Lenovo Connections

Is your system’s BIOS and battery firmware updated to the latest level?   If not, you may  not be getting the maximum capacity and run time from your battery.  Lenovo’s engineering team released updated BIOS and battery firmware in July that is applicable to customers who have ThinkPad models X100e, L410/L510, L412/L512, SL410/SL510, T410/T410i, T510,T510i, W510 or ThinkPad Edge, 13, 14, or 15 inch units.  

“This battery firmware update utility fixes an issue where some batteries indicate an incorrect full charge capacity value. Because of this error, the amount of energy available for use is artificially low, decreasing the amount of time the system can be used on battery. The fix is entirely contained in the battery firmware update; there is no need to replace any hardware for this problem.”

Customers who use Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox would have received a notification and opportunity to apply this update, and Lenovo’s ThinkVantage System Update tool would also identify and apply these updates.   If you aren’t using either of these tools, and have one of the systems above, please follow this link to our support site.  You can learn more there, and download and install the updates specific to your system.

Probably also worth mentioning, is an earlier tip applicable to X200t and X201t tablet users who have 8 cell extended batteries.  This technical tip and related BIOS updates ensure these batteries properly charge to their full capacities, and resolves a particular symptom where the battery would stop charging at less than 50%.

Lenovo just released an updated version of Lenovo ThinkVantage Toolbox that includes a number of performance and functional enhancements based on customer feedback previously received.   Internally known as version 1.4, but reported by LTT  as version 6.0.5514.60, the new release made available for download in June is faster loading, easier to use, and contains new features.

While many customers liked prior iterations of LTT, we heard the phrase “bloatware” used in a number of the comments critical of the product.  So, we focused on trying to make it faster and lighter.

Version 1.4 is definitely leaner and faster.  The download file size has been reduced by 7 MB, and when idling, uses 0% CPU time and has a 50% smaller memory footprint that prior versions.   Subjectively, launching LTT seems much snappier.   The welcome screen is now displayed within 4 seconds and time to first message and application start times have been dramatically shortened.  For example, a T42 running XP service pack 3 previously took some 26 seconds to present the first message and 29 seconds in total to load.  Now, the first message is displayed in 6 seconds, and total load time is 26 seconds.    More dramatic improvements will be seen on newer systems running Windows 7.  For example, a T60 running Windows 7 took 1 minute and 9 seconds to load previous versions.  Now, the first message is displayed in 4 seconds, and total load time is just 22 seconds.

We’ve also improved the diagnostics by adding the CUDA test to support many of the Nvidia graphics equipped systems, along with new tests for video ports, WWAN functions, and a quick keyboard test.  The UI has also seen some updates and a lot of redundant prompts have been eliminated.

We also frequently heard the perception that LTT was always loaded in memory – it’s not.  The toolbar launch icon is installed, but can be suppressed during the installation if desired.  Simply uncheck the second item on the configuration panel shown above during install to avoid the LTT icon.  But, do give this some thought – the toolbar icon can provide alerts as shown by the X in the red circle, and this can be a helpful feature to have.

Another consideration during the install is whether or not to enable online support.  This is the third check-box shown on the set up screen above, and this feature enables communication between LTT and Lenovo.  Through this function, messages can be sent to LTT, and these messages are a mixture of technical alerts, feature updates and advisory messages, and special promotional offers.   Many customers find these offers helpful and take advantage of then, while others may not and have noted that through previous feedback.  Lenovo is considering an additional customization within LTT to allow the customer to select what kind of messages they want to receive, and I personally think that would be another great advance.  When I downloaded and installed LTT, I had 25 messages, and they were fairly evenly divided amongst general information, support, and promotional messages.  It was pretty easy to use the “dismiss” function to get rid of the ones I didn’t want to keep.

The online support selection enables more than just messages though.  One of the capabilities offered in a prior release and refined in this one, is the ability to detect a failing battery, determine warranty status, and guide the user through ordering a replacement.

If the system is under warranty, the option to check for warranty replacement will be offered, and if clicked, will display a form to collect the additional information needed to process the replacement battery order online.  This saves the customer having to call technical support and go through the normal support process.

Lastly, please make note of the “provide feedback” link shown in the bottom left corner of several of the LTT screens above.   We’ve added a survey feature within LTT to provide customers who use LTT a  direct and ongoing way to share feedback.  This  feedback  provides the development team with quantifiable information and helps prioritize efforts.   I hope that you will make use of this feature!

You can download LTT here.

If you don’t have LTT installed and don’t plan to, we would still like to hear from you in the comments on this blog.   If not LTT, what diagnostic program do you use on your PC and what features does it have that you like most?

At one time or another, most of us who run Windows have experienced an application or driver lockup or crash, and have been presented with one of those pop up dialog boxes offering to send the error report to Microsoft.  Until recently, I always chose ”don’t send” as in this XP example below.   Perhaps it was  just some personal resistance to sending anything to a faceless outside entity – aka “big brother”. 

After all, why should I send information about what happened on my system to Microsoft?  What are they going to do about it?  How does this help me?

A recent conversation with the manager of the engineering department that provides support for the ThinkVantage application suite changed my mind about Windows error reporting and will induce me to select  ”send”  from now on.  

As it turns out, Microsoft collects these error reports and shares the information with software and hardware OEMs as relates to the number of times a particular version of their driver or application has crashed each month, along with some codes and other information that may help that OEM company develop a fix.  In addition, as patches and updates come out that resolve these, they can now be provided back to the customer at the time of the crash.    This helps the OEMs understand and resolve issues with drivers and applications, and also provides some level or relative benchmarking.

Let’s look at an example progression for an Access Connections crash.

Following the application crash, Windows presents an opportunity for the customer to report this event. 

Basic information about the event is sent to Microsoft servers and if the OEM application owner has an update or fix available, it can be linked as a solution.  In this case, there is an update for Access Connections available that could resolve this problem and prevent future occurrences.

In previous times, clicking through would take the user to the relevant download page on our support site, as shown below.  Recent updates now allow the link to connect directly to the relevant files for download, making the process even easier.

 We download and perform the update, and in most cases, all is well.

What does this look like from the OEM hardware or software vendor’s perspective?    This chart depicts the volume of Windows error reports associated with different versions of Access connections by month.  

The oldest versions are shown in green, the newest in light blue.  There can be several different types of error codes or reasons for the error which is why some of the colors have multiple segments (seen as horizontal black line dividers within the bars) of the chart.   This allows us to see, reading from left to right, how effective we are in reducing the number of errors being reported on a given version, how well one version of an application performs compared to another, and to what degree the install base in the field is being updated.

For example, look carefully at the red bars and read from left to right.  Notice that the first red bars on the left side of the chart are comprised of several different segments which represent different error events.  As these were updated, notice that the proportion changes dramatically, and by the right side of the chart, there is only one error being reported for that version.   Unfortunately, this particular error on this particular version is being reported more often than pretty much all other versions combined.   This tells me that some percentage of the field is staying on this version, despite the fact that error events are being experienced.   I also conclude that newer versions are causing fewer issues, and upgrading is generally a good thing to do, especially if you have experienced problems.

So, if you experience a Windows error event, please make use of this Windows debugging feature and push the send button.  This helps OEM and software manufacturers improve their applications, which in turn provides a more reliable experience for our all customers.  Last but not least, be sure take advantage of the available updates!

 - Mark Hopkins

Several months ago Lenovo  enabled a new way for individual customers in the US and Canada to check their warranty status, view relevant upgrades, and even purchase the warranty upgrades via the web.   Previously, warranty upgrades were either configured along with new system purchases on the web, or purchased via phone or through a Lenovo business partner.  

When I last blogged about how we were making these Lenovo warranty upgrades easier, one of the things I heard from customers was that we should expand and offer this capability in other countries.  Frequent Lenovoblogs commenters Eudoxus and Puppy were quick to chime in on aspects of this point :

I’m pleased to note that we’ve expanded the program to enable more customers in more countries and are working to make owning  Lenovo products  even easier.

Here are the links to the warranty upgrade tool by country:

United States                                     Canada English                                 Canada French

Australia                                            New Zealand                                     Japan

Ireland                                              United Kingdom                                Hong Kong

Upgrading an existing Lenovo system warranty is now even easier!     A Lenovo system’s  base warranty can be upgraded with an extended warranty that can add years of coverage,  change the way service is provided to on-site, or even add special accidental damage protection.   Even after the base and extended warranty periods expire, post warranty maintenance offerings are available to ensure peace of mind.  (Be sure to purchase these upgrades before existing warranties expire)

For several years now, Lenovo customers have been able to add upgraded services as they custom configured new system orders via the Lenovo.com  shopping website.   

Customers with existing systems can purchase upgraded warranty coverage by contacting Lenovo by phone, or working with one of our authorized partners.   Easy enough, but why not make it even easier by going online?  

And so we are.   Last month, we  piloted this functionality for US customers, and today we are expanding to support our Canadian customers in both English and French.   We also have plans to include  additional countries and languages, so stay tuned.

United States                        Canadian English                 Canadian French

A few limitations to note:    At this time we are supporting the Think  line – ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, ThinkStation, ThinkServer    Some models from the Lenovo 3000 and Valueline may also be covered.  IdeaPad and IdeaCentre product warranties with the possible exception of some US S10e education / commercial models of the netbook are not supported at this time due to different model / serial number conventions.   Customers with these products should continue to contact sales or support by phone to discuss warranty upgrade options. A complete list of warranty upgrade part numbers by system series is available here.

UPDATE – For those that may have found this post through search, we have continued to expand this program and have added additional languages – read more!

Recently I had the opportunity to change out the system board in a ThinkPad T500 and brush up on my hardware skills.   I found the experience extremely valuable, and I came away with a deeper appreciation for the talent of our design and product engineers, as well as our service technicians in the depot and the field. 

As a bit of background, while still in school, I started my career in the late 80’s  as a part time PC tech and Lan admin of a Novell network, running on Arcnet.   This was little more than a couple soup cans and a string by today’s standards.   I spent time as a tech and service manager in a retail environment, building white box PCs and servicing the major brands of the day.   I remember when the 386 CPU running at 33mhz was the pinnacle of performance, 120 MB HDDs were standard and a 1GB drive was something only found in a server.  Think about that!  The average laptop, or even netbook of today has more RAM than an average PC server had hard disk space in 1990.   When I joined IBM, I began as a support tech, fielding phone calls and helping customers with their PS/2 systems.  Over the years since,  I’ve worked in a number of roles at IBM and now Lenovo, but always with PCs, and ultimately, with customers.  

My participation in our forums has provided a broader view of customer experience points across all our systems, and these product discussions have renewed my passion for the hardware..   Taking a product apart first hand lends an appreciation for the integration of design and engineering – seeing how the mechanical challenges are met, as well as all the electrical, functional, and aesthetic ones. 

To change out a system board or planar on this T500, the LCD assembly and all the plastic covers are removed along with all of the small sub-components.  Eventually, the unit is reduced to the magnesium roll cage and the system board. Wiring for the wireless antennas and LCDs are threaded through the hinges, and multiple wiring connections for various ports, connectors, and sub-components intertwine between the board and cage.    A few quick photos captured with a cell phone camera or other digital camera taken while disassembling the system can be extremely helpful aids in putting things back as they were before.

Use of a static mat and wrist strap is essential to avoid damage to ESD sensitive components

There are a lot of screws, and while the designers did an excellent job of standardizing screws length and diameter where possible to reduce complexity, there are still a lot of them and they all need to go back where they came from.   One of the lab techs shared his secret – a rectangular piece of foam cut to the size and shape of the laptop.  He has several, each corresponding to the particular model of unit being worked on.   As screws are removed from the bottom cover, they can be pressed into the foam in the corresponding location.  This keeps them organized and matched up with the hole they came out of.  Of course, the hardware maintenance manuals available on our support site,  and the service training videos  can be  quite helpful too.  

While I’ve always been a hardware guy at heart, my work assignment for much of the last decade have been more customer and business focused, and so these recent opportunities to really tear into our products has been appealing.  I intend to get under the covers of more of our products in the future.    Lucky for me, the techs in this particular lab have been extremely supportive and have even donated some bench space and my own static mat for future tinkering. 

What would our lives be like without batteries?    Over the last 100 years, our world has become completely dependent upon electricity in one way or another, and increasingly upon batteries in just the last 50 years.    Depending upon size, purpose and utility, our expectations of batteries vary significantly with the proportionality of their replacement cost to the value of the device they power.

We depend upon small batteries in standard sizes to power things we want to work – digital cameras or a child’s toy, as well as things that we need to work - flashlights, garage door openers and smoke alarms.  

These batteries have long been commodity items.  You could buy generic ones in bulk like this pack of 25 that I picked up for $3.50, which averages out at about 14 cents per battery.  As such, I’m not surprised that they don’t seem to last very long .   Alternately, you could buy one of the two premium names in alkaline batteries who battled it out for years in television advertisements over which brand lasted longer in head to head tests.  When these are used up, we toss them without much thought.  This seems a waste, so a third option is the rechargeable route.  

Since the first sucessful electric screw driver, the number and variety of battery powered tools has expanded dramatically.  In the last ten years, battery power and technology has improved so that circular saws, drills, impact wrenches – virtually any imaginable power tool now comes in a battery powered version.  

Generation after generation, the tool manufacturers have come out with higher performance, higher voltage models 7.2 v, 9.6v, 12.0v, 14.4v, 18.2v and now 24v versions.   Each generation quickly obsoletes the previous, and the batteries are not interchangeable.  Unlike the standardized commodity batteries above, each tool manufacturer designs their own unique connectors and mechanical design to prevent interoperability.  

In addition to the voltage arms race, the chemistry of these batteries has evolved.  NiCad (Nickel-Cadnium) have been replaced by NiMh (Nickel Metal-Hydride), and now Li-ion (Lithium Ion) in the latest generation of tools on the market.   As such, these batteries are not cheap – many are close to $100 each and have a limited useful life of several years depending on usage patterns.    

If we have a single tool, we may be likely to simply upgrade to a latter generation model with higher performance, higher voltage when it’s time to replace the battery.   But, if we’ve invested in multiple tools that shared a common battery style, we may spend the money on a new battery or two every couple of years.   These replacement batteries can often be 50%-60% of the cost of the entire tool, and there is no trade in or discount for return of the old battery.

Also in the hundred dollar price range are automobile batteries.  These are all typically 12 volt, but come in a wide range of physical sizes, amperage ratings (CCA or Cold Cranking Amps), and top or side terminal styles.

The battery that comes in a new car may be covered by the vehicle manufacturers warranty or covered for a reduced interval assumptive that it is expected to wear our like the tires and brakes. 

Replacement batteries are often sold with a pro-rated warranty typically three to six years in term with free replacement provided for a subset of that time, often the first twelve months.   If the battery requires replacement after that first year, the owner pays on a sliding scale.   The closer to the end of the warranty, the more the co-payment.   A small refund or discount is often provided for the return of the used battery, or “core” to promote responsible recycling of the lead, acid, and plastics.  

I think this is a good policy model in that it aligns the warranty cost with the performance of the product and provides residual value for the consumer.   In contrast to tool batteries which can be 50% the price of the tool or more, automobile batteries are less than 1% of the cost of a new car, and even after the vehicle ages 10 or 15 years, a new battery will likely be less than 5% of the remaining value.   The equation for hybrids will be significantly different, and this will be interesting to see how the cost of replacement batteries beyond the vehicle warranty compares as a percentage to the residual value of the vehicle itself.

I’ve explored these other battery, industry, and value  ratio models for a reason.  

We now come around to the batteries which power notebook computers, and like the tool batteries, the chemistry has evolved since the early ’90s, moving from NiCad, to NiMh, and now Li-Ion.  Each advance in chemistry increased energy density and longevity.   Our computers can be made smaller, and enabled to run faster for longer periods of time with more forgiving charge cycle patterns.

Also like tool batteries, the voltage has increased along with number of cells  in manufacturer unique packaging designs.  With the dramatic increases in computing power, memory, storage, and ever swelling application and OS sizes, when a battery eventually needs to be replaced, is it time to simply upgrade the PC ?   

While the prices of many of the core commodities within the PC have decreased dramatically, paving the way for steady declines in average unit price year over year, the cost of batteries has remained fairly stable, and this creates some rather dramatic differences in the ratio of the price of a battery to the overall value of the PC within the overall Notebook/Netbook continium. 

For example, the average X301 ThinkPad costs about $2500, while an option battery costs about $135 or about 5% of the total system.  On the other hand, a S10 netbook retails for $359, while an option battery is about $110 or about 31% of the total system. 

How will these dramatically different cost ratios affect decision making when purchasing a spare battery, or replacing one outside of warranty?    Our technological society is increasingly dependent upon battery power, and resultingly I see batteries playing an increasingly influential role in shaping the long term valuations of many of the objects in our lives.

Will batteries remain seemingly exempt from Moore’s Law?

by David Churbuck, Vice President Web Marketing

As the ParaOlympic Games draw to a close in Beijing, I wanted to talk about the real action behind Lenovo’s sponsorship of the Olympics: the deployment of our technology behind the scenes, in the venues, and throughout the Olympic infrastructure. Since I used to write this sort of case study for a living at PC Week in the 1980s (we called them Focus On Technologies), I guess I’m as good as any guest blogger to talk about what Lenovo did in Beijing to power the world’s biggest idea, the Olympics.

Some sponsors get to be the official sugar water or fast food of the Games. Others get the sole credit card rights for people buying souvenirs. Lenovo? We literally powered the Games with our PCs, putting some 30,000 notebooks and desktops throughout the Olympic complex across seven cities and more than 300 medal events. The stakes were huge, the opportunities immense, and failure was never an option. Why did we do this? The message to the world is if we can do this; imagine what we can do for your company.

Here are the details on what we rolled out and maintained – without a single hiccup – through the months and days leading up to the Games.

• 24,000 desktop PCs: primarily M55e
• 10,000 17” TFT flat-panel displays
• 2,000 15” touch-screen displays
• 2,000 desktop printers: LJ7800Ns and LJ3500s
• 800 notebook computers; primarily T60s
• 700 servers: SureServe T350, R630, and R520s
• 5,000 showcase models across multiple athlete iLounges, hospitality centers, hotels, media centers ….

The deployment was a challenge simply because there is no legacy system to inherit, transport and build upon in the unique world of Olympic IT. The infrastructure for one Olympiad is not rolled up, stored in a closet, and redeployed two years later. It’s all dismantled and, in the case of the 2008 Summer Olympics, given to the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG) to dispose of as they see fit to charities and other causes. Given that reality – our engineers had to start from scratch, beginning in 2004, when they started planning not only for Beijing but for the Winter Games in Torino in 2006. As Leon Xie, the man tasked with the project, puts it, this was more than two years of work for two weeks of operations by 600 engineers and support staff. And there was no legacy system to build upon. Every Olympics see its IT infrastructure left behind.

The challenge was spread across seven even sites in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Hong Kong, and Qingdao in 32 venues and 17 data centers. To insure no glitches four levels of redundancy were built in by the engineering teams.

1. Technicians are staffed at every venue.
2. Periodic venue checks by senior engineers
3. Central 24/7 support at the Technology Operations Center
4. Pre-Games support from Lenovo R&D centers.

The question begged is what did these systems actually do? From accreditation desks when athletes checked into the Athlete Olympic Village and journalists into the media center to the results captured when Michael Phelps’ finger tips hit the Omega timing pad in the Water Cube and then were shared with those journalists with unwavering accuracy …. Lenovo systems processed, communicated, and shared the digital stream of these Olympics with 100% uptime and accuracy.

The big test came during the first set of rains in mid-August. Dozens of ThinkPads were soaked during the downpours; all came through beautifully thanks to their self-draining keyboards.

As Erik fairly prodded me in the comments on my last post, companies need to listen to their customers. Lenovo is listening, and we are making changes, but perhaps we aren’t sharing what we’ve heard and what we are doing about it as much as we should be.

And, if we aren’t doing that, how do our customers know we are truly listening?

Mark

You may remember when Chris Askew highlighted Lenovo’s focus on Customer Delight and a new service survey that we launched to gauge our performance. Boy did you guys take notice! We have received over 42,000 responses to date in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil since starting on July 9^th, 2007!

It has been so successful that we are now expanding the program and are very close to launching the Customer Delight survey process worldwide. You should start seeing the new surveys everywhere in August.But don’t think that we are stopping there. Getting good feedback is only one part of the performance picture! Feedback without action is apathy and there is no place in Lenovo for that. One of the first things we did when we started the new survey is to assemble teams across all of our service channels (Depot, Onsite, CRU , Helpcenter) to review the surveys and develop actions to resolve the issues identified. Some of the results of this work have been showing up in our service channels over the past six months, and I thought I’d highlight a few of those actions here today.

If you have ever phoned a call center you have definitely heard it: “Thank you for calling…” The VRU, otherwise known as a Voice Response Unit, is scornfully referred to as a four letter word by many. You told us that our call center VRU was an extremely long thing that was confusing and hard to navigate. Well we heard you loud and clear! After receiving your surveys about our VRU we worked with our service partner, IBM, and completely revamped the VRU from scratch. The US call center receives thousands of calls per day so this was something that had an impact for many customers. Our VRU team identified several rather compelling facts which surprised us:

• 30% of our customers were spending over two minutes listening to the VRU before they even got connected to a technician.
• If they listened to each message completely it could take as long as five minutes!
• Because our support number was so complex we also found that some 19% of our calls were mis-routed due to the wrong option being selected .

On the weekend of June 15^th, 2008 all of that changed when we went live with a completely revamped VRU: it’s not only shorter but it’s also less complex. Since the new options have gone in place errors resulting in a transfer been reduced from 19% to 2%. Even better, 90% of all calls are now through the VRU and connected within 30-60 seconds. We also made it easier for you to identify which option to choose for Lenovo support.

(See figure below – this is the simplified version, the original was too large and complex to be viewed on a single screen )

Larger image

Another thing we heard was that our pixel policy on ThinkPads was too complex – with thresholds for replacement varying by screen size, resolution, and in certain combinations of stuck on or off pixels. We agree. As of this week, there is a new, simplified policy in place that we believe is close to being an industry best. If you have more than 2 defective pixels on any in-warranty ThinkPad purchased Jan 1, 2008 or later, Lenovo will replace your LCD. Here is the new policy.

You also told us that our returns and replacement process was too much of a hassle. While our return policy mirrored the industry standard, we have taken steps to ensure that any hardware defects or failures encountered during the first 21 days of ownership are addressed quickly and easily. We won’t require you to service your system before you can return or replace it, if it is defective. If you would like to give us a chance to repair it, we can extend a free one time upgrade to Onsite repair to get it fixed quickly. If you still wish a refund or replacement, we will now conference you with our Sales team and stay with you. If you bought your system as part of our employee, friends, and family purchase program you’re now accommodated with the same options as a regular sale. (In the past, due to the deep discounts, additional limitations applied)

The improvements don’t end there, and many more are underway. Please continue to provide feedback through these post service surveys. If our service didn’t exceed you expectations let us know so we can make sure we change that. If we did a good job then let us know that as well. We reward performance and would love to include your comments in our service awards for high performers.

Lenovo builds some of the most durable and best engineered PCs available.  

Matt Kohut has previously blogged about how rugged and well put together our ThinkPads are.   Sometimes though, accidents happen, and no spill resistant keyboard, magnesium roll cage,  or “air bag” auto parking hard disks are going to completely save you.  

For example, suppose your ThinkPad were to be driven over by a semi ?

It could happen, and in fact, it did…

Where the standard  warranties, which guard against defects in materials or workmanship leave off, ThinkPad protection steps up.  This unique coverage offers Lenovo customers repair or replacement protection for their system in the unfortunate event that any of life’s little mishaps occur.   For those who appreciate the fine print, the details of the coverage can be read here.  Protection services are also available for Lenovo 3000 notebook models as part of many upgraded service options available when configuring on our website.

Hopefully your laptop will never require protection from semi trucks, but the coverage also helps recover from the more mundane events like large soda spills, the new puppy who chews on everything, or having loaned your system to your roomate, the bad luck magnet.   Whatever your reasons  may be, ThinkPad protection may be an option worth considering  on your next Lenovo ThinkPad, by itself or as part of many flexible warranty upgrades.  Data is not covered, so remember to make back ups.

Lastly, while not related to my central points on the value of accidental damage protection, I think there is another aspect worth mentioning here as well.  Though the machine is seriously broken by the weighty truck’s passage,  as evidenced by the dual tire marks and cracked lid, the interior view shows that the roll cage and full perimeter support design of the top cover did an excellent job of distributing the overwhelming force.  Much of the inner workings remain remarkably intact. 

Pretty amazing.