Lenovo Thinkcentre/ThinkStation Tiny (Project TinyMiniMicro) Reference Thread

[Extremity]

This should be the right cooling block

Sigh. After half an hour of figuring out how to make an account and use the site, I finally get to checkout and get this:

"This product cannot be purchased or shipped due to relevant laws, regulations or Taobao policies."

 

[evil_santa]

Sigh. After half an hour of figuring out how to make an account and use the site, I finally get to checkout and get this:

"This product cannot be purchased or shipped due to relevant laws, regulations or Taobao policies."

You need to use an agent service like super buy or pandabuy.
I prefer pandabuy (never payed tax or customs duties to Germany)

Pandabuy

A Platform Crafted for Global Shopping

pandabuy.allapp.link

It's a agent service, the agent orders the stuff you want and sent it to you.
They have also a good working app.

 

[Extremity]

Alright, I'll check it out. Would you happen to know a fan model or dimensions I can use to try and find a fan upgrade? I don't want to cut any holes or anything, I'd prefer to just get a better fan that replaces the stock one. Nobody has been able to help me figure out why it will only run in "prefer acoustics" mode, so if I have to stay in that mode I'm hoping an improved fan will help offset things.

Thanks for your help, sorry for all the questions.

 

[Extremity]

So i finally got my m720q, installed Pfsese onto the m.2.

The m720q will not boot from pfsense after i installed. It says it cannot see any OS.

I have boot priority to boot from the m.2 first, for some reason it just does not want to. This is driving me bananas.

Pfsense is installed on this m.2. so why is it giving me grief?

I noticed there is GPT, which i tried first - it does this (no OS found).

I tried GPT+ Lenovo fix , still no OS found.

i am losing my mind. This should have taken 30 seconds. Ive done this 10000s of times on Dell r210s and never an issue.

I had a similar problem with my M900 Tiny, albeit reversed - I could boot from M2, but it refused to ever boot from USB regardless of settings. I ended up needing to force a BIOS update using the board jumper and a USB drive with the update specifically plugged into the rear USB with the keyboard icon, which forced the update at boot. Are you on the latest BIOS? If you are and still struggle, I could not boot from M2 without changing the Secure Boot and CSM settings.

 

[coolrunnings82]

So i finally got my m720q, installed Pfsese onto the m.2.

The m720q will not boot from pfsense after i installed. It says it cannot see any OS.

I have boot priority to boot from the m.2 first, for some reason it just does not want to. This is driving me bananas.

Pfsense is installed on this m.2. so why is it giving me grief?

I noticed there is GPT, which i tried first - it does this (no OS found).

I tried GPT+ Lenovo fix , still no OS found.

i am losing my mind. This should have taken 30 seconds. Ive done this 10000s of times on Dell r210s and never an issue.

1. Set the BIOS to not support CSM mode (UEFI Only).
2. Disable secure boot.
3. Reinstall pfSense in UEFI mode.

See if that does it for you. I've done half a dozen installs on M720q units and that has worked every time for me. As an aside, as of a recent BIOS update, the M720q and M920q will not boot from NVME in MBR mode.

 

[janek202]

Maybe someone will find this useful, I checked Max C-states and a power consumption of a few 10Gig NICs.

Lenovo P330 Tiny, i5-8500T, 16GB RAM, 2xM2 for testing: NVME 256GB + Optane 16GB. No WiFi.
CX-3 was updated to the latest FW. There was nothing connected to the SFP+ ports.

I measured power consumption at the wall, after running powertop --auto-tune, at idle, in Ubuntu Desktop.
I only connected PiKVM running on a Raspberry Pi Zero W.
These results will be even lower running headless, so it's not the absolute best, but may indicate power consumption increase.

NIC	Max Pkg C-state	Power Consumption at idle
None	C8	6.1 W
Mellanox ConnectX-3 Single SFP+ (MCX311A-XCAT)	C3	11.5 W
Intel X710-DA2 (Cisco UCSC-PCIE-ID10GF)	C7	9 W

 

[xomanuel]

How many HDs can a Tiny do? Here's my m920x w 7 HDs (3 onboard), plus HBA via PCI riser.
2 x m.2 NVMEs
1 x SATA SSD
4 x SATA SSDs (via HBA)

Has anyone seen an adapter or face plate to mount a 5.25" optical drive into 1U? It's a standard size (albeit not exactly 5.25"), so there are lots of applications. I want to mount a dock for 4 x 2.5" SSDs in a single U along with a Blu-Ray. Can't seem to find anything that will do the trick. Of course I can just set it on a shelf, but I'd like to find a panel for the front.

Hi what HBA adapter did you used here, and where can I purchase?

Thanks

 

[sportal]

It looks like my ESXi 8.0 Update 2, Purple Screen of Death, were caused by the NIC. The NIC I had in the PCIe slot is the SuperMicro AOC-STGN-I2S Dual Port 10GbE SFP+. Removing the NICs and the system runs without issues. I'm not sure if it is a bad NIC or incompatibility with the system, NIC and ESXi.

Any recommendations for another Dual Port 10G SFP+ NIC for the M90q Gen2, on the VMware HCL? If it was low power, deeper C states, low thermal issues, and didn't require removing the antenna bracket, that would be good. I'm leaning towards the X710-DA2, even though it requires removing the antenna bracket.

 

[janek202]

Any recommendations for another Dual Port 10G SFP+ NIC for the M90q Gen2, on the VMware HCL? If it was low power, deeper C states, low thermal issues, and didn't require removing the antenna bracket, that would be good. I'm leaning towards the X710-DA2, even though it requires removing the antenna bracket.

I haven't tested it, but there's also AOC-STGF-i2S, which is based on X710, but looks shorter.

 

[Load97]

Hope this helps, and maybe I missed it in the 71 pages of stuff. I had problems getting a driver to work with the Supermicro 10GBE dual port card. Searching the web I came across a guy stuck with an actual Supermicro card that had custom firmware/ID on it from/made for a place called Corair (or something like that for a name). Anyway, Window 11 users will need to use older drivers to install, or at least I did. Proset drivers don't work BTW. Just the regular ones. Also the guy on Reddit made a nice 3d printed baffle/brace like others have said. Bought two for just in case. He was great to deal with an super nice.

Intel X520-DA1 driver support in Windows 11

I need new 10 GbE SFP+ NICs because the stack of ConnectX-2s I have are no longer supported in Windows 11. A real shame, I'm a big fan of these Mellanox cards. I found a cheap supply of Intel X520-DA1 cards, which are equally old as my Mellanox cards, but I figured, Intel, software support must...

arstechnica.com

Drivers that worked for me as of today (showing ethernet adapter correctly in Windows, but need to run to my 10GBE switch soon & then know for sure) --> Intel® Network Adapter Driver for Windows® 10

Hope this helps others!

 

[djpbessems]

Anyone have experience with ordering P340/350/360 or the latest "P3" from within Australia? The official AU Lenovo website only offers 2 cpu options, none of which are interesting to me. Compared to the options available to the official NL Lenovo website, it feels rather frustrating...

Is there another website that easily allows configurable orders?

 

[dxx-223]

Hi all, I've just joined in the hope of collating more data on quite why the bifurcation mod described at Badger707's github, issue #1 only half works for me.

I already had an M720q running as a home NAS & thin client but recently ventured into the world of home automation. Unfortunately I can't run two VMs, with each needing USB devices, because the M720q only has one USB root host to pass through. Pass-through only works at the PCI device level so passing through specific USB devices isn't an option.

The plan is to bifurcate the PCIe x8 slot into two, coupled with a dual M.2 riser card, providing x4 for the existing 2nd M.2 NVMe and an additional M.2 USB card.

The 2-resistor CFG mod seemed ideal except that it didn't seem to work on my M720q. I have also borrowed an M920q and the 2-resistor CFG mod kinda works except only for the M.2 NVMe.

Neither of my two M.2 USB cards seem to be enumerated on the PCI bus when using the dual-M.2 riser card.
However, the 2nd M.2 NVMe works totally fine in either slot of the dual-M.2 riser card!
So I'm assuming the bifurcation mod worked and the dual-M.2 riser card works also.

I just can't get my head around what else might be different or what to try.
Both Badger707 and myself tried the mod on our M720q boxes but it doesn't work because although the CPU supports 1x16, 2x8 or 1x8+2x4, the B360 PCH restricts this to only 1x16. See Badger707's github, issue #2

Lenovo PCI whitelist unlikely to be the culprit because USB M.2 cards work with passive M.2 riser.
Any time an M.2 card is installed onto any of the risers, the corresponding LED on the riser is lit, so I'm assuming that it's not a 'presence' / PRSNT# / hot-plug issue.

To this end, I'm asking: has anyone else tried this and could they maybe post their results?

My data so far is:

M720q - i7-9700T
BIOS version M1UKT74A - 11/14/2023
Motherboard IQ3X0IL rev 1.0 - 2018 04 03 (as printed on board)

	Passive M.2 riser in slot	Dual M.2 riser, slot 1	Dual M.2 riser, slot 2	Underside M.2 socket
ASM3142 USB card	works	works (with slot 2 empty)	n/a (no mod on M720q)
uPD720202 USB card	works	works (with slot 2 empty)	n/a
NVMe SSD	works	works (with slot 2 empty)	n/a

M920q - i5-8500T
BIOS version M1UKT74A - 11/14/2023
Motherboard IQ3X0IL rev 1.0 - 2018 04 03 (as printed on board)

	Passive M.2 riser in slot	Dual M.2 riser, slot 1	Dual M.2 riser, slot 2	Underside M.2 socket
ASM3142 USB card	doesn't work (also 1st power-on hangs)	doesn't work	doesn't work	doesn't work
uPD720202 USB card	works	doesn't work	doesn't work	doesn't work
NVMe SSD	works	works	works	works

ASM3142 M.2 USB card
uPD720202 M.2 USB card
PH45 rev 2.1 x8 to dual x4 M.2 riser card
Passive M.2 riser card

 

[Rttg]

Thanks for reporting on that @dxx-223

Has anyone seen any intel on PCH bifurcation / lane configuration? I’m wondering if it’s possible to get an Optane H10 working on these…

 

[dxx-223]

Thanks for reporting on that @dxx-223

Has anyone seen any intel on PCH bifurcation / lane configuration? I’m wondering if it’s possible to get an Optane H10 working on these…

As far as I know, there are only PCH options: B360 and Q370.
Intel Ark reports PCI express options for both as: "x1, x2, x4"

The Intel 300 Series Chipset Family PCH documentation, Section 3 "Flexible I/O" talks about how the PCH lanes can be configured in various ways, e.g. AHCI/SATA or GbE or PCIe or xHCI/USB.

Based on the board block layout diagram, the PCH has these PCIe connections:

• x1 to the WiFi/WLAN E-keyed M.2 2230-sized socket
• x4 to both underside M.2 M-key 2280 sockets - the 2nd of which is only present on P330 and M920x
• x4 to the proprietary Lenovo PCIe slot - in addition to the x8 direct from the CPU (I really need to look into this!)

Are you really hoping to split one of those x4 into two x2, or even four x1?

 

[dxx-223]

Following on from my own post, and in relation to my 'need more USB!' journey, it seems there two more options:

1. Use the x1 lane from the WiFi/WLAN E-keyed socket via a E-key to M-key converter.
   Maybe reinstall the WiFi/WLAN card in the dual M.2 riser using an M-key to E-key converter.
   Total madness!
   
   
2. Take a closer look at the Lenovo PCIe slot to PCIe x16 socket adapter (01AJ940) to see how the x4 from the PCH are presented.
   Maybe we don't even need to perform any mods because there might be x8 + x4 provided.
   My use-case would be totally fine using x4 from the PCH as my USB end-devices are low speed.
   This could be a very simple riser as it appears the x4 lanes from the PCH come with their own clock, so no need for additional ICs.
   
   More info: it could be that the PCH's x4 is used by the Lenovo x4 riser (01AJ929), based on this Lenovo forum post.
   Easiest proof-of-concept might be to buy a x16 extension cable and a x4 socket, then resolder some of the wires from the x16 to the x4.
   By some, I mean like 40+!

 

[Peterab]

Hi,

I have an issue with my new to me Lenovo m910x. The issue is that the CPU fan comes on full speed when it should not. Details follow.

This 910x is tasked with being outside in next to a telescope controlling various functions and processing video from two cameras looking at the night sky. It comes back inside when observing is done and may be used to process data being used as a portable workstation. The ,m910x may get cool when outside.

The issue is with reported temperatures and the cooling fan. There is a temperature reported through the NTC6683 that is listed as belonging to the DRAM. It is much lower (20C) that the other reported temperatures and impossibly under the ambient temperature.

When the DRAM temperature gets near 0C the reported temperature jumps to 127C. This causes the CPU fan to turn on full speed. This is not good as it is loud and uses more power.

I am thinking there are at least two problems. The dram temperature sensor is bad, configured wrongly, or maybe not installed but reported by mistake. There is a bug dealing with the sign when reading when DRAM temperature. Below 0C reported as high temperatures. This may also effect the other temperature reporting sources if they get cold enough.

Any ideas for fixes or workarounds? Is there anyway to obtain user fan control on the m910x? As far as I can tell the BIOS has full control. Does your Lenovo ThinkCentre mini report a dram temperature and is it correct? I would be happy control the fan off of the CPU temperature and ignore all the system board temperatures if that was possible.


Here is HWMonitor output taken while the m910x was at normal (20C) indoor temperatures. Note the false low DRAM temperature:

HWMonitor version 1.5.2.0

Monitoring
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mainboard Model 310C (0x000000D7 - 0x00002118)

LPCIO
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

LPCIO Vendor Nuvoton
LPCIO Model NCT6683
LPCIO Vendor ID 0x5CA3
LPCIO Chip ID 0xC7
LPCIO Revision ID 0x3A
Config Mode I/O address 0x2E
Config Mode LDN 0xB
Config Mode registers
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00 FF FF 00 FF FF FF FF 0B FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
10 FF FF 00 FF FF 00 FF FF FF FF 03 F0 00 00 F0 F0
20 C7 3A BC DF 81 FF 00 3E 00 FD CF 00 00 00 00 10
30 01 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
40 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
50 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
60 0A 20 00 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
70 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
Register space LPC, base address = 0x0A20


Hardware Monitors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardware monitor Nuvoton NCT6683
Voltage 11 0.10 Volts [0x6] (VIN11)
Voltage 13 0.83 Volts [0x34] (VIN13)
Voltage 14 1.02 Volts [0x40] (VIN14)
Voltage 15 0.42 Volts [0x1A] (VIN15)
Voltage 16 0.45 Volts [0x1C] (VIN16)
Voltage 17 0.51 Volts [0x20] (VIN17)
Voltage 18 0.51 Volts [0x20] (VIN18)
Temperature 0 23 degC (73 degF) [0x17] (CPU)
Temperature 1 29 degC (84 degF) [0x1D] (PCH)
Temperature 2 26 degC (78 degF) [0x1A] (eSIO)
Temperature 3 6 degC (42 degF) [0x6] (DRAM)
Fan 1 800 RPM [0x320] (Front)
Hardware registers

Hardware monitor D3D

Hardware monitor Intel I/O
Temperature 1 24 degC (75 degF) [0x18] (GPU)
Clock Speed 0 0.00 MHz [0x0] (Graphics)
Clock Speed 1 n.a. (Memory)
Clock Speed 2 n.a. (Processor)

Hardware monitor D3D


Thanks for any Ideas,

Peter

 

[dxx-223]

I've traced some of the connections from the Lenovo proprietary PCI slot to the x16 PCIe socket on 01AJ940 and the x4 PCIe socket on the 01AJ929. See attached, zipped ODS file for details; it should open in Excel or Google or OpenOffice, etc.

The x4 riser 01AJ929 does seem to present the clock and x4 lanes from the PCH, rather than the CPU.
It may well be technically possible to build a 'simple' riser card to fit into Lenovo's slot that could provide both PCIe from the CPU (x8, or two x4 if you've bifurcated) and PCIe x4 from the PCH at the same time. All of the initial pins (+12V, +3.3V, SMB) could be shared with both sockets.

Here's a comically bad mock-up in MS Paint:

I imagine plugging a PCIe x4 extension cable into the upper x4 slot that would lay on top of whatever is plugged into the x16 slot, assuming enough spare room inside your M920q.

Unfortunately, I absolutely do not have the skills to produce such a card and I doubt anyone else has the motivation to do so. Even if they did, it would probably be more cost-effective to sell an M920q and just buy two M720q boxes instead.

As for my USB needs, my remaining options seem to be:

• Try an E-key to M-key adapter in the WiFi/WLAN socket and see if either of my M.2 M-key USB cards work that way.
  If so, use a USB WiFi adapter in place of the one originally in the WiFi/WLAN socket.
  
  
• Try a different PCIe x8 to bifurcated dual x4 M.2 M-key expansion card, just in case either of my M.2 M-key USB cards are picky.

 

[eradman]

The Intel X520-DA1 NIC fits perfectly in the m90q without a custom bracket. The single SFP port lines up with the cutout that would otherwise have a serial port, eSATA port etc.

 

[Orybon]

Hello,

I want to buy my first Lenovo m.

I selected few models based on what i found on my country :

• M720q - I3-9100T / RAM 8Go / 256 Go SSD - 120 €
• M900 - i5-6500T / RAM 8Go / 256 Go SSD - 100€ => This one get integrated wifi.
• M710q - I3-7100T / RAM 8Go / 128 Go SSD - 75€
• M710q - G4400T / RAM 8Go / 128 Go SSD - 60€
• M700 - G4400T / RAM 8Go / 128 Go SSD - 60€

The TMM will be installed on my parents home, i will put backup from my NAS on it remotely. I think that i will use it as a "backup site" also to host critical service in case of an incident on the server that is hosted in my house.

What do you think of the models listed ? Which i one should i buy ? What is the best value for the price ?

 

[dxx-223]

Hello,

I want to buy my first Lenovo m.

I selected few models based on what i found on my country :

• M720q - I3-9100T / RAM 8Go / 256 Go SSD - 120 €
• M900 - i5-6500T / RAM 8Go / 256 Go SSD - 100€ => This one get integrated wifi.
• M710q - I3-7100T / RAM 8Go / 128 Go SSD - 75€
• M710q - G4400T / RAM 8Go / 128 Go SSD - 60€
• M700 - G4400T / RAM 8Go / 128 Go SSD - 60€

The TMM will be installed on my parents home, i will put backup from my NAS on it remotely. I think that i will use it as a "backup site" also to host critical service in case of an incident on the server that is hosted in my house.

What do you think of the models listed ? Which i one should i buy ? What is the best value for the price ?

M720q:

• newer, more power efficient CPUs - useful if barely loaded but powered up 24/7
• can upgrade to i7-9700T - but make sure you have 130W PSU, consider using the better heatsink from M920x/P330
• can support up to 64GB DDR4
• PCI x8 slot could support an additional M.2 NVMe drive
  • this is in addition to the underside M.2 NVMe drive
  • you might have to give up any installed SATA drive - due to space
  • or you could use PCIe x8 slot for quad-network card or GPU or whatever...
  • cannot be bifurcated! due to B360 chipset
• you can buy the integrated wifi kit from Aliexpress for around €18 I think
• USB 3.1 gen 2 (unlike M710q, M700, M900)
• USB-C port (unlike M710q, M700, M900)
• price is 'ok' considering i3-9100T