Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #11 – Poor performance / CPU throttling in tablet / tent mode

Many people have reported that their Yoga performs poorly and the CPU gets throttled when rotated into tablet/tent mode, causing videos to stutter, etc.  This seems to have become more of an issue after the Windows 8.1 update.

There are two known ways to fix this:

1. Disable the YMC service.  See my post below, fixes #4, for more details on how to do this.  This is my preferred fix, but there is a caveat here – with the YMC service enabled, the trackpad/keyboard disables when the screen is rotated past 180 degrees. Disabling the YMC service will affect this such that the trackpad/keyboard only disables when the screen is rotated a little farther than 270 degrees, perhaps about 300 degrees. This means that tent mode and tablet mode will still behave correctly, because the screen is well past 300 degrees in these modes and thus the trackpad/keyboard properly disables. However stand mode is potentially affected because in that position you may have the screen closer than 300 degrees. If that is problematic for you, use the next option (2) instead.
2. First, try updating the Intel DPTF (Desktop Platform and Thermal Framework) drivers with the latest drivers from the Lenovo website.  If that doesn’t work (which it doesn’t for many), disable DPTF in BIOS.  Enter the BIOS by restarting the machine, and when the very first “Lenovo” screen displays, hit the “F2” key. You can then find the option to disable DPTF. Save changes and exit the BIOS.

EDIT: I changed the above paragraph to reflect new information about the screen rotation needing to pass 300 degrees to disable the trackpad/keyboard, when running with YMC disabled. Thanks to the comments from Katie for this info.

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #10 – Get the latest Wifi drivers from Windows update, fixes Wifi problems for most

This post assumes that you have upgraded to Windows 8.1.  If so, you can update the network Wifi drivers from Windows update to the latest driver version.  As of this post, the latest driver is dated 11/13/2013, version 1026.4.1023.2013. It works great, and seems to solve the problems some people were having with the Wifi.

To make sure you have the latest network drivers:

1. Hit the Windows key + ‘x’ to open the power menu
2. Click ‘Device Manager’
3. Expand the ‘Network adapters’
4. Double click the ‘Realtek RTL8723AU Wireless LAN 802.11n USB 2.0 Network Adapter
5. Go to the ‘Driver’ tab
6. Click the ‘Update Driver…’ button
7. Choose ‘Search automatically…’ and follow the prompts to install the latest driver.
8. Reboot

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #9 – Windows 8.1 upgrade causes the screen to start out rotated sideways after restarts

On my Yoga 13, after the Windows 8.1 upgrade, the screen would always start out rotated sideways after a restart. It was easy to correct by just turning the device sideways and back, which would cause it to sense and rotate to the proper orientation. But there is an easy fix:

1. Open up the “Services” manager (search for Services from the Start screen)
2. Open up the “Sensor Monitoring Service” by double clicking on it.  This service is set to manually start up based on a trigger event from the sensors, but this doesn’t seem to work too well.
3. Change the startup type from “Manual” to “Automatic”, and you’re done.

Reboots now should start out with the screen in the correct orientation.

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #8 – Windows 8.1 upgrade causes the external monitor to stop working on the Thinkpad Dock

Symptoms: On the Thinkpad USB 3.0 Dock the external mouse and keyboard work, but the external monitor doesn’t.  This is fixed by installing the updated USB 3.0 Dock driver from http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?DocID=UM014961

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #7 – Windows 8.1 update causes a few issues

The Windows 8.1 update brings a lot of nice improvements, however it also creates two problems (well, let’s just say I only encountered two problems), both easily remedied. These issues are caused by something the Windows 8.1 installation does in refreshing the state of the device drivers.

1) Sound doesn’t work. Additionally, this causes videos / movies to fail to play with an obscure error. I want to start out by mentioning the first thing I tried to fix this, which seems to work but is in fact incomplete: If you go to the control panel (win key + x -> control panel), then open the Sound applet, it will immediately pop up a message saying that sound enhancements have been detected that are causing sound problems, and it asks if you want to disable these enhancements.  It is fine to click yes on this, but it only partially solves the problem. Sound will indeed work after doing this, but the Dolby Home Theater program no longer works. I suspect these are the sound enhancements that were referred to in the error message.

The correct fix is to download the Conexant audio driver from Lenovo and run the installation.  This simply reinstalls the same sound driver that was already there, but reinstalling it fixes it. Get the driver here: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS032590

2) The touch screen device was also reinitialized during the upgrade, so you will have to reapply the Fix #1 listed below in an earlier post in this blog. This is the fix for the touch screen going to sleep and missing the first swipe. You can find it here: https://cogitoabsurdum.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/how-to-fix-the-lenovo-yoga-13-touch-it-misses-swipes-because-it-sleeps/

EDIT: A 3rd problem on my machine resulting from the 8.1 upgrade is documented in a newer post above – fixes #9.

 

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #6 – Keep your drivers up to date

It is always a good idea to be aware of any driver updates that become available.  The Lenovo driver page for the Yoga 13 is here:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS032590

There have already been a couple of important driver updates that everyone should install.

1. BIOS update – Version 55 dated May 1, 2013

2. EDIT: This part about the Wifi drivers is out of date. Please see a newer post above, Fixes #10.

   WiFi (Realtek Wireless LAN & Bluetooth) driver update – 1.04.0213 dated Jun 6, 2013.  Please note that after installing this driver update, you will need to apply my fix #2 listed below, about the mouse cursor flicker.

 

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #5 – remove some useless bloatware

I recommend removing / disabling some stuff I call bloatware:

The following two programs can be disabled with settings in each program, or they can be removed by using the Control Panel -> Programs and Features to uninstall. NOTE:  I don’t know where one can download these programs should one ever want them back. So if you are unsure about whether you want these, rather than uninstalling just go into each of these programs and disable their features. Still, I went full uninstall.

• Lenovo Transitions – This program will automatically make certain programs run full screen if the screen orientation changes.   For example, if you have a PowerPoint presentation open, and you rotate the machine to portrait mode, the presentation will automatically switch to full screen.  It only supports a half dozen programs, and doesn’t seem that interesting to me.
• Lenovo Motion Control – Supposedly you can use gestures in the air in front of the camera to interact with the computer. For example you can swipe your hand in front of the camera to go to the next picture in a slideshow.  I tried it and it seemed very finicky and difficult to use.

Finally, disable the YogaServer.  I’m not sure what this does, but until I miss it, why load it? Go to the desktop, right click on the task bar and choose “Task Manager”.  Go to the “Startup” tab, find the YogaServer program, right click on it and choose “disable”.  Restart the machine so that it is no longer loaded.  You can always re-enable it later.

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #4 – Disable YMC service

Many users have experienced issues with the track pad / keyboard in the Lenovo Yoga.  One symptom is that the track pad / keyboard spontaneously becomes disabled – the theory is that the machine suddenly, mistakenly thinks it is in tent / tablet mode (i.e. like when the screen is folded back around), such that the keyboard would then be disabled.  At that point users typically have to sleep then un-sleep the machine to wake the keyboard back up.

I haven’t personally had this problem, but it may only manifest on certain models, or perhaps I don’t use it in such a way as to trigger this event.  In any case, the idea is that there is a buggy interaction between the machine’s sensor drivers and the YMC (Yoga Mode Control) service, and the suggested fix is to disable this service. The YMC service seems to be responsible for handling some behaviors with regard to folding the lid back into the tablet/tent/stand mode positions.

Even though I haven’t been bitten by this problem, I thought I would give it a try. I think the machine is more responsive in subtle ways, and it seems like the wireless reconnects more quickly when leaving sleep mode.

There is a caveat here – with the YMC service enabled, the trackpad/keyboard disables when the screen is rotated past 180 degrees. Disabling the YMC service will affect this such that the trackpad/keyboard only disables when the screen is rotated a little farther than 270 degrees, perhaps about 300 degrees. This means that tent mode and tablet mode will still behave correctly, because the screen is well past 300 degrees in these modes and thus the trackpad/keyboard properly disables. However stand mode is potentially affected because in that position you may have the screen closer than 300 degrees.

EDIT: I changed the above paragraph to reflect new information about the screen rotation needing to pass 300 degrees to disable the trackpad/keyboard. Thanks to the comments on another post from Katie for this info.

To perform this fix, go to the Power menu (windows key + ‘x’), choose “Computer Management”, then choose “Services”, and then find the “YMC” service in the list of services.  Double click the YMC service.  Stop the service and set the “Startup Type” to either manual or disabled.  You can always re-enable it later if needed.

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #3 – Turn off the Dolby Home Theater program when using headphones

My Lenovo came with some Dolby Home Theater software installed and running. You can find this by going to the desktop and looking in the tray (bottom right corner). This software makes the external speakers sound better, however it wreaks havoc on the way headphones sound. Turn this off when using headphones.

Lenovo Yoga 13 fixes #2 – Mouse cursor flickers after latest network driver update

EDIT: Please note that there are newer network drivers available from the Lenovo driver download page and from Windows Update.  However this post is still relevant if you are experiencing the mouse cursor flicker.  After reviewing the steps in this post, please see Fix #10 posted above.

After the latest network device driver update form Lenovo (released June 6, 2013, version 1.04.0213), the mouse cursor flickers every two seconds. This update installed a service that writes log messages to a file (C:\Windows\runSW.log), and maybe does who knows what else, _every two seconds_ . I recommend disabling it – it doesn’t appear to provide any useful functionality, and I can’t imagine why they have installed such a hack. You can always re-enable it if you want.

Disable the RunSwUSB service as follows:

1. Hold down the ‘Windows key’ and hit the ‘x’ key to bring up the power menu
2. Choose ‘Computer Management”
3. Expand the “Services and Applications” item in the left pane, or you can double click it in the center pane
4. Click the “Services” item. This will open the list of services in the right pane
5. Double click on the RunSWUSB service in the list of services
6. Under “Service status” click ‘stop’ to stop the service
7. Change the “Startup Type” to either ‘Disabled’ or ‘Manual’, doesn’t matter which.

Done.