Y500 Owners and Questions Thread

I said a synonym for butt after that. Bad butt.

 

When you say just click the setup file of the root of the folder, were you referring to the folder inside the original HDD?

I would think that it was also best to install drivers from the Manufacturer's site. I guess the Intel Download Center will have all the drivers we need. However, for the Bluetooth 4.0, I guess it's one driver that combines both the wireless and bluetooth 4.0 . I went to the Intel download center, but could not find a specific driver for the Wireless N-2230.

Thanks for your input too

 

I want to install an msata SSD, anyone have a guide?

 

Yeah, I built a guide here ( link).

The instructions specifically say it's for a 2.5" SSD. But I have gone through a Windows 8 re-install on both a 2.5" SSD and a 256GB mSATA SSD. The steps themselves are nearly identical.

Just be sure that if you're installing Windows 8 onto an aftermarket 256GB mSATA drive, that you completely remove the 2.5" 1TB mechanical HDD during the Windows 8 install process. This is just general good-practice for Windows installations, so that your entire Windows install (including boot loader info) remains on a single drive. Otherwise, you run the risk of having the Windows 8 installer automatically placing the bootloader info & the actual Windows 8 "install" onto two separate drives.

 

Hello everyone;
After 2 Rma's in a row, lenovo finally gave me a non dented/broken synpatics touchpad. For some really unknown reason they replaced the hard drive, motherboard, and keyboard.
anyway on to the story
the windows 8 that they have installed on this new hdd is far more stabler than the one on the old hdd. but over the past 2 hours Mccafee has taken the liberty to slow down my pc to being on the verge of unusable. MS word now take time to write letters..if you know what i mean.
so on to the queston
do any of ya'll have a mainstream vius protection thing in your y500; if you do, Is your pc significantly slower?

 

To be honest, the problem isn't the brand of anti-virus software you're using. The problem is that you're using a mechanical HDD. A mechanical HDD chokes when it's trying to do too many things at once, because of low random read speeds (especially on a 5400rpm 2.5" laptop HDD). It sounds like what you need is to upgrade to a full SSD.

The nice thing about the Lenovo Y400 / Y500 is that it has an mSATA slot in addition to the traditional 2.5" SATA drive bay. That means you can install up to a 256GB SSD in the mSATA slot for OS / apps / games, and still keep your 2.5" 1TB mechanical HDD installed for bulk media storage (photos, music, videos, pr0n, etc). Something like a Crucial M4 256GB mSATA SSD will run you about $205 USD. Once you upgrade to a full SSD, you'll basically eliminate any system slowdown related to the storage system.



BTW: I happen to use Avast anti-virus for the past few years. It's effective, it's not a resource hog, and it's free. But again, switching brands of anti-virus software won't eliminate your problem. What you really need is an SSD. If you'd like examples, check out some of the videos in my signature especially the 3rd & 4th videos, where I boot a laptop and load 27 applications at once. That will give you an idea of how an SSD compares to traditional mechanical HDDs when it comes to multiple simultaneous data operations. And those videos were made in 2010, on a Core 2 Duo laptop that I bought in 2007. SSDs were that good even back then. Imagine what you can do on a modern SSD runnign on modern hardware.

 

That kind of problem isn't the hard drive. he means the whole system is acting slow. I experienced that when I was running W8 as well, particularly after I installed comodo firewall. The system would start moving at a snail's pace, kinda like an android phone with too many background processes running . I think it was windows 8 and it's crappy compatibility.

 

No, I promise you, that kind of problem is EXACTLY the symptoms of a mechanical HDD that can't keep up with multiple random read requests.

The symptom of a "whole system is acting slow" or "slow down my pc to the point of being unusable" is caused by one of two things:
1) Bottleneck on the CPU (but this very rarely the cause these days).
2) Bottleneck on the storage system.


Starting several years ago, CPUs have become ridiculously overpowered for what you do with them due to the fact that every CPU you buy these days has multiple cores. You never get total-system-slowdowns due to a CPU slowdown unless you are specifically running a highly multi-threaded application that specifically pounds the CPU (e.g. CPU-based video encoding or CPU benchmarking apps).

If you have a total-system-slowdown these days, I will bet that 99% of the time it is in a system that has a thrashing mechanical HDD (i.e. getting pounded by multiple simultaneous read/write operations). Even the traditional "speed your system up by adding more RAM" advice from the past 15+ years of computing is based on avoiding a thrashing mechanical HDD as much as possible.

 

Well the thing is that i am a low budget college student. i bought this laptop comparing it to a amd A10 trinity laptop. this laptop is kinda a gigantic leap from that,
as for a 256gb ssd i cannot afford that.
will a ssd cache of 24 gb fix the problem that i am having.
as for the Windows 8 running slow, it seems to me that there are people out there like my brother who have 6 year old laptops whose performance in windows 8 is astonishing(Luck?). it has a core 2 duo 4gb ram and some other stuff. it runs faster than my desktop and laptop. it seems really stupid that my laptop which has got a cpu passmark of 6500 more than his is running significantly slower

 

Solution: Suck it up for one semester (if you're taking summer) and save $20 a week, that's only 10 weeks. This is exactly what I am doing.

 

Guys. Need your input on this issue I am having with trying to do a fresh install on my SSD which replaced the original 1TB HDD.

So, I managed to obtain a bootable win8 Pro on a USB stick from a friend. I followed the procedure as laid out by one of the forum members (By turning secure boot OFF and switching over to Legacy) and than booting off the Windows 8 Pro install USB.

I managed to boot into the USB and into the WIn 8 Pro setup screen. The first screen I get is a license agreement screen with says that if I obtained this copy as part of a volume license than go ahead. I clicked yes, and than the install went through successfully. HOWEVER, when I check the OS install version in the control panel, I see that Windows 8 Pro is the version installed. NOT windows 8. I know that from previous postings, all users said that when they used the win8 Pro files to install, our win 8 key embedded in the Bios would activate the OS, which will result in the successful installation of win 8 (Non-Pro). But in my case, I see the Pro version as being installed. I also see that the OS has not yet been activated, and when I try to activate it , I get this message:

"WIndows cannot be Activated right now.Try activating later.If this issue persists, see your sys admin ....."

When I remove the SSD and swap back the original 1TB HDD, I am able to boot into the desktop fine(Win 8 Non-pro) and I also see that the OS key has already been 'Activated' and everything is good to go.

So, My question would be, if the current license key in the Bios has already been activated and recognised, why is it not automatically activating the OS when I did the fresh install using the windows 8 Pro media so that windows 8 non-pro can be successfully installed onto the replacement SSD? Did everyone get that volume licensing message when you were doing your fresh install from your copy of the win 8 Pro media? AM I not suceeding here because I am using a special 'volume' license install media?

Please help.

Thanks.

 

^ This.

The minimum you could get away with on a budget is a 128GB mSATA for about $140. But you can see you'd get much more bang-for-your-buck by stretching to a 256GB mSATA model.

When you were mentioning laptop specs, you only mentioned CPU & RAM multiple times. The entire time, I kept thinking "this guy hasn't mentioned at all yet whether these other computers have an SSD or HDD installed."

The 3rd and 4th videos in my signature were made in 2010, using a Core 2 Duo laptop I bought in 2007. That machine would still be faster than yours or my Lenovo Y500 with only a 1TB 2.5" 5400rpm HDD. And the entire reason that a laptop from 2007 can out-perform a machine purchased in 2013 is because it has an SSD.

 

An SSD will increase overall system responsiveness but won't give you more FPS in games since games load into memory, so that 2007 machine isn't faster than the Y500 in that regard.

Besides getting an SSD, the best advice I can give for improving overall system responsiveness and stability is to do a clean install. Getting rid of the bloatware, much of which is resource-hogging, I/O-intensive junk like McAfee, will go a long way toward removing unnecessary startup items and background services and processes. Full AV suites are notorious for decreasing system throughput and increasing everything from file transfer times to game loading and stuttering, especially on a slow 5400 RPM HDD. I don't need no stinkin' piece of software doing a background scan of every single byte that passes through my system thank you very much.

I'm still rocking the mechanical hard drive but the clean install has definitely made a difference. When I first got the machine it used to take forever to boot up and was unusable for a good 5 minutes after boot as the drive churned through the preloaded crapware. And with McAfee sucking up disk I/O even things like opening Word documents lagged. I still plan on getting an mSATA SSD in the near future but for now I don't have too much to complain about.

 

So I used a class 10 SD card and applied ready boost to it and it worked... the PC now boots in 18-19 seconds and over all performance has increased dramatically. This has convinced me to get a msata ssd in the near future. As of right now I think I will get a 24 gb ssd sandisk u100 and use that as a cache until I save enough to buy a big ssd

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk 2

 

Glad you found something that worked. And I'm glad that you're convinced enough to understand that you need an SSD.

FYI... when you get a true SSD, you'll see literally 20x higher performance than the SD card across the board. An SD card is still limited to USB 2.0 speeds, so you're looking at maximum data rates of about:

SD Card (class 10) Random Read Access: ~2.5 - 3.0 Mbps (95% of the data access patterns on a PC)
SD Card (class 10) Sequential Read Access: ~30 Mbps max. (5% of the data access patterns on a PC)
Source: Benchmark Results: Random Read/Write : 10 SDXC/SDHC Memory Cards, Rounded Up And Benchmarked

SSD Random Read Access: ~60 to 100 Mbps
SSD Sequential Read Access: ~480 Mbps max
Source: Any SSD review published in the past 2 years.

HDD Random Read Access: ~0.25 - 0.5 Mbps
HDD Sequential Read Access: ~115 Mbps max
Source (specifically for 2.5" 1TB 5400rpm notebook HDD): Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB Review (WD10JPVT) | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

The reason an SD card performs so much better for you is because it has significantly better Random Read speeds (0.5Mbps --> 3.0Mbps)
When you get an SSD, you can expect an additional 20x performance boost in Random Read speeds (3.0Mbps --> 60Mbps).

 

Issue resolved. I found out that it is not possible to use a Windows 8 Pro iso from a volume license version. It has to be a regular Windows 8 Pro or Non-Pro for it to work.

 

One slight issue.

When I try to install the Intel Rapid Start Technology from the Lenovo drivers page, I get an error message telling me that "The computer does not meet the minimum system requirements for installing the software".

Did anyone else have this issue?

Thanks

UPDATE:

Ok...after reading alittle, I read that the Intel Rapid Start Technology is mainly for systems that have a regular HDD and an attached caching smaller 16GB mSATA SSD. This is to enable the caching SSD to cache files from the regular HDD for a faster boot up. Since I both removed the 16GB SSD, and replaced the 1TB HDD with the Samsung 840 500GB SSD, I am guessing that that is why my system does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. HOWEVER, since my OS is already installed on the 500GB SSD, I think it does mean that I dont need the benefit of the rapid start technology software anymore.

If anyone is familiar with this topic , feel free to chime in, Thanks.

 

Preinstalled windows 8 on the y500 hard drive gave me ridiculous moments of slowdown when running some programs/processes. I never got that kind of slowdown when running windows 7 on an A6 AMD processor and a 5400 rpm hard drive. If it were THAT much of a bottleneck, the average consumer would be screaming at manufacturers, and the 5400 rpm hard drive wouldn't be the standard speed. It's a hell of a lot slower than an SSD for sure, but it shouldn't bog your system down to a crawl. And after I installed Windows 7 on a SSD, everything was peachy ofc .

 

The SSD caching technology used is actually SanDisk ReadyCache. The Lenovo Y500 driver support page has a few drivers on there that actually do not apply to this laptop model (another example being Intel WiDi drivers).

 

Well, you're talking about two different machines with different CPU, motherboard chipset, HDD, OS, configuration, etc. You can't point to the slower computer and say "The reason computer A is slower than computer B must be because of Windows 8." You need to keep things as similar as possible across both tests, and isolate only one variable. And just about every professional review site shows that Windows 8 performs >= Windows 7.

In all likelihood, the reason that your A6 AMD machine felt faster was because of its particular software configuration that did not pound the storage sub-system like your Lenovo Y500's default factory software configuration does.

The average consumer buys their computer from walking into a BestBuy or Costco, or buys one online. They look at bullet points on spec sheets, and see that "Hey, 1000 GB is a bigger number than 256 GB. I'll buy that one". They don't read computer geek tech review sites like AnandTech, or come into computer geek forums like NBR. They don't understand the difference between the letters "HDD" and "SSD".

It's just like why the average consumer buys an HDTV by walking into Costco, and buying an HDTV based only on how large it is (52" is a bigger number than 46", so it must be better right?)
Or buying a digital camera based just on megapixels (10.6MP is a bigger number than 8.0MP, so it must be better right?)
Or buying headphones because they're a different color (not-black is trendier than black, so it must be better right?)

Let me put it this way. An SSD entirely changes the way you think about computers. Once you own one, you can't ever NOT own one again. That would be like someone taking away your broadband, and forcing you back onto 56K dial-up. Even the "average consumer" that gets even slow entry-level DSL broadband will complain if you ever force them back onto 56K dial-up.

 

So I was able to install IRST from the drivers folder on the Lenovo partition. I also was able to install the newest version from Intel's site. When I replaced the 1TB drive with the 512GB SSD and wasn't using the 16GB SSD for caching, I wasn't sure if I needed IRST. But like kent1146 says IRST wasn't handling the caching. So I read up and from what I can tell it doesn't hurt anything to install IRST and I think I got a little of a performance increase from install ing (could just be in my head though)/

 

Unfortunately, when I try to install the Intel Rapid Start Technology from the Lenovo drivers page, I get an error message telling me that "The computer does not meet the minimum system requirements for installing the software".

I was able though to install the IRST - Intel Rapid Storage

I only have one 500GB SSD installed in the system. I removed the 16GB caching mSATA SSD.

 

Oh, Rapid Start, I don't think you need that one.

 

Well, it's good for you to confirm that as well. Kent1146 also stated that that driver was not required. I think it's strange that Lenovo has drivers on the y500 page that do are not required. However , I think that;s because some of the y500 come with different hardware that require those drivers. BUT some drivers like the ones that come under the DISPLAY section , like the 'Wireless Display Drivers' I am at a loss to figure why that is even there because I don't think any y500's come with wireless Displays.

Btw, does everyone just install the touchpad drivers from the Lenovo site? Or do you guys download the touchpad drivers from the Sypnatic website? I went over there, was not sure of which driver to download and install, and also read that they recommended that users download the touchpad drivers from their oem else lose some specific functionality?

I am also trying out a third party software, 'StartisBack', and I like how it brings the windows7 feel back.

 

The wireless intel card in the Y500 is even worst than the wireless card in my ALienware purchased just over 2 years ago. I cannot connect to the 5Ghz stream in my home router as the card in the Y500 does not come with that capability. I only can connect to the regular N speeds.I was wondering if anyone ever considered upgrading it? Is that even possible?

Thanks

 

^ Anyone else encountering the same scenario? How's the wireless card?

 

Uhm, my Wifi is perfectly fine. At least 40 down 20 up always and I am pretty sure I am on 5GHz. I will post some gameplay videos, too, soon.

 

Hi guys, right now I'm kind of hesitating between two models of the Y500 to purchase.
I can either get the one with a single GPU and 16gbSSD + 8GB ram, or spend 300$ more for the dual GPU and 16GB of ram.

I figured if I buy the single GPU version, I can always buy another GPU if I feel the need, whereas Ill probably never need the 16 GB of ram.

What do you guys who own these laptops think? Which one should I get, is 300$ worth the upgrade for a second GPU and 8GB more ram? Or should I just go with a single GPU and buy another when I need it.

Thanks

 

Why would you never need 16GB RAM? You'd be surprised what some video editing would do to chew up your RAM.

Basically, your laptop is an investment. As for everything else, you get what you pay for. If you pay less, your laptop will be less superior (obviously) and this choice is really up to you. Do you have $300 you could spare? Do you want to make a larger investment in a laptop? If you think so, then do so; if you don't think so, then don't.

Hope this helps.

 

8GB of RAM is more than enough for most users out there. Most people don't do video editing, photo editing, or virtual machines, which are really the only apps that really consume RAM.

However, having said that, most people should get to 16GB as soon as the opportunity presents itself. It's relatively inexpensive that is a "nice-to-have". However, I would put 8GB --> 16GB upgrade as a lower-priority. It is far more important to get 2x GPUs and an SSD, before you spend money getting RAM.

 

To my knowledge, to get the 750M SLI you need to get 16GB RAM.

 

Thanks for the reply =], however I do not do any sort of video or photo editing. I will use it for travel, gaming, and office work, mostly gaming. From what I've read 8GB seems fine for gaming, and the single GT 750m can handle most titles on high with no issues(from what I hear- also I could always buy the second GPU separately). So do you think the extra 300 is a necessary investment for me right now? Speaking honestly, and not just because you own the 16gb model =/

As a side note the GPU bought separately costs around 220$, so I'm basically paying around 80$ for the 8gb of ram. However If I decide the single GPU is fine for what I'm using it for I could avoid the 220$ expense all together by not buying it, as opposed to dishing out the 300$ at the start before I even tried the laptop out.

Thanks for the help =p

Yea thats what I figured, but I'm only hesitant because I cant upgrade the ram after I buy it, whereas I could upgrade to dual GPU after purchase. Would you suggest going the 300$ cheaper 8GB ram version, and later purchasing the second GPU for 220$ IF I need it?

You are correct, however the second GPU utilizes the ultrabay, which means I can buy the second GPU from their website separately and insert it into my ultrabay by removing my DVD reader, effectively achieving 750m SLI with 8GBs of ram. Again, the cost difference is minimal but there is a chance I may decide not to get the second GPU at all.

 

Do you enjoy playing highly intensive games? The 750M itself is pretty damn strong, but doubling it will no doubt make it stronger.

If you plan on using this laptop for 3+ years I would suggest spending the extra $300, OR promising yourself you'll buy the second GPU in the future. Personally, I like having the 16GB because it secures myself a few extra years of usage with this laptop (implying applications are going to need more RAM).

I hope this helps.

 

Get the 2nd GPU to start. The entire reason you buy a Lenovo Y400 / Y500 is because it supports 2x GPUs in SLI, which gives you relatively high graphics performance compared to other laptops of similar price & portability. If you're only going to use one GPU, you might as well get a different laptop that will be faster / cheaper / more portable.

Buying a separate GPU will cost you $220. Plus you need to buy an 170W power adapter (about $70), since a single-GPU configuration only comes with 120W. And if you later decide to do so, a 16GB RAM kit (2x 8GB) as an aftermarket upgrade will cost you about $80. Currenty, the 8GB of RAM in your system (2x 4GB) can be sold on eBay for about $35.

So if you're going to buy a Lenovo Y400 / Y500, get it pre-configured with SLI, and call it a day.

 

I totally forgot about the power adapter! Good call! Without the power adapter, I would've said it was your call, but this is now a matter of you spending an extra $35 (in the current market) ! This is something you should definitely get.

Thanks Kent

 

From what I understand, you can upgrade to the SLI & add the extra 8GB later on if you feel like manually upgrading in the future (according to a Lenovo employee). You're probably well off with that build according to your needs, but in the event of this sale it could be good to upgrade now so you'll be strapped with optimal performance for whatever comes your way, including having all your games set to Ultra without any hindrance you might encounter by with 1 GPU.

 

I see, I didn't take into account the power adapter cost. Would you consider 1240$ (before taxes so +13$) a good price for the 16gb setup? Since they already have it on sale I doubt I could haggle it down over phone. However I see people saying left and right they got the SLI version from around 990 or 1000 dollars, any idea what that's about?

Lol yea me too, derp

 

1) You can haggle it down on the phone. Also, if you're a student, you should tell them.
2) I got my price down to a little under $1000 because of their mistake (shipped wrong one then they took $200 off) and the student pricing.
3) If I could guess, you'll get the price to $1200

 

I see, thanks for the help. Also I see a lot of people talking about installing win8 OS on SSD or SATA on their y500, is there a guide for doing that somewhere? I am an absolute novice when it comes to these things, but from what I hear it is quite fast lol.

 

I tried to bring it down to $1075 but to no avail. I'll give it another shot. I called them to ask about my order but they said their systems are down today

With the SSD, would I swap the 1TB 5400 for a SSD? There's a 240gb on sale right now for 179!

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicati...dsPerPage=5&body=REVIEWS#CustomerReviewsBlock

 

If you can find this, let me know. I need to know how to do this on the Plextor M5 256GB mSATA SSD I am going to buy.

 

At the risk of sounding stupid, is 240gb enough for you to use as your main HDD? >.<
I understand using mSATA for boot and common programs (games etc) and still able to utilize the 1tb HDD, Having all your storage down to 240 seems kind of restrictive isnt it? no matter how fast it goes.

I just googled this a bit, apparently people are having issues with fresh installs of win8(can't find installation media), And cloning the HDD to the SSD causes issues in some cases. Seems like some people just clean install win7 from disk onto the SDD then wipe their HDD and use for storage.

 

I would not suggest buying a 2.5" SSD for this laptop unless you can afford a 512GB Samsung 840. The 256GB mSATA is much more logical.

Anyways, possibly we have to revert back to W7 to do this? Damnit. Well possibly someone can find an appropriate step-by-step which avoids these problems? I am pretty clueless on this subject.

 

Guys I personally got the Y500 with 750M SLI, i7, 16 GB ram, and 1tb 5400 rpm HDD for $979 before tax + free shipping.

Call over the phone, be nice to them.

I have the direct numbers of one of the agents who was going to do $999 for me, but another guy did 979 so I went with him.

 

$979? That's a little excessive of a discount. Did they not include the 16GB mSATA? That's gotta be it.

 

Yes, there is no 16GB mSATA in mine. I'm putting ina 256GB crucial m4 so it would be redundant for me to have a 16gb msata lol.

 

Completely understandable.

I found the Plextor M5M is faster than the Crucial, so I am buying that one. Just a tip. Also, the Plextor is only $200 on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820249031

 

Ooh, how much is it, and is there a benchmark? I'm still unsure but from what I read the crucual m4 seemed the best?

 

Until yesterday, I was completely unaware of how mSATAs even worked, so I basically got all my information off of a few reviews by writers. There was a benchmark. Let me find it for you.

According to these, this mSATA is almost on par with the Samsung 840 pro! Wow!

AnandTech | Plextor M5M (256GB) mSATA Review

 

I think I'll stick to the crucial. its more tested and the results are small enough that outside of benchmarks I won't feel it.