Y500 Owners and Questions Thread

does the non-sli model come with the 170watt charger?

also thanks for all the answers!

 

Afraid not, which is why I believe Lenovo sells the 170w charger along with the Ultrabay graphics accessory.

 

Hi Guys,

I am about to receive my y500 today and joining the owners club .

I have a first quick question.

For the last 2 cycles of laptop purchases, I have always owned Alienware Dells where when you first power up the laptop, it prompts you to make a set of recovery DVDs just in case you need to recover the whole system in the future. I was wondering if the Lenovo y500's were similar?

Thanks guys!

 

And I believe you have to purchase the two separately.

 

You are not prompted to. And I think the desired method given by Lenovo is to make the recovery image through Windows 8. The drive has a recovery partition used for the One Touch Recovery (also used to get into the BIOS fyi, press that button instead of the power button). The drive also has a partition with the drivers. Once I got a Windows 8 install disc, and moved the drivers folder to my server. I really didn't have a need for the recovery.

 

Thanks Zero.

I guess I won't need to make an image since I plan to remove the 1TB HDD and replace it using a Samsung SSD. If anything goes wrong with the fresh install into the Samsung SSD, I can just remove the SSD and re-insert the original 1TB HDD the laptop came with. Since I did not wipe or make any kinds of changes to the stuff in the 1TB HDD, the laptop should be able to boot up normally into the original system settings. I dont think lenovo installs any software into the mSATA 16GB caching SSD that came in the mSATA connector and I also plan to remove that initially but replace that one day with a larger mSATA SSD.

 

Yeah I did about the same but I used my machine for a bit so I had steam installs and stuff I need to move when I get my SSD. I also did a clean install of Windows 8 just to verify my install disc was correct and see what I needed to load, how long it would take, moving my steam installs, etc. But I kept the partitions in tact so I should be able to use One Touch on that drive I think or get Lenovo to send me the disks. I also uninstalled the Express Cache software and reformatted the 16GB mSATA to use temporarily. But I am going to remove it for the Windows 8 install to the SSD to make sure there aren't any hidden partitions installed or anything.

 

Just don't accidentally delete the hidden GPT partitions if you did a UEFI Windows 8 installation. That would be very bad LOL.

 

Well not sure if I did or not. I just went through the normal install, didn't even format the drive so it would keep the Windows.old folder so I could copy all my steam stuff. So not sure if I messed up the GPT partitions or not. I didn't change anything in the BIOS. But it did boot and all. Although its kind of moot since I am putting in the SSD tomorrow.

 

OK got it. If you really messed something up it wouldn't boot anyway.

 

Yeah thats what I thought. I am going to just do the same for the SSD, pop in it and install.

 

I guess this would not be a concern if I just removed the 1TB HDD and popped in the new SSD correct? In fact, I plan to remove BOTH the 1TB HDD and the mSATA at the same time and pop in the new regular SSD to a fresh install.

This way, as posted earlier, if I somehow messed the fresh install up on the SSD, all I would do would be to pop back in the original 1TB HDD and I would be ok again. I think.... Logically, all the data and hidden partitions should be stored in the 1TB HDD that the laptop came with.

 

Yeah that should be fine. The warning is for people who may not have experience with UEFI and GPT and think that all the hidden partitions are unnecessary and delete them. If you install Windows 8 with UEFI the drive needs to be converted to GPT and there will be 4 partitions (3 hidden) created by default. Definitely might confuse people coming from Windows 7 or earlier who are used to legacy BIOS and MBR because that installation only creates one partition by default.

 

Yup. I am not familiar with UEFI and GPT.

Just doing a clean install by booting the Laptop either with a Win 8 USB stick iso, or by attaching an external DVD drive with a Win 8 iso dvd.

 

Did you make the installation media UEFI-bootable or are you planning to install via legacy BIOS? If you find that you can't make the DVD or USB stick show up on the boot menu in UEFI that means the media isn't UEFI-bootable and you'll have to modify it slightly so that it is. It will be very helpful to read the tutorials on EightForums.com which will guide you through everything.

I'd suggest doing a native UEFI installation for the best boot time and hardware integration. GPT doesn't matter so much because you probably won't run into the size limitations of MBR but it is required for UEFI installation. UEFI and GPT are the future and old implementations such as BIOS will be eventually be completely phased out.

 

I plan to:

Go to the UEFI boot menu. Set UEFI = LEGACY MODE. Set Boot Priority = LEGACY FIRST.

I think the above step would allow me to boot the win 8 install either from a windows 8 iso on a USB stick or an attached external DVD drive containing the win 8 iso. I think.....

Would doing a native UEFI install be a large noticeable difference compared to the above method?

 

Is there any reason that you want to do a legacy installation of Windows 8? You should be able to boot from the media just fine in UEFI if it's unmodified, otherwise it's an easy fix to make it UEFI-bootable.

 

I think you're going through too much trouble by trying to follow octiceps' suggestion of going UEFI.

UEFI currently does not have any benefit for Lenovo Y500 users. You aren't going to be booting off a drive with >2TB partition, you aren't going to have a drive with more than 4 partitions, and you don't go through a lengthy POST time today. Therefore, you get practically no speed benefits.

The other benefits of UEFI and the idea of UEFI "being the future" will not have a practical impact on an end-user for several years. But today, in the one situation of re-installing Windows 8 on a Lenovo Y500 using a USB flash drive, you are better off disabling UEFI and going with Legacy Boot mode. Just because UEFI is newer, doesn't automatically make it better.

 

Hey kent1146.

I am about to receive my y500 today, and was already planning to use your steps to install a fresh copy of win 8 onto a SSD. For the iso , do I need to do any special steps to install it onto the USB stick, or can I just drag and drop a copy of the iso file onto the USB stick? A friend might be able to burn his copy of win 8 iso onto a DVD for me to try out. He does not need any special burning instuctions right? Just pop in his copy of win 8 DVD and burn the iso copy onto a blank dvd?

Thanks!

 

Follow my instructions to the exact letter.

In my instructions, I refer to a guide (posted by MaximumPC) that teaches you how to take an ISO file and convert it into a bootable USB Drive or DVD disc by using a tool called Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool.

Use the Windows 7 USb / DVD Download tool.
* Step 1: tell it which Windows 8 ISO to use.
* Step 2: tell it which media (USB drive) to use
* Step 3: Confirm that you are allowing that USB drive to get wiped clean.
* Step 4: Profit.

 

Got it! You are da MAN! Thanks for your patience.

 

I'm sorry but I don't get it. If Retail x64 Windows 7 and Windows 8 DVD's are already UEFI-bootable what's the point of doing things like disabling Secure Boot and changing to legacy BIOS if it already works and installs just fine without having to tweak anything? I even modified my ISO by adding the ei.cfg file so I could install Windows 8 Pro and it still worked just fine with UEFI and Secure Boot. Regardless of whether you think UEFI is beneficial or not isn't it kind of wasted effort to have to go through all that trouble?

 

GUYS SUPER IMPORTANT QUESTION!

IdeaPad Y500 15.6" Laptop | Shop | Lenovo | (CA)

WHAT IS BETTER:
16GB RAM with 1TB HDD + SLI 750M

OR

8GB RAM with 1TB HDD + 16GB SSD + SINGLE 750M

price difference is $150

quickly must know sooooon

 

Ok Guys WHAT you all been waiting for found this thanks to theagent on slickdeals y500 750m sli 3dmark11 score...
View attachment 95466
Nvidia Inspector set to +40MHz and +80MHz respectively, for the base clock of each GPU. Not a huge jump...but it's something.

View attachment 95467 View attachment 95468 View attachment 95469

 

I'd get the SLI one, but the difference on the Lenovo website is $230 not $150.

 

Yeah, I called in to get a discount on it.

thanks, I'm leaning towards the SLI too.

 

Get the sli its like having a gtx675mx worth the extra $..

 

is the 16GB ssd a seperate drive? can I add one in later?

 

That 16gb msata is crap most likely you will add a bigger msata and install windows then use the 1tb as storage, or just get a SSD and replace the 1tb. As for the sli gpu you can buy that down the line with the bigger 170w power brick..

 

how many HDD slots are there while using the ultrabay as a GPU slot?

Can I add in another SSD while keeping the 1TB?

 

That's the way to do it my man. A little bit of over-the-phone haggling can go a long way. You wouldn't believe how much I paid for everything in my sig.

Yes the 750M SLI will be plenty fast. Will be close to but probably not on the level of a GTX 675MX unless SLI scaling was perfect, and it never is. 3DMark might say they're even but 3DMark scores aren't a very accurate indicator of actual game performance.

It's not crap. I looked up the specs. It's a SanDisk and is quite fast. Only problem is they overcharge you for the upgrade so it is much more cost-effective to buy a larger mSATA SSD and pop that in instead.

There is one hard drive bay beside the Ultrabay. You can use an mSATA SSD.

 

at the risk of sounding stupid, what's msata ssd?

any performance difference, also how much is it and how easy is it to install?

 

Let me google that for you

 

haha I did that after asking. So just to confirm this will fit into the Y500 alongside the 1TB HDD?

 

Yep. 10char.

 

Well i am talking about the size really cant do anything with it other then a cache. Most people like myself replace with bigger size.

 

10char....

 

octiceps: how much did you get your unit for?

 

I got the laptop along with the Ultrabay GPU and 170W AC adapter separately. $959 for everything.

This was before the 750M models came out and prices were generally a little lower, especially for the accessories. And haggling helped too.

 

I was going to say Newegg has it for 900, but I realized it's the i5 version and it doesn't come with a power adapter, nice stuff!



On that note, 750M ultrabay is now for sale for $229.99 (credit to vito357si from the slickdeals thread):

Y500 - Removable Ultrabay SLI Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce GT750M GDDR5 2GB | Lenovo | (US)

 

And the Newegg version doesn't come with a DVD drive.

Looks like the Ultrabay GT 750M has replaced the 650M on Lenovo's website. The 750M has the exact same part number and the 650M is no longer available. I wonder what will happen to 650M owners who want SLI from now on, unless the 750M Ultrabay can SLI with the 650M.

 

I saw someone post on Lenovo's website about this and Lenovo's response was that the 750M (Which is bad btw) fits in the same slot.

 

Oh wow, good stuff.

 

I just received my new Y500 (GT 750m) and tried installing the latest nvidia drivers (314.22 for notebooks) but encounter an error stating that the compatible hardware cannot be found. Any other owners out there also having this issue?

 

I don't doubt that it physically fits, but if your main GPU is the 650M will it even get recognized by the system?

And how is the 750M "bad?" Or did you mean to use an expletive but were blocked by the language filter?

 

You have to use Lenovo's provided driver for the 750M. The ones on the Nvidia website don't support the 750M yet.

 

Ah okay, I guess I'll have to wait for the next revision. Thanks a bunch!

 

Hi Guys,

Am about to swap out my 1TB HDD with the Samsung 840 and start the fresh install process. Just have a few questions about the drivers from the Lenovo site.

1) Under the "Network: Wireless Lan" section, there are listed 3 different drivers:

a) Intel WiMax Driver for Windows 8

b) Intel WLAN Driver for Windows 8

c) WLAN Driver (CyberTan/Broadcom, Liteon/Atheros) for Windows 8

DO you guys install all 3? I dont see a specific driver for the Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230.


2) Under the Bluetooth and Modem section, there are these drivers listed:

a) Intel Bluetooth Driver for Windows 8

b) Bluetooth Driver (CyberTan/Broadcom, Liteon/Atheros) for Windows 8

Install both? In our system specs it says we have Bluetooth Version 4.0.



3) Under the "Storage" section, there is just 1 driver listed:

a)Intel Rapid Storage Technology for Windows 8

Even if we replace the HDD with the SDD, I am assuming we still will need to install this driver?


Thanks for any pointers!

 

For 1&2 just click the Setup file in the root of the folder and it will run a .bat that checks hardware ID's so it installs the correct drivers. Don't go into the folders of the different drivers unless you know exactly what hardware you have.

You still need to install number 3.

I would forgo all of the above and install the latest drivers from the Intel Download Center. I didn't install the drivers from the drivers partition except for the touchpad, webcam, and Lenovo Energy Management. Fo everything else I used the latest driver from the manufacturer's website. You would have to use Lenovo's provided graphics driver though because Nvidia has not released an official one for the 750M yet.

 

For 1 and 2, just install the intel driver, those other drivers are for different brands of cards. The Y500 uses an intel card for both wifi and Bluetooth.
3. Yes, install it.