Thinkpad T420 Owner's Thread

How do I set the max battery charge to something like 95%? I'm looking in the Power Manager section. Are there hidden menus I'm not seeing? Thanks!

 

Make sure you switch on "Advanced" mode instead of "Basic". Go to the "Battery" section and click on "Battery Maintenance". From there you can set your own custom battery thresholds to reduce charging wear on the battery.

 

Yeah, thanks! I have it working now. What are the typical settings you use for start and stop charging?

 

Massive turn of events...

Signed up for a technical schhol (Linux Networking and Support Technician major) and may be in the market for a ThinkPad, again, thanks to the Pell Grant. Dunno if the HP (while very nice) EliteBook I have now is really suitable for 4+ hour classes and tons of traveling... 17" class 8+ pound laptop with 2 hours of battery life could be a major issue in my situation. Dunno for sure yet, though. I'm hoping that I can save the money and use the school's computers but I'm not sure that's gonna be available, so I'm gonna wait until I get more info before I do much.

 

I also want to know...

I also remember hearing that constantly stopping and starting your HD puts wear on it. What power settings will give good hardware life and battery life?

 

Where do you adjust settings to stop and start your HD? And I too would like to know the optimal settings. Thanks!

 

It varies from different people, you may want to view this thread to have an idea. I set mine to 35% minimum (I tend to connect and disconnect my AC adaptor frequently so I don't want to charge the battery too often but also have enough juice on days should I forget to bring my AC adaptor) and 95% maximum (should provide ample charge and reduce wear on full battery charge).

With Power Manager you need to toggle into Advanced mode and check the Power Plan under Idle Timers. From there you can control the timer to stop the hard drive from spinning.

As for optimal settings it really is a case of experimenting. One person's settings may not suit another, for instance while one person may find it beneficial to turn off the HD for say 2 minutes from idling another user who frequently uses the HD all the time could find themselves to cause more harm than good by starting and stopping the drive all the time causing wear.

Generally Power Source Optimized should be sufficient for most but you can use it as a baseline and customise other areas to suit your needs better.

 

hi guys

just ordered T420 refurb from outlet.lenovo.com

very excited as i saved tons of $$$ but at the same time very nervous cuz i don't know what i'm going to get...

anybody purchased T420 refurb from lenovo outlet? or even some other thinkspads refurb? please let me know how it was. i'm mostly interested in cosmetic condition of the refurb...

also since it's a refurb, what should i do to make sure i received the proper unit? i'm planning to run thinkvantage diag for a few hours. anything i should look for other than that?

thanks!

 

What kills hard drives is moving the laptop while they are spinning.

Spinning down never hurt my disks. The are much safer spun down. Saves battery.

I can't seem to kill my laptops.

Almost 10 year old toshiba still running, orig drive, t40 still running but fan is going and t60 with active drive.

 

Thanks for that link Hearst. It was very helpful indeed.

So, I think I made recovery disks, but am uncertain. I have three DVD-DL discs. One was considered a "boot disk" and it used very little of the Dual Layer. The second disk was used completely and then the third was about 1/4 of a DL disc. Is this typical among everyone else?

Also, how do I go about removing (deleting) the recovery partition on the HDD?

Thanks guys!

 

Thank you for the information Hearst. I've playing around with the settings and think I have something I like.

On a side note, was anyone else pleasantly surprised by the amount of bloatware? I didn't clean install. I opted not to install Norton during the initial setup, and am now left with only:
Symantec NIS installer (though a Symantec process is still running -__-U)
Business-in-a-box installer (never heard of it)
SimpleTap installer (looks like iPhone controls?)
Skype installer (may use, but could always download later)

 

I bought a HD+ monitor, LP140WD2 and installed it onto my T420 as an upgrade to my 1366 x 768 monitor, however, I found that there is some black stroke on the whole screen, like a zebra crossing The stroke appear even in the first screen with the ThinkPad logo.

Is there anything I've missed in the upgrade? do I need to upgrade the monitor cable or update the BIOS/UEFI too? I've taken the monitor back to the shop, and they can show me the monitor is working without any problem. So I wonder if it is a hardware problem of my machine.

Please help...

 

You only need a CD-R for the boot disk as it doesn't really need that much space to store the required boot information, but what's done is done. Ensure you keep the discs at a safe place for future use.

As for the recovery partition you can go to Computer Management (type it in the search bar) and go to Disk Management. You can right click on the Recovery partition and remove it by deleting it or formatting it. Alternatively when you install a clean copy of Windows you can remove it from there also.

What's the Monitor ID from the panel? Ensure it reads as LEN40A1 to indicate its a genuine Lenovo panel (use MonInfo or HWInfo for retrieve this information). If it doesn't you should return it as later ThinkPads are quite picky with the LCD EDID information. If you're persistant you could reflash the panel EDID with a software called PowerStrip (it's not free) thouh I haven't got the LG EDID code, I was hoping someone would kindfully contribute theirs as I only have the AUO panel EDID code which is seen on the Q&A section.

If the panel is genuine, then there's a possibility that the LCD cable is different with the HD panels compared to the HD+ ones hence its unable to signal out properly though I can't confirm 100% on this. It could be worth trying a different cable but before doing so ensure the LCD cable connectors are fully secure to the panel as it is quite easy for it to be dislodged.

 

The monitor ID reads LP140WD2, the FRU number does meet the Lenovo FRU number, so I just wonder what is missing in my upgrade. Thanks for your info, I'll try it again~ and btw, what is an EDID code?

> LG-Philips LP140WD2-TLB1 panel [Thanks LoneWolf15]
> Lenovo ID: LEN40A1/LGD02E2
> Lenovo FRU: 93P5689
This one

 

EDID (or Extended Display Identification Data) contains information about your monitor/panel such as the Serial Number, Model Number, Panel Size, Pixel Resolutions, Color Types etc. so when you connect your computer to the monitor/panel it will know exactly what to output.

Lenovo tends to check the EDID to ensure its a Lenovo specific panel before booting up the system, if it doesn't match then it will refuse to work which is a bit of a pain.

 

What frame rates are people getting with the webcam? I'm only getting 7-8 fps at 720p even though my cpu usage is 1-2%... is there any way to increase that?

 

Hi,
I'm ordering T420 4178 tomorrow. I need some help in choosing between Intel 310 msata 80 G SSD and Intel 320 120G SSD. Will 320 be better in speed? If I go with 320, there might be rail problems and need for caddy.

In Questions and Answers were
"Q. Does the ThinkPad T420 support SATA III (SATA 6GB/s)?
A. All ThinkPads with Huron River architecture support SATA III speeds, this includes the ThinkPad T420."

My thinkpad's specs say
"Serial ATA Interface : Serial ATA-300"

So will it really be SATA 6G? If so, I will go with SATA III SSD instead of mSATA.
Thanks!

 

I'm trying to get my mSATA running, I finished making the factory recovery discs (1 CD+3 DVD's), what's the next step(s).

 

The ThinkPad T420 supports SATA III which is also called SATA 600, that means any drive that has this designation could theoretically use up the extra capacity in bandwidth which equates to much faster read/write speeds than the previous SATA generation.

Which one however is down to preference, I would hold off against the Intel 320 (this is a SATA II-300 drive BTW) because there are some reliability issues though a fix is apparantly on the way in a few weeks time. There's no issues with the mSATA SSDs at the time of writing however, its ideal should you wish to increase capacity without sacrificing the HDD or DVD bay plus its only marginally slower than the standard SATA II SSD drives.

If you want absolute speed then you're probably keen on the SATA III drives. They're not without flaws however since it's relatively new technology, the Intel 510 has a warm reboot delay issue and the Crucial & OCZ SSDs are said to require tweaking with the Operating System registry otherwise it may crash unexpectantly with certain drivers (notably the Intel RST driver). Things may have improved over time for the OCZ or Crucial drive but I only have the Intel 510 on my T420 and I can say the reboot issue still persists at the time of writing.

You have the option of either using the Recovery Discs and install it on the mSATA drive (easiest but less control on what apps goes on the installation) or perform a Clean Install and start from scratch (more control but time consuming).

You could read ferganer80's mSATA installation guide should you wish to proceed with the Clean Installation method. You could also use my guide as well for reference too but make sure you downloaded the basic drivers before proceeding, ideally copying the DRIVERS folder from the SWTools folder on the root drive (C: drive) to a USB pen drive.

 

Well as you could tell, I know almost nothing about computers so the easier method would probably be better. What do you mean exactly when you say I have less control and do you have a link on a guide to the easier installation method.

 

The recovery discs will restore the factory installed operating system that initially came with your system to any hard drive you have. It's certainly the most easiest as there is little input required by the user so you don't need to chase around installing drivers for instance. The downside is that it will also copy over all the applications that comes preinstalled with the factory installation (some may call this "bloatware") which takes up system resources and could potentially slow the system down.

Personally I only use 2 things, Power Manager and Hotkeys. The rest such as the Toolbox , Access Connections, SimpleTap, Driver Software etc. are redundant to me but they will come preloaded anyway during the recovery process. On average i'm able to shave at least 25 unnecessary system processes off compared to the factory installation by simply opting not to install those programs in the first place (hence more control on what goes on and what doesn't).

The Recovery process is easy to do, just pop the boot disc in and during startup when the ThinkPad logo appears press F12 then choose the DVD drive to start the process. Afterwards it will ask you to place in the first data disc, swap the discs and wait for it to extract and finish. Eventually it will ask you to place in the next data disc, repeat until the whole process is done. In the end you should have an exact replica of the factory installation on your new drive and all you need to do is type in your username and settings to login your desktop.

 

Hi,

I haven't been able to go through every one of the 88 pages, but I have a query for the T420 owners out there. Among the laptops that I'm looking to buy, the T420 is a strong contender. However, I've been hearing repeatedly about screen issues and I wanted to know if it's really as bad as it is made out to be.
If anyone has looked at the T420s as well, could they compare the screens of the two laptops?

 

Thx Hearst!

I just ordered T420 with following specs:
Core i5 2410M - RAM 4 Gt - HDD 500 Gt - DVD- NVS 4200M / HD Graphics 3000 - 3G-broadband - WXGA++ - 6cell battery -Win7 Pro

In addition I ordered Intel 310 mSATA 40G for Linux-partition, in future, I'll get SATA III for Windows partition and put HDD into ultrabay / throw it away. I also need to remove 3G because of the mSATA SSD but I wont need it in a while. I also bought 4G additional memory to upgrade to full 8G.
I'm going to use my laptop for programming, LaTeX, surfing, some VMvare and occasionally gaming.

Does anyone have info (rumours) about installing Ivy Bridge processor into T420? It would be superb.

 

All the information I find point to Ivy Bridge backwards compatibility only applying to certain desktop chipsets. No mobile ones.

 

The T420s shares the same screen panels as the T420 with the exception of one which is the Samsung panel (which is quite good from user reviews). The panel on the T420 is not that bad, its perfectly usable in everyday scenarios and is miles better than the screen on my 4 year old T61.

It's only when you want to do intensive graphical work where color accuracy is important. The T420 is a bit weak in this area, for that you're probably better off with a X220 IPS screen or T520/W520.

 

Okay, so I turn off my computer, take out battery and hard drive, insert mSATA, turn on computer, press f12, choose DVD drive, insert discs?

And do I have to do anything to the operating system that was still installed on my HDD? Is there anything else I will be asked or have to do?

And basically by doing it this way I am getting the exact same operating system as I had when I initially bought the computer right?

 

I'm asking this also in ubuntu forum but if there's some thoughts, let them shine.

I just ordered Lenovo Thinkpad T420 with following specs:
Core i5 2410M / 2.3 GHz - RAM 8 Gt - HDD 500 Gt + Intel 310 SSD 40G mSATA- NVS 4200M / HD Graphics 3000 - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 - fingerprint reader - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 14" widescreen LED-backlighted TFT 1600 x 900 ( WXGA++ ).

I'm wondering how should I do with installing Ubuntu. Should I install it on SSD (win 7 is on HDD as factory install) or should I install win 7 into SSD and use WMware to run Ubuntu in HDD?

I think I'll use VMware if it will run almost as smoothly as real install because then all thinkpad's features will work better (?) including touchpad's multitouch, optimus(using integrated or Nvidia GPU depending the need) etc.

Would installing Ubuntu in mSATA SSD be trivial operation?

I will be using Linux in programming, LaTeX, Surfing, OO, and Windows in Photoshop, Visual Studio, Browsing (when in windows) and some gaming.

If someone have something else interesting related to T420 with linux feel free to share ur thoughts.

 

That's pretty much it.

Ensure the boot order is priortised to the mSATA drive instead of the original drive, you can do this by accessing the BIOS (F1 on startup). Then you can format the partition on the hard drive which you can use as extra capacity.

Depends, if you're going to Ubuntu as your main OS then you probably benefit having it on your mSATA SSD drive as it will load up faster. I don't think you need to do anything special to get Ubuntu running on the mSATA drive.

If you're going to use Windows more then using VMWare to host Ubuntu is not a bad idea, I have this setup on my T420 and it is relatively smooth to run.

 

I clean installed my T420, upgraded to 8GB of DDR, and am running Windows 7 Ultimate, and have a recurring issue: (Does not happen EVERYtime, but MOST times) When the laptop goes into Sleep mode, or I go to Shut Down...the Laptop hangs, and never actually shuts down.

So I am forced to hold down the power button, and select Start Windows Normally on startup. Does anyone have this same issue? MS has a hotfix out for something similar, but when I tried to install it, an error said my computer was not affected by the issues addressed by the hotfix.

 

How would one go about hooking up two external monitors for when I'm at my dorm, with this one? I'm thinking about ditching my desktop/gaming machine. I'm yearning a t420 with intel hd3000. Could go with Optimus if that's a requisite.

 

Okay I'm still trying to insert my mSATA, I took off the battery and took out the hard drive. Where does the mSATA even go, I figured in the box like thing on the bottom but i unscrewed the screw but it wont come out.

 

This thread is great and was very helpful in forming my decision. Three more questions before I press the buy button on the T420:

* Does QM67 port connected to the internal drive support SATA III? Intel's spec lists that there are two SATA III ports, but it's not clear whether they are used in the T420.

* Can I replace the built in hard drive with a 9mm thick SDD?

* Someone mentioned that one can replace the optical drive with another hard drive. Does someone have a link to a document showing how this is done, please?

Thanks a lot.

 

The mSATA slot is located at the DIMM slot underneath the system (it's the large squarish compartment in the middle). If you have a WWAN card then you will need to take this out before you can put on the mSATA drive. The screw doesn't come out completely on the DIMM compartment cover, its fixed so you will need to pry it open once you have loosen the screw.

The T420 can support SATA III, that includes the Ultrabay (optical drive) as well as the Hard Drive bay.

That shouldn't be a problem since the T420 can take 9.5mm drives quite easily.

You'll need an Ultrabay hard drive caddy to store another hard drive in the optical bay. Replacing it is rather easy, you'll need to eject the existing optical drive out and simply replace it in with the Ultrabay caddy.

There is no official caddy that fits flush with the T420 at the moment so you have to look for third party caddies, eBay is generally the place where you can get them.

 

So I unscrewed the screw as far as I could, one corner seemed loose but the other is still pretty tight. I applied some force trying to pry it open but it didn't budge. I decided to call support and they told me I have to bring it to a registered store or something and gave me a link to find the closest one. I really don't feel like driving 5km to just have them properly loosen a screw and I didn't even remember to ask if they will do it for free...

What should I do, go to the store or just try and pry it open myself. I'm afraid if I use any more force I will break it though.

 

It's certainly not worth driving 5km just to get the DIMM cover open, it's quite a robust piece of plastic so you shouldn't be afraid to put a bit more force to get it open. Undo the screw until you hear a "click" noise which means it has been loosened. Then try to get underneath the cover, if you have trouble use a thin piece of cardboard or credit card to get underneath the cover and then pry it up.

Spoiler

 

Installing the mSATA and using a drive caddy are covered in the User's Guide PDF manual that comes with the machine.

 

Thanks for the quick reply and als the positive news.

So you mean that the ultrabay as well as the hard drive bay are connected to the SATA III ports of the QM67 chipset?

 

They are.

IIRC reading someone putting a SATA3 ssd in the ultrabay and confirming the link-rate.

 

Hey All.

After almost a month of waiting, my T420 finally arrived yesterday. It's my first Lenovo (coming from a Dell XPS M1530) and long story short, everything about the computer is great, but I'm not too thrilled with the screen (1600x900). If this were my work or secondary laptop, it wouldn't be a big deal, but since I also wanted this to double as my home computer, I'm not too sure that's going to work with this setup.

I started thinking about returning it and getting the T520, but am now thinking about buying an external monitor instead. I'm happy with my current specs and the screen is more than adequate for the times when I won't be using it at home; so my question is, does this sound like a good idea?

How easy is attaching an LCD monitor (looking in the 21"-27" range) and do I need a docking station?
Any recommendations on which ones to look at?
For those who may have been in a similar situation: is adding a monitor the best of both worlds, or do you think the T520 would have been a better choice?

Also, I opted for the Nvidia Optimus, if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

 

YOu can hook up a monitor to the displayport.

Is it the resolution that's troubling you, since you were considering the t520?

 

Yep. It's mostly the resolution, but my eyes are also having trouble adjusting to the grainy quality. The 1920x1080 is the reason I was thinking of upgrading, but after reading through some reviews, it doesn't seem like that screen is much better.

The more I think about it, buying a monitor is the way to go.

EDIT: The grainy picture is my main issue. The 16:9 ratio is fine. I was just thinking the larger T520 screen would help.

 

The T520's screen definitely isn't grainy like the T420's. At my university's bookstore, they have a T420, T420s, and T520 side-by-side. All have HD+ screens. The T420/T420s screens look alike, and the T520's screen has noticeably better contrast, noticeably better viewing angles, and noticeably less graininess.

Also, on a note, the Dell Latitude E6520 with the 1600x900 display seems to look slightly better than the T520 with the 1600x900 display. The E6520's 1600x900 display looks almost as good as the 1920x1080 display in another pre-config-model they have.

I tried running HWInfo, but it requires admin rights which are blocked from these display models. The E6520 I was able to determine has an LG panel, and the E6420 (whose screen looks maybe slightly better than the T420's screen) has an AUO panel. This info comes from the device manager, but for some reason Lenovo feels it necessary to rebrand the panels as LEN0472893 and whatnot rather than LGD01234567 (LG), SEC34231 (Samsung) or AUO123513 (AUO), thus making it difficult to determine the manufacturer of the screen.

I might have to go in with a boot CD someday, or a bootable flash drive.

 

Thanks edit1754.

That's good to know about the T520, but I think I've decided to go the monitor route instead. Seems like less of a hassle and since my only complaint is the screen, a nice monitor should solve my problem.

Next question: If I can find a 16:10 monitor, would that cause much of an issue with running dual screens? Would it just be easier to keep it at 16:9?

 

Okay, mSATA inserted, battery back in, now what...

I want to do the easy installation method, do I have to put my hard drive back in too? or recovery discs? nothing?

Im on a black screen with a white box that says product recovery. Then select restoration method and it has a check next to restore to factory default state.

 

Looking to buy one and I configured this one:

Intel Core i5-2520M Processor (2.50GHz, 3MB L3)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
14.0 HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display,
Mobile Broadband Ready
NVIDIA NVS 4200M Graphics with Optimus Technology,
1GB DDR3 Memory
4 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD recordable multiburner
6 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55+
No Bluetooth
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (2x2 AGN)
Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable

I figured I'll go with Win7 Home since I can get a Professional copy from school for free. Any thoughts? Do I need a Smart Card reader (what is it for anyway)? This will be used mainly for school, some program development and multimedia (web, youtube, movies). Is it overkill for those purposes?

I also plan on adding RAM and an mSata drive when I get it. Any other options I might be forgetting?

Is $898 +tax a good deal for this machine?

 

Windows 7 Home Premium is the base operating system so there's not much you can do there (there is a DOS version but you can't get good deals out of it apparantly). Unless you work in a corporate environment in which you need to logon with a Smart Card you probably won't need it so you can omit the Smart Card reader.

Overall the specs are quite decent, you could even notch down the CPU to the i5-2410M as its quite a capable processor in its own right, plus you save a bit over the i5-2520 since the gains are quite marginal. Depending whether you need mobility around school having a 9 cell battery can boost running time away from the plug, it isn't that difficult to at least 7 hours or more out of it.

 

@Oofie

I had similar specs. I originally ordered the 6cell battery, but changed it to the 9 cell a few days later. I'm happy with that choice.

Also, if you have a smartphone or plan on having one in the near future, bluetooth might be a good choice as well.

 

@Oofie

I believe I have the exact same specs as you except I got the 9 cell battery and I'm happy I did.

And onto my questions regarding installation of my mSATA.

I think I installed the operating system correctly as it's now running without the HDD in. However it asked me to reinsert my fingerprints, and to install an antivirus and office again. Should I do that before I put my HDD in? What else should I do before putting my HDD back in? Do I need to update it?

Thanks.

 

That same config is $825 from the Barnes and Noble site with the current coupon. Not sure how important the FP reader is but I'd personally eliminate it and bring the cost down to $810+tax. This assumes you are in the US as far as this pricing.

 

Looks like I might be ordering today. I configured the same machine but with a 9 cell battery for about $10 less than my original configuration using the student discount.

Now, one more question. I know Thinkpads are durable and quite reliable, but how many of you bought the warranty? The 3 year extended depot warranty is around $70, but Im not sure if its needed.