Lenovo Y480 Review

[gadgetrants]

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ayansgp wrote:

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GT640M LE 2GB

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Ah, I should have said "specs and THOUGHTS on the video card?" 

-Matt

[ayansgp]

I haven't had a chance to play with video card yet. I'm focussing more into the drives at the moment. Here are some issues I'm facing

• I ended up installing Ubuntu 12.04 on the SSD (DVD port). The GRUB had to be repaired for it to be picked up by BIOS. Will add the details later. The dual boot works perfectly after this step. However grub gets written to the MBR of the HDD.
• The SSD drive in DVD port acts funny. It won't co-operate with standby mode regardless of the SSD make and OS. Both win7 and Ubuntu won't recover from standby if I have the SSD installed. I have tried 2 SSDs with the same result Corsair & Intel. Still troubleshooting this. The same SSDs work perfectly on a w510. 

[ayansgp]

It turns out that memory upgrade was causing that resume-from-sleep hang ups. Right now it seems that these laptops are very picky about every part put in it. The memory I tried are:

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model CMSX1...

Not sure if the memory had errors, but the sleep-resume started working fine once I reverted back to the OEM modules and clearing the BIOS to factory settings. 

I also ended up refreshing the OS to factory setting as I couldn't tell what was causing the resume hangs. 

I will try another set of memory:

G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-16G...

If that doesn't work, oh well. I have to live with 8G for now as the OEM 16G samsungs are about $500. 

In retrospect, I probably should have ordered the non-SSD version. It would have been easier to swap out the drive with SSD.

I don't think there is any easy way to turn off the SSD cache and use the mSATA as a drive without changing the BIOS. If I make all these changes, Lenovo surely will cancel my warranty. 

[fischerms80]

BIOS version 36 vs. 34 offically availible fro update... That confirmed my suspicions that a newer bios with SATA Raid was used.

[ayansgp]

MEMORY: Please read

The y480 shipped with this Samsung model: M471B5273DH0-CK0

This unit works on 1.35v and NOT 1.5v and a CAS Latency of 11

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/Greenmemory/Products/DDR3/DDR3_Lineup....

Comp.Density Org. Density Partnumber Speed RawCard Composition Rank PKG Height(mm) Avail. Datasheet

4Gb B-die	1Gx64	8GB	M471B1G73BH0	YF8/H9/K0	F	512M x 8 * 16	2	78FBGA	30	Now
2Gb D-die	512Mx64	4GB	M471B5273DH0	F	256M x 8 * 16	2
256Mx64	2GB	M471B5773DH0	B	256M x 8 * 8	1
1Gb G-die	256Mx64	2GB	M471B5673GB0	F	128M x 8 * 16	2	78FBGA Flip chip

[ayansgp]

The resume from sleep failure was due to memory module (not SSD as I thought). Even after replacing the OEM memory modules, I had to reset the BIOS to factory settings for the resume from sleep to work correctly. I haven't found a 100% compatible memory module yet. I'm going to try the OEM 8gb version from samsung. I have checked online and it seems to be a major issue with W520s as well. 

[benlaw]

anyone manage to upgrade 640m LE to 650m???

does lenova provide this option?

[andrewbaxter]

No, there is no 650m upgrade option available in the Y480, seems like that won't come about.

[Kaushal_Silva]

I heard you cant make new partitions after the rapid drive tool merges your ssd and HD.
Is dat true?

[drskhan]

What is the mechanism of downloading the latest updates in Y480 ?

I mean any software similar to ThinkVantage System Update would be of great significance on Y series also.

Its like having a peace of mind.