Lenovo W520 Owner's Thread

[Kaso]

I'm missing a driver in the "Device Manager" call "Base System Device".

Multicard Reader driver, possibly?

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/deta...cID=MIGR-77000

[Thors.Hammer]

Seems to me the best way to do this is:
Start button > "Performance Information and Tools" > "View and print detailed performance and system information"

Anything else I should check on 1st boot?

I'm not sure I would bother with her checking unless you are actually on the phone with her during the process. You're going to want her to ignore the anti-virus, Office 2010, and other offers on first boot, plug in your name for the userid, not set a password, ignore the network, etc.

[sgogeta4]

There is throttling on battery, but "Throttlestop" fixes it.

Is this across all W520? I haven't tested it since I got my W520, but I didn't notice any throttling when I did. I'll test it out this weekend again.

[Thors.Hammer]

Is this across all W520? I haven't tested it since I got my W520, but I didn't notice any throttling when I did. I'll test it out this weekend again.

If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

[nbshif]

My W520 turned ON from sleep twice (over 3 weeks) on its own while lying in my laptop bag. I discovered this after a long time when it has already become very hot and the fan became noisy. I do not think a harm has happened as it works fine but I just wanna know if any of you had a similar incidence and if so, why does it happen?

My W520 turns on in my bag all the time as well and I think it's from opening the cd-rom drive (which is very sensitive).

My new hard drive bay is coming in the mail soon so hopefully it won't be a problem after I take it out.

[kirayamato26]

Check your hibernation settings if it is turning on. If there is a hibernation timer set and it can't hibernate for some reason, it'll just stay on for a minute and then go back to sleep if you don't do anything with it.

[huberth]

My W520 turned ON from sleep twice (over 3 weeks) on its own while lying in my laptop bag. I discovered this after a long time when it has already become very hot and the fan became noisy. I do not think a harm has happened as it works fine but I just wanna know if any of you had a similar incidence and if so, why does it happen?

Do you use a wireless mouse? ( I found out that mine wakes up if I forget to turn off the wireless mouse.)

[huberth]

Is this across all W520? I haven't tested it since I got my W520, but I didn't notice any throttling when I did. I'll test it out this weekend again.

Yes, per Lenovo, this is "by design".
(What Thors is trying to say: If you are not running "heavy-duty" apps, you may not notice it.)

[chukwe]

Multicard Reader driver, possibly?

Ricoh Multi Card Reader Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad T420, T420i, T420s, T420si, T520, T520i, W520, X1, X1 Hybrid, X220, X220

That was it. Thanks

[Thors.Hammer]

Yes, per Lenovo, this is "by design".
(What Thors is trying to say: If you are not running "heavy-duty" apps, you may not notice it.)

Correct. The only folks that need to worry about this are folks that run simulations or some sort of demo that needs full performance while on battery, because a wall plug isn't available. The percentage of people this applies to is really low.

With the new BIOS, the machine will run nice and cool on battery and still turbo up when needed for spikes in CPU and GPU processing. It will then settle back down.

Throttlestop is not needed for the masses. A good understanding of the BIOS power management settings along with a good understanding of the settings for a Power Manager profile (advanced mode) is a better course of action for the vast number of people.