Thinkpad T420s Owners' Thread

Forgot to mention: my screen and the LG-Philips one.

 

John, do you know if the Samsung is much better than the LG screen? Or is it just a small difference?

 

what's the significance of the T in front of the model name can some people tell me? some thinkpads have other letters in front of them and are still called thinkpads. Also, I beleive the S430 will be 1600x900 resolution while still being .8 inches thick. Whats the attraction towards the T series? If something is a thinkpad, but not a T series thinkpad, is it not as well made or durable?

 

The T-series is supposed to be the "premier, business" line. This may be a good start: ThinkPad Wiki.

 

I believe the difference to be small and some of it is in the colour balance, with the LG panels bending to be slightly bluer (which one can adjust in the graphics control panel). The puzzling bit is why all the 16:9 900p panels seem to be worse than their 16:10 predecessors.

John

 

thanks! I was thinking about replacing my screen, but I will not mess with this...

unless someone discovers a new IPS screen compatible with the T420s

 

Hi everybody,

I am kind of new to the forum, though I read it since a long time.

Firstly, I'd like to add a "me too" to white spots on the display. I have three near the left side of the display, and they are too far on the left to be caused by the trackpoint.

Secondly, I'd like to kindly ask some help to owners of T420s who still experience excessive fan noise on light workloads. The fan issue is reported here:
Re: T420s Fan noise Issue - Page 87 - Lenovo Community
and it seems to be far from being fixed, at least for some users (including me). This is rather annoying, since my fan is stuck at 4000 RPM for long periods of time, upsetting me and people at the library or at work.

I've started an online petition to convince Lenovo's tech support that the issue should be prioritised. If you feel like helping, pop up here:
https://www.change.org/petitions/le...fan-noise-issue-that-affects-t420s-thinkpads#

PS: I read the forum rules and I didn't find a rule that forbids petitions against issues with manufacturers. If I am wrong, please tell me as soon as possible and I'll edit my post, leaving only the part about the spots. Hope I didn't get it wrong.

Cheers,
Alessandro

 

Received a new T420s with i7 & Intel 160GB SSD. I have a Samsung-Screen.

 

Most people find it easier to install TPfancontrol rather than try to get lenovo to change its ways. Use the version here because it is said to work better with the new EC.

I can't see a problem with this.

John

 

Thanks for the suggestion John, I am currently working around the fan noise issue using software solutions, I just refuse giving up asking for a real fix. It is clear that the BIOS control algorithm has room for improvements, since the fan spins and spins even when the laptop is icy cold, that' why am I asking Lenovo's tech support to give it a better try

Alessandro

 

Well, my two-month-old T420s's motherboard seems to have failed. I'm pretty disappointed, as the biggest reason I went ahead and shelled out as much money as I did for a T-series Lenovo was for reliability.

The part is apparently on back-order, so there's nothing speedy with the on-site warranty.

Yeah...disappointed pretty much sums it up. Very disappointed.

 

I agree that it's daft.The effectiveness of the cooling system drops as the CPU approaches ambient temperature. Maybe Lenono have icy-cold development labs where their settings work fine. I also understand that while high temperatures are not good for the longevity of electronics, big and frequent temperature variations are also not good for their health. That's why my fan goes off at 55C.

That's an interesting situation. perhaps ask for a replacement machine. Big companies would stand for the next day warranty meaning nothing because Lenovo don't have spare parts.

John

 

I corrected "wouldn't".

Big companies don't have to deal with this because they stock parts for them. It is pretty outrageous that everyone else has to put up with this. It's also the reason I only pay for base warranty extensions.

 

Well all manufacturers are at the mercy of parts. Next business day just means they will come to your home next business day...if they don't have parts how are they going to repair your unit. That being said, you can complain to customer service if it's been 6+ weeks for your primary work machine being down.

 

I believe I have the on site but not the next day on site, so that is not my complaint. It does suck not knowing when the part will come in, though. It being out makes me wonder if this is a common problem. If I did have the next day warranty and were in the same boat I would be even more annoyed.

The machine was working until two days ago, so it hasn't been 6 weeks or I would be streaming mad rather than merely disappointed! Still, you expect a new machine to work, particularly a fairly high end machine! I always looked at the price premium as being about reliability.

Thankfully, I recently bought a tablet, which can replace at least some functionality of the laptop and is portable.

 

t420s have an option for 160GB SSD, anyone know what exact model of SSD it is?

 

I bought mine in October and it was an Intel.

 

It's an Intel 320. Mine was built end of January.

 

It's an Intel 320.

Week and a half now, motherboard still "back-ordered". I'm getting pretty annoyed at this point.

 

Hey Everyone I've run into a couple weird issues with my T420s.

My computer is running really hot, (between 60-70 degrees with no programs open, etc.) Also it says my CPU is running around 50% load even though my RAM is only running at 25%.

Because of this my battery life is sucking (around 3 hours)

When I open the task manager I have around 109 processes running, which doesn't seem much more than usual?

Any insight?

 

Did you sort the processes by CPU usage to see which process is eating up all of your CPU time? What happens if you kill that process? That should help you isolate the rogue program...

 

Start | Run | Resmon

Once resmon is up and running, you should be able to identify where the resources are getting used and allow you to focus on the problem.

 

Out of curiosity I tried to rerun my WEI and it failed this time, having been OK previously.
I have updated with new drivers from Lenovo released since about 20 Dec 2011, can't remember specifically all of them, but included BIOS, video, Intel AMT. Have also installed Intel's SSD toolbox as well. Other than that, all other things are the same.

The error i get is: winsat\main.cpp:4736: ERROR: Unable to save validated results.
My machine is T420s, i5-2540, 8Gb RAM, 160Gb SSD, HD integrated graphics

Anyone know why this could be?

I know this is not specifically a T420s question, so let me know if I should be posting this elsewhere.

 

This seems to be a rare error that can happen to anyone. Some possible things to try here and here.

John

 

The logs are written to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore

Are you out of disk space?

 

I have 85Gb free space.

Thanks, i will try these and let you know.


The other thing i thought of is that I have played around with services, to speed up the boot, but i haven't disabled any services. And right now actually I have a lot of services booting automatically.

 

Right click SD (D: ) crashes explorer.exe in Windows 7. (Used to also crash Power Manager too, but not since the latest Lenovo update)

Weird that it works just fine when right clicking under "Computer", I can access the drive just fine. Anybody else with t420s experiencing this?

 

That sounds like an Explorer extension is crashing. Extensions to explorer are routinely added by products that work with files like archivers (Winzip), ftp utils (FileZilla), or backup/recovery (Acronis True Image).

Do you have something like that installed?

 

I've been looking through the forums to answer my question, but I'm still unsure about something;

I have been loving my T420s (i7 2.70/8gb ram/SSD 120gb/optimus) and in particular the SSD, but I would like more space. I want to keep the ultrabay battery because I spend a lot of time unplugged, so I thought my only option would be getting a larger SSD (like a crucial) to replace my 120 gb and try to recover some cost from the 120 by reselling.

Having said that I have a vague sense that I can have a second mSATA ssd (and keep my 120 gb intel one installed) such that I have more storage without using the ultrabay for a drive. Is this true? If so, does anyone know what mSATA drives will be compatible? I'm looking for something that's at least another 120 gb, if such a drive exists.

Anyhow, would be grateful if anyone knows or has tried this if they could let me know!

 

Yes, the T420s supports mSATA drives, but it makes more sense to get the mSATA drive, then pick up a platter drive for the main bay where speed isn't as important. I have the Intel 80GB mSATA drive and Hitachi Z5K500 GB in the main bay on my X220. It works quite well.

 

Thanks John, had a read of them and tried them. Cleared the datastore directory, and i have the latest BIOS (one of the things I updated since the last time WEI worked).
Also uninstalled the Intel SSD Toolbox as thats the only thing I've installed since it last worked.
Unfortunately my WEI still doesn't work.

Any other ideas?

 

I can't think of anything more - it must be an obscure bug in Windows. Forget about WEI and try using another benchmark program such as SiSoftware Sandra. Maybe you will find in a month or two that WEI has fixed itself.

John

 

Thanks John. I'm actually not really that fussed about the benchmarks per se - the machine itself works fine. As well as you mentioning to run it a few times, I was rechecking it as i read in a post somewhere that running it helps Windows 7 know you have an SSD, which I have. My laptop uses our standard company image (not a clean install or a Lenovo image), and is not optimised for SSDs. The defrag is disabled, and the drive speed is 0, so I'm pretty sure Windows knows its an SSD.
This all was stemming from my boot times being a bit slower that the norm (around 36s - 45s now), but we also use full disk encryption and have some other enterprise software as well to slow things down.

 

Can you install Soluto? It will show what takes the time during the boot process.

John

 

Have you checked the permissions at C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore
and all permissions inherited above that?

 

The problem of WEI reassessment failing/freezing has been observed after Windows 7 SP1. After a new device (such as SSD and graphics card) is installed, Windows does not seem able to "cope" and gets "stuck." Drivers may be parts of the problem. Deleting the XML files in WinSAT\DataStore should have helped, but now even that doesn't help.

In any event, the system works fine, sans WEI values...

 

Yes I have installed updated drivers since the last time it worked. Agree the machine works fine, but its always nice to know that everything functions properly, even if its not crucial

The permissions are set to read only for the whole Windows directory. Changed the winsat dir, but still didn't work. Noticed on a reboot, permissions get set back to read only again. I've never manually changed permissions in the Windows dir

Have tried Soluto, but realised it sends info back to them, and didn't have time to check what's getting sent back exactly. So i removed it for that reason. However there wasn't much in the boot that wasn't required. Some stuff could be delayed, like VPN, but most other stuff was taking 0.1, 0.2s. I have made the conscious decision to have all network related stuff up and ready (Ethernet, Wifi and 3G) just in case i need to switch to it straight away. Nothing like having a partner breathing down your neck to get something sent. At the end of the day its a few seconds extra boot time versus a few minutes after the boot

 

My T420s just died. Will not boot, does not even get to the BIOS. Was 4 months old and had a relatively easy life compared to my previous Thinkpads.
On the Lenovo support forums, reps are saying they are they are having motherboard issues with this model. Yep disappointed as well.

Well that solves the WEI issue for the moment...

 

That's bad news. I don't recall many sudden T420s deaths being reported here.

I assume that you have done the usual remove mains cable and battery and hold down the power button for 30 seconds.

I had an anxious moment last week when I rebooted my T420s and it claimed that the SSD had disappeared. I turned it off and did the above reset and since everything has been OK.

John

 

Yes have tried that. Have even left it for over an hour, but still the same.
It goes in to some sort of cycle, as lights flash, then all turns off, then turns on again, and through the same cycle.
Over on the Lenovo forums, in the last few months there's been a few people reporting dead T420s's, with similar symptoms. One guy was saying he had a batch of 12, with 3 DOA, and another failing within a few weeks.

 

For reference purposes, here's the word from Lenovo on this issue. Sounds bad. I wonder what they aren't telling us.

Re: T420s Green Light - No Display - Motherboard F... - Page 3 - Lenovo Community

 

I had a wierd moment a few days ago, when i did a complete shutdown for the evening, with the battery at 100%. I unplugged it overnight, and the next morning, plugged it back in, booted up, and the battery was at 9%.
Noone else in my family would have used it as i was the last to go to bed. Was very strange.

On a different note, i managed to get almost 4.5 hours out of it on battery the other day, with wifi on and mainly powerpoint. Power usage was down to 7W. I changed no settings, have full aero on etc. Was pleasantly surprised as never got to 4 hours before, and never seen 7W, lowest before was 8W+. Had updated to the latest Lenovo Power Manager, so not sure if thats made a difference.

 

Yes that's what i've been reading. There are a few other posts as well reporting the same thing. One guy's symptoms was exactly the same as mine.

 

I am still waiting for the on-site repair. I would have called and complained several times if I weren't just too busy. Not having my laptop does not help with productivity, either. I was really happy with my Thinkpad, but now I am really starting to dislike Lenovo. I feel like they were happy to supply parts in exchange for money, but now they are stalling on standing by the product post-sale. Do you think there is a shortage of motherboards for new Thinkpad purchases? My bet is no.

Three weeks now with no functioning laptop. Soon it will be half as long as the thing was actually working.

 

Yes its hard without a laptop. Been using google docs in the meantime and thats been painful.

I was really happy with the T420s as well. It really does meet all my requirements. I'm fortunate in that it was a work machine, so i have a replacement shipped to me by IT already.

IT was saying that they have a number of dead T420s's, and that Lenovo don't argue/resist when he returns them. They just replace them. They wont admit that there is a problem with this model, as that would open them up to the liability of replacing every one of them, but they know there's a problem with it.

When our company was replacing the laptops, the new machines were coming in dribs and drabs, a few at a time, as opposed to the box load previously. So the sense was they are having supply chain issues along the line.

 

I also know for a fact that, like any other manufacturer, Lenovo also is depending on Intel. There always is a point in time where Intel will stop producing CPUs in order to avoid being stuck with overstock themselves. That makes that Intel themselves will put a certain CPU model to EOL (end-of-life).

At that point you will see new orders being declined or reduced by Intel, leaving it up to the vendors to mitigiate in their procurememt of replacement parts. That has always been a delicate balance within the supply chain and I must say that even as a dealer it has sometimes caused me to be put in situation where either orders for new machines or for replacement parts suddenly got cancelled as a result of this.

Knowing Lenovo I have no doubt that whatever the situation at hand with those T420s mainboards, it will be sorted eventually. Their policy of simply swapping units for corporate uses also demonstrates that. The defective units will end up being refurbished and will be sold off is my experience.

 

Hi,

(I'm new at this particular forum, but couldn't find anything related in the search - apologies if I've missed something.)

I just got my t420s, and I'm looking to add ram. Easy enough. 1 4gb dimm is there, I'll just buy another one. They run close to $20. I'll enable dual channel ram for some performance increase and get the extra ram.

But, I see that 8gb sodimms cost about $60 (on sale). For $120, I could replace both modules, and have 16gb. It seems that this is supported.

But, I was wondering if I could go half way so to speak. Can I use my exisitng 4gb module and add an 8 gb module for 12 gb total? Are the unmatched pairs going to cause instability issues?

Thanks.

 

Yes, you can have 4GB + 2GB, 4GB + 4GB, 4GB + 8GB, as the two sticks don't have to be of the same size. (In simplest terms, if the two sticks are of equal size, they run in synchronous dual-channel mode; if they are of different sizes, they run in asynchronous dual-channel mode.)

There are no instability issues. The Lenovo config pages show the option "6GB shared dual-channel, 2 DIMMs" quite often. (Those two DIMMs are "unmatched" as there are no 3GB sticks. )

 

I realized that they sold 6gb as unmatched. I guess I was curious if 8gb modules are any different.

Any sense of the speed difference between single channel, asynchronous and synchronous modes?

My thought on 12 GB was mostly future proofing for an extra $40. On my now retired x300, 4gb was occasionally not enough. Following that same history, I'm guessing 8gb will occasionally not be enough in 2-3 years. But if 8gb is going to be faster (though smaller) than 12, I might be better off with 8 for now.

 

When doing upgrades, I always purchase pairs in kits.

Synchronous dual-channel is always the preferred mode. In the other two cases, there is a "slight hit" in performance (I have no quantitative data to offer), but as most people say, "better to have more memory than less."

8GB would be plenty for most applications.