W530 Owner's Thread

I want to use laptop with the msata, not to install only windows and if i have to do this every time, it is not acceptable.
Thank you very much for the help lead_org, i have ordered the msata and when i install windows i come back with news

 

Hey peeps, you know who you are, yeah you

Haven't been around much, so busy with work, life, wife and kids...bills etc.

So I made an upgrade and wanted to report, major success ! (not many hours put in yet on said upgrade, but I will be back to report any probs)

Been running my W530 since day 1 on a fresh install of w7 pro on a Crucial M4 256gb, almost a year now me thinks

Never a hiccup, bluescreen, or any prob

So my lovely M4 256 gets to almost full, what to do !??

Been there done that with the ultrabay and WD 750gb Black on a W520

nope, noise, constant spinning, vibration, did I mention noise ? and CONCERN ??

So....I bought me a Samsung 840 Pro 256gb (on a budget, yeah)

Fresh install of W7 on it, did a squeaky clean transfer of files from M4 to an external hdd

Reformatted, re-volumed and cleaned up the M4. Let the Garbage collection begin.....

Transferred files and reallocated 'folders' - My Music, Videos, Docs.... to the M4 in the ultrabay now, via newmodeus, oh yeah

of course I did all the drivers neatly and whatnot...

So now I have a blazing fast W7 pro on a C: main drive Sammy 840 Pro for progs and games

'Files' are on the newly moved M4 D: drive in the ultrabay

all @ sata III 6/gbs

damm skippy and zippy !!

*excited lol

btw, after being a hardcore fanboy of the M4 for a few years I must say there IS a difference versus the 840 Pro

The Sammy is quite a bit zippier all around

Everything is fast fast fast

Love it !

 

quoting myself... got it a couple weeks ago, and it's not 12.7mm as they claim

will try the NY vendor next...

 

Weird... mine was...

 

not even surprised...

 

huh ? I ordered the 12.7mm from Newmodeus for my W530 and fits perfect, not to mention works perfect.

I have been buying ultrabay trays from them for years, never a prob whatsoever.

Now I will admit for the first time the ordering process was a tad confusing for the W530 this time around.

The two drives they have and their respective product description pages are not as they should be if you ask me.

I went with the one that seemed to be 'the right one' and lucked out a bit lol.

From what I have gathered Newmodeus is supposed to have pretty good CS (never had to contact them in that regards myself).

I would suggest contacting them and exchanging for the right one.

Here is what I mean btw:

2nd HDD / SSD caddy adapter for Lenovo Thinkpad Ultrabay 12.7mm

and

2nd HDD or SSD Caddy Lenovo ThinkPad W510, W520,W530, W700,W710

I purchased the first one and got the 12.7mm 'fit'.

9.5mm SSD fits in it great.

The descriptions on those 2 product pages are not very clear and a bit confusing in my opinion.

Not to mention each page has the exact same model # !!

One showing 11 items in stock and the other has 189 in stock.

I will send them an email with a link to this page here on NBR and hopefully they will fix and make those pages clearer.

 

I received a very quick answer from Newmodeus:


Hello Scott,

We apologize for the confusion. Both listings are the same product and will work on your W530.

We have created the two separate listings because some customers refer to it as a 12.7mm caddy for the Lenovo Ultrabay,
2nd HDD / SSD caddy adapter for Lenovo Thinkpad Ultrabay 12.7mm [TP-W510-T510] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

and some customers don't know the caddy height they need, but know they need it for the W530 (or some other model)
2nd HDD or SSD Caddy Lenovo ThinkPad W510, W520,W530, W700,W710 [TP-W510-T510] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Thank you Scott!

Best Regards,
Nandy

......


Hope that helps, for me not a whole bunch, how and why btw did zytrahus not feel it was 12.7mm ??

curious......


here are some pics I just took

I have a negligible 1mm gap on top and about 0.5mm gap on bottom

I can take more detailed pics and measurements if needed.....






















and the homefront ;-)

 

That's a great fit. (The cheaper UltraBay caddy adapters sold on eBay do not fit quite nicely. But they all work well.)

Just curious, mine has a blue LED next to the disc icon. NewmodeUS cutting cost?

 

Indeed, their trays have always had a good fit on my thinkpads and many latitudes.

I also always buy them for the overall high quality of build and components.

I am always worried I would get inferior components and maybe not so SATA III performance off ebay $10-15.00 models,

and after dropping almost $2k on a workstation including SSD's why wouldn't I pay $45 for the Ultrabay adapter ??

no brainer, but that's just me

I DID notice the lack of LED activity light on my recent one for the W530 but was ok with it.

Don't know why exactly but I do prefer one less flashing light going on, especially when sleeping and perhaps downloading or something.

Not sure at all but maybe just maybe that's why the WD Scorpio blacks would constantly run before ? Circuitry of said 'activity light' action ??

Drove me crazy, as other members here.

Never came across the info explaining exactly why that occurred.

And newmodeus might have left it off to answer customer preference ?

Dunno

 

Hi lads,

Is it possible to upgrade from an intel wireless N ultimate 6300 card to an intel card supporting the new 802.1AC standard?

If so how difficult will it be, do we need a hacked bios etc and is there any guides?

thanks.

 

There is no Whitelist removed BIOS firmware for the W530 yet, at least not that i have seen. You would need a whitelist removed BIOS firmware to get the new AC standard wireless card working in the old ThinkPad.

 

Greetings fellow W530 owners.

I bought a W530 6 mo. or so ago, and it had such horrible WiFi problems (Win 8 ) that its just been sitting in its box ever since. I went back to using my old Latitude since it was rock solid. I was working with a couple gentleman from Microsoft that were issued W530's who also had all the same WiFi dropping issues I was having.

Can anyone comment if these issues have been resolved?

My machine came with a 6300 Ultimate-N but I found that replacing with a 6205 brought a bit more stability (though not 100%).

Maybe someone has a build sheet they can share a working set of drivers/versions for one last re-install before I decide to sell it?

Machine config is as follows:

Intel Core i7-3720QM
Windows 8 Pro 64
8 GB PC3-12800 DDR3 (2 DIMM)
500GB HDD 7200rpm
DVD Recordable, UBE W8 w/SWR
9cell LI Battery TWL70++
Bluetooth 4.0 w/ antenna
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
CameraTW530 720p HD Camera Mic
No Color Sensor
TW530 15.6FHD Anti-Glare, WWAN
KYB2 (Backlit) US English
No Micro Solid State Drive
W530 NVIDIA Quadro K1000M 2GB



Thanks for your help, Mark

 

I suspect that what you are encountering is a buggy Intel wireless driver. This has been impacting Windows 7 and Windows 8 users across all laptop manufacturers for more than a year. See this discussion at Intel's forums:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/31090?start=900&tstart=0

Intel claims to have resolved this in their most recent driver release, and indeed it does seem to be better. But I'm not convinced that it has been fully resolved.

Unfortunately Lenovo's BIOS locks prevent the use of other wireless cards, otherwise I would have dumped the Intel 6300 card long ago. The BIOS locks (whitelist) will likely also prevent me from ever purchasing another Lenovo laptop.

 

Hi everyone. So I recently got the w530 for engineering school. The problem I am having is the CPU throttling issues. I have a dock for the laptop and use it with 2 external monitors in my dorm. When I am on the go, I use the laptop but the Nvidia gpu is causing the CPU to throttle to 1.2 Ghz which is really slow when I am trying to compile C++ code. I have tried disabling the optimus in the bios and only setting it to integrated but when I do that and dock it, the external monitors connected to the dock do not work. When optimus is on, the dock works fine. However once I undock the laptop, the GPU is still being used and I cannot change it to the Intel gpu using the Nvidia control panel unless I completely restart the computer.

So my question is, is there any way I can get the dock to work AND the cpu not to throttle when on battery?

 

Yes, you need to download and install Throttlestop. Then, after starting the program, go to preset #4 (Battery), click the box next to "Set Multiplier," and raise the value until it reads "Turbo." That's it! You do NOT need to hit the "turn on" button for this to work. Then just minimize the program. As long as Throttlestop is running, your processor will reach full turbo speed on battery as well as plugged in.

 

Thanks for the reply! I have tried that but it only works when I click "Turn on." So I decided to click turn on and also check the "Power Saver" option so it is not always running at full speed and wasting power. I also checked the option to start ThrottleStop with windows but it doesn't start so I have to start it manually.

 

Hello,

Does anyone know if i7-3940XM requires additional cooling? I mean if I get a W530 with cheapest CPU available, would I need a new heatsink for the later upgrade to i7-3940XM ?

Thank you.

 

Selecting the XM chip does have some affect on the specific components you get for the rest of the system, as I recall. The XM chip can produce more heat, so it may need extra cooling. However, I don't think anyone has tried that upgrade yet. Personally, I don't think it's worth doing for me until after my warranty is expired, as I'm not currently willing to risk a CPU overheating in my system. However, if you don't mind trying it out, you can inspire the rest of us.

 

Agree on warranty, that's a deal breaker. I was just comparing my future options + I remember my ex T510 came with non-copper heatsink because I selected integrated graphics card. At least this is the way I remember.

Thank you.

 

Hey guys. Do you think I should upgrade from my W520 to the W530? My boss gave me the option to. I use it both for work and personal use. I'm an engineer and do a lot of CAD. Other than that, I also do programming.

My current specs:
W520
Windows 8 Pro / Ubuntu 12.04 (dual boot)
Core i7-2760QM @ 2.4 Ghz
HD+ Display
20 GB DDR3
200 GB Corsair Force GT SSD (I bought a 512 GB Samsung 840 Pro to replace this recently)
Quadro 1000M
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205

If I get the W530 with the K2000M will it be better for gaming (I currently use my desktop for gaming but it would be nice to use my laptop)? I like the keyboard on my W520. Is the new keyboard nice? Is the backlighting good?

Edit: will Ubuntu run ok on the W530?
Thanks!

 

A W530 with a K2000M would definitely be better for gaming than a W520, especially as yours has the lower-level graphics option. It should have no problems running Ubuntu. Keyboard backlighting is nice, and I find myself using it quite frequently in lower-light situations. The keyboard is also comfortable to type on. Your opinion on the keyboard is likely to depend on how often you use the particular keys that are on the W520 but not on the W530 or how accustomed/dependant you are on a 7-row keyboard. The keyboard on the W530 is quite good if these are not concerns for you, but you may find it lacking if these are a big deal to you.

 

I'm currently running Ubuntu 13.10 and ran 13.04 for several months, along with Windows 8/8.1 Pro dual-boot, although I usually end up in Windows only weekly to apply updates.

Have the system set to Optimus and running Bumblebee no problems, rarely use the Nvidia, though, with this machine.

 

Any input on a reliable reputable seller (ebay or other) of OEM backlit keyboards for the W530/T530

would be appreciated

thanks !

 

I've purchased two backlit keyboards from:
start_2014 on eBay
and been very please, shipping is high because it comes DHL from China, but only takes four or five days to NC.

 

thanks ! got one already

 

So I've been looking, I'd love a dock for at home. Being so expensive, I asked around. After talking with my friend, he told me he has an older Thinkpad dock (Type 4337) he doesn't use. So he brought it in with the 90w power adapter so I can test it. The 90w won't charge it, but the dock seems to work with the laptop.

If I bought a 135w, as I understand it, I could use that with the dock and it will charge my laptop, right?
And where should I buy a cheap 135w power adapter that will work with my W530?

 

My W530 came with Windows 7. I thinking of installing Windows 8.1. I am wondering if there is a list of all the download links for all the Lenovo pre-installed software. I did find a bunch of installers on my computer at C:\SWTOOLS\ which appears to include all of the preloaded software. I could copy them and install but would like to download the latest ones from Lenovo. The Lenovo web site is not easy to find the downloads.

 

Today I noticed a hardware scan failure. The error says "Lenovo hardware error nvdiaquadrok1000mvideocontroller2". I checked my warranty and it is expired on 6/4/2014. Just 7 days ago.

Eventviewer did not show any error and I don't see any issues with the laptop as such. Any idea how to proceed further?

Thanks,
RT

 

The first thing I would do is run the hardware scan again to see if the same error shows up again. It may have been a fluke. If it does, you can do further tests. Since the error noted is for your video card, you could run some benchmarks or burn-in programs to see if any errors show up. If you uncover more errors, then you can check if it's a driver issue or if it's a fault in the actual card.

So basically,
1.) run hardware scan again
if there's still an error, then
2.) stress your video card
if you find errors then
3.) update or change video driver
if there are still errors
4.) check BIOS settings
and if there are still errors and all else fails
5.) call Lenovo and see if you can get it covered anyway

Most likely, if you haven't noticed any problems during actual use, it's just a software problem or a temporary glitch.

 

djembe,

Thanks for the reply.

I am consistently getting "Failed" in the "Video Memory Test" but "passed" in "Extended video memory test". See attached image. Does this mean a Lenovo hardware scan software bug?

Looks like I can only contact Lenovo only if I have a valid warranty otherwise I could not. Not sure how to proceed further.

Also can you tell me how to perform "stress video card"? Is there a program available from Lenovo?

Thanks,

 

Not sure if anyone still reads this thread but I'll give this a go anyway:

I've had my w530 for about a year and a half now and for the last 6 months I've been strongly meaning to wipe it and restore back to factory defaults to give it a fresh start.
I want to upgrade the memory when I do that, and I've also been considering replacing the mSATA 16gb cache with a larger mSATA drive so that my OS and Programs can run from the SSD

I have a few questions though:

a) If I buy a 250gb mSATA drive and swap it for the one in the computer then do the factory restore, will it install the OS and everything on the SSD?

b) I hibernate my computer A LOT (cause I'm lazy/forgetful and don't want to shut down everything when I'm in the middle of something and try to remember later where I left off so I just leave everything I need open and hibernate til I come back to it). I know that SDDs are more limited than HDD in the number of write cycles they can handle so hibernating with SDD is not all that recommended. I'm leaving the main HDD in so would be possible to make a hibernation partition on the HDD and somehow direct windows to store that data there when it hibernates? (I'm running and plan to keep running win 7 Pro)

c) Are there any disadvantages to doing this?

I use the computer mainly for photography work and media (movies/tv). I am starting a photography/digital video program at college though this fall (and I'm saying screw it on buying a macbook for it cause my w530 has better specs than the macbook pros and I can deal with being the rebel with the different OS.). So I want to (on a budget) optimism my system a bit for doing the photo/video work before the semester starts in semtember. I'm going to finally put out the money to upgrade the ram from 16 to 32, but I figured that since I want to restore the computer and start fresh anyway, not might be the time to add the SSD as well.

 

a.) Factory restore will by default restore your system image to the primary drive that came with the system. However, you can copy a disk image from your existing drive to your new SSD, set the mSATA to boot first in BIOS, then wipe the old drive and use it for storage or whatever.

b.)I am fairly certain you can change the location of the hiberfil.sys file to any drive on your system.

c.) The biggest disadvantage is hiberfil.sys is the same size as your maximum RAM capacity. If, like me, you maxed (or plan to max) RAM, that's 32GB of storage space on your drive that you can't use. Personally, I use standby instead. It doesn't take very much power, restores within a couple seconds, and doesn't have a storage overhead. Of course, if you are typically using every bit of your battery life on a regular basis, the extra power standby takes could be a dealbreaker, but it has a fairly minimal impact on my battery life. The disadvantage of specifically storing hiberfil.sys on a spinning drive rather than on an SSD is that your restore from hibernation will take 2-3 times longer than if you had the file on the SSD.

 

My W530 is 18 months old. My battery used to last 2.5 to 3 hrs. But now it lasts only 1.5 hrs. I have not changed any settings. Do you recommend any battery calibration to increase the battery time?

 

What's the charge capacity and number of cycles?

 

Calibration is unlikely to increase your battery life. It just gives you more accurate estimates. Batteries do lose capacity as charge cycles and time increase (and they're even more affected by heat and charge state). For instance, my battery (originally 94 Whr) is down to 66 Whr after 2 years and 200 cycles, which has cut battery life from 8 hours down to 5 and a half.

 

I'm starting to think the batteries used in the W530 aren't that high quality.

The 6 cell battery that I got originally with the W530 now has 47% wear according to HWMonitor. I've owned the W530 since July 2012.

For the first year the laptop plugged in all the time with the battery at 100%. I noticed 17% wear around July 2013. After that time I capped the battery to about 75%.
After a total of 2.5 years , the wear level is now 47%.

I forgot how many cycles my battery has but I don't think it's that high.