ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

^I posted my WEI a page or two ago:


WEI is (i7, 8GB HyperX 1866, Intel 320 SSD):

Processor 7.1
Memory 7.6
Graphics 6.4
Gaming 6.4
HDD 7.7


S

 

What software do you use to get your benchmarks? Thanks.

 

Just as a point to compare if anyone is interested, my X220 has an I5 with
a factory Samsung SSD and the same HyperX memory and my WEI is .2 less on Processor speed, .1 less on Memory speed and .1 less on HD speed than the I7 X220 quoted below. (complete WEI in my signature)

 

The WEI is the "Windows Experience Index" and is a feature of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

What is the Windows Experience Index?

 

Thanks. I just installed 8gb of Kingston1866 on my i5-2540 with 320gb hard drive. I expected more of a graphics boost? Here's the change:

Processor: 7.1 - 7.1
RAM: 5.5 - 7.6
Graphics: 4.6 - 5.3
Gaming: 6.1 - 6.2
Hard Disk: 5.9 - 5.9

 

I just got mine the other day and loving it so far... but does anyone else have a problem with the plastic nubs on the screen hitting the plastic under the trackpad? This is what it looks like, there are two more similar marks:

 

Uh, no. That's just weird. I don't get how the little nubs could make a dent in the hard plastic shell like that. Not even if you are slamming it shut.

 

That's why it bothers me, since I'm usually very careful with my electronics. The only possibility I can think of is that I've had it in a messenger bag today, and the motion of me walking may have pushed it together, but it still seems like the plastic is very soft for this to happen from that.

 

Seems consistent. Overall it's a pretty amazing performance for an ultraportable I think. Feels very snappy in day-to-day use so far too. Very pleased.

S

 

I have the same issue. It doesn't bother me though.

 

Should you update your drivers and OS first and then do the rcovery disks or should you do the recovery disks as soon as you turn on the laptop for the first time?

 

I have had a very interesting relationship with my X220 over the last week. I received it about a week ago and I was totally bowled over by the screen. Really nice. Then the trackpad became an issue. I realized I could not really use it smoothly. I installed the newest Synaptics drivers and it got better. Not great but better. Problem is, my X220 is cursed with the fan whine. Looking at the Lenovo forums, some people have been sending in their X220 for whine and have been getting them back still whining. Ultimately, that is too much of a risk for me. Between the odd trackpad and fan whine, I am jumping ship. Other than those, it is a fantastic machine. I love the design, the viewing angles, the keyboard is a dream, the dedicated vol. and mute speakers are crisp, it has every port except HDMI, battery was pretty good on 6 cell, chassis feels invincible yet light. It is a beauty except for the trackpad and the fan. In my opinion, if you don't mind the noise or get one w/o the noise and you don't use the trackpad then it is 5 star.

 

Mine has no noise but I'm definitely still getting used to the trackpad (1st week). First I thought it was unusable but now I'm toying with getting used to it. I dont' think an additional mouse is a very good alternative for an ultra portable.
For me it doesn't make sense to carry around a small laptop and an additional mouse? Anyway, between the trackpad and trackpoint, I hope practice will help me find how to navigate effectively - and hope it just takes getting used to.

 

Hi, I have a question regarding Toshiba 1,8" SSDs that Lenovo sells/sold. Does anybody have one and/or could provide me with benchmarks?

Why am I asking this: My company uses Safeboot (McAfee Endpoint Encryption) with all laptops. What I want to know is the performance impact of it!
These numbers were taken on an X201 i7 with such an 1.8" SSD in a 2,5" adapter on Win7 using Safeboot (McAfee EE with a 256bit AES - FIPS, not AES-NI) CPU utalization wasn't limiting during the tests.




Either these Toshiba SSDs are VERY slow compared to others or safeboot just cripples the performance here!
Can anybody put these numbers into perspective? Can't find much about them.
In order to get a higher performance I ordered me an Intel 320 with hardware AES. I want to be able to provide my IT department with some hard facts (numbers) in order to convince them to let me use hardware encryption over McAfee EE. That's why it would be a real help if I could find some performance numbers on the Toshiba 1.8" drives!

thanks

 

Have you tried updating the bios to at least 1.17? My whine became far less audible and is now a non-issue.

 

Unless you're pushing the machine to the max. But then, the noise is to be expected.

 

Is it OK to install new memory even before you turn on the laptop for the first time or should you do the recovery disks first and then install the memory?

 

Makes no difference; install it whenever you like.

 

I want to know, I am trying to install the newest intel HD3000 drive (2361) but windows don't let me do it. I have 2321.

So, how do I update my driver??

Also, what are the drivers that lenovo have on their website that are not to date?

Thanks

 

Well, you can go to Device Manager in Control Panel and expand your Display Adapter. Right-click and then choose uninstall. After it has uninstalled, you can then installing the new drivers.

I also noticed that the Wifi software is not updated. I noticed that my Wifi software version was 14.00.1000 whereas the latest software version on Lenovo website is 14.01.1000. After installing the huge file (235MB), it solved my issue with reconnecting with my home wifi coming out of sleep mode.

Cheers!

 

My X220t (42962WU) is on the big brown truck, wish me luck!

 

I had the same problem - solution is to uninstall original driver, reboot and install intel driver. Windows will not complain then.

 

How long does your machine take to connect out of standby now? I updated the driver but it hasn't made any difference.

 

Well, backlight bleed on my X220t is pretty bad, at least by my standards, so it'll be going back. The screen is a bit flimsier feeling than I had hoped for as well.

Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the machine. The fan is not too loud considering the small chassis and fast CPU, the keyboard is great typical Thinkpad. It seems to load Photoshop fairly quickly (considering that I still have the stock 4GB RAM and HDD instead of an SSD), and hopefully there aren't too many slow-downs in drawing/rendering. Both touch and stylus inputs are working quite well.

 

It takes about 3-5secs to connect back to my office and/or home wireless. It was better than the old 14.00.1000 drivers, which took forever to connect and sometimes, it would not connect at all.

Now, it connects 100% of the time as I do not usually shutdown my laptop, only to send it to standby mode after work.

 

sorry this thread is so long I was hoping youd forgive if I just asked a few questions. I was debating between this laptop and a sony SA.

hows the screen
does it run hot
any problems I should be aware of?

lmk thank you so much. sorry again

 

^the IPS screen is much nicer than the SA IMHO, although it is a little smaller and is lower resolution.

S

 

While you give up a great screen on the SA (its really not that bad), you gain a powerful (for the size) dedicated gpu and smaller footprint.

 

does not run hot. Rear left corner could be called luke warm.

 

The GPU is more powerful on the SA - HD3000 integrated is the same but it has a discrete GPU too.

S

 

Any overheating problems while using Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1866

 

no, cool as ever

 

Hello, I am planning to buy the X220 this week. I have a few questions and it would great if someone can help me with them:

What brand 128 GB SSD does Lenovo sell when we customize the X220 laptop for purchase? I am planning to buy the laptop with 128 GB SSD installed.

Is it better to purchase this laptop with SSD installed or buy it separately? I am only hesitant of buying the SSD separately because of not all of them fit the X220 and also the reliability of these drives cannot always be guaranteed (like, the Intel 320 SSD 8MB bug). I am thinking that since Lenovo ships these SSD, maybe they are more reliable?

As I was reading, most of the owners here have bought their SSDs separately. I noticed that Lenovo has their SSDs priced higher. Is cost the only reason, or is it because of their reliability?

Also the following thread discusses about the issues with X220 which are currently open:
Index of X220 issues being worked on - Lenovo Community

Are these issue faced by most of the owners (at least on this forum) or does it depend on your luck?

Thank you!

 

looking for driver for chipset on intel site, does i7-2620m model with USB3.0 have the same chipset QM67 like others X220 ??

 

Hi, 2 days ago an engineer changed my x220 mt display into an outdoor screen. It was a mistake by lenovo but i didnt question it cause the outdoorscreen is awesome. But the build quality isn't suberb at the edges of the gorillaglas. It looks like they are broken. Can someone post a photo from the edges of the screen.

Edit: I've watched the unboxing video from Lenovo and it seems to be normal.
I've made a video of the outdoorscreen in full sunlight from the back http://www.youtube.com/user/Niels13337?feature=mhee

 

The SSD they ship is probably a Samsung 128GB. If it's not, I doubt it's from one of the major SSD vendors, because they don't do 128GB. It's not going to be any more reliable than one you get aftermarket, and those have warranty anyways. I'd skip the SSD, since the option is insanely priced. From what I know Intel SSD is the most reliable, you can grab one off Ebay for a rather low price if you want.

 

Just got the first of 200 or so x220t in today. I am preping a clean image. Before wiping the drive I looked at the IBM image a bit. I ran WEI and got:
Processor 7.1
Memory 5.9
Graphics 4.7
Gaming Graphics 6.1
Disk 5.9

I built a clean image with an Enterprise 7 SP1 with IE9 slipstreamed and got:
Processor 7
Memory 7.2
Graphics 4.8
Gaming Graphics 6.2
Disk 5.9

The IBM image was 7 Home 64 bit. The slight change in graphics is due to newer drivers I am sure. However the Memory score jump is really strange? Any ideas?

 

Thank you for your suggestion.

 

FYI, I compared the ACPI-reported idle power between a single stock 2 GB DIMM and the above 2 x 4 GB Kingston. The difference was about 0.3-0.4W.

 

I have no choice on going Solid State because my kids pass the computer back and forth playing games on car trips.

 

Wow, you can run World of Warcraft on 2G of RAM. Computer is great (I'm upgrading from an ASUS Eeepc netbook so take that comment for what its worth) but seems a mite bit warm on my left leg where that vent is blowing out hot air. Going to need a cooler for it to sit on before my next session.

No fan noises.

 

Not happy with mine....
I left it on and plugged in today and when I got home the trackpad and red pointer no longer worked. Luckily I had bluetooth mouse to use. I re-installed drivers to no avail. I re-started to a previous restore point.... etc. Called Lenovo. They answered fairly fast and took control of my computer to do all the things I already tried. In the end, they are sending a box to have it shipped for repairs. He almost agreed to send me a new trackpad to install myself until I reminded him that the red pointer doesn't work either.

10 days old and going back for repairs. oh well.

 

My X220i is due in today. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have any issues with it but I will report back either way.

 

I've had my X220i for about a month now. Put a 128gb SSD in there (barely fit), swapped the 2gb ram for a 4gb chip. Restored my image from my T60p (Win7 Ultimate x32), updated drivers and it's been perfect. Really couldn't be happier with it. I've adjusted to the small screen pretty well. The lightweight and small size really make it a joy to use.

 

Which drive did you use? Doesn't sound like a 7mm drive.

 

Is the Track-pad on the X220i supposed to "click"? Mine flexes and clicks at the bottom. Is this normal?

Thanks!

 

I ordered mine on 8/2/2011, and it's shipped on 8/5/2011. Very fast!

Specs:
0A69627 SBB INTEL CORE I5-2520M PROC
45M3092 VBB GENWIN7HOMEPREM64
0A69642 SBB 12.5PRMHDLDBCLTDPYMBBBRDAN
45M4572 VBB 4GBPC3-10600DDR3 1333SODMM
0A69643 SBB FINGERPRINT READER
0A69657 SBB CAMERA, HD 720P
0A69654 SBB 320GB HRDDSK DRV,7200RPM
0A69646 SBB TP BATTERY 29+(6CELL)
0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0
0A68255 SBB IC ADVN 6205 2X2AGN

I have the Crucial M4 128gb SSD and GSkill 4gb RAM ready to put in. Can't wait for it to get here!

 

If this happens pleas press Fn+F8 und click pointer and trackpad. Now it should work.

 

Thanks, I tried that too... It shows a screen saying "*?*....not installed". We'd uninstall/install drivers, keyboard, and such, and no change. Maybe the device is disconnected so device drivers don't take or show up? Anyway, it's shipped off now.

 

Has anyone found/tested wifi drivers for it? The Intel drivers? Do they help battery with newer drivers? Or...