The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
← Previous pageNext page →

    x120e Owner's Thread

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Master Kuni, Mar 12, 2011.

  1. techno_techie

    techno_techie Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    106
    Messages:
    292
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    A few questions:

    Is there a clean install guide? - I bought mine in Feb of last year and am just now getting around to it!

    Are you guys purchasing OEM 6-cell batteries? - I got mine with the 3-cell. I didn't research eBay to see if there were others before I got here.

    LAST ONE! Anyone with screen flicker issues? I get them occasionally, but wasn't sure if there is a driver or BIOS update to fix it. I've missed NBReview!
     
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    A clean install isn't too hard to do; here's a more-in-detail guide by Hearst. I got my X120e with a 6-cell battery, and later on, Lenovo offered the 6-cell as the base configuration. As for the screen flicker issues, update to the latest BIOS version. One of the revisions along the way fixed the problem.
     
  3. m1ke_l

    m1ke_l Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I'm still searching for an answer about using the WAN slot for something useful, but I would also like to know how I would know if my machine is no longer whitelisted?

    I've flashed as instructed but I'm still just seeing 1.16 as the bios version.
     
  4. cognus

    cognus Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    186
    Messages:
    877
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    31
    is there something wrong with 1.16?
     
  5. m1ke_l

    m1ke_l Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Nothing wrong, but the standard bios versions only allow Lenovo specific hardware to function....I have a non-Lenovo device I want to use.
     
  6. gerg

    gerg Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    11
    Messages:
    94
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
  7. m1ke_l

    m1ke_l Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Cool, but without a proper whitelist I can't get any card recognized in that slot.
     
  8. cognus

    cognus Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    186
    Messages:
    877
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    31
  9. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    As to the card adaptors--since these are mass storage rather than communication devices, do they fall within the purview of The Whitelist? If not, some cool things you could do. In my case (I have an M4 SSD already installed) I don't know whether there would be any point to these. I suppose I could move the swap file onto a secondary "disk," but I'm not sure how much I'd gain that way. Still, it's fun to speculate here.
     
  10. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I should note further that I have "heard" (somewhere) that the sockets in the X120e do not fully implement the protocol, and that (consequently) an SSD will *not* work in those slots. Can anyone confirm/deny?
     
  11. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    The one thing to watch on a clean installation is that (fairly obviously) you won't have drivers for your WiFi device. Unless unlike me you're smart and put them on a USB stick prior to clean installing Windows, you'll need to grab an ethernet cable and log onto Lenovo's site right after your install completes.
     
  12. m1ke_l

    m1ke_l Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have tried installing a Crystal Broadcomm HD decoder into the "spare" WWAN slot and it is not working.

    I've also moved the 1x1 card from the used slot to the "spare" WWAN slot and the OS does not detect it.

    I either have a defective WWAN slot or the white list is still in effect and will only allow very specific devices to work there.
     
  13. gerg

    gerg Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    11
    Messages:
    94
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I tried a Sandisk 64GB mSATA SSD, and it was not recognized.
     
  14. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    OK. This (alas) makes a perverse kind of sense. The slots in the X120e were probably configured for communications devices only, rather than for mSATA. Still, had I the $ lying around, setting up the machine to use something beyond WiFi would be cool. But I don't so...
    :D
     
  15. f8290

    f8290 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ok, so i finally replaced the thermal compound but temps aren't as lower as i'd wish, when some web browsing im on 65-70 idle around 62.. so did i made any mstake when replacing thermal paste? or what? wasn't it supposed to drop 10C ?

    help please...

    edit: is it possible that the temps sensors could be taking wrong measures? i mean this is what tpc says:
    1 cpu 65°C
    3 crd 65°C
    7 bat 22°C

    (just these 3 sensors)

    edit2: how many sensors do you have measuring?
     
  16. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm doing some basic browsing right now, with TPFC reading the sensors as follows:

    1 cpu 64°C
    3 crd 64°C
    5 no5 20°C
    6 x7d 20°C
    7 bat 28°C
    8 x7f 20°C
    12 xc3 20°C

    Note: I'm running a slightly modified Power Saver plan with 80% max allowed for the CPU and passive cooling.


    The only times I'm in or near the '70s are generally when watching videos, etc. Can you tell us something about your power plan?
     
  17. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    i would suggest that you download & install speedfan. That is much more accurate when it comes to temperature sensors. TPFC was behaving in a weird way for me.
     
  18. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    OK. Downloaded, installed, set it on automatic for the fan. This seems to be showing temps in the mid-50s (C) range, except it jumps about 10 degrees when I'm playing Hulu videos at moderately high resolution (not HD).

    So--either SF is SHOWING lower temps than TPFC, or it's CAUSING lower temps. Dunno which, dunno how.
     
  19. f8290

    f8290 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Im using balanced mode with maximum processor power set to 90% and passive cooling..

    I tried Speedfan but fans are always on although it says 0rpm.. weird..

    I see you have several sensors working on your thinkpad, Ive only have 3 Cpu CRD and battery, this is really confusing..

    ideas?
     
  20. Quanger

    Quanger Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    42
    Messages:
    406
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Anyone using this PC as their main machine?
    Thinking of ditching my parents desktop AMD Sempron 3400+ and setting up their x120e with external monitor, kb, mouse. That way, they can unplug and travel and keep everything with them.
    Performance between the E-350's would likely be similar to the performance of their old sempron 3400+ (single core). Possibly even better.
     
  21. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yeah, I don't think Speedfan can get the RPMs from the X120e's fans. FWIW, I get three values from Speedfan, and they are as follows at the moment:

    Temp1: 54C
    GPU: 55C
    Core: 55C

    CPU usage is bouncing around near 10-50%.

    The fan is running, but very slowly (under SF's control).

    Running: Firefox, Outlook, Task Manager, Speedfan, plus MSIE and the new Skydrive app.

    This machine is a E350 with 4MB RAM, Win7 32-bit, 128GB SSD.
     
  22. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yep. This is my only machine. When I'm "docked" via USB and power cables, I'm hooked up to a scanner, CD/DVD drive, hard drive for backup, mouse, and speakers (via a cheap USB-to-analog converter). I could also plug a keyboard into that hub and a monitor via VGA, but I don't really need those or have the space.

    I'm very pleased with this little machine. Nothing it hasn't been able to do yet!
     
  23. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Yeah, speedfan is not able to read TP fan speed sensor, though it reports the temperatures acurately. I also tried other softwares for system information & all reported nearly the same temperatures.

    While trying out a few thing by myself, I tried using a little bit of arctic silver & after sometime my temperature sensors read :
    Temp1: 48C ( on load)
    GPU : 49C
    Core : 49C

    My CPU usage is 1% on idle & jumps between 40-70% on load. The max temperature i recorded was 64C while playing blackops.
     
  24. m1ke_l

    m1ke_l Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    This is my primary machine in my life, even with access to several desktops and a monster dell work laptop.

    I surf, play Machinarium (and it's replacement), Netflix, Hulu, chat, write, work (vpn into work).

    I also finished "Portal" on the x120e. Load times are obviously slower, but once in the game, everything was perfectly fine.

    I have hooked it up via hdmi to my 51' plasma TV and watched HD movies with out issue.

    I burn cd/dvd's to an external USB drive and rip DVD movies (though this takes a while).

    With my replacement stock battery, this machine does everything I ask of it.
     
  25. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I assume you meant "no load." Otherwise, I am rather envious, and will have to think about investing in some very expensive paste!
     
  26. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I meant "on load". Where load means playing videos. Before Arctic Silver, the idle temperature used to be around 52-54C.
     
  27. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    So what's the idle temperature now? And now I'm going to have to go re-sink my CPU #@$*!
     
  28. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    If i talk about today ( right now ) at this very moment, it's been approx. 5.2 hrs. on battery & speedfan notes my temperatures @ 52C - 53C. If I leave the machine IDLE & just prevent it from sleeping, the temp. is nearly at 46C & note the room temperature is nearly 35C & outside temperature is 44C. I haven't undervolted & currently am running a 320GB stock drive. ( my kingston SSD went kaput :( )
     
  29. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I'm going to have to investigate repasting the fan at some point. And :( indeed--what happened to your SSD?
     
  30. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I never though thermal paste could play that vital role in a small sized device, but it did. SSD just stopped working for unknown reasons & warranty request takes a lot of time. Hoping I get the drive back in 15-20 days.
     
  31. Sudos

    Sudos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Just dropped a 750GB hard drive in my X120e of 7 months. running strong 4 days in and still working with the accelerometer to park the head if it moves too suddenly. this was a big question I also had that was answered. Awesome.

    Recently I've been wondering about the allocated memory for these things, for the HD6310. in an early BIOS update they increased the RAM allocation up to 384MB. I was just watching an MSI Wind u270 on Youtube with 512M playing Dirt 3, albeit rather smoothly.

    Is there really anything that it would gain from using a half a gig of your RAM for, besides more room for textures and such? I have 8GB in my machine so it's not that much of a problem to give it more... I just wish they allowed switching between 384, 512 and MAYBE 768. it'd make sense.
     
  32. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I don't think any more BIOS updates will be rolled out for the x120e as it's already discountinued. But yeah an option to share 512 or even higher amount of RAM might be useful.
     
  33. kaede

    kaede Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    247
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    anyone tried run win8 on these little babies? :D
     
  34. Sudos

    Sudos Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Discontinued, yes, but not unsupported. there are still people with warranties, and until all the X120e warranties expire, they should still give support for it.
    However, due to the recent downward spiral hole Lenovo seems to be digging themselves with the drastic changes to the thinkpad line, I'll have to agree that they won't be supporting it much unless a big big big problem happens.

    I think the only thing they'd update for it and the other Zacate-running Thinkpads and such would be the AMD driver version when AMD decides to get off their own lazy butt and permanently fix the GPU bug with the lines across the screen that come and go from the backlight dimming.
     
  35. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    I haven't had any issues with this after updating to one of the last few BIOS updates. The current BIOS Rev 1.16 shouldn't have any issues.

    As for support, my 3.5-year-old T500 still occasionally gets BIOS updates, along with various other driver updates, for XP/Vista/W7. I haven't seen another OEM that can match Lenovo's driver support of legacy machines.
     
  36. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Interesting. Mine is at the .15 BIOS, and I recently installed the latest & greatest from AMD. And saw screen lines for the first time.

    I was surprised...
     
  37. romant56

    romant56 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    33
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    I've been running Win8 since the consumer preview came out. With the Release Preview the metro apps have become good enough that I actually use them.

    Installation was easy. I only had to install the AMD drivers (in order to turn off the stupid random screen dimming feature) and Lenovo Power Management Driver since it came up as a question mark in Device Manager.

    HOWEVER, the wireless driver that Windows automatically installed had my CPU constantly running at 50%, so I would check your system and then install the Lenovo provided one. That solved the problem for me.

    Overall, I love Windows 8 although it will take you a day or two to get used to the new interface - it's very different. I just loaded it onto a friend's HP Touchsmart all in one and it was amazing to use with the touch interface. I'm definitely purchasing at least one touch device (tablet, perhaps?) very soon.
     
  38. f8290

    f8290 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    How is that possible? I put IC Diamond (twice) on mine and im in 60-63C when browsing with fans at 0rpm..


    maybe you have the e240 ? single core?

    i dont know what else to do to low down the temps, here we have 10-15C outside
     
  39. kaede

    kaede Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    247
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    nice!!! thx will try it definetly

    anyway u can just get a lcd touchscreen and connect ur laptop to it. too bad no docking for this x120e
     
  40. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I was speaking in general, from what i've seen top of the line products get support for long periods. X120e not being top of the line. I might be wrong as Lenovo might differ from other companies.

    @f8290: I am running e350 with 4 gb ram. I am not sure why it's running a bit on the cool side after the thermal paste application.

    I am also runnning Windows 8 on my machine from dev preview stage & recently clean installed release preview, running very nicely.
     
  41. f8290

    f8290 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    which thermal paste did you apply ?

    im thinking on giving a shot to artic mx-4.. maybe the IC diamond wasn't as good as i was thinking..

    any other advice?

    im on 60C when idling.. and up to 65C when browsing (and then the fans start)
     
  42. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I applied Arctic Silver, it's the same paste i am using on my desktop rig that i use for gaming. I think MX-4 would be equally good.

    Another thing is that I didn't mention was that I am also using a cooler master X series cooling pad. Maybe the airflow provided by the cooling pad is working the magic.

    Yesterday I got a maximum temperature of 64c after playing blackops for 6 hours straight. :D
     
  43. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Oh. Yeah, I think that could account in large part for the difference. The extra fan and airflow are not insignificant factors.

    Any chance you could try setting your machine on a wood or plastic tabletop without the cooling pad and give us some readings? That would be instructive.
     
  44. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    ok. I placed it directly on my wooden table top. Only my room fan was on. No Air conditioning. The temperature readings are as follows:

    During IDLE:
    HD0 : 34C
    TEMP1: 52C
    GPU: 52C

    After browsing, document formatting for 40-45 minutes:

    HD0:37C
    TEMP1: 56C
    GPU:56C

    All the results are from speedfan.

    EDIT: Forgot to mention the temperatures got a bit high when i placed the x120e on the bed itself. Temperatures then fluctuated from 56-59C.
     
  45. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    OK. That's fairly consistent with what I get from my unmodified, out-of-the-box X120e. I would guess that the new paste made a marginal difference, but that's about it--most of what you were seeing was due to enhanced air flow from the cooling pad.
     
  46. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I was using a friend HP DM1z with the similar configuration. The Machine was "Hot" to touch, not warm but hot. The temperatures were high even after i placed it on my cooling pad. The temperature readings never came down from 64C. That makes me a happy x120e user :p

    Just a observation: The battery backup on the Hp DM1z is approx. 1.2 hrs more on a similar rated 6 cell battery. I wonder why ? when the configuration is exactly the same as x120e.
     
  47. f8290

    f8290 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Ok so if you are just using speed fan and not TPFC your fans are running 100% time right? Thats (maybe) why you have those temps(plus the thermal re-paste).

    Anyway today i left my x120e at the tech support so, there is nothing else to do but waiting...

    edit: i hope my thermal re-paste didn't void my warranty
     
  48. tankd0g

    tankd0g Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Are the motherboards on these things known to be crap? I bought 5 of them and 3 of the 5 had no working USB ports new out of the box so I sent them back and now 3 months in, one of the two that did work has just lost all use of the trackpad and trackpoint. I've tried both windows and ubuntu on all units so it wasn't a driver issue. Perfect form factor for what I do but I've seen better quality control out of a Dell mini. I don't know if it's even worth paying the warranty dance with Lenovo to try to get it fixed.
     
  49. shan2129

    shan2129 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    39
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    AFAIK SpeedFan does not control your fan behavior, it only reports the fan speed. In this case SpeedFan reports it 0rpm as it is not compatible with the sensor. I also checked with some other system information & performance utilities and the temperature readings seem consistent.
    I have to say that the fan is super silent, as i cannot hear it & am only able to hear the fan when i wake the system up from sleep. I have also tried listening to the fan and feel if the warm air is being exhausted, most of the time the fan is off.

    Got my SSD back today, surprisingly good warranty service from Kingston. Will install it back and check if temperature readings change.
     
  50. Wintermute7

    Wintermute7 Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I've had mine for a couple of months with no problem, and I bought it used (almost exactly a year after the original purchase). No problems. I carry mine around daily, usually on my bike.

    Questions:

    1) is the pointing device connector separate from the keyboard connector? I know that they're physically connected, but don't know what the electronic side looks like.
    2) can you continue to use an external pointing device (USB or BT mouse)?
     
← Previous pageNext page →