been like this, whether it be the X60, T61, W500, etc., and it's probably not going to change.

 

Sorry if all of you are getting me wrong, I usually read more and post less since all the information is already there and I seem to be among the few who can find most of the answers they're looking for. But when it comes to actual information from owners, I thought "cool, this thread will be interesting to read" - but no, it isn't, more of the same like in the other five to ten x220 threads. This I don't understand and I find it a shame that people can't at least keep a little order!

@mods
again, don't get me wrong, but why don't you go and delete massively off-topic posts at least in "major"-threads. I think a ton of people would appreciate that and the forum would benefit A LOT and considered a far greater source of information.
just my two cents.....

 

Like the others said, there is no fine for posting in the wrong topic

I would however like to suggest that you read all X220 related topics first before you post your questions. You will find that 532 people asked how to do a clean install, 97 people wanted to know if they can upgrade RAM themselves, 1,833 don't know if they should get the i5 or i7 and an astonishing 4,745 people have trouble deciding between X220(t)/T420(s)/T520 and W520..

In short, a lot of questions have been asked and answered before

 

I think the problem with your approach is there's only one X220 owner that I know of who actually has the X220 in their possession and that's GomJabbar. One poster makes for a thin thread. There's probably no perfect solution. Either you have one big thread or 50,000 little threads. Owners threads tend to be this way and I don't know there's much one can do about it.

Your original post was so disrespectful, I felt no comment was warranted.

 

ehm... where would be the problem?
As people will get their hands on the machine there'd be more owners yet posters.... If only one person had posted yet that would be a good indicator about availability. The density of information would be good vs now, it's non-existant! The thread as it is is pretty much useless, I'll sign that assertion anytime!

if I opened a thread about quantum physics I wouldn't complain if only 5 members joined in discussions, not if the alternative would be the thread spammed with off-topic posts.

anyway, it seems we can't agree on this. I'll just thread-spam in the future, if I want to add something or want to know something: new thread!... since that is apparently what the majority of the users here wants... ok.
I'll post my own review of the x220T when I gathered enough experience with it and will tell everybody that I'm sorry not to be willing to answer any questions due to be expected chaos on the thread. I'll leave meaningful exchange of information for some other internet-address then.

 

Do you guys know if the expresscard in the X220 is the 5gt/s version (2.0) or the old technologie 2.5gt/s?

 

it'll be 5.0 Gbit/s (i just assume you meant giga bit) due to chipset

@ZaZ,
can you at least edit the thread title to say something like "x220 Q/A" - I bet my that others looking in here will be just as disappointed yet might not have the energy to say so!

 

That's debatable. Sure there's fluff in here, but there's also quite a bit of useful information as well. This is where the search function comes in quite handy so one doesn't have to wade through the entire thread. Honestly, this is how it's been for years. You're the first person I've seen get their panties in a bunch over it, though perhaps others have felt the same. I don't know how you missed the other similar threads. As far as I know there's not five posters to be had for the X220 owners thread. This of course will change at the end of next month as Lenovo starts shipping units.

 

randfee, I completely agree with you. But this is the internet and as you can see the mods don't care and are doing it themselves. Most you can do is /facepalm and move on.

As you can see, ZaZ has filled 1-2 pages worth of PM-worth material already himself.

 

What do you call this? I guess I prefer not to live my life as rigidly as you do.

I will take it under advisement.

 

Not necessarily. The PCIe (and by extension ExpressCard) mode is configured by registers set by the BIOS on a per-lane basis. The new HP Sandy Bridge laptops have a BIOS setting, but it's entirely possible that Lenovo might have locked the ExpressCard port to 2.5GT/s (for compatibility). Of course even if the BIOS is locked to 2.5GT/s, there's a good chance that it might get hacked.

It's kind of irrelevant at this point since the only reason you would really want ExpressCard 2.0 (the DIY ViDock) doesn't support 5GT/s (the HDMI cable assembly they use to transfer the PCIe signals apparently isn't up to the task).

 

I started an X220 owner's thread on forum.thinkpads.com 11 days ago. To date there are only 7 posts in the thread (me being the only owner so far). Not too much chaff there yet...

forum.thinkpads.com • View topic - ThinkPad X220 user's thread

 

wow, your a mod over there? respect

 

Well since I guess Zaz ruled that until more than one actual forum user has an X220 in their hands this can essentially be a Q/A thread I thought I would ask a question that I haven't seen answered yet - albeit a dumb one.

What size laptop sleeve should I get for the X220? I'm assuming at 13.3 inch laptop sleeve will be required for me because I don't see any 12.5 inch sleeves and I got the 9 cell battery that sticks out the back... Still wondering if that was the right choice for the sake of portability but at only a $10 upgrade I couldn't pass it up. Hopefully the 9 cell doesn't make it as awkward to carry around as my T61p of 3 years ago. That 9 cell sticking out was super annoying (in addition to the laptop being 6.5 pounds...)

 

Actually it would be nice for esata and usb3 express cards too. At least some of those chips are 2.0 capable (including the popular NEC) and even a single port can break 1.0 speeds

(and esp a true SAS card if someone ever does one, WTB)


PS to control freaks - not a owner yet, but ima clickin' my submit button, pew pew!

You guys would DIE at avsforum, threads hit 100 pages before anyone touches a product. Side threads pretty much all die in a few days. Yet it is still an awesome forum and those threads can be goldmines.

 

Lenovo has a 12.5 sleeve for sale that I saw when I purchased my X220. It cost about $15.00 on sale and a tad more off sale if interested

 

Don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but since there are owners on this thread, how does the IPS screen compare against the macbook pro screen?

 

Haha same at overclock.net. But on those forums the search function actually works. On here I can't find anything via the search box.

That's the sleeve I got too. I figured the sleeve made by Lenovo would surely fit their own laptop

 

Just a short question: can I expect similliar battery life (~8h on WiFi) on x220i like all the reviewed models (i5 and IPS screen) ?

 

most likely with the 6cell battery, most definitely with the 9 cell one

 

I have the X220, but I really haven't looked at the MBP, so I have no opinion on that.

I'm happy with the IPS display on my X220. I think the DPI is about right (for me). The screen appears bright and clear to me.

 

The Lenovo sleeve was temping at that price, but I couldn't figure use for it. When I'm between classes or in the library I use my backback which has a separate padded notebook compartment. If I'm moving around with only the notebook, the sleeve is inconvenient since it doesn't have handles. So I plan on getting this Caselogic one since it's cheap and does have handles. I've got a similar one from Shoreline I used with the T400 and it worked very well.

Amazon.com: Case Logic LNEO-12 12.1-Inch Neoprene Netbook Sleeve (Black): Electronics

 

Yesterday I ordered my X220 with the 128 GB SSD option, total amount spent: $1,159

But today I realized, I didn't do any SSD research. Do you guys know what kind of SSD Lenovo offers, and is it better/worse than, say, latest MacBook Air's SSD?

 

Just got it. TrackPoint is choppy, just like with x120e, and asked about it here and people said it shouldn't be choppy, it should be smooth, but it's nowhere near as smooth movements as with the trackpad. 2/2 faulty trackpoints are a bit unlikely, so I think this is normal, which kinda sucks. My classmate has a T60 or T61 (what got me to get a Thinkpad actually), but he's pretty much never in class, and finals are two weeks away. Hopefully by finals I'll be able to test his Trackpoint and see if it's the same.

Also fan is working non-stop, is loud, and seems to throttle constantly. Every 2 seconds it would rev up for half a second and come down, then up again. This is while the laptop is idle. It stopped for about 5 minutes and then started it again. Perhaps it's doing something in the background since the computer just started for the first time (but it's been 30 min already)

 

Sounds like something is working your computer hard in the background. Under load, I've noticed that the touchpad seems to have a higher priority and will work even when the TrackPoint pauses (usually when scrolling) because of an application hang.

I don't have any trouble out of the TrackPoint. I even use it when gaming and it works fine so whatever you're experiencing should be significant and easy to track down.

-darren

 

re: choppy trackpoint.

I also had this issue--it turned out it was from my palm brushing up against the touchpad. Turning the touchpad "palm protection" all the way up in the ultranav driver or turning the touchpad off completely (fn+f8, ultranav driver, or bios) fixed it.

I believe there may also be a new ultranav driver--see if you have the most recent version.

 

Thanks for the replies. The fan issue has died down. So apparently it was just doing something in the background. Whisper quiet

For the Trackpoint: My palm is to the side, not touching the touchpad. Also tried turning touchpad off with no help. I'm re-installing Windows on a SSD right now so can't test a new driver but with the x120e I did update the driver and it was the same issue (ended up returning the x120e). I thought it was a faulty keyboard/trackpoint with the x120e and figured it'd be fine with a new x220 but I was wrong.

When you move the trackpoint, say in a circular motion, does it move just as smoothly (on the screen that is, not the trackpoint nub itself) as if you did the same motion on the trackpad? It's noticeably more choppy for me, like it is skipping frames

 

Hmm, I thought it was my palm but perhaps it was background processes finishing or a reinstall of windows that fixed the trackpoint.

In any case, my x220 trackpoint is now entirely smooth. I suspect that after your reinstall yours will be too.

 

Weird, when installing Windows the trackpoint was fine. After Windows installed it's choppy again...

Also I think my fan is messed up. It does work overtime for the most part and when it does it keeps revving up for a second every 5 seconds, driving me crazy. Fan will spin 85% speed for 5 seconds or so, then spin up to 100% for one second and back down to 85% for 5 seconds, etc

It's definitely a hardware or BIOS problem and not a Power Manager or software issue, because the same thing was happening during the Windows install, which does not use any drivers or software Just my luck

 

I just got mine running. Initially the trackpoint was choppy, but it's fine now. My fan is running non-stop as well, and not particularily quiet, but it doesn't bother me like it does most people. After I clean reinstall Windows on the msata ssd I'll see what's up with tpfancontrol.

Downloading Rescue and recovery now to make backup disks.

Btw, I'm not diggin the short palmrest at all. But the screen is fantastic and this thing is built like a rock it seems.

 

vin can you listen to the fan for me? Does it rev up for a second for you earlier like I described in the previous page?

 

It runs non-stop. Sometimes it does rev up even faster.

crafter, does your fan ever turn off? I'll have to listen for the brief rev up/down you're experiencing a little later. The dvd burner is drowning it out.

 

It will only go silent after I let it sit for 5-10 min doing nothing. Otherwise it seems to be always on and doing that annoying one second rev over and over.

Going to power manager and setting "reduce fan noise dynamically" instead of "balance all parameters" or "maximize performance" reduces noise to 0, but one should be able to use the other two options without the fan being on all the time. I think this is a BIOS bug. I'll post it in Lenovo's forum and hopefully someone can forward it to the engineers, but all the reviews kept raving about how quiet this thing is.. I don't get it. Maybe their review machines had an earlier BIOS verison that didn't have this problem

 

This is my fear. I had a tablet that ran very cool and quiet unless you were really pushing it. My X200 was noisy, but I replaced the heatsink and then it ran more quiet, though not as quiet as the X200t. We'll see if I ever get it. I wish they offered some LV or ULV voltage CPUs. I would have gotten one of those as I don't need a ton of CPU power.

 

We don't know if it's running hot or if the fan control is just too aggressive like people have reported in the T420s. I don't have the time now to install tpfancntrl and restart, but I can report temps and actual fan speed after Win is installed on the msata, if no one does so before then.

If temps are ok, then all we should have to do is post the issue on lenovo's forum. Issues seems to get escalated fairly quickly from there. And this is a new product so it should be addressed in a future bios update.

 

What version is the Bios on your machine?

 

1.11 ten characters

 

1.11

Well here's some bummer news already. There's a gap between the bezel and the panel, and there's also some light bleed in a few spots at the bottom of the screen. I do plan on getting this fixed, but it's not urgent. It's not very significant and you can only see it in a completely black screen like during boot up.

There's also no Win COA sticker on the bottom.

 

Take the battery out and look under the laptop then

 

Yep, there it is.

 

Maybe it's got to do with how they go about selling their notebooks: Launch a product with extremely enticing discounts (especially in the US) and then take thousands upon thousands of orders. Something's got to give in terms of quality control.

Blame it on the need for endless growth. Blame it on the whole wretched system.

Sorry, it's late. Must go to bed.

 

As I posted in another thread, the discounts Lenovo posts are not real discounts. These machines are not worth the $1500 Lenovo claims is the original price before discount. That is just a marketing thing and hopes clueless people will think they are getting an amazing deal when in fact the price they are paying after these so called discounts is the standard pricing.

Lenovo has these "discounts" 24/7 365. It's phony. The only time they have real discounts are using coupons or during holidays/special events (going back to school, Easter, etc), and I think right before a product is getting phased out

 

I received mine today as well. I haven't had much time to "play" with it since I wasn't able to open it until I got off work... but my very first impression is, except for the great screen (mine is the IPS model), I'm not extremely impressed. Between the fan noise already mentioned by others, the small vertical resolution (I really didn't think this would be an issue, I've owned 1200x800 MacBooks in the past and had no problem), and an issue with my trackpad/trackpoint not responding to button presses for about 60 seconds after wake, I'm considering a refund already.

Maybe the more I use it the more I will grow accustomed to it... but generally first impressions are hard to get over... good or bad.

 

weownthesky78, can you tell me if your fan revvs up and down for a brief second like mentioned earlier, or does it spin at the same speed all the time for you?

Also, the problem with your trackpoint/pad not responding after wake is not normal. Mine works instantly. Try reinstalling the Ultranav drivers from the Lenovo site. If that fails maybe someone can help you. As a last resort you could reinstall Windows using the factory default discs that you can create. That should definitely solve your problem unless it is some kind of a hardware issue but I don't think it is

A temporary fix for the fan issue is to go into power manager and set the fan speed (click the advanced button on the top right first) to "dynamically reduce fan noise"

 

Crafter,

Mine fan noise is steady, no revving up and down while sitting idle. Even when pushing the laptop, it is a steady climb in fan power.

Thanks for the suggestions on the trackpoint/trackpad. I'm considering wiping it and installing from scratch... just not sure if I want to go to the trouble... maybe this weekend if I have some time.

 

install tpfancontrol. That fixes all my fan noise issues.

TPFanControl by troubadix

 

I'm sending mine in tomorrow. They said they have the bezel and IPS screen in stock, so hopefully I'll get it back soon. I'm selling the interim X61T, so I'd like to get the X220 back while I have another machine available.

The light bleed is actually even more prominent on the right and upper edges. And the keyboard is also acting pretty strangely. Right/left clicking randomly, double clicks on it's own, cursor moves when you push a mouse button.

With all of this going on, better to just send it in and get it over with. A little disappointing for a brand new machine, but I've worked in manufacturing and quality as an intern and realize it's a brand new model.

 

Oh man, you guys got me worried. Mine arrived in Philly at 5:31pm today, so I will definitely be getting it tomorrow. I hope there are no big issues with it. My Acer 1830T fan was annoyingly loud, but there was no fan control program for it like there is for Lenovo's.

 

Funny I am not seeing all these issues. I did update the UltraNav driver just after I got my X220, and I disabled the Touchpad in the UltraNav panel. I also installed Win 7 SP1 and all other Windows updates.

No fan noise here, but to be fair, I don't really push my hardware much, not being a gamer, or programmer, or somesuch.

I can live with the short palmrest, but that would be the thing I would change first if I could.