Thinkpad T420 Owner's Thread

Thank you.

 

Just ordered my T420! But im wondering will the laptop definitely come with the 7mm rubber rails since i didnt upgrade the hdd (kept it at 320gb). Im planning on buying a 500gb, should i get the 9mm rails on ebay?

 

It's a bit of a lottery, there's 6 variants of the 320GB hard drive though some are in 7mm guise. I was lucky with mine and got 9.5mm rubber rails (though I ordered the 250GB 5400RPM version), I probably would suggest waiting and see what you have in the end to avoid the possibility of paying more than you need to.

 

Hey guys, I'm selling my T420 right now and if anyone is interested please PM me!

My specs are:

1600x900 display (LG panel) with no dead/stuck pixels
Build quality is near perfect imo with no creaking anywhere.
500GB 7200 RPM HDD
4GB RAM (1x4GB) with the easy back access empty for easy upgrade
no web camera
no finger print reader
Wireless Advanced 6205 2X2AGN card
9mm rubber railings for the hdd too!

Its in brand new condition (only had it for a few weeks and barely took it outside of the house). Its currently boxed up and sitting in my closet for shipping! Very fair price too.

I just ordered a T520 so am selling the T420!

 

OK I'm playing a whole day with my brand new T420 and I think, that I'll start very soon a new thread named Kubuntu on T420, because there are some issues I wasn't able to set on yet. But I want to solve it on my own first.

Anyway it's a beautiful peace of hardware, everything is running smooth, if I don't count Linux problems, and I'm really satisfied after a half day of using. Maybe just one question. Because this is my first ThinkPad, what is the middle button between those two left and right buttons above touchpad for? Maybe I just don't see, because it's not working under Linux.

 

The middle button is used for scrolling at the direction where the red nub is going. It works for Linux if you download the Trackpoint drivers.

 

any word on tracking or delivery nilsmo?

 

It works fine under linux. It's just a middle button exactly like when you push the scoll down on a regular mouse.

 

I received my Thinkpad today (typing on it right now). Took about 7 business days after I ordered it to arrive. Anyways, I ran PCDecrapifier and it came up with nothing. Is it correct that my laptop is already mostly crap free?

 

I ordered on the 16th of this month and it was not delivered today. so that's going to be at least 12 days from order date to delivery. I am most upset with having no working tracking number and my credit card being charged already. Lenovo claims that it has been shipped, but they honestly have nothing to show for it...

neither can I get a hold of someone more than a front-line representative from overseas. I cannot vouch for the quality of the hardware, but for right now, Lenovo's customer service is about to get a corporate complaint if I don't get some sort of tracking tomorrow.

 

ThinkPads are generally good in terms of minimalising bloatware but its their Thinkvantage utilities that mainly takes up the system resources. I doubt you need all of them so I would try out to see if the apps are any use to you. I personally only run 2 Thinkvantage software on mine, Hotkeys Integration and Power Manager.

I would call up again and be adament of getting a tracking number, it's strange that you haven't got any notification of shipment with your order. I know John Ratsey who's running the T420s thread had to call a rep to get his tracking number when he had no info of his shipment initially.

 

I called Lenovo this morning, and they gave me the "we'll try to send you a new tracking number within 2 days" response.

I ordered the T420 on the 19th, it shipped on the 22nd, but still no valid tracking information. Hopefully this isn't anything serious.

 

Well, it appears that Nilsmo and I have been given tracking information, but neither of them are "active".

 

When I called support for my order I got the distinct impression there was a real problem with how shipping was being handled. Frankly it was surprising to hear the rep let on about it, but refreshing to get an honest opinion. So from that comment and then reading here I'd really start to wonder WTH is happening with Lenovo's shipping lately.

 

Hard drive noise.

Anyone else experiencing this issue? Specifically it's when I have the T420 plugged in. The hard drive seems to be spinning most of the time and often seeking. When I'm running on battery it behaves how I would expect, which is to be idle most of the time.

Could their be a power management setting I am failing to look at? Could it be related to a Windows service that not be run while on battery? It's fairly a fairly annoying issue, especially on a laptop that's otherwise been very good about the noise even after some Starcraft II sessions (which I'm happy to report runs surprisingly well on the Nvidia NVS 4200M).

 

probably ordering a t420 tomorrow. already have a t400 but looking to upgrade. best coupon i found was 10 percent off, before coupon system comes out to 1189. just making sure im not missing a better one.

also what dock should I get. I have a dock right now for my t400 but pretty sure its not compatible with the new t420 unfortunately. i will post the item number of the dock tomorrow though.

planning on getting the low end cpu, the lower end windows since i will do a clean install, the lowest ram(since it is cheaper to purchase third party), lowest end hd(will swap with ssd in the t400), the ultimate network card and the upgraded video card.

 

If you are planning on doing a clean install, opt for the DOS versions which are cheaper.

 

Make sure you get the 1600x900 display upgrade too
Upgrade that first because it makes the biggest difference.

Higher resolutions let you fit more stuff onscreen, and the upgrade makes much more of a difference than any other upgrades.

 

wow, a week later something ACTUALLY shows up in tracking. sounds like someone dropped the ball at UPS in Hong Kong.

 

Well I should have my new T420 on Tuesday from Lenovo. I almost went the X1 way but couldn't justify the cost. I originally wasn't going to get another T420 (after my initial issue with an ebay seller) because of the screen. My friend has one though and I have been using his off and on with great success. I still think the screen should be higher quality but I can deal with it.

Anyway I am trying to decide if the jump to SSD is a good idea or not. I got the 320GB option on the one I configured which is plenty big for my needs. I pretty much just surf the net, check email, ms office, itunes, etc. on the computer. I might install a routing simulation program, etc. as I am studying for my CCNA but that's about it. I was looking at the intel 320 160GB SSD but I don't know if it is worth it and how hard it is to install.

Since this laptop will be brand new, what's the best option for the install? Should I clone the image on the 320GB hard drive and move it to the SSD (I guess with Acronis, etc)? Should I just create recovery disks/usb drive and then install that on the SSD? I have heard conflicting info about moving an image over from a hard drive. Do I need any special screws or attachments when I install it?

I am paranoid about some of the things I have read about SSD's in regards to longevity, how many times you can write to them, certain things you have to disable/enable (to make sure it works properly).I have been using hard drives all my life and the only thing I have complaints on is the fact that you can hear them spinning from time to time. Speed has never been an issue for me (which is maybe why I haven't gone to an SSD yet).

Thank in advance!

 

One interesting thing I found today.

I switched mSATA SSDs (I was sent one for testing), so I backed up my original one with Windows 7 Backup to my D: drive, and created a bootable restore CD. I replaced the SSD, and then got error messages when booting the restore CD about it "not being compatible with my version of Windows".

I found out I had to switch from UEFI-Only in the BIOS to "Both", which took care of the problem and let me do the restore. Then I switched back to UEFI-Only and it's all good.

 

I got those dates and times, too (other than 8:37PM instead of 8:38PM). Our laptops are probably on the same flight right now.

It sucks that shipping is apparently taking *13* days for us, though.

 

ok thank you

 

here is my take on ssd.

u can probably find them cheaper by buying them from a third party instead of selecting the upgrade. then you can either sell the original drive or just keep it lying around.

most likely by the time you start seeing life span problems with the drive newer drives will be out that will be much better.

 

My T420 with PC-DOS preinstalled arrived today. I have loaded Windows 7 64 bit and seem to have most everything functional at this point. However, I am having problems with the Fn keys and the Bluetooth 3.0. Does anyone know which driver(s) enable the Fn keys to work within Windows 7?

For my Bluetooth problem, I am attempting to install the 'Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate Software II' software, which is around 104 MB (filename: 7zwb01ww.exe). After executing the install, the progress bar appears returns the following:

"No Bluetooth device was detected. Please make sure that your Bluetooth device is plugged in properly in order to continue".

Bluetooth is enabled in the BIOS, so I'm not sure what else to do here. Am I using the wrong driver?

 

Press FN+F5 to enable the Bluetooth module. Windows 7 does a good job on managing Bluetooth devices so I don't think you need the additional Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate Software.

 

Thanks for the quick response. FN+F5 doesn't seem to do anything even though I clearly have bluetooth on my order configuration page.

0A68261 SBB BLUETOOTH 3.0

I have noted that the following function keys do work:
F4, F7, F12, PgUp, Home, End

Do you think there is additional driver software which I may be missing which allows the remaining buttons to work properly?

 

Do you have Hotkeys Integration on the system (assuming ThinkPad PM Device is already installed)?

 

Did not have Hotkeys Integration installed. After installing, I still see nothing when I press the other FN keys that weren't working before. As such, I am still unable to toggle Bluetooth on/off.

Additionally, I noticed that my system hangs on the splash screen whenever I try to execute the System Update software. Strange ...

 

If you still have problems with the System Update then you can post a snapshot of your Device Manager and I could try and help you on the missing devices. Also for the Hotkeys do you have ThinkPad PM Device installed under "System Devices" as this is needed for the Hotkeys to function correctly.

 

is the intel 6205 adapter worth the upgrade from the intel 1000? ill be using my laptop in my apt and around school mostly

 

This particular thread may be of interest to you.

 

Are you at a college/university that uses an 802.11a network and has lots of students online at once? If so, consider getting the 6205. Otherwise the 1000 is good.

Also make sure you get the 1600x900 display, that makes a huge difference for multitasking because you can fit more onscreen, and makes more of a difference for general usage than any other upgrade. It's probably the most popular upgrade too.

 

Did you order it through B&N site? How long did it take from order to shipment?
I've ordered my T420 with PC-DOS on Monday, so I'm wondering how long it's gonna take till they ship my laptop (well, at least approximately).

 

I restored from backup and performed the driver installs again, this time taking care to reboot each time, etc. After that procedure, the onscreen menus are working. I can now enable the bluetooth device via FN+F5. Thank you for your assistance!

 

Hey Hearst:

If you only have PM and HotKey integ installed, how do you know if these programs need update if you don't have Thinkvantage system update installed? it will also give you updates for existing drivers.

 

From these pictures it appears that the SSD SATA connector would not line up properly even if you had different rails, it appears as if the SATA connector on the 7.0mm drive is at the top of the drive where as the SSD SATA connector is down about 2.0mm. I read in an SSD review that you can remove the top of the SSD housing and it will fit, after all the SSD is just a circuit board, no moving parts like a hard drive so no harm in removing the cover.

I suspect the only reason Lenovo shipped your T420 with a 7.0mm drive is they are standardizing their laptop drives; the 7.0mm drives were developed to allow laptop makers to produce thinner laptops. So instead of making different SATA connectors for different Lenovo laptop models they just standardized on the 7.0mm, which screws all of us that want to buy our hard drives in the CHEAPER aftermarket.

 

I tend to update when I encounter issues with them, so if you experience problems with the Hotkeys or PM for example then naturally you would try the latest version to see if it fixes the problem.

So far under my experience the PM and Hotkeys haven't gone wrong as yet so I didn't have a particular need to update the utilities. This method is actually recommended under the Install instructions written by Lenovo themselves:

 

You don't.. But, if these programs work as intended, why would you need an update anyway? If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it

 

Yes I just couldn't resist that deal! Configured system Friday night, shipped on 28th @ 8am (Hong Kong local time). Arrived at my house early this morning, sig required.

 

Frustrating ... after rebooting following firefox, security essentials, etc., my FN keys are no longer working. This time, Bluetooth is enabled and I can't manipulate it except via BIOS. Executing hotkeys setup verifies that they are installed. Should I try a uninstall/reinstall of Hotkeys?

Is it possible I need a BIOS upgrade? I haven't done that yet, was a bit concerned and don't want to brick it just before the weekend!

 

I don't think a BIOS upgrade would make a difference for this problem, the Hotkeys shouldn't just disappear. I would reinstall the application to make sure, it may be worth checking to see if the Lenovo Hotkey Client Loader have auto started from "Services" section and haven't been disabled.

 

hi shleepy, it's been a while since you put quad core into your T420, could you please update us on the situation since: have you had any problems? high temperatures? unusual behaviour? reduced battery time? anything? Or, all fine? thanks.

 

I found another thread here with a similar complaint. From what I can tell, it seems to be related to either the laptop sleeping or being removed from power. I ran across a list of several Windows 7 related T420 bug fixes earlier today, but I'm struggling to find that again at the moment. If I recall correctly, at least one of them was power related.

 

I'm quite puzzled by your problem, if you're not using BIOS v1.29 then you could try to see if it could help but I tend to think this is more of a software issue. I would uninstall the Hotkey application (reboot after), use a registry cleaner (i.e. CCleaner) then reinstall if it helps. Also check if some services such as TPONSCR.exe are running during the process which can be found at C:\Program Files\Lenovo\HOTKEY.

I have a Quad Core in my T420, in summary:

- You need a 90w power brick to run the Quad Core. The Power Manager will complain if you try to run it with a 65w brick.

- On normal usage it generally seems fine. Idles on average around 44c or less which is pretty good.

- On stress the chassis limitations show, it gets hot - very hot. I got it up to 97c on one core that the system had to throttle to get it under control with fans running well over 4000RPM. That said on normal usage its rare that you will get all 4 cores and the 4 additional threads running at the same time unless you're running some extremely demanding software. Even running multiple VM's don't get anywhere near that intensity. Though i'm looking to see if there are alternative ways to cool it down slightly (copper shims maybe?).

- Battery life does take a hit, instead of the 7 hours on average it now reports around 5 hours with the Quad Core on my 9 cell battery. 2 hours is quite a lot of run time lost.

In summary, unless you really need the extra cores (for Virtualization it does kind of help) then I probably would advise to stick with the Dual Cores - especially if you value battery life!

 

I think I remember reading somewhere that Lenovo does not support Ultrabays for additional battery, is it correct? If it is, do you know if it is a final decision (such that there is no connector for the battery or something like that), or it is just not available now but might show up later?

Also, can you guys recomend a place to buy an Ultrabay for an additional HD? Something with a reasonable price and perfect compatibility (so that it perfectly fits into the body of the laptop).

And one more question. Did anybody buy ExpressCard card for USB 3? How it works, any problems?

 

i didnt see an option for pc-dos how do you do that?

 

Here. You'll have to register. Then use coupon USX10T0623 for 10% off.

 

I created a name and under operating systems it is the same 2 options as on the regular lenovo site

 

hmm...i think I should do a clean install again, i might have installed too much!