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LeonM | 5 months ago

Yeah, please let this guy tackle Lenovo next.

My Lenovo X1E regularly burns 20% of its CPU cycles on some high frequency recurring interrupt. I did get pretty far with debugging it, but eventually gave up since I can't justify spending so much time on fixing a 'professional' laptop that I paid top dollar for.

It also has a multi-GPU setup that has never worked reliably under Linux, which is ironic as I opted for Lenovo due to its supposedly good Linux compatibility.

Switching between GPU modes is a hit or mis, waking up from stand-by often results in a blank screen, screen flickering, sporadic high fan speeds, etc. And then there's the coil whine, which seems to be fixed in some BIOS versions, then returns in the next. Supposedly it has something to do with power-saving measures.

Since I owned it there have been at least 20 BIOS version releases for 'improved performance and security', but none seem to actually fix anything. It's such a mess.

/rant

discuss

dlcarrier|5 months ago

If you are running Linux, you can suspend using the following command, to re-initialize the GPU when resuming, which works around some ACPI bugs:

    pm-suspend --quirk-vbe-post

I have a 1st-gen Lenovo X1 Yoga, and it is the only laptop series that has everything I want: an OLED display, a stylus, and a TrackPoint input. ACPI worked fine when I first bought it, and I can't remember if it's had one BIOS update or two, but after the most recent update, it sometimes won't wake from sleep. When that happens, he power LED fades on and off, no matter how many times I press the power button or close and open the lid. I have to hold the power button to force it off, then power it back on from a fresh boot.

Also, the Linux kernel added support for adjusting the OLED's brightness through ACPI, years ago, but it's never been supported on my laptop, and I have to resort to using xrandr to output dimmer images, which reduces bit depth.

My fan sometimes gets stuck on full speed, too.

rangestransform|5 months ago

if I have to touch a terminal to do "happy path" things like suspend/resume and browsing the internet, the laptop is dead on arrival for me