Y500 Owners and Questions Thread

I have 2 on order and shipping says Dec 7. I ordered the 8gb FHD.

Any suggestions for 16gb ram?

Any ideas about disabling and removing the 16g ssd to be replaced by a 256gb msata? Is this only a cache with no operating system files; straightforward remove and replace, and clone operating system from the 1TB HD?

Upgrade to win8 pro? Can't believe they didn't offer this stock. My understanding win 8 upgrade to win8 pro is more expensive than win7 upgrade to win8 pro. How about a clean install of win8 pro using an existing win7 key? Resource for a legal iso win8 pro download?

Will post thoughts upon receiving and first use. May just replace the HD with a 480 gb ssd and do a fresh install.

Weird that it is same size battery as 580 with 1/2 the usage time. Wonder what eats the battery so much compared to the 580?

 

Regarding msata SSD transfer I gave my full thoughts on that here, but long story short if you're cloning OS you should be fine.

Don't expect clean install of the OEM OS unless you have a W8 OEM disc handy and can get past the bios automatic license plug. Win7 -> Win8 Pro should of worked but the OEM kicks in and doesn't let you use the upgrade ISO. I'm not sure if the full pro version of Win8 will let you bypass the license as I haven't tried it myself yet.

So until someone figures out how to bypass the OEM license on the bios you are better off just cloning the OS on your ssd.

@Ram: I heard G.Skill ram works fine with the current model. Cheapest choice for easy 16gb ram.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Wasn't aware of the locked bios oem thing. This would suk big time if lenovo didn't allow upgrades. Guess I should have researched a bit more before purchasing. Why would they do such a thing? Hopefully there is a way around it.

I am fond of GSkill RAM anyway so that sounds like a plan. I am leaning towards a 480 GB SSD and will just yank the lame 16gb and will just clone until a clean install route is figured out. Had hoped to do this initially. I guess revo uninstaller to get rid of the bloatware until a clean install can be had.

 

Anyone tested Windows 7 stability on this yet? I have no interest in Windows 8 and I'll need to test certain things in Windows 7 anyway.

 

Received my nice shiny new good-looking state of the art BROKEN y-500 today. Crap. Broken screen and would not boot up. poor quality control. Lenovo said I would receive a response within 5 days about a new order. Sheesh, it didn't take longer than 5 days to receive the broken one after I ordered it originally. Who knows how long this process is going to be.

 

hi i got my y500 today and i seem to have noticed that the battrey lock switch has come off can anyone help me fix this also is it a big issue worth going through lenovo coustomer support
thanks guys for helping me out
btw the laptop is epic ... the speakers are by far the best i have seen on a laptop

 

@y500 that really sucks about receiving your laptop broken. That's not cool how they're making you wait 5 days to address this issue. There's no reason they shouldn't be sending you a return label and shipping out a replacement ASAP. If you can call them up again and escalate your case. I've dealt with Lenovo before and you have to fight tooth and nail to get them to do right by you. Their support can be atrocious. If you escalate it enough you can have them ship out your new y500 even before they receive the broken one - which is what they should have offered already.

@mohammadbawany that doesn't sound good and seems like a defect. There are two battery lock switches and if either one is unlocked then that side of the battery will be loose making it an unstable power source when your moving the laptop around. It will most likely be a pain to fight with Lenovo to get a replacement sent out, but it's something you might want to do now otherwise you'll have to deal with a loose battery.

 

I received my y500 today (ordered on Nov. 27) and it looks + feels like a solid machine. I used to own the Y580 and can say the 500 physically "appears" to be a higher quality machine with both the design and materials. I found a side by side of both ideapads though it's in Bulgarian:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y580&Y500 - laptop.bg (Bulgarian HD) - YouTube

The Y500 red backlit keyboard is just awesome - I really didn't think I would like it that much, but in person I'm geeking out over it. I ordered it with the 1TB 5400 rpm hdd, but I put in a new Samsung 830 128gb ssd and W8 pro as soon as I got my hands on it. For those of you planning to swap out the hdd w/ an ssd you may run into an error when installing W8 that says something along the lines of "cannot install on MBR partitioned drive" or "cannot locate partition to install". If you do let me know and I can help. Now, the only problem is I cannot get onto Lenovo's site to download the drivers since their site isn't loading. I tried getting the GT650M drivers from Nvidia's site, but found out they can only be installed through the manufacturer provided driver. I seriously think Lenovo puts all their money and resources into research/development/design and their support is just an after thought lol.

 

Wow i ordered on the 22nd and they delayed it 3 times already, they offered me $50 after the 2nd delay if i dont cancel and assured me it wouldn't get delayed again.... gonna have to call them again...

 

I FIXED IT muhahahaha
when i pulled out the battrey to repackage it i saw somethin dangling near the broken lock so i pushed the lock peice from the top and took a pencil to correct the placement of the object then i heard a loud snap. i checked to see that the lokc was in place and working like advertised.....YESSSSS
that for the help though

 

i just installed the nvidia 310.70 drivers and they work pretty well. it fixed the shuttring prroblem that i got in fifa

 

update i lost brightness controls
update i gained the controls back after installing the drivers on their website.....
update i think i found the solution
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/IdeaPad-Y-U-V-Z-and-P-series/Z560-Brightness-levels/td-p/411563

 

I have a Y400 but can you guys check on your 500s if there is any whine coming from the laptop? If i flip mine over and listen from the big vent on the back its very loud and noticeable. I feel like a dog and this laptop is a dog whistle right now. Is this normal or not?

 

Nice! That is good it was fixable and you didn't have to deal with support

 

The Lenovo drivers page is up again and I got the NVidia drivers. I also noticed the brightness controls weren't functional until I installed the energy management drivers.

 

where are the energy managment drivers

 

@malinka
i am sorry but i donot seem to have that issue

 

My 500 is silent and has no whine, just barely audible fan noise which is normal. Does your y400 whine when it's both plugged in and on battery?

It could be quite a few different things like a bad fan bearing, power supply, mobo inductor/capacitor or hdd. If the whine is that noticeable I would just call Lenovo and escalate the issue and demand a new replacement laptop. That's just me, I believe you shouldn't have to troubleshoot a brand new laptop especially when it's a seemingly mechanical issue.

 

Has anyone experienced an issue with the the computer shutting off randomly.I seem to be experiencing an issue where when I play League of Legend or Guild Wars 2. Every time the game starts up it just shuts off automatically; I tried re-downloading the drivers and installing the beta 310.70 driver, but I am still experiencing the same issue. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

 

@feet
I played fifa 13 on it and did not have that issue at all

 

@mohammad
All you did was install the 310 beta drivers? I can't seem to even rate my laptop a system rating without if shutting down

 

They seem to have deleted the energy management drivers could you reupload them please

 

@feet
no it does not die after reaching the screen
poor wiring results in that. i am sorry to say you have to argue with lenovo

 

I think the whine is coming from the HDD. It doesnt make a difference whether its plugged in or not.

Oddly enough when the HDD is working on something full swing like for example i had to extract a very large file with Winrar the sound lessened and i could hear the normal sounds a hard drive would make and between those sounds i heard the whine come up and then normal hdd sounds. However when the laptop is just idle it continues a relentless whine. Its like a tea kettle thats almost ready to be taken off the stove thats the best way to describe it. Its pretty damn annoying.

I was gonna go check the macbook downstairs to see if it had a similar issue but then i realized it has a 256gb ssd lmao and although i plan to get a OCZ vertex4 256gb ssd in here eventually currently i cannot spend $200 for it.

I thought a loud normal hdd sound was obnoxious but now after experiencing this i would prefer it. I never once heard of a hard drive making that sound. I have had a motherboard in my past rig make that sound though i was able to remedy it. Not sure how i would go about getting this hard drive to stop that bloody sound its driving me nuts.

 

Has anyone tried to reformat and install Windows 8/7 via USB? I used the windows 7 usb tool to make a bootable usb stick with windows 8 on it but there is nothing in the BIOS to let me choose boot priority. There is just an option for enabling usb boot and thats enabled by default but when i restart the system it just loads up windows. Help here would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to deal with this bloatware that comes preinstalled even after uninstalling there are still lingering trash files that i would rather not fish for so a clean install would be best for me.

I doubt that its not working because i used a W7 usb tool isnt it the same concept? All it does is takes an ISO file and makes it bootable from the USB in a couple minutes saving you the time from doing it manually or am i missing something? I mean the tool said it was created successfully and all that.

Also a bit off topic from the above. I see there are 4 status LEDs 1 for battery 1 for power 1 for caps lock and then the last one i have no idea what that is? It looks like a display with a line through it. Also appears on the F6 key. My guess is its if you have an external display hooked up you can hit Fn and F6 to quickly switch to that display or have some options come up to let you choose what you want to do? Just trying to learn this machine as best i can. man i miss my desktop we will be reunited one day... one day...

 

nevermind about the usb boot problem apparently there is an option through windows 8 that allows you to boot into the usb xD damn this new OS

 

I had to go to the Y580 drivers pages since all the Y500 drivers aren't available yet. Go here Lenovo Support - Drivers & Software (US) and type y580 in the box then it will bring you to the drivers page. You'll find it under the power management tab.

 

Question for the owners - does the screen wobble when you move the laptop around? I have ideapad Z570 and the screen wobbles a lot (which I can't stand).

Thanks.

 

After a couple of hrs hold time I talked with a supervisor. No change in what they would tell me until finally, after much back and forth, she said I would be placed on priority for a replacement. Still same 5 days before I would be given any info. Really really poor customer service.

 

Did you use a clean win8 then upgrade to pro or did you use a win8 pro? Did you use an iso image or do you mean you cloned the win8 to the ssd then upgraded to win8 pro? Would be very interested in your procedure. I have a 256 gb msata drive waiting to install when I get my replacement in.

 

It does not wobble enough to be noticeable. the screen is pretty stiff. i did not have the z570 so i cannot explain how much better or worse it is. but to me the screen remains in place even when i move it around.
ps you wont be moving it around a lot, due to the unforgivable weight

 

Yeah their customer service and support can be extremely poor. At least you tried. Hopefully they ship it out sooner

 

I used an OEM W8 pro disk and license key, though I did not have to enter the key during install. I thought this was strange then found out the basic W8 license is integrated into BIOS, which I assume is why the key isn't on the Windows sticker as it used to be with previous versions. After installation I upgraded to pro by going to windows explorer then right clicking on 'computer' to bring up the user experience index window and clicked on 'get more out of windows' to enter my key.

 

Thanks for the reply!
Did you load the drivers from the existing 1tb HD or did you find them elsewhere? I assume no driver difference in win8 versus win8 pro? I need the clean install - to heck with all the garbage they loaded on. Hopefully I will receive my replacement soon. I purchased a mydigital 256 gb msata. If I don't think it fast enough I will replace the 1tb hd with a 480 gb neutron ssd. I have 16gb ram on hand. Plan to use for video editing.

 

I loaded the drivers from Lenovo's site: Lenovo Support - Home (US)

The problem is not all the Y500 drivers are listed yet and I had to go to the Y580 drivers page as well. Here's what I did in order:

- Nvidia and Realtek audio drivers from Y500 page (NVidia drivers cannot be installed from the NVidia site, only from Lenovo)

- Power management, touchpad, and usb 3.0 drivers from Y580 page

- Intel wireless drivers by going to Intel® Driver Update Utility

- Dolby v4 software for the JBL speakers by going to Dolby Home Theater v4 for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad S430
For some reason this is the only page you can download the dolby from, but it's the same software that comes installed on the Y500. It's definitely worth it, the dolby makes the speakers sound amazing and there is a huge difference without it.

- Then of course install Java and Adobe flash for browsing

I believe those are the bare minimum drivers that can be installed, I did not install Lenovo One Touch recovery or anything else. I'm using Samsung 830 SSD and it's blazing fast. Complete start up takes 12-13 seconds. The only problem is now I wish I had gotten a 256gb instead of 128gb.

 

Thanks a lot!

 

y500, windows update today. Downloaded and installed 11 updates. When it got to the reboot and configure it got to 15% then failed. Re-downloaded then tried again. It still fails at 15% and reverts to older config.
Any ideas why?
Thought it may be a Microsoft problem but did update on a win8 desktop and it did fine.
Anyone else have this problem with y500 win8 updates today?

 

No problems with my Y500 I'm all up to date with W8 as of now. Try installing the updates one at a time in order of release date instead of all at once. That has helped me before when I've ran into issues with Windows updates.

 

Thanks. Just have to wait until my replacement gets here. The 2nd y500 unit I bought (ordered at same time) is working OK but will not be upgrading it. I also have an 830 in a desktop - nice ssd.

 

This worked for all but one. Finally had to disable a process. On a search found where a whole bunch of people were having problems with that particular update so it was microsoft and not lenovo issue. It worked after disabling the process.

 

Guya i found a graphics driver update to 306.30 that does support brightness control
it is one the chinesase lenovo website under drivers of y500 of windows 7
and yes they also have drivers that can make our y500 work with windows 7 for those who do not like the new interface

 

Anyone tried to remove the back cover on their Y500/400? I need to swap out the HDD for an SSD but the bloody bugger wont lift off. There are 8 screws which i removed and i was able to lift some of it off but the rest of it is taking way too much force than necessary and i really dont want to break anything. Help?

Lenovo Y400 Y500 Full Disassembly - YouTube

This makes it look freakin effortless... what am i doing wrong?

 

Nevermind... i had to pry the damn thing open with a flathead screwdriver. Ridiculous lol

 

a question
Where can i find the OEM wallpapers that were shown off at CES when the laptop was revealed. i specifically remmember there being a DO MACHINE lockscreen and a wallpaper with Kratos jumping out of a y500
they were cool but what i got was some white water drop thing wallpaper that was plain ugly

 

Windows 7 confirmed to be working with the Y500

 

Am I blind or the SLI version of y500 is not available on lenovo website (us) anymore?!

 

I was wondering the same thing for the y400. Neither of the models explicitly state on the spec sheet if its SLI compatible or not.. Just bought the base model for y400 and wondering if it has the ultrabay like the lenovo user manual states for both y4 and 5

 

I got the Y500 mainly for work and multimedia, but want to get into gaming. I just got Street Fighter X Tekken and it's running at 18 FPS at 1080p with anti-aliasing off. Even at 720p setting it is 30FPS and unplayable. I would think the 650m would be able to handle this game with high fps at good resolution. Is there some setting that I'm missing?

 

how do you bypass the Locked intergated Win8 in the BIOS?

how can I install the Win7 in the SSD and plug it into the Y500 ?
going to get the samsung 840 pro 256GB

Help please.