Thinkpad T420 Owner's Thread

Why is the audio driver unsigned?

 

I figured out that program which is part of this driver is constantly using dGPU. It is obvious that this has dramatic influence on battery life.
Anybody have idea how to manage with this?
I already switch to integra in Nvidia panel every piece of program which I found in its root folder.

Edit:

After another reboot (3rd I guess) it set itself right ;]
I've tried some games and external monitor to check how it will behave.
dGPU is turning off but with some delay (~ 2 min).
I think I can live with it ;]

To be clear:
If Dolby uses your dGPU turn every exe file in its root folder to integra in Nvidia Control Panel and reboot (if not once try again but of course not overdo it ^^).

 

I am new to the T420 forum as I am thinking of getting it instead of the W520 I already have. I do not like the throttling on battery I have and the delay in everything when working on battery with the W520. Does T420 suffer the same issue whether I get the Intel Graphics 3000 or the discrete graphics?

Please, help me with this issue so I can make my buying decision.

Thanks.

 

What applications do you use when you noticed the throttling on the W520 in battery mode? I have a T420 with Core i5-2520M CPU and integrated graphics but don't have an issue with throttling when using the battery. Though my power profile is optimised for battery life rather than outright performance in these circumstances.

As a test however I switched to the Maximum Peformance profile despite using the battery and ran Prime95. At max the CPU was around 83-85c at full load but no throttling was reported by HWInfo during the tests.

 

Thanks a lot for your response. I experience it right now (as an example) while opening about 30 tabs in Firefox with 3 Word files, Windows Live Mail, Adobe Acrobat Professional X, and 1 Excel file but it can hapen with even just internet browsing and moving from tab to tab. Also, the key strokes are delayed when I write in this thread or on Word.

I still wanna go the Thinkpad direction but wanted to see if there is a different machine even with less specs but will not throttle on battery and will just work equally on AC and battery. Do you think T420 with core i7 dual core only Intel Graphics 3000 should be the way to go? Also, does it matter if I get the discrete graphics or not?

 

Are you at home or work when you do this?

 

Both if this helps!

 

My solution has always been to buy several AC adapters. Plugged in you have no throttling or performance issues.

Given your application mix on battery, it appears to me your power management settings are incorrect. You should not see performance issues with that mix.

 

Just to make sure it's a case of thermal throttling, run HWInfo32 (run the portable version) and check the CPU status on the summary page when you do your work. If the Thermal Status reports as OK but still stutters it's more likely to be something else. But if it does report Throttling then strangely your W520 seem to be struggling on tasks where it should be able to run fine.

 

That is what I am doing (one charger for home and one for work) but I still need to move between meetings without a charger. I have my power manager settings set to maximum performance in all aspects and so is my BIOS. This is the second machine to try with the same symptoms. I do understand that throttling is by design but as you just mentioned, I do not expect it to cause such symptoms with such mix of programs!

Since my understanding from a Lenovo rep statement in Lenovo's forum that having the CPU and discrete GPU enabled on battery is the cause and cannot be solved except with connecting it to AC. My question is, will a T420 with only Intel Graphics 3000 be free from the symptoms I explained?

 

The ThermMon for all the cores show OK. What would this mean? You cannot imagine while I am writing this to you, I waited for half a sentence to appear later because of delayed stroke. Same sluggishness is happening with browsing (loading pages and moving between tabs) and again this is the second W520 I get and it has the same exact problem. On AC, it is just perfect!

The ratio on battery is 10.00x and on AC is 32.00x

 

It's a strange one, if the thermal monitor is OK then the problem is not really the CPU. Can you list out the specs of your W520 and are you using the factory installation or have you clean installed the system? I never encountered such stuttering issues when my T420 is on battery so it's a tricky one to diagnose, especially as you said it's fine in AC mode. Forgive me on this as I don't have a W520 myself so it's hard for me to figure whether this is an isolated issue or a known problem for this model. Maybe you can try asking others in the W520 thread to see if anyone experienced a similar problem like yourself.

 

Well, at least you are trying you help and I much appreciate that. My specs for the W520 are as following:

Intel Core i7-2760QM 2.4 (I had the 2860QM 2.5 on the first machine)
Optimus Quadro 1000
8GB RAM
Crucial M4-256GB
HD+ display and I previously had the FHD on the first machine

I have freshly installed Windows Professional with just Lenovo Power Manager.

 

The Crucial SSD drives can be prone to stuttering though some say the M4 shouldn't have problems with this. Are you using Intel's Rapid Storage Technology SATA drivers? You could have a look at this Crucial thread and see whether the LPM fix at the registry can solve the stutter issue for you. Also if you haven't done so, you can try updating the firmware on that drive to see if it help things go smoothly.

 

I was already having the firmware updates to the latest. I tried the LP fix and also installed the Intel's Rapid Storage Drivers now but they did not change anything. I might try one last thing and request an SSD replacement if you think this may be a problem with my SSD as an isolated case.

 

Quite possible it could be a bad batch, have you got the original hard drive with you to test it further? If the OS on the stock hard drive works fine under battery mode then we can narrow it down to either being the drive itself or something on the OS you installed had gone awry which is causing the stuttering.

 

You are right but unfortunately, I was stupid enough to sell the original HDD. What I may do is get a replacement SSD and not clone the current SSD but do a fresh install instead.

Just since you are here and trying to help especially being a T420 owner, I am thinking of getting the T420 instead with only Intel Graphics 3000 and dual core 2.8. Will this be much less powerful from my current processor for the type of stuff I do? Also, is there a value from decreasing the power consumption by getting only the Intel graphics and not the discrete one? From my limited knowledge, it seems like that everyone and even the manufacturers state that throttling significantly affects the machine when the GPU is used

 

For your tasks the Sandy Bridge dual core processors should be up to the job quite easily, I usually run 30+ Firefox tabs, Thunderbird Mail Client, Photoshop, iTunes, MS Word, a wave of open folders and I never feel my T420 is strained doing so. And this is with a Core i5 processor, it's not really worth shelling out the (hefty) extra of a Dual Core i7 to be honest as the performance gains are only marginal to that of a Dual Core i5.

The integrated graphics on the Sandy Bridge ThinkPads are a massive step up from the previous ones, it can even play some games which I never thought was even possible (i.e. Team Fortress 2) albeit with some settings toned down. You also get the benefits of a cooler and more power efficient system than that of a dedicated discrete GPU solution (though this argument is minor due to Optimus on some systems) so it's ideal if you like to be on battery power all the time. With a 9 cell battery you'll be looking at least 6-7 hours run time, though you can reach double figures if you're frugal enough.

 

I've got a problem with my bluetooth on my T420. The first time I installed Windows on my machine (came with no OS), I recall having some difficulties, but I got it working eventually. Now, a while back, I did a clean install again but at the time the bluetooth wireless was turned off from the FN+F5 menu. I feel like I've now completely lost access to my bluetooth because it can't seem to find a driver for it when I try to install the bluetooth enhance data tranfer program from Levovo's driver webpage. Any way I get my bluetooth back on?

 

Same also applies to Intel 320. So happy the random freeze is gone!

 

That is so convincing! I may decide to go this direction. One more question, the maximum number of external displays I might need to connect it to is 2. Can it does this job even with the Intel Graphics 3000 alone?

If I decided to get it, should I chose the higher watt AC adapter? What will it provide me differently? Last, I currently have the docking station for the W520 with the 170W adapter. Will it work with T420 or will I have to get a different one for the T420?

 

Yes, Intel Graphics 3000 can handle two monitors easily. I use it all the time.

 

The T420 works well in that docking station.

And FYI, the symptom you described sounds just like many of the complaints in the throttle threads at forums.lenovo.com. In essence the CPU would lock at 800MHz when you move from AC to battery while still powered up. I also think the Intel code also has the GPU go into what I call "molasses mode" because everything seems like slow motion.

Supposedly that was fixed but I never really saw the issue because I always shutdown when I move a machine.

I suspect in your case with the W520, you still have a perfect storm of issues. The SSD, the drivers installed, the drivers not yet installed, the BIOS config, and the Power Management config could all be colluding with the throttling bug.

If you had kept the HDD, you could pull the SSD and image the HDD with the factory disk set. This would give you the ability to sandbox some of the environment and determine how much the SSD is a player.

If it were me, I would buy a low cost new 7200 rpm HDD and run some tests.

 

Did you install the Hotkeys Integration so it can trigger the FN+F5 sequence back on?

 

I guess you have perfectly summarized the situation here. I will give it a try and seek an HDD and see if it helps. I have also requested a replacement SSD to see if I had a bad one.

I am not sure how you can always shutdown when you move especially with someone like me having many things opened and not completed all the time. I always go into sleep or hibernate.

I am also now considering the option of the T420 since I do not know if my current apps are really using the full power of the quad core processor and I also do not need the dGPU at all, I guess. I will have to think if the portability of the T420 with potentially less noise, heat and slowness on battery (with only built-in GPU) can me make the sacrifice!

 

Yeah, I only see the Wifi when I hit FN+F5. Bluetooth is completely missing.

 

Are all the HDD or SSD that come with the T420 from Lenovo 7mm and not 9.5mm? Will a 9.5mm fit in the T420?

I saw in another thread that MidnightSun mentioned the following:
"There are no 500GB 7200RPM 7mm drives made by any manufacturer--the only 500GB 7mm drives run at 5400RPM. So, if you order a Thinkpad with a 500GB 7200RPM drive, you're guaranteed to get a 9.5mm drive."

Can someone confirm this fact as I have a 9.5mm SSD and wanna make sure it will fit in a T420 if I get one?

 

The T420 primary bay takes 9.5mm height drives.
The T420 Ultrabay is identical to the W520 Ultrabay.

 

Great! Thanks. Do you know if it is true that all the 500GB 7200RPM will come as 9.5mm only?

 

Anyone with using the Dolby Audio get random runtime error popups? Nothing seems to break, but annoying nontheless.

 

All? No.

Travelstar Z7K500 | Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

But nearly all of the notebook hard drives for sale are 9.5mm.

 

I was just hoping that the T420 comes with 9.5mm so the rubber bands and the metal enclosure fit my SSD as I am about to pull the trigger. I really wish I could wait for the Ivy Bridge as you mentioned but I have only one machine. More choices make one crazier and I am not sure by now if it is a wise decision to go from W520 to T420 for the my uses. Sorry for bothering you with this issue for quite a while but believe me I am myself in a big headache and frustration t settle on a machine and just start being productive instead of this hassle.

 

Just to make sure is the Bluetooth feature enabled in the I/O Port Access section of the BIOS? When I disabled the Bluetooth there's no such option with the FN+F5 menu, but it comes back on when the feature is re-enabled again.

My Dolby Home Theatre runs flawlessly with no errors, did you uninstall the old Conexant drivers first before installing the Dolby drivers?

 

I guess I did disable the bluetooth in my BIOS. I don't ever recall doing so....

I did uninstall the old Conexant drivers before installing dolby. Is it supposed to get re installed automatically with Dolby?

 

It shouldn't do, the Dolby Conexant drivers are separate from the SmartAudio drivers so having both of them on can lead to conflicts. Uninstall the SmartAudio application and double check the Sound properties to make sure it reads as "Dolby Home Theatre v4 - Conexant HD Audio".

 

So my t420 arrived on 4/19 (which isn't bad considering i ordered it on the 11th). and my initial impressions are very positive, especially after doing a clean install onto my crucial m4. boot times are great (hovering around 20seconds), and i can't believe how fast visual studio boots up on this compared to both my quad core work machine and my 8-core mac pro that i use for .net development and 3d modeling in osx. You read about how hard drives are always the bottleneck, but you can't really comprehend the difference until you experience it firsthand.

I do have a couple complaints though.
The default color profile was dreadful, the screen is capable of good color, this icc profile-much better
The 9 cell battery is a little loose. Not a big deal, but i'm sure it won't wear well, i'll probably add some padding to it to keep it from moving around too much.
the left trackpoint button is a tiny bit loose as well, you can only hear it when you press on a certain part of it.

Other than that i can't complain. The keyboard is as-advertised, great feedback and very quick, and it's overall very solid feeling, almost no flex on the keyboard.

Wanted to say thanks to hearst, your clean install guide allowed me to accomplish the whole thing in only a couple hours (and most of that was just making the backup discs)

- Joe

 

Reinstalled it and I see the proper driver. I'm not sure what happened last time. Thanks for all the help.

 

Thors.Hammer: I just wanted to let you know that I have replaced my current Crucial M4 SSD with a brand new one. I cloned it from the original one and updated the firmware. I also made sure that all the power options in BIOS and power manager are set to maximum performance but still the symptoms I explained earlier exactly happen.

Since you mentioned that throttling happens with any brand, I tried my friend's machine (HP DV6T with i7 Quad 2.2 and 2GB dGPU) and I never experienced any of the symptoms I have on battery and do not know how this should be explained.

Finally, I am thinking of ordering T520 (though more expensive for less specs!) with core i7 dual core 2.8 and only built-in Intel Graphics 3000. Do you think that this combination should not show the symptoms I have on the W520 being much less power consuming? I just interpreted this from the 65W adapter they can work on VS the 170W required for the W520? Do you have any clue?

Thanks!

Edit: Today I got a 500GB 7200 Lenovo HDD and I am gonna try if it causes the same issue as just a final step of diagnostics because I got tired of trying to settle on a machine within my busy life and I just need to let it go and try to live with any machine.

 

Is there a way to dim the thinklight? I don't need it so bright to "balance" the lighting between the screen and keyboard.

 

1. Reset the BIOS to default settings with F9. Verify CPU power management on battery and AC is set to automatic.
2. Download all of the latest driver packages from support.lenovo.com
3. Download the latest BIOS .ISO and burn to CD
4. Update BIOS via CD
5. Install Windows 7 x64
6. Install Intel chipset driver
7. Install Lenovo power management driver
8. Install Lenovo Power manager
9. Install Lenovo Optimus video driver package
10. Install ethernet driver only
11. Install wifi driver only. None of the other Intel software that comes with it.
12. Install USB 3.0 driver
13. Install Hotkey driver
14. Install audio driver
15. Install Ultranav driver
16. Install Ultranav utility
17. Install Ricoh multicard reader driver
18. Install webcam driver
19. Install HWiNFO64
20. Launch Power Manager
21. Put Power Manager in Advanced Mode
22. Click Power Source Optimized for the profile to use, then click OK. This should have the System settings set to something like Lowest, Enabled for deeper CPU sleep, and Balanced for fan.
23. Test on battery and see if it performs well of slowly.
24. Verify CPU clock settings during testing with HWiNFO64
25. Change the settings to Adaptive, Disabled for CPU deeper sleep and Balanced for fan.
26. Test again
27. Verify CPU clock settings during testing with HWiNFO64. You should see the clock turbo up and down. You should see relatively decent performance.
    

 

Hey everyone I recently hooked up a VI ViDock with my T420, stuck a Nvidia GTX 560 in there. Took a while over the Christmas break to get it to work but I eventually got it to work by flashing the BIOS to version 1.37.

However, just yesterday (after months of perfect performance) it has started acting up. It will suddenly shut off by itself, my monitor with cut out and cycle through the different inputs, then the computer and dock shut off. I haven't made any recent changes to my system or anything. When I try to power back on, it comes on for like 4 seconds and shuts off, then comes on again by itself right after that and boots up, only to cut off again like before just a few minutes after logging in. Very frustrated right now and if anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Jordan

 

Thanks a lot for your thorough explanation. I really appreciate your willingness to help.

I will try your steps tonight but just for your information, here is what I tried till now:

Stock HDD with Lenovo original system as it is: decent performance
Cloned the stock HDD to my SSD: decent performance
Formatted my SSD and freshly installed Windows from my own genuine DVD with all drivers and also a bunch of softwre but not in the order you stated: stuck at 900Mhz. I also tried the same power plan of the Lenovo system with no luck.

I will try your steps tonight but could it be the system itself?

Edit: I just wanted to tell you that I 'swear' I am gonna keep the W520 no matter what . Basically, I fell in love with it so, I am gonna tolerate whatever side effects of that. Also, there is something better in this replacement machine I just got--it is quiet (on AC and DC), which is very important to me.

I guess I also wanted to ask you this earlier--I can tell that Crucial M4 is excellent from the reviews it got but from your experience, is there a better option in the market in the 250 - 300 GB size?

I have to say thanks again for all your patience with my questions since I got my first machine!

 

I am using the Samsung Series 830 256GB 7mm SSD. I also like the Intel drives though they are more expensive. The new 240GB drive at Newegg.com - Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW240A3K5 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) might be worth trying.

That Samsung drive does go on sale from time to time. I've seen it as low as $300.

 

May I ask if you think these are much better than the Crucial M4 and if so, in what aspects? Regardless of the dollars, which one should I go for and why?

Sorry, I am greedy for one more question, Will I need any extra accessories to place the 7mm Samsung (if I get it) in the W520? Will the metal part and screws fit it?

Edit: I read some information but hope you can tell me your opinion too that The Samsung has a little better writing speed but for the intel, some people really recommend it but others are much concerned that they do not have their own controllers (which I do not understand what it means anyway).

 

Did you try this?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

 

I did, but I would prefer not to mess with the processor and just try to get the most decent performance possible out of it on battery without using Throttlestop or other software. I guess the machine I have is better and also I am hoping the steps Thors. Hammer sent can make a difference too, but thanks for the advice though.

 

I really don't know which SSD is better. Most of the SSD drives had a rocky start a few years ago, including Intel. Now it seems most people believe Intel drives are the most reliable. The Series 830 drives from Samsung have received really good reviews but they haven't been on the market long enough to determine reliability. None of them have for that matter. I see more issues posted about the Crucial M4 than the Intel or Sammys. It could because more people are using them. I really don't know.

The Samsung 7mm SSD can be used in any ThinkPad with the right wrapper or rails. For the W520, you'll want to install it into the standard wrapper with the Mylar ribbon then add the rubber rails.

 

Thanks. I just got the regular one without the laptop kit and will try to clean install everything on it following the steps you mentioned earlier to see how this will work. Overall, I am a happy customer with my current W520 thanks to you and others!

 

Hi Everyone,

I'm having the hardest time turning on the wireless radio on theT420 I just got recently. When I hit Fn - F5 it says 'Hardware Wireless Radio Switch - Status Off" and has a graphic of a finger moving the switch on. The problem is, I can't for the life of me find the wireless switch on the computer.

I read someplace that the T420 doesn't actually have a physical swtich, and that you have to access it through the BIOS. I got into the BIOS by holding down the blue thinkvantage button upon startup, but couldn't figure out what setting to change.

Does anyone know what I should dO? In case it matters, I'm on Windows XP Pro.

 

The T420 does have a wireless switch but it's not as obvious as before and is rather small. On the right side where the DVD bay is look near the SD Card slot as there is a tiny switch that enables/disables the wireless card, flick it to the right so it switches the wireless module on.