First very annoying problem with w510

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Daniel Davis · #1 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 12:30 am

Well....got the w510 with touch screen. Biggest gripe I have so far is I've accidentally unplugged the blasted thing 2 or 3 times already. I have it sitting on a laptop tray. When I move the laptop around...the cord catches on the back of the tray and unplugs. Why can't laptop cords be manufactured to screw in like a tv cable so it doesn't come unplugged? At least with my old x41..the plug is on the left side..so it doesn't have that problem. Even my tackle box has a good latch on it.

#2 Post by **ZaZ** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:24 am

The other side of the coin is if the power cord is screwed in and the cord gets caught on something and pulled, the laptop goes with it.

Daniel Davis · #3 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:56 am

Good point. I tripped over my x41 cord and, rather than land on the machine, took an injury to my knee instead. Would be nice if they offered a choice...to anchor or not. So far...in my first evening with the w510...I unplugged it 3 times. I'm going to have to install some sort of pad to raise the butt of the thing so the laptop tray won't catch the cord. I could imagine connector getting weaker and weaker until the cord FALLS out eventually.

Another idea would be to install some sort of small replaceable battery that would maintain power for one minute...long enough to plug the thing back in before it dies on ya.

The machine is faster than my x41, obviously..but not that much faster. One task that takes about a minute on my x41 takes about 25 seconds on the w510. Faster...yes..but for the amount of $$ I spent....I was hoping for more. I'm sure it would be much faster if the program (wordperfect 11) was 64bit..natively.

Daniel Davis wrote:Well....got the w510 with touch screen. Biggest gripe I have so far is I've accidentally unplugged the blasted thing 2 or 3 times already. I have it sitting on a laptop tray. When I move the laptop around...the cord catches on the back of the tray and unplugs. Why can't laptop cords be manufactured to screw in like a tv cable so it doesn't come unplugged? At least with my old x41..the plug is on the left side..so it doesn't have that problem. Even my tackle box has a good latch on it.

Colonel O'Neill · #4 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:35 pm

Daniel Davis wrote:Another idea would be to install some sort of small replaceable battery that would maintain power for one minute...long enough to plug the thing back in before it dies on ya.

Isn't that what the actual battery for?

Daniel Davis wrote:The machine is faster than my x41, obviously..but not that much faster. One task that takes about a minute on my x41 takes about 25 seconds on the w510. Faster...yes..but for the amount of $$ I spent....I was hoping for more. I'm sure it would be much faster if the program (wordperfect 11) was 64bit..natively.

Are you on a platter drive? If so, make sure it's well defragged (I personally use UltimateDefrag for it's featureset). Maybe get eBoostr and a 4GB SD card to put with it as a NAND read cache? Perhaps borrow 500MB of RAM?

edit: fixed a grammatical error

Navck · #5 Post by **Navck** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:42 pm

Would you like a "portable" computer that weighs 15lbs and has a small, lead acid UPS that lets you run it for 10 minutes unplugged so you can move it from the garage to your bedroom?

I don't either.

As for my T410, I run it on a little aluminum standoff thing so I can use it in bed without changing the keyboard angle from horizontal, I don't have any problems with the cord being yanked out (Battery, Ultrabay removed for weight) when the plug is on the left and the wire runs off the right side. Might want to tell us how much of a yank you need to pull the cord out of the socket, it might just be excessively loose or something.

JonathanGennick · #6 Post by **JonathanGennick** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:44 am

Daniel Davis wrote:Well....got the w510 with touch screen. Biggest gripe I have so far is I've accidentally unplugged the blasted thing 2 or 3 times already. I have it sitting on a laptop tray. When I move the laptop around...the cord catches on the back of the tray and unplugs.

Isn't that frustrating? Happens to me all the time on my T61. The cause for me is the round bulge on the power cord that sits about three inches back from where the cord plugs into the laptop. That bulge is in the perfect position to catch on the back end of my desk. I've had it catch and cause the cord to pulll out so many times that it's become second nature for me to grab the cord with one hand while I move the laptop with my other. Sometimes I do forget, and then I come unplugged.

In my case, it would help if Lenovo would get rid of that cylindrical bulge.

Colonel O'Neill · #7 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:26 am

Actually, I really like the cylindrical bulge; it prevents the cord from sliding back into the abyss of cables under my desk BECAUSE it catches on the edge of the desk.

I wonder if it's possible to make a conical bulge.

miscthree · #8 Post by **miscthree** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:48 pm

I bought two extra three-pronged power supplies for my x300 on eBay and they don't have that abominable cylindrical thing.

I haven't checked on how the wireless power project has been developing, something to look into

craigmontHunter · #9 Post by **craigmontHunter** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 5:57 pm

IIRC, the cylindrical thing is a ferrite core to reduce interferance (old monitors used to have them - I don't have any new ones to check

). You could probably make a cylindircal cover for it with duck tape, so that it would just pull up forward, but not drop off the back (or just tape it to the back of the computer so it does not fall off).

Daniel Davis · #10 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:21 pm

If you leave the actual battery in the machine with the machine plugged in...and you do that very much...the battery will lose it's punch. So, no....I run my laptop on the power cord without the battery. I only use the battery when I need the actual battery.

Daniel Davis · #11 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:25 pm

I quasi-solved the unplugging problem by putting the machine on a different platform..but the plug still comes out way too easily.

Daniel Davis · #12 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:28 pm

Bingo! That's exactly what happens with mine. I'm having another BIGGER problem with the machine. I'll post that under a separate heading.

Colonel O'Neill · #13 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:52 am

Daniel Davis wrote:If you leave the actual battery in the machine with the machine plugged in...and you do that very much...the battery will lose it's punch. So, no....I run my laptop on the power cord without the battery. I only use the battery when I need the actual battery.

I'm pretty sure this only happens if you keep the battery at a high charge all the time and/or run it in a hot environment. AFAICT, my T400 does fairly well at keeping the CPU/GPU heat away from the battery.

In addition, the power supply system can draw from the battery under peak loads to supplement the AC adapter. (There are cases where the system would downclock without a battery attached.)

craigmontHunter · #14 Post by **craigmontHunter** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:12 pm

Another option is to set the charge thresholds to lower levels - this will prevent wear on the battery just as well as leaving it out of the system. you may want to check in power manager just how hot the battery actually gets (if it is below 30, I *think* the cells will deteriorate just as fast anyway, wether or not they are in the battery) - on my t61, I can game and charge my battery, and while the powerbrick gets hot (65w), the battery is only 27C.

FTC · #15 Post by **FTC** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:11 am

craihmothunter yes, what you suggest is the way to go; to configure the machine so that it starts charging only below i.e 90% to minimize wear. Besides, let me emphasize that the battery *is* in fact one of the best goodies of notebooks, not only because it allows usage while unplugged, but also because it acts as a UPS and avoids losing your job because of a power glitch. Besides, with li-ion batteries there is almost no memory effect *and* the battery will still degrade itself in 2 years approx just by time passing... so why not use it for what it is intended?

Colonel O'Neill · #16 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:00 am

You can best minimize battery wear by keeping the charge at 40% for long-term storage. Li-Ion still has some memory effect, but can be minimized by proper battery care.

Daniel Davis · #17 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 7:44 pm

How do you get to the screen that lets you change the threshhold at which the battery kicks in? I can't find it.

FTC wrote:craihmothunter yes, what you suggest is the way to go; to configure the machine so that it starts charging only below i.e 90% to minimize wear. Besides, let me emphasize that the battery *is* in fact one of the best goodies of notebooks, not only because it allows usage while unplugged, but also because it acts as a UPS and avoids losing your job because of a power glitch. Besides, with li-ion batteries there is almost no memory effect *and* the battery will still degrade itself in 2 years approx just by time passing... so why not use it for what it is intended?

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Colonel O'Neill · #18 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 7:47 pm

Open up Power Manager, hit Advanced, go to the Battery tab, hit Battery Maintenance.
From then on, you can just right-click the taskbar meter, and click Change battery charge mode / Thresholds.

Daniel Davis · #19 Post by **Daniel Davis** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:01 pm

Thanks...and you say 90% will not keep juicing the battery?

Colonel O'Neill wrote:Open up Power Manager, hit Advanced, go to the Battery tab, hit Battery Maintenance.
From then on, you can just right-click the taskbar meter, and click Change battery charge mode / Thresholds.

Colonel O'Neill · #20 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:00 am

Ultimately, it depends on how you plan to use your battery. If you're going to use it very rarely but want to leave it in the machine as a backup power source, I'd say 30-40% would be right for you.

If you need to use it every so often, maybe 70-80?
My X100e goes 80-90% because I take it to school for note taking, but that's a bit excessive; I could get by with 70% all day.

In general, avoid charging the battery to max, and avoid trying to squeeze more power of it at empty.

FTC · #21 Post by **FTC** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:47 am

Hi,

Colonel is right, however. Don't get too strict about this. remember that the battery will wear out in any case just with time... after 2-3 years (in some cases it can last a bit more), so you are not gaining anything by setting a too low value for your usage. I mantain the threshold at 90% because I tend to use the battery 50% of the work time.. so I just don't want the charge cycles to begin again when I have only disconnected the machine to move from one office to another.. If you rarely use the battery and are always connected I'd agree that 60-70% may be enough.