Lenovo ThinkPad W540 with Mods Review

I'm looking at one of these as a replacement for the 15.6" laptop (Toshiba P850) I currently carry for digital art stuff away from home. I'm obviously looking for an IPS screen, but have no qualms with installing one if the one I get turns out to be a TN panel (I've watched the how-to vids).

The most demanding games I might use on it would be Cities:Skylines, American Truck Simulator and maybe GTA5, but not totally necessary as the machine I'm replacing has never played anything more demanding than some WildTangent Bejeweled that was preinstalled on it :D. It may get used for video editing, but nothing over 1080P and/or over 22 minutes in length.

The model I first placed on watch has the K1100m GPU ($399). After reading the comments here about the K2100 I did a little more looking and found a unit with the K2100m for $439. Both examples have spinning HDDs, the second unit has 1TB vs 500GB for the first one. I could put in an SSD as my primary homebound machine (Toshiba S70a) has a 750GB drive that I'm only using 288GB after six years of daily use.

If upgrading from a 1080P Tn panel to a 3K IPS, does the machine have any issues the first time booting up and finding a different monitor installed?

I have two of these. One is a spare (i7-4800mq) One is my "DD", with 3k screen, i7-4900mq, both have 32gb/RAM, and K2100m. I actually LIKE the "ClunkPad".

Both have 2x1tb Samsung EVO 860 SSD's, and a 480gb M.2 SuperBoot 2 drive, as a "utility" drive.

I game the CRAP out of the K2100m, which is nearly 80% better than the K1100m. I HIGHLY recommend this computer.

Also, you might want to check your fan. NEITHER of mine make any fan noise.

Keep in mind, if you switch the touchpad, the middle button will make contact with your display with even just the slightest pressure, and will scratch your display. I recommend putting a couple of sticky feet on the top of the display bezel, to avoid this. Personally, I actually like the factory "ClunkPad" better.

For the fan noise maybe try refreshing the thermal paste?

Hello first of all thanks for your video .. please may you tell me if it will work on my w540 display (Made by Chimei Innolux ) ? It doesn’t work anymore so I really need it replace it.
I would beg you to let me know if you think it could work on my Lenovo.
Many thanks … cheers

I broke the screen on mine. I will consider those mods when getting a new screen.

Correction: Only one of the usb ports on the right side is USB 2.0. The other USB 2.0 port is located on the other side.
Thank you John Traner for the correction.

Side note: I created a subreddit for those who want to discuss more about the W540: Link https://www.reddit.com/r/W540/

1. What is the port above the dvd drive?
2. You mentioned there are two USB 3.0 ports on the side of the DVD drive. This is incorrect. The port closer to the DVD player is a USB 3.0 port, while the port further away is a USB 2.0 port

Is the gaming good on it if i want to play apex or fortnite or cs go ???

Im trying to swap the trackpad of my w540 too, where did you find the drivers? And where did you bought the trackpad?
Thanks man, awesome video

Just a tip for all W540 owners. To get the best out of this machine you need to download drivers ONLY from Lenovo's website / especially the video driver is a MUST, because each manufacturer sets it according to their product /
No matter there are new drivers at NVIDIA's website, you stick with Lenovo's to avoid any issues

pretty good content my nigga

Last year I got a second hand W540.. So far so good but one thing Im missing is the fingerprint reader 🙁 Dunno why

hi, thanks for the video … please may you tell me if you can use it to
editing 1080 FHD video whit Premiere ? Many thanks … cheers

can you still buy new batteries for this guy? like original lenovo made batteries? i am thinking about picking one up for video editing and just to have a nice quality laptop on "the cheap"

Does this still hold up in 2018? (i7 4800MQ) Need to run photoshop, premiere and ableton. Getting a good deal on a used w540. Also, how can i tell which display it's running if i don't have a frame of reference

I've got to say this machine can totally keep up with anything in 2018… i7 quad, 16gb, m.2 SSD, Panasonic 3K IPS…. it works great on Win 7 (lol).

Hey, so i just got my w540 off ebay. Did you ever have a problem where the computer would not wake up from sleep?

Best review on it so far. Thank you for the effort.