***Yoga 2 Pro Owners Thread***

Same here. No such path in my registry

 

i'm getting 5 to 6 hours of online video streaming, ~7 hours plus or minus half an hour on office/moderate usage (web browsing, ms office, etc). not the best, but worth the tradeoff for the beautiful screen

 

It creates a new branch, but I can confirm it works.

Sent from my KatKiss JB TF101

 

Okay, so I tried again and now manually created the key and dword-flag myself. And yes, it really works. The icons in the favorites bar are tiny now, but the rest is looking way better again. Thanks!

 

Little addition to my last post; you have to visit the sites in your favorites bar once to "reload" the icons and they become normally sized again.

 

wow. the change is night and day. daaaaang.

 

This isn't totally accurate. I found this last week, but I was hesitant to recommend it as a solution. If you change this setting in the registry, everything is indeed no longer blurry, BUT, the font spacing is all messed up. Look at Gmail or an article on ESPN.com and compare Chrome to Firefox or IE. Firefox and IE both have proper letter spacing, and Chrome has random numbers or letters further apart or closer together. Hopefully they fix this, I'm not sure where to even alert the Chrome development team about the issue or to see if it is being worked on. It's a big pain for me, because I use Chrome across my Android Phone, iPad, desktop and laptop to sync bookmarks and continue reading/research on other devices.

Y2J

 

What zoom level are you guys using after Windows 8.1 update 1? I see that it now recommends the largest scaling, but what are you guys actually using?

 

Can you please post a screenshot of such a messed up font spacing? Is it ONLY on few sites, such as Gmail and ESPN, or everywhere?
I'm weighing whether to install the registry patch or not - if it's better to live with blurry letters and good spacing or with sharp letters and messed up spacing...

 

Here is an full res example ESPN article between Chrome version 36.0.1933.0 dev-m with the registry patch and IE 11. I don't see any difference.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/455373/chrome-ie-comparison.png

 

also, after applying the registry edit, i'm unable to move the chrome window around, it can only be maximized. damn. oh well, back to the waiting game

 

OK, I just manually changed the registry, and yes, the letters are sharp and clear, but the font spacing is indeed messed up. I'm posting a screenshot of last few messages of this thread.

If the font spacing on Chrome with registry patch is good for some but not good for others then it might have something to do with individual Windows display sizing percentage.
I'm running my Yoga on 3200x1800 and 180% Windows sizing zoom. Chrome is on newest dev channnel.
What are your settings so you don't have any font spacing problems?

Oh, and @tcee- I can move Chrome window freely, no problem with that.

 

I was running at 200% with no problems (using Windows 8.1 update 1).

 

Hm, strange...
I have Win 8.1 update 1 as well, but I'm using newest Intel display driver, so that looks to be the only difference.
I'll try later to revert to the old stock display driver and see if that helps. Don't know what else could be the problem...

 

I am on Version 35.0.1916.27 beta-m. Not sure how to get a newer one, but splus' example is the same thing happening to me. I think I may have fixed it though, go into chrome:/flags and enable direct write. Seems to have fixed the issue. Let me know!

Y2J

 

OK, I've been playing with it all for a while now...
Enabling direct write in chrome://flags makes the spacing much better. In fact, it makes it the same as without the HI DPI registry patch. Thank you.

However, comparing the same pages to Firefox or IE, which render fonts beautifully, Chrome still displays characters with little bit of blurriness (much less than without registry patch though, but not as sharp as FF or IE), but also the font spacing isn't as good as on FF and IE.
In fact, the font spacing in Chrome, in my case, isn't the same as Firefox or IE even without Chrome registry patch.

I've reverted to old stock Intel display drivers, but no real change. So, that's not the reason.

@wilkster - Looking at your attached screenshot, I'm really curious how you can get such a perfect rendering in Chrome, both the sharpness and font spacing. It's practically the same as FF or IE.

In my case, running Windows at 3200x1800 and 180% display sizing, and running Chrome with Hi DPI registry patch and enabled direct write in chrome://flags make the rendering in Chrome much sharper than before, but still not as sharp as FF or IE. And font spacing remains the same as without the Hi DPI registry patch, which is inferior to IE and FF.

I'm attaching screenshots of Chrome with my current settings with reg. patch and enabled direct write, and the same part of text in Firefox.
It's easy to see the difference, just look at the word "everywhere"...

Chrome:


Firefox:


Edit: Oh, and btw, I'm also getting occasional problems resizing and moving Chrome window when HI DPI registry patch is installed. It's really strange - sometimes it responds, sometimes it doesn't. Doing few operations with other apps usually helps.

 

What version you on? I am thinking of switch to the dev channel release, they are on 36 now it looks like...

 

Yeah, I'm on dev 36.

 

I am also on chrome version 36, and checked chrome flags and direct write is enabled. (I may have enabled that flag a while back, not sure).

 

Lol, do you remember if you changed some other flags as well? You might hold the key to perfect font rendering in Chrome...

I've been changing different flags and comparing the screenshots in detail, and I've found one flag that affects the spacing. The flag is "LCD text antialiasing".
It generally improves the font spacing, but in some 10% of cases makes it a bit worse. Overall, in my opinion, it's worth enabling it in chrome://flags.


So, to sum up the changes needed for better Chrome font rendering (almost perfect sharpness but font spacing is still better in IE and FF):

Run regedit and add following folder:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Chrome\Profile
Inside that folder add "high-dpi-support" entry as dword and set it to 1.

In Chrome go to chrome://flags and set the following flags to Enable:
"Enable DirectWrite"
"LCD text antialiasing"

 

Chrome finally looks really great with this registry "hack" on 250% scaling. Unfortunatley most of the icons on the right hand side aren't on the screen anymore (including options and the add-ons). It looks like a part of the Chrome window on the right hand side has just been cut off.

Im using Chrome Canary.

 

splus, Here are the flags I am using (from chrome://version) + the registry patch. I am getting good results @ 200% 3200x1800 resolution. When you override a default flag in chrome://flags they show up as command line swtiches under chrome://version.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --flag-switches-begin --enable-direct-write --enable-pinch --enable-scroll-prediction --touch-events=enabled --flag-switches-end

Build: 36.0.1933.0 (Official Build 262849) dev-m
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.3; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/36.0.1933.0 Safari/537.36

 

Thanks wilkster. I added your touchscreen optimization flags to few of my own settings. Here's my command line now from chrome://version:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --flag-switches-begin --disable-touch-adjustment --enable-direct-write --enable-download-resumption --enable-pinch --enable-lcd-text --touch-events=enabled --touch-scrolling-mode=absorb-touchmove --flag-switches-end"

Nothing really changed as those were the touch only settings.
But then I've simply increased Chrome page zoom in Settings page to 110%, and viola, font spacing is now perfect!!!
At 100% (together with my small 185% Windows display scaling at 3200x1800 resolution) the text simply didn't have perfect spacing.
Now it's all good at Chrome's 110% page zoom. Perfect, in fact.

I guess the letters simply need to be large enough for Chrome to have perfect font spacing. Still, IE and FF have perfect spacing even with small letters...

 

Can anyone recommend a good screen protector and case for yoga 2 pro? Just got one recently...Thanks

 

Hit Fn key and space bar to turn keyboard backlight on/off.

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

 

Hi,
Just joined and very interested in this machine. However, I've read a lot about wifi issues, and people swapping to an AC wifi card. I'm wondering if people who has changed to an AC card because of drop out signal are still having the same issue in the 2.4 GHz band? I understand most of them have changed it to get AC connectivity, and that is great but for me, the drop out issue should be related to the antenna and not necessarily to the card, which means changing the card won't necessarily fix the antenna.
Apologies if this has been answered before, I skimmed through some pages on this thread couldn't find an answer.

 

Hi eltanque, I have not experienced any signal dropouts in either 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands since I installed the AC card

 

Amazing... All this effort to try to make font rendering better on Chrome, and then Google just updated Chrome to 36.0.1941.0 dev-m version, and broke the hi dpi registry mod completely.
Chrome window and pages are cut off, no scroll bars either. Unusable.

Back to blurriness.... :-(

 

Yep ;( With the standard Chrome version it seems to work, though. But for now everything is still a compromise. Chrome has a lot of catching up to do with high dpi screens.

 

splus, did you try resetting the registry setting to high-dpi-support=0? I did that it seems to work OK for me. I am not 100% sure the font spacing is as good as it was but I will continue to take a look.

After looking more closely, the text is indeed slightly blurry, not as sharp as IE.

 

Switch to the beta release channel...It's still working for me.

 

Thanks for the info. For now it may be working, but the dev channel changes tend into the beta version within a month. I may switch over to it.

Update:
Looks like the Chrome devs are reverting the change that broke this. Hopefully fixed in the next update.
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=363289

 

The stock Wi-Fi card works fine in my 1 month old Yoga2 Pro. It is single band, but I have no problems with dropouts. Lenova fixed that problem. All the drop out issues were reported for machines shipped late last year. I think it was due to a driver problem.

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

 

Yup, that's what I meant with back to blurriness - I reverted back the registry entry straight away to get back to normal life. No other choice since I can't really bother to install the beta or stable version over it...
I had a look at that bug report you posted, it looks like the next dev update will fix it. Hopefully...

But I can't not to admire IE and its sharpness and super smooth scrolling, together with low battery consumption, when compared to Chrome. If it wasn't such an option-less and bare bones browser with no support for any extensions I'd switch straight away.

eltanque, I got my Yoga a month ago and haven't had any wifi issues. It all works perfectly. I've also read about many wifi issues, but I think that was mostly from last year. IMO, everything is perfect with Yoga 2 Pro except the shorter battery life (compared to other Haswell ultrabooks).

 

BTW, I just tried to measure the power consumption with BatteryBar, leaving the laptop at idle with and without backlight, since I usually keep the backlight on. I switched it on and off few times, and waited 10 min each time.
The difference was pretty consistently around 550 mW.
That's almost half an hour of difference if the full battery life is 6 hours. Worth having in mind if you have a long day away from power outlet...

 

I know that but my dell e6400 keyboard turns off the light after two mins or so if I am not using it. Is there anyway to do the same on Y2P? Thanks.

 

Thanks for the wifi responses. Seems more and more like my next laptop. I'd prefer it with AC wireless or at least dual band, but I think I can live with that.

 

Agree. Not sure why Lenovo didn't offer an AC option and it certainly should be dual band at least. I figure we can always upgrade the wifi card if necessary, but so far I haven't felt the need.

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

 

Not true, I got my laptop this year and I've been having pretty awful wifi problems/droupouts/ etc. since I got it. I've rolled back to a really old driver and that somewhat seems to work better, but limits my max speed.



Anyways, suddenly today all of my menus, particularly in MS office programs, and in skype, got REALLY REALLY big. Like uncomfortably ginormous. I think it happened when I touched the screen, and I vaguely remember there being some kind of function that switches between touch and normal function, but I don't remember if that's true, or if so, how I toggle it.

It's driving me crazy, all the menu titles (file, home, send/receive, etc) are so large they get cut off because they can't all fill the page...
Even in chrome I noticed the minimize/expand/exit buttons are much wider.

Anyone know how to fix it?

 

Scratch that part about the touch/versus mouse mode. I found that and turned it off/on and it didn't fix it... So I have no idea what's causing it...

 

Did the windows 8.1 update just get installed on your Yoga2? That update caused the text size to default to 250%. Before the update the default on the Yoga2 was 200%. You can make the text size smaller by right clicking on the desktop, select screen resolution, select make text and other items larger or smaller, drag the slider to the left, select apply. You will likely need to sign out and sign back in for the change to take effect.

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

 

Good to know. Thanks

 

I just noticed that my keyboard backlight does eventually turn off. I think it happens when the computer goes to sleep.

You could try adjusting the time to sleep in power settings to a shorter time interval. Mine is currently set to 10 minutes on battery and 25 minutes on AC. I assume this is most important while on battery so setting that time down to 2-5 minutes might be better.


Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk

 

A little observation on the Windows 8.1 Update (1).

To avoid getting the error 0x80070002 (perhaps other ones) and have KB2919355 fail to install, please make sure that you either have, or create the following directory:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ System Tools

System Tools is required to be present or the update will fail to install.

... Ask me how I know...

 

Working in current chrome canary build, sharp text and pages correctly positioned when using high dpi support.

 

Did anyone else have their default start screen change to Desktop instead of the default Start Screen after installing Update 1? I thought it was not supposed to affect those with touch-enabled screens. I created a post here to change back to the default Metro start screen:

http://sgtechtrooper.blogspot.com/2014/04/starting-at-metro-start-screen-after.html

 

I'm hearing such mixed things about Lenovo's fix on the yellow issue. Some people still seem to not be happy, while others say that the fix (and maybe some tinkering with color profiles) is enough that the computer can be used for actual professional graphics work. Is there a general consensus on this? I may jump on a refurb Y2P at a local store for $599 (i5, 4GB, 128GB SSD).

 

I just picked up the same model refurb for $710 on amazon and am really happy with it after the yellow fixes (bios, energy manager and ICC profile from UncleSpam http://forum.notebookreview.com/ide...yoga-2-pro-owners-thread-178.html#post9488805 ), so at £599 don't hesitate!

The only remaining issue is with adobe not supporting HiDPI displays, but this is the same for all hi-dpi displays on windows platforms, not just Y2P. Toolbars/menus for adobe programs appear too small, but you can lower the screen resolution to make it usable until adobe fix this. There is also a problem with the current graphics driver and adobe, intel have released a fix but hasn't made into a lenovo driver release yet, but its fixed by disabling/renaming sniffer_gpu.exe in your program files directory until the driver is upgraded by lenovo.

 

I would say it's acceptable (bios, energy manger + unclespam's profile), but still far from perfect. It's pretty obvious on an excel spreadsheet with yellow-highlighted cells. What is your intended use of the machine?

 

I wouldn't know how it was before the BIOS update (got my Y2P just a month ago), but right now at 100% brightness and if Intel graphics power saving is disabled both in power modes and in Intel graphics driver, the yellow looks a bit greenish. Pretty good but not perfect yellow if you want to be picky. Doesn't look mustardy at all. That's without any color profile changes.
Display power savings make the screen look less bright and duller, which is normal.

Newest Intel display drivers don't have this problem with sniffer process. The problem is that if you try to install them (download from Intel's website) it will say it's not made for this system.
Easy workaround for it - either uninstall the stock display driver from Device manager and then install the new Intel one; or extract the new Intel drivers to a folder, and then from Device manager update the display driver with Update driver button, and choose manual and Have disk options, and navigate to Graphics folder inside the extracted driver folder, and then update and restart.
No more Adobe sniffer process issue, everything works OK, but Adobe's software still sucks, everything is tiny. However, the workspace is HUGE!