Y500 Owners and Questions Thread

Hmmm. I'm in the process of installing a clean copy of Windows 7 on an a blank SSD I put into the Y500. Are you saying that's not going to work? The original HDD won't even be in there any more.

 

I might do this once my Y500 gets back from RMA. I would probably do a guide for a fresh install with no bloatware though, instead of the standard Windows 8 re-install which is already covered all over google and on lenovo's support site.

 

I tried uninstalling a couple things but they still leave traces on the computer. Like I still see McAfee folders in both C and D drive.

 

My work IT department has put a blank SSD in place of the HDD, and is trying to install a clean copy of Windows 7 pro on the blank SSD, via the optical drive. Is there any reason that won't work? Any need to change the bios settings, like Uefi setting?

Would really appreciate any advice you have ASAP, as they are getting tired of trying to make this work for me and having it fail.

The more I read about UEFI, the more I fear this ain't gonna work. It seems I need to disable secure boot and do a mess of other things. Is that right? If so, is this worth attempting to do, through the web tutorials I'm seeing, or is it a pipe dream that I will get Windows 7 onto this machine (with a new SSD drive, not the original HDD)?

If it is a pipe dream, I've got a lot of boxing up and returning to do. Bummer.

 

It works. I did a clean install of win7 on my Y400 on a brand new hard drive. Boot to bios and set mode to legacy instead of UEIF and disable safeboot. Takes no longer than 1 minute. Then install windows7 as you normally would (booting from cd).

 

Getting down to crunch time, and my IT department is poised to give up.

They set the BIOS to Legacy Support and Legacy First. They also changed the BIOS setting “OS Optimized Defaults” to "Other OS" from "Win8 64bit."

Is there a separate setting for disabling safeboot they need to change?

When they put in a Win 7 disc and try to install, they get "bootguard Geom Error."

Is it possible the problem is that they put in a 240GB SSD, and took out the original HDD? I still have a crucial M4 that I could ask them to put in, and install the OS there. Might that fix it?

Can anyone be my white knight, and tell me how to make this happen?

 

There should be a separate tab in the BIOS to disable safeboot (maybe in the security tab). You may need to change boot priority also and set the DVD dive to boot first.

 

Yeah he means the blu ray player.

Personally, I'm glad I picked dual graphics. I just download 1080p mkv movies

 

When you say ASUS do you mean a laptop or a monitor? If it's a monitor than it could just be the TV. If you mean a laptop, then yea the hdmi sounds defective.

 

Actually, when we talk about "media" we mean "Windows 8 installation media" such as a flash drive or DVD.

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On a different note, my Y500 just arrived! Unfortunately I'm already noticing how slow the stock HDD is compared to my M4-equipped desktop. The i5 version of the Y500 I got doesn't have the 16Gb cache drive :'( Dont worry, I knew that haha

Am I able to purchase any mSATA drive, install it, and have it act as a cache? The problem seems to be finding one that's a reasonable size -- not too much larger than 16Gb. Will a cache drive make it feel as if Windows is installed on a solid state?

If anyone wants to unload theirs to offset their SSD upgrade cost, I'd be happy to help! PM me.

 

You can easily find 16gb msata ssd drives. It's just you'd have to configure it to be a cache. I think th ebest way would be to use Intel's caching software and following that. Lenovo's inhouse caching software is very buggy.

 

What should I do? I have an 830samsung ssd 256gb in old laptop

But I really don't want to wipe/reinstall (twice) since I'm gonna use old laptop as a server for movies/downloading them I have hope the 1tb with 16gb cache will suffice me with comparable program response etc as my old i7/ssd drive

Would you swap 1tb into old laptop and ssd into y500? I worry reinstalling etc everything wont function as well as the stock 1tb/cache

I mean I dunno :/

 

It's an Asus laptop. The odd thing is that I found it doesn't produce the distortion at certain lower resolutions, as when I was playing bioshock infinite. The regular 1080p and 720 (same as the external monitor connected over vga without problems) resolutions produced the distortion. I'm about to install windows 7 fresh and see if that changes anything. I pray that it's not the hdmi port, or the graphics card itself.

 

I have 64gb msata lying idle. Can I use it for main hdd and move the 1TB hdd as secondary drive. I intent to install just win 8 pro and Visual Studio 2012 on msata. Please advice

 

Ok, so apparently a fresh W7 install didn't help with the tv/monitor issue. I'm going to try connecting this laptop to another HDtv tomorrow via hdmi and see if it does the same thing. It's really a horrible bug, whatever the cause .

***EDIT***

S***! I finally figured this damn thing out, I spent almost 2 hours looking up this problem and troubleshooting with every kind of display tweak you can think of. Finally got results by playing with the settings on the Nvidia control panel> adjust desktop color settings menu. Apparently, there could be an issue with the bandwidth through the hdmi output and/or the cord itself. Either way, I found that, primarily, having the color format in RGB was the main problem, producing copious amounts of blue pixel static on dark backgrounds. I switched it to YCbcr444 mode, and most of it went away. I then had to adjust the other color settings, mostly gamma, to get rid of the rest for all colors on the screen. Right now I have nearly zero distortions no matter what color the screen is displaying. I can sure as hell say this, amd gets 1,00000000 points for being far more user friendly. Never once had to manually adjust a screen/monitor like this just to get it to not look like its completely broken with AMD :/.

Aside from that, Windows 7 is working wonderfully, and fast as all hell. Much speedier than the windows 8 factory install. Heck, just with my slowmo quality SSD in this laptop, this thing boots in 5 to 7 seconds! It's insanely fast.

 

Nice job!

I myself on the other hand, am having a very VERY difficult time taming 'the beast'. I've only had it for 12 hours or so and it's already crashed completely (screen turns a random color) 5 times while restarting games or minimizing them to check the W8 resource monitor. I've done all windows updates, tried a couple different nVidia driver versions, and removed some of the bloat-ware. Something isn't quite right here.

Also even when I disable SLI and mess with v-sync and physx settings, no matter what graphics quality I choose (low or ultra) the processor is always pegged while gaming, pushing over 100% in turbo mode, I'm playing crappy/older games like APB Reloaded and Red Orchestra 2. Can someone give me a quick rundown of BIOS #, nVidia driver, nVidia settings, etc to make the Y500 stable? I have a bootable USB of W8 at the ready. Please help me!

Red Orchestra 2 on high with SLI. GPU temps are staying at 65C, for sure under 70C. The CPU usage skyrocketed as soon as went in-game and dropped when I minimized.


All Points Bulletin: Reloaded on medium, SLI disabled. Same story here. Gameplay is pretty terrible in both cases. It stutters like the CPU is pegging it's limiter.


I'm gonna go cry now.

 

If you can, I'd suggest moving to Windows 7. It's much more stable, and smoother. The stock W8 on this machine is just such a cluttered mess of incompatibilities :/.

 

Update:

I've extracted all W8 info from the computer using this guide HERE
I also backed up my recovery partition using the first set of steps HERE

In trying to install a fresh copy of W8, I wasn't able to install on any partition of the drive due to the error mentioned HERE I'll try UEFI mode next.

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Unfortunately, the copy I have of Windows 7 is already in use. Are you playing games on it yet? Any driver/software issues?
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Would a cache drive really speed up the system overall or just in specific events such as startup/shutdown? What are the real world differences vs. just the stock HDD?

Update #2:
Making a UEFI-bootable USB flash drive using a Windows 8 .iso ( instructions I'm using )

Update #3:
USB now shows up in boot menu! (UEFI mode) Now following instructions HERE

All partitions deleted. There's no turning back now

 

I did a fresh install of Windows 7 on my chronos SSD, which is a rather low performing SSD. Even so, the speed increase is amazing compared to the stock configuration/OS. Can't say how much is due to a lean install, the W7 architecture, or the SSD itself, but from what I can see its far better than W8. I haven't had any stability issues with programs. I'm playing games and overclocking flawlessly now .

BTW, has anyone tried to modify the cpu speeds at all? I really want to be able to lock this laptop at its boost speed, instead of letting it throttle down all the time.

 

A clean install of Windows 8 will be faster than a clean install of WIndows 7 in nearly all instances. The ridiculous amount of bloatware Lenovo preloads on this machine would bog down any system. Despite it's horrible UI Windows 8 is a more efficent operating system under the hood. After installing StartIsBack all of my Windows 8 annoyances have been resolved and Metro is pretty much gone for good. It's my favorite OS now and that's coming from a Windows 7 fanatic.

In order to lock the CPU at Turbo Boost all the time you will need to get an unlocked BIOS and disable C-states then use ThrottleStop to force the highest multiplier. I don't not recommend this at all because it drains the battery faster and won't improve performance even in synthetic benchmarks (I've tested it extensively). The battery life on this machine is already less-than-stellar due to lack of Optimus and you're disabling Intel's great energy management scheme for no performance benefit.

 

You don't experience more consistent/smooth framerates in demanding games when the cpu clock is kept stable at the boost level? I know for my old AMD cpu it made a big difference.

 

No I don't. My CPU is always running at it's maximum Turbo Boost multiplier in games regardless of whether I disable C-states. But I do notice it when my battery is draining quicker.

The transition period from when an Intel CPU is downclocked at idle to when it's boosted is near instantaneous (milliseconds) so there is no performance benefit from keeping it locked at it's highest speed all the time.

If you're getting performance drops due to sudden CPU downclocking I would see if there are temperature issues or throttling going on. ThrottleStop is a great tool for diagnosing CPU problems and maintaining peak performance and I would recommend every laptop owner with an Intel CPU use it.

 

Alright guys, my Windows 8 fresh install went ok, but now I can't get the camera to work. Skype and testmycam.com aren't displaying anything even though the status light comes on.

Sound, mic, display, USB, and keyboard Fn all work. I have yet to test the HDMI -- I am fearful.

Update:
Installing either Windows 8 or Windows 7 (compatibility mode) webcam drivers and selecting them in Device Manager is not working. Can someone take a screenshot of their working camera driver?
I would tell you what path it is -- Device Manager > [camera] > EasyCam > Properties etc. -- but my camera just disappeared from the device manager list after a restart.

 

I'm now experimenting with sticking with Windows 8, and I have installed a Crucial M4 256GB SDD in the mSATA slot. What changes do I need to make to the BIOS (or elsewhere) to have the drive show up in My Computer?

 

I'm still not sold on Windows 8 at all, but I will admit that the intel cpu does very well in changing clock speed. I truly haven't noticed much of a problem with it, so far at least.

I do have one more major problem that's still plaguing me/this laptop. I finally fixed the distortions on the external hdmi screen, but whenever I connect an external hard drive through the usb ports, it causes the hdmi screen to start blinking on and off. To the point where it's unusable. I'm left to ask again, would this be a problem with the USB cord, or is there really something going on with the hdmi port or the motherboard?

 

geez this laptop seems like its nothing but problems is that pretty normal for laptops now a days?

 

I don't have this exact problem, but when I plug in an external HDD into one of the left side USB ports while a mouse is plugged in right next to it, the mouse goes completely nuts and starts lagging and skipping all over the screen. It's utterly unbearable on battery but seems to go away when plugged in. Don't know if this is an issue of inadequate power or device conflicts, but it seems similar given that you are having problems with the HDMI port and it is in the same area.

 

Yea, maybe. I've been testing this damn thing for hours now, and so far it looks like two things aggravate my current tv monitor hdmi setup. Primarily, when I plug or unplug usb devices, the thing starts to flicker, mostly going black. Second, when I navigate quickly through file folders, it sends it into flickering mode again. I'm not sure what the relationship there is..., except that I can induce the flickering by flipping through folders even when the USB ports are all vacant :/.

However, any resolutions I set to 30hz or less dont give me flickering issues. This is a 22" 1080p Vizio. I've never had problems doing all this stuff at 60hz with my asus laptop. But for some reason, any 60/59hz resolutions produce this flickering problem. Sigh... I'm at a loss.

Yea, maybe. I've been testing this damn thing for hours now, and so far it looks like two things aggravate my current tv monitor hdmi setup. Primarily, when I plug or unplug usb devices, the thing starts to flicker, mostly going black. Second, when I navigate quickly through file folders, it sends it into flickering mode again. I'm not sure what the relationship there is..., except that I can induce the flickering by flipping through folders even when the USB ports are all vacant :/.

However, any resolutions I set to 30hz or less dont give me flickering issues. This is a 22" 1080p Vizio. I've never had problems doing all this stuff at 60hz with my asus laptop. But for some reason, any 60/59hz resolutions produce this flickering problem. And it doesn't happen when Im placking action packed games at 60hz resolutions. Sigh... I'm at a loss.

 

Hahha i like the way you think!

Im thinking about buying the i7 y500 from lenovo and purchasing the sli later. I mainly want to get if for Battle Field 4, but it will also be my school laptop so i need something reliable. Y500 OWNERS could u please put my mind to rest on a few issues?

1.Is it sturdy/well built?

2.Are the keyboards and mouse pad issues gone?

3. does it run hot? (obviously when i play bf4, but when im browsing the net or watching WHO)

4. do you find the touchpad annoying?

5. can i play bf4 on my 40" tv via hdmi?

Thank you in advance!

 

For people who were helping me or watching my progress, everything is working quite splendidly now! The camera wasn't working with any drivers I threw at it; however, when I installed recommended windows updates, everything became awesome. I'm running nVidia 310.90 at the moment. Unfortunately, SLI is still performing terribly on my Steam games, but a single 650m with SLI disabled is running TF2 on high while staying at 60 fps and under 60C the entire time -- NICE!

I would say it's better-built than the G51Jx I owned last. Nothing creaks, there's no rubberized palm rest (thank god), and the main body is fairly sturdy. My only gripes are that the screen is pretty flexible (under torsion) and the hinges have weaker holding power than my Dell E1505, Dell M6500, and Asus G51Jx. The weaker hinges may be a good thing. When hinges get loose, it's mostly their mounting screws backing out. I love the aluminum lid and keyboard surround/palm rest surfaces on this thing!

My i5 SLI from Newegg has no keyboard issues or mousepad issues. Dates of installation on this laptop are from 3/11/2013

It will be spitting hot air out the left side, but that's about it. The most discomfort I felt with it in my lap was from being too cold! Thankfully, the cool air intake runs 80% of the laptop's width so it is difficult to block completely and raise temps.

I do find the trackpad annoying, but I haven't had it long enough to get used to it. I'm sure it will become only a slight irritation in the future.

I can't comment on this. I'm sure you could as long as you're not rendering on both screens.

Cheers!


Edit: I just bought a 64Gb Crucial mSATA from newegg for $85. Hopefully I'll be using it as an overkill cache for my trip and when I get back (and if I'm bored enough) I'll put W8 on it.
Rapid Storage (/Rapid Start) for mSATA SSDs >32Mb

Here's a relevant video
<iframe width='560' height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2oW7zGFDVa0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Can anyone help with this? I assume that if you install the Crucial and change no settings, the Y500 still thinks of it as a cache drive, which is why it doesn't appear in My Computer. What do I need to change to have it thought of as a secondary hard drive?

 

Does it show up if you...
right-click on My Computer and select Manage
in the tree on the left, select Disk Management (under Storage)
...?

I don't know the proper way to do it, but I imagine it would involve uninstalling the ReadyCache software and formatting the drive. My stock Y500 had a ridiculous number of partitions for C:\ -- maybe 7? I wonder if the cache would display as a C:\ partition.

 

Service Manual
http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/ideapad_y400y500_hmm_1st_edition_sep_2012_english.pdf

 

Hi All

This is my first post here and Im afraid it isnt a good one. I have tried to find a solution to this problem everywhere but have had no luck so I hope someone here can help.

The problem with my Y500 (win 8 64 bit) is my wireless card. Im not sure if it is the card or the drivers but I have terribly slow and intermittent connection. I do not have this problem when I use a LAN cable. I have tried updating the drivers from both the lenovo and intel websites with no success. Can any one help me out? Thanks in advance

Jamesalllingham.

 

I'm just desperately trying to avoid re-installing the OS. My work IT department is helping me with this (and being incredibly nice about it), but reinstalling the OS seems to be a huge headache (losing drivers, losing auto-recovery, etc.). If I could leave Windows 8 as it is, and still get to use my mSATA working as a secondary SSD on which to load games and other programs I want to launch like lightening, I would be much better off.

 

Does anyone know if the defective touchpads and keyboards are no longer in circulation. Specifically from lenovo. Thanks

 

I meant formatting the cache drive only. You're referring to the stock 16Gb mSATA SSD, correct? The SSD is only caching copies of data that's on your HDD. If you're still worried, make a backup of your HDD's Lenovo recovery partition (I posted a link about how to a few pages back) on a spare external or 32Gb flash if you have one.

Might it be a router issue? Does it work on other WiFi networks? Link
I hate to suggest it, but have you called lenovo on the issue? Are there any recommended or important windows updates available? Have you tried updating the drivers? If worst comes to worst and you have to send the WiFi card in, Lenovo might cross ship the new part AND you would still have a fully functioning Y500, just plugged in. Not bad.

The bad touchpads were dealt with in Dec/Jan 2013. The keyboard? I don't know what the issue was if there ever was one. The Y500 I got from Newegg on Friday works just fine mechanically. Just in case, you should avoid buying from vendors with potentially old stock as I'm fairly certain there wasn't a recall. You would be safe to buy from Newegg, Amazon, and Lenovo for sure.

If you want a to get a better idea of what issues you might potentially face as a new Y500 owner, give this thread a quick skim. You won't regret it!

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PS: I'm not the type of expert who should be making these kind of posts. I would call myself a Google search expert if anything -- haha... However, I feel compelled to post so that the ship won't sink!

If anyone reporting issues here finds a solution that works, you should repost your problem and (most likely) link to the solution! This issues discussed here should be as fully-documented as possible -- a one-stop shop if you will.

 

It's not the stock SSD. I bought a 256 GB mSATA (Crucial M4) and have it installed. However, I want to use it as a secondary drive for installing applications I want to load more quickly (mostly games). If I just format it, will it work for that purpose?

 

Did it show up in your Disk Management window? You should see if you can reduce the cache partition on it to ~32GB so your OS can still be speedy

 

My IT department has the system right now, so I can't check. However, how does one set up a cache partition and format the drive for use as a secondary hard drive? Is such a thing possible?

 

Thanks. ive just read all 59ish pages. the keyboard issue is the most frightening i think. it just randomly starts entering keys on its own. thanks for the input

 

I havent called them yet, unfortunately, the dealer I got my Y500 from, in South Africa, has call center hours that conflict with my university times most days of the week. I will try calling tomorrow. My windows and drivers are all fully updated. Thanks for the advice.

 

I would like to put in that after waiting a month to get it from Lenovo, this laptop was well worth the wait.

For the price, the build quality, performance, design, screen, everything is stunning. I couldn't be happier with it.

I have installed my own 32gb Samsung mSata cache, and put on Windows 7. I have the DVD drive and the second GT650m.

I'm in absolute love with the machine.

I have also just got another laptop, Dell Vostro 3650 w/ i7 3632, 1tb, ATI 7690, 1080p... And this Lenovo kicks the crap out of it in every way for being similarly priced and specc'd

Seriously, I cannot overstate how awesome this machine is, and don't let the past issues get in your way from purchasing it.

Two minor things:
Touchpad isn't great, but I'm getting used to it quickly.

Touchpad doesn't seem to work at same time as keyboard when playing games? Can't move camera and walk at same time. I'm going to need to investigate, but not a big issue because I use an external mouse for gaming, and I was just running it for testing.

 

I posted this somewhere else, but does anyone here own a Lenovo Y500 (650M SLI) and play Defiance? How does it run? Can you run this on full settings? Thinking about picking up this laptop for a more portable solution when I travel. Will most likely just play Defiance, Diablo 3, SC 2 & Tera Rising.

 

Hi guys I just got this wonderful machine last week and it runs without any problems so far, quite loving it, however I got some worries regarding to the screen lid that I accidentally bent it a little bit after I close the lid and snaps my fingers...do you guys think its normal?

 

Normal that it would deform when you close the lid on an object?

 

ya pretty much but everything is still working well, it just formed a little gap between the lid and the base, I will post the picture of it later, and another thing I worry is that the lid even though is made of metal is quite flexible, thus makes me doubt about the build quality of this machine heheh

 

It doesn't have wi-di, but can y500 use vuze/plex/ps3 media software/ stream stuff over wifi? I do it with my curren tlaptop but I dont know if it uses widi or not. As i've never used the widi app. Would be reassuring to hear that it doesnt require wi-di and then this laptop is going to be a win for me. (15 more day stil it ships)

 

I must really commend this laptop (I have the y400 version) for being such a feature packed powerhouse, yet having a small profile, and great battery life. I'm getting about 5 hours on average with my y400 on power saving mode. Even better is the battery extending feature, which keeps the battery from overcharging all the time and reducing its life. It'll actually keep the battery at a constant 60% charge while it's plugged in. I sure as hell could've used that on my old Asus, which now has a rapidly dying battery, lol.

 

I wonder if my y500 has that program for battery feature, my samsung has it. I love it, keeps it charged @80 percent. no more, if it doesn't whats the program name so I can google it for lenovo @ kukri.