Thinkpad W701 Owners Lounge

I know that Lenovo Quadros are using custom bios making them "locked" by usable only in Lenovos.
However AFAIK as long as MXM 3.0 card is unlocked, W701 should accept it.
Using ATI/AMD would create problems with custom RGB LED I2C control (its using NVidia API) - RGB LED color temp/gamut controls will most likely stop working. So NVidia cards are advised.
Now that Lenovo updated drivers to 2xx version and I've finalized my storage subsystem, I intend to start scouring sellers for good NVidia MXMs.
I am not very keen on putting 3800M in, I want to try something better first, 3800M is always an option if nothing else will work.

 

^^ And by better, you mean the FX5000M? That's a very expensive card ~2.5K. Also, HP8740w doesn't accept it unless you update the BIOS with an integrated support. Dunno if Lenovo whitelists/blacklists the cards but there's a chance you might need a new BIOS to even recognize the new card.

 

By better I mean 460M/470M/480M. I don't need Quadro, also they are almost always vendor-locked (thats why you need a new BIOS, with proper unlock code in it).

 

Good idea. I'm very curious about your progress - keep us posted, please!

 

Looks like I may be able to use Radeon after all. Prices on NVidias are killing me...

I have managed to successfully reverse-engineer low-level I2C control on Samsung RGB panel that W701 uses. That allows control over backlight color temperature and putting panel into sRGB mode (very useful, wide gamut is rarely needed). Also allows to set funky colors on the RGB backlight instead of boring white
Obviously, standard Lenovo control panel uses NVidia API for i2C communication and will not work with Radeon.
But since I now know low-level protocol, I will be able to reproduce control using Radeon's own I2C API.

 

Seems all-quiet in this thread.

So a little question regarding memory upgrade.:-

Will opening up my laptop and installing additional memory myself affect the warranty?

The 4GB shipped in the unit is a single module and so running in single-channel mode. Will filling the slots to 16GB i.e. all slots occupied, automatically put it in dual-channel mode?

 

The DIMMs are CRU (customer-replaceable units), so changing them will not invalidate warranty, unless you actually damage something else while doing so.

As long as top and bottom slots contain pairs of equal DIMMs, it will automatically activate dual-channel mode.

 

Thanks Ingvarr, modules fitted, tested, all AOK.

In truth, anticipated this but it was good to get it confirmed!

 

It seems that W701 should accept almost any MXM 3.0 (Type B) module out there. At least mechanically - will it work and how well is another question
Article with photos.

 

W701 by JoelCDoyle, on Flickr

Here's mine after two months. Still awesome.