Thinkpad T420s Owners' Thread

[dboss619]

I went to the lenovo website and looked under drivers software and chose the t420. Downloaded their up to date audio driver and fixed my problems.

[jedisolo]

I'm thinking of buying this machine will the samsung 470 256gb SSD fit in this machine?

[lyrebird]

after 72 hours of usage of my new t420s, I have to say the sound volume is so low (and not even). have to use a external speaker for msn.

[John Ratsey]

I'm thinking of buying this machine will the samsung 470 256gb SSD fit in this machine?

If you are planning to use the internal drive bay, which only has room for 7mm thick drives, see this thread for compatible SSDs and opticions for modifications.

after 72 hours of usage of my new t420s, I have to say the sound volume is so low (and not even). have to use a external speaker for msn.

I'm quite impressed by the sound volume from my T420s' speakers and have no problem with the balance. First make sure that you are using the newest audio driver then investigate tweaking the options.

John

[sugarkang]

Okay, so can we get confirmation from people complaining about unbalanced sound that the drivers fix the issues?

Is the display crap or not? And if it is crap, is it limited to the viewing angle?

[John Ratsey]

I find the viewing angles are as good as on the other notebooks I have around. The main drawback with my display (LG) is the "griddiness" which is a little noticeable on grey backgrounds.

John

[ooxxoo]

Okay, so can we get confirmation from people complaining about unbalanced sound that the drivers fix the issues?

Is the display crap or not? And if it is crap, is it limited to the viewing angle?

I had problems with my sound (cutting in and out) until I updated the drivers. It sounds like the ones that they've been shipping with are bad.

The display is not very good. Don't expect anything nice. I have the AUO display and can also notice some grain on certain colors (grey/white). I don't mind but I know others would.

[lyrebird]

no, re-installing the driver does not help for the unbalanced sound issue. will call for a service later this month.

Okay, so can we get confirmation from people complaining about unbalanced sound that the drivers fix the issues?

Is the display crap or not? And if it is crap, is it limited to the viewing angle?

[finkfad]

Hey guys, thanks for all the info.

Order a 4170CTO directly from Lenovo, i7 and Optimus. Order date was on 04/24/11, and the scheduled ship date was 05/13/11, but it was shipped on 05/03/2011 from Shanghai China, and it arrived in the US 05/04/2011 so I'll be getting it in a couple of days I supposed.

Bought these parts to pimp my T420s,

02 x Patriot Signature 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model PSD34G13332S
Newegg.com - Patriot Signature 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model PSD34G13332S

01 x BYTECC AP-DPHDMI-005 DisplayPort to HDMI Cable Adapter 0.5ft (6") w/IC
Newegg.com - BYTECC AP-DPHDMI-005 DisplayPort to HDMI Cable Adapter 0.5ft (6") w/IC

01 x Lenovo Display Port to Single-Link DVI-D Monitor Cable
Lenovo Display Port to Single-Link DVI-D Monitor Cable | eBay

01 x Ultrabay SATA 2nd Hdd Lenovo ThinkPad T410s T510 DV13
Ultrabay SATA 2nd Hdd Lenovo ThinkPad T410s T510 DV13 | eBay

01 x Crucial 128GB M4 2.5IN SATA 6GB/S (praying that the unit arrives without pesky warranty stickers on the spacer)
Crucial Technology CT128M4SSD2 128GB M4 2.5IN SATA 6GB / S - BLT Catalog!

Will let you guys know how it goes. I pray everything works alright!

Hi guys, just received my T420s today, to report on the compatibility of the stuff,

02 x Patriot Signature 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model PSD34G13332S

Works out of the box.

01 x BYTECC AP-DPHDMI-005 DisplayPort to HDMI Cable Adapter 0.5ft (6") w/IC

Works out of the box, audio passes perfectly, video passes fine to my HDTV @ 1080p. Just make sure you don't disable the Nvidia drivers with msconfig.

01 x Lenovo Display Port to Single-Link DVI-D Monitor Cable

Works out of the box.

01 x Ultrabay SATA 2nd Hdd Lenovo ThinkPad T410s T510 DV13

Works out of the box. Took out the 250GB 5400RPM that came with the noteobok, plugged it into the caddy, removed the dvd drive and slotted the hdd caddy in, voila, without a hitch.

01 x Crucial 128GB M4 2.5IN SATA 6GB/S

Confirmed to have arrived without any pesky warranty stickers. Removed the spacer easily, but no 3mm screws available so I just kept the cover of the M4 in place by using the rubber rails that comes with the original HDD.

Clean installed Windows 7 Enterprise, and loaded the drivers from the Lenovo driver matrix one by one. I experienced occasional freezing in Windows, where everything will just pause, the mouse icon turns into the waiting symbol, and the HDD light turns full on. The system freezes for like 1 minute or so, before becoming functional again.

Turns out that this problem is fixed if I follow this guide.

Solution: C300 Disk Freeze-ups in Windows 7 solved... - Crucial Community

It was written for the C300, but after doing this with the M4 I seem to have avoided the freezing problem. Will report after a couple more days.

All in all, the screen quality seems to be worse than my 5 year old x61, and even though I'm a young lad of 28 with perfect eyesight, the system fonts at native resolution (1600 x 900) appears to be a little too small for me. The griddiness also gives me a headache if I stare too closely at the screen (about 6 inches from the screen surface).

Positive experiences thus far includes starting MS Office 2007 in less than 1 second, and MATLAB 2010b in ~4 seconds.

[RamGuy]

After dealing with the screen of my ThinkPad T400s I didn't jump onto the T420s right away and for good reasons it seems.

It's sad seeing what I would describe as almost the perfect machine (14inch, good resolution, rock solid lightweight build quality, decent webcam, one of the best keyboards out there, not so good touchpad but that's solved by using the superior trackpoint solution) being muddled with such lackluster screens.

If Lenovo could only opt for a 1600x900 IPS screen or at least something half decent in the TN-world like the anti-glare / matt solutions of the MacBook Pros I would have gone for the ThinkPad T420s without any doubt! I would gladly pay a premium for the IPS option but no.. Now I have to dwell between something completely different without trackpoint or go with the lackluster screen that will irritate me for years.. Arg!!

If only the ThinkPad X220 offered higher resolution..