X200 Discussion & Issues/Critique

Can someone please tell me if the X200's screen have slots to accept a privacy filter?

 

Is that what the slots are for? yes there are two on top two on the bottom.

-my lid is scratching my palmrest. the part right above the screen seems to be rubbing against the armrest, and after a few weeks of ownage I now have a horizontal scratch going across (beside the vista sticker all the way to the other end). Does anyone know how to remove this scratch?

-the hard drive is pretty loud when spinning at idle. very very audible. Same for other x200 owners? What's your solution?

 

What "slots"? And the line on the palm rest is a problem for most of us. You cant really remove it. And hard drives that are noisy are just noisy; you cant do anything about it aside from get a different one. You could look into firmware settings though but I think that depends on which drives and if there are management features for noise.

 

Can anyone attach an image of the scracth, it's intresting that lenovo haven't bump into this during design.

 

I'm using this without issue: http://www.startech.com/item/DP2DVI-DisplayPort-to-DVI-Cable-Adapter.aspx

Monoprice now has one too though, I would have gotten it had it been out in time.

 

If I order the x200 today and the same specs for the laptop turns out to be cheaper 1 or 2 weeks down the road (using coupon code), would I be able to get a price adjustment?

 

I'm not sure about the scratch, but the hard drive in the x200 that I had was very loud. I had a 160GB 5400RPM Hitachi drive. I'm not really sure if the drive was actually that much louder than other hard drives, I think it may just be that the x200 is so quiet, that the system fan doesn't drown out the hard drive (it did on my Thinkpad T40, HP Compaq nc4000, and desktop computer). Long term, I will probably switch to an SSD for noise/durability reasons, but the good ones are way too expensive right now.

 

Usually yes. I believe you have 21 days for a price match, although I am not sure if it is 21 days from order date or ship date. If you are using a coupon code, make sure you just submit them a fresh quote (run the config, add it to your card, and proceed to order, do NOT enter credit card information, and choose to save as quote).

 

thanks for your reply! I have a seagate momentus 100gb 7200rpm. Can you describe the noise? it's not the actual read/write clicking noise, just the spinning that is audible even at idle right? I guess I will just have to live with this. I haven't had a laptop/notebook HD that was this loud before.

edit-does anyone have a microsoft 6to4 Adapter in device manager not being able to start (code 10)? I couldn't really find any solutions through googling.

 

I was about to place an order on an x200 but I just realized something:

It would cost me $85ish CAD to go from an 80GB 5400 rpm HD to 160GB 7200 rpm HD. For a few bucks more, I can just get a 320GB 7200 rpm HD and install it on my own.

Can someone tell me if the 80GB 5400 rpm HD *IS* SATA...which will allow me to take it out and put in the 320GB 7200 rpm?

I'm just afraid that if I get the 80GB 5400 rpm, the interface on the motherboard might just be ATA.

 

It is SATA...you can see in my pictures at the beginning of the thread that the SSD has a sata connector .

 

I have the same drive and don't ever hear it.

-Art

 

i did the same thing....so it will work just fine i just now have the 80gb as a spare external drive....

 

That is definitely the way to go if you want a large fast drive. I hear this Seagate is supposed to be the best drive currently available (quiet, fast, energy efficient), and only costs $110 shipped.

I personally am holding out for a quality SSD to become affordable (noise and shock resistance more than performance). I thought 80GB would be too inadequate for the long term, so I upgraded to the 5400 RPM 160GB drive to hold me over until a good 128 GB+ SLC SSD is less than $300 (they're currently over $1000).

 

I actually do have the Seagate Momentus 7200.3 2.5" 320GB already...it's actually in my Vantec ext enclosure. I'm just going to get another of the same HD and stick it in the laptop

 

Got my x200 yesterday, here are just a few observations

1) nice overall build - very high quality.

2) the material is a bit scratch prone - the area of the laptop near the figureprint reader already has some fine scratces even though the laptop is not even a day old

3) screen could be brighter - but not too bad

4) lots of bloatware - anyone has any tips on which ones I need and which I can safely remove?

5) The power adaptor gets very hot and the power cord is very short.

Overall, very happy with the purchase. I was tossing up between the Sony Z, the macbook and this. Not regretting the purchase decision.

 

I use a different cord for my power adapter, so it's quite a bit longer. You could find one at any junk electronics store, that matches the two prong system. As for the power brick getting hot, I've slapped on a heat sink (bare metal) I had lying around. Elegant? Nope, but it does the job for now. I'm just waiting for stories of somebody's power supply starting a fire, before they all get recalled or something. I only charge it at the end of the day anyways, so the power brick never really moves around much.

As for the scratches, everything scratches. I had a titanium watch for a while, and that scratched up like crazy a day out of the box. Though, I admit, I was probably a bit rough with it having not worn a watch in a long time. But I know how it feels like, to see that first scratch on something that came out so perfect.

 

First email after I placed my order:

Second email 1 hr later:

I just called in into Lenovo and the agent said he's seeing $1495ish CAD total on his screen???? He said he'll get the accounting (???) dept to call me as he has no idea why there are discrepancies.

Has anyone encounter that issue before?

 

I just got my X200 today and indeed it does have the T9400 CPU.

I also got the Seagate 7200.2 HDD. My X61 has the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200. Which one is better in terms of perfomance and noise?

My first thought was "what a huge lcd bevel!" Is that much bevel really necessary? It is 2x the width of my X61!

Even though the X200 is widescreen, it takes up more footprint than my X61. The height of the screen is smaller but the overal dimension is exactly the same as my X61 but it is longer.

It would've been perfect if it did not have the huge bevel.

Other notes:

1) The screen is noticeably brighter and color looks nicer than the X61
2) The keyboard feels more firm and have less flex than the X61
3) I like how Lenovo went back to the IBM colors on the trackpad buttons.
4) Feels just as sturdy as the X61

 

Great. A lot of x61 users wonder how the x200 is in comparison...current x200 owners think it is all pluses aside from perhaps the bezel.

 

Oh another thing I noted is the beep from connecting/disconnecting the power cord and when it goes into/out of sleep is freakin loud.

 

You can disable that setting in BIOS. Press the blue button during boot and enter the menu. There is an option to notify on change in power state. This was one of the first things I turned off, because yes it is loud and annoying.

 

What about disabling that beeping sound when the battery is running low on power? How do I do that?

 

Look in the Thinkvantage power manager under low battery actions/alarms. Mine doesn't beep and I think I disabled it there.

 

thanx, was wondering about that, although not that big of deal

 

and i just realized i passed 1000 posts and have no idea what my 1000th post was

 

you can disable all of the alarms in the bios to access mine I have to push F1 at start up, it may be different for yours.

 

The larger bezel is so that they could fit in a full-size keyboard. Otherwise, it would've been a bit squished, horizontally. I think it's a fair compromise.

 

Hi all, I got my x200 yesterday and I totally love it. Its my first thinkpad. The only thing i was concerned about was getting use to the trackpoint, but only after a couple minutes of use it felt natural to me. I love it. I never used my optical drive on my old computer so its problem now not having one. my eyes just have to adjust to using a smaller screen, coming from a 15.4''. I really have no problems with the screen, i think its good enough. the only thing is the battery is heavy, but its worth the extra battery life.

1 QUESTION

I already installed all the programs that i use. Just in case I wanted to restore the computer back to like it was when I first got it without using the restore dvds (I dont have a docking base), it that possible?

 

I have been torturing this thing (X200) for several hours (I even forgot to eat yesterday )

brief review:
it looks really good, very solid build, it looks thinner then in pictures, the LCD is very bright with very nice colors. I set it to 50% brightness because it's the biggest battery hog in this system.

Everything works right and feel fairly fast, browsing the net, streaming videos, office applications, light gaming not much of a difference from my C2D 3.13 Ghz

So far I figured out things on my own, just messing with every settings and I didn't find a problem I couldn't solve yet....so I would say it's pretty user friendly.

I'm getting used to the trackpad very well, I had the feeling already I was going to like it better then the touchpad.

Only downside Window Vista takes time to get used to learn where everything is, but it has better tools then XP.

 

I did a clean install of Vista ultimate 64bit and after all the drivers and thinkvantage apps were installed, I already used up 22GB! This doesn't seem right. Before I started installing drivers and apps (so just the vista installed), only 4GB was used.

I remember the factory installed version (Home basic) took up only ~10GB

Anyone have similar experience?

 

I think the extra disk space is just being used by Vista's system restore. If you do a disk cleanup and delete restore points etc you will probably clear up a lot of that.

 

And the pagefiling probably.

 

In addition to the X200 itself, I included an additional 65W adapter and the X200 ultrabase in a recent order.

Can someone tell me if the X200 ultrabase comes with its own adapter??? which means I'll have THREE in total when the package comes?

 

I am reasonably confident that the ultrabase comes by itself. It does not include an AC adapter or an optical drive. Both of those must be purchased separately.

 

Does disabling the active drive protection increase battery life

 

Wishful thinking! There is no AC adapter with the Ultrabase. And that stinks considering that when you order a Lenovo Mini Dock, it comes with an AC adapter. And the Ultrabase and the Mini Dock are the same price.

 

I guess the additional 65W adapter I placed an order on works out then: one for home and attached to the ultrabase...and one for my laptop bag when i have to haul the laptop around.

 

does anyone have a clean install guide? I plan to reinstall everything to get rid of the bloatware etc.

 

Check the Lenovo Sticky.

 

Where can I download the lenovo vista theme? I like to get it back.

 

Any tips on cleaning the screen of my x200

 

all kinds of lint-free cloth, micro fiber cloths with an alchool free screen cleaner spray from monster or others to get rid of fingerprints, swifter dusters work well for dust only

 

Ya microfiber cloth is good.

 

thanks. I have another question. can the x200 run a 64bit OS?

 

Mine came pre-loaded with Vista x64, so ya...no problem.

 

Well i went to run, then typed in winmsd. It shows that I have X86-Based PC, So i'm not sure if i can run a 64bit OS. What does yours show if you do the same??

 

ALL of the Intel Core 2 processors are x86-64 chips. This includes every Thinkpad that is currently available. I think you would have to go back to a T43 (2005/2006) to find a model that doesn't support a 64 bit OS. I have run Vista Business 64 and Ubuntu 8.10 64 bit on an x200 just fine, so you don't need to worry.

The main things you get with a 64 bit OS is the ability to address 4GB+ of RAM and 64 bit processes are more secure because DEP is mandatory. However, with 64 bit Windows you lose the ability to run ANY 16 bit processes (this is why some old software fails, they may have 16 bit DLLs) and I believe that all drivers must be digitally signed (I can't use my 5 year old networked HP Laserjet because there are no 64 bit signed drivers).

 

okay, maybe someone else has experienced this problem and could help me.

my wireless sometimes switches from "local and internet" to "local only", and then the icon loses the globe but then a few seconds later reappears and everything is fine. It always has to happen every few hours though so my msn can never stay connected throughout the day.
-I know you can set msn to reconnect, but I'd like to find out what is causing this to happen. When it's local only I can't use firefox either.
-I know wireless is finicky, but it's worth a shot to ask for help.

I have the router updated. I have the thinkvantage software updated. I have vista updated. I even used intel wifi drivers. I disabled all put wireless to sleep settings, set everything to max performance. I even disabled PCI express power savings just to check. I have played with every single setting on the machine. I have NOT disabled access connections because I need it (work/home/school/etc). Also function + F5 stops working if you do get rid of it

Every other computer in the house can be left on throughout the night and retain it's msn/pidgin/whatever instant messaging programs without the reconnect setting enabled. I do not experience a temporary loss of internet on anything else. Wired and wireless. Please help me.

 

thanks jonlumpkin for the info