LENOVO Laptop

[SheungWan]

After having and finally dumping a Lenovo laptop with an intermittent fault that refused to go away, I can only say re Lenovo never again.

I'll stick with ASUS now thank you very much.

[fang37]

Anyone who has purchased a LENOVO in Thailand, please advise whether it came with pre-loaded Windows 8 &

a CD was supplied with Windows 8?

Any problems upgrading to W 10?

[fang37]

Anyone who has purchased a LENOVO in Thailand, please advise whether it came with pre-loaded Windows 8 &

a CD was supplied with Windows 8?

Any problems upgrading to W 10?

[Chicog]

I didn't buy my x240 in Thailand but it came with Windows 7 installed; had Windows 8 on the recovery partition; and once I restored WIndows 8 it upgraded to Win10 no problem.

[kbirkins]

Fang-

I also have a Lenovo purchased in Thailand. Its the Y50 model. Yes, it was preloaded with W8.1 and I received a recovery disk. After some initial problems (detailed on another TV thread) I successfully upgraded to W10.

[Pib]

Anyone who has purchased a LENOVO in Thailand, please advise whether it came with pre-loaded Windows 8 &

a CD was supplied with Windows 8?

Any problems upgrading to W 10?

When I bought my Lenovo Z510 about 20 months ago it did not come with any version of Windows and it was advertised for sale without Windows which is common....many computers now days are sold with DOS only...or maybe a version of free Linux installed like how my Z510 came with Ubuntu installed (a popular version of Linux). And I've seen some computers sold with Evaluation copies of Windows which are not activated...up to the buyer to buy a license to get them properly activated. I bought my own Win 8.1 Home SL (Eng) at BananaIT and installed it myself....none of this they will load Windows for you for Bt500 llke a lot of stores/shops will do which is probably not a legal copy/just an evaluation copy.

Per my other recent thread my Lenovo Z510 upgraded to Win 10 on 29 Jul with no major issues/problems...took 24 minutes....activated no problem. Had an issue with outgoing mail getting stuck in the Outlook inbox...but got that fixed by running the "sfc /scannow" Windows' command as recommend by the MS Answer Desk which checks for/fixes corrupt files. Also have an issue with the built-in Windows "Create System Image/Backup" module (it will do the image/backup but I don't think it's properly working for subsequent backups plus the backed-up .vhdx created by Win 10 will not mount using File Explorer although .vhdx files crated by Win 8.1 will mount), but I'm working around that by using a freeware backup program called Macrium Reflect-Free...various other freeware backup software I could also use such as AMOEI, Acronis, etc. And my Samsung SSD 840EVO will not run in Rapid Mode (i.e., a mode that uses internal RAM memory to make the SSD even faster) which is not really a Win 10 issue but an issue in Samsung not updating their Magician software yet (I read some posts saying late this month) which is basically the driver to allow Rapid Mode to work with Win 10...this is a minor issue...not causing any problems...I just want to run in Rapid Mode to squeeze a little bit more performance from my computer whether I can actually notice the performance increase or not in the realworld. Actually Rapid Mode was working/still activated after installing Win 10, but I turned Rapid Mode off (like I've done many times before) to troubleshoot the Create System Image/Backup issue...this didn't help...then Rapid Mode could not be turned on...started googling and saw a bunch of other Samsung SSD owners reporting the same problem and some suggested fixes that worked for some but not for others like me.

Summary: my Lenovo Z510 upgraded to Win 10 on 29 July without any major issues....just a few minor issues have been spotted in the follow-on days of use...and these minor issues are not causing me any real issues.

Lenovo has done good in getting Win 10 drivers loaded on their support website several weeks before Win 10 was released on 29 July like mentioned to you in another thread...to include Win 10 drivers for your particular Lenovo model. Once you get Win 10 loaded, be sure to install those drivers first thing to optimize your model for Win 10 and/or just to get all the functions to fully work....remember, "laptops can be very picky about have the right drivers"....much more picky than a desktop computer. Just for example I noticed the laptop's Bluetooth function did not appear to be working properly after the upgrade apparently due to the MS Windows generic Bluetooth driver being loaded...once I loaded the Bluetooth driver from the Lenovo support website for my model the Bluetooth function was fully working.

[fang37]

Thank you, Pib

I too have a Lenovo Z50 laptop - 2mths old. Pre-loaded with W 8 - I am now assuming NOT a Lenovo load.

Upgrade to W 10 from W 7 Pro - one (1) optional file would not load.

Friday - I have an appointment with computer tech.

He wishes to backup all files; reformat the HDD (SSE - Kingston). I have 8Gb RAM (Kingston).

I am informed that the upgrade to W 10 will have no problems. Tech did his own today.

This has been quite challenging/frustrating.

The Lenovo - very quick.

Problems (I guess internet speed) are opening Gmail, Ask.com & ThaiVisa.com.

[Pib]

Anyone who has purchased a LENOVO in Thailand, please advise whether it came with pre-loaded Windows 8 &

a CD was supplied with Windows 8?

Any problems upgrading to W 10?

When I bought my Lenovo Z510 about 20 months ago it did not come with any version of Windows and it was advertised for sale without Windows which is common....many computers now days are sold with DOS only...or maybe a version of free Linux installed like how my Z510 came with Ubuntu installed (a popular version of Linux). And I've seen some computers sold with Evaluation copies of Windows which are not activated...up to the buyer to buy a license to get them properly activated. I bought my own Win 8.1 Home SL (Eng) at BananaIT and installed it myself....none of this they will load Windows for you for Bt500 llke a lot of stores/shops will do which is probably not a legal copy/just an evaluation copy.

Per my other recent thread my Lenovo Z510 upgraded to Win 10 on 29 Jul with no major issues/problems...took 24 minutes....activated no problem. Had an issue with outgoing mail getting stuck in the Outlook inbox...but got that fixed by running the "sfc /scannow" Windows' command as recommend by the MS Answer Desk which checks for/fixes corrupt files. Also have an issue with the built-in Windows "Create System Image/Backup" module (it will do the image/backup but I don't think it's properly working for subsequent backups plus the backed-up .vhdx created by Win 10 will not mount using File Explorer although .vhdx files crated by Win 8.1 will mount), but I'm working around that by using a freeware backup program called Macrium Reflect-Free...various other freeware backup software I could also use such as AMOEI, Acronis, etc. And my Samsung SSD 840EVO will not run in Rapid Mode (i.e., a mode that uses internal RAM memory to make the SSD even faster) which is not really a Win 10 issue but an issue in Samsung not updating their Magician software yet (I read some posts saying late this month) which is basically the driver to allow Rapid Mode to work with Win 10...this is a minor issue...not causing any problems...I just want to run in Rapid Mode to squeeze a little bit more performance from my computer whether I can actually notice the performance increase or not in the realworld. Actually Rapid Mode was working/still activated after installing Win 10, but I turned Rapid Mode off (like I've done many times before) to troubleshoot the Create System Image/Backup issue...this didn't help...then Rapid Mode could not be turned on...started googling and saw a bunch of other Samsung SSD owners reporting the same problem and some suggested fixes that worked for some but not for others like me.

Summary: my Lenovo Z510 upgraded to Win 10 on 29 July without any major issues....just a few minor issues have been spotted in the follow-on days of use...and these minor issues are not causing me any real issues.

Lenovo has done good in getting Win 10 drivers loaded on their support website several weeks before Win 10 was released on 29 July like mentioned to you in another thread...to include Win 10 drivers for your particular Lenovo model. Once you get Win 10 loaded, be sure to install those drivers first thing to optimize your model for Win 10 and/or just to get all the functions to fully work....remember, "laptops can be very picky about have the right drivers"....much more picky than a desktop computer. Just for example I noticed the laptop's Bluetooth function did not appear to be working properly after the upgrade apparently due to the MS Windows generic Bluetooth driver being loaded...once I loaded the Bluetooth driver from the Lenovo support website for my model the Bluetooth function was fully working.

And literally 30 minutes after posting above I was able to fix the Win 10 "Create System Image/Backup" module problem. I started googling some more right after posting above, came up with a post on another blog talking about "Enabling AutoMount" and "Assign a Disk Letter to a Virtual Disk." The Windows image/backup files I haven't been able to open are really just virtual files.

It was actually a post 15 months old talking about a similar problem when using Win 7...plus that jogged some memory cells of mine from about 5 years ago when I was having an issue with a drive letters not being assigned when I plugged in an external drive or floppy...and that problem also centered around Disk Letter Assignment. Basically it would look like the drive was not loading, but if you look in the Disk Management menu you see it is loaded but has no Drive Letter assigned which means you don't see it in File Explorer...the Drive Letter assignment is suppose to automatically occur but everyone once in a while it's not assigned due to some unknown Windows glitch/hiccup.

Anyway, I used the Disk Management Function to assign a drive letter to those image backup files that would not mount--after forcing that mount/disk letter assignment they would mount...and once unplugging and plugging the drive back in to see if the image/drive would mount automatically it would indeed...no error message when trying to mount the image and I could now see the drive/image in File Explorer. The Create System Image is now working properly, I can mount the backup images, and by being able to mount the images I can confirm from looking at the files that they are backing up everything. I also confirmed by doing several images that the images were backing up everything to include some test files I created just before stating the backup so I could check later when mounting the image to ensure they were in the image--the test files were.

As of now I no longer have any major issues with Win 10....only that minor issue with the Samsung Magician app still exists, which is really not needed for Samsung SSD operation as it just provides some added features like Rapid Mode, SMART diagnostics, etc....I expect Samsung will get that app updated soon and it will "fully" work again having that Rapid Mode limitation. Anyone who has a Samsung SSD and uses the Magician app should know what I'm talking about regarding the Rapid Mode...to those that don't have a Samsung SSD or use the Magician app then this is just a non-understandable talk. And some folks even had success with Win 10 by instead of loading latest Magician 4.6 version by dropping back to the 4.4 version...but for some that didn't work. For now, I'll just wait for Samsung to update the Magician app to be fully compatible with Win 10.

in closing, I can now use the built-in Windows Create System Image/Backup again with faith it's working properly. But doing the last week I started using Macrium Reflect-Free again to do images/backups and will continue to use that also. A person can never have enough backup on different drives and using various backup programs to play it safe with your data. And although I no longer have any major issues and only one minor issue that does not mean there are not other issues I just haven't found yet...it's now like a person can completely test drive a new operating system, all your apps, all the different tasks you do with your computer, etc., in just a few minutes, hours, or even days...sometimes it might take weeks of use to stumble across another issue that was not there with your previous operating system. Time will tell...if I find some more over the coming days/weeks/months I won't be surprised. Cheers and good luck with your Lenovo.

[fang37]

I'm not happy.

Recently, I upgraded to a 120gb SSD (Kingston).

Just been informed that it will be necessary to upgrade AGAIN. 240gb I assume.

Any recommendations? ie gb? Brand - model - specs. Price?

Brand - Kingston v Samsung v ???

I want a quality SSD as it is an enjoyable hobby, I like efficiency, speed.

Edited August 10, 2015 by fang37

[fang37]

I have just told the tech to do what is necessary. Probably 240gb Kingston.

BTW, upgrade to W 10. EXCEL & WORD - I am using 2007.

Anyone migrating to the opposition - Libre? Opinion?

[Pib]

I'm not happy.

Recently, I upgraded to a 120gb SSD (Kingston).

Just been informed that it will be necessary to upgrade AGAIN. 240gb I assume.

Any recommendations? ie gb? Brand - model - specs. Price?

Brand - Kingston v Samsung v ???

I want a quality SSD as it is an enjoyable hobby, I like efficiency, speed.

Samsung 850EVO or 840EVO...850 is the later model. Get a 500GB which is a good balance between a big and huge drive for a laptop. Yes, SSDs larger than 250GB in Thailand get significantly pricier compared to most western countries. But if you can get around customs charges like maybe having a friend drop it off if passing through Thailand buying it outside of Thailand would be cheaper. But if not concerned about a few thousand additional baht, just buy in Thailand.

Example: An 850EVO if bought online from a U.S. seller like TigerDirect is currently approx $180/Bt6,265. In Thailand like at invadeIT it's around $228/Bt7,999. See below for snapshot from TigerDirect and invadeIT. I expect most Thai stores selling the 850 would be at or a little below the invadeIT price.

TigerDirect

invadeIT

[Pib]

I have just told the tech to do what is necessary. Probably 240gb Kingston.

BTW, upgrade to W 10. EXCEL & WORD - I am using 2007.

Anyone migrating to the opposition - Libre? Opinion?

Kingston SSDs are on the slow side benchmark-wise compared to most other SSDs....but they are also somewhat lower in cost.

P.S. since you are installing a laptop with only one slot for a drive, you chances of running out of space again with only a 250GB drive may rise significantly if you decide you want to start saving quite a few movie/video files and loading up a lot more software. A 500GB would should give you plenty of breathing room. A 500GB SSD will also be a little faster and last longer than a 250GB SSD although a 250GB SSD "lifetime wise" should far, far outlive how long you will be keeping your computer.

Edited August 10, 2015 by Pib

[fang37]

Pib - definitely no movies so 250gb is OK.

However, after research, I am now very interested in SAMSUNG SSD.

Lazada -

850 Pro B6.5k

840 Pro B6k?

Evo 850 B4.4k

Evo 850 M2 B5.5k

Any comments?

[Pib]

Pib - definitely no movies so 250gb is OK.

However, after research, I am now very interested in SAMSUNG SSD.

Lazada -

850 Pro B6.5k

840 Pro B6k?

Evo 850 B4.4k

Evo 850 M2 B5.5k

Any comments?

Up to you...850 is a later model than the 840....drive size affects price....I doubt you have a special M2 slot in your Lenovo for the 850 M2 version (it's like a small circuit board) so forget the M2 version. Unless you are pinching stang, go with a 850EVO (not the M2 version...just the regular version)....the 850Pro is probably overkill for you....once again, up to you regarding the size you want....bigger the drive, bigger the price...you just need to figure out how big of a drive you need when also taking the future into consideration. I expect you thought the 120GB SSD you earlier bought was big enough for the future.

Benchmark-wise a Samsung will beat a Kingston...but how much difference that makes in the day to day/real world use of your computer will be minor. Up to you.

Edited August 10, 2015 by Pib

[dave_boo]

Pib - definitely no movies so 250gb is OK.

However, after research, I am now very interested in SAMSUNG SSD.

Lazada -

850 Pro B6.5k

840 Pro B6k?

Evo 850 B4.4k

Evo 850 M2 B5.5k

Any comments?

Go with the EVO. No way you would notice the difference and 1600 baht is 1600 baht.

[DogNo1]

The Samsung 500 GB EVO is about $200 here in Japan through Amazon Japan with free shipping. The Crucial 500 GB is about the same. Newegg has the Samsung 1 TB for about $340. The advent of 1 TB and larger SSDs will drive the price down after a while so if you can wait for a little while, you'll probably get a better price on the 500. If you can get the drive outside of Thailand, that would be good.

[fang37]

My computer tech is a Kingston devotee.

I said just do your best as time was of the essence.

He purchased a Kingston SSD 240gb Hyper X R555/W510

Price B4800. Not bad - Lazada - B4550

Opinion - especially SPEED?

Edited August 11, 2015 by fang37

[Pib]

The Kingston Hyper X series are significantly faster than the Kingson V300 series, the later of which got a reputation for slow speed in comparison to many other SSDs. Quite a few different versions in the Kingston Hyper X line up.

But you can go to this ssd.userbenchmark.com website which allows comparisons between various SSDs speedwise...the data is from SSD owners....real world type stats.

Below link should take you to a Samsung 850 Pro 256GB and Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB comparison. The Samsung 850Pro gets an Outstanding speed rating and the Kingson HyperX gets an Excellent rating. You can see the specific speeds differences, how much faster one is than the other doing certain tests, and a variety of other info.

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-850-Pro-256GB-vs-Kingston-HyperX-Savage-240GB/2385vs3494

[fang37]

[fang37]

[fang37]

Firstly, I wish to thank all respondees to this thread.

Just before, I researched the web - Samsung v Kingston (per specs above).

Some EXPERTS rate the Samsung superior whilst others rate opposite. eg TechAdvisor

It has been a "journey" indeed.

Friday - tech installs Windows 10. I am looking forward to it. Windows 8 - terrible. Windows 7 - easy.

[mmh8]

you'be obviously got money why did you go with the z model? I think there is nicer ones. but you seem to have time to mess around with things.

RAM is a no brainer, buy big for when the os systems are developed and you will work fast

SSD buy big and fast, i went with the samsung top of range in the end

someone else suggested you instal your old hdd in the optical bay, do that or hook it up with an adaptor to the usb.

as for win 10 - do you remember vista? do you remember 8.0 lenevo have 7 downgrade rights as they call it for a reason, why would you do that to yourself

[fang37]

mmh8

I have been confused re the model of Lenovo I have. On the front, it states Z50. On the back, it indicates Z50-70.

The original HDD - 1 tb - an absolute disaster.

Upgrade of RAM to 8gb was VG. Original upgrade of HDD to an SSD - great.

It was a surprise when the tech stated that I need a larger HDD. All is now resolved & I am getting on with life.

As posted before, new SSD goes in Friday & an upgrade of Windows to version 10 will be completed.

My logic re W 10 - why wait forever? Of course there will be updates. I can accept that. My punt is that MS have done a good job this time after a disastrous W 8 release.

[fang37]

I do not know what an "optical bay" is. Nevertheless, I have emailed my tech & advised him to do so. The "dog" HD would be used for effecting a backup of the SSD files & copies of "Porn"?

[fang37]

My Lenovo is a i7 - 4510U.

Closing down last night, only 22 updates installed for Windows 7.

No matter what you use, the update saga is prevalent.

My main curiousity.

When will MS reveal their annual "hire" fee for Windows 10. Then, how will they collect?

[fang37]

Just spoke to my tech re "OPTICAL BAY".

His comments -

a) if you put in the old HDD, you lose the DVD drive. I did not even know I had a DVD drive. I do have many DVDs - maybe a new interest & convenient.

for backup purposes - NO! If PC is stolen, all is gone.

Better to have an external backup system.

Makes sense to me.

Interested parties - comment?

[fang37]

Brilliant idea?

I suggested to the tech that he make my old 1Tb HDD into an external backup system. Yes - can. Well, just do it!

[mmh8]

yeah, the extra space is there if you need to carry it around. better I feel to have external backup in multiple locations.

I've got an optical drive too, rarely used, but not interested in putting the hdd back in either.

I guess your tech is brave then, win 10, just the fact that they have a little icon advising me to install for free scares me off.

do you remember vista?

[fang37]

In my former life, I was a CPA. Backups (multiple) were vital.

This was in the 80s - the DOS days. Started with a single floppy (Televideo); graduated to a twin floppy. Many floppies - started with 360k, 640k, 1.2mb??? Time consuming but absolutely essential.

No internet - I was upmarket - a fax. My last computer - HDD & a 386 (AUD10k). I used "Wordstar" & "Quatro" (better than the MS option).

"Vista" - never had it - no knowledge. XP to W 8 - back to W 7.

Tech has just upgraded to W 10.

I could wait - 2025? But, I have little patience.

[Pib]

Brilliant idea?

I suggested to the tech that he make my old 1Tb HDD into an external backup system. Yes - can. Well, just do it!

All it takes is an external drive enclosure which costs around Bt300 to Bt500...they also come more expensive than that for unknown reasons....guess some people think paying more means its a better product.

Be sure to get a USB 3.0 enclosure...still a lot of USB 2.0 enclosures being sold. USB 3 is around 2 to 4 times faster than USB 2 in the real world....makes a big difference in reading/writing to the external drive...makes a Windows image backup go a lot faster. Most laptops nowdays come with USB 3 and 2 ports....USB 3 is backwards compatible with USB 2...so why do some computers still have USB 2 ports if USB 3 ports are backwards compatible? Well, it's because although the backwards compatibility is there a person can have older USB 2 devices that still just won't play with USB 3 ports....compatibility is just not at 100%...pretty close but not for all devices.

My Lenovo Z510 has two USB 3 ports on the left side (ports are blue on the inside) and one USB 2 port on the right side (black on inside). I almost exclusively use the USB 3 ports but I do have a few USB 2 USB sticks/thumbdrives I will occassionally stick in that USB 2 port simply to ensure it still working and also knowing that USB 2 external device won't run any faster on the USB 3 port.

Funny you mention using the old drive as an external backup drive. Just an hour ago I put a Hitachi 500GB, 7200RPM hard disk drive in an USB 3 enclosure...I had taken the HDD out of one of my Toshiba laptops around 6 months ago when replacing it with a SSD. I put it in a Oker USB 3 enclosure I paid Bt380 for about 6 months ago when I bought a couple. Since this HDD is a 7200RPM drive compared to the typical 5400RPM drive, it's the fastest HDD I have...even faster than the Seagate 1TB HDD (5400RPM) I took out of my Lenovo Z510 when putting in a Samsung SSD. I've got HDDs laying around everywhere...some as small as 20GB. I have four 500GB to 1TB HDDs in external enclosures...3 were due to replacing/upgrading drives in my laptops....1 I bought the Western Digital Passport Ultra came with its own enclosure.