Lenovo x121e netbook

[nixboy]

yes if you're only connecting at 54mbps then go no cost option.

installing anything with 2x2 aerials or above is just for moving around data at much higher speeds. 54mbps will give real world 3-4megabytes/s throughput - whereas a 2x2 antenna wifi card operating in the 5ghz range can give 10-11megabytes/s throughput (router allowing).

 

[Max M4X WW]

My router is just a cheap Netgear, if I don't have the option anyway maybe I will have to upgrade at a later date.

Thanks

 

[nixboy]

yup don't worry about upgrading you can pick them up sub £10 on ebay any time

the thinkpad b/g/n will work perfectly for you

 

[Jakg]

...for those wanting to use a non bios approved wifi card without flashing a custom bios simply put the desired wifi adapter in the other mini pci-e slot (intended for a 3g card). The bottom will hold the card in place (especially if you move over the rubber spacer from above the intended wifi card.

D'oh, why didn't I think of that before?

I've now fitted my Intel 5300 WiFi card & a 3rd antenna

 

[nixboy]

jakg sweet!

has anyone had experience of installing the ocz vertex 2 in the x121e? I installed the 1.24 firmware version of it but it failed after about a dozen reboots during an installation day.

i've returned it now for a replacement (the good people at ocz replaced despite me unhousing the drive). I know the latest firmware is 1.3 something... but am worried there is some kind of incompatibility between the x121e ahci controller and the drive and it will happen again... any thought?

 

[sylang]

X121e Integrated Camera not working

Hi, All. First post here

do i need to do anything with the camera before it works?

new X121e just arraived. everything is working except the camera. the green indicator will light up but i got complete blackness from the camera window. Hardware manager said it was working properly.

Any views or similar experience? suppose I am just unlucky. ordered a lenovo desktop for my mum last year and it also came with a probelmatic camera.

thanks

 

[fwgx]

Is there some sticker over the lens? My lenovo S205 came covers in protective plastic wrapping stuck to every bit of it.

 

[nixboy]

sylang: the camera should be good to go out the box.. (mine was) especially if the green l.e.d. is on.. sounds like a hardware fault

 

[sylang]

it does look like a hardware issue. just checked the camera. there is nothing covering it.

hate to send it back to service depot one day after delivery. have not had enough time to play with it. really unlucky

Assume i just have to phone their customer service

thanks

 

[nixboy]

just noticed the latest 2509 version of the intel hd graphics driver is out (i think its been out for a while).. just installed and got a bump in desktop video performance!

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...Basic, 64-bit version*&DownloadType= Drivers

 

[s4vva]

just a heads up for those planning a clean install, if you have the 2x2 a/b/g/n wifi card you will need to set the BIOS to legacy before installing Windows as at the moment there are no UEFI drivers available for that card (not sure about other cards).

 

[Bigsy]

Ok so you may remember me from the start of the thread bitching about the trackpad... well it seems its not a hardware fault as mine is now fixed, it works perfectly.

I uninstalled the the ultranav driver, then installed the latest synaptic driver from their site, then I disabled smartsense in the options, fixed.. perfectly usable trackpad now

 

[shootermcg]

Received mine a couple of days ago, really happy with it!

It has about 70 processes in idle, should I be worried about that? My desktop only has 50 in idle and is much more powerful (i5-2500k 8gb ram ssd)

 

[nixboy]

the thinkvantage apps tend to be small but run in their own process which is probably why you have such a high idle process count (mine is about the same).

one thing i have noticed though is that the out the box build seems to suffer from leaving explorer.exe processes running after closing windows explorer all the time... take a look - i sometimes find 10 explorer.exe processes (that are not the desktop process) left over from opening and closing windows explorer.....

 

[shootermcg]

I'm thinking of doing a clean install as it looks like I can get the drivers I need from here:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_CH/research/hints-or-tips/detail.page?&DocID=HT051644

 

[nixboy]

the thinkvantage tools are very straight forward to install (no sony vaio nightmares here) not sure i'd bother though unless you have a specific problem that will be rectified.

the explorer.exe thing seems to be a win 7 issue.. i have seen it before but not as bad!

 

[JENSON10]

I am planning to order this laptop tomorrow, the I3 processor one. I can't decide between the 3 cell or the 6 cell battery.

Also if I choose the thinkpad a/b/g/n , will ubuntu 10.10 have drivers for it or will I need to use ndiswrapper ??

 

[nixboy]

definitely go 6 cell - the new design means it doesn't stick out the back and is flush with the laptop

 

[JENSON10]

Thanks for the advice, nixboy.

Has anyone managed to run ubuntu 10.10 on it. I will need to run ubuntu 10.10 with osian desktop on it as part of dissertation.

 

[Wishy]

Thanks for the advice, nixboy.

Has anyone managed to run ubuntu 10.10 on it. I will need to run ubuntu 10.10 with osian desktop on it as part of dissertation.

Wireless card drivers are probably ok if you go with the centrino options, wired network drivers probably won't be in 10.10.
I've not been happy with linux on this laptop, where as I loved in on my X61S, the driver support doesn't seem right yet.

If I were looking for something would runs linux, especially an older version - then I would give serious consideration to a thinkpad X61 refurb.

11.10 worked fine, but it was in beta when I played and i found the battery life was 4.5 hrs vs 6.5 under windows 7 (Understand there was a kernel bug stopping pci express sleeping), and the 11.10 beta wasn't stable.