x120e Owner's Thread

I've used it on a T61, X61s, and currently on my X120e. Works great.

 

As far as I'm aware, all Thinkpads are supported. I'm using it now on my X120e with no issue, and as I mentioned in my review, it really quiets it down as compared to BIOS settings, with minimal heat increase.

I've also tested it out on my T500, but I feel that it's unnecessary for that machine as my T500 is entirely silent under the BIOS fan profile anyway.

 

Hi,

New guy. I just got my x120e. I have 4GB RAM and a 64GB SSD.
No major issues.

I've upgraded the AMD SATA drivers yet it still feels kinda slow w/ a Kingston V+ SSD. Benchmarks shows 200MB reads, 165 writes. But the 4K is very low. 8MB a sec.
Opening up Photoshop and the web browser is not instantaneous like I'm used to.

Whats wrong? I doesn't feel like it is running any faster.

I have a MacBook 13 w/ a 7200 rpm and it feels way, way, way faster. Is Win 7 Pro that much of a dog?

My wife has a dual core 15" HP AMD laptop, 4GB RAM dv6. It is running on a 5400rpm drive w/ UBUNTU and it seems, again, way, way faster.

I have a clean install of Win7 Pro. I aligned and partition the SSD. The only thing I can think of is upping the RAM to 8GB.

Is anyone running full Ubuntu on their X120e? Is there are noticeable difference in speed. I'm ready to try it after preparing for all the issues. I'm just hoping Windows 7 is the problem here and not the laptop. Because right now, it is very slow.

Lastly, is the screen suppose to be that dimmed? Compared to my Mac and an iPad 2, the x120e is very, very dim. X1203 full brightness is like 1/4 low brightness of an iPad.

Overall, I like the laptop but the speed and weight is an issue for me. The X120e w/ a 6 cell battery weighs more than my Macbook Pro 13. The MacBook runs a solid 6-7 hours at medium brightness. I can't even get 4 hours w/ low brightness on the X120e.

My main thing is running Virtualization. I picked the X120E because AMDs have been good to me. My main home workstation and other laptops are AMD.


However, the same virtual images take forever to load up even on SSD. I have an UBUNTU and Jolicloud install and they take a good solid 10 minutes to get into the desktop. On my Macbook, it runs like normal (90% of a real CPU). I know, I can't compare the Macbook directly w/ the X120e due to the price difference.

Maybe I have too much expectations from this. I've always been a Thinkpad fan.

 

8mb/s is in the ballpark for a low-end SSD I'd say -- a mechanical HD would be less than 1mb/s.

You need to give Win 7 a night or so to settle down (leave the x120e on overnight). Check your processor usage; if it's idling higher than 5% or so, something's running in the background.

I tried Ubuntu on the x120e, and while things loaded faster, the GPU acceleration for AMD graphics isn't well supported by linux yet... so it's not really a viable option, IMO. If you're not going to use GPU acceleration, well, you would have been better off buying something with a faster processor.

The screen is pretty dim, and really my only complaint with the system -- make sure you have Varibright turned off in the Catalyst control center, but still, it's a 200 nitt screen with a 300:1 contrast ratio. The iPad's screen is nearly 400 nitts with a greater than 800:1 contrast ratio.

While I like Apple as much as the next Macbook user, your MBP 13" is NOT lighter than the x120e. Apple specs it as 4.5 lbs ( http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs-13inch.html), while the x120e, even with the 6-cell, is over a pound lighter at 3.3 lbs. True, the weight on the x120e is distributed rather poorly (the weight is mostly near the battery), but it's still lighter, even though it may not feel it.

As for virtualization, make sure you enable the AMD virtualization extensions in the BIOS. But really, the E-350 is probably half the speed of the processor in your MBP -- heck, it's slower than the CPU in my 4 year old Macbook -- so it's going to be slower no matter what.

 

Thanks for the reply. You are right about the weight. The MBP feels so much even and lighter in the hands. I wanted something that weighs less than my 13" and 15" MacBook Pros. I didn't want to get an MacBook AIR so I looked for something like the X120E or the Alienware M11x.

I think I'm going to try Ubuntu this weekend. I'll make a clone of the current OS/setup and try Ubuntu on another SSD (F120 Corsair w/ speedy Sandforce chipset) or on a 7200 rpm drive I have laying around.


Win7, overall, is probably a better OS due to driver compatibility and GPU acceleration. However, I will be mostly programming, running some LAMP based web apps, and doing some database design/modelling. I don't play games or play HD videos so Ubuntu will probably be OK.

 

hey guys,

is there anyway I can make simply pressing the f1-12 keys work as if I'm pressing them + fn?

I use it for media a lot and would be nice if I didn't have to press everything + fn

 

It seems Lenovo was nice enough to include the Fn and Ctrl swap key's in the BIOS, so there's no need to install a modified BIOS to get around this.

Now if only I could switch the physical key's too...

 

Somethings wrong with your hand! I had a X100e w/ 6 cells for about 2 weeks and it only weight 3.5 pounds and i am sure the macbook pro 13" is no less than 4.5 pounds. Also, the X100e with 4/15 brightness and wifi on, music player and web surfing. i got 3 hours and 55 mins. The X120e are supposed to be better. Something is wrong here!

 

Just pop them off with your fingers from a bottom corner of the key. It's the first thing I did when I got mine.

 

Yeah it's definitely small but dense. Not terribly heavy though. He might also want to check his power profile and/or install the Lenovo Power Manager. I can easily get 4.5-5.5 hours web surfing and occasionally watching flash video with mid brightness.

 

It's very easy to switch the Fn and Ctrl keys. It's one of the first things I did. I just used a credit card to pop them up to make it easier on myself.

Also, 3 hours and 55 minutes seems really low for the 6-cell battery. I have the 3-cell and I've managed to get close to three hours while playing Half-Life 2. So with the 6-cell under normal use I would expect to get about 5 hours fairly easily.

And a note, I successfully installed an Intel 6300 Ultimate wireless card in my x120e!! At first it wasn't working, and I thought maybe the card was doa, but after some fiddling, disabling and enabling the card (enabling caused the computer to lock up, but that's due to the modified bios) it finally worked!

 

Waef have you tried CS Source on it yet?

 

The only game I've tried so far has been Day of Defeat Source which is a little newer than Counter Strike Source, but running on same up-to-date source engine. Running all high at 1366x768 resolution it averages fairly well at around 25-31FPS with some occasional/random low spikes of 17 FPS. I've tested this with ATI catalyst 11.4 preview drivers.

 

I have not, as I do not own the game. All I know is that at 1366x768, both Portal and Half-Life 2 run well at high settings. What's the console command to check fps? I'll let you know what kind of fps I'm getting.

I haven't tested HL2: Ep1 or Ep2 yet though, so I can't comment on the performance on those, but I assume it is similar.

Edit: For HL2, with EVERY setting on absolute max, I got about 30fps when not moving, and ~10 fps whenever stuff was going on (unplayable). However, with most settings at high, with shaders and shadows turned down a little bit, I averaged 30-40 fps when nothing was happening, and 20-30 fps whenever things were happening, although it seemed to lean a bit closer to 30fps. Occasionally it dropped to 15fps. Either way, very playable.

 

I just ordered the X120e, the INTEL dual band wifi n upgrade is no longer available. I am pretty sure I will get the Intel 1000 bgn single band. I really like to install a 5100 or 6100 ( 2 antenna) for the 5 GHz band. The 6300 you installed required 3 antenna which the x120e does not have.

I tried to search for the modified bios to bypass the whitelist but I am having some trouble finding it. If you could link or tell me how to get it I would really appreciate.

 

The A/B/G/N broadcom upgrade is also no longer available.

 

You can utilize one of the two spare antenna reserved for the WWAN slot as the third antenna for the 6300.

 

net_graph 1 but it looks like you already found that out.

I just got my new HDD. I picked up a WD Black. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 on the machinel. And I have to comment I persoanly think the machine is faster without Enhanced Experiance. Espiecally for shutdown times.

I cant stop commenting on how well this thing performs. I Installed Dosbox and ScummVM and ripped all my old CD DOS games. Can't get at the floppies yet. This thing is such a blast playing all them.

I am going to try an get Knights of the Old republic on here. I want to see how that performs as well as Neverwinter Nights. I will post them here if anyone else is interested.

 

Yup, that's what I did. Had to fiddle with the cords to get them all in a favorable position, but it works.

To modify the BIOS, I used post #309 on this thread:
Thinkpad X120e (new AMD platform) is available on Lenovo Website, $379 - Page 21 - Slickdeals.net

A minor word of caution, however. Apparently the guy who modified the BIOS edited the post to make the BIOS a modified version of the 1.10 BIOS, whereas when I did it, it was a modified version of the 1.08 BIOS. So basically, use this at your own risk, as I can't guarantee it will work.

So I want to get an SSD for this thing next, anyone have any experience with the Samsung 470?

 

I'm using the Samsung 470 64GB in my X120e now. It performs no differently from my X25-M from what I can tell, and it did improve battery life. Overall, it's a high-performing and reliable SATA II SSD, although flashing firmware on it is a pain (I haven't bothered).

 

Awesome, that is really good news. Would you say the improvement in speed over the stock hdd was very noticeable?

 

I have the 64GB version of the Samsung 470. Great drive, read/write speeds are fast, 266/184 (read/write) (After FW Update). Got mine for $99 back in December of 2010, shell shocker deal. There are two problems with the February Firmware update.

One, it formats your drive so you lose all your data. So I updated my drive before installing windows 7. Not a big deal unless Samsung comes out with another update. I won't apply it though, its enough speed for me.

Two, It requires you to have a bootable DOS drive to load the FW update. It took me 30-45 min, not terrible but not convenient.

Otherwise:

-3 Year warranty
-Great reviews online (Even better than Intel's new 320 line)
-Extends Battery life
-Runs Cool (like all ssd's)
-Price, but it fluctuates, time your purchase carefully.

Edit: Fast bootup/shut down. Microsoft office and other programs load really fast and file transfer is quick. Much quicker than the standard 5400 RPM HD. SSD is not a necessary, especially if you have a tight belt. I will never go back to a standard HD, I will be purchasing SSD's from now on.

 

The 1.11 BIOS is out!

Lenovo Support - BIOS Update Utility for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit), XP - ThinkPad X120e

 

Downloaded and flashed successfully from BIOS 1.08--thanks for posting

 

Ubuntu runs fine. I'm using a kingston SSD. Boots in under 20 seconds flat to a useable desktop with WiFi active. I ditched windows 7 two days after I received the unit and never looked back.

 

I have some issues with the x120e:

I cannot find the driver for the Ultranav: as of now I am using the driver for the T series of laptops and the multitouch and enhanced functions on the touchpad are absolutely horrid. Scrolling is hit and miss and forget about the tap functions.

Also, is there supposed to be a difference in resistances for the trackpad buttons. My left button (with the red stripe) is much easier to depress than the right and middle buttons.

I'd appreciate any advice or info. Thanks!

 

There are some known issues related to the x120e - one of which is the broadcom drivers not working on a fresh win7 64 bit install: Compilation of Lenovo X120e issues and solutions - Lenovo Community

This driver download for the x100e though works fine in such a scenario: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/6ww206ww.exe

I set it up in windows 7 64 and wireless N works great.

On Fedora 14 everything works except the sound card (will not switch to headphones only when headphones are plugged in). Fedora 15 kernel fixes this issue, but default video during install is botched to to the buggy .38 kernel amd apu display drivers - I reported this to redhat in the bug tracker so that may be fixed come the final FC15 release.

 

Also, the touchpad drivers work great in linux (perfect in fact) and are absolutely horrible in windows on the x120e (mouse if preferred here). So its not the hardware that sucks.

UPDATE: in fact the touchpad drivers on windows are terrible - two finger scroll works maybe 20% of the time but is flawless in linux. Any fixes for that in windows? I don't use windows much, but man that is annoying when I do - any help here is appreciated.

 

I wonder if the shuttering audio on the x120e been fixed yet. Someone on the forum mention that removing the Power Management software fix the problem, the thing is I would like to use battery charging threshold on my laptop.

 

It seems to be fixed with the latest x120e bios (linked above), though this still needs to be verified by more people. At least for me, I haven't had any audio stuttering after flashing the new bios, even with power manager installed.

 

Thanks, I will try updating the BIOS right now and post my result tomorrow or tonight.

 

For trackpad issues, make sure to turn off all the smart check settings in ultranav. By default it's set to be very conservative, which in my usage resulted in almost nothing being recognized.

Twice I've had it happen where my 120 seems to think it's almost out of battery (when in fact it's 80-90% full) and it will go through the hibernating sequence. Starting it back up the message tells me that battery is low and I should plug in, etc. but aftewards produces no noticeable problems, so I'm not really sure what's going on.

What's the battery life improvement with a ssd?

 

So far the audio shuttling is all gone with the BIOS update, I will report back if I notice any more shuttling.

 

Thanks for the tip on the touchpad, it works great now! You are a life saver.

Now for another question. I have noticed that sometimes .exe files will not launch. Sometimes firefox will not launch or downloaded things. I was also downloading starcraft 2 and it stopped in the middle of the night...the image was left on the screen and when I made boxes with my mouse it cut out portions of the image left on the screen. Just wondering if there are some driver incompatibilities or updates that I should do to fix this.


Thanks!

 

Does this mean we can reinstall the Power Manager??

 

You never had to uninstall it. Just disable it's tray icon at boot.

 

Hey guys, I hope this will help. The 2 finger scrolling sucked because in the touchpad advance settings, you need to go down to palm check settings and "uncheck" the "Gesture Filtering". After that 2 finger scrolling is amazingly smooth. Hope that helps

 

Thanks Soybean

The more I read this forum, the more I like my x120e. Every problem I had with this laptop, is slowly getting solve by Lenovo and our forum member. Now the only major problem I had with the netbook is the contrast ratio/viewing angle, which I assume might not ever be resolve. (I use might because there might be a better screen, which I can install myself.)

 

Looks like I got a bluetooth 2.1 instead of the advertised 3.0 by Lenovo.

 

That appears to be what we get. A 2.1 is all the installed drivers display.

I have yet to hear of a 3.0 being received.

 

Soybean - you rule! That helped a lot. Thanks so much.

 

Which power option gives the best performance, High Performance or Maximum Performance?

And for best way to make the battery last longer, there are lots of options like Energy Saver, Maximum Battery Life, and Power Saver.

 

I found the Lenovo whitelist extemely annoying. Why do they need to do that? The upgrade to the wifi card is not available when I ordered and I need the 5 GHz band. Sure I can live with the 2.4 band but I went to a lot of trouble to setup the dual band network.

 

Can't you just tape the pin that disables the card?

Maximum performance would give the best performance I think.

I like to use Balanced on battery, I still get 5.x hours without having the clocks absolutely dragging.

 

Thanks Kuni.

Got some questions for other x120e owners, I have the base 250gb 5400rpm HDD and it scores 5.9 on WEI, is that the same score with everyone that has the base 250gb 5400rpm?

I'm also planning on grabbing a 750gb 7200rpm HDD for storage, here is the link Newegg.com - Seagate Momentus ST9750420AS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Is that compatible with x120e?

Thanks

 

With the stock 250gb hdd my WEI was 5.8 for the HDD.

The seagate should be compatible with x120e.

 

nice. I'm nervous about updating though, I heard of people encountering problems after updating

 

Mine is also 5.9.

For this BIOS? Or do you mean in general?

I haven't heard of anybody encountering problems after updating ... yet . I did it myself and everything's working fine still.

 

I just joined the ranks today. Picked up an X120e at a local retailer. I'm finding it quite the little computer. Tiny, peppy and seemingly pretty powerful. It was quite nice too to see a first time boot less than 10 minutes as well.

The build quality isn't quite as good as my older X60s is, but it's much better than my Asus EEEPC 1005HA. Fairly tight screen hinges and minimal keyboard flex too. The touchpad is a great addition for certain tasks, but I still love the trackpoint. I have had it running for a few hours now, and the bottom is only lukewarm. Very lap friendly.

Battery life looks quite nice too, Power Manager is reporting 5+ hours with brightness at 70% and WiFi on + Adaptive CPU power.

Overall, I am quite satisfied right now. My first new Thinkpad, and it has Windows 7. I'm happy

 

anyone know if the batteries on ebay are reliable...? the 6cell on ebay is much cheaper than what lenovo is charging.

laptop battery for lenovo Thinkpad x100e 57Y4559 new ! | eBay