Announcing ThinkPad P-Series - P50 and P70

I use Macrum Reflect.

 

My P50 has arrived! Noticed the popping sound from the speakers but the latest BIOS update fixed it. However, there seems to be flickering of the screen if the laptop is not plugged to a power source.

I just realized that P50 can't run without a battery plugged in =_=

 

Ordered a P50 today to replace my T530. I also ordered a M.2 tray so I can install a Samsung 950 in it once it arrives. The T530 still works fine, it is just looking rough from years of abuse. This will be my 4th Thinkpad (T60, T530, X1 Carbon 3rd Gen).

 

Thanks. I first tried Samsung's own utility but for some reason that didn't work. The PC just wouldn't boot from the 950Pro after cloning. But EaseUS Todo worked the first time.

 

Sadly my P70 is no longer booting after an attempted memory upgrade.

I was trying two SK Hynix DDR4-2133 8GB sticks (which work fine in an MSI GT72) in the two slots under the keyboard, replacing the original Micron stick that came with the machine. I will note that my machine is not a Xeon and I am not trying to use ECC memory.

After a couple of unsuccessful boots I replaced the original memory, and it now no longer boots with that either. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to reset the bios under these conditions? I tried holding the power button down for a minute with the machine unplugged and it didn't help.

I setup a service request with Lenovo so I will see what their technical support says.

 

Have you updated the BIOS to the latest version?

There was a problem with early BIOS versions I think where the system sometimes didn´t boot after a RAM upgrade: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-P-and-W-Series-Mobile/Thinkpad-P50-does-not-boot/td-p/2252061

The solution in this thread is to take out the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes.

 

Nope, I have not tried disconnecting the CMOS battery. I will try that next. Thanks!

 

can you let us know if that works?

 

I tried leaving the CMOS battery unplugged for 5 minutes, with both the new memory and the old memory. It still will not post.

Lenovo confirmed my support request but I have not seen any status updates from them other than that. Any other ideas?

 

Do you happen to know which BIOS version you had before the problems?

 

I had updated to BIOS 1.19 yesterday before this occurred. I have been keeping up with any new BIOS releases in hopes that my Linux experience might be more smooth after an update.

I received a notification that LENOVO/IBM EASYSERV is delivering me a package tomorrow. A quick google search shows that this should be a box to mail the machine. If they can get it by friday I might have it back, working by Tuesday hopefully.

 

The original ship date given for my P50 was March 18, now it has already shipped and is scheduled to arrive by the 17th. However the M.2 tray isn't scheduled to ship until March 18 still.

 

Just an update. Lenovo finished the repair on my laptop and its heading back. Not bad service time for the Depot. Mailed Thursday afternoon, arrived Friday morning, completed yesterday and will arrive Monday morning according to the tracking number.

 

Did they tell you how they fixed it?

 

It arrived this morning via UPS Next Day Air, so overall it was 3 business days turn around time (I opened the support request Wednesday morning).

They replaced the mainboard. The new mainboard has bios version 1.15, I installed the 16GB ram that caused the failure in the original board and it booted up first time and detected it perfectly, passing memtest86, etc. I am somewhat scared to upgrade to bios 1.19 now, as that was what I was using when it refused to post. The only bad thing is the new mainboard is missing the screws for the M.2 SSD slots... Not sure if I should contact Lenovo and see if they can send me more of those screws.

So I tried Ubuntu 16.04 with Kernel 4.4.0 today. Using the Nvidia driver and with hybrid graphics enabled, I can hook up an external montior via the mDP connector. However, the internal LCD does not have any usable modes reported in the X.org log so it is not usable at all via xrandr or any of the display configuration tools.

 

That's weird, I'm using Ubuntu 15.10 and its working fine with xrandr. I do have it set to discrete graphics though.

Is there output on the LCD?

 

Which video card and LCD do you have? I have the M3000M and AUO FHD panel. I had another person on the Lenovo forums report to me that his P70 with the M600M works fine under any Linux distribution with the Nvidia driver and discrete graphics enabled. However, another person on the Nvidia forum reported the same issue I am having with a P50 + M2000M, which makes me think this is something related to having more than 2GB VRAM on the GPU.

Sadly nobody in the Dell forum has loaded Ubuntu on their 7710 with a M3000M+ yet, which could help me determine if this is a P70 specific issue or an Nvidia issue.

Edit: To answer your question, there are no usable modes, so the display is not available (as eDP1, etc) with xrandr. Now, if I use prime-select to switch to the intel driver, it IS usable (after a reboot) and has many modes available, as well as brightness control.

If I turn off hybrid graphics in the bios, connect an external display, then reboot, the internal LCD is available and configurable as DP-2 with the Nvidia driver. Nouveau does not work, even with the latest 4.4.4 kernel. I suppose it may need the signed firmware support that is supposed to land in 4.5..

 

Oh yea, I have the P70 w/ M600M + FHD.

 

A question for P50 owners....

Earlier in this thread, several people reported that Turbo Boost on the P50 was largely non-functional, resulting in less than desired performance. IBM released a bios update that claimed to improve Turbo Boost operation. Did it? Do you now see 3.5-3.7Ghz operation?

 

I was able to use Turboboost fine on the P50 with a 6700HQ, and also currently on a P70 with the 6700HQ. The original issue was related to using Windows 7 + the higher end 6820HQ / 1505M processors. My guess is that the issue has been fixed, and if you do purchase one and continue to have trouble, you should be able to work with Lenovo support to get it functioning as advertised.

For that matter, I am in the opinion that neither the 6820HQ or 1505M are worth the $200-$300 upgrade cost, considering they only perform about 3-5% better than the 6700HQ.

 

I went with the 6700HQ in my P50, definitely seemed like the best deal.

 

Has anyone gotten that error "Display driver intel HD graphics Driver stopped responding and has recovered" ?



I see this error all the time. I found the latest Intel HD 530 graphics driver from Intel, however, Windows 10 does its normal Windows Protection thing. I extracted the archive from within the installer and directly ran Intel's setup.exe, however, the installer itself tell me it can't install because it was not validated for this computer.

Has anyone found a good way to install a newer driver?

 

Download the zip file not the exe. Go to device manager and install the new device driver the manual way.

 

Got my Lenovo P50 today and I want to share some first impressions.

Model is:
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1535M v5 @ 2.90GHz
16GB RAM
512 GB SSD
3840x2160 display

Main highlights of this model:

• Build quality is good, like usual Lenovo design. I would like to have some indent in the chassis where to put the thumb for opening the display.
• Keyboard is ok, chiclet and rather good as a chiclet keybaord. No flex at all which is very important for me. Not as good as Lenovo pre-chiclet keyboards though. Keyboards are getting worse and chiclet keyboards is an abomination.
  
• Display is high resolution and you must scale the DPI, I put it on 200%. Brightness is not that good. Dark 300 nits in my opinion and brightness must be at max at all times. Also depending where you eyes are, the brightness quickly reduces when looking at an angle. There is some "pearl" effect but not as much I've seen on other models, not a big deal to me. Color gamut is good and should be enough for most of us. Due to the high resolution, everything is very sharp. Blackness level is very good. I previously owned an HP dream color laptop and this display does not go all the way to that eye-candy but I think it is ok. Just for your information, I'm very picky when it comes display quality and quickly notice deficiencies.
• The laptop is very quiet and when the fan runs during high loads there is a swishing fan sound.
• Sound quality of the speakers are loud and clear. Just forget about the lower frequencies though.
• The AC adapter could have been made smaller, or at least thinner. The AC adapter is too deep and could have been flatten out, like HP has done.

The display is disguised as a LEN40BD in the device manager. Does anyone know the real manufacturer and model that they are using for this laptop model?

 

Entech's free Moninfo app will tell you which panel you have.
http://entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm

Run it and look for 'Data String' under the 'Asset Information' panel.

 

The 4K panel Lenovo uses in the P50 is made by Sharp.

 

Correct, it is a SHP LQ156D1JW05 which is made by Sharp. These displays have been criticized for being dark. Actually the FHD screen is supposed to be even darker than the 4K display and I think the 4K is dark. Also the viewing angles are under criticism that the brightness falls quickly in viewing angles.

Well, the display is not perfect regarding this. What is really strange if you fill the screen with either any of color channels at full (R,G or B at full 255), then the color is very good, saturated and I experience the brightness to be rather good. Then if you switch to full white, then you experience that the white is kind of weak in brightness. This is really weird.

 

Have you already calibrated the display?

 

Yes, I did.

 

OldFox
How did you get your P50 with an E3-1535M Xeon CPU? I don't see that option on the Lenovo site with either the P50 or P70.

Tom Hitchcock

 

I did not order from Lenovo but through one of the resellers that sells preconfigured units. There they have several preconfigured models including the Xeon one. Typically an example of such a reseller is Misco.de that sells preconfigured models including Xeon models but I didn't see E3-1535M there though.

 

We should see more CPU options through the U.S. Lenovo site in May.

I understand that Lenovo will offer notebooks with Intel Iris Pro 580 graphics and extra cache in late May or June, although it is unclear whether the P50 and P70 will get them, since they already have built-in nVidia graphics.

 

So Lenovo releases fully loaded models of these portable workstations with more advanced CPUs to resellers (? only in Europe) before you can configure one on the US Lenovo site? Why is that? I would consider ordering a P70 now if I could get one with a E3-1535M Xeon. I like configuring on Lenovo's site so I can pick my own options rather than buying a package with memory & drives already installed - like ordering a car with specific options and color of your choosing rather than settling for one off the lot. I tend to keep my computers for many years, so things like CPUs that can't be upgraded later are what I spend my money on initially.

 

If you want the greatest, maybe you should wait until they have come with the Intel Xeon E3-1575M v5, which is even faster and has Intel HD graphics P580 instead of P530. The question if you need it as you already have Nvidia Graphics. None the less, it is integrated into the Xeon and had the same TDP.

 

Important for all P50 users:

Lenovo just released a kit containing all of the necessary parts if you want to upgrade your system with a 2.5" HDD/SSD. This is addressing the issue of these parts not being available.

Components in the kit:

• Sponge with sticker for Hard Drive for P50
• SATA Data cables (Left & Right) for P50
• Hard Driver Bracket for both P50 and P70

Support page: https://support.lenovo.com/de/de/documents/acc100287

Specs: https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/options_iso/tp_mobile_ws_storage_kit_4xb0l63274.pdf

Buy the kit here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/4XB0L63274/460/7EF7D50A5A7047049A355BF42AAF3C5C#overview

 

I really need a new laptop and the P50 is the one i have been eyeballing since it's announcement last year. I'm coming from a five year old T400.. I need to be able to edit 4k video with ease.. i want to be as bulletproof as possible for the next five years.. Is it wise to buy now? I see some of the posts that make it seems as there are some upgrades that will come this summer.. Also, what are the real alternatives to the P50 if i'm prepared to spend $2,500 to 3k ? I dont want to go over 15.6.. my T400 is a 14 inch with the extended 9 cell battery that sticks out the back.. all of my photo bags are designed for nothing bigger than the 15.6 inch.

 

Does anybody know if it is possible to change the color gamut. Right now the the color calibration seems to be using sRGB. HP had a display assistant that enabled you to select wider color spaces like NTSC, Adobe or native. Is there a possibility to do the same with Pantone or another way?

 

1. Does the thinkpad pen actually work with palm rejection with the p70?

2. If you wanted something like the p70 and still 17 inch just thinner, what is your best bet? I wish there was a p50s except 17 inch version of it.

 

There is no business quality 17 inch notebook, which is significantly lighter than the 17 inch workstations (P70/ZBook 17/Precision 7710)

Maybe the HP Probook 470 G3. But that's just with a dual core.

 

I think it is time they make a thinner 17" laptops which are just as thin as the 15" versions. The problem is that many of them still have a DVD drive which in my opinion is totally unnecessary. This increases the thickness. Apple has really showed us that you can make a thin 17" laptop but other manufacturers do not follow which is strange.

 

P70 will be available with Iris Pro GPUs in the future: http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys... P70/ThinkPad_P70_Platform_Specifications.pdf

Oh, and I finished my in-depth P50 review: https://www.thinkscopes.com/?p=6086

 

Nice review!

 

I wish there were business quality 17 inch notebooks (at least 2) that were lighter than those 17 inch workstations. I guess in time those workstations will be lighter

 

I think its time also, I guess there may be 1 or 2 17 inch laptops that are thin (MSI) however no workstations may be in the future. I guess the next versions (next year?) of the P70/Zbook 17 and Precision 7710 will be lighter then the current ones. Don't know how much lighter/thinner though. I would like to see them as think as 15" versions but not sure how long that wait will be. If the main issue is the DVD just leave them out completely or offer versions without it.

 

I can't seem to find the below combo:
- The beloved trackpoint
- Removable battery
- 17 inch
-numpad
- touchscreen
- Not a 7 pound brick that is like 2.5 inches thick

Dell even forsaking the beloved trackpoint and removable battery in their new thin precision laptops

Now if only the p70 went on a diet

 

A P70s would be awesome.

 

These models are very expensive to develop and sell in small numbers. I don´t think Lenovo would do two 17" Workstations at the same time. The only possible way would be to make the P70 slimmer, which would also upset people as there likely would be compromises on build quality, keyboard, battery life, ports and performance.

 

I think that a slimmer P70 would definitely be possible. The P50 is clearly possible and the P70 is just about a few centimeters larger. The removal of the DVD drive will give a lot of more real estate. Take a DVD drive and you will see how much volume it occupies in a modern laptop. What if this volume could be a battery instead or a better cooling solution?

The problem with bigger and thinner laptop is the ability to resist pressure. Especially point pressure on the display lid which can put stress on the LCD for example. Due to this reason I think that larger must be somewhat thicker than the smaller ones as they much have larger crossbars inside the case.

 

I noticed that Lenovo posted bios version 2.0 for the P70 last week, so I went ahead and tried it on my machine. Sadly the Nvidia driver is still unusable under Linux with the M3000M and the bios set to dedicated graphics mode. Wish there was a solution to this problem!

 

Looking at the maint manual for P50, it does seem very difficult to regularly clean fans, upgrade components.

especially when compared to HP ZBook 15 where the top comes off as one piece and most components are accessible, fans can be cleaned easily on a regular basis.

Wonder what Lenovo's reasoning was for this.