ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

This is the one I got. Pretty cheap plus rebate and 5 eggs on newegg.

 

My X220 isn't here yet, but I've got all the bits and bobs together in anticipation. I want to travel light so I pulled the Blu-Ray burner out of my T410s and paired it with this cable:

Amazon.com: SLIMLINE SATA 13 Pin to USB Converter Cable: Electronics

In testing on the T410s it works like a champ!

-darren

 

Can some one test this to see they notice any difference.

When my power setting is set to performance and the screen is 15, it is super bright, but when I have it on battery saver with screen brightness set to 15, its dimmer.

Shouldn't 15 be the same regardless of powersetting.

 

I ordered the white model (just a color difference, everything else was the same) because the white one came with free shipping whereas the black one would've cost me another $5 in shipping. With that other $5 I bought an anti static wrist strap as I'll be taking apart the laptop first thing to replace the thermal pads with some arctic silver ceramic based paste. I'll try to take some pictures. From the service video it looks like the thermal paste job is very sloppily done and almost none existent on the south bridge (Not sure if it's the north or the south bridge. The north bridge is the QPI and the south bridge is the IOH for the core series I believe. It looks like the south bridge in the video though.)

 

I'm not sure, but I can see it gradually reduce the brightness a little when I unplug as well. This is despite disabling the Intel graphics services from starting (to prevent it forcing 50hz on battery).

 

considering that the X220 in the service video was a pre-production prototype and disassembled a dozen times by various departments, i wouldn't pre-judge your production system off of a simple training video.

 

Ya I was looking at that one so looks like I'll just grab it since it's getting some positive reviews here. Thanks guys

 

good point, but the paste they use is still the nasty stuff =P
once I get mine I'll take it apart and snap some pics.

 

This is the default setting for most ThinkPads. To correct it, change the video brightness in the BIOS. (Sorry, I forgot the exact wording of the option).

-darren

 

Good luck. To get to the fan you pretty much have to tear the entire machine apart. It's only reachable after a complete tear-down (going by the lenovotraining website)

 

Just found a stuck pixel on my X220 :-(
Lower part of the screen, only visible on dark backgrounds. It's teal.

 

Thanks,
But the Bios has nothing to do with the brightness adjustment on this computer.

The only options in the Bios is to switch to Digital,(Display Port),Lcd, or display 1 and Display 2.

 

Agreed. Just for grins I went into the BIOS on my T410s and didn't see the brightness settings. Must have gone out of fashion after the T61.

-darren

 

Is the microphone working for you guys..? mine doesn't seem to work

it's very odd. it seems to be working through audio devices but as soon as I want to use it in any program at all, it will just stop working..

nvm.. updating drivers fixed it

 

Perfect - thank you. My boss is paying my new notebook, so if it does not work it is not only lost money - I am gonna look stupid ;-)

I hope the fan/noise-issues will not be a problem for me. I am happy with my X41, but after one of my kids threw it on the floor both the ethernet and the wlan-card does not work anymore - and it was also a little slow.

Regards,
Tommy

 

don't know if anyone else has said it.... but i'm so much happier with the x220 over the x120e. granted that was a great machine at it's price point. the x220 doesn't need qualifiers and i just tell people how awesome it is.

was even thinking about a macbook air at one point. but the x220 is more of what i need.

 

Here: M2x4mm


The top of my keyboard, where the volume, power, mute buttons are has a lot of flex. The rest of the keyboard is fine. Do you guys have the same issue?

 

Yes, mine does also. I'm OK with it if it is a design issue but will take out the keyboard if it's something that can be fixed.

 

I just noticed this too. I suspect it is because this bar of plastic is not flush with the metal backplate. In any case, it doesn't bother me too much. The actual keyboard is solid.

 

Possible stupid question:

Does anyone know if x220(t) allows 64-bit virtualization? I am not even sure what it is, but I do know I need it for school. Thanks.

 

It's a 64-bit machine, so all that you should need is the correct software. All the processor choices also include Intel's virtualiztion extensions, to help speed things up.

So yes.

 

is the IPS display default option for X220 or we need to change something in configuration? (i see 12.5" HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display and 12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display in Display component)

btw, now it costs 30$ (not 10$ anymore) to upgrade battery from 6cell -> 9cell

 

It's the "Premium HD" display -- a $50 upgrade, which isn't too shabby
(honestly, I feared it was going to be a $150 or $200 upgrade).

 

Is the X220t gorilla glass version going to cost significantly more than the model with infinity glass? Comparing similar specs of course.

 

My X220 is constantly going into sleep mode (with a re-login required) after as little as 2 minutes of inactivity. I tried to turn sleep off in both the Lenovo power management settings as well as in the Win7 settings.

This is on AC power which makes it seem even more odd.

Any thoughts?

 

does anyone know where to get the slice battery with the price of 179$ (like in these review ThinkPad X220 review: awesome keyboard and 20 hour battery | ZDNet and Engadget. I can only get this from 229.99$ on lenovo shop

 

If you order it with the laptop, it's $179. It's $230 on it's own.

 

No tablets delivered yet, eh?

 

I just ordered mine the other day and my ship day is 6/8-MY BDAY! They already sent the laptop sleeve and cool little bluetooth mouse that was included in that order. What i really hope is that the tablets are in the next run and I'll get it in the 8 days as shown on the order page! That would be awesome but otherwise I am patiently waiting till then.

 

they don't provide option for that slice battery in configuration? i only see the battery 4cell in the Power accessories component. is this same as ThinkPad Ultrabase Series 3 in Notebook expansion component?

 

This is not the same as the Ultrabase. The option of getting a slice battery with the computer was there originally (4/19), but not by the time the i5/i7 options were posted (4/22). It may be due to the delay associated with the slice batteries (the order page originally said that there would be a substantial delay if you ordered a machine with this option). Try talking to a sales rep?

 

Thought I would ask some owners about the price quote I got.

x220i
i3-2310
IPS
4Gb Ram
320Gb 7200rpm
Webcam
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205
$855 before tax and additional warranty. Sound about right?

 

Hm, I switched from Ultranav to synapics drivers but I think I like Ultranav more. With synaptics, I have been getting some odd behavior.

 

My trackpoint left click has been randomly locking up and requiring at least having to go into standby and back out. Anyone else experience it? It's happened in both X220's, I thought it was a bad keyboard in the first one.

 

Hello,

does 42872VU configuration have IPS panel?

 

The tabook says no.

http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf

 

Crap. I ordered (from CostCentral) the 42962WU tablet. It doesn't look like it is IPS screen according to lenovo. Aaarrrgh.... I thought all x220t come with IPS screens. I think I am going to cancel my order then.

EDIT: Maybe I misread..... I can't tell anymore.

 

Both tablet screens are IPS.

 

Rarely use the trackpoint click but it has never locked up on me whenever testing it out.. I'll keep an eye out for it

 

Thamks for the confirmation.

 

I'm getting $825.39 pre-tax going through the student website and using the BESTSELLER ecoupon they advertise during checkout for that exact same configuration at base warranty so that sounds about right to me

 

Thanks! Seems like a good deal for such a nice laptop. Now to convince myself to get it...

 

it happened to me for the first time all week as well coming out of stand-by. my only fix for it was to close the lid which triggers a sleep and then to open it again. that's a crappy way of working around it but i believe to be software/OS/driver issue rather than a hardware one since i was able get out of the lock.

my keyboard, trackpoint and trackpad all were locked up out of stand-by. i must have gone into stand-by 30-40 times within the week and it only happened 1x. it's set to a very short duration before entering stand-by

 

so im configuring my x220T and im noticing that the data sheet doesnt mention usb 3.0, just usb 2.0. there will be usb 3.0 for the i7 right? its shipping out now for it, right?

 

Just got my X220 today. Did a clean install of Win7 Professional and SP 1 on a Intel 320 Serives SSD 160 GB. Using 8gb Crucial DDR3 Ram.

I installed fingerprint, camera, blue tooth, sound drivers already.

Few Issues, I have three devices with no drivers.
PCI Serial Port
PCI Simple Communications Controller
Unknown device

Other issue is when I try to enable AHCI in the Bios, I get a Blue screen of death as soon as Win 7 trys to boot. Compatibility mode works but I think I'm losing some performance for the harddrive.

WEI Scores
Processor: 7.1
Memory Ram: 7.5
Graphics: 6.4
Gaming Graphics 6.4
Primary Hard disk 7.2

I think the others have posted 7.6 scores for the Intel 320 SSD.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

so is the battery slice not in inventory now? its not showing up when i config... also, is there any reason to spend a hundred or so on a 4 hour battery, when a 9 hour battery is included in the price?

edit: i just searched for it elsewhere on the site, and found it

 

so do u get the slice battery in the configuration?

 

Call me crazy, but one of the things I like about the X220 is the lack of super-bright blue LEDs everywhere. My HP 6930p has three really bright LEDs on the front and a row of them underneath the screen--making the laptop super annoying when working in a dark area.

Funny that in a video of the 8x60p series an HP spokesperson brought up the fact that the lights have been reduced and are dimmer now.

 

All the little things add up. Mine is still shipping, but can't wait. What the hell is the point of LEDs on other machines anyway? Unless your monitor is broken, they are useless - in which case there is kind of a bigger issue.

 

Ok, it’s been 5 days and I have done more than my share of reinstalling the OS and all of the updates and drivers; thank god this thing is blazing fast.
The set up Lenovo shipped the notebook is actually pretty well optimized; compare to other brands.
The limited amount of bloat ware and Lenovo software is easy to remove with the built in uninstaller, but I prefer Revo uninstaller.
So if you are not big on doing reinstalls of the OS, keep what came and use an uninstaller to get rid of software not used; it’s simple and it will save you a lot of headaches.
I needed to reinstall since I went cheap and ordered the unit with Win 7 Home, it also helps knowing people who work for Microsoft to get cheap copies of Win7Pro and Ultimate.
I posted earlier a non-scientific results of the different OS I have tried, and now I stand by my choice to use the Pro or Home version, the Ultimate has something on it and it does not like this computer; at least for me.
Here is a no non scientific results – Updated (64 bit os)
To keep it fairly consistent, I was using the following programs through all of the OS. Google Chrome, Excel 2010 (~ 3-4 tabs) Outlook w/ Push Cal, email, Act, Parity pro and Adobe PDF. Nextflix – watched 1 episode Reno 911.

1. Factory - Win Home premium- WEI score 5.9- battery life @ 5-7 hrs. With my own power management setting – Screen at 15 for 80%, screen at 12 for 20%. Very fast, without enabling turbo and the fan was on but unheard unless I put my head next to it. Average temperature range – 39 to 48◦

2. Clean install - Win Ultimate (with all of the drivers and none of the Lenovo software except for the wifi/wimax/BT) - WEI score 5.2 then when tested again it dropped to 5.1 - battery life – 2.5 – 3.3 hrs.’ using the same power management; only time I saw numbers above 4hrs (4.15) was with battery saver and the computer became unusable. The screen was too dark and the processor was crawling. Temperature jumped all over the place from 29◦ - 67◦ I had difficult time accessing my network. Maybe there is a reason why Lenovo didn’t offer this OS on my set up due to some issues they knew of.

3. Clean install - most of the original software/drivers - Win Pro - WEI score 5.2- battery life - 5-7 hrs. Ran almost identical to the home version similar battery and speed with home version beating it by few minutes.

I don’t know what is causing the WEI to go up to 5.9 in Win 7 Hm. and dropping it back down to 5.2 on Pro and 5.1 on Ultimate.

I am not having any fan problems as others have reported, I have 2 other notebooks here and they have the fan running all the time with web browsing, although the HP is the loudest of all.

Light bleeding from the screen is unnoticeable to me and the track pad and point tracks well with no jumpy /stutter motions.
The sound varies depending on the source.
I have used the EQ to adjust and it solved most of the problems, except for the lack of bass, but this is an ultraportable. BTW, my X100 had better speakers/ sound.
Pros
• Build
• Screen ( although I was hoping it would be brighter at 15)
• Wifi / Wimax
• $$$$-Very good Price
• Weight
•
Cons
• Battery life (6-cell not getting what early reviews reported and I am not talking about the inflated number all manufactures post) – I have a 9 Cell on order.
• Cost of spare battery
• The bezel around the screen could have been smaller

Other
• I am so used to using smaller Notebooks, this one feels large(dimensions and not the weight)

• I would definitely buy again- no buyers remorse.