ThinkPad X220 (i/T) Owners Thread

[JohnsonDelBrat]

You got 6.5 hours on a 6 cell while doing intensive work like that? Did you keep track of the total run time, or are you just estimating from the battery meter?

I used my wall clock. I knew when I first booted and when I shut down... no shut downs in between. Got 6 hrs 38 mins to be exact. Clean install, no power manager. Had only about 15 minutes left in the battery (windows monitor).


Out of curiosity. Does windows automatically stop charging or putting power to the battery when it is fully charged? That was the only reason I was going to dl power manager, to stop the the battery from charging while plugged in. However now that I look down at windows power scheme taskbar thing it says, "98% available (plugged in, not charging)". Does that mean it isn't putting power to the battery at all? I'd like to extend the battery life as much as possible. Usually I just remove the battery after done charging when on AC, but the x220 has throttling problems when you do that.

[floz23]

Out of curiosity. Does windows automatically stop charging or putting power to the battery when it is fully charged? That was the only reason I was going to dl power manager, to stop the the battery from charging while plugged in. However now that I look down at windows power scheme taskbar thing it says, "98% available (plugged in, not charging)". Does that mean it isn't putting power to the battery at all? I'd like to extend the battery life as much as possible. Usually I just remove the battery after done charging when on AC, but the x220 has throttling problems when you do that.

Yeah, Lenovo has some special charging circuitry, which will not charge your battery to the max in order to extend the lifespan of the battery over time. You will need to us the lenovo power manager in order to gain access to the setting (it can be turned off.) I have it set to auto, sometimes it won't change it to 100%, other times it will.

[JohnsonDelBrat]

You must have some great eyes JohnsonDellBrat to view the screen at level 3 or even 5. I have to have mine at 12 at least or my eyes suffer

Ha, I have jet fighter pilot equivalent eyes... so I may be an outlier. I've been using it at 3 for the last few hours. As long as the sun isn't beaming directly on the screen, I don't have any problems with that. I almost wish I could go into the negative numbers when I'm in a pitch black room, lol. I also have blue eyes, I've been told they take in a little more light than darker eyes (could be total bs ha).

[lectrolink]

I got mine yesterday. This is my first laptop ever and I am very very happy with it, except for the horrendous speakers. I hope something can be done about this, as boosting the EQ settings to make it loud enough to hear makes for a very distorted sound. Last night I was just web browsing and downloading/installing stuff and got about 7 hours at brightness 9. No fan noise, no heat issues. This machine really oozes quality. Track pad will take some trial & error tweaking to get it behaving properly, but there are a ton of settings to try.

Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone tell me, practically speaking, when it is best to enable hibernation and when to sleep?

Also, how can I confirm that I indeed have the IPS screen?

[floz23]

I got mine yesterday. This is my first laptop ever and I am very very happy with it, except for the horrendous speakers. I hope something can be done about this, as boosting the EQ settings to make it loud enough to hear makes for a very distorted sound. Last night I was just web browsing and downloading/installing stuff and got about 7 hours at brightness 9. No fan noise, no heat issues. This machine really oozes quality. Track pad will take some trial & error tweaking to get it behaving properly, but there are a ton of settings to try.

Pardon my ignorance, but can anyone tell me, practically speaking, when it is best to enable hibernation and when to sleep?

Also, how can I confirm that I indeed have the IPS screen?

1. I see no reason to use hibernation anymore, unless you plan to keep the unit off for more than a day.

2. Did you get a pre-configured model? Or a CTO? If you got a pre-config you can use the www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf to determine if your pre-config does. If you did a CTO, then you should have remembered if you selected the option or not.

[david1274]

I got mine yesterday. This is my first laptop ever and I am very very happy with it, except for the horrendous speakers. I hope something can be done about this, as boosting the EQ settings to make it loud enough to hear makes for a very distorted sound.

Yeah, shame about the speakers, especially since the IPS screen lends itself so well to films, multimedia etc. Someone else mentioned that the X220 speakers were even worse than the tinny speakers found on other Thinkpads. It's as if (the bean counters at) Lenovo spent all the available budget on other parts of the notebook.

Hopefully, there will be a software fix for the low volume level, although I have my doubts there will be. You could still stream audio wirelessly to small pc speakers or monitors- maybe having a few pairs positioned in places where you usually put your notebook down while at home

[TheLoneRaven]

I just got my x220! The first thing that annoyed me was some slight backlight bleed on the bottom left corner of the screen...

[othersteve]

Honestly, the speakers really aren't bothering me. I adjusted the EQ to emphasize mid- and high-range frequencies to prevent the blaring of the low-frequencies, and it's now quite loud and sounds clear!

[lhleet]

I just got my laptop! It looks and feel amazing, and cannot be happier.

Anything you all would suggest I do as a first before I enjoy my laptop (:.

Also, the battery manager from lenovo seems redundant as there is one for W7, would you guys recommend me taking it out? It keeps fluctuating by 2-3 hours for no reason (but holy , 10 hours for a full charge on a 9 cell..stated on the lenovo meter, but 15 hours from W7, IDK who to believe).

[david1274]

Anything you all would suggest I do as a first before I enjoy my laptop (:.
.

24 hrs of fast and meditation

Honestly, the speakers really aren't bothering me.

Party round yours, then?