Y500 Owners and Questions Thread

What kind of battery life are you getting with the screen dimmed a bit and just browsing the web, some youtube? I cant find any real good information and its make or break for me with this.

 

I'm getting 4 hours screen down all the way. Bluetooth off. Just browsing

 

It seems to be surprisingly tricky doing a clean Win 8 install..

You either have to find a cloning & shrinking software with Win 8 support (Paragon 12 seems to be only one atm) or find an OEM install media which will dig the license from your computers UEFI.

Based on my research Paragon is the more easy way, gonna try that myself when my Crucial m4 arrives. As to your question, i would keep the small volumes just to be on the safe side.

 

Whats is the MAX RAM you can put in this notebook??

If it does 16 GB RAM , wich one do you recomend?

Thanks!

 

Max is 16GB, 8GB per slot. I recommend: Corsair Vengeance Performance CMSX16GX3M2A1866C10.

 

You were right. To install my SSD was very tricky, but it was made more so by the fact that I didn't want to start from scratch. That requires a 16GB disk for creating the Windows 8 recovery media. No thanks, I'm cheap.

I ended up having to shrink all the existing partitions to fit them to the SSD from the HDD. Then did a Macrium Reflect clone operation, and finally used something called MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition - CNET Download.com to extend the windows partition to full capacity and shrink the recovery partition. Yikes.

Clean install makes more sense. Next time that's what I'll do.

 

so is there a way for a clean install ? My computer has been up for 3 months now and I'm beginning to hate that i can't get my key for a clean install. I always do a clean install after buying a new laptop :|

 

Your license key is baked into the bios, but you won't be able to see it. It's just there. So to do a clean install of Windows 8 you would have to follow this procedure: Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo Think system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload

That's what I would have done if I was inclined to buy a 16GB flash drive. You won't have to worry about entering your license key anymore. Those days are gone now.

 

Does anyone know where I can purchase a 9 cell battery (new) for the Y500. 3-4 hours isn't nearly enough. Also, is the 170w PSU needed for SLI gaming?

Also I need some convincing as to whether to get the Y580 or Y500 SLI. I would assume some of us has experience with both of these laptops?

 

I had the Y580 it gets really hot cooling is not as good. I think the screen is better on the Y500 and the design is much better.

 

Just installed the Samsung 840 500GB SSD $279 at Fry's with price match! Using the Samsung cloning software it was really easy. WOW! What a difference!

 

Yeah the hard drive was a bottleneck for sure. Samsung 840 pro 128gb sped things up nicely for me as well

 

how do you get pricematch option on the Fry's website? I am looking at SSD on Fry's and it is currently $349 and I don't see an option to pricematch. Can you please explain in detail what you did to get down to the $279? Thank you and have a great day.

 

Thanks for that info, i'll be getting a Y500 and want to put my ssd, and take the original hdd out.

I dont care about preinstalled software, I want a clean w8 install.

Is it that easy to plug the ssd, then the usb with Win8 and install ??

Thanks



Enviado_SGSII

 

I went into the store had them do a price match through Google Shopping with B&H. Helps I spend about $1k a week there with my really bad tech habits

 

Anyone know what the default PSU adapter the Y500 comes with? Is it the 170W 20V adapter? or something else?

Edit: Scratch that, it should come with a 170W adapter. Now I need to return the extra one.

 

Mine came with the 120W.
If I were you I would double check.
You can clearly see the difference between the two:

IdeaPad 170W AC Adapter (UL) | Lenovo | (US)

Lenovo 120W AC Adapter(19.5V6.15A)UL | Lenovo | (US)

 

Odd. I asked one of the agents at the Lenovo website recently and s/he said that it came with a 170W 20V AC adapter. The adapter got delivered before the laptop though. Might have to wait until the laptop gets here I guess.

I also check some youtube videos and reviews. All of which show or mention a 170W adapter coming with the laptop.

 

If I were you I would check when you get the laptop.
Those agents don't know what they are talking about.
I had to show them the difference between the two cause they also said mine came with a 170W, which is wrong.

I believe the Y500 SLI machines do come with 170W adapters, which is where all the confusion starts.

 

But they don't sell SLI models currently, do they? I don't see them anyways. Well I ordered the non-SLI Y500 and the ultrabay GPU separately so it probably won't come with a 170W adapter then.

 

Yes, installing the SSD is as easy as creating the recovery media, then installing your SSD and booting to the recovery media to install windows. Piece of cake.

My SLI came with 170w, my friend's non-SLI came with 120w. So has anyone actually done a clean install yet? I didn't want the hassle and wasn't convinced it would speed up the system any with how fast it already is, but if someone with experience tells me otherwise I'll reconsider.

 

Correct, they don't sell the SLI models any more.
I ordered a non-SLI Y500 (came with 120W power supply), an ultrabay GPU AND a 170W power adapter.
I got the ultrabay GPU for $137 (reduced from $229) and the 170W power adapter for $79.
So I basically saved on the price of the 170W adapter.

Y500 Removable Graphics GN36 | Lenovo | (US)

IdeaPad 170W AC Adapter (UL) | Lenovo | (US)

 

The model's I've seen on Amazon all have dual GPUs so I assume they come with 170W adapters.

Amazon.com: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black): Electronics

 

Correct.
However, those are the Intel i5 models.
The current Y500s come with Intel i7 CPUs.

 

Amazon.com: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black): Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black): Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black): Computers & Accessories


Only one of them comes with Core i5, the other three models have Core i7 3630QM, other difference include RAM(6/8/12/16GB), SSD cache which only the top two models have, and naturally the price.

 

Hey everyone, I have read through the majority of this thread and picked up a LOT of great information to make sure that I get the most out of my laptop!

I just purchased the Y500 (non SLI) and a separate GPU for the SLI and the 170W adapter (didnt realize I needed to purchase separately at first, and ordering one day later, it shows a ship date 5 days later than my laptop!). Now all I have to do is wait!

I wanted to do a clean install of windows 8, and it looks like this is the best wat to do it, I am assuming? - Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo Think system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload

I understand the SLI setup and what drivers to install, etc. My next question was about the hard drive. I plan on replacing it, but not right away, what would be the best way to basically clone my hard drive and put everything on a new drive (probably a SSD)?

 

Does anyone else have problems with Y500 SLI laptop switching off randomly (this is very rapid event, like all of a sudden under a micro-second screen turns black and computer is off), this happens when I'm gaming and also when I'm just browsing web or computer is idling looking nothing but desktop.

Fortunately this occurs only once in a couple of hours so nothing really serious, just annoying. I also have 170W PSU so it definitely gets enough power. And currently I have overclocked gpus but this switching off happens also with stock settings so I don't think this is related to that either.

 

Do you have the latest/ 310 nvidia drivers? / I assume you do, but I remember my screen blacking out when I still had the stock drivers.

 

Yes, 310.90 WHQL drivers are the only ones which work for me also SLI and Vsync turned on. Other drivers crash immediately when starting a game with Vsync and without Vsync screen-tearing is horrible.

 

Hmm strange. Which games are you playing?
I'm running Dead space 3 / Skyrim / GW 2 all perfectly. I can't check all my other drivers right now, but maybe there's a faulty driver? - Display driver or related?

 

Civ5, Arma2, Max Payne 3 and X-Com

Are you using Sli and Vsync? and what Nvidia driver version is currently on your machine? I thought that this same issue is currently on every Sli Y500 laptops and it is strange if that is not the case.

 

Whats the fan noise like on this? I'm thinking about the Y500 9541 - 8GB Core i5 15.6″ 2GB with the 1TB hdd. I don't have money for a ssd disk atm.

Reason why I'm asking is, I bought a ThinkPad e530 i7 just a few weeks ago and I simply had to return it because it was too noisy. A few minutes after starting a game, Football Manager, the fan went ridiculously loud like my 4 year old Toshiba. It was just too annoying to listen to when gaming while watching TV.

I really want a quite laptop that stays relatively quite when playing a game or other demanding stuff. I usually just play Football Manager and not demanding games like Far Cry and Skyrim.

 

I played Mass Effect 3 with optimal Geforce Experience graphics settings and I could still easily hear the game volume with my speakers at 10%.

 

Hello, I just picked up a Y500 and have added a Crucial m4 256 Msata. I dont plan to boot from this drive as my main drive has already been upgraded to a 256gb Samsung 840 pro. I would just like to use it as additional solid state storage. I installed the MSata, but it does not show in any form in my drive management. is there a Bios setting to enable it? what am I missing here?

***********Never mind.. it resolved it self.

 

Log into Control Panel then go to Computer Management and Storage enable it there

 

Hi guys, I'm getting a y500 next week, and am planning to install a second HDD into the ultrabay. I've been shopping on eBay and i can't seem to make up my mind on what caddy to get. There seems to be sata to sata, sata to ide, and so on. I know it's 9.5mm enclosure, but the connector is the one that confuses me. Can anyone chime in on this? I contacted lenovo's sales rep and he's clueless.

 

I think it needs to be a specific Ultrabay-caddy made for this computer, i'm not shure if any other will fit since the ultrabay in Y500 is a little different from the rest because of the option to add a second GPU into it.

I remember someone saying you could buy that caddy straight from Lenovo's website. Don't have the links though.

 

Do you "NEED" the 170w for SLI? I have a 120w with my sli setup and it has been working ok.
Is it going to help performance or temps? Does anyone have proof or solid evidence to definitely back this up?

Just wondering as if it's totally necessary I will buy one, but my stock brick has been doing its job up to this point.

 

what games have you played?

my guess is that the more graphic extensive the game is, the more power your computer consumes. you could be playing lesser extensive games that you did not exceed 120w.

 

Hi, I ordered the SLI version of the Y500 on Amazon and I've heard about the crashing, brighting, and V-sync issues people have been having. I'd like to update to verion 310.90 as soon as I get my hands on it, but where can I find the download for that specific driver version? Thanks in advance.

 

Skyrim, farcry 3, just installing and trying out crisis 3 now.... it has never shut down, and it's been ok with clock speeds at 1000 / 2350.

 

You can find older Nvidia drivers here:
NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Advanced Search

 

You should buy the 170W charger. That's what I did when I bought my Y500 SLI.

Just think about the numbers for a second. You've got one CPU and two GPU's all rated at 45W TDP. The Ultrabay GPU might be 35W TDP since it's got its own fan and probably runs cooler. Still, you're looking at over 130W just for the CPU and GPU combination without including other system components like the hard drive, display, and charging the battery. Power consumption goes even higher when you decide to overclock your graphics card. Plus, we all know that laptop components routinely exceed their rated TDP under stressful situations.

So if you had the 120W adapter and were to fire up something like Crysis 3 that pushed your CPU and GPU's to the limit, you would most likely get throttling, crashes, and reduced performance. And if you had your battery plugged it would be at charge equilibrium or even draining. Running a power adapter at or near it's maximum draw for a prolonged period will shorten its lifespan. Get the 170W adapter and don't let your performance go to waste while killing your charger.

 

digging a little deeper i looked at notebookcheck's review and see that the max power consumption under furmark 06 is 105.1 watts. would furmark 06 compare to playing crysis 3? i don't have much experience with benchmarking.

maybe that explains it. but i don't know why other's y500 shut down on a 120w adapter. i still have to test mine when my sli arrives.

Review Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

You mean 3DMark06. It's a really old benchmark from 8 years ago and is no longer used nowadays because several newer versions of 3DMark have come out since then and most systems nowadays can run it with ease. Crysis 3 is the most demanding PC game on the planet right now and will push even a high-end desktop to its knees. There's really no comparison between the two.

A really good way to test maximum power consumption as well as temperatures, throttling, and overall system stability is to run FurMark and Prime95 at the same time. It's an extreme scenario that you'll probably never encounter in real life usage but is nevertheless a good benchmark for finding out the upper boundary of your system.

 

Foolish people, not actually understanding the way electricity works and these things don't come with the larger one because Lenovo thought it would be fun to have two different just to mess with us.

Alas, just swapped a Crucial M4 into the mSata slot, and cloned OS with Paragon 12. Happy to report, it went as smooth as a breeze. Nice for a change for these things to just work!

 

Well, I just placed my order for the Y500 i7 8gb model, the extra ultrabay GPU, and the 170W brick. About $1100CAD total, not too shabby at all.

I can't seem to find any information on this though, but am I able to remove the ultrabay bracket on the existing DVD burner and put my own drive in? I have a Sony Optiarc blu-ray drive from my Acer 5920g and I'd like to use it.

EDIT:
May have found the answer to my question here:
http://forum.techinferno.com/lenovo-ibm/2690-lenovo-y500-unlocked-bios-2.html#post37519

Seems it's a yes. It's nice that they're not using proprietary douchbaggery.

Also seems there's some nice info on the BIOs and an unlocked one there.

 

Can anyone post some files, instructions, etc. on how to unlock the bios? I want to install a better wifi card. Also, anyone installed a wifi card with 3 antennas?

 

If you take a look at the last page of the thread I just linked, there is a link to a complete tutorial for that.

EDIT:

Here!

http://forum.techinferno.com/lenovo...locked-bios-wlan-whitelist-mod.html#post39374

 

my bad. it's 3dmark06. got confused with these benchmarks.

i read furmark alone is already considered as an extreme scenario. how much more with prime95 running at the same time.
is there a way to see the max power consumption while playing crysis 3? that would a more real life scenario to determine if 120w is enough.