epicepe

I have a Y400, a 3D printer and a plan.

I want to get a desktop GPU roughly compatible with the 650m -- GTX 650? -- and wire it up to my GPU-less Ultrabay. Having looked at the teardown pictures, it looks like something sort of kinda similar to a normal PCI port. Is this at all possible?

The y400 doesn't have integrated graphics (that work), or a 4th gen core. I believe you are thinking of the Y401p.

I have a Lenovo Ideapad Y400 running Windows 8. I recently sent it in for a dead GPU, which Lenovo fixed by replacing the motherboard. Now the brightness adjustment does not work.

I have tried two different Nvidia drivers, both of which are WHQL. I have tried turning on and off adaptive brightness and the EnableBrightnessControl registry hack. Neither had any effect. The brightness keys do nothing, and the slider moves but has no effect.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Got it to work. Uninstall drivers, reinstall 310.something in safe mode.

So, I send in my laptop today or tomorrow for a dead GPU. Is there any way I can get it back to stock before then?

Ah. Is there any way to make my bios at least look like stock?

Could anyone send me a backup of the stock bios (either version)? I don't have a backup, InsydeFlash is giving a "Version compare error" and I need to send my laptop in.

I saw some people wondering about turning up fan speed and such, and there is a function called SetHighSpeedOfFan that sounds like a solution. There are also options for backlight, brightness, and a bunch of others.

It looks to me like the "SetHighSpeedOfFan" variable is a Boolean. If so, does this mean that turning it off (or on) could let programs like SpeedFan actually work as intended?

Conscriptvirus:

1), 2). I am talking about installing Ubuntu. Have you tried it?

3) Do you know what connector the screen uses?

4). I currently don't have an mSATA cache. How much of a difference does it make versus just the standard HDD?

To clarify: There is a good reason for this, not just short battery life. The battery simply can't put out the wattage required to run the CPU and GPU at full clocks simultaneously, at least without permanently damaging the lithium cells. If you do manage to unlock it, be my guest -- You'll crash hard, or kill your battery, or worse.

Isn't it because the WiFi adapter isn't compatible?

So, I bought a refurb Y400 a few months ago, and so far I have loved it. I got it back from a warranty repair yesterday, reconnected the USB ports that some stupid Lenovo employee disconnected, and am now trying to install Ubuntu.

So, first of all: Do I need svl7's BIOS mod? If so, could someone send me a download link? (I don't have permission for the normal ones yet )

Second: How different are various Win8 laptops? I have seen tons of very different tutorials -- will any work on the Y400? If not, which will?

Third: Has anyone seen a 1080P screen for the Y400 for sale?

And last: How much would it help to get a cheap ~32GB mSATA SSD to use as a cache? I am currently HDD-limited and am getting kinda pissed.

Thanks for any help.

Most internal HDD's and SSD's do not have an indicator light, as far as I am aware. Just like code_theory suggested. External cases and computers have them, but that's because the wiring is designed to visually indicate when data is being transferred. I'm not sure about the Y500, but the Y400 definitely has four lights the left side of the case. It's right near the SD slot. There's a light for battery, external power cord, HDD light, and one for Caps lock. The HDD light is actually always on, and I've noticed that it turns off (or blinks) when there's activity. So, it's basically inverted from what you may be accustomed to.

No, that's a trackpad-disabled light -- On mine, at least, it has power, battery, trackpad, caps, in that order.

Win8 sucks, for me at least. UEFI is a pain and Win8 has tons of problems that even Vista didn't have. The Y400 is awesome, though: It has kinda bad build quality, but an octocore i7 and 650M for $600 refurb was an amazing deal. Now to install Ubuntu...

I don't believe there is a mod at the moment, sorry.