Thinkpad T420 Owner's Thread

Someone in a different thread (sorry I am unsure of their username) mentioned that the caddy you linked only gave SATA I 1.5 Gb/s speeds. From my experience with a cheap caddy, the build quality is also very questionable. I returned mine in the end and will be buying one from Digizon.

Of course, if you don't mind SATA I or the quality of the caddy, then go for a cheaper one. While I know the Digizon caddies are overpriced for what they are, the hassle of returning a cheap caddy definitely warrants the extra money.

 

My apologies for not searching more effectively. It looks like the option that makes more sense for what I want to do is to get one of the mSata teeny SSDs and boot my minimal daily environment from it w/ a couple of my more intensive tools while using the mechanical drive for data storage and a more heavy-set OS until I feel like shelling out for a 2.5 inch SSD. Hopefully, by then there will be more caddies available at more reasonable prices.

 

OK here is what I found.

I ordered a caddy from ebay seller NY-COMPU-TEK. I didn't see any listings from the other guy and NY-COMPU-TEK is in Flushing NY so I figured I'll get it quick. For less than 20 bucks including shipping I figure if anything is less than satisfactory I wouldn't loose to much money. Ordered it on Friday.

Fast forward to today and a bubly envelope was waiting for me this morning at work. I just read the posts above and this is what I can report regarding SATA I (1.5Gb/s)

First things first, the unit that arrived has metal backing and not plastic like the picture shows. There is no opening in the bottom, its just solid piece of sheet metal.

I was of course a bit skeptical about the posted sata speed on the sticker and so i decide to disassemble it. 3 screws hold the bottom and 5 the top metal plates. Upon inspection I noticed couple of things.

1. There is nothing to it other than a circuit board that literally repositions the contacts from your hard drive to the contacts that connect to your laptop. I don't think there is anything limiting the speed here, whatever the interface is on your hard drive, will be the speed you should be getting from the unit.

2. On the circuit board the print says T400-SATAIII so I would say it is safe to assume this is sata III device regardless of what the label on the front of the unit says.

I'll test and post in a few. Hold on tight and we'll see if this caddy is any different then the one sold for a lot more. I doubt it.

 

I always assumed that the SATA->SATA caddies were simply dumb adapters and had no active circuitry in them. The T60-series SATA ones, yeah, those would definitely be active, since the UltraBay for that series is PATA. But from the T400 onwards there shouldn't be a need for anything more than a simple adapter.

 

And there isn't. They are as simple as simple can get and they work....at SATA III speeds or whatever the interface of the HD/Host is.

Just tested, the Intel 510 series has read speeds over 400. I'll post pics in a sec

 

Well I guess its safe to order the cheaper adapter and I would even assume they are the same as the more expensive items listed.



This is the "built-in" 320 GB 7mm Hitachi that came in with the T420 (not in a caddy)



Some cheap old 120GB Fujitsu that I had laying around the bench (in ultra bay caddy)



320GB Western Digital Black Series - 7200RPM (in ultra bay caddy)




Old 32GB SSD from OCZ that I have been using as a 'thumb drive' as it has build in USB port (in ultra bay caddy)



The 120GB Intel 510 that is going to become the OS drive as soon as I get 9.5mm rubber bumpers from ebay. Woah who said the caddy is slow???? (in ultra bay caddy)



Whhaaaat? The intel 510 blows this sammy out of the water. This will be my storage drive in the ultra bay (in ultra bay caddy) or maybe I can get NewEgg to play nice and replace this with 256GB Intel? Hmmmmm, amazingly enough the Sammy does not have a single negative review from the 90 posted, even the 510 doesn't have such favorable reviews.

Hope this helps

 

To be fair, the 510 is really not that great when it comes to random read/writes -- which might explain the reviews. Yeah, it's really fast for sequential I/O -- but that's not most of your drive usage.

 

Crap, wanted to finally set everything up but only one rubber rail arrived from ebay seller.

 

Hey new Bios update is out. version 1.30.

 

Can you post the link and changelog?

Also, as anyone pulled one of the keyboard off? My spacebar is slightly lifted on the left side and I'm starting to get really curious on what is causing this but I dont want to dmg it.

 

Here it is
Bios

 

So I'm having this problem with the laptop automatically hibernating. It would say it hibernated due to critical battery but my battery was at 70%. Reinstalled the batter manager and it still happens. Would updating the Bios fix it?

 

do you think these types of expresscard usb 3.0 like here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0046Y3INC
will work in t420 and provide transfer speeds of usb 3.0 standard?
What generation of expresscard T420 have?

 

My previous order finally got cancelled, so I put in another one.

Using the Mastercard promotion, I bought a T420 with PC DOS 2000 for $748.

I bought the base model (Core i3) and made three changes to it:

1. 1600x900 screen.
2. Quadro NVS 4200M.
3. Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 instead of the generic Realtek card.

Not bad. Not bad, at all.

Ship date is August 11th, though, so I am in for a long wait.

 

The date is very conservative in its estimate.

Ordered: 6/23
Shipped: 6/30
Arrived: 7/06

 

Curious to hear from those who bought ultrabay HDD caddy whether or not there is the infamous gap between caddy and computer casing when installed, as there apparently is for the official Lenovo version.

The caddy I had my eye on is this one (for the W-series as well as the T420):

2nd HDD or SSD Caddy - Lenovo ThinkPad T420, W700, W710 [TP-W510-T510] - $46.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

However, I'd like to find an equivalent that's slightly cheaper if possible is is guaranteed to not have a gap and have a solid back plate

 

For all interested people I'm posting here my own pictures of HDD caddy I bought with to my T420. I bought it from eBay.

 

how big of an issue you think that small gap is on the ultrabay?

 

Hey guys. I'm about to order the T420 (not the t420s version)

Since a 62 pages thread is a bit too much to study, I'd like your views on the following issues:

1) Battery 6cell vs 9cell? Is it worth it? I've seen pictures, it doesn't seem to be protrude very much, am i right? How much more weight does it add?

2) How heavy is the ac charger? If someone has a scale that would me awesome

3) Don't really know which of the wireless options to choose. I'm guessing the 2x2 is alright?

4) Theres a IEEE 1394a PCI option - no further info. Is that a firewire port? Do I loose something if I add it (except 10 bucks or so)?

5) I'll be using mostly ubuntu linux on this. Are there any known incompatibilities? (this may relate to issue 3)

added: 6) I was thinking of ordering it with the cheapest 2gb ram configuration and then buy a 2x4gb kit to add. I just read somewhere that only one slot is accessible, what's up with that? Should i order it with 4gb and then buy just another 4gb dimm?

7) Any other issues I should know about before ordering? Like the noise issues of the 420s version, stuff like that. ( I can still fall back to the hp 8460p option that's my second choice )


That's all, thanks in advance

 

Charger size depends from configuration with dedicated GPU you'll get 90w charger with integrated GPU 65w

 

i'll be going for the integrated gpu so 65w (btw do you watch all threads? )

 

I have question to t420 owners with dedicated GPU, is it possible to permanently turn 4200m off in BIOS and work only on integrated GPU ?

it looks that we have ( or we had) the same dilemma and time zone. World is so small

 

1. Worth it. The little bump on the back, you never notice it since you can never see it. It's a little heavier, but not significant.

2. I have the 90watt power supply and its actually pretty light. I'd say maybe a pound? I have no idea. It's not that heavy.

3. 2x2 is good enough. I don't think there are many 3 antennae routers that can allow the 3x3 to take advantage of. Any of the intel wireless card have out-of-the-box support with linux.

4. Yeah, its firewire. You'll most likely never use it.

5. I dual boot Arch Linux on mine. Everything works pretty much out of the box. Ubuntu will probably automatically find the webcam driver. Only thing that needs some work are the media keys. Some of them don't work.

6. Only 1 of the ram slots are available on the back. You will need to remove the keyboard for the other. Don't be discouraged by this though. The process is very very simple and easy. Only get the 4gig if they are promoting a free upgrade at the time.

7. The there were only 3 things that I noticed with mine, 2 physical imperfections and 1 sound issue which probably isn't the Thinkpad's fault. The screen on my thinkpad is slightly bent at some points. It's not enough to bend the actual screen, but you close the lid, the left side of the lid is slightly lifted. I just leave a book on top every night hoping itll straighten out someday. The second was that my the left side of my spacebar was slightly lifted. I've been pushing at it for some time and I think I've got it almost straight now. The sound issue is when I'm stressing the cpu, you can hear a faint screeching or staticy noise coming from the cpu. It's probably normal, but I was freaking out about it when I first heard it.

Not true. I got a 90w power adapter with the integrated graphics as a free upgrade although I did opt for the DOS version.

 

Yes, there is an option in BIOS on how you want to use graphics, whether it be "Optimus" "nVidia" or "integrated"

Depending on which you select will determine if your computer is running integrated, discrete, or a mix of both.

 

I got the same caddy. The gap is annoying but not a significant issue.

I also weighed it. It's 3.6 ounces empty. Strip off the metal (but left in the SATA board) and it drops to an ounce. This for folks looking to use it as a dummy panel. The DVD weighs about 6 ounces.

The 9-cell is 5 ounces more than the 6-cell. So by going with a 6-cell and an empty drive bay caddy you can cut a half-pound off the carrying weigh. Granted, you lose the optical drive and the added battery life. But for those bent on saving weight there are options. Rip out the internal hard drive and use an mSATA and you'll save about another 4 ounces.

My old machine weighed in at nearly 8 pounds, so even a fully equipped T420 is a huge savings.

 

Hello, I really hope knowledgeable friends here can help me with my T420.

Here is the spec of my machine:

Intel i5-2520M [email protected]
8 GB RAM
Win 7 Pro 64 bit SP1
with all Windows and Lenovo BIOS and Drivers updated

My machine has display issue. When images suppose to be gone, they still stay on the screen. And some of the icons are not display properly until the mouse point at the items. This issue appears whenever the Aero (the transparent effect of win 7) is on; also when Google Chrome is open, the issue becomes serious.

(See attachments for pic)

At first I thought it was the issue with LCD, I talked to Technician many times, reverted back to factory setting, sent to depot, and sent to local authorize repair shop myself; LCD was replaced, system board is replaced, they ran the PC Doctor diagnostic tool. But the display issue still remains.

After many calls to Lenovo, I finally got a chance to speak to a Supervisor. He was much more professional and knowledgeable. He log on to my machine online and said the issue was due to memory use. He said the Aero and Chrome consume lots of resources from the laptop, as a result of display issue. His diagnose makes sense because it matches my experience.

But come on! I paid like $1000 for this machine and its an i5 with 8GB Ram. Even my 5 yr old Dell XPS1330 with 2 GB Ram wouldn't have issue like that when Aero and Chrome are on!

After all, what I want to ask is:

1) is this a common issue for T420, if so, then I will just accept that.

2) if this is not a common issue, how can I 'get' them to replace a new machine for me?

3) is there any way I can fix this myself if I don't get a replacement or they can't fix for me?

Thank you very much, I had this machine for 2 months and is a great machine except this issue. I would be greatly appreciate for any help!!!

Sam

 

I've never seen display artifacts like that on my T420 and my machine is almost identical to yours. I think the supervisor is full of crap.

 

I think something is wrong with your windows 7. Try to do a fresh install.

 

That's because the tech you spoke with didn't know what he was talking about.

It has nothing to do with RAM usage.

Try a fresh Windows install. Failing that, get it repaired.

 

@Freakynoma: I have had the EXACT same symptoms and artifacts happening in a old laptop I had before (dell latitude d800)
But there are severe differences: I was using ubuntu linux at the time, and those artifacts happened usually while running chrome and flash, and they had to do with the nvidia graphics driver and the graphics card running out of memory. But it's EXACTLY the same, your pictures are like seeing a capture of that laptop.
It was solved by reinstalling the graphics drivers and reverting to using a stable version of chrome, not the testing/dev version. It was a purely software issue.

The supervisor you spoke was right: Its a resources issue but it comes from a software bug that leads to the system consuming more resources than necessary (memory leakage) - it's not like consuming that much resources is a usual thing for aero as he implied.
My bet is that it has nothing to do with your specific laptop. Try other flash, chrome and drivers versions (maybe directx and the rest on windows, I dont know). One of those procucts probably has a memory leak. Also, no need to run the latest/beta versions of everything, better run somewhat old and tested versions of the drivers let's say. If those tips don't work, reinstall windows using another copy/image/cd (there may be a faulty driver in it). Then use firefox for a while and see if it happens again.

 

hey i just received my thinkpad today. but the battery lock seems loose, not so tight. Is it normal?

 

Thanks guys esp John , I am not aware I have used beta ver of anything, but I will check and see. I suspect it may have something to do with the pre install program from Lenovo.

Last night I installed a few applications (Steam, CCleaner, Chrome, Keepass, Revo Uninstaller). The result was, the display issue was appeared even when the Aero and Chrome were not opened.

Maybe a clean install of Win 7 will help, hope the drivers wouldn't be too difficult to find without the ThinkAdv Program after re installation.

 

I received my T420 last week and it was great until I turned it on this morning only to see a blank, black screen displayed. (It's a bright black screen too--not the same as how it looks turned off.) I have done some googling and found that it might be the inverter to blame. I have tried to remove the battery and AC power and hit the power button for 60 seconds, but it did not work.

Is there an easy solution to get my display back without having to send it in for repairs? Thanks!

 

Might I ask when you two ordered your laptops? Mine is taking forever!

And when LCD inverters go, the LCD still displays everything... but there's no backlight, so the screen looks the same on/off. This doesn't seem to be your problem. Try plugging into an external monitor if you can. If that doesn't work, maybe it has to do with the graphics?

 

To avoid a clean install on your drive, you can get another empty hard disk from a friend if you have to replace your own and install windows there for testing. It's gotta be related to 3d acceleration, and the 3d driver especially. Try replacing that one before you do a clean install.
If everything software related fails, you should first check your ram modules, they may be faulty, with programs like memtest86+

 

John, so is the memtest86+ more advance compare to the diagnostic tool in ThinkVantage application?

 

I got these scores tonight, see if they give extra hints on the issue.

 

Can somebody recommend me a displayport to hdmi converter? and why are they so expensive?...

 

i can't boot my Windows 7 DVD or USB in UEFI only mod. any ideas?

 

For only $6.30 each when QTY 50+ purchased - DP (DisplayPort) Male to HDMI Female Adapter | DisplayPort to HDMI | DVI | VGA Adapters

I use this same exact adaptor with an HDMI cable off the same website and it works fine with sound.

 

I have it also a little bit loose with 9 cell battery.

 

I'm on bios 1.23, would if be worth the time to update to 1.30 Thanks

 

Up to you. If you see no reason for you to upgrade, then don't. If you're one of those people that like to keep everything up to date, then go ahead.

 

I just got Intel 320 SSD and would like to replace the current hdd with it. Can I use the same HDD rubber or I need to order the SSD Spacer? Thanks

 

Does anyone have some flex to the left of the touchpad above where the HDD is? There seems to be a small gap between the outer cover and the inner layer because when I tap it, I can hear plastic hitting each other...Does anyone else experience this? Can I fix this somehow?

 

Me too, don't know of a fix but its no big deal, for me anyway!

 

I got the Intel 320 120GB SSD and used the spacers I got with the T420. You shouldn't need to order anything else.

 

Hi all,

After 5 happy years with my old R60, I finally decided to upgrade, and went for a T420, with i7, 8gb of RAM, 1366 X 768 screen and nvidia gpu option. I don't do any gaming, but I am a beta tester for 3D application, and I'm having issues running the graphics smoothly. In fact, the performance on my 5 year old R60 (which had a Radeon X1300) is significantly better than the constant hiccups I'm experiencing on the new thinkpad.

Lenovo support seemed unsure, and assigned some blame to win7 drivers that aren't quite ready for prime time, but I'm hoping there's actually something wrong, because I really like everything else about this laptop, and if I can't get better performance, I will have to sell it off.

Can anyone else with a similar setup run some benchmarks or let me know if they've seen anything similar? I've already upgraded to both the latest nvidia drivers, and the latest from the Lenovo website. I ran the 3dmark benchmark and got P2625 3DMarks.

Thanks,

M

 

Does anyone know why my Panasonic Lumix LX-3 camera is not recognized by my T420?

It connects fine by USB with my T61, but when plugged in the T420 the dialogue box says "USB device not recognized".

 

Try finding the driver online and installing it first before plugging it in.