daggerNC

Well, after much discussion and multiple phone calls with Lenovo Customer Support, I was able to trade in my y510p for the new Y50-70 notebook which I'm using right now. Overall, an improved laptop and I really like the 1080p screen and the 860m-GTX graphics chip. Some shortcomings: No builtin DVD drive bay, but the laptop is definitely thinner and a little lighter which is nice. Screen is not the clearest 1080p I've seen; and, wait for it......the Intel 8160-AC wireless card stinks! It is only a single stream in 802.11n (max links speed of 72Mbps!! Unbelievable - why couldn't they use the 7260-AC chipset?? Also, I removed the back cover and it is MUCH more difficult - the owner's guide says to remove all screws (more on this one), lift up the front part then slide it back and then up. Well not matter how much I tried, being careful, etc, I still broke off a couple of the little locking tabs at the back wrap around corners! So beware!! No real issues with it going back on OK (except one screw base as stripped) as the screws hold it in place pretty good. I haven't tried any different wireless cards yet, but after testing the unit today I feel changing the wireless card is a must. I'm ASSUMING they locked the BIOS but don't know yet. No modded BIOS out there yet??

shmerlin - I did go thru the main sticky thread again. The one option I did not try is to disable USB Boot, but that's still not a real "fix" for the BIOS hangs as when I had the original setup, USB Boot was enabled and there were never any BIOS POST delays. Since I still can't get everything to run correctly/smoothly/without BIOS hangs and lost of Sleep function, I swapped out my nice SSD and reinstalled the factory 1Gig slowmo HDD drive and factory POS 2230 wireless card, and of course it runs fine again. I'm going to try modding the BIOS down to v2.7 and then add the 7260 wireless card to see if this process results in a completely stable and usable configuration. Then maybe I'll try putting in the SSD with a new image to see if that will work... BTW, the new Y50 laptop from Lenovo which will be replacing our Y510p comes with an Intel 3160-AC wireless card. Again Lenovo cheaps out by using this card which is only a 1x1:1 design (the 7260 is a 2x2:2 design), but at least its AC.

Same question here. Third iso is too large for a DVD disc, so what are the install instructions? Just unpack the third (and fourth?) iso's and there are factory install software executables? Thanks!

I I'm starting a new thread so as to not have this lost in one of the other threads and the topic is a bit different. I have the Y510p with v3.05 BIOS, and the wireless card (2230) absolutely s*#ks, so this is the place to be to get around the absurd Lenovo policy of locking the bios down... But I just can't seem to get it working correctly - I followed the steps very carefully - made backups, installed v2.7 with no issues, applied the whitelist mod, installed that no issues, but then I lost Sleep functionality. I have done multiple fresh installs of Win7, but no matter what Sleep doesn't work but even worse there is a BIOS issue that the laptop won't reboot without getting a 30 second hand on POST and then it reboots and loads the OS quick as can be. My questions are what exactly did you who have a fully functional, correctly running Y510p with the hacked v2.7 BIOS do to install this hacked BIOS? Must I use Win8 only? Must I do a special sequence of new BIOS and new OS install? Where is svl7 - has he given up on us Lenovo Y510p users? I haven't seen him posting anything here in a long time?? I'm so frustrated I'm wishing Lenovo would just buy this back from me! Thanks, daggerNC

Defeat! Or at least troops withdrawn for now. As I noted before, followed the steps outlined in this and the original SVL7 sticky thread to backup bios, flashback from v3.05 to v2.7 BIOS, backup, mod v2.7, then flash modded v2.7. No hickups or issues during the process. New 7260AC wireless card worked! Note I've upgraded my Y501p to Win7 Ultimate 64bit (from POS Win8.1). However, as noted by others, SLEEP mode no longer functions, and that is a feature that I use/need a lot. I tried a number of device manager setting changes, but still could not get it to work. Then I noticed that whenever I did a restart or shutdown/startup, that I'd get hung in the BIOS screen for about 20 or so seconds and then the laptop would reboot and it would just blast into Windows desktop like it should (I'm running a Vertex V4 SSD). Note that I had none of these issues running stock v3.05 BIOS and stock 2230 wireless card with Win7 Ultimate installed. So, I decided to do a fresh Win7 build with the new Intel 7260AC wireless card and modded v2.7 BIOS. Went thru all that fun and it was restarting just fine until I did a wired LAN driver install, and then it started the 20 second hang in BIOS and then auto reboot with no issue... Checked and still no SLEEP working, so I said let's do this again! So another fresh Windows7 Ultimate 64bit install. Again, all good, but after a number of Windows and drivers updates (got further this time than last), then, the reboot BIOS hang happens. FTW? OK, so now that's blown much of an afternoon and into evening, so I reinstalled the stock BIOS v3.05; rebooted and got the hated Lenovo incompatible wireless card message; installed original 2230 PoS wireless card; and then did ANOTHER Win7 Ultimate clean install. Smooth as butter - no warnings, no BIOS hangs, and SLEEP works again. I suspect there was something in the v2.7 BIOS tables that just didn't like running on my v3.05 Y510p?? That said, someone (PLEASE!) needs to figure out a way to modify the 3.xx based BIOS so we can have our cake laptop and our 7260AC ice cream too!

OK - first a bit THANK YOU to svl7 and everyone here for all their work. I was able to downgrade from my v3.05 to v2.7 and then applied the mod and installed my new 7260AC wireless card and it worked without any glitches. However, I am having the same issue whereby my wireless mouse is causing my Y510p to not go into sleep mode :-( I may start another thread just for this to see if anyone can find a fix for it.

Hi SweetTooth - for the Intel XTU to run properly (at least on my Y510p with BIOS 3.05 and GT755M video, no SLI) I needed to download v4.4.0.4 I have installed it on both Win 8.1 and Win 7 on this machine. The link (if allowed to post) is h t t p s : //downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3483&DwnldID=23743&keyword=%22%22extreme+tuning+utility%22%22〈=eng

Has anybody had the opportunity/time/(money!) to experiment with Expresscache on our Lenovo's? Is there a sweet spot size and then you run into diminishing returns on performance - like is 16G better than 8G? Is 24G better or does it continue with 32G and even 64G (going over 64G is almost a waste just from the cost factor you should now just go with a pure SSD solution)??

panybbib - just to confirm, this is a completely stock v3.05 firmware with no mods, correct?

So it looks like the latest BIOS for the Y510p is v3.07. It must be new or different country than US?? I got my Y510p in December and it's v3.05. That said, what I find interesting is that when I check for BIOS updates, Lenovo shows no BIOSes at all?? This is so unlike what I've seen will all my other PC systems. Is this a new approach by Lenovo for the Y510p laptops? SVL7 - is it just a matter of getting "better" BIOS editing tools in order to crack/modify the current 3.xx stream of BIOS firmware? Do we need a "friend" from Lenovo firmware engineering to join our Forum :-) ?

I have the Y510p with the GT755M chipset. Running Prime95 CPU stress test it will eventually get hot enough to start some CPU throttling. The fix I did was to stick some furniture felt pads to the back of the laptop to elevate it just a little more for better airflow and then I used Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility to undervolt the CPU - no more CPU heat issues for me!

SweetTooth - just want to throw out there the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. I use this tool to undervolt my CPU (by about .99mV) and it has made a noticeable difference in my CPU temps when gaming/stressing it. Make sure you get the latest version from Intel for our Y510p.

kasha - you have a 3.07 BIOS? I got my Y510p in December and it came with 3.05. When did you get yours?

Hello from North Carolina, USA. Very cool forum. And, I have a Lenovo Y510p that needs some BIOS liberation! Thanks to all the contributors.