ThinkPad T430 Questions

[Danny]

Hello all,

I have ordered a T430, and while I'm waiting for it to arrive, I've been plotting exactly how to use it and how to configure it. Posting here hoping to get some of your opinions on how to set this thing up.

I ordered with the basic Core i5 option, the 3210M, Win7 Home Premium, as well as 4 GB of RAM, the NVIDIA NVS 5400 graphics chip, Intel 6205 Wi-Fi, 500 GB 5400 rpm drive, and the HD+ screen option. I also chose the 9 cell battery for the computer, and bought a 9 cell "slice" extended battery along with my laptop purchase.

I just had a few questions about setting this up, so here are my goals:

* I am intending on installing Kubuntu on here: anyone have any experience or issues to share?
* I have a 128 GB Solid State Drive that is currently installed in my desktop computer. I would like to migrate this over to the ThinkPad, and use it as the primary boot drive. However, I don't know quite how I should go about erasing it, should I format it just like a normal disk, erase everything first, or what?
* I also have a 320 GB, 2.5 inch 7200 rpm laptop drive, which I'd like to use alongside the SSD, for data storage, such as my music library, as well as the Windows 7 install (I prefer using Linux most of the time, but I do need a native copy of Windows for some tasks. ). I'll be putting the slow 5400 rpm 500 GB drive that comes with the ThinkPad in an external enclosure. Where is the best (inexpensive) place to find the proper UltraBay adapter to use with this, and how can I migrate/set up the Lenovo Windows 7 on this hard drive?
* Recovery Media. I'm not sure if I need to order this? If I don't, I do want to be sure I can create DVDs that I can use to restore everything to factory setup.
* The slice battery. In the user manual for the T430 I downloaded, it says that to install the slice battery, you must first power off the computer completely. However, this seemed a bit inconvenient to me. Is this true, or is it OK to attach the slice battery while the laptop is running?

Thank you all in advance for reading, I really enjoy reading posts in this forum!

Dan

[catalinus]

Hello all,

I have ordered a T430, and while I'm waiting for it to arrive, I've been plotting exactly how to use it and how to configure it. Posting here hoping to get some of your opinions on how to set this thing up.

I ordered with the basic Core i5 option, the 3210M, Win7 Home Premium, as well as 4 GB of RAM, the NVIDIA NVS 5400 graphics chip, Intel 6205 Wi-Fi, 500 GB 5400 rpm drive, and the HD+ screen option. I also chose the 9 cell battery for the computer, and bought a 9 cell "slice" extended battery along with my laptop purchase.

I just had a few questions about setting this up, so here are my goals:

* I am intending on installing Kubuntu on here: anyone have any experience or issues to share?
* I have a 128 GB Solid State Drive that is currently installed in my desktop computer. I would like to migrate this over to the ThinkPad, and use it as the primary boot drive. However, I don't know quite how I should go about erasing it, should I format it just like a normal disk, erase everything first, or what?
* I also have a 320 GB, 2.5 inch 7200 rpm laptop drive, which I'd like to use alongside the SSD, for data storage, such as my music library, as well as the Windows 7 install (I prefer using Linux most of the time, but I do need a native copy of Windows for some tasks. ). I'll be putting the slow 5400 rpm 500 GB drive that comes with the ThinkPad in an external enclosure. Where is the best (inexpensive) place to find the proper UltraBay adapter to use with this, and how can I migrate/set up the Lenovo Windows 7 on this hard drive?
* Recovery Media. I'm not sure if I need to order this? If I don't, I do want to be sure I can create DVDs that I can use to restore everything to factory setup.
* The slice battery. In the user manual for the T430 I downloaded, it says that to install the slice battery, you must first power off the computer completely. However, this seemed a bit inconvenient to me. Is this true, or is it OK to attach the slice battery while the laptop is running?

Thank you all in advance for reading, I really enjoy reading posts in this forum!

Dan

A) It would have been a wise idea to post BEFORE ordering - for instance I can bet you could order 16GB RAM from Crucial with the money you added extra 4 GB from Lenovo


1) Modern Thinkpad models are notable for being Linux-friendly, so I do not expect major problems - you ordered the Intel WiFi (which will solve 90% of the problems with WiFi in Linux); the only other possible complication will be with the dual video card - read Linux forums on that. Power-optimization is also another point where a lot of improvement can be made.

2) You don't need any special stuff - just repartition from Linux. HOWEVER I believe you might have a surprise here, since the internal HDD in T420/430 is a thin 7mm drive, and only few SSD models are 7mm, most are 9.5 (and some are even 12.5mm).

3) I believe ebay, but look around here for other posts on that.

4) The first time (after completing initial customization) when you start Win7 you should be prompted to create backup media - I believe the program will only let you do ONE copy (and does not have an option to verify after write) so be very careful with that; of course that if you have good media you can duplicate it with no problems after that. There might be also a lot more to discuss if you want to run a mixed Win7 / Linux setup.

5) I am a little surprise myself since the "slice thing" seems to go on the replicator port but I have no personal first-hand experience on that - please let us know if you find more!

[wolfman]

2) You don't need any special stuff - just repartition from Linux. HOWEVER I believe you might have a surprise here, since the internal HDD in T420/430 is a thin 7mm drive, and only few SSD models are 7mm, most are 9.5 (and some are even 12.5mm).

The Thinkpad T420 / T430 supports 9.5mm drives in the main hard drive bay or in the ultrabay. (see here for T430: http://support.lenovo.com/en_TH/detail. ... D=PD024705). Both of the drives in my sig below in my T420 are 9.5mm drives. If you order the T420s or the T430s, you will be restricted to 7mm drives.

That said, Lenovo can ship your T420 / T430 with a 7mm drive in the 9.5mm bay. In that case, they ship the drive with a different set of rubber bumpers that have spacers in them to fill the gap from 7mm->9.5mm.

[Danny]

catalinus - I may not have written it clearly enough, but I only went with the most basic memory config, 4 GB of RAM. I am thinking about buying the max 16 GB for this soon. We'll see how it runs with 4 GB. But yes, the markup on memory prices is obscene.

I will have to see about setting up the correct drivers, etc., in Linux for power management, I hate wasting battery because of incorrect software .

As for the slice battery, my inital theory was that since it uses the docking station/port replicator connection, it should be "hot-swappable", just like a docking station. The manual says turn off the computer. It doesn't talk about any consequences of inserting the slice battery while the machine is running... I may just take the risk and try it!!

wolfman - My SSD (Samsung 830 128 GB) is a 7 mm high drive. So no worries there.

[jayton4]

You do not HAVE to do anything special to the SSD to use it in another computer. However, it would be BEST from a performance standpoint to perform a "secure erase" using a utility like Parted Magic.

[tterpelle]

* I am intending on installing Kubuntu on here: anyone have any experience or issues to share?

I have been running Debian testing/unstable for 2 months without major issues. Sometimes the computer wouldn't properly wake up from suspend, but I have to admit I didn't investigate it properly. I always had the Intel IGP activated, never the nVidia VGA.

I recently bought a ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 with USB 3.0 (model 4338-15G). To connect my external LCD via DVI, I have to enable the discrete nVidia VGA. And now I'm in a world of hurt:
- sometimes the computer hangs during boot on "waiting for /dev to be fully populated ..."
- when I undock the laptop, it freezes up immediately
- sound is not "forwarded" to the dock. This should be fixed by adding an option to the snd-hda-intel module, but it didn't help me (yet)

I have only had the dock since this weekend, and I ordered it together with an SSD (Samsung 830 Series) and RAM upgrade (2 x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance), so I had to divide my time working on all of those things. I will investigate further, but so far I can tell that the T430/dock/Linux combination has been a disappointment.

Using just the T430 with the Intel IGP, Linux worked as expected.

* I have a 128 GB Solid State Drive that is currently installed in my desktop computer. I would like to migrate this over to the ThinkPad, and use it as the primary boot drive. However, I don't know quite how I should go about erasing it, should I format it just like a normal disk, erase everything first, or what?

For my Vertex 2, OCZ had a tool to perform a "secure wipe". This took less than a minute to perform. Be sure to check if there are firmware updates available too, as this would be an excellent time to perform them.

* I also have a 320 GB, 2.5 inch 7200 rpm laptop drive, which I'd like to use alongside the SSD, for data storage, such as my music library, as well as the Windows 7 install (I prefer using Linux most of the time, but I do need a native copy of Windows for some tasks. ). I'll be putting the slow 5400 rpm 500 GB drive that comes with the ThinkPad in an external enclosure. Where is the best (inexpensive) place to find the proper UltraBay adapter to use with this, and how can I migrate/set up the Lenovo Windows 7 on this hard drive?

That's exactly what I plan to do. I currently have the new SSD in the main bay, the original hard disk is in the Ultrabay (P/N 43N3412, € 49 excl. VAT). You can boot from both disks (press F12 at boot time).

You can just install Windows 7 there. If you do it after you install Linux, be prepared to "rescue" your bootloader, because Windows will probably overwrite it.

* Recovery Media. I'm not sure if I need to order this? If I don't, I do want to be sure I can create DVDs that I can use to restore everything to factory setup.

Lenovo has a tool to create bootable recovery media from the recovery partition that's on the laptop. However, I did a clean Windows 7 install from a Windows 7 DVD. It's not shipped with the laptop, but you can download it legally from the DigitalRiver servers, just google "Windows 7 digitalriver". DigitalRiver provides the original (non-modified) .iso image of "all" Windows versions, be sure to get the correct architecture (64 bit) and language corresponding to the license key on your laptop (remove the battery to see the license sticker).

After the installation from DVD, you will have to activate your Windows license by phone, online activation will fail.

I suppose this is not against MS licensing policies: I have a Windows 7 Professional license, I'm installing Windows 7 Professional, just not from the recovery image but from the actual .iso.

[ZaZ]

The Thinkpad T420 / T430 supports 9.5mm drives in the main hard drive bay or in the ultrabay.

That is untrue. While the T420 does indeed use a 9.5 mm bay, the T430 does not. It uses a 7mm drive like the X series, though a 9.5mm drive is usable in the modular caddy, which is perhaps what they're referring to on the specs page. The biggest drive you can configure the T430 with is a 500GB drive while you can get the T530 with a 1TB drive. I would suggest a mSATA SSD for the T430 unless you need WWAN because then you can keep the platter in the main bay for storage where speed is not as critical.

[maczozo]

Hi Guys. i am having trouble installing the PCI Simple Communications Controller driver on the T430. Please help

[tterpelle]

Hi Guys. i am having trouble installing the PCI Simple Communications Controller driver on the T430. Please help

I think you better open a new thread regarding your specific problem.

I noticed a lot of the instability with the T430/Discrete graphics (not Optimus) settings went away as soon as I disabled VT-d (VT-x is still enabled) support in the BIOS. I'm currently running the nVidia 304.43 drivers on a 3.5.4 kernel, both are manually installed since they're not in the Debian repositories yet. Things are stable so far. The only issues I'm still having is the audio out of the Mini Dock Plus not working, and for some reason I can't change the display's brightness in X anymore. It works fine in the console though.

[wolfman]

That is untrue. While the T420 does indeed use a 9.5 mm bay, the T430 does not. It uses a 7mm drive like the X series, though a 9.5mm drive is usable in the modular caddy, which is perhaps what they're referring to on the specs page.

I stand corrected, sorry for the false information!

[wolfman]

The only issues I'm still having is the audio out of the Mini Dock Plus not working, and for some reason I can't change the display's brightness in X anymore. It works fine in the console though.

Please take a look here http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 34#p668434 - I encountered a similar issue with my Mini Dock Plus Series 3 when I upgraded from my T410 -> T420 - sound worked fine out of the speakers, but when docked, the audio did not work over the audio out.

Hope that does the trick for you as well..

[Danny]

Just got the Thinkpad the other day, and have been setting it up... also working on transferring my content on the SSD in the desktop over to the hard drive so I can install the SSD... can't wait!

[Danny]

Hello,
I am running into a slight problem with my system:
I installed Windows 8 RTM Pro onto the Samsung 830 SSD after doing a secure data wipe on my desktop and installing the drive into the ThinkPad. I set the BIOS to UEFI Only. The system works like a dream: 8.5 seconds to boot, and instant standby and resume times. However, I have run into this issue: I cannot access the BIOS options by pressing Enter or F1 at startup. The computer ignores my keypresses and boots straight into Windows.
Is there any way I can fix this?
Thanks,
Dan

[Danny]

Sorry, never mind that, I updated the BIOS

[Rochefort]

Just got the Thinkpad the other day, and have been setting it up... also working on transferring my content on the SSD in the desktop over to the hard drive so I can install the SSD... can't wait!

Congrats for your new baby
I'm a little confused about its size
According to THIS REVIEW your new baby is 13.5 x 9.1 x 0.8-1.0 inches !? Is it really 0,8 on the palmrest !?
Thanks a lot