Thinkpad x20x (s/t/i) Owners Thread

Nope. I was saying if you have a second SATA port, use it. If you don't use an external through USB.

 

@gibi: I have no idea what your problem with the X201 is, but I use Magic Disc on Windows 7 Pro x64 on the dell laptop below (my X201 is on order...) and it works fine.

 

I've now ordered the ThinkPad X201i 3323 NUSLFMN:

• Intel Core i3 330M / 2.13 GHz
• 2GB RAM
• 250GB 5400RPM HDD
• Bluetooth
• Mobile Internet Support
• 6 Cell Battery
• TouchPad
• WebCam

They don't specify exactly what wireless is in it, unfortunately, but it supports B,G, and N. Hopefully it'll live up to my expectations!

 

Hi,guys

Finally I got my X201 yesterday. Honestly this configuration is far from perfect, but to me it's perfect. So far everything is fine, and I like it a lot!

Just one Q, how to backup the operating system? I think there are two options: 1 from windows, 2 from lenovo software. What is difference?

 

Congrats on your new system, You know i think Thinkpad's ultraportable laptops has the best resell value of all laptops. If your thinkpad works great out of the box, then it will usually last you 4-5 years at least.
Any noise at all? HDD clicking...or CPU whine??
About back up...i dont think you can just back up the windows alone, you have to back up the windows + all preinstall software as well. I just go to Lenovo Thinkvantage tool from start menu then select Factory Recovery Disks...you need 5-7 dvd disks...
Cheers...
Oh! the differents, i think windows option is just backing up DATA, while lenovo's option let you to back up whole system's image.

 

Thank you very much, Utopian3. I do appreciate that!
I can hear some tiny sound like fan or hard disk running, but I am not quite sure about its source. I don't think it is a so called noise.
So far everything(performance, temperature, noise...)is fine, I am not picky and I think I am lucky too.
At same time I want to buy some accessories, such as USB DVD burner, 9-cell battery and a ruggy sleeve. Which brand will u recommend? Is there anything should I do?
Thanks

 

I have got a X201i with a product code of NUSLFMS, which is I think the same that you got, except this one is sold for Sweden and Finland, whilst yours is for Norway? I would guess it has to be pretty much the same, except maybe the keyboard.

Anyway, mine came with the Intel 6200-N wireless, so I am guessing that is what you will get also.

 

Most likely, yes. I expect mine to arrive towards the end of next week, so I guess I'll find out then!

 

A rugged laptop case, a tank protects another tank. I like that, you know buying a good $50 bag to protect a $1000-$2000 investment is needed. Friend of mine damage his T400 once because the strips of his laptop case broke. The T400 corner broke and screen dead.
I type rugged laptop sleeve on google search and found most of the better looking sleeve are make specifically for mac book. Good luck for the search and please report back!
I have decided to keep the X201, i found the clicking noise are actually from the 500gb seagate HDD. The cpu whine noise has disappear??. And i return the X100e instead and replaced by another X201. I am sure my mom will fight for the second X201.
Cheers
Oh! these two case i like but they are made for macbook, dont know if they fit a thinkpad.
Hard laptop cases and hard laptop sleeves by booq
AND...
Slappa hardbody case

 

Thanks a lot, how about USB DVD burner, any advice about brands?

 

I really don't see a need for a special laptop case. Maybe the T400 was weak, I don't know, but my T60 has never needed a case and has taken bad falls (off the top of a fridge, off the hood of a car) WHILE IN USE (and thus no case could have saved it). If it can do that while in use, I'd think whatever briefcase you're already using should be fine for a laptop with an endoskeleton roll cage.

I ordered an X201 on 5/20. Est ship date is 6/10, and it still says "in process"
i5-520M (wanted the edge in battery life over the 540M)
Win 7 64bit
12.1 WXGA 3x3 antenna with the N6300 wifi card
4gb
320gb 7200rpm
9 cell batt
touchpad
$917.20.

 

Well, the best fit for my x201 seems to be the cases made for the 13" Macbook Pro. However, I was only looking at neoprene sleeves, not a whole case. The purpose of the sleeve is so I can toss it into on of my Timbuk2 messenger bags (I have two, in different sizes), or for extra padding in my photo backpack (which has a laptop pocket) or my Pacsafe bag, which also ahs a laptop pocket. I don't feel like I need to be nearly as protective of this laptop as I did with my old HP tx2000, which died an early death a couple of weeks ago when the motherboard finally fried at only 2.5 years old. This is partially due to the fact that I know it's a tougher machine, but also because I got the 3 year ADP plan, so it's not really a fair comparison.

 

Congratulations, it is a really good price, does it include tax?

Finally I found this case/sleeve for my x201, it fits perfectly.
I bought it just for in case...

 

No, doesn't include tax. I didn't include tax because it's different in every state, and tax isn't Lenovo's fault. With tax it came out to $963.06.

They were running a 20% off coupon for 3 days this week (it's over now). I had called the phone number to ask a question, and I told the guy "well since I took up your time, and I know you're on commission, I might as well put the order in through you." He ran some numbers and gave me a price (I forget exactly, but ~$1300), and I said "well, on the website I've got $887.20" (this was before I had decided to get the 9 cell) and his response was "No way! With these specs? Are you sure?" Then I told him how - get the one that comes with the ultrabase, deselect the ultrabase, and apply the 20% coupon. When he priced it he said "wow."

Looks like you and I have pretty much the same specs. Great minds think alike!

 

Good job,you are really smart!

haha

 

I said the same when I saw the price on that one (I ordered mine, but it cost quite a bit more in tax )

edit: Mine didn't say anything but "in process" until it said "shipping"

edit2: My original ship date was 6/7, so if yours follows mine, it should be shipping sometime this week.

 

Ah, cool. For some reason I remembered "in process" being the stage before they actually get to the assembly stage, but either my memory is fault or something changed within the last few years.

 

Same here. I'd like advice on a good external optical drive for the x201.

 

Years ago (I'd say about 5 years probably) I bought an HP DVD burner, primarily for the Lightscribe feature. It's still going strong.

 

Same here. I was looking at Newegg - there are a few popular brands from Asus and Samsung but they're all just so damn ugly (usb powered models).

Asus has a BD combo drive (SBC-06D1S-U) and it's nicely priced, but it again is so damn ugly.

I'm stumped.

 

I got my X201 - i540 today and I love it.

The only issue that I see is that the 6 Cell battery does not fit tight and wobbles a bit on one end .
Is anyone experiencing the same problem? Any advice?

Thanks..

 

Any reason not to get the Lenovo portable DVD drive? I ordered along with my ThinkPad and the coupon I used on my computer worked on it as well. Seems to be Ok to me, and less expensive than many of the other brands.

 

There are some nice looking portable drives. I like the clean look of these: LaCie - Mobile DVD±RW.

Their color doesn't match my ThinkPad, but I only use the drive when I repave which is once or twice a year.

 

Yes, mine wobbles as well...but I suspect all X20x owners have the same problem and is a design issue.

Here's a youtube video of it.

I've read some have tried using electrical tape to tighten the gap. Not sure if it woks or not.

 

Take a look at the Samsung External Slim DVD-W USB Compatible with Mac and PC SE-S084C/RSWN at Amazon, the review is ok and the price is really reasonable.

 

I've had my X201 for a week and have been playing around with some different SSD's in it. I originally put a Vertex LE in there and noticed some issues where the laptop would freeze intermittently. I haven't had that issue while using the Intel or Vertex (non-LE). I'd be interested in others benchmarks using this notebook and SSD's. Below are my benchmarks. Each drive was HDDerased and then imaged with the same image.

Based off of my results, even though I don't have one yet, I think the Intel 160GB is the best drive for this notebook.

 

Yes, we all have that. My father's T400 (we are a family of thinkpad addicts ) also wobbles as well.

Btw, I have the X201 (3249-2EU) for 15 days now and I really like it.

[']s

 

And now it has shipped (well, I got a shipment notification e-mail anyways, but the online status checker has not been updated).
EDIT: online status now updated to reflect that it has been shipped. w00t

 

hi, all x201 new owners, congratulations to all us for owning such an amazing laptop!
How can u back up your operating system?
Which brand is your favorate for external optical driver?

Thanks

 

You could clone the disk using Clonezilla?

 

I think he's talking about backing up the OS by itself. I know there are many ways to back up the entire drive (I actually like Rescue & Recovery, call me crazy), but I don't know how to back up just the OS.

 

If you want just the OS why not just do a fresh install?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/mic...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

 

What really bothers me with the battery wobble is that its not just the in/out but also the up/down...for example when you lift the laptop up from resting on a hard surface, you can hear and feel the battery drop down and vice versa.

 

Sorry to hear about that.

First, I think they can not fit to each other tightly and closely. There should be at least tiny space between them in order to prevent over inflation under hot environment, which means every machine can not avoid this kind of "wobble".

Secondly, there is no perfect laptop, and every laptop has it's own characteristic. If you can live with some cons, that means you are lucky enough and you can still make a lot of fun from it. Otherwise try to fix it or find some methods to make you more comfortable(i.e return etc).

By the way, you will feel satisfied when you call customer service to buy something. But when you want to debate or exchange, especially return, it is really another story.

Good luck to everyone.

 

Can you take a photo to show us. If the situation is bad. you should call customer service to exchange the battery. Is a new purchase, they shouldnt give you trouble as long as its within 21 days.

 

I was actually wondering about that. Part of making a laptop that works in 140F ambient temps is making a laptop that has gaps at 70F. I wonder if this is another one of those assumed-errors that has a good reason (like the bowed screen casings)

 

Probably......

 

I got my x201s yesterday.

i7-640LM, 4GB, 128G SSD (Toshiba).

Fan - rarely on.. and quiet when it is. Runs very cool.

Things to note - this is my first time with a TN screen. For the first time ever I've had to enable Cleartype to improve the readability of small text. The high resolution screen (1400x900) in such a small form-factor means characters displayed with single pixel width fonts are very "fine" and a bit spidery - not a problem on a better screen but a little more difficult to read than I was prepared for. Cleartype has always looked blurry to me...but on this screen is the better of two evils and not too shabby. Viewing angles are >>>tight<<<.

SSD - Lenovo supplied the Toshiba THNS128GG4BAAA-N. TRIM is not supported but supposedly has internal garbage collection. Scores 6.7 on the Win7 "Windows Expereince" .. I haven't bothered to benchmark. Its quiet(ish) and it works.

Interestingly - I can hear the SSD working. Has a faint electronics buzz thats only audible when thrashing the drive (e.g. I used PerfectDisk to defrag the system files at boot time to move the MFT closer to the start of the drive so I could shrink the partition and isolate the OS) Could hear the disk activity faintly - a bit like holding a blowfly loosely by the wings. Under general use it isn't noticeable.

....I figure SSD technology is improving in leaps and bounds. Since I got 50% off the price of the laptop.. the included Toshiba SSD didn't cost me that much and its "good enough". One day I'll upgrade to a smicko uber SSD and put this one in an external USB case.

At idle I'm using 8W. Power manager says this is 5.5-6 hours with the 6 cell battery... have not done a "battery reset" yet to calibrate this.

I got the trackpoint only - I'm used to not having a touchpad from my X20 and I'm a purist and minimalist. Fingerprint reader for windows login is a nice novelty.

Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3 antenna) ... is connecting to my dinosaur 802.11b netgear router at full 11MB from any location in the house with 80%+ signal strength. This is sensational. Every other laptop, usb key etc used in this place drops to 2-3 bars max in the lounge room... but I'm maintaining a perfect connection. At 30m down the driveway I still had 40% signal strength. (double brick house with tin roof). V Happy.

Last comment - the keyboard really is sensational. Its far better than my X20 thinkpad...which at the time was supposed to be pretty good. Very happy with the feel of the KB indeed.

Overall - v happy. No buyer's remorse (phew!)

A little disappointed with the quality of the screen, but for the work I do I wanted the higher resolution... It is plenty bright enough and by lowering gamma and adjusting brightness I've improved the contrast to where I'm happy. I can learn to live with the tight viewing angles. Its just not what I'm used to.

 

Ok, my first impressions, x201 (i5-540, 4GB, Win7 64bit). Migrated from an older Sony Vaio 13" VGN-SR29VN (p8600)

The x201 came with a Seagate 320GB 7200rpm HDD, which was too noisy. At first i was puzzled, thinking the x201's fan was noisy, but having removed the keyboard and observed the fan, it was clear that it was not moving at all (ie, it was 100% the HDD).

I replaced the Seagate HDD with an Intel SSD 80 GB X25M, and now, if not stressed, the x201 is *completely* silent.

The keyboard is very good.
The touchpad is small, but is very responsive. It definitely gets the work done, but it could be larger.

Windows report the 6-cell battery lasts for 8 hours when idle, although it seems like getting 5-6 hours in real use. I and have already ordered the 9-cell one, along with the ultrabase (need the digital video output).

All in all, very satisfied with the x201, and ready to ditch the Vaio. Should have ordered it earlier

 

Just got into the BIOS and set the power savings to maximum when on battery.

Idle power is now 6-7W with a battery life of 7-8 hours. damn fine.

Turning on "battery stretch" doesn't seem to do much (once the screen is brightened up a bit so you can see it)

 

So the BIOS let's you do more to save battery than the power manager, or are those settings available in the power manager anyways?

 

Mine arrived yesterday and I've spent most of the time installing and setting up Windows 7 x64, so I haven't got to use it much yet. First impressions are good though. It is cool and quiet, and I actually like the screen. It's remarkably easy to read text on, though its vertical viewing angles are a bit rubbish. Keyboard is a bit more resistive than I like it; but the layout is excellent. I love the backwards and forwards keys. Performance seems good, but I'm comparing it to my old laptop, a 1.2GHz Pentium M.

Edit: Integrated camera doesn't show in 'Scanners and cameras' even though the drivers are installed, is that normal?

 

I have a similar problem. Did you end up fixing your problem? I've tried updating the BIOS, and doing a Windows Update. Also tried restoring from the recovery DVDs. Nothing has worked.

I'm going to try to return my notebook.

 

is it shutting down or hibernating?

 

shutting down.

when i boot up windows again, it goes to the start windows normally/safe mode/networking option screen

 

Darn, I was hoping I had an easy fix for you. Now the best I can do is be extremely unhelpful and suggest something you've probaly already done - run the lenovo updater.

 

Yeah, did that already. The worst part is, it seems to happen randomly. If it wasn't random, I'd just get it fixed, but since it's random, the repair guys probably just test it once and if it's working, it gets sent back to me

It didn't crash at all the past couple days, so I thought it was good to go, but last night when I put it to sleep, I woke up and the computer was shut off again

Thanks anyways though.

 

Does anyone have a thinkpad fan control program for Windows 7 64-bit (X201)?

 

Has anyone had issues with the battery draining when the laptop is off?
I turned off my x201 and put it in my computer bag. A week later, the battery was totally depleted. This has never happened to me on any computer.

I wonder whether it's related to the fingerprint reader.

Any thoughts?

 

The standard TPFanControl works on my X201 with 64-bit 7 Home premium. The only temp censor appears to be the CPU, but the fan control works.