Issues with T61P

My T61p just died.

The computer doesn't POST and noting appears on the screen when i press the power button.

However, the Battery , Charger and "Z" green indicator does appear.

I tried to remove the hard disk, plug into the external hard disk case and its working fine.

Please advice, thanks a lot =)

 

Hi, milk.
Just 2 weeks ago, I came across with the exact same problem as yours on my T61P.
Thanks to NV's crappy G8XM GPU, I had to send my T61P to service center to replace the mainboard.
All you need to do right now is packing your T61P into a box and call Lenovo's local service center, there should be no charge coz your notebook is still within warranty.

 

asap thanks for the input.

My guess its the GPU got burnt ?

I tried to left the computer running , i can feel the heat but noting was on the screen nor the hard disk indicator was blinking.

Other peripherals like mouse wasn't lighted on.

 

Sounds like the failures are beginning to ramp up now. About the 1.5 to 2 year mark and the NV card begins to crap out.

I read the possibility of that happening to mine but so far so good. asap, they they give you a new mainboard with the same card? I suppose their is no other choice unless you want integrated graphics but the board is a refurb? Reason I ask is I went through a period with Toshiba where the main board had an NV card. First replacement was one month after purhchase. All the replacements never lasted long. So ended up with 2 more mainboard replancements before the final crapping out when it was out of warranty.

 

That sounds pretty much how I'd expect this to play out, too.

 

Yes, the "Z" light (which stands for power for motherboard) is still on, keyboard's and mouse's lights are on... but nothing on the screen.
On the repair list it read "Can't turn on when pressing power button, need to change motherboard".
I was also very intersted when I got my T61P back as I wanted to see if they gave me a new board. Unfortunately, no because: 1). It's not likely that Lenovo's factory / ODM is still producing T61P motherboards. (Unless Lenovo has stocked a hell lot of service units for replacement.)
2). Near the memory slots there should be 2 or 3 white labels indicating the FRU numbers. On my replaced board I can see that those labels are in fact relabeled as there is visible glue residue of the old ones... So I am pretty sure that it's a reworked board.
But what is noticeable is that my old board used to shut down unexpectedly over 78C when I was playing games, but on the replaced one, the sympton went away even @ 85C when I was playing Dead Space last weekend...
I just hope that it can still last for one year so that I can consider a W701/710 when the new Intel platform no longer suck my wallet dry.

 

Oh man I hope mine will last for 1 more year before it craps out, since it's not in warranty anymore...

 

This is all terrible. Reminds me of say someone knowing its possible they could have a stroke god forbid at any moment but you can't do anything but live in fear. A proper way to handle this is really to issue a recall a year ago. But looks like these companies wont do it unless saftey is involved ie an exploding battery. Perhaps if an NV card sets fire to someones home, they would get scared and do a recall. Nvidia is the culprit here but Lenovo is not without fault. If you use Dell as the benchmark in terms of what should be done ie coming out and extending warranties automatically and sending out letters (friend rec'd one for a machine with the same card on a Dell), Lenovo and from what I hear HP has failed miserably. Wheres the "Mark" guy, so called ombudsman, from Lenovo on this. On the Lenovo forums, you can see him BS his way out of it too. Shame on him. Loser. As customers dont be afraid to call these companies out on these kind of things.

 

Anyone who has this problem with their T after warranty has expired should use the Dell information which acknowledges the card has issues, pinpoint its the video card at fault in your system. You can do this yourself and also calling Lenovo to get them to agree its the card, then use this information to file a complaint with a consumer agency, such as the BBB or even taking them to small claims court or your state AG. I would hit hard. Other thing to do is contact Walt Mossberg who writes the tech column for the WSJ or an investigative reporter either in your city or say 60 Minutes (at least try). It's not a laughing matter that companies can walk away from responsibility.

 

+1

Man, kudos to you.

I really wish you the best, I've never seen such case of abuse from a company (nVIDIA). From my point of view they should be complied to extend the warranties for all the systems affected, but this mean that nVIDIA would have to admit its fault, which I don't see that happening in the future.

 

I had same problem twice in the last 30 days. My warranty will expire next week. Using this computer right now just feel like using a time bomb. I bought a dell to replace it.

GPU idle temperature under windows 7 near 67c. Playing any game it will reach 100c.

 

BTW If it expires next week then send it in again today. If anything use the fact you sent it in 3x to get them to extend the warranty. Just because you bought a new computer has nothing to do with it. It should not prevent you from excercising your rights under your warranty and the right to have a fit product which you expected on day 1.

 

For me (Quadro NVS 140M) temps at idle are 58*C to 63*C.

 

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/n...aptops-clas-action-status-requested-20090513/

http://www.lawssb.com/docs/NVDA_Complaint.pdf

The shareholder suit says Nvidia took a $475M writedown to pay for repairs. If Lenovo was allocated some of this money (and they should have been as its clear the affected card is used in their systems) then why are folks out of warranty being turned away? As I said, Dell agreed to extend warranties and to repair for affected users, why is Lenovo walking away? Even it's pay as reported for card repairs on the part of Nvida, Lenovo isnt taking any loss. Basically denying a problem the component maker has admitted. But the repair has to be done by them as Nvidia is in no position to repair your notebook.

BTW I have a long warranty so I'm protected. If I did not make that decsion and my system went down due to the card i would not be happy. But I dont think others should be shafted. Reading these stories is irritating.

 

Actually, they just replaced it. I just don't feel like to use it any more, the sudden death isn't really fun to deal with.

 

no one knows how the fund allocation works. The only thing we know is that the 475 million dollars cover both the desktop and laptop GPU, which is a lot of GPU that is covered. Also the 475 million dollars also cover the legal costs and other costs associated with the whole saga. Lenovo probably would have to stump for much of the cost of the repair.

Also, once a laptop goes out of production, motherboard is no longer produced, so if Lenovo is to repair all the laptop, they would need to ask the contract manufacturer to source the motherboard from somewhere, which means they would need to find spare motherboard manufacturing capacity, but given that all the Nvidia GPU of that generation is affected, i think it would be just a waste of time. So effectively the T61 and R61 customers would instead need to be offered free upgrade to the newest Thinkpads. Soon all the cost adds up, and Nvidia's compensation no longer look so attractive.

But for good will i think Lenovo should help out the customers whom are affected, due to the fact that the customers are not the one whom caused this problem in the first place.

 

The same happened to me- I just ordered an ATI-based T500 to replace it.....

Has anyone had these problems with the T61 14.1" widescreen model with the Quadro NVS 140m? My dad has a later model T61 (with the Santa Rosa/Penryn refresh 45nm T8300 processor) that has always ran cooler than my T61p had, and he bought it after me. It seems like no one has had the G86M's fail, and he's not using it to game at all...nor does he intend to. He also uses it less, and the GPU and chipset never get ultra hot like that of my T61....do you think that it's doomed?

 

here is the official solution from Nvidia.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/nvidia-...ve-gpus--buy-our-new-chips/6351.html?doc=6351

according to nvidia all the nvidia GPU used on R61 and T61 is defective, so it is just a matter of time.....

In fact all the Nvidia Geforce 9xxx may also be affected, nvidia thanks but no thanks....

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/29/151227

So that $475 million dollar compensation looks to be immensely generous on the part of nvidia, since it has to cover both the 8xxx and 9xxx GPU.....

 

Actually this doesn't mean all GPU's will fail within 1 year. If you gradually cool and heat the GPU then it will be fine, like i do.

 

It's rather random I think. My t61p was fine when I have played hours of 3D game everyday for almost 2 years. And it suddenly dead twice within a month when I was just watching youtube. The only thing I did recently was installed a large hd and windows 7.

 

It would be convenient if my T61p fails a little while after the refresh comes in 2010. I really hope they'd replace it with an i7 T510 or W510 if they couldn't repair it.

But if it somehow manages to last another 2 years... no big deal, that's fine with me...

 

Yeah except that you wont get a WUXGA any more. Besides, they'll keep 'repairing' it (i.e. sending it back and forth) until you're out of warranty.

I guess the best way to extend the life of our T61p is to leave them on 24/7 or at least keep them on suspend when not in use. Like that, the temp never goes down to the ambient 20deg, but rather stays between 50-80deg.

 

I actually prefer WSXGA+ when it comes to 15" notebooks, but I would hope that I could argue that a T61 -> T500/T510 while a T61p -> W500/W510 and hopefully manage to keep a WUXGA screen.

My warranty's good until 7/2011, so I should be alright. If it lasts until then, I'll be okay with buying a new computer anyways. Luckily, I have the TPP accidental warranty as well.

I was actually thinking about sending it in this coming summer for several repairs including: a new bottom case, new hinges, a new lcd, a new lcd lid, and a new palmrest

 

I was thinking that too (hinges 1" loose) sort of. However, i live in Canada and i bought my T61p gently used from eBay. A problem is that the warranty is based in the US and i was looking into if i could change adresses, but i can't which i think is bull$$$$, why couldn't you just pay a small fee to get it transfered? Idiots. A question though, we have a place down in Florida that we renovated just last winter, could i claim that i lived there so i could send it in for warranty repair, or is the warranty location also fixed to the original address that the T61p shipped to when first bought new? It only says USA and not a specific address, so i may have hope for having a "not useless warranty", as it is a 3 year and expires in December 2011, i'd hate to see it go to waste. I think i'll only send it in if the GPU fails, then i'd tape a sticky to the lid if i send it, saying that the hinges are unacceptably loose.

 

I really suggest you change thermal grease and clean the fan system as dust will stuck the airway gradually. (Once every year for all notebooks, not only Thinkpads...) This will surely help cooling down your notebook and extend its life...

 

Talk about luck...I posted yesterday that my T61p is still up and running. Guess what...it just crapped out on me. When I try to turn it on it gives several beeping noises. Then nothing appears on the screen, and the only indicators that light up are the battery, plug, and the "z". Thank god I still haven't sold my hefty M1730 so I have a backup, but it is still super inconvenient because I was working on my programming project on the Thinkpad, and now I have to reinstall all the tools to continue working on it on the M1730.

The thing's out of warranty too. So how much would lenovo charge me for repairing? Seriously if it's NV's fault they should at least try to cover it.

 

Yea, it sounds like a pretty common problem.

 

Always reading about the legendary hinges on Thinkpads, I thought mine was the only one with that problem. Had that from day 1 and didn't change a bit ever since. Might have it repaired, too, while it's under warranty, together with the crappy capacitor hiss.


As for the crappy NV GPUs, I wouldn't even be surprised if both nvidia and lenovo eventually make a tidy profit from all this (just think of the endless possibilities with insurances, taxes, write-offs, screwing customers,...).

 

The board itself should be around $300.

NV8XM GPU:
Do you want your customers "upgrade" their notebooks once out of warranty?
Do you want to do so even without asking them?
Get an Nvidia G8X GPU, with a precisely timed self-destructing core inside.

 

you can still extend warranty of the laptop even if it is out of warranty, it is slightly more expensive than the in warranty extension, but it is cheaper than the cost of the motherboard.

 

Last time IBM voided my warranty because they think I broke the hinge. That's 5 years ago before lenovo bought thinkpad. Then I switched to MSI branded laptop for a year, that's a completely nightmare, repair took a month with self paid shipping, missing 2 important parts when it returned.

This time after 2 GPU failures within a month. I switched to Dell XPS. My new dell looks cheap and has a very bad keyboard and a mediocre touchpad.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=424853&page=9

Acer is willing to recall a <$300 netbook to fix a mic cable that overheats and can take out fhe HDD. While Lenovo refuses to fix a high ticket TP. BTW, Lenovo sucks as far as they way they treat customers and goodwill. What keeps people is the innovation but sooner or later when that slips some more, TP goes the way of the dodo bird.

 

different marketing and organisational strategy, if you haven't notice that Acer is climbing the computer industry ladder fast, now it is ahead of Dell for the overall market share. Acer once produced great laptops like Toshiba did, but profit chasing lead them to produce mediocre laptops and PC, which is mostly extremely ugly and poor quality. Now Acer is trying to reverse the erosion of their market share.

So it does prove one thing good customer satisfaction increases your sales volume and reputation.... So Lenovo come on lets change all is wrong and take back all the market share...

 

So the NV8XM is the crappy GPU in the T61(p) and the R61?

 

in a nut shell yes

 

Do you have this said "Dell information"?

 

Hahahahahahahahah, this is hilarious, my T61p just BSOD'ed related to "failure to reset driver". Pretty "cheesed" off right now because of it, but i am jumping to conclusions, with these new drivers could just be that, might reinstall them, and all games still run perfectly.

 

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/...ate-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

 

Hmm, Lenovo's website is really confusing to navigate. Could you provide some pointers on how this is best done, especially given that I am trying to extend the warranty on a machine that's already broken?

 

Thanks but that doesn't do anything for my T61p, albeit still working fine and playing Dirt 2 fine.

 

unless you broke the laptop yourself, then it is covered under warranty. Your warranty can be extended through the Lenovo customer service by calling them up and making the request.