Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

[nbshif]

Mail day! I received my W520 in the mail today! (Also coincidentally two 250gb 7200rpm Toshiba hard drives which Dell sent me for messing up during some maintenance on my E6500. Neat! Back ups!)

I'm outside right now since it's a nice day, I thought I test out this machine's mobile abilities, and type up some of my thoughts.

My only real experience with a Thinkpad is my dad's X220, which I really like. So when I opened this up the first thing I thought was.. it's an X220 but bigger! Bigger is good and bad. I do think it's a bit too heavy- but not as heavy as my E6500. Also the design is much better than the E6500's industrial look.. which isn't very comfortable. That laptop stayed on my desk most of it's life, while this Lenovo will have a life outside of my room.

Speakers- haven't tried them yet. But they are in a similar placement as the E6500 speakers.. but with smaller holes. I hate how dust and particles get stuck in those speakers- hopefully it's not as bad on this. But it's not a big deal- just a quirk of mine probably.

Screen- When I turned it the first thing I thought was "this screen kinda sucks." A few minutes later I thought "this screen isn't so bad." About ten minutes later "I like this screen!" So I'm not sure if I'm just getting used to it or what. Or maybe it's all in my head after changing the text size to small on Windows. I don't think it's as good of a screen as my E6500, but I will compare them head to head later tonight. I am happy that I didn't end up with a glossy screen though, very very happy.

One thing I'm worried about is there is one flickering dead? pixel. I'm used to having about one on every screen I've owned, but they've usually been closer to the sides of the screen. I'm probably going to get used to it but I'm wondering if anyone has any tricks to get rid of them. Luckily it's very small.

Trackpad- It's not bad! I don't really like the X220's trackpad and I figured it would be comparable. But it's really not bad and I haven't even used the lovely red trackpoint yet really (which I know I like).

Keyboard- I like it! Not exactly quiet, but it's quite comfortable so far. I'm still trying to get used to the Ctrl and Fn switch. I think I read that you can switch them in the BIOS? Not sure if I'll want to do that though.

Right now I'm just enjoying messing with all the power settings (battery life isn't too bad) and uninstalling things (Norton) and installing other things (Avast).

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ - This is the ram upgrade I'm looking at it. Any issues with mixing different ram (came with 4gb)? 12gb would be pretty nice.

Newegg.com - Tekkeon myPower ALL External Laptop Battery MP3450 - I planned on buying this Tekkeon battery to power my camera for a long period of time.. but I'm curious does anyone think it will power the W520 at full power, without slowing down like the laptop does when on battery. I'm guessing the laptop's battery would need to be taken out.

I'm also considering an Msata drive + (i have) 320gb 7200rpm x 2. I'm looking at seeing what the best for the price is- but I'm also really tempted to take out my Intel 320 of my main comp to put it in here. I'm also curious how an Msata compares to the (kind of old) Intel 320 speedwise. I think the 320 is plenty fast, and very reliable.

Also, is there a trick to taking out the optical drive? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong!

[Kaso]

I received my W520 in the mail today!

Congratulations!

Screen- When I turned it the first thing I thought was "this screen kinda sucks." A few minutes later I thought "this screen isn't so bad." About ten minutes later "I like this screen!" ...

The FHD screen? I was a bit unsettled at first. But, now, I still catch myself saying, "Hmm, I like this screen!" It kinda grows on you.

Also, is there a trick to taking out the optical drive? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong!

Refer to the Hardware Maintenance Manual PDF. It says...

[nbshif]

The FHD screen? I was a bit unsettled at first. But, now, I still catch myself saying, "Hmm, I like this screen!" It kinda grows on you.

Yes, the FHD, I should have specified. I'm comparing it with my E6500 (1920x1200) screen and I'm not sure what I think. But I do know one thing- I really need to buy myself a screen calibration device! For all my screens, not just the Thinkpad.

And thanks for the help, I decided to take out a screw and then I took out the optical drive without issues. (Edit- It may have not been that screw.. maybe I just used more force)

I am having an issues with my hard drive bay though- which I actually used with my E6500 just fine. It's made for a Thinkpad and it says serial ata 1.5gbs.. It doesn't seem to be reading my drive though. Does anything need to be tweaked in the settings?

[Kaso]

Is your HDD brand new? You have to initialize the device (using Disk Management) before Windows can "see" it.

Regarding the caddy, its SATA electrical/power interface is the same regardless of speeds (1.5, 3.0 or 6.0 Gb/s). So, I don't think the problem is there.

[nbshif]

Is your HDD brand new? You have to initialize the device (using Disk Management) before Windows can "see" it.

Regarding the caddy, its SATA electrical/power interface is the same regardless of speeds (1.5, 3.0 or 6.0 Gb/s). So, I don't think the problem is there.

Hmm no it isn't new. It isn't showing up in disk management or device manager. The drive worked fine with in my other laptop too..

[Thors.Hammer]

Hmm no it isn't new. It isn't showing up in disk management or device manager. The drive worked fine with in my other laptop too..

How about more detail or a picture?
Are you trying to use a drive with a Lenovo W520 Ultrabay hard drive adapter?

Can you clarify what "I am having an issues with my hard drive bay though- which I actually used with my E6500 just fine. It's made for a Thinkpad and it says serial ata 1.5gbs.. It doesn't seem to be reading my drive though. Does anything need to be tweaked in the settings?" means ???

[nbshif]

(for some reason I couldn't get the photos to embed so here are the links)

http://db.tt/gG9DicAV
http://db.tt/zMN0YoD2

This is what it looks like in the W520 and out of it. I hope this clears things up.

I'm trying the driver updates now hoping that may fix it!

edit: p/n (part number): 26r9247

[Thors.Hammer]

(for some reason I couldn't get the photos to embed so here are the links)

Dropbox - DSC00509.JPG - Simplify your life
Dropbox - DSC00512.JPG - Simplify your life

This is what it looks like in the W520 and out of it. I hope this clears things up.

I'm trying the driver updates now hoping that may fix it!

edit: p/n (part number): 26r9247

Yea, that's the wrong HDD adaptor for the W510, W520, T410, T420, etc. It's never going to work properly.

The HDD/SSD adaptor you need is either the new official 12.7mm part at Find accessories for your laptop and desktop - Storage - 0A65623 or the other official 9.5mm part at Find accessories for your laptop and desktop - Storage - 43N3412

There are also some other non-Lenovo made HDD/SSD adaptors that work, but yours isn't one of them.

[davelite]

I just received my W520. Gorgeous looking machine. One thing I noticed immediately is that the SSD (ordered 160GB Intel in the primary bay) seems to rattle about a bit.

I thought that can't be right. So, I opened up the access cover and the drive is installed snugly into the SATA connector, but there are no other screws holding it down like with a traditional HDD on rails. It has red plastic rails, but they are not attached to anything.

I actually have not even turned it on yet. Too late here on the East coast to start setting it up now. Will boot up first thing in the morning.

Anyone else seen this issue?

Thanks,
David

[keltix]

oh man, that's a lot of restraint.
It would be like Christmas morning for me