thinkpad interview questions
Top thinkpad frequently asked interview questions
I'd like to disable ctrl+alt+arrow keys changing the screen orientation. I've seen here that this is a function of the Intel graphics driver. So I followed the directions and disabled hotkeys in the Intel graphics card control panel, but the hotkeys are still enabled. Might there be some other program controlling this? I'm running a Lenovo T420.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm considering a ThinkPad X200. There's a 128 GB SSD option, and since I'm a huge fan of the Intel X25-M SSD I've been using on my older X61s, I'm thinking of going with that.
I am kind of worried because I've read a lot of discussion of SSDs online which implies that some of the first generation of SSDs were pretty terrible. Does anyone know what kind of SSD I'd actually get with the ThinkPad X200, and if it's any good?
Source: (StackOverflow)
My company has recently started giving out HP Elitebooks to employees, replacing the Lenovo ThinkPads we used to use.
I'm trying to find a way to disable the wireless when it detects that an Ethernet connection has been made.
On my ThinkPad this was as easy as going into Access Connections, creating a new location and selecting the box that said 'disable wireless when LAN connection is detected' however on my EliteBook, in HP's equivalent (HP Connection Manager), I'm not seeing that option.
Is there something I'm missing here?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I am currently customizing a Lenovo Thinkpad.
Under the section "Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters" there are two options.
Default: ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n
Upgraded: ThinkPad 2x2 a/b/g/n (+$10 AUD)
What does the 1x1 and 2x2 mean?
For reference, here is the link. 5th option from the bottom.
Customize Lenovo Thinkpad
Source: (StackOverflow)
Ok, so I know what hiberfil.sys is, and I want to use hibernation on my laptop.
But I have another hard drive active in my laptop, it's taken from my old one... and I want to get rid of the hiberfil.sys on that drive. But even with admin privileges I can't delete it.
Any ideas?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I got a new ThinkPad with the built-in fingerprint reader. At first I thought it was silly, but then I thought, hey, this could save me typing my password every time I boot up.
Is anyone using it? Does it work as advertised or does it sometimes fail to recognize your finger? And, for extra credit... will it work with Windows 7 (64 bit)?
Source: (StackOverflow)
On my Thinkpad laptop I can easily change the Back/Forward keys to something else (I usually map them to PageDown/PageUp), as they have their own keycode (166 and 167):
xmodmap -e 'keycode 166=Prior'
xmodmap -e 'keycode 167=Next'
However, on my Thinkpad USB keyboard, the Back/Forward keys seem to be hard-mapped to Alt+Left and Alt+Right, respectively, so I cannot use xmodmap to remap them. Is there any other way I can remap them? I've already tried xautomation, but that didn't work.
This is what 'xev' shows me when I press the Forward key:
KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
root 0xb4, subw 0x0, time 65023191, (16,-20), root:(641,33),
state 0x0, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyPress event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
root 0xb4, subw 0x0, time 65023191, (16,-20), root:(641,33),
state 0x8, keycode 114 (keysym 0xff53, Right), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
root 0xb4, subw 0x0, time 65023271, (16,-20), root:(641,33),
state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4e00001,
root 0xb4, subw 0x0, time 65023271, (16,-20), root:(641,33),
state 0x0, keycode 114 (keysym 0xff53, Right), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a ThinkPad X201 tablet.
On the tablet there is a button that rotates the screen. It works great in Windows but doesn't work properly in Linux; it rotates the screen but doesn't rotate the wacom (stylus and finger touching)
The keycode (from showkeys) for the button is 154.
I'd like it to do the following bash script:
#!/bin/bash
xrandr -o right
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus" Rotate CCW
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" Rotate CCW
exit 0
I have two questions:
- How can assign a script to the button? (#154)
- How can I run this assignment on startup?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Upgraded hard drive in Lenovo T61P; decided to start fresh with Windows 7 Pro. Windows installed, so DVD drive was working. All of a sudden, driver is not recognized. Device is "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-U10N ATA Device". It appears on device manager but with the yellow tag; have tried uninstalling, searching for drivers, everything I can think of. Cannot even start over with Windows 7 installation disk because disk spins but then stops and My Computer does not recognize the drive.
Help please. thank you. David Lacher
Source: (StackOverflow)
I just bought a Lenovo ThinkPad X220 Tablet (4294) and I'm trying to use the Factory Recovery Disks application within Lenovo ThinkVantage Tools to create "boot media" and "data media", but I don't have enough space on my 8 GB USB stick for the latter. This was surprising to me because I read that a CD will hold the "boot media" and a DVD will hold the "data media." My laptop doesn't have an optical drive, so I can't burn any disk. (Don't get me started on my Sony DRX-710UL external burner that won't work with Windows 7.)
Anyway, this is the error I get, including the misspelling:
Create Recovery Media
No enough temporary disk space in D drive, Create Recovery Media will exit now.
OK
Judging from some other posts I'm not the only person having this trouble.
Another post got me looking into a file called cdrivebackup.wim and I'm thinking that perhaps I need to get a USB stick that is as large or larger than Q:\FactoryRecovery, which for me is 9,592,796,014 bytes (~9 GB), per below. Does that sounds right?
C:\Users\pdurbin>dir Q:FactoryRecovery
Volume in drive Q is Lenovo_Recovery
Volume Serial Number is 640D-D557
Directory of Q:\FactoryRecovery
10/15/2011 02:28 AM 3,986 bcdinfo.txt
10/15/2011 02:28 AM 9,290,524,252 cdrivebackup.wim
10/15/2011 02:28 AM 956 RECOVERY.INI
10/15/2011 02:07 AM 302,266,820 sdrivebackup.wim
4 File(s) 9,592,796,014 bytes
0 Dir(s) 810,397,696 bytes free
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a laptop with Windows 7. I set all the usual volume control are at max (via the mixer), but there is a separate (hardware?) volume bar that is displayed whenever I change the volume, and it is at 50%.
Is there something I'm missing? How can I increase the volume further?
Edit - The model is Lenovo Edge, I'm not sure of the exact model, the label on the bottom says "Type: 0217-22G".
Edit2 - More than fixing the display, what I'm really looking for is a way to arbitrarily boost the volume beyond the max. Why should there be a software imposed max in the first place (well, usability is one reason, but some Youtube videos have really low volume)?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm running a Lenovo X61 which I carry around my college for getting on the internet at various points in the day. The network has always been finicky but recently it's gotten worse. I'll connect using iwconfig, get an IP from dhcpcd and log in using vpnc to their system. Sometimes I'll stay connected for hours but most of the time within 30 seconds my network traffic will drop to zero and I'll be unable to do anything
My computer still believes it's connected, however to try again I need to put my wireless interface down, put it back up and try again. It's gotten so bad that I've got a window on my computer pinging Yahoo or Google constantly in order to know if I'm still able to get online.
I know other people who have used Arch Linux that don't have the same problems as well as people who use Ubuntu who haven't had any problems either. It seems like my computer is a special case. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it? dmesg doesn't show anything out of the ordinary going on and I don't know where else to look for errors or other things to try.
Edit: this doesn't happen on my home network. It's a problem that only happens at school.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Any powered external speakers I connect to my laptop make a buzzing noise when my laptop is plugged in. I also have battery-powered noise-canceling headphones that make the buzzing if noise canceling is enabled. Quick summary:
Laptop Speakers Buzzing noise?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Battery (any) No
Plugged in Internal No
Plugged in External, plugged into wall outlet Yes
Plugged in Headphones, active noise canceling enabled Yes
Plugged in Headphones, active noise canceling disabled No
Plugged in Earbuds, passive No
The buzzing is louder if my display brightness is low, and especially loud if the display is turned off.
The buzzing happens with any power outlet: I've tested it in several buildings in two different cities. I have also tried plugging the speakers into a separate outlet from the laptop (one connected to a different circuit breaker), but the buzzing persists. This leads me to believe that the issue isn't due to some sort of ground loop (and this is supported by the fact that the buzzing happens with the battery-powered noise-canceling headphones).
The volume of the buzzing does not change if I adjust the volume on either my computer or my speakers.
The buzzing stops if my CPU is at 100%. For example, if I run two instances of yes (one for each CPU core), I don't hear anything out of the speakers.
I recorded a segment (you'll probably have to turn your volume up) of the buzzing noise with my phone and performed a frequency analysis:
The peak just to the right of the 100 Hz line is centered at 120 Hz, which is double the frequency of the AC power here.
Why does this happen and how can I fix it?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Less than two years ago, I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad R500.
When using the CPU heavily, it sometimes decides to reboot (with Ubuntu briefly showing "shutdown" message).
A Linux widget shows me the CPU temperature. The PC usually reboots when the temperature of the first core gets over 100°C, but sometimes it seems that it has not reached 80°C yet.
Since I switched from Ubuntu 2010.10 32bit to Ubuntu 2011.04 64bit, it crashes much more often.
When in the office, I use a laptopcooler.
I underclocked to 800 MHz, and set my fan to always run at maximum speed (with visible results: more noise and more blown air), but it does not prevent crashes from happening:
cpufreq-selector -c 0 -f 800000
cpufreq-selector -c 1 -f 800000
sudo rmmod thinkpad_acpi
sudo modprobe thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1
sudo thinkfan -n -c alwaysmax-thinkfan.conf
There is no dust. I have sprayed air generously in the vents on the sides and under the laptop. I have also cleaned inside after removing the keyboard and frame.
How can I find out what's the problem?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm using an X61s laptop (under Windows) that only has a trackpoint, not a touchpad.
The trackpoint has a scroll function that is activated by holding the middle button and then using the trackpoint to scroll. This is very useful and I don't want to miss it.
However, I would also like to use the middle button to open links in new tabs for instance.
Unfortunately, I have not found a setting that provides both functionalities at the same time. Does anyone know if and how it can be done?
Here are some links to people having the same problem, but no solution, unfortunately:
Source: (StackOverflow)