LonelyTV

After having flashing the modded 2.02 BIOS on my computer I have noticed that I lose access to my Bluetooth devices. I dug around in Windows to find that my Bluetooth hardware is unavailable (not even listed in device manager). I promptly went through the BIOS menu to see if it had been deactivated on accident to find that there isn't an option for it. The only solution I found was to "repair" the drivers by using the install on Lenovo's site, and reboot. However, once I shut the computer down, or put it to sleep I lose Bluetooth once more. Has anyone ran into this issue? Or has any suggestions on how I should go about fixing this? I tried uninstalling the drivers, flushing them out from the system, rebooting and re-installing. But, it does the same exact thing. I am currently running Windows 8.

Currently, most notebooks seem to do a good job with making a keyboard close to a real sized keyboard with the addition of the number pad. I scoffed at the idea of having the extra set of keys there, but as I've used the keyboard more and more on my newest notebook I have found that it does a good job of mimicking a regular keyboard's size. Now, this isn't to say that all keyboards are created equally. My current notebook is a Ideapad y500 and it seems to fit the bill for what you'd like. It's slightly larger than the one I use to use (Old Thinkpad T61p) but the keyboard is partially to blame for it. I also find that Lenovo's "ultrabay" to be a good design to somewhat increase the longevity of the notebook since you can insert bays that add extra hard drives and as in this case of this model a second GPU. Having that ultrabay on my other notebook allowed me to extend it's life a few more years. Although I could have just bought a new hard drive to replace it with, by the time I was needing a second one I found the ultrabays to be cheaper to buy and could utilize a smaller, but usable HDD I already had. Lastly, I like Lenovo for the ease of opening up the computer and it's repair if needed. Like with the older Thinkpad this Ideapad has an easy to open case that makes getting to the internal components easier to do. Also, it might make swapping out the Canadian keyboard with an "American" one easier if you choose to go that route. And, lastly it does not have that "nub" like most Thinkpads do. Other than that, it covers all of your other needs: It has HDMI out and sadly is gloss, but I do recall that they offer a matte version. I don't know what kind of "on-the-go" use you will be doing with the notebook, but like most 15"+ machines it's not super easy to use in small places. On airplanes I still take my netbook along to do work, if needed, and save my larger notebook for the hotel (or first class, if I'm lucky). Good luck with your hunt, and hopefully finding a notebook that you don't detest.

New member to techinferno and I'm glad to have found it. Like most users on here I'm tired of the locked down nature of notebooks, and while I don't have the expertise to do something about it I am glad to see a community where those who know how come together to right the "wrongs" of the manufacturers. Other than that, I'm a gadget fanatic and tinker with most anything to the point of breaking. I'm looking forward to some of the discussions and 'experiments' on these forums.

Having tried both Windows 7 and Windows 8 on this y500 I found Windows 8 to be the better experience out of the two. I didn't want to like Windows 8 because of it's ugly metro interface, but installing a start menu I've done away with it and have found the operating system nice to use.

I found the "E-3lue Mazer Type-R" to be the best marriage between price and quality. The mouse is under $20 and isn't super bulky. It's also great that it can hit 2500 DPI if need be. Amazon has it up for sale currently for I think $13.