Enabling APS (Active Protection System) on Lenovo Laptops

Yesterday I purchased a Lenovo W500 from the Lenovo website. In a fit of carelessness I did not select the $30 option of "Enable APS", thinking that it was some useless software package.

Turns out it is a very useful feature with an accelerometer to park the harddrive heads if you misuse the laptop.

My question is what exactly does "Enable APS" mean, and can I enable it myself by installing a driver or changing a BIOS setting. I would guess that the accelerometers are part of the mother board rather than a separate card and that they would seriously not go to the effort of producing two variants of the motherboard.

Anybody know what the deal is? And if it can be enabled, how do you do it?

Thanks -alex

 

which site are you ordering from? i dont see it as option

If you can still cancel you can do this and reorder.

Otherwise you may buy HDDs with integrated accelerometers.

plus i wouldnt worry about it. the w500 isnt exactly portable either

 

I have NEVER heard of one of the newer ThinkPad models being offered without the accelerometer (although I suppose it is possible).

If it's simply a software package that's lacking you should be able to install it. However, if it's actually a custom motherboard that doesn't have the accelerometer (unlikely in my opinion), then you are SOL.

 

I ordered it from the Australian Lenovo Site at a good end of year price. On the Australian site all of the Lenovos have an "Enable APS" option that costs around $30. If I knew what it was at the time I would have selected it.

I suspect that either the driver is not installed, or more likely it is not enabled in the BIOS. The worst case being that the firmware in the BIOS does not allow you to activate it. As I said before I doubt they would make a second motherboard without it.

Questions is, does anybody know (if it is possible to and) how to to turn it on?

 

it depends if they actually added the accelerometer. the accelerometer wil come as a packaged microchip just like anything else. they could have just not put one in your motherboard if thats the case.

anyway you can cancel quicly and reorder, or pay money for harddries with accelerometers or you can simply not worry since you are not surposed to be lugging around a w500 anyway since its not really that mobile. certainly no 'laptop' by any reasonable standard

 

uhh actually.. i just took a look @ the site for u

i dont think they didnt add the APS... i think they just asked you to opt in for AMT

thats different. amt is active management technology.

 

Thank you very much useroflaptops. It did not make any sense that they would charge you $30 to turn on a feature that was integrated in the motherboard.

On the size thing: I thought it was 2.94kg with the 9cell battery, and 1cm longer, 2cm wider and slightly thinner than the T400. Not tiny by any means, but not big enough to stop you from taking it places.

I wrote my PhD on a SXGA+ laptop that was similar. It had numerous field trips and did a lot of work out of the back of a 4wd powered off an inverter. It was fine for this sort of portability.

Aussies have strong arms I guess... .

 

you should get SSD if youre gonna be in the outback and driving in rugged terrain in a jeep

I think the w500 is similar to the t500 in size. i think they are pretty big. a t400 size is just acceptable for portability in my opinion. some people think thats too big even and prefer the x series size.

 

Thanks again for all your help. I love the size of the X300 and the T400. For email and document work on the run, these would be perfect. Unfortunately I needed the high res screen more than I needed the size/weight. Cheers -alex

 

no prob. yea and its a shame they never make the lids have smaller bezels and fit a bigger screen nowadays. only panasonic does that primarily.

 

The W500 and T500 are identical in size since they use the exact same chassis. They're about 1 pound to 1.5 pounds heavier than a T400. The T500 is available with up to a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen, and the W500 can have a WUXGA (1920x1200) screen.

 

For a 15.4" screen, the W500 is actually quite small and dainty. And I agree on fears of shock on the HDD - the best upgrade possible for one of these things is a SSD. For me, it transformed a very fine notebook into an awesome one.