Thinkpad Ultrabook T430u

I see what you are getting at. i went into BIOS, and switched the boot drive order so that my hard drive boots after the first, then i went into windows and turned off express cache. leaving the hard drive out when you load windows sets the msata as the primary drive, and therefore when you add the HDD it detects it as a second drive ( but then never shuts it off). im probably gunna end up going back to hdd is my main drive, but am just wondering what people are getting for battery life with it as the main drive coupled with the msata as cache.

 

Haven't been closely tracking it but it seems like I'm getting over 5 and probably closer to 6 hours running down to 7% remaining. Screen brightness set at 8. Mostly web, email, word processing. As I write this I'm at 92% and Lenovo Battery says I have 5:23 remaining; I have been web browsing from 99% for about 45 minutes.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the way the express cache methodology 'learns' my frequent program usage. E.g. Firefox now usually loads completely in 3-5 seconds.

Edit: Haven't been keeping a hard clock on it, but I'm now at about 4.5+ hours usage on this same charge (remaining time on sleep) and according to Lenovo Battery I have 25% (1:35) remaining.

 

This cracked me up...

 

Yay for lead_org

 

Your experience matches mine...

 

Does anybody know how the warranty works? It says there is a Lenovo repair depot at my school's computer store. Do I just take it to them directly? My right hinge is still squeaking and the bezel creaks when pressed, which shouldn't happen since my left hinge is solid as a rock. I heard that hinges are not covered under Lenovo warranty, does anybody have some insight on that? Also what would my school's technicians do, take the screen apart and lubricate the joints?

 

I haven't bought a Thinkpad in a few years, but here's my 2cents on the squeaky hinge: You might want to try some silicon lubricant to stop the hinge from squeaking. If you get the silicon lubricant in a spray can you can tape paper towels to the area around the hinge to absorb any over-spray. You don't want to use anything petroleum based, especially WD-40, as that would be bad for plastic or rubber component.

As for creaks in the bezel. That's a tough one to try and diagnose without seeing it. If you are able to take the bezel apart, you may be able to put it back together so it doesn't squeak. That's something I don't have any first hand experience in though.

 

I'm just wondering if they will cover it under warranty, cause this computer is barely a week old. I do not feel safe opening my laptop.

 

the hinge should be covered under warranty!

 

Just some info in case someone needs it regarding the BIOS for updates: My T430u came with Windows 7. I wanted to update the BIOS so I could upgrade the memory on it (and have it work at that) and went to upgrade the BIOS with the Windows 7 BIOS update utility. However, it reported that my BIOS was newer than what was going to be applied and asked if I wanted to continue (Of course I said no). I forgot about that until today (got new memory) and decided to try the Windows 8 BIOS update utility...it worked perfectly fine and updated my BIOS to the newer one from December.

TL;DR
Use the Windows 8 BIOS update utility even if your T430u came with Windows 7.

 

I seem to be having so many issues with my T430u

So I have an external hard drive permanently plugged in. When I turn off the computer, I noticed the external hard drive light is still on.

The next morning when I turn on the computer, it boots into a blank screen. I would have to force it to shut down, and boot it again for it to load into Windows. I'm guessing this has something to do with the USB port and it being 'always on'. Is anyone else experiencing this issue, and is there a fix that allows me to keep my hard drive plugged in, yet make it boot into Windows the first time, instead of waiting for it to go into a blank screen?

 

I was looking through the 430u users guide the other day looking for info on whether either of the USBs has an always on feature and I couldn't find anything about it. I haven't seen a toggle for it in any of the power settings either. Haven't looked in the bios settings, so you might look there. I don't recall the marketing write-ups claiming it had an always on USB.

Or I suppose you could just eject and unplug the external drive before shutting down. If the computer's turned off the drive won't be doing anything hooked up to it anyway.

 

You can turn off 'always on' feature in bios in case of you want to diagnose your problem is related to it or not. Anyway, it's kind of weird to have this problem. Have you checked a boot device order?

 

Really think Lenovo made a strategic positioning and marketing error by not placing this product in the Edge series, where it could be positioned as that series' top end flagship business ultrabook. I think it would have received a lot of attention and positive press offered in that context. Instead, this product is the poor step-child of the TP T-series, clearly inferior to virtually every other TP offering and unworthy of distinction or attention as a true TP product.

I don't say any of this to disparage the product. I happy with it for what it is and but for the mediocre display think it's a terrific laptop for the price. I'm just saying that putting it at the bottom of the T-series instead of the top of the Edge series was a bad business decision.

 

So I tested this the past few days, and it seems to have worked. I left the 'always on' feature on, and removed the external hard drive from the boot device order completely (previously, I put it way at the bottom). So far so good, thanks!

Always great to have a community here to help each other out, since Lenovo's tech support through the phone is pretty useless.

 

So I wanted to pop in an extra ram in my T430u.

I opened the single keyboard screw at the back, and then attempted to "slide" the keyboard up (as said in the manual) I applied much much more force than I was comfortable with but the keyboard still didn't give at all.

Any advice guys?

 

there is two screws that holds the keyboard.

 

I was told it's "the best ThinkPad ever."

 

It is the best Thinkpad Edge ever. Lead_org was spot on -- it is an excellent value product, which is how it should be viewed.

 

One thing to check, have you removed all the screws that hold the battery in? I upgraded my T430U recently and intially I thought just disabling the battery and removing the one screw marked as holding the keyboard would be fine, but has the same problem with the keyboard not giving. Once I removed all the screws holding the battery it was fine, easy to push forward and lift off for access to the memory slots.

 

Don't know if this problem is specific to the 430u but it's been bugging me and I can't find a solution: When the laptop charging in sleep mode it wakes from sleep when charging is complete and I can't figure out why or how to stop it. Wake timers are set to disable. USB mouse, keyboard and all network connections are all disabled (unchecked) from waking the computer. I don't see any other power options that appear related to this. Anyone know why the laptop is self-waking when the battery reaches full charge? Thanks.

Edit: Found that setting the battery to stop charging at 99% mitigates this problem.

Edit x2: Not so much. Problem has recurred.

 

@Robisan,

i think there is an issue with the T430u bios firmware. There is another problem with the T430u, if you switch on the Thinklight and then shut the lid, the thinklight does not automatically shutoff and stays on.

 

If this is an issue with the T430u bios firmware then presumably others should be seeing the same behavior, however I haven't seen it mentioned here or elsewhere. Anyone else here seeing this? (the laptop charging in sleep mode wakes from sleep when charging is complete.)

 

So I've had the laptop for a month now. It just seems to me that the SSD caching (Intel SRT) isn't really making that much of a difference. Anyone else has this issue?

I looked around a lot but couldn't find a tool to change/tweak the SRT settings.

While googling I came upon an SRT console by Intel
http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/...68-V-PRO/asus_p8Z68v_pro_intel_srt_status.jpg
But I couldn't find the console anywhere on the T430u nor for download on the internet.
Is it outdated? Any thoughts?

 

From this thread on Lenovo forums:

It's listed there on my laptop. Doesn't appear to have a "properties" tab that might have options.

 

Nice response man

 

Your question made me curious if there were any settings/options for this so I spent a few minutes looking around. ExpressCache seems to be working for me. The two programs I use with great frequency (Firefox and Word) now load very quickly, usually around 2-5 seconds. Intrasession reopening of these previously used programs is especially fast.

 

The drivers available on lenovo's support website don't seem to be up to date.
I downloaded the driver for Intel 4000 HD from intel's website and my windows experience settings (for graphics) went from 5.9 to 6.5.
Now Need for speed most wanted 2 runs smoothly!!!!!!!!

 

Can you please provide the link for the drivers? I upgraded mine and it bumped only from 5.8.to 5.9. Any more upgrades for performance of the machine. Mine crashes under heavy load when my chrome has a lot of tabs......I need to optimize the performance.

Also, this is my first thinkpad, I would really appreciate if someone would give me pointers on the essentials of a thinkpad in terms of softwares and utilities. I was searching to optimize the battery to limit the charging to 80%, but could not find anything.

 

Lenovo Power Manager (advanced) > Battery tab > Battery Maintenance is where you'll find these options.

 

Thanks Robinson, but I do not see it listed anywhere. I did install the PowerManager drivers long back, but cannot find any application of an option in Lenovo Solution center. Sorry for being sucha noob, but I did try to search it. Any further guidance is truly appreciated.

 

@lead_org and all other thinkpad owners:

Can someone let me know if there are any performance hacks for the machine? Being on a lightViltage processor, I am not expecting it to be a gaming beast, but still expecting it to pack some punch for software development and simulation purposes.

I have removed all visual animations and reset the test to the plain font, which gives me a lil better througput for the UI, but would gladly take something that gives me my graphics back and maintains decent performance levels.

Thanks,
AC

 

Hi

I purchased the T430u in October and since January I am running with W8 Pro with 64Bit.

I would like to upgrade the RAM from 4 GB to 8GB (2 modules of course). After doing some research I found out that not all RAMs are usable with the T430u.

I already read the in depth review from Thinkscopes (it was a great help). Furthermore I installed the BIOS 2.06 on my laptop as well.

Due to my previous experience I am thinking of buying a Corsair or a Crucial RAM. Could you give me some recommendations which exact model I should purchase?

Thank you for your help

 

Lenovo changed the motherboard on my T430u and now windows 8 won't activate! Anyone?

 

I am sure what sort of performance boosting tips i can give you on the T430u.

Regarding RAM, i have only came into problem with the Corsair one, Kingston, Crucial, Samsung, etc are all okay.

Finally, the serial number for the win 8 activation is installed within the motherboard bios, so if they change the motherboard, they would need to update the bios.

 

Click on the Lenovo Battery meter in the taskbar to launch PowerManager.

 

For the millions like me who've been losing sleep over this, I found that setting the battery to stop charging at 99% mitigates this problem.

Edit: Sadly, no this hasn't mitigated the problem, as it has recurred.

 

Am I able to use any RAM from Crucial, Kingston, etc. or are just some types supported?

f.e.: is this Kingston RAM compatible?

Thank you again

 

Call Microsoft, it always does the trick. At least it did for me after Servion changed my motherboard.

 

I do not appear to have this problem... exactly. But it does act differently when on the charger.

My machine won't wake from sleep when it's fully-charged, as you are describing, but it won't ever go into it's deeper sleep mode when plugged in. When not connected to the charger, closing the lid will put it to sleep (the red dot above the i in ThinkPad fades on and off) for a couple hours and then it eventually goes into a deeper sleep--not exactly hibernation, I don't think--until I open it up (the red dot stays off when in this deeper sleep). Being plugged in seems to prevent this deeper sleep. I've never found a setting in the Power Manager to change this.

 

There are two setting locations that control this. In Power Manager > Global Settings tab is a check box to enable "30 Day Standby:"

The setting for deep sleep is in the bios. The default is to deep sleep after three hours. I've changed it to 1/2 hour -- if I'm away that long I'm usually away for awhile. I haven't really focused on whether it deep sleeps while plugged in -- I suspect no given my waking problem.

 

The red dot remains flashing for me (except when it decides to wake itself up). Are you sure you're not going to hibernation?

 

Actually I just checked my PowerManager settings and it's set to never hibernate as a result of the timers... so I'm guessing that it goes into some deep sleep. "Hybrid sleep" is not enabled for either battery or AC use, if that sheds some light (Not really sure what hybrid sleep is, for that matter, and the help screen didn't really elucidate it all that much). I did follow your lead and go into the BIOS to shorten the timer for deep sleep--I dropped mine to 1 hr.

After a while I [think] the red dot still goes out, but I'll keep a more careful eye on it and report back.

 

Adding to the puzzlement ... yesterday life interrupted work so the computer was unexpectedly in sleep mode for about nine hours and when I returned the blinking light had stopped. Opened the lid and it resumed as usual from sleep.

 

And after checking mine, my red light stopped blinking too, overnight some time after I shut the lid (not plugged in). When I opened the lid this morning it resumed like normal, although it took longer than when the red dot is still blinking. I didn't get the "ThinkPad" branding across the screen as you do when coming back from hibernation, so I'm guessing it was just waking up from its deep sleep.

I'd also guess: blinking light='normal' sleep; dot not blinking='deep' sleep, hibernating, or off.

 

Well, it ain't off. I have hibernation disabled and like yours the resume from the non-blinking state doesn't look like a hibernation resume. I see the longer, deep sleep resume time even if the light is blinking as long as sleep has exceeded 30 minutes, so I don't think the stopped blinking represents some super-duper, double-secret probation, deeper sleep. Oh well, it's not that big a deal, just puzzling...

OTOH, I'd really like it to stop waking when I have power connected for an extended period of time. Happened again today... sigh.

 

Well. I saw the same thing on a ThinkPad Twist: After some time, the red light stops blinking. But the same thing happened with the T420´s outside standby LED, after a longer sleep period, its just off. I don´t know why, maybe they want to save energy with this.

 

Good to know it's not just us.

 

Dancing away from the sleep/deep sleep conversation, I've been wondering about disk encryption or at least file encryption.

I need to encrypt a folder on my 320GB spinning hard disk (a couple small spreadsheets and some client notes that I'd like to protect) and I am wondering if there's anything built in to the T430u's basics to facilitate this -- or whether this is only offered on the more industrial-strength models. If so, I'll probably need to go the TrueCrypt software route, as I've got the Home Premium version of Win7 and I think BitLocker is only supplied with the more corporate versions(?). It would sure be convenient to use the fingerprint reader to manage the password access to an encrypted folder.

Any experience or opinions?

TIA, ~drjohn

 

So I'm wanting to use a passive DisplayPort cable with my T430u, but nothing I'm seeing/reading says whether or not the DisplayPort is indeed a DisplayPort++. Anyone know if it is DP++?