Thinkpad T420 Owner's Thread

Yes, each to their own. Windows may boot quickly but, for me, the advantage of hibernation is that I'll have various programs already open at wherever I left off. Remembering what I was doing, starting those programs and loading the files is what would take the time if I shut down.

John

 

What's the battery life on a 6 cell? Assuming just web browsing with wifi on + youtube videos.

All of T420s with 6 cell battery at the Lenovo outlet are listed "6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (Up to 2.5 Hours Run Time)" I wonder if it's really true that the battery life with 6 cell is that terrible?

 

so now's the talk about hibernation being OK with ssd's?

 

Hibernating my computer has never caused my SSDs any problem (they get replaced by something newer / bigger / faster before they are worn out) and it suits my work pattern (see my previous post). However, not everyone here agrees with me. It's your choice.

John

 

John,

How long does it take you to hibernate your machine? How long is wake up and resume working? This is a typical T420 or T420s?

 

On my T420s with Intel 320 SSD it typicallytakes 20s to hibernate and 20s to resume. I know that this is longer than the basic shut down / boot times, but typically I have 10 applications open and resume gets me back to where I was in each of those. On paper an SATA 3 SSD should reduce those times.

Resume time does increase with more RAM (I'm using 6GB) and the longer the period the computer has been in use because Windows gratually fills all the empty RAM.

John

 

Apologies for double post but a couple of recent T420s purchasers have reported getting the Samsung 1600 x 900 panel. So it seems that these are now back in stock and AUO is no longer the only option.

John

 

Just ordered an Intel 310 mSATA 80GB drive for my T420! Pretty stoked about it, and I've gone over all the stuff to do a UEFI install on it. My only concern is the fingerprint reader, as I use that on a daily basis. Has Lenovo updated the FPR drivers so that there aren't any BSODs/crashes/bugs when using UEFI?

 

I haven't heard of any updated news in regards to the Fingerprint and UEFI mode i'm afraid, but the differences between UEFI and Legacy boot options are small in real terms so I probably would stick with the Legacy Boot to be on the safe side considering you use it quite frequently.

 

How notable is the difference between the t420 with i3 and the one with i5 for "normal" (1) activities?

(1) - (watching movies - until I get my PS3 to my dorm as a media player, writing essays, playing games from the earliest years of the 21st century and browsing with 10+ tabs)

My two alternatives are the following

T420 #1

iCore 3-processor
1366x768 screen
Intel HD 3000 Graphics
Windows 7 preinstalled (comfortable in my case)
Mechanical disk
4gb RAM

Price: 773€/968$ (6849skr)

T420 #2
iCore 5 processor
1600x900 screen
NVS 4200M (?)
No Windows preinstalled
Mechanical disk + 40GB mSATA
6gb RAM

Price
1150€/1456$ (10200skr)

I can't really decide and I haven't got much experience with anything newer than Pentium 4 and Core 2 Duo. I believe I could afford a SSD Disk as well if i bought the first configuration.

 

Hi Ghidorah, both systems should handle your requirements without problem. The Core i3 is still a fast processor in its own right, it just lacks the Turbo Boost which is featured on the Core i5 but since you mentioned you'll be playing some games that are a couple years old (early 21st century you say) then this shouldn't be an issue. I was surprised myself how capable the Intel HD 3000 card really is as I was able to play games such as Team Fortress 2 which at first, I thought was a non-starter.

One thing I would be concerned is the screen on the first system configuration, 1366x768 can be frustrating to work which requires a big vertical pane (such as word documents). With the latest Office applications that uses big chunky toolbars you may find yourself scrolling a lot which is why I probably suggest opting for a HD+ screen (1600x900) instead if you can.

Just wondering Ghidorah, are those systems configurable or are they premade to buy?

 

In some manners they are configurable (hdd, ram, battery etc.) but not when it comes to screen resolution and processors unfortunately.

To have a 1600x900 screen (alt. 2) and not pay upwards to like 2000$ I would have to order one from another european country and have to verify my status as a student (the site which carries it is student only) which would be tiresome.

Yes, I believe you are right about the screen resolution. Especially since it would be my only computer and I will be writing at least 15-20 word pages a week.

I will have to think about my alternatives for a little longer while

 

I'm sure that somewhere there is a discussion about the best place for getting student discounts on the T series. This post may help. I'm sure that there was a German company that offered good configuration options and would ship to most of Europe.

John

 

Hi,

I'm trying to decide b/t T420 vs. T520.

. Is the T-420 screen graininess still an issue?
. Is there any CPU whine one this model?
. Any other difference you guys might want to share (aside from ports options)

I recently checked out the T-520 FHD display and it's gorgeous ! I want something more portable and can live less stellar display but graininess I can't.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

Heh, FHD screen on a T420 would be nice, but the T420 has a regular LED backlit panel. From the examples I've seen, "grainy" panels are not the norm, although there is evidence of such in all the screens (but you have to be inches away from the screen to discern that).

The T420 screens are certainly not stellar, but they are bright and better than the old CCFL screens which were absolutely horrid.

Lenovo sources a number of manufacturers for the T420 screens. Some show less colour shift and slightly better contrast than others, but from what I've read, the problem is not insurmountable if calibrated properly. Notebookcheck.com offers an ICM profile (calibrated screen profile) as part of their review ( found here - look in the "display" section of the review). Supposedly this helps tremendously in alleviating contrast making the screen look much better. There are other such profiles available throughout the forums here, search for "T420 screen calibration" and you'll find the thread with additional ICM profiles.

The T420 seems to be a forgotten child in Lenovo world though.

Hope that helps.

 

Is there anyways to put Helix (a Linux forensics) in this laptop? Any help is greatly appreciated and is urgent to get it done ASAP. Thanks in advance.

 

Been getting some throttling with my i7 while running Left 4 Dead 2, but TPFanControl seems to solve most of the throttling when I jack up the fan speed to max.

The T420 fan controller is somewhat dumb in the fact that it will spin up later than it should. Other machines the fan spins up right away when the temps rise a bit, but the T420 likes to wait until you get up to 80C to up the fan speed, in my experiences.

Going to do some thermal paste replacement this weekend and I'll see if that helps.

 

I don't know, the fans on my T420 starts to kick in around the 70c mark albeit moderately and i'm not using TPFanControl myself. Though I do agree that gaming on the T420 does make it quite toasty, my T420 with the i5-2520M peaks 85c when I play certain Steam games on it.

 

I am looking for a high quality laptop and have always loved the look of Lenovo's. I am considering getting a T420, however I am wondering about how feasible it is to switch the screen out? 13xx to 1600...

I looked at the previous post, but he explains how he broke clips permanently. I wouldn't want to do that. Any here have information on the switch?

 

Was it this post that you read? The swap out does require a bit of work and you may need to acquire a HD+ cable too if you're doing an upgrade from 1366x768 to 1600x900. Also peforming such procedure may void your warranty so unless you're confident on doing it yourself, I would recommend trying to source a T420 system that has the HD+ screen pre-fitted by factory.

 

Got my Intel 310 80GB SSD and finally had time today to do a clean install on it. I went for a non-UEFI-only install, since I use the fingerprint reader on a daily basis. To be honest, it boots up ridiculously fast, so I'm not concerned about not using UEFI. I'll post some boot sequence timings here in a bit.

 

Hey formerglory,

In near future, I might be doing a clean install on SSD as well. Just curious, what did you mean by non-UEFI vs UEFI install.
What are the pros/cons of one vs. the other?

thanks for your feedback.

 

Hi,

Before Lenovo I had MBP and I don't expect the multi-gesture experience to be exact. However, is there anything I can do to improve it? For example, the 2 finger scroll...on Lenovo it seems to be a bit jumpy and scrolls too much content in one 2 finger swipe (as compare to MBP).

thanks for your help.

p.s. Interesting textured touch pad ...kind of find the texture annoying but hopefully I will get used to it.

 

Hello. New T420 owner here! I have a few questions:

1) Will this SSD fit right into the T420's primary hard drive bay? It's an Intel 320 120GB SSD (7mm with spacers that maek it 9mm I think). INTEL 320 SERIES 2.5" 120GB SSD SATA/300 MLC 25NM RESELLER - Lynrask ytelse - alternativet som utklasser tradisjonelle mekaniske harddisker!

2) Is it difficult to replace the keyboard? My B key gets stuck all the time, so I've received a new one (no on-site support deal..) which I have to install myself.

3) What sort of screw driver do I need to access the bottom RAM slot and primary hard drive bay? I've read 2.4mm precision screw driver, but I would like to be sure. Is that all I need?

Thanks a lot!

 

1. Yes.
2. It's not difficult. Read the hardware maintenance manual.
3. Don't get blinded by science. Look at the screws, find a screwdriver that fits, push firmly (so it doesn't slip) and turn it.

John

 

Okay, thanks, I just don't want to shell out a lot for screwdrivers. WIll a PH0 do the trick?

 

Can anyone help me with dual booting it with Win7 (already there); and Linux? Thanks in advance.

 

I've just tried that size on my T420s and it should work. Just press firmly during the initial turning to make sure that it doesn't slip and ride out of the slot.

John

 

Under Windows 7, open the Start Orb and type in "Computer Management" which should appear in the search results, then click on "Disk Management". When you see your Windows partition, right click on it and choose "Shrink Volume". From here choose a desired size for your upcoming Linux partition and Windows will automatically split the partition into two. Afterwards simply run the desired Linux Distro you want and install it in the new partition you've created, it should be able to Dual Boot without too much trouble.

 

So I pulled the trigger on a T420 open box model with the HD+ screen.

Thought I would join the community by doing something constructive - creating a native res minimalist Thinkpad background for us

Spoiler

 

Thank you. I managed to install the RAM, the SSD and the new keyboard without any problems.

I did break a few keys when removing my malfunctioning keyboard, though.

60 processes after installing all the programs I need. Is there any merit to using the Power Manager tools and Thinkvantage programs from Lenovo? I prefer the thinkpad fan control, as BIOS' control over it makes me overly frustrated. The fan will spin at 3500rpm no matter what the temperature is.

Thanks again!

 

I consider Power Manager to be worth having. Among other things it allows you set the charge management for the battery to suit your needs.

John

 

I solved that problem with a headphone amp (Headroom etc.) since I wouldn't listen to sound from any laptop (except system sounds) through the built-in speakers, I always use IEM's or headphones. You can get headphone amps that connect via a USB port and do all the audio processing, or amps that connect to the earphone jack and just amplify. Headphone amps are available at just about any price from maybe $50 or so to maybe $3000 or so. I think a Headroom Bithead is a cost-effective (about $100 last time I looked) example of the former and it is about the size of a cigarette package and runs on AA batteries, so it's good for traveling.

 

I have this problem with my t420. Sometimes when it tries come out of standby the power light, caps lock key light and think light will power on and power off. The only fix for it is to turn off the laptop and turn it back on. This only happens every now and then. Does anyone know what would cause this?

 

In my experience, graphics drivers are one of the major causes of resume problems. See if there are any clues in Event Viewer's System Log. Something that has also caused me problems is having a flash drive plugged in.

John

 

I want my laptop to automatically switch to Maximum Performance once AC is plugged in, and Optimized when on battery. I tried looking around in the Power Management but no avail. Any pointers?

Plus, is the above practice efficient or will render my machine lose performance in the long run?

 

You don't need to switch plans when switching power source - just use the power-source optimised plan on its own.

Set your on-battery settings as aggressively as you want to save battery, and set everything for on-AC to maximum. You can do all of this under the advanced settings.

Why would you think you would lose performance?

 

Weird problem--my battery "energy when full" went from like 55 to 45 in the course of a couple of days. After doing some full discharges/recharges, I can't seem to get it back over 51 design and 48 Wh when fully charged. This is annoying, especially after I spent a bunch of time tweaking Ubuntu to finally get decent wattage and good battery life. Any ideas? I tried the Windows Lenovo Power Manager thing to get it this far, plus running the battery down to zero by leaving BIOS on and charging it to full overnight after that. This is my first laptop so I'm not sure what to try next...

 

Your thoughts on the think-light...

So, this is my 1st Think-pad and 1st time using the think light. While looking at the screen, I am not used to having another light shine on it. Is this something that one get used to it overtime because currently I notice it time to time and it bother me a little.

thanks for your feedback.

 

I only use it to illuminate the keyboard... I am not a touch typist so my use is limited to dark situations and it helps greatly. I am not sure I understand your issue though as I have no issue with it shining back at me or on the screen.

 

Well the primary function of the Thinklight is to light up the keyboard area, not the screen. The downside is that if you tilt the screen far enough it will glare you instead. It's not unusual to hear some people's Thinklight to be out of alignment causing unnecessary glare, though you can rectify that by removing the LCD Bezel and readjusting it.

Personally I use my Thinklight quite a lot and found it to be a massive improvement over my previous T61 in terms of brightness. I guess it's a matter of getting used to if this is the first time you encountered such feature.

 

Ok I think I narrowed down my problem with the battery suddenly losing lots of charge after resuming from standby: It's losing charge quickly during standby. Any reason why this would happen? I see you guys saying SSDs have a problem with standby, could that be a reason? I'm using an msata SSD as the OS drive.

 

First of all, hi to all of you on this forum! I'am new on this forum and with my t420, i just got it a few days ago, it's a refurbished and i'am having trouble getting my factory recovery discs. I'm using the ThinkVantage Rescue & Recovery tool, it has win 7 pro 64-bit edition. The problem i have is that when i use the option "Create Rescue Media" it extract files and tkae s afew minutes, then a menu pops out to select a recording media and no options are available (it's blank) , same thing happens when i use de Lenovo - Factory Recovery Disks.
I've checked the drivers for my DVD drive and they are up to date and working, i 've already saw a movie using the dvd rom. Any help would be much much apreciated!! Thanks for reading c:

 

Is your burner DVD-ROM (which is read-only) or DVD-RW? either check the model number in Device Manager and then Google the specs or run Nero Infotool which will give all the details about reading and writing capabilities.

John

 

I used 3D Mark 11 for a stress test.
I'm curious too at what else to use.

 

Hi JOhn!, thanks for the tip on the infotool from nero, i've used it and it seems it's a read only device D: which sucks, maybe i can borrow my sisters dvd drive, or perhaps using magicISO, but i don't really know if it will create the iso's for my recovery discs, any hellp on that? thanks again for your help C:!

 

Do you guys have any battery issues (like critical warning @ 50+% charge) with tpfancontrol active?

 

Hi - can anyone tell me if the T420 has 2nd generation Expresscard or is still 1.0?? I use a ViDock graphics card which runs via Expresscard and is bottlenecking on my W500 due to it being Expresscard 1.0.

 

All Sandy Bridge laptops that have an Expresscard (such as the T420) have Expresscard 2.0 (or so I've been told).

 

Thanks kpresler!