I just got my x220T tablet today along with a mydigital 128GB bulletproof msata drive. They are definitely NOT working together, as the drive does NOT show up in the F12 boot screen. Thinking that this was an electrical contact problem -- as most electrical problems are -- I did the following with the result of not seeing the device in the F12 boot screen:

-reseated the card
-wiggled the card in place to dislodge any dirt
-took fine pitch tweezers and gently moved the tips along the msata card in the x220 (to try and dislodge any dirt)
-restarted the computer pulling up on the main board near the msata interface, in case there was a short from the main board being over tightened.
-restarted the computer pushing down on the main board near the msata interface
-pulled up the metalized electrical tape near the msata interface in case it was shorting something

In doing all of this, the red and green LED's on the msata drive never failed to light up -- so there was, at the very least, power and ground throughout all my testing. The only way to be sure that all the electrical contacts are any good is for one of the Lenovo test engineers to check for electrical continuity between the msata board and the msata chipset pin.

In addition to the electrical tests, I selectively disabled all the peripherals (wlan, ethernet, bluetooth, etc) and the power settings, in case it was something interfering with the msata. But nothing worked. I would very much like for lenovo to look into this issue, and communicate what they think is wrong and what steps we users should take.

I would definitely not like to see a message that says "we've escalated this," or "we'll get back to you soon." Please let us know what steps you are taking (software, hardware, northbridge, connector failure, bios problem, drive incompatibility). Being communicative does a lot for good will.

my information:
- Machine type: 4294-CTO (x220T)

- Main board: 04W2128 (i7 with AMT TPM and AES)
- processor: i7
- BIOS revision: 1.16
- did not see the drive in boot (F12) startup
- tests performed: as above
- mSATA: MyDigital SSD bulletproof 128Gb 50 mm
- mSATA serial: 531-110525016
- mSATA device firmware revision: unknown
- purchase location: mydigitaldiscount.com
- purchase date: 6/4/2011 (system) 6/6/2011 (msata drive)



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wrote:
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Issue has been escalated to engineering.

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Thanks, JameZ.  Do you have any idea if this is something that they will be able to resolve any time soon?  I want to make sure I can get my money back for returning the drive if it turns out it just won't work!  Any info you can give us in that direction would be REALLY helpful.

Thx!

The SSD is running fine in the 2.5" but not in the mSATA slot? Maybe there is an issue with the mSATA slot. Maybe electrical issues or are mSATA SSDs needed to be whitelisted by the BIOS? This could be, because Intel SSDs without C1-suffix seem to work  trouble-free.

[edited to include more data.  Also, I'm not sure about the 'only certain system boards support msata' theory because I have a system board, 04W2128, which is compatible according to the lenovo information below. And, dbrowdy has a system board, 04W2107, which is compatible with mSATA according to lenovo. ]

After a long conversation with a lenovo tech from Atlanta, he suspected that only certain motherboards are compatible with mSATA cards and others are not.  Here are the model FRUs and the System (main) board FRUs that are compatible with mSATA drives according to the lenovo manuals.  To determine what model/system FRUs are mSATA compatible I looked at the system diagram and clicked on the mSATA drive which lists some model FRUs that are compatible.  The I looked at the system boards associated with those FRUs.  Here are the results:

Resource (x220 tablet):

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-77198.html#27

Model FRU known to work with mSATA | system board FRU known to work with mSATA | system board description

4294-22x | 04W1538 | System board assembly with Intel Core i7-2620M processor, AMT, TPM, AES
4296-2Ex (same)
4298-3Lx, 33x, 2Sx (same)
4299-2Cx (same)
4298-3Jx | 04W1534 | System board assembly with Intel® Core i5-2520M processor, AMT, TPM, AES

Resource (x220 tablet)
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0a60175_01.pdf

Model FRU known to work with mSATA | system board FRU known to work with mSATA | system board description
4294-22x 04W2128 System board assembly with Intel Core i7-2620M processor, AMT, TPM, AES
4296-2Ex (same)
4298-3Lx, 33x, 2Sx (same)
4299-2Cx (same)
4298-3Jx 04W2127 System board assembly with Intel® Core i5-2520M processor, AMT, TPM, AES

Resource (x220)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-77191

Model FRU known to work with mSATA | system board FRU known to work with mSATA | system board description
4286-28x   04W1427 System board with Intel Core i7-2620M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES
4287-2Ax 04W1433 System board with Intel Core i5-2410M processor, NV, TPM, non-AES
4290-2Kx, 04W1423 System board with Intel® Core™ i5-2520M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES
4290-2Qx 04W1425 System board with Intel Core i5-2540M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES
4290-2Rx, 2Sx, 2Tx  04W1427 System board with Intel Core i7-2620M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES

Resource (x220)
http://thinkstore.de/index.php/downloads.html?file=tl_files/ipweb/hmm/hmm_thinkpad_x220.pdf

Model FRU known to work with mSATA | system board FRU known to work with mSATA | system board description
4286-28x   04W2109 System board with Intel Core i7-2620M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES
4287-2Ax 04W2124 System board with Intel Core i5-2410M processor, NV, TPM, non-AES
4290-2Kx, 04W2107 System board with Intel Core i5-2520M processor, NV, AMT, TPM,AES
4290-2Qx 04W2108 System board with Intel Core i5-2540M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES
4290-2Rx, 2Sx, 2Tx  04W2109 System board with Intel Core i7-2620M processor, NV, AMT, TPM, AES



I’m confused because, even though my model is not listed (4294-CTO), I have the same main board as most of these models (04W2128 i7 with AMT TPM and AES) and my mydigital SDD does not work.  The other main board that is associated with these models are:

4298-3Jx  --> 04W2127 (i5 with AMT TPM and AES)

What main boards do other people have and are they working with any mSATA drive?  (the main board FRU is under one of the memory sticks in the memory compartment).

Is this ‘main board compatibility theory’ known to be untrue?



I also have FRU: 04W2128, also not working in mSATA slot.

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wrote:

After a long conversation with a lenovo tech from Atlanta, he suspected that only certain motherboards are compatible with mSATA cards and others are not.  If you look at the x220(i/t) hardware manual:

 

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/0a60175_01.pdf 

 

Starting at page 124, there is clearly an 80 gb msata drive and the manual indicates which model FRU’s it is compatible with.  :

80GB mSATA:
4294-22x
4296-2Ex
4298-3Lx, 3Jx, 33x, 2Sx
4299-2Cx

I’m confused because, even though my model is not listed (4294-CTO), I have the same main board as most of these models (04W2128 i7 with AMT TPM and AES) and my mydigital SDD does not work.  The other main board that is associated with these models are:

4298-3Jx  --> 04W2127 (i5 with AMT TPM and AES)

What main boards do other people have and are they working with any mSATA drive?  (the main board FRU is under one of the memory sticks in the memory compartment).

Is this ‘main board compatibility theory’ known to be untrue?



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I don't know where you are getting all those numbers from, but if it helps, my FRU is 04W2107 and mine isn't working.

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wrote:

I Don't know where you are getting all those numbers from, but if it helps, my FRU is 04W2107 and mine isn't working.

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I edited the post to included the sources.  Both your system board FRU (04W2107) and my system board FRU (04W2128) are associated with the 80 gb mSATA drive that lenovo shipped with certain models.  So I don't think it's a problem of incompatible system board, but rather another deeper problem.

Any updates JameZ?  This whole situation is VERY frustrating.