ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

I have a T400 for work and an X220 tablet for personal.

I prefer the X220 keyboard. Maybe because it's new, but the key feedback is rock-solid compared to the slightly mushy keys on my T400.

 

Depends on the manufacturer for actual keyboard quality since the keyboards have several sources.

The T/X/W series share the same keyboard as of the #20 generation though. I heard that the X series has the best chassis for the keyboard, but I personally think that the X series palmrest is a bit short for long periods of typing.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I tend to hover my palms in any case, so the short rests might not be an issue.

I find the T410 very mushy, very unresponsive. Is the actual surface of the keyboard different from the T400 - i.e., in the contours, or is it just the frame?

 

Again, how mushy or responsive is mainly determined by the manufacturer of your keyboard part.

NMB keyboards are generally considered the best, followed by ALPS, then Chicony.

 

Hey guys, my friend is considering an Amazon.com: Thinkpad X220 12.5" 320GB 4G: Computers & Accessories X220.

Is it still modern by today's standards? Looks like it was released in April 2011. Her main priorities are portability and durability. Price is definitely important too.

If not this one, what other laptops of 14" and smaller should we consider?

Thank you so much for your reply.
I've been out of the computer world for 3 yrs and feel completely outdated.

 

How do I tell the manufacturer of the keyboard? The part number for my keyboard is 45n2240

 

On telling the difference between ALPS, NMB, and Chicony. I think this still applies today.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/334224-keyboard-nmb-alps-chicony.html

The X220 is still modern, its barely a year old and nothing better has come out. I would say that the X220 is the best 12 inch ultraportable this generation.

 

With the new keyboard redesign (Tx10, Wx10, Tx20, Wx20, X220), those features no longer apply. Here are the new ones:
NMB = red pads
Chicony = grey pads
ALPS = white pads

Here are all the part listings for the X220 keyboards, unfortunately they don't specify which column is which manufacturer...

 

in this case it's NMB, alps, and chicony from left to right.   FRU numbers are always assigned in alphabetical ascending order.   so, even if the keyboard pages list them out of order, you can quickly discern the type by following this rule.

 

Amazing, erik. You always know all the answers

So, in this case, you have a UK English NMB-made keyboard (you can verify visually). Interestingly enough, the NMB keyboards are usually regarded as having the best feel.

 

Hello,

I just got a new X220t (4298-A24) and I have two questions:

This unit did not come with a webcam. I picked up an internal webcam off eBay and looking at the service manual, it seems pretty straightforward to install. Am I correct in this thinking? It's unclear if the assembly just plugs in or if I need to do something else (like run a cable)

The last Thinkpad I had (X32) showed an entry for Bluetooth when I pressed Fn-F5. This unit shows the 802.11 and WiMax which leads me to believe that it does not have Bluetooth. But when I look at the device manager I see this entry: "Intel® Centrino® Wireless Bluetooth® 3.0 + High Speed Virtual Adapter". Now I am confused. Does it have Bluetooth?

Thanks,

Richard.

 

richard451,

The "Intel® Centrino® Wireless Bluetooth® 3.0 + High Speed Virtual Adapter" in your Control Panel does not mean that you have bluetooth. For example, my X220 had that and I deleted it because it has Broadcom bluetooth (and the Broadcom bluetooth is working). Is that device enabled for you? If not, can you enable it and test connectivity to a bluetooth device.

This Lenovo page has Auto-Detect which will tell you what you have installed. It might depend on how old your laptop is.

Fn-F5 not showing bluetooth is a pretty good indicator that you do not have bluetooth though.

 

There should also be an indicator for bluetooth on the screen bezel, besides the wifi and hd activity indicator.

 

Thanks.

Another Question: How do I enroll I the Intel Anti-Theft thingy? I went to the Intel site but it said I was supposed to have an activation code (which I could not find). Is there another way to do it with for Lenovo?

 

Anti-Theft is a BIOS setting in the Security menu. If you enable it, it interfaces to the optional Computrace monitoring service. Don't know how much that costs...

 

^I think you need the 3G WWAN card too.

S

 

http://muf.sk/files/IMG_20120101_170819.jpg
dafak?

 

Nope, does not. According to Absolute software docs on " How does this work?", it says " If your computer is stolen, contact us. The next time your computer connects to the internet it will silently switch to theft mode with Agent contact increasing from once per day to every 15 minutes."

It uses geotechnology to determine physical location and it can also do a Delete of all data too.

Here's the link with pricing.

 

Steal laptop, change motherboard?

 

I very much doubt that "people" that steal laptops will ever know that this "Lojack" software is running and would even think of changing the motherboard...

 

so how should I use any of those technologies?

1: set those features as enabled in bios
2: write down some number (serial number of notebook?).
3: ?
4: ?

 

Posted a link to the service that you need to purchase on previous page. Here it is again

 

Thanks for the info Brian5. Amazon sells the premium service for $90/3yr. .08c/day seems like a good deal for extra peace of mind.

 

yea but do I need to purchase the service BEFORE my notebook gets stolen or just after it stolen?

 

You need to purchase it before your notebook is stolen. See their FAQ:

http://www.absolute.com/Shared/FAQs/L4L-FAQ-E.sflb.ashx

 

so is this the "computrace"? and the intel AT is the same (non usable)?

 

Ah, sorry, different service to the one I'd been reading about a while ago. The other one used the Ericsson WWAN card to enable you to force the security features remotely, waiting for the laptop just to be powered up rather than reconnected and so on.

S

 

They work in tandem with each other. Lojack is the service and Intel provides the hardware at the bios level. You can use the service without the hardware, but that implementation is much less reliable secure (all it requires is a hard drive reformat/pull to bypass the service).

I personally think it's a worthwhile purchase, but your mileage may vary.

 

so why would someone want to permanently disable such a feature?

 

It's probably a BIOS threat to guilt you into buying it since it will permanently disable it. I'd be willing to bet if you called up Computrace with your CC#, they would happily unlock the FINAL DECISION that you clicked on...

 

I just got a new X220 today and planning to buy and replace my HDD with a SSD. What would be the best way to transfer my copy of Win 7 to a new SSD and what would be the best SSD to fit into my X220? My X220 is Core i7, 4GB Ram, IPS and 320GB HDD.

Also, I want to ask if it is a good idea to keep Lenovo softwares after a clean install?

Thanks for all inputs. Cheers!

 

There is software called Lenovo recovery (create recovery media). This is what I used and it worked perfectly. Took Three DVD's to create.

I kept the Lenovo software on my system. This may just be a preference thing.

List of SSD drives.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/572243-list-drives-compatible-x220.html

 

I've done clean install when switching to SSD, it's great opportunity to get rid of bloatware and stuff

 

Hi, I got my new X220T i7 a few days ago, however I'm in the middle of looking for a mSata option for it, however I've stumbled across some threads saying that the i7 models do not work with mSata drives, is this true?

 

Don't know if the problem applied to all i7 models, but it's solved with recent models/BIOS versions. I think the fix was in BIOS 1.18. So make sure to update to the latest BIOS and you should be fine. I had an mSATA SSD running in my i7 X220 without a problem.

 

Thanks! I do not really know which mSata to get though, was looking at the PM830 from Samsung, however I don't know when it will get released, can any of you recommend a mSata?

 

may I know your reasoning behing getting msata ssd + hdd instead of sata ssd?

 

As I only really want a SSD for my OS, and common used apps, such as Office, Chrome, Photoshop and so on, and therefor I will only need a 64-80GB mSata SSD, I will use the HDD for storage and other apps... If I went with a traditional Sata SSD, I would atleast need 120GB, which is more expensive, and I would either have to buy a 7mm drive, which is uncommon, or a 9.5mm drive and mod it, which will void the warranty of the drive...

 

I asked the prior question because sata ssdrives are cheaper when compared price per 1gb and IMHO they are faster too but I didnt check any benchmarks so I cant really tell.

 

I have been trying to recover my lenovo system state using the recover drive to my new msata drive. I would like to use UEFI but if I select UEFI only in BIOS it will not boot from any drive. I converted the recovery drive to a GPT partition system but still no go.

Any Ideas?

 

I've used the Intel 310 mSATA for a while. I think it's the most commonly used and Intel has a reputation for reliability.

I'm using the Samsung SSD 830 128GB now, which is a 7mm drive. Yes, on paper and in benchmarks it is a faster drive. After all, the SATA slot supports SATA 3, whereas the mSATA in the X220 is limited to SATA 2. But honestly, there's almost no difference in everyday usage. I sat at my desk with a stop watch trying to measure boot times. The Samsung drive was 0.5 seconds faster, at most. I couldn't think of a way to measure Firefox or Open Office start times, they just open too quickly, on both drives. So, as is pointed out regularly, the big difference is from HDD to SSD, not between different SSDs.

In the end, I decided for the SSD alone, instead of a mSATA/HDD configuration, because I wanted the lightest and least power hungry machine I could get. Sure, the extra storage is nice, but I rarely need it on the go. I've lived on 60GB so far. So I'll get a USB 3 case for my HDD and use it as an external drive instead of carrying it around.

As for price, the Samsung 128GB cost only about 30$ more than the Intel mSATA with 80GB.

 

--As for price, the Samsung 128GB cost only about 30$ more than the Intel mSATA with 80GB.

that was what I meant - just to let jacob know about not so much more expensive alternative.

--After all, the SATA slot supports SATA 3.

That's just marketing so you can be like "OMG LOOK AT THOSE R/W SEQUENTIAL SPEEDS!". can anyone compare random 4k qd=1 speeds for that samsung and that msata intel?

 

Thanks for your replies! I'm eyeing a used Samsung 830 128GB SSD right now...

 

If I were in the market for a mSATA drive, I think I'd get this.

 

(Also on the price thing) I just wanted to give examples for what you said.

And while I wouldn't call it "just marketing", since there seems to be more to the SATA 3 protocoll than just better sequential read speeds, I agree with you with respect to practical effects. As I said above, all benchmarks aside, I didn't notice any difference between mSATA and SATA 3 SSDs in everyday usage. (You can find benchmarks for the two drives online, Samsung is consistently faster, but not by a lot for 4k random writes.)

 

The only way that I could get my UEFI boot was doing an fresh install from Win7 CD after partitioning my mSATA as GPT partition. After the research I've done, I don't think that any MBR-based backup that one may have (whether you have Recovery discs, Windows Backup or ANY other utility's backup) will restore to that GPT partition...

There's no compelling reason to go UEFI at this time (although I do think that my X220 boots faster). I need to do some timings...

 

So I placed an SSD in my X220T and put a clean install of Win7. I'd like to install that Microsoft Touch software Lenovo places on thier builds (the software that has all the example touch apps). Anyone know how I can get that from the recovery DVDs or any other method?

Also is the RapidBoot software actually worthwhile to install?

 

On a new drive, will windows be able to partition the drive as GPT or will some diskpart or command stuff be required to do this?

 

Don't know if what you are looking for is here or not.
Drivers and software - ThinkPad X220, X220 Tablet, X220i, X220i Tablet

 

It's pretty simple to use diskpart.exe to do it.

On a new install, when you get the Windows prompt, you can do Shift-F10 to get the command prompt.
1. run diskpart
2. list disk
After running this, the right most column is Gpt. If you have GPT disk, this column has asterisks.
3. select disk # where # is the one you want
4. detail disk
5. If you do not have any volumes, you can go to step 8.
6a. select volume # repeat 6a and 6b to remove all volumes
6b. delete volume
7. select disk # as you did in step 3
8. convert gpt
9. list disk and you'll see asterisk/s in the Gpt column.
10. exit
You can create/format partitions or just go ahead and install Windows into the Primary partition.

On mine, I have 3 partitions in the volume (100MB System, 128MB Reserved, 111GB Primary). I obviously installed Windows into the Primary partition.