Florin

Hmm, indeed strange. The only thing now left is for you to open the notebook and check the msata SSD. Take it out and plug it in again. One question though, are you really sure you had a 16GB SSD? Not all Lenovo IdeaPads come with the 16GB SSD. Some of them have the msata missing.

Could you please provide a screenshot of the disk management? Also, please run cmd as administrator type "diskpart" then "list disk" -> does it show you 2 disks? Disk 0 and Disk 1? If so, then you ssd is alive you just have to create it. look up the id of the disk by the size of it, you'll see the 16gb size, then type "select disk 0 or 1" depends by the ID. Afterwards type "clean" followed by the next command "convert GPT". You can go in disk management after and create a partition on it.

I don't want to go with the hassle of install/uninstalling just to see it's not that one. That's why I'm posting this, maybe some1 has it. EDIT: So I tried that driver 306.97 from that page, it doesn't work because the entry is not inserted into the inf. I still need the one from Lenovo

Hello, does someone have the Lenovo Nvidia driver 306.97 (not the one from Nvidia site)? On their website only the 307 version is available however when I bought the laptop, it had preinstalled 306.97 from Lenovo. I was retarded and didn't made the backup of the drivers, and I want that driver since it worked flawlessly for me in some games.

You switched to legacy to install Windows 8? If Yes, then you ditched UEFI that's why you have longer boot time, this is the reason it goes from Lenovo -> Windows logo - windows sign in. You should install Windows 8 in UEFI mod, create bootable USB image with Rufus tool. Check on the forum the posts are there for this. Regarding the 16GB SSD I am sure is there in your disk management you just have to create a partition for it.

Even the name suggest it's a codec not a player.

And we should guess that you are using 650M, right?

In theory they should only throttle when running on battery mode, to save battery life and prolong it. However what I saw is that they also throttle to save and prolong the quality life of the processor even when adaptor is plugged. Basically is a safety measure.

@octiceps I will leave it like that, I don't want to create polemics, because I do not agree with you.Being on par with the OP and the thread, guys when do you know that you need to raise the voltage? What is the method to find the right balance.

It has because it uses i5, i7 but it's hardware disabled by manufacturer, you can't enable it. It always uses the single card no matter what.

I understand what you're saying, I was just pointing out the test that guy made and there were replies that he was indeed right. Maybe the games were singleplayer, anyway I don't play a lot of games, only dota2 and CS:GO and both are fluent at max. I have the i5 3230M. So far so good. I choose the i5 instead of i7 not because of the price, but because of the less heat produced by the i5 in comparison to the i7. The energy required to power i5 is also lower. On another note they wouldn't create a notebook with SLI and i5 if it wasn't capable of running the SLI in full power. Before I bought this laptop I intensively watched a lot of reviews both pro and amator on tech sites/youtube etc and going for the i5 doesn't really put you that far behind.

@octiceps I saw a technical test made by some guy on some techforum with the mobile processors, and the weird thing was that the i5 was on par with i7 on most of the games (like BF etc). Why? His explanation was that most of the games are still set to use full power using only 2 cores instead of 4 so basically when he used the i7 some games weren't optimized to use the full power of quad, and they were running on duals of the i7. Ofc there are games like metro who suck up all the juice from your notebook but some of them still work better with i5, less heat generated, less energy power used.

I bought splashpro, it's amazing. Worth every penny.

UEFI works with GPT disk drives. You must create a bootable USB stick with Rufus application (choose UEFI when creating the bootable image). Afterwards make sure you have UEFI selected in BIOS and boot from the USB stick. When the image loads go to repair my computer and choose advanced, run cmd: 1. diskpart 2. list disk 3. select disk 1 (depends which nr is assigned to your SSD). 4. clean 5. convert GPT 6. exit 7. reboot 8. Now install Windows 8 like you always do. The SSD device came by default in MBR type (MasterBoot Record). UEFI doesn't work with MBR. The advantages of UEFI are : faster boot time, license of Windows 8 assigned to your HW, it's injected into your BIOS, and above all this it's far more secure than Legacy boot.

Okay, then with modded v2.04 Bios you can buy any Wi-Fi card and install it? Wouldn't that cause more battery drainage? Are there any cons? The good side is that we'll get more speed and stability I suppose

You mean for the second card?

I have the wireless Intel N2230, so far I haven't experienced drop downs. I made a speed test right now, and I am pretty satisfied.

I don't really understand which drive you have but I can clarify some info for you: UEFI works with GPT disk drives. If you want to use Legacy and install Ubuntu or Windows 7 convert the disk to MBR.

I did flash, everything went smooth, I did this so that I can OC the 650M's. My question is, why do people want another Wi-Fi card? is the one built-in so bad? I haven't experience issue with it. I mean buying a new one would bring 2x-4x speed boost? (ofc if access point or router is near you)

@octiceps, amazing, it works! thanks a lot. Had no idea that borderless makes the jittering go away. However, running it in window doesn't affect the priority of task for the CPU?

I have something against these steps. I have the Y500 and after I placed a Samsung 840 PRO SSD 256GB I did the following: 1. Created the Windows 8 x64 USB with Rufus for UEFI. 2. In Bios made sure I have UEFI selected and not Legacy. 3. Booted from USB, select repair computer, advanced settings/tools and selected cmd where I typed: 3a. diskpart 3b. list disk 3c. select disk 1 (0 was the small ssd cache,1 was the SSD PRO 256GB) 3d. clean 3e. convert GPT 3f. exit. 4. Reboot 5. Started installation from USB Windows 8. The reason for converting the disk to GPT is because UEFI works with GPT, this way you can install Win 8 on UEFI with the licensed embedded into your system.

I have a question regarding Y500 and Windows 8: Why are the tiles at the start screen so big? On my former Vaio the Windows 8 metro screen would have smaller tiles. On Y500 there are 5 tiles on a column, on my Vaio 6 tiles. How can this be fixed? I want smaller tiles. Update: Found the solution, whoever is curious on how to have 6 tiles on a column, PM me. I had 5 before, now I can get 6

@svl7 Regarding Y500 650M SLI: I read all the steps from first post, but I want to ask to be sure. If I'm on v1.05 Bios can I update freely to V2.02? Is there any danger? I only want to overclock with +135mhz and while I am on V1.05 it seems it's impossible. If I use nvidiaInspector the GPU Clock jumps to 924Mhz but the current clock stays the same at 790Mhz no matter what happens. As a side note question: did someone encounter issues on SLI? For example with Nvidia drivers if I go in CS:GO or Dota2, there's immense shaking of the screen, non stop stuttering

I have purchased the Samsung 840 Series Pro 256 GB. Had some issue with getting the back cover off, like it was glued to the laptop but in the end nothing broke and I manage to install it. The SSD works as advertised, exactly with the speeds that Samsung is claiming. I have also created a drive on the small ssd which came by default from Lenovo, since I'm not using it anymore for caching.

I read this thread but I am missing something, I am a Y500 owner and how can you change the Wi-Fi card? is it that easy? dissemble the laptop and buy one and replace it?