Lenovo ThinkPad T430s - first impressions and issues

I bought ThinkPad T430s last week and just wanted to write down my thoughts, first impressions and the issues I ran into.
I am very pleased with the laptop in terms of hardware - solid and nice build quality, understated style and (relatively) light weight. The screen is sharp, sound is good enough for me (I am no audiophile) and I am getting used to the chiclet keyboard - which feels just a little springy.
But I am not pleased with the software. There is just too much bloatware on the system and some of it is hard to get rid of.
SugarSync
Evernote
Lenovo MyCloud
VeriSign VIP Access
Intel AppUp
and the biggest offender - Lenovo SimpleTap -- You can't get rid of the SimpleTap without uninstalling the individual apps first.
It would be nice if the system showed a dialog box that said "Hey, here are some cool apps we highly recommend and you may want to look at", instead of pre-installing all these stupid apps.
On top of that I ran into the Windows updates failing issue.
So I ended up specnding 4+ hours just to get the system right.
Lenovo and Microsoft need to understand that they need to deliver an excellent and functional experience to users and not push any stupid system that they have come up with just to make an extra buck.
Look at Apple products. People love Apple products (I don't, but I do admire them) because of the simple and functional experience they provide.
In short install just what is necessary. You can let users know that there are other goof programs but leave it up to the users.

kamaleshp wrote:
Thanks for your response ThorsHammer.
In fact that is exactly what I am going to do this weekend.
I am in the middle of posting another message asking for recommendations and experience on the absolute minimum I can get away with.
Right now I am thinking Windows 7, System Update and Power Manager.
In my case, I installed the following:
Windows 7
Intel chipset drivers
Intel WIFI driver (wifi driver only)
Intel Ethernet driver
Lenovo Power Management driver
Lenovo Power Manager
Optimus video drivers for Intel HD 4000 and NVIDIA 5200M
RealTek audio driver - I think this also installed Dolby Home Theater v4
Ricoh Media driver
Lenovo Ultranav driver
Webcam driver
I don't install much more than that. I like to manually check the download areas for updates so I don't install Lenovo ThinkPad System Update.

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I know that I also responded to your other posting on this matter, but especially during video playback you can improve the colors quite a bit using the video drivers options.
AtticusJames wrote:
You may have noticed my other post about the display. I am overwhelmingly disappointed.
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Hello everyone!
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xnappo
[EDIT] I found this battery:
3-Cell???
Will that work?
Message Edited by xnappo on 07-11-2009 07:52 AM

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Having a hard time replacing audio assets in a timeline.

Thanks for reporting that CS6 sorted this out.

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I guess that's it for now.
Thanks,
Doug

hands4 wrote:
Q6 (Migrate using Time Machine?)
If you don't want to automatically bring over everything, I would use CCC to clone the old system drive and then use that clone to drag the wanted files onto the new machine. I would treat that CCC clone as a read-only archive until you were sure there are no additional files you want to migrate.
I use a combination of CCC and Time Machine to backup my Mac. CCC provides the reliability of simplicity and quick booting should the internal drive fail. Time Machine's incremental backups have saved my bacon several times when a file "disapeared" or I saved a modificaton that I needed to reverse. However the complexity of Time Machine during full restores can be a problem. I have had Time Machine full restores fail at which time I was very happy I had a second backup to fall back on. It is prudent to maintain more than one backup.
I agree completely about using the combination of CCC and Time Machine and it sounds like you and I use it the exact same way, and for the exact same reason. I hae also had Time Machine full restores fail (particularly with Apple Mail) and was very glad to also have the CCC backup.
The only thing I'm concerned about is making sure I grab everything I need for particular applications. For example, I'm not quite sure what all needs to be copied over from CCC to the new computer for Office 2008, which I am still running. It might be easier in that case to re-install certain software.
Thanks,
Doug

How does battery charge work ThinkPad T430s

I recently bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T430s 2356-LRG and was wondering how the charge technology worked. I have searched around and looked in the manual but I couldn't find a good answer.
My questions is that I use the notebook alot on AC power. And often for extended periods of mid to heavy load. I run Linux and have setup ChargeThreshold. It stops charge at 95% and begins again at 45%.
But when I keep the AC power on, and if the battery has 80% it does not move up or down as expected. Because it must drop lower than 45%.
Will the power then go straight to the machine and bypass the battery? Because the Battery-LED on the back is turned off. Or will it go via the battery and produce charge cycles on the battery?
So let's say the battery is bypassed will it then be fine to keep it on AC and active for a period of many days with heavy load but monitor the temp of the battery. I know heat kills it.
I could also buy an 95W power adapter and remove the battery completely from the machine when I have it at my desk for an extended period of time.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hey there MikalD and welcome to the forums!
What you are experiencing is as per normal. These charge thresholds are determined in your power manager, there is a nifty Knowledgebase Article about this.
First, open up the ThinkVantage Power Manager. Click on the battery tab, and then Battery Maintenance. This will open a window where you will be able to change and set your charging thresholds to your desired preferences.
Additionally, here are links that can give some insight and advice of how to increase the longevity of battery life.
How Can I Increase Battery Life?
How To Maximize Battery Life
I hope this information assists you.
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Thinkpad T430 Display: HD (1366 x 768) vs. HD+ (1600 x 900) Specifics

Hello, and thank you in advance for any help. As I've researched the Lenovo ThinkPad T430, and it's various configuration options, I've found specific information on the differences between the HD (1366 x 768) display and the HD+ (1600 x 900) display to be rather lacking. Everything I've read boils down to "go with the HD+ if possible" but I was hoping for more information. I'd be using the laptop for reading documents and web pages, as well as viewing movies, so I was wondering if more knowledgeable people than I would pipe in with their opinions, especially when it comes to watching movies on the laptop (in a dark room with the laptop at the foot of the bed and using headphones). Thanks again for your time; I really appreciate it.

Hi,
I bought my t530i with the HD (1366x768) display. I am absolutely disappointed in it. The viewing angle is horrible, the colors are whitey, pallid, the black color is not black, it is rather dark gray, because the backlight is so strong. I would like to sell it, because it is useless for me, but nobody wants it. I don't know if this applies to the 430 series, so I suggest You to check it out personally, before You buy it.
Gellert

Serious problem of thinkpad T430s' battery!

When I use the battery as the power of my laptop, it always shutdown abnormally before the battery reach the “critical low battery alarm”.For example, I set the power manager to sleep when the battery lower than 10%. However, it will out of power when the battery reaches 12-13%. It wasn’t a normal shut down, it suddenly goes down without any alarm. It seems that the power been cut down by someone. My laptop is a new thinkpad T430s, it seems something wrong with the battery. I try to Perform Reset the battery, but it still not work.

Hello! I'm owning also a t430s with a battery fromPanasonic. My operating system is GNU/Linux (Archlinux, with self compiled kernel 3.6.0-rc5). Are your ThinkPads include a Sanyo or Panasonic battery? I will contact Lenovo support today or tomorrow and ask them to send my a new battery from a differnt manufacturer. I hope this is just a bug in the battery firmware or hardware and not the in the UEFI or hardware of the ThinkPad itself. I opened a bug at bugzilla.kernel.org but now I'm sure this is not a bug in the Linux kernel! Seems like battery beliefs it has 7 % to 10 % more capacity than it really has and reports also to high capacity through "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/energy_now". The file "energy_now" reports to me 3500000 mWh (3,5 Wh) at the very moment it losts all power, which should be enough for 20 minutes or more. Further links:https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47851http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=106237http://eniak.info/2012/09/15/lenovo-thinkpad-t430s-mit-linux-arch-linux/ // german /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/uevent
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Charging
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=11100000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=11839000
POWER_SUPPLY_POWER_NOW=26104000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_FULL_DESIGN=43290000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_FULL=47620000
POWER_SUPPLY_ENERGY_NOW=18560000
POWER_SUPPLY_CAPACITY=38
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=45N1039
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=Panasonic
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER= 2304

[SOLVED] Thinkpad T430 brightness keys broken after firmware upgrade

Hi.
I've upgraded the firmware on my Thinkpad to version 2.51. Since that I'm unable to change the display brightness via the Fn-Keys on the keyboard. What still works is writing values to /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness but of course that's not how it should be.
Here's some dmesg output:
[ 7.638814] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad ACPI Extras v0.24
[ 7.638816] thinkpad_acpi: http://ibm-acpi.sf.net/
[ 7.638817] thinkpad_acpi: ThinkPad BIOS G1ET91WW (2.51 ), EC unknown
[ 7.638818] thinkpad_acpi: Lenovo ThinkPad T430, model 2349D15
[ 7.639440] thinkpad_acpi: detected a 8-level brightness capable ThinkPad
[ 7.639547] thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled
[ 7.639558] thinkpad_acpi: This ThinkPad has standard ACPI backlight brightness control, supported by the ACPI video driver
[ 7.639559] thinkpad_acpi: Disabling thinkpad-acpi brightness events by default...
[ 7.640708] thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is unblocked
[ 7.641012] thinkpad_acpi: Standard ACPI backlight interface available, not loading native one
[ 7.641156] thinkpad_acpi: Console audio control enabled, mode: monitor (read only)
Any idea why it's broken and how it can be fixed?
Thanks,
Julian
Last edited by julian24 (2013-03-21 22:06:20)

Awesome, the acpi_backlight=vendor kernel command line parameter actually fixed it.
Does anybody know what exactly has changed and why this in necessary now?
Update: If you do this, you'll get error messages like this in your log/dmesg every time you press a brightness key:
kernel: thinkpad_acpi: unknown possible thermal alarm or keyboard event received
kernel: thinkpad_acpi: unhandled HKEY event 0x6050
kernel: thinkpad_acpi: please report the conditions when this event happened to [email protected]
The kernel command line parameter acpi_osi="!Windows 2012" also works and seems to be the better way to fix this.
Bugreport at kernel.org: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51231
tl;dr: Firmware update introduced 101 brightness levels even though the hardware only supports 16 but Windows 8 requires this. Reducing or increasing the brightness by one doesn't change anything at all so the firmware will still report the old value as the new brightness thus it'll never actually change the brightness. But if you explicitly tell the firmware that you're not Windows 8, it will only report 16 brightness levels and everything works fine. Lenovo, seriously?
Last edited by julian24 (2013-03-21 23:27:47)

Lenovo Thinkpad T61p EVDO

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T61p 6459-CTO and i didnt get EVDO (TELUS) built in with it, but i am wondering if it is a "extra" if I pay to get installed or something totally different? --

Dude,
I was having the same problem. You can get it to work if you go into the TCP/IP properties for your wireless connection and hard code the IP, DNS, and WINS addresses instead of letting the computer automaticall resolve them. You can get them by logging into the Verizon modem via the hardwired computer. Once you do that it works great. Also, this on;y seems to happen with my Lenovo R61 computer. All of my other computers connect fine.

New to forum and opinions on the Lenovo T420 being my first Lenovo Thinkpad?

First off thanks for letting me join. Just wanted to get some opinions from some of the more experienced Lenovo owners and users. I want to pick up the T420 as my first Lenovo Thinkpad. What is the overall verdict on this laptop (Good build quality, reliability issues, or anything else I should be aware of)? I use to own a IBM Thinkpad and just missed the overall layout of the Thinkpad specific look and functionality. To date, the IBM Thinkpad has been my favorite Windows based laptop. Any and all opinions would be deeply appreciated.
May God bless!
Ed

I've only had my T420 for a couple of weeks but so far I really like it. I reminds me of a mini version of the W520. My T420 has the i7 processor, NVIDIA Optimus and most of the options. I upgraded the RAM to 16GB and currently have the Intel Series 510 120GB SSD in the primary bay. I am waiting for a Samsung Series 830 SSD to arrive.
No complaints so far. It runs nice, quiet and cool.
If I were going to improve anthing on the machine, it would be the screen. The 1600x900 AUO screen on mine is fair but I can live with it. I bought this machine new on eBay for an excellent price.
I am using the 6 cell battery right now and get a little over four hours of battery life. The 9 cell is quite a bit better but I like the flush lighter 6 cell.
Love the keyboard. The trackpad is fair but I haven't tweaked the Ultranav settings yet. Been using a mouse mose of the time.
I have several ThinkPads and I think the T420 is an excellent balance of power and features. I am comparing it to my X301, T410s, T61p and W510. I added a 34mm USB 3.0 ExpressCard (still testing).
After my experience with the W520 random shutdowns, I won't be totally comfortable with this machine for a couple of months but it's looking really good so far. I am optimistic.

T430s - general observations and USB 3.0 issue

I got my T430s this week after a month. After unpacking I noticed some fingerprints on the lid and also on the display. So I assume the model was reworked, because from the regular manufacturing process I don't expect any fingerprints. However, it runs and did not yet bluescreen. Or perhaps the fingerprints are from wrapping or QA, who knows.
It did not have the current BIOS 2.02. I didn't note down which version it had, but it was 1.13 or perhaps even 1.11. Is there an update history somehere? I really don't remember. But I don't think this indicates an old board. I can imagine that new BIOS versions are not immediately put into production. They might always wait some months to see if any compatibility problems arise.
Package (ID) UEFI BIOS (BIOS ID) ECP (ECP ID) Rev. Issue Date
2.02 (G7UJ04US) 2.02 (G7ET60WW) 1.09 (G7HT33WW) 01 2012/09/18
1.14 (G7UJ03US) 1.14 (G7ET32WW) 1.08 (G7HT32WW) 01 2012/09/05
1.13 (G7UJ02US) 1.13 (G7ET31WW) 1.08 (G7HT32WW) 01 2012/07/17
1.11 (G7UJ01US) 1.11 (G7ET29WW) 1.05 (G7HT29WW) 01 2012/06/04
Some general remarks:
o the lid: when the lid is closed, my laptop has an oval gap in the middle between the lid and the base. it's perhaps 2-3mm wide. But I found pictures in internet that show the same, so I think it's intentionally. I remember mark_lenovo (?) stating in another thread it's for providing some resistance against pressure. And in fact, I can close the gap by putting some light pressure on the lid. I remember my old T81p got scratches on the screen when the keyboard rubbed against the screen during transportation. Perhaps they want to avoid something like this to happen.
o the keyboard: I really like it, the chiclet keys are a pleasure to press down, but they should have switched CTRL and FN. I'm constantly hitting FN instead of CTRL.
o the touch pad: I don't like the bumpy surface. The finger doesn't glide very well. I prefer the smooth pad of my latitude.
o I made a clean install, so I don't have any of that preinstalled bloatware. I did not install any of the ThinkVantage tools except for system update, and even that proved almost useless, because it only downloads packages, but fails to install them. There's just a notification that installation failed. I could install all packages manually though. So I only use that thing as a downloader. But why all manufacturers give their packages names like g7uj04us.exe? Is it so difficult to use the name that says what it is and what version?
o switching between Optimus and HD 4000 works like a charm
o the laptop is very quiet, but I did not really put it under heavy load yet.
o USB 3.0: I have an external USB 3.0 case (fantec), which works on all ports, but after installing the USB 3.0 drivers it refused working on the USB 3.0 port. It still works on the 2.0 port, but the info bubble even says this is an USB 3.0 device and would work faster on an USB 3.0 port. The USB 3.0 port still works with 2.0 devices. So either the fantec case or the drivers are crap.
And I really would like to have one USB port on the right side. When I sit in my chair, I place the laptop on my laps and then the plug in the back is always in the way or pressing against my leg. Not good, it could break.
I think I will crosspost this in http://forum.notebookreview.com
Moderator note: moved from off-topic thread. Subject changed to match content.

I'll be interested to see if yours develops the same battery calibration issue as we're seeing here: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/Serious-problem-of-thinkpad-T430s-battery/...

Disappointment With Fan And Screen _Quality_ On New ThinkPad T430

Happy New Year. I'm typing this as a means to blow off some steam and to warn anyone considering the purchase of a Lenovo product. Yesterday I unboxed a new ThinkPad T430 (2344BMU), my second. A year ago I purchased my first T430 (23445GU) and have been nothing but happy with it since, however, given the chance to upgrade the processor I took advantage. The first thing I noticed when I powered up the new laptop was that the fan sounds like a small turbine when it kicks in, with a distinct whirring sound as it winds up. This was a major surprise as the fan on my first T430 rarely ever caught my attention, and then only when really pushing the CPU. The second thing I noticed, as the two laptops sat side-by-side, was that the screen on the new T430, despite having the same 1600x900 resolution, was noticably less vibrant than the old laptop's screen, as if there's a fine coating of dust on it. Barely a half hour of research later I learned that Lenovo has multiple contracts for fan and screen production, with a distinct difference in quality among the manufacturers, and that it basically comes down to luck regarding screen and fan quality on any given computer sold by Lenovo. Call me picky, but when I spend $1500 on something I expect a certain level of quality. Here Lenovo has failed miserably. Given that my purchase wasn't directly with Lenovo but through a third party, it seems that I've no recourse other than to grind my teeth while using my "awesome" new T430. I'm actually typing this on the old laptop while updating the drivers and software on the new one, and it's taking a real effort to not smash the new laptop against the wall. The fan is that intrusive. Anyway, if even one person reads this and is saved the annoyance of my situation, then I can live with it. My suggestion would be to never order a Lenovo product online, but to instead find a means to purchase a computer that you've already taken for a test drive so that you know you'll be happy with it. Good luck.

Here is the fail: "...my purchase wasn't directly with Lenovo but through a third party"
Perhaps you should just bitch and moan over on their Forum.
W530 | 3840QM | 32g @ 1.35v CL9 1986z | 512g 840 Pro | 1t HGST 7200 | FHD AUO v.4 | Quadro K2k | GOBI 5k | Centrino 6300

Lenovo ThinkPad T430s - first impressions and issues

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