Got a Y500 tonight, have some questions.

Well on a bit of a whim I decided to pick up a Lenovo Y500 tonight. I really don't know much at all about the Machine, but I had an Alienware on order, which through further research, I began to feel uneasy about. I spoke today to an Alienware social media rep (that I contacted through facebook) and had him look into my order, which he stated was going to be delayed due to part shortages. I figured that my was all I needed to push me over the edge and keep me from making a bad decision. So far I just booted up my Y500 an hour or two ago, and of course, the first thing I notice is a stuck pixel in the lower left corner. I believe it is indeed a stuck pixel, and not dead, as it is red in color, and mostly visible on a black screen, green, yellow, but not visible on white or red. I booted in bios just to make sure it wasn't a driver conflict of sorts and of course it was still there. A bit of googling (my first stuck pixel) revealed there seem to be some home remedies, all of which have failed to work so far. I currently have a small 5x5pixel UDPix pixel fixer running on it was we type, but I've also tried the Q-tip, soft cloth, and gentle tapping method, and nothing will fix this .

I purchased from Microcenter and got 0% for 12 months paid 1250, and these are my specs: i7 3630qm, 16gb ddr3, dual 650m's 2gb/ea, 1TB 5400 hd w/ 16gb caching SSD, intel wireless. After running out of ideas, I decided it might be a good idea to get educated on the Y500 and now since I'm considering returning or exchanging it tomorrow for the pixel issue (microcenter seems to be very easy to deal with for returns/dead pixels from what I've read). I haven't had much time to read this forum, but I wanted to get a few opinions or ideas before I decide if I just want to swap it for another, or possibly do an exchange if they let me or happen to be out of stock. As I said, I don't know much about this computer, and as soon as I post this, I'll be looking more into it, but I saw the Y500 sucks thread, and the keyboard issues thread, and I'd like someone to give me a nutshell abridged version of what I should do. FWIW I liked the look the of the MSi they had in my price range, think it had a 670 or 680gtx, and my god does it look gorgeous, but it was a 17.3 and I am really looking to keep it somewhat portable, 15.6 is probably my max size, and even this does feel a bit bigger than I'd like. I did like the look of I believe it was the Asus? The republic of gamers or whatever edition I think, had similar specs, but again, I know nothing about the MSi or the Asus in terms of common issues and what's brewing. Like I said, I was stupidly only researching Alienwares but I've had enough of Dells bull so I'm looking elsewhere.

If anyone wants to make any suggestions, I'm open to exact specs but I'd like an i7, 8-16 gigs of ram, a gtx660+ or equivalent, smaller form factor (15ish max) doesn't have to have ssd but nice if possible (planning to add one down the line anyway if one doesn't have it out the box)

I don't really care if I overpaid by a bit (100 bucks or so) because as I said I'm doing 0% for 12 months and I don't have all the money to lay out right now. Trying to spend under 1300, less is better. Thanks in advance for any and all input and I will be getting to work right now on doing some research.

 

I would return it to microcenter and see if they can exchange it for a new Y500. They are pretty good with returns and exchanges. So far I have bought two y500 and I haven't had any issues with the keyboard. There are a couple of issues with the touchpad but it's not a deal breaker for me because I mostly use a mouse anyway.

 

So after doing a bit of research, and checking what computers my microcenter had in stock, and using this computer for the night, I have decided I am going to stick it out with the y500 sli. Luckily, they have 4 (well maybe 3 if their site hasn't updated yet) models in stock of the one I brought home, figure 2 if I include the floor model. Gotta say, I do love the overall feel of this thing, but I haven't installed or customized anything due to the dead pixel issue. I will call microcenter tomorrow early and see if I can get them to hold one for me until after work, and hope they don't give me too much trouble with the exchange. I know it's only one stuck pixel, and is only visible with certain colors, but I don't think I should pay 1200+ for anything to be defective off the bat. The other things I don't seem to be thrilled with is all the bloatware, but I will try and do a fresh win 8 install tomorrow. I saw my exact model on Amazon but it was only 50 dollars cheaper, so that doesn't bother me. All in all I think I made a great choice, just wish the damn pixel was broken so I could really toy with it. I will update tomorrow with the results.

 

It's a great laptop EXCEPT for the touchpad (which is terrible...).

I would recommend purchasing an mSATA SSD (128GB or 256GB) and replacing the 16GB Cache.

ALSO the 750M SLI model is out (its the one im using now). It's not a HUGE upgrade and you can reach the same performance by a little overclocking, but if you can try to get it instead of the 650M model.

 

$1250? That seems like you got ripped off.. You can call Lenovo and ask for the 650M SLI version and with a bit of haggling and saying you don't want the ache drive, the price can easily be under a grand.

Edit: The touchpad works fine. It is more responsive than most and the one click ability is pretty damn cool. Update Syntapics driver and you will be given more freedom with the touchpad.

 

mind posting a screenshot of your receipt?

 

My price was severely undercut because Lenovo screwed up and sent me the wrong laptop, originally. I called them and complained and the deal of the week + student + Lenovo's personal discount = $900



Laptop stats:

 

Nice. They wouldn't go lower than $979.00 for mine w/shipping, but that was in CAD... If you posted that earlier I would've tried harder haha..

They did however give me a 16GB SSD when the configuration I selected didn't have one, now I'm stuck with a 16GB mSATA drive, any ideas on what to do with it?

 

i'm just wondering why you pick the n3903a mouse. what i bought was the n50. cool right?

 

I got the mouse because its extremely lightweight and I figured I could bring the mouse to class too.
Even though I bought the Y500 w/o the 16GB mSATA SAD I still received it. no idea why.

 

Wow I would love to have that price. I'm a student how did you get that discount that's the laptop I want but it's over $1100 right now, $950-1000 would be excellent!

 

I said how I got that price haha but you can most definitely get it under $1050 just be nice on the phone and say you wanna buy this laptop but some other laptop is cheaper and better. Just bs them lol