X62: First impressions (updated w/ pic links)

[flyingfishfinger]

UPDATE: The WiFi switch seems cheap, already broke it. Don't think I manhandled it, but that's always possible. Never happened with the old boards though, see pictures

FACTOID: CrystalDiskMark returns 530+ MB/s for the SSD (Crucial M500)

UPDATE: I'm starting to think that the USB / sound board was either an afterthought / hasty design or done by someone else. As noted below it's got issues with the USB height and bottom hole offset, but another thing is that the other two "correct" mounting holes are huge, as if the keyboard support post is supposed to go right through. That would be fine, but it turns out that if you crank down the keyboard screws, you actually bend the keyboard down a full few mm. In that case you end up with a huge valley near the arrow keys compared to the rest of the keys; the temporary solution was not to tighten the screws all the way. I'll probably end up adding a washer or something to keep the post from passing through the hole, seems to me like it was supposed to sit ON the board in the original design, hence the room to bend.

UPDATE: Installed Win 7, working on acquiring all the drivers. It's sooooo fast and snappy! This is amazing.
Further observations: The WWAN and WLAN lights are always on, even if the machine is off. Very odd.

Updates see above:
=============================================================================
Original post see below:

Hi there!
I just received and installed by X62 board!! I feel like a kid at Christmas...
I thought I'd give you all my thoughts so far, even though it's literally only been a few minutes. I'm actually typing this on the new machine, more about that later.

Mechanical assembly:
- The X62 comes with three boards; (1) motherboard, (2) right-side sound and USB ports and (3) a small HDD-bay / power adapter.
- The motherboard fits where it ought to, that's pretty straightforward. I did notice a few slight issues, namely: The left-side USB port seems to be too "tall" for where it's supposed to go, it keeps the keyboard bezel lifted up a tad. To solve that, I trimmed off one of the lips that "guide" the port on the underside of the bezel. It still needed some force to mate properly, but otherwise it fits.
- The biggest issue so far is with the sound board. It's got two holes and a half-cutout for the frame / keyboard screws, but the half-cutout doesn't actually line up with its hole by about 1/3 of it's diameter. I had to trim off some PCB (luckily it'so only ground plane around the hole) to make it fit. Further, the audio jacks don't "sit down" fully in their slots. After lots of poking and fiddling, it seems that the 2 USB ports and the audio jacks aren't relatively at the correct heights (USB seems to sit higher), which means you can't quite fully mate the bezel / keyboard together when the screws tighten. My solution to that was to trim away the vertical posts at the edge of the bezel by the USB ports, making the audio jacks fit but the USB ports ride "up" just sightly (~0.5mm) past the edge of the frame. That doesn't cause any issues with plugging devices in though, so it's a fine solution for me.
- Speaker plug confuses me. It seems like it's stereo now; there are 4 pins. Prodding around 51nb for some pictures, it looks like the speaker connects to the right two pins. HOWEVER, so far the speaker doesn't work but I'll look at driver updates first (I'm currently in Ubuntu).
- They include two thick plastic stickers that are supposed to be "functional". One is for the new display connectors; since they don't take up the full space the VGA port used to, they provided a sticker that DOES cover the whole opening with two punchouts for each new connector. It's a neat idea, but sketchy at best. I'll give it a week before it falls out. The other one seems to be for where the dock connector hole, but I'm not sure where / how to attach it (i.e inside or just patched over the hole)

Function
- I put in 2x4GB RAM from my X201, so far so good.
- BIOS actually reports that this is an i7-5600u, not 5500u.
- Apparently there are 4 (!) SATA ports, I'm curious where the other two are and whether they're available
- Out of curiosity, I just put in my mSATA SSD from my X61, which had a Win7 / Ubuntu / Hackintosh triple boot not really expecting it to work. The bootloader doesn't seem to mind, and Ubuntu started right up. That boot was wicked fast, and it's how I'm typing this post.
- Windows of course refused to boot, it made it up to the login screen then gave me a cursor on black screen. I didn't even bother trying the Hackintosh. My next step is to blank the disk and reinstall Windows.
- The fan is surprisingly loud. It's more noticeable than before, and it also seems to pulse on and off occasionally. I haven't played with any kind of control software yet.
- RJ45 port doesn't have activity LEDs. Built-in Ethernet also didn't work by default, so I grabbed install files for the WiFi off a USB drive and installed that first.

Thinklight, screen brightness, and volume buttons all work fine.

I'll add an update once I have a clean copy of Windows, but meanwhile let me know if you'd like to know anything specific!

R

[wileE]

It is so nice to read about the X62 without the garbled translations from chinese. Thank you.

but meanwhile let me know if you'd like to know anything specific!

Battery runtime.
More details on the fan. andykrej wrote that TPfancontrol does not work. What sensors does the motherboard have?

There are 3D printed parts for the gaps around the display connectors on 51nb. Maybe someone sells them on alibaba, or has uploaded the CAD files.

[brchan]

It is excellent that it seems to run very well. However, the QC issues with hardware fitment is a bit of a turn off.

Anyway congrats on your i7 X62 .

[jaspen-meyer]

let me know if you'd like to know anything specific!

Fan in Linux.

Fwiw, I usually do this:

Code: Select all

sudo echo "options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf
sudo echo "options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/options
sudo modprobe -r thinkpad_acpi && sudo modprobe thinkpad_acpi
sudo apt-get install lm-sensors thinkfan 
sudo vim /etc/thinkfan.conf # optional, edit values
sudo pkill thinkfan && sudo thinkfan #this should stop the fan

[fatpolomanjr]

Thinkfan works for the X62? I thought that was only for Lenovo/IBM created motherboards with the appropriate sensors installed. If thinkfan also works for the custom created X62 then that is very, very good news for me and all Linux X62 users. I'll also test it out once I get a hold of mine.

[jaspen-meyer]

I don't know that it'll work, but it's worth a try. (I didn't order an x62 because I was worried about fan noise). After installing the modules I'd reboot and then look at
'cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan'. If it shows fan data then a fix will (probably) be easy.

An alternate try would be
fancontrol - utilities to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors
configured with 'pwmconfig'.

[flyingfishfinger]

I tried out your little set of fan commands, they don't work. In particular, executing the line
"sudo modprobe -r thinkpad_acpi && sudo modprobe thinkpad_acpi"
results in:
"modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'thinkpad_acpi': No such device".

Unsurprisingly, the pkill command doesn't appear to do anything, and "/proc/acpi/ibm/fan" doesn't exist. The only contents of /proc/acpi appear to be "button" and "wakeup".

As far as sensors go, the only sensors detected (at all) are two temperature sensors. No fan RPM to be seen unfortunately.

Oh, and I can't speak to battery life at all since all of my batteries are degraded to the point they're pretty much only good for getting from one outlet to the next. Each desk I work at has one, and my backpack also has one at all times.
One of my future projects was to rebuild a battery pack, but I don't have the $$ to throw at the required equipment right now.

R

[andykrej]

I can confirm that the fan noise is quite loud. The real problem is though that it comes on more than it should.
From what i understand, they are working on a BIOS update that tunes the fan speed and also fixes the two dead keys on certain keyboard layouts.

I set my TDP to down in BIOS and it might have helped a bit. I think one user also disconnected his fan completely. I don't know how that worked out.

[flyingfishfinger]

Hm, does changing the TDP adjust the performance level of the CPU? So far I haven't figured out how to control it, assuming that's even possible.

Also, updated the first post with some mechanical information about the keyboard.

R

[E350]

Subscribed! (You early adopters have followers...)

[flyingfishfinger]

Picture time! Links only, I can't ever seem to figure out the embedding properly.

- Kit unboxing
- Kit contents
- Installed boards
- Sound / USB board
- 4-Pin speaker plug
- Dock connector hole
- Bezel trim for left USB port
- Sound board misaligned hole (trimmed to fit)
- Bezel posts trimmed for right USB ports
- Once installed, ports sit too high but this isn't a problem for plugging in devices
- Video ports without sticker
- Video ports with sticker
- Broken WiFI switch Note the broken tab at left...

There. Anything else you'd like a closeup of?

R

[andykrej]

Hm, does changing the TDP adjust the performance level of the CPU? So far I haven't figured out how to control it, assuming that's even possible.

It is found in the cpu settings in the BIOS. The settings are Down, Up and Nominal.
Passmark cpu benchmark scores are 4300 for Down and 4900 for both Up and Nominal.
So it seems the Down setting is throttling the cpu a bit.

My right side ports for sound and USB are perfectly aligned, but the furthest USB port seems not to work.

On the left side I have the same problem as flyingfishfinger. Apparently there are two types of fans used, and one is higher than the other.

My WLAN light functions. BT is always off. WWAN light is always on. Battery indicator is only on when plugged and is sometimes orange. The rest seem to Work normally.

All these are very minor issues. Most important is the insane speed and much longer battery life. I can only recommend it.

[RealBlackStuff]

Instead of this Google drive, why don't you join Imgur?
You can upload all your pictures there in one go, rearrange them if needed, name them, and you only need to post one link...

[flyingfishfinger]

Instead of this Google drive, why don't you join Imgur?

Fair enough, for next time. Unless it bothers anyone or breaks forum rules, in which case I'd be happy to change it

R

[E350]

Very cool! And I learned something from your pictures. I have at least four port replicator/docks, which I now realize I will no longer be using when I do this X62 upgrade. I am very interested whether or not you can satisfactorily stream movies with sound to your TV/monitor with the X62 HDMI output.

[flyingfishfinger]

No idea, that'll have to wait. I don't have a TV at all, nor any monitor with HDMI

[E350]

No idea, that'll have to wait. I don't have a TV at all, nor any monitor with HDMI

Yeah, me too...

[zoob]

Drivers for audio to enable onboard speaker:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/dow ... loads=true

[nitrocaster]

- Video ports without sticker
- Video ports with sticker

Oh god. Why did they install Ethernet connector upside down?!

[brchan]

- Video ports without sticker
- Video ports with sticker

Oh god. Why did they install Ethernet connector upside down?!

Mini displayport and hdmi are also upsidedown. I am also Interested to hear why this is the case.

[nitrocaster]

Mini displayport and hdmi are also upsidedown

They are, but in case of Ethernet there's a notch in the case made to fit Ethernet connector with pins in the bottom. I just can't imagine someone was skilled enough to do all the engineering and testing but being incapable to inspect the design of Lenovo board and case.

[dmdsoftware]

The speaker port is definitely stereo now. Judging from T420 parts online, a dual-speaker used in the T420 should work. I have try this out.

I plugged in the single speaker and it didn't work. I'm in linux. There is playback via the headphones.

[dmdsoftware]

Mini displayport and hdmi are also upsidedown

They are, but in case of Ethernet there's a notch in the case made to fit Ethernet connector with pins in the bottom. I just can't imagine someone was skilled enough to do all the engineering and testing but being incapable to inspect the design of Lenovo board and case.

The board is upside down, that's why. The standard connectors are made to be soldered in one way. The board is really placed in upside down, so all the ports are upside down. The standard display ports are not designed to be versatile in a way that would allow them to be soldered easily from 2 or 4 different sides. You would need to order display ports that were designed to be soldered upside-down. That would be "non-standard" and increase costs. I don't find any issue in this.