Lenovo T400 / T500 :: Swapping Hard Drives Between Two T420 Running Windows 7
Jun 18, 2014
Is it safe to swap hardrives that are running windows 7 between two t420's? I have read in the past that the OS is tied to the hardware and doing such a swap will cause errors or blue screen.
I am getting a T420 as my new Corporate laptop. I want to buy an SSD drive to replace the internal hard drive. I found the newest bios/firmware and looked at the Readme file. It lists the latest drives and model numbers but not any of the previous models? How do I get a complete list of all SSD drives/models supported on the T420? The laptop is going to be imaged with Win7 if that matters.
I received a T410 and worked two days on it. From one office I moved to another location and worked for some hours. After lunch I started the machine again, but neither touchpad nor keyboard is working. If I connect a pointer via USB on the machine the pointer is working, keyboard unfortunately not.
Ok. Admins installed it new. I worked one day, next morning same issue. Well, back to admins, reinstallation completed. Again for two days I could work without any problem. So as it happened the third time admins decided to provide me a new hardware: I received a T420. I have been working with this one week without any error.
I took the notebook home. I had been working with it for one hour. I used a USB-to-bluetooth wireless pointer. No problems so far.
I got back in the office this morning an guess what?!?!?! Same problem as for the T410: Windows is starting up but touchpad and kayboard is not working at all!
What did I? In my opinion nothing special: 1) Started up machine 2) Added pointer 3) Connected via WLAN to network at home (settings for Home-Network applying) 4) Packed the notebook into my suitcase and took the flight. 5) Back at the office connected via LAN to network, connected via VGA to monitor, added usb-keyboard, added pointer.
What can this be? I mean I'm able to destroy to different machines! Only common is Windows 7 and T4xx series...
After reinstalling W7 the lenovo solution center was complaining saying that the System Device Driver is not working. I saw that the SD card reader was not working neither so I assumend the missing driver was that one.
From the Lenovo page I dowloaded the driver for the Multi Card port for W7 and T420. After installing it the message dissapeared and the SD cards were recognized properly.
However, after rebooting the system, after a while, the mesage appeared again and the card reader stopped working.
I did install it again and the same happened. It was working and after two reboots stopped working.
I have lenovo ThinkPad T540p. With Intel Core I7, 8gb RAM and 500gb HDD. I think my HDD is Toshiba. There was Windows 7 on it but it won't boot on it anymore. When I start Windows it shows 5 second black screen and then it shows Boot Menu. Well, I tried to reinstall Windows but when I have to select on which drive to install Windows I've got an error: "No drives were found". And the list with drives is empty, so I can't reinstall Windows. I updated BIOS but it didn't work. Finally, I formated my HDD and created two partitions on it. It worked, but not for a long time. I installed Windows 7. Everything was fine until I restarted my computer. And then I've got the same problem: "Can't boot from HDD" and it shows Boot Menu. Then I started Windows installation and I've got the same error: "No drives were found".
I don't understand what's going on with my HDD and what's destroying it's partitions.And I don't think that my HDD is broken.
I'm running Win 7, and I have the most up-to-date drivers from the Lenovo site. I have turned on loudness equalization, but it has not worked. This is an across-the-board problem. What I mean by that is, this problem persists regardless of the application, which I happen to be using. For instance, I use Media Player Classic: Home Cinema to watch movies. If the volume is at 0%, as I begin adjusting it upward, the volume level rises. However, as I reach about 70%, the volume stops increasing. There are audio adjustments w/in the application to boost the volume, but they serve to provide minimal effects. Overall, the volume is incredibly low. If you're sitting more than a few feet away from the laptop, it is inaudible.
I purchased this wonderful machine from a friend of mine after he had me install a copy of Windows 7 (64) onto it. I am not entirely sure when this problem started.
Problem: I can access my BIOS, but my settings are completely greyed out, I cannot select, much less change anything in it. After startup and I press the "BLUE" button, it prompts me for a power up password, so I press the enter key without typing anything in, which is how I believe I set it, and it allows me to "see" the BIOS settings. I am never prompted for a SVP as I do not believe there is one, although when gazing into the mystic BIOS I see the security settings are as follows-
SUPERVISOR PASSWORD [ENTER] PASSWORD STATUS ENABLED LOCK VEFI BIOS SETTINGS ENABLED SET MINIMUM LENGTH DISABLED PASSWORD AT UNATTENDED BOOT [ENABLED] PASSWORD AT START DISABLED
The entire section is greyed out, and I do realize that I am indeed missing some settings that ARE in my BIOS, such as HDD Password (NONE) and I believe something else.
I am trying to edit my display and optimus settings, as I am an avid game player, and the NVIDIA card appears to be a much better option, but I however, cannot.
I seem to have a failed brand new SSD. Before I RMA it.
-I've just used Samsung data migration to copy my C drive to a Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD as usual. -I went into device driver, and set the SSD to cache writes, so the SSD was working then. -I removed the 320GB SSD, installed the SSD and rebooted. -After the BIOS flash screen, the system halts with a funny symbol on the screen and a flashing cursor. -It responds to Ctrl Alt Del. but doesn't get as far as testing the DVD drive. -After replacing the SSD with the HDD and rebooting, all is fine again ... -The BIOS shows AHCI mode, and the SSD and contents (in a USB3 drive caddy) are visible and readable.
I can't use Samsung SSD magician because it won't see the SSD over USB (clever!), so can't work out how to upgrade firmware. This is an i5, 8GB, 320GB machine with 1600x900 screen, with XP Pro 64-bit.
What gives?? Others here have posted with working 840 Pros in a T420, so I think it's compatible. Could this be a SATA2/SATA3 thing or AHCI? I can't see any SATA2/3 control in the BIOS - does it just auto-negotiate?
My T420 has the 2100 error on HDD0 few days ago. I went to the IT center and found the hard drive is completely dead. My original hdd is 500G seagate. So sad, all the music and good memories are gone.
I have to update the hard drive. Any suggestions on the SSD? I heard i can only update to 160G ssd, is this true?
I'm facing an annoying problem with my T420. When in battery mode the machine goes to sleep after some minutes. WHILE I'm working on it... But than it is NOT possible to wake it again.
I have been trying to install a new version of windows on my T420s laptop but have been unable to get the system bios to allow me to select the USB jump drive. I have tried a number of different BIOS setting trying to get the drive to show up in the F12 boot list. The only devices that show up are the SSD Hard Drive, the CD/DVD drive and the network boot option.
note I have tried all 3 USB ports, I have 3 different USB jump drives and each of them work when connected to other systems.
my 4-in-1 card reader (04W1701)is on the fritz, can't find any on ebay, but there are plenty of '5-in-1' (FRU 45M2658) to be had. Can I use that instead?
T440p | Core i7 4700MQ @ 2.4 ghz | 8 GB | Samsung 840 EVO 240gb SSD | 14" | Intel HD Graphics | Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
My T420 doesn't power on at all. I have tried to turn it on with cable, w/o cable, different baterries, removed rams and tried same things, tried holding down power button for 60 secs, tried with an other keyboard and I couldn't manage to start the laptop. No reaction at all, no blinking or anything.
I have a T420 with Windows 7 SP1. I bought a replacement battery of 0A36303 (ThinkPad Battery 70++ (9 cell)) and got one with a new Replacement part number (FRU) of 45N1007 (it is clearly written on the battery alongside “ASM P/N 45N1006”).
[URL] .....
After I installed it in the laptop and made sure to run System Update and update all the Lenovo software to its latest versions.
I also run the Lenovo Battery Firmware update utility, which informed me that the battery has the latest firmware (0003-0080-0100-0165). [URL] .....
When I run “Power Manager” (latest version, 6.66.3) and choose the tab of “Battery” I have this mismatch data:
Both “Design Capacity” and “Full Charge Capacity” shows "90.00 Wh" which almost fits the characteristics of the 0A36303 battery (as detailed at [URL] .....) which is "94 Wh" (in compare with "57 Wh" for the 0A36302 model, detailed on the same web page mentioned above)
But the “FRU part number” field says “45N1001” which fits the “0A36302” model… (as detailed at [URL] ....)
I bought t420 last month. Yesterday i spilled liquid on the clicks on touchpad. The right button works but it freezes sometimes, left doesn't work at all. Because i am in Europe now,the warnity does not cover. Also the ultranav buttons don't work. With external mouse it works.
I have a new T400 (2768GP6) running Windows 7 Enterprise (~3 weeks old). This morning it just turned off all of a sudden and won't turn back on. I tried pressing the power button 10 times and holding it down on the 11th time with no AC or battery connected, but it's just dead. None of the indicators are lit when connected to AC.
I might point out that I did spill some coffee on the keyboard this morning about 5 minutes before it shut off. But, it was barely a few drops (you know, the few drops that remain although the cup is technically empty) and I wiped it all off with a paper towel. Those few drops spilled at the bottom left-hand corner, right by the Fn and Ctrl keys.
Is there a way to turn on or off the wireless/bluetooth radio when the T420 is docked and using an external keyboard? I don't want to open the lid on the T420 every time to use the Fn+F5 keys when docked.
I have Lenovo T420s plugged into ThinkPad Mini Dock Plus Series 3 with USB 3.0 90W. The problem I have USB 3.0 port on the dock (blue one) works as USB 2.0. The laptop port works fine. I am checking it by plugging Seagate mobile HDD - when the HDD is plugged into the blue port on the dock station Windows (7, 64-bit) complains 'Device can perform faster', using laptop's port doesn't trigger the message.
USB 3.0 driver is installed. BIOS version is 1.37. Intel Chipset drivers are updated.
Device manager shows the connection as a chain of two 'Generic USB Hub's, if HDD is connected to the laptop's port its chain of 'Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 .......
I consider buying a new notebook and T420 is a hot candidate for me. I'm not sure yet whether I would go for a Core i5 or i7 processor, however I'm sure I'd like to upgrade the RAM in the future and 16 GB . I found out in the Intel specifications that (not only) the i5 2540 and i7 2640 that are available in the T420 configurations support up to 16 GB RAM, however in the T420 specifications concerning those processors I found that only 8 GB of RAM are supported. AFAIK the memory controller is integrated in the processor in these cases, so is there another factor that limits the size to 8 GB, or is it only an improper information in the T420 specs?
I think my attempt to update BIOS with a "BIOS update bootable CD" method has failed!
My laptop: Lenovo Thinkpad T420, i5 @ 2.5GHz, 4 GB RAM. My old BIOS infos (taken from Setup before update attempt): UEFI BIOS Version 83ET52WW (1.22) UEFI BIOS Date (Year-Month-Day) 2011-03-24 Embedded Controller Version 83HT27WW (1.11)
I intended to update my BIOS to version 1.46 using "BIOS Update Bootable CD" from this link: [URL] .....
Steps: 1) I downloaded this ISO image: [URL] .... and burned it on a DVD-RW(DVD rewritable) medium. 2) I placed the DVD in my T420 and turned it off, then turned it on, select F12 (boot menu), selected DVD to boot from, and the BIOS update utility started. 3) In BIOS update utility I pressed "1" to read the instructions, then press "2" to update BIOS. I clicked "Y" to confirm and the update operation started. First it said " Now updating... ", then afer about 2 minutes, it said "Still updating ..." and it stuck like this.
So, right now, this message stays on my screen for about 1,5 hours(!!!):
"Still updating... It may take about a few minutes. <<< CAUTION >>> Do not turn off the computer during the update. Do not remove the CD during the update."
Other details (on system setup and current behaviour): AC was continously plugged in before&during BIOS update, battery is OK, no hard disk activity at all, keyboard is(seems) unresponsive, system's temperature is pretty high, but not dangerously high...
I have a wireless mouse and printer plugged into the USB ports of my docking station and generally have no issues with them functioning. However, when I take my laptop off the docking station and then return it to the docking station, the laptop no longer recognizes the keyboard and also says that the printer is not connected. Once I restart they both work. I have also tried to unplug the wireless receiver for my keyboard from the docking station and plug into the laptop, but it still does not work without reboot.
I purchased my T420 one year ago and have sufficiently "hosed it up" to the point I wanted to do a factory restore. I saved all my data then proceeded to create the CDs from the Q drive factory restore. I followed the instructs for more and more CDs and once I got up to #12 I noted that the time it was taking to create them was down from several minutes to several seconds. When I got to CD number 18 I thought "this is ridicules" and I popped CD 11 back in to look at its content (via Windows Explorer). I noted it had two folders: 1) Factory restore (or something like that) which was over 500 MB in size and 2) something about data. This "data" folder contained 1 KB of data. I then looked at all subsequent CDs (12-18) and they all only contained this data file. So, rather than continuing to make these (basically empty CDs) I stopped.
I then put the first CD in and rebooted the machine. The factory restore started and I swapped CDs until I got to 12. I put 12 in and it said the required data was not present and to insert the next CD. I did this until I ran out of the CDs I had created. I had to "X" out of the restore app and now when I boot I get nothing but a dimly lit screen and a flickering hard drive light! Am I totally hosed here? How many CDs would it have required had I kept making them? I am ( obviously) a novice.
I noticed a strange thing to my T420 - when SpeedStep is enabled CPU switches to lowest speed periodically which immediately affects performance. It switches to lowest speed even when CPU is at 100%. Then after few minutes it comes back to normal.
I have a T420 Thinkpad and have 2 external monitors connected; one using VGA into the docking station and one using DVI into the docking station. The laptop does not recognize the mobile PC display as an option when I attempt to extend to a 3rd monitor. The ultimate goal is 3 monitors extended: 2 external and 1 (the laptop display). Is this possible?
I had an admin power on password on a T420 that contained a character that isn't allowed in the newer version (old password had a dash - in it) and I didn't remove the password prior to update so now I can't get into the BIOS as admin - are dashes changed to something else during update or can I revert back to a previous bios version (if so where are they located)?