Thinkpad T510 Owners lounge

Hi Guys:

I've had mine now for about two weeks or so. My battery won't recharge to 100%. It only goes to 96%. I know that batteries wear over time but to lose 4% this quickly worries me. Should this give me cause for concern? Should I get Lenov to replace it?

Thanks,
C

 

I just received a T510 with the NVIDIA 3100m Optimus video card and I can't seem to reinstall the graphics drivers on a fresh install of Win 7 x86

I tried Lenovo's drivers, and two different NVidia ones and all of them quit with the message "The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your hardware. Setup will now exit."

I made sure that I was getting the proper win7/32 drivers.

 

It has been solved.

Like I said before, the system came with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed, which means I had to unseal the box and the plastic bag to get to the laptop and after I turned it on, Windows 7 was already there, asking me to introduce a username and a password. It looks like this specific model comes right from the manufacturer with Windows 7 preinstalled. Also I think I was the first to touch it after it came out of the factory door as everything was sealed. As long as Windows was installed by the manufacturer, as all the evidence points out, I would say it looks like an OEM version, don't you think? And I don't live in India.

I had to make a complaint to the local authorities and after that, I received a mail from the store in which they apologized and promised to return the entire sum.

Thank god it's over...

Meanwhile... I saw this HP. What do you think about it when compared to the T510?

 

so I got a t510 with FHD 1080p panel about a month ago and ran into a snag.

It would appear that when i connect a displayport>hdmi adapter to an hdmi cable to either of my hdtvs, it does not show fullscreen (black bars "all" around) and laptop pops up to use recommended resolution of 1680x1050. Tv reports signal at 1080p but it's like it's just not liking it.

What's even more odd, is that if I use a hdmi>dvi cable (my one tv has dvi), it does show fullsceen 1080p.

FYI - dp>hdmi adapter is from bytecc and I have updated all my drivers

any advice/ suggestions are appreciated

thx

 

It depends - if this happens while you leave the charger connected, or if you have the notebook docked, this is not at all cause for concern. The default power profile has been set to optimize battery life - that is, not micro-cycling down to 96%, then charging back up to 100% which would deduct a charge cycle from the battery life. If you remove from power / dock and run it down to 50% for example, it should charge up to 100%.

[ An unrelated power charging quirk: if you run the notebook out of the dock and with no charger down to near zero (4-8%), then dock the notebook, it doesn't charge. I watched it merrily count down to 0% then cut off. I thought it was charging but the indicator was defective. I had to undock the notebook, then connect to the charger to get back to normal operation. ]

 

hey guys, it's been a while since i've posted here, but i'm in the market for a laptop for a family member... of course, the t510 is on super deal right now.

i've included the specs below... the normal price is $1729, on sale for $1039. i would think that the main glaring sub-standard feature might be the processor. this is a family laptop, that doesn't really get used for gaming... am i screwing myself by cheaping out on the processor?

here are the specs i'm considering:
ThinkPad T510 - 1 Year Depot Topseller Warranty
Processor: Intel Core i5-480M Processor (2.66GHz, 3MB L3, 1066MHz FSB)
Operating system: Windows 7 Professional 64
Operating system language: Windows 7 Professional 64 US English
Display type: 15.6" HD+ Anti-Glare Display with LED Backlight and WWAN Antenna
System graphics: NVIDIA NVS 3100m Optimus Graphics with 512MB DDR3 Memory
Total memory: 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard US English
Camera: Camera, 2.0 MP
Hard Drive: 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device: Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader
Battery: 6 cell 2.6Ah Li-Ion Battery - Dual Mode
Power cord: Country Pack North America with Line cord & 90W AC adapter
Bluetooth: Bluetooth w/ antenna
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (2x2 AGN)
Integrated mobile broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
Language Pack: Language Pack US English

 

The processor won't hold you back, if you're using normal office applications or even light gaming. I don't know if it will be a bottle neck with a graphics intensive application. Most likely that would be the graphics card. For most of us that just use it for office and entertainment, it works just fine.

I'll be honest. I couldn't tell the difference in performance from the last three computer upgrades, using office applications. Gaming is a completely different story, although the T510 was built as an office machine. Watching bluray on my T510, the notebook uses the integrated graphics and it works flawlessly.

 

I backed off of the ram, omitted the camera and fingerprint reader, and took the base wifi.

I upped the cpu to an I7 620M, tossed the 2 gig sodimm of the shelf and popped in two 4 gig sticks for about $90usd, and added the ultrabay to house a small ssd I had left over from another project. I bumped the display to the HD+ with discrete graphics as well.

My advice would be to get as much cpu as you can afford and is reasonable at current price levels.

Ram and drives are easy to add later.

 

I agree with this. I have the i540 proc and it's fine, even when I run virtual VMWare machines on it. And I just added a bluray drive, and it does play flawlessly - very nice addition for long trips or something, and useful for certain kinds of backups, too.

 

Uh-oh!
Hello everyone. I have had my i7 T510, discrete graphics with 6cell battery since last Easter holiday (April 2010, that's about 10 months ago now).
Now, I know that ordering this setup is not the way to go for long usage times on battery power, but you would expect at least an hour at this point. AT LEAST!
When I first had the T510 I got around 2 hours of battery life, which is acceptable. But this week, to my horror, I got on the train to find that a full charge will let me work for just 20 minutes!!!
I'm aware that batteries degrade over time, and it all depends on the charging cycles etc etc etc BUT...
.... my old Thinkpad Z60m still gave me a respectable 1 hour of on-battery use after 4 years, so I must have been doing something right with that one, and I use my new TP in exactly the same manner, with the same charge/discharge behaviour.
Here is my theory...
Ever since I got the T510 I was searching for the ThinkVantage settings to control the battery settings and limit degradation, but I could never find them! There are previous messages on this forum discussing that. The battery-management software on the T510 is inferior to that of the Z60m!!!
Is this shenanigans on Lenovo's part? Should I be angry?
Now I guess I will have to buy a replacement battery and find some way to control the charging cycle more closely.
Yours

LennyOvo

 

can anyone help me about adding ram to thinkpad t510?

I removed the back lid, there's something looks like ram slot but I can't raise the slot, so I'm not sure if it is usable. Also I removed the keyboard to look for another slots, but I saw only one slot(and it already has a ram). Heres two photos for under the keyboard and back.

 

No, dont raise the slot, otherwise you will break the silver clip. You just have to raise the RAM. Just insert the RAM at 75-80 degrees (raise the RAM a bit) to the slot, makes sure all the RAM contact have gone to the slot. Don't worry to break the slot, it can accommodate the RAM by this angle.

After that, gently press and lower the RAM towards the silver clip until it snaps.

English is not my mother tongue, hope you understand. Maybe someone can explain it better?

 

@sapibobo: great, thanks..

 

Hi bsod1:

Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread but how did you get Ubuntu to work on the T510? Do all your function buttons work? I was under the impression that Linux didn't support the Nvidia Optimus.

Thanks,
C.

 

I just ordered my new T510 yesterday and am pretty pumped.

i7 620M 2.66 ghz 4mb L3, 1066Mhz
Genuine Windows 7 professional 64
15.6 HD+ Anti- glare and WWAN antenna
NVIDIA NVS 3100m optimus 512 MB ddr3 memory
4 GB PC3 8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067 MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
UltraNav
Camera 2.0 MP
500 GB Hard Disk, 7200 rpm
9 cell
Inet Centrino Ultimate - N6300 (3x3 AGN)

It says it will ship on 3/11/11 but as I have read i am expecting it in the next few weeks. Only concern i have is that this thing will be huge. I had a 14.1 inch t61 and that was fine size wise. I felt i could go bigger and hence went for the t510 over t410. I dont think it will be much bigger. Regardless, i cant wait for it to arrive!

 

check this, may help get rid of blue cast on HD+

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/560355-hd-1600x900-icc-profile-sorted-color.html

 

Sorry for necro-ing this thread, but I joined the ranks of the T510 owners a bit late. Picked up a T510 with a broken screen, replaced it with the full HD screen with no problems. The color on this thing is amazing! Very vivid, very bright!

Question though: my unit came with the NVS 3100, and is supposed to have switchable graphics. The unit only recognizes the Nvidia card and not the Intel IGP. The BIOS doesn't have the option to change graphics settings at all. Am I supposed to have switching graphics, or am I stuck with discrete-only?

 

Do a parts lookup. Early T510's didn't have Optimus.

 

I am having some trouble with color depth on my T510. It has the 3100M graphics card, but the colors on the display appear to have much lower bit-depth than the 32-bit setting that is selected. The issue goes away completely when using the VGA output to a separate monitor. I attempted to take some screenshots for comparison, but realized that the screenshots do not represent the actual pixels on my display. As a phantom, I'm looking at the gray margins in a blank Word doc. I can count clearly 13 bars of gray getting darker towards the bottom of the display. I can take a screenshot of that, but when the file is saved, and displayed on my VGA monitor, the bars go away and I see the smooth transitionfrom color to color.

So it seems there is some kind of compression of the image data just before the pixels are mapped to the display. Does anyone know what might cause this? I've installed the latest nvidia drivers, and the nvidia control panel only has the drop-down color menu that is set at 32-bit. I see this effect in the default win7 background, as well as any applications incl games that are running.

If there is another thread discussing this, please link, I was unable to find an answer by searching.

Thanks a lot!

- Paul

Spoiler

T510:


VGA monitor:


T510 windows background:

 

Update your drivers; some versions of the NVidia drivers had horrible dithering.

 

I get similar dithering on mine, and I have the FHD display. It may be an issue with the display. If that's the case, try contacting Lenovo support about it and see if they can swap the display.

If you're out of warranty, then try removing the NVIDIA drivers and run with the Windows Update drivers. If that doesn't do it, uninstall the MS drivers and install the Lenovo ones from System Update.

 

My Thinkpad T510 died after 2 years or relatively light use... Obviously my warranty has already expired.

Here is what my problem is: it restarts before it gets to Windows or it restarts as soon as I get to the Windows 7 login screen. I tried installing a couple of versions of Linux and Windows XP on it, it restarts during the installation of each one of those. For linux, it restarts before it completes the live CD boot. For windows XP, it restarts when there is about 30 minutes left in the installation (during the driver installation/configuration). I opened it up and made sure that all components are plugged in correctly... I think that one of the components is failing on me. I tried unplugging the hard drive, the DVD-ROM and the SD Card reader, but that didn't help.

Also, I bought and added a 2nd 4 GB RAM stick. Now my configuration has 8 GB of RAM. So I tried installing/booting with just the new stick and then just the old stick. That didn't help.

Anything else I can do? It won't load any operating system. Before this happened, it used to load Windows 1 out of 10 times. So 9 times it would restart before I can login, but 1 time it would login and work for days (without restarting).

All of my components are recognized during BIOS boot: all 8 GB of memory, hard drive, dvd-rom etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

It could be an overheating issue. If you feel confident enough, you could redo the thermal paste on the CPU heatsink.

Check the connection of the hard drive to the laptop, maybe there is an issue there. My bet is still on overheating, though.

 

Also try to clean out the fan with some compressed air.

And run a memtest ( Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool) Take out all your RAM and then install 1 at a time and run the test. Let it complete at least 1 pass, or run it overnight. This will tell you if it's bad RAM.

 

Yes, I can re-apply thermal paste on the CPU heatsink. I think that one of my components is failing, because it fails at the same spot during Windows XP install and same spot during Linux Live CD boot up.

I've done MemTest on both memory sticks for about 12 hours each and I couldn't find any problems. Also, I tried doing Live CD bootup without my hard drive and it still restarted.

How can I figure out of my Motherboard has a problem?

UPDATE:
I did some more testing and I'm sure that my HDD and my RAM are all good. After some tweaking with the Linux boot settings I am able to install and run Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon with the "nolapic" parameter set. So basically I'm running on i5 1st gen, but I'm using only 1 of the cores... All of my hardware is recognized so far. But the performance takes a hit.

I don't know how to install Windows 7 with a similar "nolapic" parameter....

 

bump... bump bump

 

It just sounds like something is going bad. Try to Google for "Lenovo Diagnostics". Looks like there's a CD you could burn. If that won't even run, you might be out of luck, or you'll need to find a laptop repair shop and pay them to fix it.

 

Good idea. I found the Bootable CD for Lenovo Diagnostics, I'll test that out tonight.

Honestly, I would rather buy a new laptop than spend the money to repair this one.

 

Could it be the CPU? that's malfunctioning?

 

It's possible, but during my CPU stress testing it worked fine. I can run linux for a while without any restarts, so it can't be overheating. I checked the temperatures too.

Initially, my issue was getting into Windows. It was restarting multiple times before it would allow me to login to Windows 7. Once it was logged in, it would work for days without restarts (I was putting it to sleep between uses). Recently it wouldn't boot to the login screen at all. Once, I left it on for a couple of hours to see if it will eventually get stable on the login screen, but it just kept on rebooting. lol. Then I tried reinstalling Windows 7 (it won't even load properly from the installation DVD, it would restart the laptop midway through loading. I've tested the DVD and I know that it works.) and I tried installing various versions of linux (the laptop would restart during live CD boot and during linux installation).

Now it works with that "nolapic" option on. I still need to test out the Lenovo boot CD Diagnostics. It's a bizarre issue... I opened the laptop a couple of times and I couldn't see any burns or anything weird on the motherboard.

 

Hey,

Is T510 supported by Lenovo Diagnostics CD? According to this page Lenovo Diagnostics (Bootable CD) - Desktops / Notebooks / Workstations / Servers T510 is not supported... I mean it may be, but I don't see it in that list...

Can anyone confirm this, please?

PS: I have a similar situation, looks like it's faulty system board...

Thanks.

 

I guess you're right... Since I saw Thinkpads in there, I kind of assumed that it's supported. I'll test it tonight for sure!

oct, I've been looking to buy a board, but most of them are over 200 bucks...

P.S_1: Using nolapic seems to make my computer pretty slow even when I just use it for browsing. If I have several tabs open in Chrome that deal with flash/shockwave and the CPU use goes to 100%...

P.S_2: For some reason page 69 wouldn't open, until I made a dummy post. lol So I had to update my post

 

Hi, I found very good price for old T510i (i3 370m , just integrated graphics) with hd screen. i HAVE from past upgrades spare auo 95% gamut screen (as I know it is used originally in t and w lenovo series). Can I put it WITHOUT cable replace??? tkanks

 

Yes.

-10characters

 

I bought a used T510 with dedicated Nvidia NVS graphics. Does anyone know how to get the GPU temperature reading? I'm running Furmark GPU stress test on it but the temperature keeps showing 0 degree even at 99% GPU load. Core Temp shows 0 degree as well. Thanks!

 

Hello,

few weeks ago I noticed that my touchpad cover started to wear off (the matte paint started to peel off and reveal some shiny areas on it), so I searached for somekind of solution and today I found in ebay spare surfaced touchpad covers for few bucks.

The question is: can I relly on them to last at least one year of heavy usage (I mean, everyday for >5 hours of usage)?
And one more: is there any difference between T510 touchpad cover and T520 touchpad cover (except that T510's have two lines which indicate vertical and horizontal scrolling areas)? Because I find two types of covers - clear without those lines(just like T520) and with these lines(T510).

Thanks in advance!

 

From what I know, these are fully intechangeable.