Thinkpads Forum

Hello all.
I would like to first thank all the users who have given their time to post the great knowledge on these boards. I have found a lot of useful information already on the topic I am going through. Again, Thank you.
My boss gave me a Lenovo W520 laptop under the condition that I fix it, I can have it. He just got it back from a computer repair shop who was unable to fix his issue. This stands to be the greatest laptop I have ever owned, if I can get the kinks worked out of it.
When the computer came to me, it would only boot into a very limited safe mode state, it's still contain all his personal files and pictures, he said he had retrieve them all already, so I did a full clean install of Windows 7. I tried to back up drivers before the install, but a clean install had already been performed at the computer repair shop, no drivers for Lenovo were found, also there was none of the typical Lenovo software installed either. The Windows 7 install went very smoothly, my problem now is with drivers. I installed the Think vantage system update and solution center, via a local area network cable, due to no wireless drivers. It seemed to update most everything, I did the optional, and critical options and updated or added any piece of software for Lenovo I could. In the Lenovo solution center, it shows three devices without drivers, one is the wireless, one is biometrics and another I am unsure of.
I tried manually installing the wireless drivers from Lenovos website, none of the ones listed for Windows 7 is working for me. Is there a recovery disk for The W520 I can order from Lenovo? My boss, said he spoke with him a year ago when it all started, and they told him they couldn't. I see many sites offering recovery disks for this computer, but they are not official, what is this about? Are they legit?
I am only stressing this, because I feel as if the laptop will never reach full potential if I cannot figure out how to get the OEM hardware and drivers to sort it out. If there is a recovery disk that can be purchased, what it fully restore the laptop to a factory state?

I know my questions and post are all over the place, bear with me. Please pardon any spelling or grammatical errors, I am using voice to text for this while I am at work. And thank you in advance.

I used recovery disks for a T420 which installed all the drivers except the one for the USB 3.0 host controller. I can send you a copy or share ISOs with you if you like. There are four DVDs totaling about 10 GB.

However, when I have a hard time figuring out exactly what hardware is installed that doesn't like the drivers I throw at it, I go into device manager and get the hardware ID from the Details tab, then google the relevant portion (e.g. VEN_8086&DEV_4227) which usually gets me enough info to definitively identify what the hardware is.

You could also use the MTM lookup at the top of the page to look up the originally shipped hardware specs of your unit using the machine type/model tag underneath.

BTW, welcome to the forum... and congrats on a W520 with a legitimate "five-finger discount..."

Wow, that is a great idea about the device ID, I totally forgotten about that. I will definitely give those two options a try tonight when I get home from work before I enlist your bandwith, although the offer is very kind. Thank you terminator for your help, I will post back results soon.
Thanks! It is definitely a steal, however it has cost Lenovo a computer user, he has switched to HP. All of our workstations at the shop are Lenovo as well, maybe I'll get lucky there too.

There is a company on e-bay that sells pre-configured hard drives for a variety of manufactures and models.

I bought a pre-loaded 320gb hard drive for my T510 that didn't come with a drive or OS. He supplied the drive with Win 7 Pro 64 bit, all Lenovo drivers current for my machine, and a separate folder of drivers in case of CTO. Use your CAO key in the battery compartment and you're good to go!

Never had a better experience for an accessory purchase from e-bay for my Thinkpads.

Eastern Trading Company. No, not the Far East.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/easterntradingc ... 7675.l2559

Try these links. Google directed me to a Lenovo support page with limited drivers but I found a better one through a Lenovo support forum link. The second one provides direct links to Lenovo support. Between the two of them, I got everything working on my W520 in a couple of hours.

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... nkpad-w520

http://softwaredrivers.blogspot.com/201 ... for_1.html

Also take a look at your BIOS. Sometimes things get set up funny by the previous owner. I reset the BIOS to the default settings whenever I get a new Thinkpad.