Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread
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Lenovo only offers only one! bios version for the M90Q gen3 on their .com and .cn website
No Archiv - am really shocked.
The operating temperature during Geekbench (and otherwise) is around 40 degrees Celsius, the CPU utilized the entire frequency range.
All CPU and Intel ME relevant settings in the bios have been checked several times.
Device disconnected from power
Battery removed
Reset using pin jumper in the device.
Different operating systems
Different SSDs
always the same result. Multiscore 3000, which is less than 1/3 of what you can expect for an i5 12500.
My guess is clearly in the direction of Intel ME. Unfortunately, updating intel me has not changed anything in this direction.
Beautiful devices, incredibly flexible, but even for 450 euros the price is way to high if the performance is 1/3 of a similar device.
Thank you!
Well obviously they don't perform at just 1/3 of the rated CPU speed, that would be crazy. So clearly something is badly wrong.
Why don't you just ask Lenovo to fix it, given that you bought it new? It sounds like you have a hardware fault - bad CPU, faulted power delivery, thermal throttling, a bent pin ...
Use the P360 Tiny page: 联想_ThinkPad|ThinkCentre|ThinkStation服务与驱动下载_联想BIOS 升级程序(Windows 11/Windows 10 64-bit/Win 10 IoT 64-bit)
As it says on the first page:
However, as @Parrallax said, if it's not working properly and you bought it from Lenovo why not do an RMA?
Bought the antenna wiring kit and wifi card from eBay. Now I have both wifi and Bluetooth. I needed Bluetooth mainly.
Antenna kit
WiFi card
So interesting discovery. I got a RTX A2000 to throw into a M720Q to use as a Steam Box, and COULD NOT GET IT TO BOOT. I've seen multiple posts from people that have no issues with it.
Tried BIOS updates, firmware updates, and an entirely different machine. Tried with a 65w and 135w power supplies. It would not boot at all, no matter what, as long as the card was installed.
So, discovery. I had a feeling that it had something to do with the PCIe adapter. I buy and sell these adapters on my website, and I've never had an issue with them on anything, but I've never plugged such a high power draw item into one either.
Turns out the FLYCONN branded ones somehow can't keep up with the card, but the LOTES brand one does.
FLYCONN on the left, and LOTES on the right
FLYCONN
LOTES
Maybe that explains their 2.5x price over the other model. Not sure.
Tried BIOS updates, firmware updates, and an entirely different machine. Tried with a 65w and 135w power supplies. It would not boot at all, no matter what, as long as the card was installed.
So, discovery. I had a feeling that it had something to do with the PCIe adapter. I buy and sell these adapters on my website, and I've never had an issue with them on anything, but I've never plugged such a high power draw item into one either.
Turns out the FLYCONN branded ones somehow can't keep up with the card, but the LOTES brand one does.
FLYCONN on the left, and LOTES on the right
FLYCONN
LOTES
Maybe that explains their 2.5x price over the other model. Not sure.
Interesting observation about power draw. My own experience - I have two m720q machines. Decided to use both of them for a failover OPNSense setup. Initially decided to setup only one standalone Opnsense box. So ordered a PCIe adapter based on the part number in this thread's sticky. Also got a 4 x port 2.5G card to add to it. The card fit perfectly. Including the rear bracket. Then a few months later, decided to setup the second m720q for HA. So ordered a second PCIe adapter from some random ebay seller. Had the same version and part number on the adapter. Didn't really pay attention to anything else. Thinking the part number is same. So I should be good. However, this time I had a heck of a time trying to get the 4 port NIC to fit in second m720q with the rear bracket screwed in. So after I saw your post, I opened up the second m720q and noticed that it had a HSB logo on it. So basically its same as the one you have on the right.
Since my first OpnSense box is my primary router, I haven't had a chance to power it down to take it off my rack and compare the two adapters. But based on the struggle I had getting an identical NIC to fit properly with the bracket on - it appears its not only a power delivery difference. But its possible the Lotes might be slightly bigger. Maybe by a few millimeters.
Hi,
Just bought M920q (a base model with Intel Pentium Gold CPU / 8GB RAM etc). Want to create a mini home NAS from it, so I've bought PCIe riser from aliexpress and a Dell Perc H200 (flashed to IT mode already).
The problem is that I cannot get this card working / detected via BIOS (it's on the latest one: M1UCT17A from 10 april 2024).
Riser is working correctly, because when I put Broadcom PCIe 1gbps NIC - it's working properly.
I've tested the Dell H200 card in a Dell PC - and it's also detected.
Is Lenovo vendor locking some PCIe components via BIOS?
I've also disabled UEFI, enabled the CSM legacy bios, checked on a more powerful PSU (65w vs 230w) - nothing works.
Just bought M920q (a base model with Intel Pentium Gold CPU / 8GB RAM etc). Want to create a mini home NAS from it, so I've bought PCIe riser from aliexpress and a Dell Perc H200 (flashed to IT mode already).
The problem is that I cannot get this card working / detected via BIOS (it's on the latest one: M1UCT17A from 10 april 2024).
Riser is working correctly, because when I put Broadcom PCIe 1gbps NIC - it's working properly.
I've tested the Dell H200 card in a Dell PC - and it's also detected.
Is Lenovo vendor locking some PCIe components via BIOS?
I've also disabled UEFI, enabled the CSM legacy bios, checked on a more powerful PSU (65w vs 230w) - nothing works.
Thanks, tried this, but still no luck.
//EDIT: I've also tested some old HP P410 RAID card, and Radeon HD2400 graphic card, both detected in Windows.
Also plugged the H200 card into HP server - detected (card has FW Revision 20.00.07.00-IT) - maybe the firmware on the card is "problematic"?
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Hello everyone, I've been following this thread for a while but I just *had* to create an account and rant (kinda) a bit and also for future reference for some people that wanna try what I'm doing.
/*rant*/
For the last two years I've been using a couple of m920q with no issues, they are amazing machines. These machines blew my mind after I got pci risers, I managed to get some NICs and a T600 gpu and got to learn so much with them.
By the end of last year I found (for me) a one in a life time offer, 3 m90q i7 12th gen for WAY below its price tag. I just couldnt say no, I had to buy those. I was finally able to get my own "little" cluster. So I bought 3 $50+ risers (the 16x version/ 8x electrical according to this thread) and started to use 2 gpus on two of them. Everything went smoothly ... till a couple of days ago. In my country is VERY difficult to get pc parts used in this type of endeavours and I wanted to get the intel arc a310 as I saw it working on a minisforum MS01, to be honest I wanted to try AV1
. After waiting for someone to bring that gpu I was so excited to finally test it... but with no avail, it just didn't get recognized by the OS, the fan spinned for a while but thats all. I spent a whole weekend trying to make it work, several combinations and tweaks in BIOS, up to 3 bios or more (cant remember) updates. Trying power adapters of more capacity... nothing seemed to work.
Until by the end of sunday something told me to try the gpu on my good old m920q... and it just worked. I never expected this, I was tired and just went to bed.
/*end-rant*/
To resume my hardware and experiments:
Hopefully this information helps someone trying to use the a310 eco on a m90q (or at least on a gen 3) as I haven't found posts here or else trying this configuration. (or if someone has some kind of solution, better yet... tempted to buy 5C50W00933)
Take care everyone
/*rant*/
For the last two years I've been using a couple of m920q with no issues, they are amazing machines. These machines blew my mind after I got pci risers, I managed to get some NICs and a T600 gpu and got to learn so much with them.
By the end of last year I found (for me) a one in a life time offer, 3 m90q i7 12th gen for WAY below its price tag. I just couldnt say no, I had to buy those. I was finally able to get my own "little" cluster. So I bought 3 $50+ risers (the 16x version/ 8x electrical according to this thread) and started to use 2 gpus on two of them. Everything went smoothly ... till a couple of days ago. In my country is VERY difficult to get pc parts used in this type of endeavours and I wanted to get the intel arc a310 as I saw it working on a minisforum MS01, to be honest I wanted to try AV1
. After waiting for someone to bring that gpu I was so excited to finally test it... but with no avail, it just didn't get recognized by the OS, the fan spinned for a while but thats all. I spent a whole weekend trying to make it work, several combinations and tweaks in BIOS, up to 3 bios or more (cant remember) updates. Trying power adapters of more capacity... nothing seemed to work.Until by the end of sunday something told me to try the gpu on my good old m920q... and it just worked. I never expected this, I was tired and just went to bed.
/*end-rant*/
To resume my hardware and experiments:
- M920Q:
- PNY T600, 4 port NIC and Intel arc a310 eco with 01AJ940 = WORKS
- m90q 3rd gen:
- PNY T600 with 5C50W00910 = WORKS
- 4 port NIC and Intel arc with 5C50W00910 = WONT WORK (at least for me, not idea why)
- M90Q G3 has the x8 PCI-E slot wired to the PCH (as mentioned here by user cadillac before)
- Which seems odd, my PNY T600 according to specs is "PCI Express 3.0 x16" and m90q gen3 is PCIe x8 Gen 4. Unless theres some magic I dont know how to explain, the T600 works fine. I even used it in VMs using passthrough.
- According to SPARKLE page, the specs says PCI Express 4.0 x8 and requirements "PCI 3.0, 4.0 or 5.0 compliant motherboard with one graphic slots". As I said this card worked fine in m920q (which is only pci 3.0 x8)
- Intel arc a310 "doesnt have the PRSNT (presence) signals wired" (as mentioned by user cromo with another type of card)
- To be honest, not sure if the solution mentioned would work. I'm kinda afraid to make some wrong contact and making everything explode. But again, the card works in m920q so..
Hopefully this information helps someone trying to use the a310 eco on a m90q (or at least on a gen 3) as I haven't found posts here or else trying this configuration. (or if someone has some kind of solution, better yet
... tempted to buy 5C50W00933)Take care everyone
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I'm relatively sure this is not accurate... I brought this up previously and someone tested it and showed that their GPU was connected directly to the CPU controller on their gen 3.
Probably, anyways.
Yeah I've been skimming the thread for similar cases with m90q machines, my riser even has the LOTES brand... but its very rare (at leats for me) that the intel arc a310 and 4port nic are not working but a t600 gpu is. Thats what leads me to believe the PCH has something to do with it.
Small update...
I've noticed that LED diode on H200 is not blinking when inserted to M920q, but it does when inserted into Dell PC.
The pcie riser card may be the problem here...
Anyone got some legit aliexpress source (or ebay)?
Mine looks like this (attached).
