W520 + Bos 1.26 + 170W AC + Maximum Performance = Garbage

Brand new W520 wit i7 Extreme CPU running Win 7, 64 bit with 16Gb RAM

Bios is updated to 1.26.
No Battery connected. Connected to the power supply 170 Watt

In BIOS
Intel SpeedStep ENABLED
Mode fo AC Maximum Performance
Mode for Batery Maximum Performance

Adaptive Thermal Management
Scheme for AC : Maximum Performance
Scheme for Battery : Maximum Performance

Power Management is set also to Maximum Performance

Intel Turbo Boost monitor shows the CPU always is power saving with a green leaf. Also when I run the CPU-Z it says the cpu runs at 0.8Ghz !

Please note, NO battery conneted. System clean booted with Maximum Performance profile already set before the last power off. There's no excuse for the machine running at 800MHz !

It this a joke ?
My 3 years old X200s performs almost as good as this 'supposed to be' beast W520.


I think I might throw that to the trash and get my self a new X220s. This W520 is a joke, Lenovo did a lousy job this time. I am so furious with this buggy machine.

People pay that much for an i7 Extreme equipped machine expect the machine to work at 2.50 GHz when connected to the AC as well as the Turbo Boost a 3.40Ghz which should also work flawlessly, because the the main reason people buy this machine, for sheer performance. I don't want to install any third party software, why should I ? It should have worked out of the box. That's a pretty awful QA they did, not even funny.

 

connect the battery.   the system isn't designed to run at full power without it.

also, update to BIOS 1.30.   1.26 is pretty old by now.

BIOS Update Utility for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), a (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPadVist

 

Thanks funny the Lenovo System update which I just ran a few hours ago didn't tell me there's a new BIOS, so I see the sysem update is pretty useless. But anyway I just downloaded the new BIOS and going to install it.

The thing that the W520 doesn't know how to behave without a battey is also unexplained. But thanks I will try it as well and report.

 

If they are using the battery to stiffen the power supply (brick) for daily use, the batteries are not going to last long, and at about $170 each, it's almost criminal.

For months, I was looking forward to buying a W520, but between this and the heat issues, I probably won't be getting one : (

 

UPDATE:
I installed BIOS 1.30 and although I did not find mentioning about the CPU speed issue, it seems to be solved for now. I didn't work with it a lot, but for the time being seems to work. Assuming it will continue to work fine, the only other change they should make to the BIOS would be the 45 seconds lag when booting with the Intel 510 SSD.

Thanks for mentioning about the BIOS update, I will no longer count on the system update from now on and will just visit the support site frequently.

 

amazing what a little update can do.

 

Brenda, if the issue with the CPU is indeed solved (which is what seems to be now!) than otherwise the W520 is a great machine. I also have the X200s for 3 years (great machine!) and I would say I expected the W520 to be more monsterious than it really is, not hat bad at all. If they could only make the 170W AC brick smaller that would be great, but not a deal breaker.

 

Sorry Brenda but that is flat wrong. I have been using a W520 for 6 months. The battery is not used when attached to AC power if Power Manager is set correctly. My six month old 9-cell battery has a cycle count of 6. My one month old 6-cell has a cycle count of 1.

Since I don't have the extreme quad, I can use the 135W AC adapter. I also switched to the 6-cell battery because I don't really use battery power often. It's a lot less monstrous with both changes.

 

My W520 has worked fine on AC without the battery since I got it with BIOS 1.21, and every BIOS revision after that.

 

Computer Minder, I wonder if just the act of resetting the BIOS during it's flashing/replacement fixed your problem.

[Sorry Thors.Hammer, but there was a "if" in my paragraph, and I stand by it, in that: if they are using the battery, it will wear. There is no free lunch.]

 

BIOS 1.30 + AC only does allows Turbo Boost here too.

 

turbo boost support was recently improved in ECP 1.17.   but, come to think of it, this issue was for those running on battery only and not on AC without a battery.   computerminder's issue might have been fixed simply via the reflash.

regarding batteries wearing, well, they're a wear item just like tires on a car.   batteries degrade whether you use them or not.   in many cases they degrade less if you periodically use them.

 

How are you defining "last long" ?

 

I took a look inside the Think vantage tool box, and looks like there is a standard 1 year warranty on the battery. Has anyone gotten a new battery from this standard warranty? How easy was it.

 

My T400's Panasonic 6-cell will be 2 years old next month, and it only has 6% wear. I've left it in the machine 95% of the time.

Not sure how the W520's Sanyo cells are.

 

Generally, I expect to see a lithium-based laptop battery last 3 years of light use.

[By then, they are dying anyway, even if they aren't used, which is why laptop batteries are often shipped at about 40% charge, because that gives the best shelf-life. Though, lithium batteries have say 400-800 full-depth discharges, say 1000-2000 half-depth discharges, and so on. Batteries tend to endure shallower discharges better; I speculate that temperature has a lot to do with that, that and they like some charge in them, which is why usually, there is some extra capacity not available to the user to protect the battery.

My 4-year and 1-month old 9-cell battery has 59.13 w/h out of 84.24 w/h, and it's listed as 202 cycles. I could have used it more, because it would be dying about this time anyway.]

If Lenovo is stiffening the power supply with the battery, it will cause accelerated battery wear.

 

Based on what I am seeing across the thousands of W510's and W520's we have, you have nothing to worry about.

 

Thors.Hammer, will you personally guarantee everyone's batteries?

Announced on February 22nd, 2011, The w520 is not new. I feel it's still a half of a year early to know how well the batteries will last.

The w510 is a different model than the 520. At 35 watts, the Quadro 880m consumes 10 fewer watts than either the 1000m or the 2000m.
Get superb performance and value from your 15.6? mobile workstation with the NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 880M professional graphics solution.

As if it matters, I am still willing the consider buying a W-series computer from Lenovo, but the throttling and heat issues have to be resolved before I do. As I read this forum and the other, I see too many unhappy customers.

[With that said, the Dell Precision appears to no better than the rest of their notebook computers, and the only Asus with a good video chip I have seen--had video problems. Anyone who makes computers especially for engineer-types should expect their customers to be critical of them. In the last year, Lenovo has sold 3 computers on my recommendation.]

ComputerMinder, it would interesting to see if the new BIOS works without issues. Please report back.

 

I'm confused now. I was under the impression you were worried the batteries were being worn out unduly when the machine was plugged into AC power.

My statement was based on about 21 months of history with the W510. As you indicated, we've only had the W520 in inventory for about 8 months.

From what we can tell, Power Manager is working pretty well and preventing undue wear and tear on the batteries. We really won't know for sure until about the 36 month mark and beyond.

 

Yes, for the third time, I was concerned about the combination of throttling the processor to a near useless .8MHz, on battery might be indicative that the power supply was too small, and that the battery was being used to stiffen/supplement it.

I feel that your mentioning of the W510 was not germane to the W520s battery life expectancy.

It would be interesting to run Cinebench 10.5 64, on a W520, on battery, and see how it performs.

[Let's see now...the dual I7-2620 is about twice as a fast as a T7500. Because of hyperthreading and cachesize, if it ran at 1.1Ghz, it would be about equal, but wait, 800MHz is less than 1.1GHz, isn't it. It would be close, but I suspect that a 2720 W520 on battery might lose to T7500, or even a X220? The quad would still beat the T7500 by quite a margin.]

This makes the case for a 12-cell battery option on the W520, although no one would want it except for some people who needed to use unplugged for its intended purpose.

 

Yes, the W520 has its shortcomings and is not perfect.
Despite the throttling on battery issue (which I solve using Throttlestop) and the Intel 510 SSD warm-boot issue (which I solve by cold-booting whenever possible), I do not know a better portable workstation than the W520. (Check out the benchmarks below.)

Maybe the new 15.5" Sony Vaio S
Sony Supes Up the VAIO S-Series | PCMag.com
(1080p, quad-RAID0 SSD, Blu-ray, 4.4lbs) will beat it, but it is not available until October.

 

I am running the new v1.30 BIOS and the performance on battery has improved. Maybe someone will do a review and scientific testing to satisfy you. Given your remarks, I doubt that is going to be possible.

I have not seen an official Lenovo spokesman state the design points for the W520 as it relates to power and power management.

My guess is that after being beat up by the W510 owners over crappy battery life, improving that significantly became a goal. A goal they succeeded at. For those of use that don't need the raw power of the quad on battery, we are grateful for the battery life. I get 6-7 hours on mine while traveling.

Good luck in your hunt for the perfect notebook.

 

Huberth, thank you for your objectivity and tact.