Sound Card Stuff
The sound daughterboard is on the right side of the computer, connected with a flat ribbon cable. This ribbon also carries two USB 2.0 signals. This is certainly the jankiest part of the whole thing.
I am considering trying to build a full replacement sound daughterboard, or at least hack in a decent USB DAC and nerf one of the USB ports on the PCH - maybe I can steal the USB lines from the fingerprint reader, which I have no plans on using. That would at least deliver quality headphone output.
Speakers do not work
Resolution: Under Windows, the Realtek HD Audio driver may be installed.
Under Linux:
Under other operating systems, no solution has been found yet.nwlsky wrote: You need to install alsa-tools
Create snd-hda-intel.conf to /etc/modprobe.d/ and add this line into it:
options snd-hda-intel model=auto index=1,0
Add these lines to /etc/rc.local:
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x01 SET_GPIO_MASK 0x01
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x01 SET_GPIO_DIRECTION 0x01
/usr/bin/hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x01 SET_GPIO_DATA 0x00
Speakers emit high-pitched tones
This looks interference-related, or there's some spooky resonance going on in some of the passives. In addition, the second speaker installed under the sound card may be vibrating against the case. Over the course of ten minutes, the whining was reduced and finally went away. The sounds correspond with the rotation of the CPU cooling fan.
Speakers emit interference sounds from GSM radios
That terrible rhythmic click is audible through the speakers, even when the volume is down. The sound board is terrible.
Headphone output is tinny
The headphone output's frequency response is noticeably attenuated at lower frequencies. No actual spectral analysis has been done on it, but it's objectively worse than the original X60/X61 output. Perhaps this is a mis-configuration of passive components around the Realtek chip?
Power and Heat
The original X6* batteries and power cords can be used with the X62.
Charge rate unknown
Under Linux, no charge rate is given, so we will be told "charging at a zero rate - will never fully charge". In fact, it is charging just fine.
Under Windows, we just get "charging" - no word on the rate or how long is expected.
Orange battery LED
The X62 shines the battery LED orange when it is charging, and green when it is done. On the normal X6* machines, the light is only orange if the battery is very low, and it will flash periodically when charging.
CPU runs a bit hot
The CPU on my unit idles around 40-50 degrees celcius, sits at 60 under medium load, and under full load tops out around 80. Not ideal temperatures, but with the CPU at relatively high load for half an hour, temperatures never peaked above 85 (when playing Overwatch as a test).
Palmrest heat
The dreaded right palmrest warmth from the X61 is gone, and... is replaced with left palmrest warmth in the X62. It's from the Wi-Fi card. Moderate under Windows, and can be helped by reducing the rx/tx power in the Wi-Fi driver config. Under Linux, power management rules help similarly (powertop's tunables will help).
Solution: I've installed an Intel 7260 Wi-Fi card, and put a small bit of foil tape to replicate the light shielding on the other side of the palmrest, and no heat can be felt underneath the palmrest any more.
Fan is noisy
The fan looks like an actual lenovo one grafted on. Mine in particular has a quiet tick to it. Otherwise, the fan whirring is not very loud. The fan does enthusiastically come on when the CPU is under load. It looks as though applying a low-pass filter to the temperature sensor would do some good. The heatsink is clearly a hand-made deal.
Forum user mdancer reports that the maglev fan from the ThinkPad X200 fits well and is much quieter, and can be substituted.
Connectivity
The X62 offers nearly the same lineup of ports as the X61, but one USB 2.0 port is replaced with a USB 3.0 port, and the VGA port is nixed in favor of a mini-displayport and mini-HDMI port. PCMCIA is gone too.
The ethernet, display port, and SD card slot are upside-down!
Yep, that's how it is!
The WWAN LED is on - I don't even have a WWAN card
No clue why that happens, but it's normal behavior.
The SD card reader isn't working
Under Windows, the driver is available here.
Worked with no additional effort under Debian Stretch Alpha 8.