x120e Owner's Thread

crazy... I did nothing to calibrate my screen and it is just gorgeous.
you DID download Catalyst 11.11, right?

 

anyone can help with frequent freezing. thing it's caused by the acpinc something on the eventlog. from what i google. looks like the tpfancontrol causing this.

 

No. Should I? What does that do?

 

My "life of its own" pointer/cursor issue is still ongoing. Tried various fixes.

Once again, thanks for the replies. Maybe it's a return trip to Lenovo for me . (Heh! it's just selected frown faces all by itself........very apt).

 

download and install this:
ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

is your touchpad driver this? [see image]
and have you tried disabling either the track button or the touchpad and use the other? see control panel image

 

Thanx for that. Yes, went back to "Ultra Nav" and altered the touchpad settings which I missed the first time. Also disabled certain pointer extras. Seems to be OK now.

Are all these gizmos and extras important to ppl? Seems OTT to me. Probably an individual thing I suppose.

Once again thanx for the replies.

This Lenovo is now a good buy after all.

 

anyone here using tpfancontrol ?

 

Yes, and have no problems with it. Running it in Windows 7 64-bit. Have you undervolted your X120e? If so, perhaps freezing could be due to slightly overzealous undervolt settings for a particular power state.

 

hmm.not yet undervolted. im running in on winxp 32bit anyway. what happen is there's huge log created from the acpi on the eventlog. which will cause windows freezing randomly. could be during shutting down. even starting up. kind of annoying.

after abit of googling.

i've run the registry to turn the Logging off and copied over the acpienl.sys file into system32 folder. the result is even more worse.

let me try to undervolt it. see if theres any difference

i've been using it for T61 win 7 64bit also have no problem whatsoever.

 

Definitely helps with the screen. Thanks a lot for that.

As for the touchpad-- does anyone actually two-finger scroll successfully? I've messed with the settings quite a bit. I can get the one-finger scroll to work somewhat well, but nothing approaching a useable two-finger solution.

 

I find the touchpad a bit too small for two-finger scroll. Have you tried middle mouse button+trackpoint to scroll?

 

I'm having luck with two-finger scroll using this:

Downloads - two-finger-scroll - Two finger gestures for Synaptics TouchPads on Windows - Google Project Hosting


and don't forget to turn off two-finger scroll in the windows settings so the mod can handle it.

Works great!

 

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Will try it out.

 

Just in case anyone missed it... BIOS update 1.16 has been out since the 22nd of November... and I can't get MidnightSun's undervolting to work with it.

Considering a downgrade. What's the last working revision to work with the undervolting?

 

Anyone have problems with streaming HD videos? 1080p videos on youtube kind of skip and movies on icefilms skip making the audio go out of sync.

 

no issues.
this was one of my 'acid tests'. other low/modest implementations of amd's apu scheme have spotty feedback. my own prior exp was positive with c50/60. my x120e, which I tuned fairly well, has not even a hint of hesitation with 1080 dense framerate vids of youtube/flash. I know nothing of ice.
no issues with my personal stash of vids converted to .mkv format

sure its not link/net/wifi related?

 

Could be a driver issue. Make sure you have the latest Catalyst version from AMD (which I believe is 11.11) and check to make sure you have the latest flash version, etc. Also make sure your catalyst power settings are set to maximum performance and Max Battery in the settings for on AC and off AC.

Different people prefer different codec packs if needed. K-Lite (Mega) and CCCP are alright... and some people prefer VLC over Media Player Classic HomeCinema and vice-versa.

 

Hi guys, need your help. I purchased x120e from amazon. the problem is it's not booting. when turned on it asks for a password (seems power on password), neither I can enter bios, need password. bios version is 8FET29WW (1.13). is there any solution, may be password reset? googling didn't help.

 

Pulled the trigger a week ago on an x120e, have a Samsung 470 64gb SSD and 2x4gb DDR3L Crucial set standing by.

Few questions (I've thoroughly read through the first 51 pages of this but didn't see my questions answered, with my luck, these were addressed in the remaining 51 pages I did not read yet ):

1.) Will the x120e run DDR3L RAM at the lower voltage (1.35v) or will it just run at 1.5v? Crucial said that they're both compatible and they were the same price. I figured I'd grab the low-voltage capable in hopes that it will save me a few minutes of battery life if it does indeed run at 1.35v. Why not, for the same price, right? (If it does not run at 1.35v and instead at 1.5v, would this indirectly reduce battery life in that it will generate more heat than what a 1.35v module is optimized, causing the fan kick on more?)

2.) I like to have full functionality of the single key stroke restore function (what is it, F11 at POST?), but I want it to exist on the 64gb SSD. I've been reading around the internet on how to transfer it, but I haven't been able to find what I am looking for. I am aware of threads discussing EaseUS, Acronis and Clonezilla. I've also seen some threads talking about hard drive structure not matching (MBR?). I do not understand a lick about hard drive structure, and I do not want to screw things up. So is it possible to do an exact 1:1 copy from the stock HD to SSD (sans the size difference)?

3.) I understand that the x120e allows you one chance to create restore media. I have an external USB DVD writer and plenty of DVDR/CDR media to do this. What exactly will this set of recovery media do? Is it just a snapshot of the drive at that moment (post setting up your name, etc), or will using it actually restore the operating system to pre-first boot ("Setup is preparing your computer for first use" splash screen)? I've done a lot of reading and I found a third party wiki site talking about ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery. I read somewhere in that article that it's recovery media will recover the hard drive and it's partitions (including the hidden recovery one). Is this true? If so, rather than trying to clone 1:1 HDD to SSD, couldn't I just create recovery media, switch the drives, and boot with the recovery media to generate the first boot OS + hidden recovery partition? What about OneKey Recovery? Is this on the x120e? I guess it's not clear to me which set of software (OneKey or ThinkVantage Rescue & Recovery) is included, or neither?

I have the laptop in my possession but I haven't done anything with it yet (not even opened!)... kind of want everything to be perfect!

Thanks for reading guys, hope my questions have easy answers... couldn't find this info anywhere.

 

unless you restore to the ssd an image of the original fact, f11 is defeated.
if you do factory image, ssd is not optimized.

 

if your post is accurate, the system is a refurb. send it back.

 

thanks for reply cognus, but the problem is I'm not from US. I managed to drop the power-on-password, but now there's 2 more passwords, hard-disk and supervisor password still can't boot windows. googled the way to hack thinkpad's bios pass, but hardware interface needed, not sure if that works. going to give it to local lenovo service next week, hope they can repair it.

 

I just turned on the x120e for the very first time... but the screen is black. The machine itself turns on but I can't see anything on the screen (no Thinkpad logo or POST at all). I don't think anything is actually loading... the system is just on, and the screen appears to "turn on" but it stays black and does not does no display anything. I tried switching the memory but it didn't help.

What should I do? Is there a fix or will I need to send it back to Lenovo for repair? I purchased it from Abes of Maine 2 weeks ago and it arrived this previous Wednesday and I just opened the package today and tried to boot it up the first time.

 

Connect your X120e to an external monitor to see if anything displays there (which would indicate a screen problem). If not, then the BIOS may not even be present (if it were, you would see a Thinkpad logo immediately during boot), or there could be some other hardware issue.

 

Thanks for the reply, MidnightSun.

I did as you had suggested to my ASUS 25.5" display. I get no ThinkPad logo on the screen when first I first boot it up, but after a little while, I do get to Windows 7 Pro first-boot setup (select language and keyboard layout etc). Still no display on the netbook itself, even with Fn+F7 while it shows on the external display.

What sort of problem does this suggest? Could there be a loose cable inside that I could sort out on my own, or will I have to send it to Lenovo repair depot for them to look at it?

Thanks!

 

Ah okay, then that means everything except the X120e's screen panel should be fine. So none of the Fn + F7 options yields any changes on the X120e screen (duplicate, extend, etc)?

You did say the backlight seems to be on, so it could be possible that the connection to the monitor is loose. If you're comfortable in doing so, you could disassemble your laptop and check that connection (see the Hardware Maintenance Manual [PDF]). Otherwise, you could contact Lenovo support and let them know what troubleshooting you've done.

 

Thanks, MidnightSun. I will check out the manual. I am pretty confident in doing things like this (build my own desktops and have swapped/upgraded HDs and memory in other laptops/netbooks before).

If it looks like something I think I can do confidently, I will try it out and post back results!

 

Just a tad bit more complicated than HD/memory. I guess I'll just contact Lenovo

 

Sent the x120e in for repairs. They ended up replacing the motherboard, according to the repair summary I received back. Anyway, seems to be running fine now!

First thing I tested was whether or not the x120e will run DDR3L at the lower voltage or just default to 1.5v. The memory compared is the stock 2x2gb that came with the system and Crucial 2x4gb DDR3L 1.35v. Looks to be running at the lower voltage (1.28v). Not sure what sorts of battery life gains this will end up equating to if at all (won't be checking), but I hope this is a good contribution to the knowledge base for the x120e as I was not able to find that answer in any of the 103 pages in this thread or around the internet.

 

How much ram would a 2gb set up have on the x120e? In other words, how much ram is automatically used by the Zacate CPU/GPU?

 

The Radeon 6310 uses up 384 MB, I believe, regardless of how much installed RAM you have.

 

Can someone tell me the diameter and length of the type of screw that mounts the hard drive caddy onto the motherboard (there's 2 of them)? The x120e I sent in for repair came back with no screws holding it in place. They must've been in a rush to finish repairing it that they forgot.

I am looking at the maintenance manual and my best guess is that it could be the M2x7mm screw. Rather than dealing with support for this, I'd rather pick them up at a local hardware store for a dollar or whatever.

Thanks

 

I don't know why I experience extreme eye sore from my x120e. I jacked up the DPI and font sizes on my browser/documents.

The screen has no contrast. If I turn brightness to 7, it's too bright. I usually put it on brightness 3 or 4.

Any tips on remedying this? My eyes aren't that great, but I got a 24" monitor at home which doesn't give me any sore even if I read a PDFs for few hours.

 

Could be the contrast, as you mentioned. You can try adjusting the colors in the AMD Vision control panel: bring up a high-resolution, detailed image with a wide range of colors on both your external monitor and your X120e's screen, and then adjust the brightness/contrast settings until the image looks tolerably close to those of your desktop monitor.

 

Yea perfect. I had no idea contrast was adjustable. Now that it is, it's better. The default contrast was sooo fricking flat.

 

Does anyone have experience with the aftermarket 6 cell batteries for this notebook?

The prices are pretty attractive ($30-50$) and they include 3 years warranty. Which is sufficient since thats how long i expect this notebook to last anyways.

 

Which seller is giving you 3 years warranty on OEM battery?
If its some ebay seller from China then I wouldnt count on that since sellers go defunct after some time and there is no way to get your product warranted.

 

from an american seller on ebay. itll be one of the first few results when you search on ebay.

these battery arent oem though. seems to be some third party manufacturer.

 

Does anybody know if there's a 9-cell battery for x120e?

 

No, there are no OEM batteries that are larger than the 6-cell.

 

Okay, I just bought a x120e from the Walmart deal a couple weeks ago and I'm enjoying my new lappy so far but I was surprised with some of the behavior of the e-350. Since I've never owned an AMD laptop, I figured I'd ask around to see if anybody might be able to tell me if this is normal.

Every time I initially open a program like Chrome, which is set to open my previous tabs when I start the program, the computer stutters and freezes up (maybe 10 seconds of stutter, off and on during max load) when the processor hits 100% usage, then eases back to normal as the tabs are loaded up. My old N270 Atom netbook never used to do this when the processor was under full load, so I was unsure whether or not this was normal behavior or if there were some settings that need to be tweaked to fix it.

Any suggestions?

 

That doesn't happen to me - it's definitely not an "AMD thing". How many tabs are you loading in Chrome, and what else do you have open when you do it? How much RAM do you have? It sounds more like a memory issue.

 

I usually open maybe 4-6 tabs on average, and typically it's the only program running. It doesn't seem that it's just the browser that triggers it--I get the same behavior when I start up games like that too, where the mouse becomes unresponsive for several seconds when the processor is at 100%. There may be others, but I only received it last Tuesday so I'm still in the process of testing it out. I upgraded the memory from 2GB to 4GB when I got it, so there should be ample memory for the laptop, right?

I've tried to uninstall the power manager to make sure that's not the problem, but it doesn't seem to help either.

 

The two X120's I own have never had this issue either. My first thought would be to put it back to the factory installed memory and see if that resolves it. When I click on Firefox browser and have it "restore session" it starts up three browser pages with usually six to eight tabs in each. It never becomes unresponsive. 4gb installed in each.

 

4GB should be fine. You might try a fresh Windows install unless you did that already. I'd also recommend making sure all of your drivers are up to date:
ATI Radeon? Video Card Drivers

Just grab the Catalyst driver.

 

I think I've pinpointed the problem finally--I decided to install Firefox and load up a bunch of tabs and reopen all the tabs again and I don't see the same stuttering behavior, so it must be just confined to Chrome. Thanks for your help!

 

not correct.
most likely it is bloatware via lenovo's original image. chrome will not exhibit that behaviour.
I would strongly urge you to remove every program that you are not personally acquainted with [as to its purpose, reputation, value], then remove everything "protective" except for one good realtime scanning program [to flag/neuter trojan-infested sites], one good malware remover [not DEFENDer, which should be neutered asap] and CCleaner.
remove any/all toolbars from IE9/10.
are all your devices in Device Manager clean? i.e. no exclamation marks?
have you checked the windows system event log for flags/warnings/issues?

what you are experiencing is a problem, not normal.

 

Yeah, I just got my x120e and while I haven't done a clean install, I removed the version of Chrome that was preinstalled and reinstalled the latest version. I also updated the video drivers, etc. I am having none of the problems you've reported.

 

I do tech work for a living and go a bit OCD on getting systems "right" so that they run well, are protected from everything except their owners lol.... and that the background clutter is cut to the very minimum.
if anyone is interested in a short tutorial on the process let me know and I'll post something here.
a clean install, while it may not be utterly necessary, is a good exercise that isn't terribly difficult. but that is just the start

i am overjoyed with this notebook. it exceeded my expectations in nearly every way, and seems to be very well built - hardy.