Thinkpad T420 Owner's Thread

Cheers mate, greatly appreciated - I'll take a gander at them tomorrow when I'm slightly more sober! :laugh: lol

 

Anybody installed Win 8 on T420s with success? Are drivers available?

 

Sure thing:

In terms of manufacturer: get the cheapest brand available.

In terms of reseller: go for the one offering the cheapest RAM.

In terms of cost: starting to notice a pattern?

Seriously: brand names don't mean jack. RAM either works or it doesn't. Buy the RAM, run it through a couple passes of memtest86+. If it passes, use it. If it doesn't, RMA it.

Just as is the case with hard drives: there's no evidence whatsoever that any particular brand is any better than the others.

 

Installed it on a T420, most drivers installed over the web just fine - think i downloaded a couple from lenovo to finish it off, lived with it for just over 48 hours, found it disjointed, and annoying, v.performant though.

Uninstalled it in favour of 7 about 2 hours ago, i'm happy again now. I'll put it onto a vhd instead and endure the pain of visual studio 2012 that way, vs2012 is almost as painful as windows 8....sigh....

 

Off topic, Win 8 is really not for mouse and keyboard lol I tried it before on my other Lenovo laptop and it's really annoying

 

I'm wondering about the same thing. Did you sort this out?
(Does anyone know if people gets notified if someone quotes them? )

The bay lock latch seems intact, the problem is that I cant get to the spot to attach it easily. Is it a major operation to remove the back cover of the laptop to get to the hole pictured in the first attachment?

Some pictures describing my problem are attached.

 

I had never thought it would work, but I actually got it fixed by balancing the piece on my finger and jamming it in. Case closed!

 

Ok.
Is the t430 that much better than the t420 and can I make my t420 similar to it?

 

"Better" as in doing things faster? running cooler? using less battery power? showing colors more correctly? having more features?

The T430 may be slightly better thanks to the third-generation processor and integrated graphics. It adds two USB 3.0 ports (while removing some ports). Oh, is the new "Precision" chiclet keyboard considered "better"?

If you're using a T420, perhaps adding more RAM and installing SSD will make it better.

 

Kaso's got a point: define "better". As with every laptop ever, whether it's "better" for you depends entirely on your requirements.

Ivy Bridge doesn't offer a major improvement in CPU performance, although it does dramatically improve GPU performance for some things. But the CPU is far from the whole story, and whether or not an upgrade to the T430 would be a smart move depends entirely on what you do with your notebook.

In general, my advice regarding upgrades is this: if your laptop isn't brand new, don't. Instead, use it until "don't" is no longer tolerable, then sell it and purchase a new laptop.

 

What the...

How did you manage to do that?!

 

Hi, I have a stock Thinkpad T420 and am very interested in getting an SSD (Intel 330 is what I'm looking at). I'm also considering using my existing hard disk for storing games and data.

a) Does my Thinkpad (if not all T420 are created equal) support the 6Gbps Sata III interface? In the UltraBay as well? My current hard disk is running at 3Gbps according to Hwinfo32, but I guess that could also be a disk thing.

b) The Intel 330 SSD is a 9.5mm drive - that would fit in the existing hard disk slot right?

c) (Not specific to the T420) 240GB Intel 330 for $196-ish, vs 120GB Intel 330 for $105-ish + a $50 Ultrabay adapter? I guess this is a common question. I'd lose the power and durability advantage if I go for the Ultrabay option. I tend to keep my computer pretty slim anyway: while I do store maybe a combined 10GB of photos and music, all my movies go onto an external hard disk I have. My total usage right now is less than 100GB, I would assume it wouldn't go beyond 160GB or so - would that make write speeds bad on a 240GB SSD?

 

Yes to both.

 

If you're not using WWAN, I'd suggest getting a mSATA SSD and keeping the platter drive in the main bay for storage where is is not as critical. While the mSATA is SATA II, you'd never be able to tell outside of benchmarking.

 

You think there is anything I could improve on my notebook?

Örgjörvi: Intel Core i7 2640M 2,8-3,5GHz dual core 64bit
Lýsing: 4MB, 1333MHz, Intel QM67 m. iAMT, Turbo Boost 2.0, Hyper-Threading, VT-x, VT-d, Speedstep, AES, Intel64, DMI
Minni: 8GB (2x4GB) 1333MHz DDR3 minni
Skjár: 14,1" TFT HD+ LED m. innbyggðri HD myndavél
Upplausn: 1600x900 punkta
Skjákort: nVIDIA Optimus tækni - 2 skjákort sem skipta sjálfvirkt á milli:
nVidia NVS4200 1GB og Intel HD graphics 3000, allt að 384MB.
Styður 3 skjái; innb. + 2 auka skjái
Diskur: 160GB Intel SSD, mjög hraðvirkur
Netkort: 10/1000 Ethernetkort og Bluetooth 3.0
WWAN: Innb. 3G módem, þarf SIM kort
Þráðlaust kort: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6300 802.11 b/g/n 300Mb WIFI meðtveimur loftnetum
Drif: DVD-RW Multiburner drif í Ultrabayslim stæði
Rafhlaða: LiIon (9 sellu) m. allt að 15:00 klst hleðslu ,
Tekur auka 9 sellu rafhlöðu sem festist undir vélina (57Y4545, 15klst).
Tengi: 4x USB 2.0 (eitt með hleðslu), VGA, Displayport, eSATA, ethernet, Firewire
Kortaraufar: ExpressCard/34
Kortalesari: 4-1 (MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC)
Öryggi: Innbyggður TPM öryggisörgjörvi, fingrafaralesari og smartkortalesari
Lyklaborð: eitt besta fartölvulyklaborðið á markaðnum, vökvaþolið
Lyklaborðsljós: lýsir upp lyklaborðið
Mús: UltraNav mýs; Trackpoint IV 4 hnappa mús, Snertimús - Multitouch

 

a) Does my Thinkpad (if not all T420 are created equal) support the 6Gbps Sata III interface? In the UltraBay as well? My current hard disk is running at 3Gbps according to Hwinfo32, but I guess that could also be a disk thing.
Yes, both main and ultrabay are 6Gb/s, mSATA is 3Gb/s

b) The Intel 330 SSD is a 9.5mm drive - that would fit in the existing hard disk slot right?
If your T420 ships with a 9.5mm HDD then thats a direct replacement, otherwise, you need to get a pair of 9.5mm rubber rail on ebay for ~$3.


c) (Not specific to the T420) 240GB Intel 330 for $196-ish, vs 120GB Intel 330 for $105-ish + a $50 Ultrabay adapter? I guess this is a common question. I'd lose the power and durability advantage if I go for the Ultrabay option. I tend to keep my computer pretty slim anyway: while I do store maybe a combined 10GB of photos and music, all my movies go onto an external hard disk I have. My total usage right now is less than 100GB, I would assume it wouldn't go beyond 160GB or so - would that make write speeds bad on a 240GB SSD?
A 3rd party ultrabay adapter can be found on ebay for ~$10 and I don't see the reason why ultrabay will "lose the power and durability advantage". For SSD options, I'm not a big fan of Sandforce(and Intel 330) and would consider Samsung 830/Crucial M4/Plextor. You can get these 128GB SSDs for $80-$90 when they're on sale.

 

That was badly phrased. I meant, having just an SSD would make my system lighter, have longer battery life, and less susceptible to disk failures from drops and such. Having an HDD in the Ultrabay would mean I wouldn't get those advantages.

 

If you can afford a large SSD, say 512GB, then, yes, it can be the only one drive you have in the main bay.

Quieter? Yes. Cooler? Yes.

Lighter? A bit. Longer battery life? Not definitely. Less susceptible to disk failures from drops? Not really.

All those attributes apply whether the SSD/HDD sits in the main bay or in the UltraBay. So, what is a real roadwarrior to do? Regular backups.

(Having the SSD in the UltraBay allows one to swap drives, each of which is configured specifically for a client's project environment.)

 

Dear T420 owners,

I have just got myself a T420 core i7; I have upgraded to 8GB RAM, and put in a Seagate Hybrid HDD. It runs beautifully with Windows 7 x64. I tried the live USB of Ubuntu 12.04 x64 and almost all of the hardware worked--I did not install the nvidia proprietary drivers so not sure how that would fare.

Physically, not aesthetic at all, and is quite heavy with 9 cell battery; screen is gorgeous though, and performance is a bit sticky with aero running, but glides nicely with Basic theme and windows set to "performance" rather than "appearance". Would love to get Aero back, especially with the extra RAM I have installed. Not sure may be the Power Settings need adjustment--have at "balanced" right now--this way the fan speed seem to be tamed. "Turbo" or "Max Turbo" makes fan run all the time, and palms rest gets hot.

I am planning to install Windows 8 on it; has anyone tried this?, and what are the issues with Drivers and Lenovo Software compatibility? Please point me to a resource with Windows 8 on T420. If there are too many issues I am happy to abandon the idea of Windows 8 on it and just stick to Win 7.

Thanks
SL

 

How can that ever be?

Windows 7 Aero runs swimmingly on a Core 2 Duo CPU, integrated graphics and 4GB RAM. Already.

 

I am not sure why, It sure drags on mine.

 

The T420 should handle Aero easily, I have the Intel HD3000 GPU in mine and it does the transparencies and Aero Flip (Start+Tab) smoothly. Are you running the latest graphics drivers on your system?

As for Windows 8 it's possible to run on the T420 without getting into much trouble. I tried the Consumer Preview versions before and they worked fine so I would assume it be fine on the RTM versions too. You can have a look at this thread here for more info on Windows 8 OS on ThinkPads.

 

I just went through that thread, thanks--I think I can wait it out to install Win 8 after October. Wait for Power Management issues to resolve.

 

I've installed Win Server 2012 180 day trial, but the intel wifi and graphics drivers arent' getting recognised if i install win 7 driver, i tried win 8 beta driver from lenovo site for T420, but it says there's no such device. pls help me to install Intel HD graphics and Wifi for T420, on Win server 2012 final ver.

 

I think it is fair to state that lenovo will address Windows 8 issues for its current range of laptops after October (official release of the Windows 8 to market)

 

Still not 100% sure what my battery issue is (charge would instantly drop to 5% from 60% etc). I tried draining the battery on another OS (Ubuntu) that's stored on my harddrive, the battery life drops down normally. It's only when I'm using Windows 7 on my SSD when the battery life is unpredictable. Could it be an issue with using an msata SSD + HDD together? When I use windows, I frequently use both (OS is stored on SSD and a lot of media like music stored on the HDD).

Edit: nvm just tried draining again and it worked fine in Windows (~5 hours). I feel like this has something to do with not discharging/charging correctly when going standby. For ex: the battery is at 70% right before i go standby. After many hours without attaching the adapter, the battery after waking from standby is still at 70%.

Does anyone here have a similar issue? Can you bring some insight on what could possibly be the cause?

 

Hi guys

Sorry for the spam

I'm selling my 1+ year old T420. It's been highly customized (a quad core cpu, msata + hdd, 9 cell batt) and comes boxed.
No waer/dents/missing parts. London area.

Lenovo T420 Quad Core i7 + mSata + 1TB HDD + 8GB | eBay

End-of-spam

Cheers

 

I have the same problem, but at first it was all fine and now it drops from 70%.
I dont know what to do.

 

You could try recalibrating the battery via the Power Manager to see if it helps on the issue.

 

Hello,

I plan to buy a used T420 but it does not have a fingerprint reader which i really use on my T61 for easy of logging.

Can anyone tell meif i can add the fingreprint after? (changing the palmrest of corse) I mean all thinkpads cam with the FP connector on the motherboard or is it possible that on some the connector is missing?

Type is 4236 65G .....as per this doc http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/t420_t420i_hmm.pdf for
there is no FRU for 65x but there are plenty for the general 4236

Thanks in advance

 

Just refreshing this post: Toddler Keys works perfectly

 

It did not. I go on battery right after battery reset and the problem still happens.

I'm going to try reformatting and install minimal software to see if it still occurs. Hopefully it's just some funky software issue.

 

This is a great thread, congratulations to the organiser and thank you, I have read about a quarter of it so far, I have a couple of questions and apologise in advance if they have already been covered in the thread.

Since getting my T420 a year or so ago I have had problems with the power supply, it is an official Lenovo supply that came with the machine (20V 3.25A) and has 4 USB power outputs also (really handy for charging my mobile phones). When the temperature is low and when I plug the supply into the computer quite often the screen jumps between bright and dim and the power supply icon shows charging and not-charging. This happens for a while, usually in the morning when the power supply has got cold in my bag, (sometimes the flashing screen goes on for 10 to 15 minutes) and is incredibly annoying. It happened last winter and is just starting to happen again, now that autumn is arriving here in Poland. Obviously I have checked all of the cables - they are firmly connected, I suspect a faulty supply with the switched mode circuitry struggling to start when it is cold - has anyone else had this problem and what was their solution ?

Second issue - I hate the Windows key - it is adjacent to the Alt Gr key which I use all the time (I often type in Polish and need Alt Gr for the strange characters) and often I hit the Windows key instead by mistake and then I lose focus on the text that I am typing - does anyone know how to disable the Windows key from doing anything ? If so please tell me and I will be eternally grateful.

Thanks in advance, Dave

 

Use KeyTweak.

Select the "Left Windows" key (#59) on the GUI and remap it to DISABLED.

 

Perfect ! Many thanks Kaso.

 

I haven't encountered that issue, but I think your hypothesis is a reasonable one. If it were me I'd borrow a replacement adapter and see if that fixes the problem.

 

HI
my t420 came with a 160GB intel 320 ssd in it. I need to replace it with an inexpensive hard drive (I need the SSD for something else). What type of HDD should I buy in order to avoid needing new rails?

thanks

 

Did your 320 have a spacer on it?

Also, you could just measure the internal size of the rails: they're either 7.5mm or 9mm...

 

no spacer and the internal size of the rails is 7.5 mm. Does that mean I can buy any 7 mm 2.5 inch hdd? I just need a very basic one, don't care if it is slow or noisy. thanks

 

You can buy the 9.5mm rubber rails and HDD/SSD wrappers on ebay for cheap. I bought a set of 5 a few years ago. You can actually put a 7mm SSD or HDD in the 9.5mm wrapper with the rails. You just can't do the reverse.

 

sorry but I'm a bit confused! why are you suggesting I buy new rails. can't I just buy a 7mm HDD? I apologize in advance if it is a stupid question...

 

You can obtain 7mm hard drives but there aren't many on the market compared to the standard 9.5mm ones, especially those with the big capacities. If you really insist on a 7mm hard drive then you probably want to be looking at the Hitachi Travelstar Z5K320/Z5K500 or Seagate Momentus Thin drives which offers a decent amount of capacity within the 7mm frame.

 

bump......anyone? i got a palmrest with FP but it did not work (biometric device did not appear on win device manager)....in bios i have all FP option and the stock palm rest has the wire for a FP sensor. do i need a moded bios for this?

 

If you have the right palmrest did you use the Fingerprint Package from Lenovo (32 bit here/64 bit here)? Also ensure that you are not using UEFI mode otherwise the fingerprint module would not be recognised by the OS at all.

 

i dont know if i have the right palmrest....that was the question i post here. there is no FG palmrestFRU for 4236 65G in the support list. 64 bit soft and drivers as i have a 64 bit OS also changed uefi settings to all available. but from my T61 experience the biometric device should appear even if the drivers are not installed, or appear as unknow device with the yellow ? mark.
i guess the sensor on the palm rest is defective. i already send it back.

ill ask again, anyone managed to install a FP aftermarket? do you think that since there is no FRU, the bios could have somekind of whitelist that prevents certain motherboards to see the FP sensor? Note that i have all FP options and settings in BIOS.

 

According to the System Service Parts website you need two things which are:

Keyboard Bezel with Fingerprint Sensor - FRU: 04W1371
FPC Cable (touch pad with fingerprint reader and Bluetooth) - FRU: 04W1625

However if you bought the parts from a donor/salvaged T420 then these two parts should come included already. I would have thought all T420 motherboards would have a facility to cater a retrofit of the fingerprint module unless I'm mistaken.

 

i bought a palm rest with the FP reader included. Yes i guess they all can be retrofired because the regular palm rest has the wiring for FP and thre is a sqare marked for where you need to cut out the plmrest if you feel handy enough

Hearst, i dont want to nag but but in my case there are 2 possibilities: the palm rest FP sensor was broken or the bios from my machine will not allow FP. At this moment im 50%-50%...ill try to find another palmrest with FP to try

 

I don't think this has been covered so here goes, Lenovo recently released a new updated BIOS for T420 - version 1.42.

You can obtain the BIOS using the Update Utility or by Bootable CD.

 

Could it have anything to do with some models not having a TPM? If a TPM necessary for a Fingerprint Scanner?

So I just purchased my first Thinkpad and so far are pretty please with it, my biggest irritation is when scrolling on webpages, I don't seem to be able to read the scrolling text (unless very slow scrolling) which I'm sure I could easily do on my previous laptop.

So I had a question I hoped someone could advise me with, I wanted to upgrade my RAM from the current 4gb to at least 8gb. Hwever, there are a few ways to do this.

Would I notice any better performance from purchasing PC3-12800 memory? I guess not if I installed it alongside the the existing PC3-10600 but what about if I replaced it. Is there are real advantage to be had from purchasing the 1.35v modules rather than the stock 1.5v?

Many thanks in advance for what is my first post and is probably not the simplest.

 

There would be a slight boost in integrated graphics performance with the PC3-12800 RAM but it won't be significant over the PC3-10600 RAM. It is said that the Sandy Bridge ThinkPads can't take advantage of lower voltage RAM so would operate at the standard 1.5v, the newer Ivy Bridge ThinkPads can run at the lower voltages however.

It all factors down at what price you can get the memory modules, I think currently you can get PC3-12800 RAM at roughly the same price as the PC3-10600 RAM so it's a no brainer to get the higher rated spec RAM. Don't pay over the odds for the lower voltage RAM since it doesn't have any significance with the T420.