new T400 - a few questions/comments

today i received a t400 that i bought new from ebay. Now a have a few questions and one concern. I gotta say that the LG LED WSGA+ panel is pretty nice. Very bright and nice contrast, however the vertical viewing angles leave a bit to be desired. Comparing it to my wife's unibody macbook CMO panel, i think i like this one a bit more. The horizontal angles are better on LG, but vertical are better on CMO. And this one also does not resemble a mirror.
This particular laptop also has a t61 keyboard. I am totally not used to how tight the keys feel (my asus G1S and macbook keys require way less pressure to press), but i think after a bit I am getting used to this rather odd feel. The laptop does have a bit of flex in the right palmrest area, but enough to bother me. Feels like the plastic there is thin and because the right area between touchpad and edge is longer, there is more to depress there.

First of all, how exactly do i work these "switchable graphics", as in how do i switch between the two cards? For some reason i cannot figure that out and cant seem to find any instructions.

Also is it usually worth it to reformat and get rid of all of the lenovo installed junk? Or is keeping this thinkvantage stuff, etc a good idea?

Now the really odd part - when the battery charge reaches 93+% and it continues charging there are audible squeaking noises coming from the area of the power jack. If i put my ear on the battery, the frequency of these squeaks increases as the battery gets closer to 100%. This happens only in that range of charge and stops if i take out the battery or unplug the power jack. Also if i unplug it and then plug it back in when the battery is at 100% and current is shown as 0A, there is no noise either. Did i get a defective battery or bad power supply? The battery in this laptop is Sony 4 cell. The squeaks are barely audible, not definately present. Very odd. Also i just noticed that the battery is at 98%, squeaking and the laptop tells me its going to take over an hour to charge it to 100%. Is that normal for last 1-2% to be charging for that long?

 

As far as the bloatware just do a clean install. It'll definitely get rid of the preinstalled software. There's a really good guide specifically for thinkpads somewhere on this forum.

 

Assuming that you are using Vista, since the switchable graphics option does not work with XP or Win7, you just have to right click on the Lenovo battery icon (different from the Windows one, it is the black horizontal plug) in the task manager. Then scroll up to the Switchable Graphics mode, choose between Energy Saving or High Performance, and you're golden.

The other option is to change in bios, but this is only really convenient if you are using XP or Win7.

 

still not seeing any option for switchable graphics. When I right click there is only option to launch power manager. When i am there it lets me choose between energy star and maximum power, but i dont see any switchable graphics options.

 

What's the machine type?

 

Are you sure you are right-clicking, and not left-clicking? A left-click would open up the power profile menu you're describing.

Also, go to the Lenovo website and download and install the latest version of Power Manager for the T400.

 

ahhh i figured it out. for some reaosn its opposite on mine. right click brings out the menu and left click brings out the switchable graphics option. Got it all sorted out now, thanks.

 

I think you have the older version of Power Manager - in that, the menus were reversed, I believe.