ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

You know, I'm pretty sure hibernation dumps your RAM info to disk... if you have 2x or 4x the amount of RAM (in use? total? not sure) as the next guy, hibernating should be 2x to 4x slower, everything else being constant.

I'm not sure if this process is mostly random or sequential, but even at ~250MB/s R/W, which is about the practical limit of SATA II, it'll theoretically take more than 30 seconds to read/write 8GB to disk.

That being said, I'm not sure if there's actually anything you can do about this.

 

Disable sleep/hiberate, get an SSD.

 

That makes sense; especially if it is TOTAL RAM. That would seem to support faster hibernates before I upgraded to 8GB RAM. If it is currently used RAM then that would explain the infrequent faster hibernate since I have less data being written to SSD.

But of course, now I only really sleep and shutdown. Stupid library scanner always goes off on my laptop when in sleep mode, hence the shutdown.

 

Anyone here manage to get Power Manager working under Win8?

 

I have only 2 Gb of ram and I don't know if it's better to get an ssd or to uppgrade the ram with another 2 Gb module... or if I really need both things.

 

I'd just get 2x4GB of RAM. It's really cheap these days. If you are willing to pay a little bit more you can also get 2x8GB which makes a total of 16GB.

 

And what about to buy a single 8 Gb stick waiting a little to buy another one ?

For now I could use it with one of the 2 Gb modules.

 

Unless you know you're regularly maxing out your RAM, I'd buy the SSD instead. 2x4, and even 1x8 (relatively) is indeed really cheap these days, though.

 

I you wish to, then go ahead.

It is however usually recommended to use 2 identical modules, hence buying the 16GB Kit wouldn't be a bad idea. It's usually cheaper that way too.

The commander has a point. The SSD makes a much bigger difference. But since RAM really is so cheap, I'd just add it to the list anyway.

 

For what concern te battery life which are the most common improvement settings to increase it (I really don't go over 5 hours or a little more)

 

If you've got the 6-Cell, 5 hours should be pretty easy with any setting provided you aren't pegging the CPU 24/7. Otherwise just use the appropriate Power Manager mode and turn down the screen brightness. The SSD helps too.

If you've got the 3-Cell, 5 hours is bordering on impossible if you're doing anything practical.

EDIT: I assumed you had the x220t, but if you have the vanilla, the 9-Cell makes all this even easier.

 

Hi guys
I just got my new x220 (4291-zfs) and windows 8 upgrade key.


How is my boot time?

 

Very impressive indeed. I was at OfficeMax today and most of the new PCs had Windows Eight on them.

 

Didn't time it, but the boot time off my mSata is close...maybe one or two seconds off from yours. Ridiculously fast.

 

What BIOS version are you using? My X220 has a much longer post time...strangely enough, I think it was shorter with the stock 320gb hard drive rather than the samsung 830 I upgraded to!

 

I've the six cell battery and the "balanced" power scheme enabled.
I've the X220 (Not the tablet)

The precise model "serie" is 4290

 

And you can't get over five hours? What are you doing on battery? Can you see your idle wattage in Power Manager?

EDIT: Yeahhh 7000!

 

When I actually USE my X220 and don't stare at the desktop I get around 3h with my 6c.

 

Hi
I'm using 1.33 (8det63ww) and UEFI only.

 

My USB ports die temporarily (the ones on the left side go first) but then work again after restarting the computer. How can I fix this so they don't die at all?

Thanks in advance.

 

I have similar issues, but only the two on the left side. Never had issues with the one on the right.
Reboot fixes it.

 

Check the power settings (Assuming you are using power manager lenovo app).

I'd like to know if antivirus/firewall apps could have an effective impact on battery life.
Now I'm using the not so "light" Comodo (Both like antivirus and firewall) and SuperAntiSpyware.

 

I guess I should rephrase my earlier comment as I'm biased by my own normal use case: it should be easy to get five hours if you're just doing internet and office work.

 

How are you getting to the lenovo logo in only 4 seconds? I've tried messing with all the bios settings (both 1.33 and 1.34) and it takes me 8 seconds no matter what. I'm booting via UEFI mode only into windows 7. Windows 8 will probably boot faster, but it shouldn't reduce boot time between pressing the power button and the lenovo logo.

Any ideas?

*edit*

Problem solved by setting the security chip to "inactive" in the bios. Shaves 4 seconds off boot time.

 

Exchanging the hitachi 320 hd 5400 rpm with an ssd could be result in a really visible "improvement" (Start up included) ?

 

Yes, any SSD will be light years faster than a mechanical hard drive.

 

I haven't seen anything on this here (or anywhere else), so I hope I didn't miss anything that already covered this.

Has anyone upgraded an x220t to the final release of Windows 8? I'm planning on doing so this weekend, but I'm not sure if everything will work just fine. I'd ideally install it to replace the windows 7 install so I don't have to deal with a second partition, so I want to make sure everything works, especially the tablet input with OneNote.

Also, can I install Windows 8 as a clean install, instead of installing over 7? I recently added an mSATA ssd and just moved Windows 7 over to that, but since I didn't do a clean install then (I know, not ideal) I want to do that now with Windows 8.

Thanks!

 

You have the option to clean install. You just have to have 7 on the drive to validate that you are upgrading from something instead of buying an upgrade license to use on a new computer.

 

There are sparse Windows 8 experiences on the X220T that I've seen so far, and I've been wanting to do the upgrade, or possibly clean install, myself. One user at tabletpcreview.com mentioned it being wonky: x220t with win 8 a little wonky.

It also seems so far that many of the X220T Windows 7 drivers will work with Windows 8 if the corresponding Windows 8 drivers are either not released or still in some worse beta form. My install of Windows 7 is so perfect and power efficient right now, so I'm really cautious of installing Windows 8, although I really, really want to. I'm waiting until official Wacom and Multitouch drivers are released by Lenovo.

 

I take it this is the TPM?

If so Im out of luck as my X220 has computrace installed on it (and the TPM).

 

I'm on the same boat as well. I use my laptop everyday for work. So I just need the thing to work. I can't tinker around with beta quality or non-existent drivers

 

Has anyone has trouble with the X220T microphone on Windows? I can't pick up any sound with the the gain maxed out. Skype is unusable for me.

 

I've actually had on and off issues with the x220t microphone and Skype. Sometimes it's fine and sometimes I really have to yell... testing the mic in Skype independently always seems to work fine, though, so I personally think it's Skype doing something stupid, but I don't Skype enough to have cared to look into too much. Do tell if you find a solution/figure out the problem, though.

 

Probably not relevant to any current post, a bit off topic, and slightly selfish but.... I want an X220 tablet!

 

I found a x220 Tablet on ebay. But is it true that all the tablets have IPS screens?
Does the tablet also have disadvantages?

 

AFAIK yes all tablets in the ThinkPad series have IPS. It would not make sense to make a tablet TN (Twisted Nematic) LCD IMO. You are also asking a very broad question regarding disadvantages in the use of a tablet. What are your uses and expectations of a tablet or any laptop? It all depends on user context which is subjective and unique to the operator. What is 'good' to one person may not be 'good' for you. There are several threads here such as the X220 and X230 tablet threads that you might wish to peruse through. Perhaps someone has similar questions that you have that have already been answered in regards to what the ThinkPad tablets have to offer.

 

The T variant is:
-Heavier
-Doesn't have a 9 cell battery option

 

Yeah, the primary downside(s) are the much larger and heavier form factor. And don't get me started on the awful, awful 6-Cell battery. You also can't use the regular Mini Dock unless you mod it a little. Otherwise you can basically configure a tablet with the same specs as a vanilla.

 

Man, after getting my IPS screen replaced last month because it was visibly ghosting (and it was a post august 2011 screen), this brand new replacement is starting to do it too. It's plainly obvious in windows 8 when switching between my desktop browser and the solid colored backgrounds of metro applications :/

 

Waiting to buy the samsung 830 ssd I'm about to upgrade my ram.

I have to decide among these budget models:

Kingston KVR1333D3S9/4G DDR3 1033 Mhz
Corsair CMSA4GX3M1A1333C9 DDR3 1033 Mhz

Can be them considered at the same "level" and are fully compatibile with our x220 ?

 

Doesn't matter, get what is cheaper. RAM is RAM is RAM. Make sure it has a lifetime warranty (almost all brand name RAM does).

 

For what concern the compatibility is there no issue ?

 

ThinkPads are not very picky about which memory they'll take these days.

 

As long as it is DDR3 it doesn't matter.

 

I have a single 2 gb module.
Is it better to buy 4 gb for 15 euro (Waiting for a future upgrade) or tu buy another 2 gb module ?

My budget is very low such as I've to buy a sleeve and a ssd, too.
Sigh.

 

DDR3 RAM is so cheap, it doesn't really matter. That being said, I've never seen any USDM X220 models sold with just 2 GB, they are all standard 4 GB + 320 GB HDD here.

 

But an amount of ram of 4 Gb could be right for win 7 or having 6 Gb could be a real improvement leaving the possibility of a future upgrade, too ?

 

I really don't understand what your concern is. You were debating between two different 4GB DIMMs, and now you are talking about 2GB versus 4GB DIMMs?

 

The debate among 4 gb was a problem of compatibility.
The debate among 2 or 4 gb is a problem of "convenience".

 

Well, I don't know how RAM prices are in your country, but here in the US the price difference between a 2GB DIMM and a 4GB DIMM is basically nothing, so in that case you should just get the 4GB DIMM and be done with it.