X201 First Impressions *Update 2: DOA Right Speaker on x201

[espress0]

Update 3: Driver Update
Here are the appropriate drivers to update if you experience this problem with your x201:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-74380

Update 2:
So now that more people have received their x201 units, is there anyone that can confirm they have working stereo speakers? I've done a few searches online and have found several more reports of users with only a working left speaker.

My x201 had Windows 7 64-bit

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthr ... %20onward)

The hardware maintenance manual is here for reference:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 70149.html

Note that only the x201 (not s/t) should have two stereo speakers, the x201t and x201s carry mono speakers.

For those that have had their units repaired or depot'ed can anyone chime in on their status?

=================

*Update: Defective part, I returned it.
Talk about quality control mishaps. I noticed early on that sound was only coming from the left speaker, and not the right. I went so far as to look up the hardware maintenance manual to make sure that there are in fact 2 speakers.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 70149.html

After changing the L/R balance, changing the sound source, volume, I determined that the speaker was in fact dead.
Strange though, when changing the balance all the way to the right, the left speaker still outputted sound. The L/R balance worked normally on plugged in headphones.

1. Called the Support Line
I called lenovo support, and after running through some basic tests as I did above, the first operator told me that my options were either to use my depot warranty and send it back to them for repair, or take it to a repair center. I thought this was BS given that the unit is <24 hours old and obviously had the problem coming out of the factory. That being given, I was forwarded to find a service center.

2. Forwarded to Service Center hotline
The service center 1800 line gave me 3 locations, 1 had a one week wait, one was a website with no phone number, and 1 apparently didn't even service Thinkpads... so I called the support line again.

3. Called the Support Line again
This time on the support line I spoke to a man named "Russ". I inquired again whether or not they could send someone out to fix my laptop. He replied after a brief pause with a quick "no." I didn't quite hear him so I asked him to repeat and he just said "no" again and followed with a terse explanation that my depot warranty wouldn't cover it. I then asked him about the cost of upgrading the warranty, to which he replied "I don't know.". Then I had to ask him the number for the warranty upgrade people, to which he replied with a deep breath into the microphone, a few pauses of breathing, and then finally the number. This here, was the quite possibly the worst support experience ever.

With those options, I called the line for warranty upgrades to see how much an onsite warranty would cost. Considering the prices, I thought to myself how retarded it was that I had to upgrade my warranty to fix my 1 day old laptop with a problem from the factory. So I rolled the dice and called the support line yet another time.

4. Called the Support Line AGAIN hoping for a better operator.
This time I got a nice guy named Antonio, and he said that because the computer was new, I could return the computer at full value and order another one. He forwarded me to lenovo sales. I don't know what happened, but after a few minutes on hold being transferred the call ended. Good thing he gave me the number and extension for returning my laptop.

5. Called Lenovo Sales
After looking up my case number they agreed to let me RMA the thing and give me a full refund.

Now the question is, what should I get now?

======

Hey everyone,
The awesome UPS guy just dropped off my X201 ! I mentioned in another thread that I sold my 2007 Apple Macbook Pro a few weeks ago and ordered the X201 as a replacement.

Here are some of my first impressions-

Software:
Initial setup went almost without a hitch. After scanning in 2 fingerprints and finishing that part of the setup, it hung with a white square in the middle. I assumed it was just normal and waited a few minutes. After getting impatient I clicked around and noticed a minimized window on the bottom left, which turned out to be the Windows User Account Control asking me to allow permission for something to proceed. After clicking Allow everything went right along.

After turning down a Symantec trial, a Microsoft Office trial, and a Lenovo backup trial, I was on the desktop. It took a few minutes to load the desktop.

Running Windows Update I had to immediately install 13 critical updates, which took about 5 minutes and a restart.

Internet Explorer has a Windows Live bar installed, and there's a MS Office trial icon on the desktop, right below the Recycle Bin.

I could not get the Date and Time to update without changing the server from time.windows.com to time.nist.gov.

Shutdown time (after a clean reboot from updating) was < 10 seconds
Startup time (fingerprint login screen) was just about 30 seconds
Login screen to fully loaded desktop was about 8 seconds.

Sleep time after closing the lid is about 10 seconds (a little slow coming from my Macbook Pro standards)
Wake time to login screen is 5 seconds, and after finger swiping it's a quick transition into the desktop.

Windows Performance Scores:
Processor: 6.8
Memory: 5.5
Graphics: 3.9
Gaming graphics: 5.1
Primary hard disk: 5.9

Hardware:
The unit is incredibly light without the battery, I selected the 9-cell so with the battery attached it's about 3.5 pounds, and its center of gravity lies around the middle of the QWERTY of the keyboard with the laptop closed. It feels extremely solid, with barely any give around the frame. The middle of the screen though has a lot of give, and flexes quite a bit.

The screen (LED backlit) is pretty nice, bright enough, though the colors seem to be a little desaturated.

The trackpad works very well (I've never seriously used an eraser head before).

The fan seems to be running at a speed high enough to be audible.

I can hear a high pitched noise coming from it (I've seen/heard this problem with HPs and an Asus, likely due to poor wiring). It seems to sometimes be constant, sometimes it "blips" with varying frequencies. Boo. It's really annoying.

I've only read of this mythical "ThinkLight" and haven't seen one in action until now. This one's white.

Specs:
2.6Ghz Core i7 (not the low voltage one)
9 Cell Battery
500 GB 7200 RPM HD
2 GB RAM (Plan on upgrading independently)

Thoughts anyone? The high pitched noise is really annoying, but otherwise I'm pretty satisfied.

[sd180]

Hi- I have a x200, been using it for around 9 months. It's great that the x201 has a trackpad/touchpad! I've gotten used to the trackpoint (nipple!) but miss the pad sometimes. I'm really interested in seeing if I can install one into my x200 but because you've just gotten yours, I wont try to convince you to open yours up and give me pics of the mobo. (although... if you want to... its a thinkpad and it's super easy to disassemble and reassemble... .. ... ... )
TIP: if you dont use the trackpoint/nipple, you can disable it in mouse settings to avoid hitting it when you go to type the "B."

the high pitch sound: it's the processor. It took me a while to figure it out on mine. it should be VERY light however. Unless you're in an absolutely dead silent room, you shouldn't be able to hear it (and I have super sensitive ears!!). I actually haven't heard anyone mentioning it happening on the i7 but it's happened w/a T41 that used long ago and it happens on my x200 running a core 2 duo. Again, it should be a VERY light sound. If not, make sure its not the hard drive. Sounds coming from the hard drive is never a good thing.


Fan noise: absolutely none on mine. It's great. Seriously, no sound whatsoever. My guess: Might be different fan used/required for the i7.

I would install office 2010 beta onto it before the beta date runs out. Extremely stable and you can use it til oct before you have to decide your next step.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx


Your start up time should drop a bit; give windows a few weeks to optimize itself. (Someone told me this and I thought he was being crazy... but nope! it does speed up).

If your a fan of sleep mode then you should have entering and leaving Sleep Mode times of around 2 seconds. (!! faster than my tv!!)

RAM upgrade: Make sure you get the right speed RAM; it's probably 10666(aka 10667) or 12800; do not get 8533... it will slow you down. You will not like it. It will be a sad day.


Best way to keep it speedy: Watch out for the programs you install on it!! Even things which no one expects to have auto start up elements do. eg: iTunes. Installing itunes also gives you...
-Bonjour
-Apple Mobile Device Support
-Apple Software Update
-Apple Application Support
-Quicktime.
... I kid you not. All of those have auto start elements.

Speaking of which, switching from a mac to windows? hmm... I have a macbook running 10.4, like having both a windows machine and a mac machine. Why the switch for you?

Definitely play around with Win Media Center.

[espress0]

Hi- I have a x200, been using it for around 9 months. It's great that the x201 has a trackpad/touchpad! I've gotten used to the trackpoint (nipple!) but miss the pad sometimes. I'm really interested in seeing if I can install one into my x200 but because you've just gotten yours, I wont try to convince you to open yours up and give me pics of the mobo. (although... if you want to... its a thinkpad and it's super easy to disassemble and reassemble... .. ... ... )
TIP: if you dont use the trackpoint/nipple, you can disable it in mouse settings to avoid hitting it when you go to type the "B."

If you can link me to disassembly instructions (or just give me a step by step), I'd be willing to give it a try

the high pitch sound: it's the processor. It took me a while to figure it out on mine. it should be VERY light however. Unless you're in an absolutely dead silent room, you shouldn't be able to hear it (and I have super sensitive ears!!). I actually haven't heard anyone mentioning it happening on the i7 but it's happened w/a T41 that used long ago and it happens on my x200 running a core 2 duo. Again, it should be a VERY light sound. If not, make sure its not the hard drive. Sounds coming from the hard drive is never a good thing.

The noise I'm hearing is differentiable from the hard drive read/write noise.
It seems to be coming from the left side of the computer (Caps Lock side).
There's two distinct noises, one that's really high pitched with vary little variation in pitch, and a slightly lower one.

At Maximum Performance, the lower frequency sound is very noticeable, it sounds like a speaker getting a noisy input. The higher frequency noise is almost constant.

At Maximum Battery Life, the lower frequency noise seems to almost entirely go away, while the higher frequency noise starts to "blip". Also noticeable is the reduction in fan speed.

Fan noise: absolutely none on mine. It's great. Seriously, no sound whatsoever. My guess: Might be different fan used/required for the i7.

I would install office 2010 beta onto it before the beta date runs out. Extremely stable and you can use it til oct before you have to decide your next step.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

I'll give 2010 a try!

Your start up time should drop a bit; give windows a few weeks to optimize itself. (Someone told me this and I thought he was being crazy... but nope! it does speed up).

If your a fan of sleep mode then you should have entering and leaving Sleep Mode times of around 2 seconds. (!! faster than my tv!!)

I think it has improved, I bet disabling the fingerprint login will increase the speed greatly as well

RAM upgrade: Make sure you get the right speed RAM; it's probably 10666(aka 10667) or 12800; do not get 8533... it will slow you down. You will not like it. It will be a sad day.

Ideally I'd like to get 8GB into this thing, but seeing the current prices I think I'll have to wait and might just settle with adding another 2GB stick

Best way to keep it speedy: Watch out for the programs you install on it!! Even things which no one expects to have auto start up elements do. eg: iTunes. Installing itunes also gives you...
-Bonjour
-Apple Mobile Device Support
-Apple Software Update
-Apple Application Support
-Quicktime.
... I kid you not. All of those have auto start elements.

Speaking of which, switching from a mac to windows? hmm... I have a macbook running 10.4, like having both a windows machine and a mac machine. Why the switch for you?

Definitely play around with Win Media Center.

Well I've gone through a lot of laptops... I started in 1998 with 98/ME, eventually got to a laptop with XP, then bought an old G3 iBook on eBay in '05 out of curiosity, then bought the MBP which had 10.6, boot camp of Windows Server 2008, and a vmware fusion vm of XP, then just decided to switch back Windows land.

The decision to sell the MBP arose from my 3yr applecare warranty running out, i didn't want to be using that machine without a warranty, it's had a lot of heavy use and 6+ repairs, so I decided to sell. The original plan was to get the updated macbook pro with the 2010 iX processors, but apple has still yet to come out with them so i got impatient and went with one of these, and i also figured i couldnt get an i7 in a <13" form factor on an apple anyways. sold the thing for $1100 on ebay! could i sell this thinkpad for ~40% purchase price in 3 yrs? (not a rhetorical, but serious question)

i must say i already miss installing programs, and mounting disk images in os x. i had to go rummaging on the interwebs to find freeware to mount iso's and my HFS backup drive.

what i do like is the fingerprint thing, and being able to use rainmeter, the 9+ hrs of battery life, the keyboard, the greater perceived durability (the non unibody mbps were kinda flimsy, my plastic ibook was sturdier IMO), the ease of upgradability (upgrading the HD on my mbp was a goddam nightmare), and im starting to warm up to the industrial look and feel of thinkpads, kind of the antithesis of apple design i'd say.

i do also miss firewire 800 and wonder about the legacy port selection... the VGA port and.... is that... a 56k modem next to the headphone/mic inputs???

[sd180]

I very highly doubt you'll be able to sell your x201 for 40% of it's value in a few years. I'm surprised you were able to with your mac. Maybe I can do it with mine! =D

I like how you said "perceived" durability; it really does seem to be preferences sometimes (and I am not roughing up either the mac or my thinkpad to see which one really wins out- I'll leave that for the testers!) I am one who leans on the side that the thinkpads, on whole, are more durable and better designed than other notebooks. It's funny saying that because Apple, understandably, gets a lot credited for their designs. Guys like lenovo, however, have hits and misses and are often all over the place. Apples to... well, apples when comparing "design" it's worthwhile, at least to me, to keep a few things in mind: Most ppl will definitely say the macbooks look better but I really question whether Apple stresses the proper things sometimes. My white macbook has the cpu vent under the screen- if you've have one, how know what I'm talking about. That's. crazy. Why are they doing that?? I don't think one or two grill doors on the side of a computer is that big of a deal. My mac heating up HOT HOT HOT however is. Even with your i7 running at 100% power, your machine isn't going to heat up- it runs cool. Heat is horrible for computers, especially notebooks. My hitachi drive on my macbook totally failed on me when i needed it and come to think of it, i wouldn't be surprised the machine running so darn hot had something to do with it. It's a chronic problem documented all over the web. Also, if for no reason other than its black, don't expect the plastic yellowing my thinkpad like on the mac (that was gross...)

I don't feel the need to put my thinkpad in a sleeve. It goes straight into my day bag or my back pack. Once you get over the fact it's a black box, the design usability elements of the thinkpad really start to become clear. Mac rant: Dedicated volume and mute buttons... it's so simple and everyone has 'em. apple: too stubborn!

on the whole, I've come to conclude that the thinkpad guys really just have a core fundamentally different design ethos. You get a sense of that when you go through a blog their designers maintain:

http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/


The keyboard on thinkpads is a funny thing too. Everyone always says its the best for years now and when i first got one i had no idea what they people were talking about. A year later- using the macbook... my sis' dell... HORRIBLE keyboards on theirs! ha... The travel distance on those made it seem like I was typing on a hard surface. softness? none. loud loud loud. It'll be interesting to see what you think about other keyboards when you use yours a bit and go back.

if the sound is coming from the capslock area, I think it's almost certainly the cpu. Especially if there seems to be a change depending on the power setting. What you're doing with "max power" is capping the cpu speed- which will result in less "whine." It happened so much with the penryn intels that they even called it the "penryn whine." check around online though for the i7 in a few weeks once more ppl get their hands on them.

otherwise, the mac/windows differences we can go on for ages about; on a side note, I don't really miss the mounting for installs. It was great when programmers made the apps light but even after mounting and dragging out to the hard drive, there's almost always an install process now with macs. And worse, then you have to dismount, delete- and dig through applications folder for the program you just installed... wonder where the temp files are... hope and pray there wasn't anything done with the mac system cache. ick.

However... with windows, we get to hope and pray that our registry wasn't changed even after we uninstall. in many ways, that's a far worse...

[espress0]

I returned it, see above.

I think I do like the design of these Thinkpads, but it turns out mine's broken. So we'll see... maybe I'll get another one or get a Macbook on sale for $800 at MicroCenter....

Yes I've dealt with the first gen macbooks. Horrible design, almost every one i've seen has had problems with the palm rest cracking off where the screen rests. I've also dealt with several that had hard drive failures (before Apple decided to extend the warranty on them). I dont think i'm a fan of the first gen plastic macbooks. The new unibody mb's seem quite nice though.

[sd180]

unless they changed it with the x201 (highly doubt it), the x200 only has one speaker. It's odd but thats what lenovo went with. There is only one speaker; there is not a left and right one.

[sd180]

whoops- just looked at the manual, you DO have right and left speakers. !!! I was totally wrong on that one. Apologies!

[pianowizard]

I very highly doubt you'll be able to sell your x201 for 40% of it's value in a few years. I'm surprised you were able to with your mac.

On average, PC laptops depreciate about 40% during EACH of the first two years, and 20% annually beyond the first two years. Macs depreciate much slower, partly because they are more reliable than PCs (according to large-scale reliability surveys such as this one) and partly because Apple rarely marks down their computers' prices. By contrast, Lenovo, Dell and others bring down their laptops' prices over time and each time they do that, they are accelerating the depreciation of the PC laptops we own.

[espress0]

On average, PC laptops depreciate about 40% during EACH of the first two years, and 20% annually beyond the first two years. Macs depreciate much slower, partly because they are more reliable than PCs (according to large-scale reliability surveys such as this one) and partly because Apple rarely marks down their computers' prices. By contrast, Lenovo, Dell and others bring down their laptops' prices over time and each time they do that, they are accelerating the depreciation of the PC laptops we own.

So here's my plan. I purchased a current gen Macbook for 800 (amazing deal at microcenter), and I'm going to resell it as soon as the macbook pro's are refreshed withe the Intel Core iX processors, and fetch the 1100 model.

I wanted to give lenovo a try... I surely would have stuck with them if I hadn't gotten a defective unit. I just desperately need a computer on hand to use. I can't wait another 10+ days to order another unit. So i'll have this macbook to use for the time being which will shortly (hopefully) be replaced with a 2010 macbook pro.

sorry lenovo

[Volker]

Testing speakers in any automatic way in a noisy factory is probably difficult. So the moral of the story is:

1) Get on-site warranty if you absolutely need the laptop on a daily basis.
2) Lenovo customer support is actually consistent and the chance of finding a gifter is low, even with multiple calls.

[josibarns]

I wanted to give lenovo a try... I surely would have stuck with them if I hadn't gotten a defective unit. I just desperately need a computer on hand to use. I can't wait another 10+ days to order another unit. So i'll have this macbook to use for the time being which will shortly (hopefully) be replaced with a 2010 macbook pro.

I know it's too late but I think J&R in downtown Manhattan has gotten X201s in stock, at least on their website they do.
OK... Rochester-NYC is not the closest, but it's a Thinkpad

If you are interested I can go and check if it's available...

Although, I have the feeling that you want to stick with macbook pro anyway

So here's my plan. I purchased a current gen Macbook for 800 (amazing deal at microcenter), and I'm going to resell it as soon as the macbook pro's are refreshed withe the Intel Core iX processors, and fetch the 1100 model.
sorry lenovo

[espress0]

thanks josi, id definitely love to have an x201, but only if i could get it right here and now haha, so it looks like i'll be in apple land for another few years, who knows, maybe i'll try'em again sometime!

now i'm stuck trying to avoid getting scratchmarks and wiping fingerprints off this [censored] glossy plastic x.x

[harbin]

Sadly, it seems my x201 also has the same problem. The sound only comes from the same speaker: left. Is it possible that I can return this for full refund?

[espress0]

it took me 40 min on the phone with various lenovo reps to get the full refund, so yes it's possible.

after all, you received a product that was not 100% operable straight from the factory

[11627717]

OMG! I ordered one on March 1st as well! Hopefully, mine will be ok! anyone esle got the same problem????

[mybellyisempty]

I checked my X201 after reading this. Left speaker only.

I guess this means I get to RMA this laptop as well (my W510 is in at the Depot, DESPITE MY AT HOME WARRANTY, for CPU whine)


I'm not going to go for a refund though...

[11627717]

I checked my X201 after reading this. Left speaker only.

I guess this means I get to RMA this laptop as well (my W510 is in at the Depot, DESPITE MY AT HOME WARRANTY, for CPU whine)


I'm not going to go for a refund though...

Geeze... so far I saw three x201 have this speaker problems .. I guess there is 90% possibilities that mine would have same problem since we almost ordered at the same time.

[mobowhunter]

I have a x201s on order. I have not heard a speaker problem on the x201s, I thought it was on the x201? Do the x201s units have the same problems?

Thanks.

[11627717]

I have a x201s on order. I have not heard a speaker problem on the x201s, I thought it was on the x201? Do the x201s units have the same problems?

Thanks.

Sorry.. it's x201 not the x201s.... The "s" I added means 3 laptops

[mobowhunter]

I understand. That does suck about so many x201 having the same speaker quality challenge, my fingers are crossed about my x201s. It sounds like the quality control could be jeopardized due to the labor shortage.

[11627717]

I understand. That does suck about so many x201 having the same speaker quality challenge, my fingers are crossed about my x201s. It sounds like the quality control could be jeopardized due to the labor shortage.

Well, I'll receive the x201 in the next two days. hopefully the two sides speakers all work fine.

[espress0]

i'm not sure what to think of the problem. has anyone seen a post from an x201 user with a working right speaker? it may affect all x201's, i've not seen an x201S report yet. hopefully it's just a software/driver issue :\.

i don't have mine anymore, but perhaps someone should try booting into a different operating system and seeing if the problem still exists.

[iadorjan]

Are there are updates on this speaker issue? Has everyone here experienced this problem with an X201? Are all models of the first batches affected? I'm thinking of buying an X201i (the cheaper corei3model, which is also supposed to have stereo speakers), as several retailers have it in stock, but I would hate to spend weeks returning it to Lenovo because of the faulty speaker and having to wait for a replacement/repair.

Has anyone with on-site warranty requested a repair of the faulty speakers? If it's a hardware connection issue, it might be repaired by a technician on site (?)

[zverg]

I understand. That does suck about so many x201 having the same speaker quality challenge, my fingers are crossed about my x201s. It sounds like the quality control could be jeopardized due to the labor shortage.

It'd be really tough for an X201s to get through quality control with a dead speaker, since it only has one.

i've not seen an x201S report yet. hopefully it's just a software/driver issue :\.

see above

You know what I'm doing if my X201s comes and the one speaker it has doesn't work? I sure as heck am not returning it, further adding to shipment delays for others.I absolutely always leave my laptop speakers muted anyway. I use headphones when I want to hear something.

[chuenmasiello]

I got my Thinkpad X201 5 days ago (today is Mar.22) and only the left speaker works. I am going to return it to Lenovo. A new machine that just came out of factory should not have any problems. I purchased the warranty which I was not planing to use it for a brand new laptop.

Lenovo either has no quality control or they knew that the X201 has this problem, but they shipped it out anyway, just hoping that their customers are stupid enough that they would not notice or they would just accept it as they way it is. I hope that anyone who has this problem will contact Lenovo and let them know that they need to do something about this!!!

[chuenmasiello]

I got an update from Lenovo. They said that it is a driver issue. Here is the link:

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Th ... m-p/216771

[ansible212]

Sage advice from Lenovo not to return the laptop if it is a driver issue especially if the the execrable quality of the mono speaker in my X200s is anything to go by.

(Bizarre though that they released the X201 into the wild with such an obvious flaw.)

[zverg]

Sage advice from Lenovo not to return the laptop if it is a driver issue especially if the the execrable quality of the mono speaker in my X200s is anything to go by.

yeah it's a ThinkPad, I don't know why they even bothered with two speakers. Most Dell laptops and even the 13" MacBook Pro use mono (the macbook pro mono speaker sounds quite good though to be honest).

The one speaker on my X201s works.. sounds like crap though.

My initial impression is that they removed one of my fav sound-related features --a true mute button. Now it's a lame toggle button.

Also the quality feels like crap compared to my T42.. make sure you open the screen from the center not a corner, it flexes like crazy! I don't expect this laptop to last 6 years at my T42 has (I could sell it as "like new condition" now).

I still love it though. Small, light, fast, great looks. I ordered the 4-cell battery that they didn't let me opt for when I bought it, still need to order the palm rest without the touchpad though; for now I just disabled it in the BIOS.

[mk1 black limited]

Got my x201 yesterday, both speakers working.

PS: This is in Norway.

[stylinexpat]

Got my x201 yesterday, both speakers working.

PS: This is in Norway.

How do they sound?