Lenovo ThinkPad T520

Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
Bluetooth
0a5c:217f
Yes
Webcam
04f2:b217
Yes
Ethernet
8086:1502
Yes
WLAN (Intel)
8086:0084
Yes
8086:0085
Yes
8086:4238
Yes
WLAN (Realtek)
10ec:8176
Yes
WWAN
0bdb:1911
Untested
GPU (Intel)
8086:0116
Yes
8086:0126
Yes
GPU (NVIDIA)
10de:1057
Yes
Touchpad
Yes
Trackpoint
Yes
Keyboard
Yes
Fingerprint reader
147e:2016
Untested
Smart card reader
17ef:1003
Untested
SD card reader
1180:e822
Untested
1180:e823
Yes
Audio
8086:1c20
Yes
The larger 15-inch variant of the
Lenovo ThinkPad T420
.
Accessibility
The appearance of the ThinkPad Setup program (i.e., the tool used to configure UEFI BIOS settings) is simple and uses contrasting colours, so it may work well with OCR software. A legend of keyboard navigation shortcuts is also clearly listed on the bottom of the screen.
Note
Blind users should request the help of a sighted person to change UEFI BIOS settings. Keyboard beeps in the ThinkPad Setup program are enabled by default but only happen when unmanageable/invalid key combinations are pressed.
The
user guide
has a section under Chapter 8, "Advanced configuration", titled "ThinkPad Setup" that highlights the steps need to configure the UEFI BIOS settings. Relevant keyboard shortcuts (including those needed to trigger certain features on device startup) are also mentioned throughout:
Key
Effect
ThinkVantage
Interrupt normal startup and bring up the Startup menu
F1
Start the ThinkPad Setup program
F12
Bring up the Boot Menu window
Firmware
fwupd
does not support this device yet.
Graphics
Selecting the graphics device
(This section only applies if your laptop also comes with the NVIDIA graphics card.)
Selecting a graphics device can be done by entering the ThinkPad Setup program and selecting one of the following options from
Config > Display > Graphics Device
:
Integrated Graphics
Discrete Graphics
NVIDIA Graphics
See
Intel graphics
,
NVIDIA
, and
NVIDIA Optimus
or
Bumblebee
for more details.
Note
The
DisplayPort will not work in Integrated Graphics mode
since it is hardwired to the NVIDIA graphics card. One of the other modes must be used to make the DisplayPort available.
A maximum of one external monitor can be used in
Discrete Graphics
mode since the NVIDIA (discrete) graphics card can only drive two screens at most (including the laptop's built-in screen).
NVIDIA Optimus
can be selected instead for configurations with more than one external monitor.
OS Detection for NVIDIA Optimus
must also be set to
Disabled
if you want to use
NVIDIA Optimus
.
Screen freeze in Discrete Graphics mode
In
Discrete Graphics
mode,
GRUB
's framebuffer can freeze the screen before the login prompt appears.
Disabling the framebuffer
resolves this issue.
Touchpad
libinput
does not support horizontal edge scrolling on the T520's touchpad.
Function keys
Key
Visible?
1
Marked?
2
Effect
Fn
Yes
No
XF86Wakeup
Fn+F2
Yes
Yes
XF86ScreenSaver
Fn+F3
Yes
Yes
XF86Battery
Fn+F4
Yes
Yes
XF86Sleep
Fn+F5
Yes
Yes
XF86WLAN
Fn+F6
Yes
Yes
XF86WebCam
Fn+F7
Yes
Yes
XF86Display
Fn+F8
Yes
Yes
XF86TouchpadToggle
Fn+F9
Yes
NoSymbol
Fn+F12
Yes
Yes
XF86Suspend
Fn+PageUp
No
Yes
Toggles the ThinkLight
Fn+Home
Yes
Yes
XF86MonBrightnessUp
Fn+End
Yes
Yes
XF86MonBrightnessDown
Fn+Space
No
Yes
None
Fn+PrintScreen
Yes
Yes
Alt_L
Alt_L+Sys_Req
Fn+ScrollLock
Yes
Yes
Num_Lock
Fn+Pause
Yes
Yes
Control_L+Break
Fn+Down
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioPlay
Fn+Up
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioStop
Fn+Right
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioNext
Fn+Left
Yes
Yes
XF86AudioPrev
The key is visible to
xev
and similar tools.
The physical key has a symbol on it, which describes its function.
Note
Pressing
Fn+ScrollLock
even once (to toggle Num Lock) will cause subsequent
Fn+ScrollLock
key presses to become invisible to
xev
and similar tools until the system is rebooted.
Tip
Fn key lock can be enabled in the BIOS settings. When this option is enabled, pressing
Fn
once keeps the key in a pressed condition, similar to
sticky keys
. Pressing
Fn
twice will keep it in a locked stated until
Fn
is pressed again.
See also
https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T520
— Contains extensive and useful hardware information
Product Specifications Reference (PSREF)
— See pages 420–431 for the ThinkPad T520, T520i
Hardware maintenance manual
User guide