ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

Why do you need to recover Win 7? Are you trying to install a mSata or SSD? If so, once you make a set of recovery disks (I created a set on a USB thumb drive), then all you literally have to do is plug in the thumb drive with recovery disks and press F12 upon a restart. You then have to select the disk you want to install Win 7 on.

If you are installing a mSata, you may have a couple additional steps. First, before installing Win 7, you need to remove the platter hard drive while doing the Win 7 installation so that the recovery disk will be sure to install Win 7 on the mSata (rather than the platter hard drive). After you install Win 7, you have to restart and press F1 to change the boot priority to the mSata drive. I didn't have to do that for my mSata installation, however.

If you do not want to use the factory recovery disks and want a "clean" install, you will have to find and download an Win 7 installation image. There are threads on this forum that can lead you in the right direction. You should also write down the serial number of Win 7 located beneath the battery.

For purposes of convenience, I just used the USB thumb drive with recovery disks (you don't need the serial number for this). Once installed, the Lenovo ThinkVantage utilities will update whatever drivers you need or are missing.

One side note, if you want to use a USB thumb drive, it will need to be at least 16GB in size. 8GB drives are too small. You will also need to format the thumb drive. Refer to the link below on how to do that.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-74246

It sounds like a lot of steps, but it is actually really easy in practice.

EDIT: Updated to include a few more details and a better link to make USB thumb drive bootable.

 

i have the cd set of recovery disk and i have my new ssd 128 gb..what should i do now?can i install windows 7 on my new ssd only with my recovery disk and without windows 7 compact disk?

 

Same thing I would think. Just boot from an external CD drive after you installed the SSD. Press F12 upon a restart to boot from the external CD drive, and then follow the prompts. I would double check and just search the threads, but it should be really easy.

 

can i use this ssd? please check this link
http://www.kingmax.com/en_03_product_content.asp?sn=114
according to the website, the weight is 7mm.

 

Hope to receive my x220 tomorrow and am thinking about hooking it up to an external monitor when at home but have not bought a monitor in at least 15 years. I don't need a gigangit size or professional monitor but a reasonably price decent IPS monitor no more than 24" I would think or even less. What would you recommend and what cable will be best to use with x220 to connect. Thanks much.

Gary

 

I'm pretty happy with my NEC EA232WMi, if you read the reviews the only real complaints are about the backlight, and my unit has almost no bleed. If you want an IPS for gaming, look at the LG IPS236V, it's another monitor I have used a bit and it's also great.

 

People define reasonable differently. Dell makes some excellent IPS LCDs and they do go on sale occasionally. You might want to hit Slickdeals to see if you can fine one.

 

LG IPS236V = ~$175 US
Dell U2312HM = ~$240 US
NEC EA232WMi = ~$260 US

These are all 23" LED backlit IPS.

 

I have LG IPS236V at home and it is very good and a good value for the money. There is also a 21-inch IPS screen from LG.

As for the cable, you can use just the VGA cable, but DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable would be a better choice. It also carries sound, if you use this cable to hook it up to a TV. Look online or ask your local computer shop.

LG IPS236V 23IN Widescreen LED Backlit LCD Monitor IPS 1920X1080 5ms 5000000:1 VGA DVI HDMI - LG Electronics - IPS236V-PN

I got LG IPS236V for about CAD$170 when it was on sale 3-4 months ago.

Amazon has it for $173.
http://www.amazon.com/LG-IPS226V-PN...CG72/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1337649209&sr=8-4

 

i have 1 LCD TV for my television and 1LCD Monitor for my external monitor.
Both using LG Brand and very satisfied until now.LG is great for quality and efficient.

 

I have the same config.

In the laptop
1. mSATA 128GB SSD - MydigitalSSD
2. 320GB 7200rpm HDD

Ultrabase Series 3
1. 500GB 7200rpm HDD

Found out that only when I can safely undock:

1. click on Undock from Win7 Shutdown Options OR
2. When the laptop screen is open and laptop is running that I can press the undock button on the Ultrabase

I cannot undock if the laptop screen is closed and I press the undock button on the Ultrabase. It does not safely undock the 500GB HDD.

Anyone else has this issue?

 

I recently purchased a Dell 23" IPS (UltraSharp U2312HM) on sale for under $200, which I really like given the price (it looks like it's around $238 on Amazon right now). The x220 has two ports: VGA and Display Port. You should use the Display Port if you can. I purchased a cheap cable for less than $10. Not all monitors have Display Port connections, but I know many Dell ones do.

If you decide on a monitor with a non-Display Port connection, you could purchase a cable that uses the Display Port to connect to such other connection like a HDMI.

EDIT: My one criticism of the monitor is that it does not have a HDMI connection. It only has DVI, d-Sub and Display Port.

On Amazon, the U2312 is around $238. I bought mine from Dell Korea for around $200. I am very pleased for the price that I bought it for.

 

If you get a monitor that has HDMI only, get a short DisplayPort adapter cable, something that's around 4-6" instead of the adapter only. The reason is that the adapter will pull on the connector due to the weight of the cable.

Here's an illustration:

Spoiler

vs

If the monitor doesn't come with a cable, you can also find cables that have one end HDMI and the other DisplayPort and skip the adapter. I like having that adapter anyway since I keep it in my bag to use for HDTVs and other HDMI only devices.

Thanks, I updated my post above. P.S. I merged your double post, plz use multiquote.

 

There are some screens which are being shipped out of S. Korea which may be worth a look. They use the same 27" 2560x1440 IPS panel as in the Apple cinema displays but are otherwise very basic. Maybe larger than you were looking for but they come to £240 when imported into the UK including VAT. There are a few models but they all use the 'QH270' panel, so if you look that up on eBay it should be there. There is a discussion of the screens here (Reviewed) $400 2560x1440 IPS no-AG 90hz+ Achieva Shimian QH270 and Catleap Q270

 

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=59887

I have this DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable for my TV.

 

Thanks for info about monitors guys. Will decide sometime on this thanks to your help. Got two x220s today and am just exploring around. Have to wait for final setup because waiting for mSATA drives to come in.

Just wondering though I will not be doing clean install so will uninstall various bloatware. Is it safe to uninstall Simple Tap? What will be affected if I do and thanks.

Also, I am used to the thinkvantage button launching the Thinkvantage tools panel but it launches something else, can that be changed and thanks.

Gary

 

Yes, I also installed Win 7 on to my mSata using the Lenovo recovery disks via a USB thumb drive. The x220 does not come with much bloatware (other than the ubiquitous Norton). I uninstalled Simple Tap since it just looks like a tile launcher for applications. I also installed a couple of other Lenovo utilities like Access Connections, which just seemed like a pretty version of the Windows 7 wireless networks control panel. I actually like the power management Lenovo utility because it easier to get to the power settings I want, but that is also superfluous.

I can't answer your second question, but I do remember reading about the issue on this thread. I would search the thread for an answer.

 

hmmm...waiting for mSata in my countries.it is like someone wait tree leaf become money.it takes long time for mSata 128GB..somebody sell 64 gb at $90 , but i think that is not worthy and not enough for main disk.
btw i think this is the best time for me to be a smuggler who smuggle mSata from taiwan to Indonesia and sell it with high price=p...

 

Don't sneeze at the 64GB drive. It can be used as a boot/OS/app drive in conjunction with a large (500GB) HDD for storage.

Windows 7 64-bit, plus two popular application suites, occupy around 40GB of the 60GB available space. A 64GB SSD (mSATA or SATA) for a system drive is quite practical.

 

well..it sounds good but i need more application such as adobe dreamweaver to make program and also microsoft c# with sql server 2008..
maybe this is not the era of mSata. i believe next year many people will sell it by the time ultrabook era.

 

Got my parents a X220i, would like to put in a msata SSD, what is the best option and where can I buy it?

Also straight out of the box the touch pad seems to be totally unusable, it seems to be registering left clicks all the time. For example just moving the cursor on desktop would select items, and hovering the cursor over a shortcut would open it, many times too. I had to disable the touch pad and only work with the red nub. How can I fix this since my parents are used to the touchpad.

 

Newegg.com - ADATA XM13 AXM13S2-60GM-C mSATA 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
This is a great msata drive for the price.

Have you tried updating your touchpad driver?

 

If you want the mSata as a boot drive, I would spend the extra money on this:

http://http://www.storagereview.com/ocz_nocti_msata_ssd_review

OCZ Nocti Series NOC-MSATA-120G mSATA - $150 at Newegg

 

The OCZ Nocti is THE WORST mSATA SSD available. You get freezes all the time and it is very unreliable.

The best mSATA SSD for the X220 is most likely the Intel 310.

The ADATA should be OK too.

 

As you can see, opinions regarding ssds are very mixed. Make sure you do some research on your own before you buy though.

 

I have an intel 310 40GB mSATA as my OS drive and I have no complaints about it.

 

Go with Intel.
Amazon.com: Msata, 40GB, Mlc, Oem: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: Msata, 80GB, Mlc, Oem: Computers & Accessories

Teach them to use the Red pointer (quicker once you get use to it). Much easier than trying to use the useless touchpad. No matter what settings I adjusted for the touchpad nothing worked. Its just not setup for productive use.

 

Cheaper at buy.com.

Buy.com - Intel SSDMAEMC040G2C1 40 GB Internal Solid State Drive

Buy.com - Intel SSDMAEMC080G2C1 80 GB Internal Solid State Drive

 

Ditto (80gb for me though). Fantastic drive.

 

Next week, hopefully will install mSATA SSD into my x220 and use 500gb HDD for storage drive. Will use recovery disks for mSATA install but still confused about the recovery partitions on both mSATA and HDD. Will it do any harm to just delte all partitions on my HDD and set up storage partitions and delete the recovery partiton on the mSATA SSD? I don't think I want to go back to factory reset using a recovery partiton from onboard the x220. Appreciate your input and thanks.

Gary

 

i think will be no issue..btw what brand of ur 500gb hard drive and what type of mSata?

 

SSD is found here MyDigitalSSD 128GB 50mm Bulletproof mSATA SSD | My Digital Discount

Also, HDD is Hitachi 500 GB 7mm height that was an option from Lenovo when I ordered.

Enjoying the machine a lot and hope all goes well with installing and setting up the SSD. Will take a while to get used to a laptop so small but what a joy to not have a lot of weight to carry around.

Gary

 

haha...me too.this is the 1st thinkpad and before using it, i used to brought 14inch laptop which is very heavy..x220 is the best powerful laptop for 12inch screen especially for the battery.i love it

 

Really random question, but does anyone know if this laptop can at least play League of Legends on low-med with no prob? I'm thinking of getting it with the i5-2520M, I know its not supposed to be meant for gaming, but having some games under my belt while travelling would be nice.
(if you don't know about that game, it would be great to know what games it has handled for you so far ^^)

 

I've played MW2, SC2 on low/med @ 720p and TF2 on med/high @ 720p. Check out my X220 tablet review in my sig. League of Legends biggest requirement is the 8800 series card, which HD 3000 = laptop 8600M GT = desktop 8500 GT...so you may need to turn down the settings.

 

that sounds pretty impressive actually, thanks for the reply

 

X220 touchpad, Can't right click drag with more than one stroke

1. Put cursor over a file or folder on the desktop.
2. Hold the lower right corner of the touchpad (embedded right button)
3. Drag with another finger (either hand)
4. Lift off the dragging finger to reposition, then touch again, and it lets go of the icon, returning it to the original position. (This means I'm not accidentally lifting off the right button. If I was doing that, the icon would remain where I moved it to.


it's nearly impossible to do right-click moves using the right pad button. It becomes a 2-handed operation, one to hold the upper right button, and the other to do the dragging.

was watching the lenovo diagnostic tool. and when I click the right button, it sometimes seesit as left click.
When I right click drag, it becomes 2 button clicked and that is why it doesnt work.

When the drivers are all uninstalled the buttons work properly and the click and drag works too.

Any ideas?

 

morning all,

just a quick question regarding the X220T (actually after the X230T but as they seem to be largely the same I will assume one answer will cover both) and whether it has a TPM chip inside it?

I would be surprised if it didn't, but can't see any mention of it on the tech specs from Lenovo.

Any confirmation would be appriciated.

Cheers

 

Hi Guys,

Quick question regarding the X220T, I got some super glue stick to the tab that stick out from the top right corner of the screen, is there away to replace it?
If so, what do I need to bye to replace it, any manual show how to do it

Thanks million!

Tuan

 

Hello all,

I'm planning to get an eGPU with PE4L and getting a video card somewhere along the lines of GTX560. I own a Lenovo x220 with 4 gb ram and i5-2540 @ 2.6ghz. Anyone here on the same situation with me that can share your gaming experiences with your eGPU setup?

Thanks,


Felix

 

I actually just finished setting up an eGPU for my 4gb 2520 x220. I used PE4L 2.1b, GTX 460 and Antec 380w PSU. Everything runs great and super smooth. So if everything is smooth for me, your 560 will suit you fine. I play everything on high settings and I've played battlefield 3, hard reset, fifa 2012 and a few other games. Works great, I don't have benchmarks or anything for you (plenty in the egpu thread) but I've never had any lag spikes.

Using the newest bios and express card set to automatic.

 

well, i have a question.when i was playing game, i heard noise from the vent in left side and when i touched the vent, i felt very hot..is this a normal condition?could u tell me if i still play my game without break for 5 hours?
thank you

 

I can't really speak about games, so maybe it would be different with the video card going at full load, but I've had the CPU at full load for a couple of hours at it doesn't shut down. It's very hot yes- 96 celsius at the CPU but it seems like it's ok as long as the ventilation isn't obstructed on the side, back, and base

 

Sorry to post again, but Im really having issues with this, does anyone have any suggestions?
I've tried installing and uninstalling all type of drivers including synaptic and its the same

 

i just realized that x220 has 3 ventilation area..

 

Could you be a little bit more specific about the "noise"?

Also were you gaming with integrated graphics at the time? Mine gets super hot when gaming with hd3000, but really not bad when using the egpu. You could always just pop the keyboard out of place to allow some more air in there when you game. Takes a few seconds to do and would add a bigger vent.

 

Hey all--you may have seen my posts in the "X220 price drop" thread, but I am very interested in buying one of these machines primarily for academic use. I was wondering, do you think the i3 model would be low balling it? I've seen a pretty good price point on it and am thinking of getting that model. Thanks

 

I've used both processors (had to return one of the machines), and I also monitor the CPU speeds on a fair number of occasions. My thoughts are that for most applications you'll never notice a difference. Of course, it depends what you're doing, but even for data-intensive applications I never noticed much of a real-world difference. Keep in mind though that the processor is soldered in and not socketed on the X220, so you can't change your mind and upgrade later.

 

thanks for that info. It will be primarily for Word use, but I would definitely be doing some web browsing as well and the like.

 

i think the noise is from processor fan....
anybody, could u tell me about tips and trick to get longer battery life with 6 cell only.in fact, the indicator tell my battery only for 6:21 hours with maximum battery life mode.