Power brick for X201

[donatellojones]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know if the T60p power brick (90W) is compatible with the X201 i5s?

I have three of the T60p variety and I hate to buy more.

Thanks

[billp117]

They will work fine.

[raydabruce]

I just bought the 90-Watt adapter today off of the local Craigslist for $30. My battery now recharges noticeably faster. Also, if you have the 90W, you can run the X201 without the battery installed and your CPU speed will not be throttled like it is with the 65W one.

[EOMtp]

... if you have the 90W, you can run the X201 without the battery installed and your CPU speed will not be throttled like it is with the 65W one.

Really? A 65W adapter forces the X201 to throttle down if a battery is not present?!!

[AvalonXIII]

Really? A 65W adapter forces the X201 to throttle down if a battery is not present?!!

Yes, to prevent unexpected shutdown when power consumed is greater than power supplied (for example, when doing CPU intensive task). Pretty reasonable if you ask me.

[jdrou]

What app do you use to see that the CPU is being throttled?

[EOMtp]

SpeedswitchXP just sits in the task bar displaying the CPU speed. [Its "control" functions can be disabled/ignored if all you want is the information it displays.]
http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/

[jdrou]

Does that work with Windows 7 64-bit? I see it hasn't been updated since 2006.

[EOMtp]

Does that work with Windows 7 64-bit?

Perhaps; most programs written for 32-bit Windows will work on the 64-bit version of Windows. If you try it, then please let us know what you find.

[raydabruce]

Does that work with Windows 7 64-bit? I see it hasn't been updated since 2006.

If you want a 64-bit CPU & Memory info app, try CPU-Z:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

The installer will install the 64-bit app if you're running 64-bit Windows 7.

It will tell you your clockspeed in real time and you can see it ramp up when a load is placed on the CPU. You can also adjust your power settings with the Thinkvantage Power Manager and see the effect if you have CPU-Z running. If I max out all power settings, my CPU will stay up around 3.2xx GHz. But I usually have it on "adaptive" or "balanced" which allows it to speedstep according to load. Setting different profiles for the fan also affect clockspeed of the CPU.

[jdrou]

I do have CPU-Z, thanks. SpeedSwitchXP doesn't seem to work on Win 7 x64.

When I run with or without a battery on a 65W or 90W adapter I see the core speed in CPU-Z vary from 3060 to 3326 MHz (multipliers 23 [rarely], 24, and 25). Also didn't notice any change in 3DMark06 benchmark scores between the two adapters with or without a battery installed.

[raydabruce]

When I run with or without a battery on a 65W or 90W adapter I see the core speed in CPU-Z vary from 3060 to 3326 MHz (multipliers 23 [rarely], 24, and 25). Also didn't notice any change in 3DMark06 benchmark scores between the two adapters with or without a battery installed.

Hmmmm. Well, I took their word for it when someone reported the throttling with the 65W adapter when the battery is out. Maybe they were wrong or they had a different model or an older version of the Power Manager. In any event, the 90W will charge my batteries faster and it's nice to have a back-up adapter since they do occasionally break or burn out.

[deickos]

I just bought the 90-Watt adapter today off of the local Craigslist for $30. My battery now recharges noticeably faster. Also, if you have the 90W, you can run the X201 without the battery installed and your CPU speed will not be throttled like it is with the 65W one.

yea i confirm x201 will stay at 1.2 ghz with 65w adapter no matter what load - i had to put the 90w adapter to see it reach 2.9 - 3.2 ghz
it is the same with t500 and t420 = they all throttle with 65 w (1.6 ghz t500 & t420)
nevertheless if you install throttlestop you can get better speeds (2.4 on t500) BUT not max

[dr_st]

When I run with or without a battery on a 65W or 90W adapter I see the core speed in CPU-Z vary from 3060 to 3326 MHz (multipliers 23 [rarely], 24, and 25). Also didn't notice any change in 3DMark06 benchmark scores between the two adapters with or without a battery installed.

Do you have the Lenovo Power Manager / Battery Bar? Check how it detects your 65W adapter.
If the sensing pin is broken in the adapter (or in some cases - the detection logic is broken in the laptop power jack, like it is on my T430s) - the adapter will be detected as 90W.

Edit: D'oh, I realized that I replied to a new response to a 15-year old post. Still, broken sensing of the adapter wattage (e.g., non-genuine adapters) can explain the discrepancy where some machines exhibit throttling, and others don't. It could be also dependent on BIOS/EC FW versions.