Lenovo T520 Gaming Upgrades

Hello everyone, I have a Lenovo T520 with the following specs:
Intel i7-2720QM (2.2Ghz Quad Core)
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM
NVIDIA 4200M 1GB Discrete Graphics
500GB HD
I am awaiting the release of Diablo 3 and am slightly worried about my laptop's gaming performance. First off I have an extra DIMM slot so I was thinking about adding additional RAM if needed, I ran Crucial scan and it says I can run RAM speeds 1600Mhz, read around and places have said the max for this model is 1333Mhz so I could used that cleared up. Also, I am worried mainly about my GPU performance, I know the 4200M is a business model GPU and may have hard time with the application, is there anyway to upgrade the GPU in this model or is it part of the motherboard? Or do I even need an upgrade, Diablo 3 suggest GeForce GTX 260 GPU as the base model. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I just went back into the BIOS and looked at the options list. Intel HD, Discrete & Nvidia Optimus. I don't know the logic behind this but Nvidia is a discrete graphics module. However, with the Nvida option (which is the 3rd) I have both display adapters showing in device manager. No set the DISCRETE, I have only the Nvidia 4200M (one graphics adapter). I booted loading detected new hardware, loaded drivers (apparenty not the same as Optimus mode) and came up in very low res. After finishing it needed another boot and in HiRes. Benchmark is now 5.2 for Aero from 4.6 a big jump but the Intel HD 3000 should have been higher in my opinion and the 5.2 in nothing spectacular. I've seen other systems in stores with dedicated graphic doing 5.9 easily including the AMD A8 APU system much higher. This is not the best video chipset for a T520 grade notebook. I never heard it used before, G550M & G555M yes.
I wonder why the ThinkPad support techs don't know this. I've been in IT support systems for 2 decades and if I had my hands on this and supported it I would know that and light years more. It appear they're merely script flowchart techs speaking english.
At least I can now use the power of the video. In the dual display adapter setup I am not able to control when the system should use discrete graphics which is wrong.
Thanks for you NOTE earlier on the BIOS settings suggestion.
T520 Model 4239 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2860QM CPU @ 2.50GHz
Intel Sandy Bridge & Nvidia NVS 4200M graphics Intel N 6300 Wi-Fi adapter
Windows 7 Home Prem - 64bit w/8GB DDR3

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Lenovo t520 running hot

Hey was wanting to get some input from other users with this laptop. I have the lenovo t520 with nvidia optimus. My concern is the cpu is running really hot. The max temp for the core I5 is 100 degrees celsius. Under load my cpu is running at 98C. Was wondering if i should be conserned or if this is normal for these laptops. I havent had any shutdowns from overheating but I do get a lot of micro studders from the cpu throtteling to control the heat. Since my laptop is out of warranty I cant send it in for repairs without paying out the, well you know.
I was thinking about using software to make a custom fan speed plan but there doesnt seem to be a program that can actaully control the fans speed. Another option would be to upgrade the thermal paste to some artic silver 5 still got a tube laying around somewhere. Thanks for any input guys.

Hi shoted45,
It wouldn't be a bad idea to clean the dust out of it and change out the thermal paste.
Here's your Hardware Maintenance Manual . Page 89 shows how to take out the thermal assembly.
Dave
T430u, x301, x200T, x61T, x61, x32, x41T, x40, U160, ThinkPad Tablet 1838-22R, Z500 touch, Yoga Tab 2 Windows 8.1, Yoga Tablet 3 Pro
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Sluggish Performance & Audio Problems in Lenovo T520

I have experienced strange problems with my Lenovo T520 (specifications: i7, 6GB RAM, I can post detailed configuration). The problems are:
The audio quality is noisy. What I find strange is the audio quality for the same song worsens when play in VLC media player (more noise) v/s when played in Windows Media Player
The performance is sluggish and the system freezes when moved. What I mean is if I am watching a movie and lift the laptop from one place to another. The movie freezes while moving & audio stops. Once stable again the video and audio synch up again
Trackpad unresponsive: The trackpad get unresponsive at times, but the Trackpoint is working fine.
Could you post a solution to any of the problems?

For the sluggishness....
(1) Make sure the power cord is plugged in. I know...sounds dumb, but I had the same problem with my new T520 and I saw a thread on here stating that Lenovo thought it would be a great idea to make your new T-Series laptop run slow when on battery.
(2) Closely inspect the "Power Manager" profile you're using. I noticed that even the "Maximum Performance" (or whatever it's called) profile was set to NOT best use the CPU. In Power Manager, click "Advanced" at the top to go from "Basic mode" to "Advanced mode", then click the profile you want to use from the vertical list on the far left. Then on the right side, expand the first drop-down category called "Performance" or something like that. Now there will be two columns under that category...battery on the left and AC power on the right. On the AC power column set the drop-down box to the "Maximum Turbo" setting.
T520 / i7-2630QM / Optimus HD+ / Crucial M4 SSD

Installing Lenovo Windows 7 upgrade in a new hard disk

I have an U330 and I have received Lenovo Windows 7 upgrade disc. My pre-installed OS is Windows Vista.
I bought a new 500 Gb hard disk and I want to change my U330's hd for this new one AND also want to install Windows 7 in this new hard disk.
Question: is is possible to install windows 7 using Lenovo Windows 7 upgrade discs directly in this new hard disk?
Or do I need first to change the hard disk (and restore backup or restore factory default) and then upgrade to Windows 7?
Thanks in advance

I dont think it is possible,the upgrade disk will check for a eligible version of Windows vista before starting the installtion
Cheers and regards,
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I am a volunteer here. I don't work for Lenovo

Lenovo t520 screen going dark

My lenovo t520 just came back from the repair center to get a new motherboard and I have started noticing a weird issue with the screen. Whenever I go on a website that is primarily dark (like the bckground is black), the screen gets quite dark. And then when it goes back to another screen (like where it is priarily white) the screen is alot darker. After a while the screen gets brighter slowly. I checked the brightness controls and they are always on full bightness through this whole thing.
Is there some auto screen brightness efficancy system i do not know of or is my screen just broken?

Reset the NVRAM/PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.

Lenovo G550 processor upgrade

I am upgrading a Lenovo G550 that I purchased a few years ago for my wife. So far I was able to install 8GB or RAM and a 500GB HDD with no issues. However when I tried to upgrade the processor, the laptop would not power up. It will turn on and the lights will indicate that the HDD is on and the battery is on, but I do not get the Lenovo splash screen. I hear my fan going but nothing happens. Only a black screen. I purchased an Intel Core 2 Duo processor P7550 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache) based on the speciation sheet below. I was wondering if anyone might know where I could find any documentation that specifically lists what CPUs are compatible with the Lenovo G550. Ideally I'd like to install the best processor it will take. Thank you.
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/pdf/notebooks/Essential/G-Series/G550%20Datasheet.pdf
Solved!
Go to Solution.

hi there,
I haven't seen a G550 with a Intel Core 2 Extreme Mobile QX9300 CPU but if you bought it working from a G550 laptop or it has a lenovo FRU on it then it may work (it'll also good if you can return the item just in case it doesn't work).
In addition, take note that the QX9300 has a max TDP of 45W, whereas the CPU's listed in this pdt datasheet are only 35W so the motherboard might not take the heat if the QX9300 reaches it's peak usage.
Also, I've looked into some additional details and these are the CPU's that are tested to work with the G550.
More info:
Lenovo G550 CPU upgrade
Goodluck!
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Lenovo Windows 7 Upgrade questions (please help)

Dear Lenovo Community:
I recently purchased a Thinkpad T500 and signed up for the Lenovo Windows 7 Upgrade Program. I have a few questions that I haven't been able to find the answers to elsewhere. I was hoping some of you could help:
1) Will the Lenovo Windows 7 Upgrade disc include both the 32 and 64 bit install options? My T500 came loaded with Vista Ultimate 32, but I would like to do a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 if possible.
2) I've recently heard a lot about the Lenovo Enhanced Experience. Can anyone briefly explain what this is? Will I be able to take advantage of all the EE features with my T500 using the Windows 7 Upgrade?
3) My computer came pre-loaded with 3 drives (or maybe they're partitions?): C:, Q: (Lenovo), and S: (ServiceV003). How will these drives/partitions be affected with the Windows 7 Upgrade if I opt for a clean install? Will I be able to eliminate the Q: and S: drives if I want? (I have a Samsung Solid State Drive by the way, in case this matters.)
4) Finally, when will the Upgrade discs be shipping? Lenovo and Mentor Media have been rather silent about when we will receive our upgrades. Can we expect an e-mail update indicating that our order has shipped?
Thanks for your help!

1. Bit foggy on this. Will have to do a clean install for sure. Not sure if 32 and 64 bit are on same disk. As you have ultimate, you might be at an advantage here.
2. Look at the videos in other threads. You will get "some" of the benefit. I'm actually guessing wiht a clean install, you will have afaster machine than one of the EE ones with all of the crapware
3. re-partition into a single drive. They will be of no use to you. Or, pop out the drive and clean install to a new SSD ($250) or WD Scorpio Black ($75) drive for extra speed. I'm doing this giving me the option of putting the old drive back in to have Vista in factory condition if I ever need to (I don't expect to and will probably wipe the drive and re-use it in 6 months).
4. Other thread suggested 1/2 have shipped and rest will ship next week.
T61p, T400
formerly x23, x40

Photomerge bombs in Photoshop CS5 on my Lenovo T520

Hi All:
I have a Lenovo T520 and when I attempt to run Photomerge, my Photoshop CS5 terminates immediately. I have run the same thing on my workstation and Photomerge operated properly. Any suggestions?

Photomerge loves to use a LOT of RAM and disk resources.
Have you tried stitching a smaller image?
Have you tried changing the amount of RAM you allow Photoshop to use?
Do you have plenty of scratch disk space? I've seen a Photomerge of a 150 megapixel panorama take in excess of 200 gigabytes of scratch space on the scratch drive.
-Noel

Which model of Lenovo smartphone are upgrade able to kit kat 4.4

Hey I would like to know which model of Lenovo smartphone are upgrade able to kit kat 4.4
Moderator Note; subject edited

I am on my third s4 in three weeks because of overheating. The first fried itself into oblivion. The second overheated, and would shut down. The current one is 48 hours old, overheated 5+ times on my way home from work after having it for 24 hours...and fried the sim card reader.
I had a loaner S3...24 hours after having it: boot loop.
The entire S3/S4/S5 line is defective. Verizon is insane for letting their reputation turn to sh!t because they are ignoring it, and insist on replacing like for like (S4 for S4), and enraging their customers. I have BEGGED every day for TWO WEEKS for a replacement that is NOT another S4.

T520 HD upgrade?

Hello all,
My primary working computer is a Lenovo T520 currently running Windows 8 with an i5-2450, 6GB of RAM, 280GB factory internal drive and a recently installed 1TB WD Blue 5400RPM drive in the Ultrabay. I also have a Samsung 120GB 840 series SSD waiting to be installed.
I would like to replace the internal drive with the SSD and revert back to the factory settings while I'm at it (some of the programs I'm using for school are glitching with Windows 8 so I want to go back to 7 for the time being.)
What is the best way to go about this without potentially losing data?
The main drive currently has about 56GB free. Should I create a virtual drive on the secondary drive for the swap and then just move the OS and program files over the SSD once its installed?
I know Lenovos have a factory refresh option you can access while the machine is booting up, this will format the drive and refresh to the factory settings and factory OS. But I'm not familiar enough to know what other considerations I need to make since I want to replace the drive and restore the factory settings.
Thanks!

Hi bobgengeskahn,
You would want to back up all your data before you try to install win7.
Here is some important about downgrading.
Understanding downgrade rights
Downgrade rights details and FAQ
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Lenovo T520 Debugging Help

I recently wiped the HDD of my T520 and installed Arch from scratch from a thumb drive (side note: it's been a while since I did a fresh install and I found the new method really great). About a week later (2 days ago), I ran a system update (-Syu) and updated several packages, linux among them. Seeing that, I rebooted. After seeing the BIOS stuff and selecting to boot to Arch (I don't have it auto-select, even though I only have one partition), the screen goes black and nothing ever happens. The Wifi light turns on, but the HDD read light doesn't. I booted from my install media and tried to see if the systemd journal said anything helpful, but the logs look like they never picked up after rebooting after my latest update. My next thought was the chroot and run another system update. I updated linux again, but still no boot. During both updates, the output indicated that new image creation was successful.
Any ideas on how to begin debugging this?
FWIW, I'm using efibootmgr to boot and I see that it has had issues with kernel upgrades in the past (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=156670&p=1), but this machine never had 3.6 or 3.7 on it (the earliest still in the cache is 3.10.3 and the latest is 3.10.7; I've never cleared the cache).

After 5 days of frustrations of how to try to identify the cause of "AC plugged in but not charging" message.My Lenovo 3000V100 has suddenly started recharging.At one moment it recharges up to 99% and stops recharging, at times it just shows 3 % remaining and stops recharging and now its showing 100% fully charged.
I dont understand this, whats a turn around to this?
Also, are there any drivers for download -IntelWin DVD drivers for this 3000V100 running on Windows Vista/media drivers.My hard disk was formatted, and i never created any recovery disc.I have at least re-installed few other drivers though.

Lenovo G550 Graphics Upgrade.

I want to upgrade the graphics(GPU) of my lenovo G550 upto 512 mb. Is it possible to do so?

It depends of your type. G550 what?
I think the answer is NO.
IPnaSh
First Spanish Community Guru - Colaborador ad honorem

Lenovo Windows 7 Upgrade Program site is broken (forcing 64-bit to 32-bit)

When I attempt to register my T400 for upgrade to Windows 7 the website offers me the incorrect upgrade.
If I set the Original Windows OS installed to: Windows Vista Business 64-bit
the Eligible upgrade Windows 7 product is: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
The opposite is also true; original Vista Business 32-bit -> upgrade Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.
Other version upgrades also give the same problem.

Use ABR tool to backup your product key.
Download a 32 bit version of your windows 7
Install, then activate with with your old product key, and install all drivers as needed
If you want a copy of the Lenovo disc:
Lenovo media can be ordered in 32/64 bit versions for ~$45

Drivers issue for Lenovo u400 after upgrading to Windows 8

I recently upgraded to windows 8 an after that facing driver issue for ATI Radeon graphic card and wifi, and also cypress trackpad software is not working. All the supported drivers provided by Lenovo for windows 8 are fake and none of them are working. I even tried to search for drivers for graphic card from AMD website but unable to find any suitable drivers.
And to my surprise when i called lenovo technical support for help, the representative told that no such upgradation is possible for older system, but in Lenovo wesite it is clearly mentioned that upgradion is possible and they are provinding windows 8 drivers for this model which does not works at all :-(
Kindly some one suggest some workaround for this issue.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I had the same problems with the Cypress driver after upgrading to Windows. Based on I did I downloaded the Windows 8 driver for the Ideapad U300s and it works GREAT. There were no compatibility issues, shows up in Device Manager etc. It also has and icon on the task bar that responds to the F6 key for disabling. Best yet this driver has a Palm Rejection tab. I set it for heavy and no wild pointer movements so I find I now keep the trackpad enabled. NOTE: the file name of the driver I downloaded and installed is: Ogt102w8. Hope this helps you and can't figure out why Lenovo has a driver listed for the U400 that does not work while this driver works great.

Lenovo T520 Optimus - IE9 32 Bit Crashes

Hello:
I've been unable to use IE9 32 bit because it crashes shortly after I open the application. I've disabled evey add-on and it still occurs. Read something on Lenovo support that something with Optimus causes this. To temporarily resolve this, I had to use "Software Rendering" vs navtive GPU acceleration. I installed the latest drivers but the issue remained.
Has anyone solved this problem without using "software rendering" option? I"m getting used to the IE9 interface over IE8 and would like to switch.
Thanks,
C.
T520 Core i5-2540M (2.60GZH) - 500GB SSD - 8.0GB - Blu-Ray - FHD

Hi ThorsHammer:
Thanks for the suggestion with Adobe Flash. I uninstalled all the Adobe Flash software on my T520. Restarted the computer and installed IE9 and then reinstalled Adobe Flash 10.3 as web sites required. Left GPU acceleration TURNED ON. I haven't had any problems so far. Let's hope this continutes.
chl
T520 Core i5-2540M (2.60GZH) - 500GB SSD - 8.0GB - Blu-Ray - FHD

Lenovo T520 Gaming Upgrades

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