Lenovo have opted to fix T61p with Nvidia GPU issue for free?

...and contained a lot of hard-to-find and classic models.

 

And the butterfly keyboard from the looks of it

 

That was only about half of Steve's collection at the time. He said that when he started setting them up for the pic he ran out of table space. He didn't want to crowd them because, if he jammed them all on top of one another, the more unique models wouldn't show up as well.

 

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and...40M-garbled-display-problem/m-p/219991#M46614

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and...a-blank-screen-when-booting/m-p/216831#M46251

I have read various Mark_Lenovo's posts for you, he did not mention any exact quotable reference number, but he suggests that the phone support staffs should read their internal tip database.

Also, several years ago i had a hardware issue with my Thinkpad laptop, which phone support refuses to recognize as a intrinsic hardware problem, only after i asked them for their email address and send them a copy of the post by Mark_Lenovo did they come to acknowledge the issue.

So, if i am you i would call Lenovo and if they don't know the problem, ask for their email (every support staff has a email with a [email protected], etc), but it is not usually released to the public unless it is absolutely necessary.... ask for it and send them the exact post i have shown above to them.

 

According to Mark_Lenovo the new motherboard have a GPU that won't have this problem again... whatever that supposes to mean.

 

Not sure what is actually going on with Nvidia, as they never made any public statements regarding this, so we can only assume that Nvidia made a batch run with high melting point solder used within the GPU package.

 

like i said earlier in this thread...

from what i've been told, there's no reason to worry about the systems that are fixed under the new warranty terms.

 

Damn it, so the new ones are ok????? Wish my T61p wasn't run over now , otherwise i'd have the perfect ThinkPad with one of the "new" mobo's.

 

the logo on one's paycheck has zero bearing on the amount of knowledge that person has on a given topic.   the two are mutually exclusive.   every department within lenovo has their own set of NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and not everyone is afforded info on every detail.

however, i will say that there are a few lenovo employees and forum moderators who frequent this board.   they may or may not know more than the average person on this topic.   NDAs may restrict what they can and cannot say publicly though.

 

you wish you knew what a certain pharma doesnt want me to tell you.

 

I tend to think that if Nividia did produce fixed GPUs, which by all accounts they did, Lenovo would make every effort to get them. There's a lot of value in their lease program that they wouldn't want to degrade. Not to mention their reputation (strangely enough not everyone knows the GPU problems were Nividia's fault)

 

?
Explain why they would have left Apple - HP - Dell and all others out of the new run of good GPU's
All these companies have higher volumes then Lenovo
Yet they are stuck upgrading laptops to higher end models in the form of a replacement/exchange such as what Dell is doing , or even full 100% refunds. "Dell is doing this for for my loaded xps m1330 nearly $2400 back to me"

No i highly doubt Lenovo has anything new, they are playing the odd's that once repaired, it will last past any/all warranty extensions.
Yet it is still a defective gpu

 

They produced them and shipped them to everybody I would guess. OEM's have to blow through their stock if Nvdia wouldn't take them back. Maybe Lenovo's abrupt cancellation of T61p orders was them refusing to do more until they got chips they could believe in.

There's another theory I'd rather not endorse, but I've suggested it. Manufacturers have a supply of Nvidia cards that are mixed. Some are the high lead (bad) ones and some are the fixed ones. You end up with a parts lottery. I've made my views known that Lenovo is pretty much Johnny Come Lately... despite have done right by me.

 

Did you miss the part where this is only about laptops that are OUT of warranty to begin with? That's not playing, that's giving.

I'll probably call Lenovo in the next couple of days. The way I see it, even if they give me another "defective" system board it would be good.

 

Nvidia may have produced a small batch of these gpu or modified them in such way.... it is probably involves repackaging the leftover silicon part... but in any cases they would have a small stock of these.

Other manufacturers probably have different deals with Nvidia regarding what should be done, and they probably wanted the good PR ( these PR stunts are quite common in USA) when they announced that they would upgrade their faulty laptops rather than fixing it.

HP have so many faulty laptops it is unbelievable, anyway these upgrades are only in North America, while the rest of the world gets left out (typical HP and this is why i never use their shoddy laptops, they don't care about the other global user of their products).....

 

the bolding slays me.

 

I already used my post warranty for the repair when I read this thread so it's a sunk cost.

The repair was fulfilled really quick. Sent it out on 3/29 and got it back on 4/1 (not a joke!). They basically replace the system board. I have played Mass Effect 2 on the fixed laptop. It runs as hot as it used to run when gaming. The vent area becomes scorching hot after a while. The area around where the GPU is also heats up a lot. So I don't really have much confidence that this thing would last another 2 years. But at least, for now it is fixed. (And I definitely wouldn't have minded if Lenovo wanted good PR and offered to upgrade my laptop instead of just replacing the mobo!)

 

Not at all, that is what Apple is doing as well and even better, Apple extended all warranties on the effected units from the normal one year warranty to three years, if you paid for the repair after your warranty was expired, they are refunding all repair cost.
Dell added one year to all effected units, if you had a 3-year warranty, now you would get one additional year on top that covering the gpu to make if 4-years.

Lenovo is just late in the game of GIVING

Don't get me wrong, i also own a T400, so i am not a troll

 

Sony also did the warranty extension for 3 years.

Lenovo for all we know could also release the 3 years warranty extension, since there is no official statement released on this matter (it could also be an once off repair).

But we should really save our judgement till when Lenovo releases the official statement (if there is ever going to be one).

 

There is good reason in my opinion to wait on any public releases.
Many of these defunk laptops will be junked/sold as scrap.
The longer the official plan of attack takes the less Lenovo has to deal with later.

I have also owned Apple for many of years.
They have done some amazing things for me in the past, such as on G5 imacs
way past the bad capacitor extension warranties, they still covered repairs long after.
Same goes with problems on the laptops, many repairs done well after warranty has expired.
From time to time i buy a few low cost units to see if they can easily be repaired. The nice fact with Apple is this is done in person right at the genius bar, then it becomes a judgment call by the staff there.
Be nice and many times they will take care of you.

Nonetheless, i am sure Lenovo hears it every day that their competitors have plans in place and they do not, they may just leave it up to the squeaky wheel consumer to pressure for a fix on a case by case.

 

Yeah cause it takes a genius to figure out how a computer works...

 

I am not in this thread to make trouble, as i stated, i also have a T400 and many past TP such as the T4x models.
Yet i also own many other brands such as two of the HP elitebooks and several MBPs along with a Dell XPS. Lets just say i seem to collect them.
Therefore i am not speaking as a fanboy as your post indicates you may be.

My comments in regards to the genius bar was just pointing out the fact that there are pluses to the in person face to face, human to human interaction that many times works in the consumers benefit.

I suppose a few may argue that Apple having in the excess of $26 Billion free & clear in the bank affords them additional latitude as well

Point being, Lenovo is responding late to this in more ways than one, still no official response to the known problems.
This is a DEFECT and should have been addressed long ago

 

I agree Apple deffinitely seems to have better service than Lenovo right now, or at least it's more consistent, i had a deffective iPod Touch, told them what wasn't working (screen wasn't responding to touch and buttons were mixed up, home button was turning the unit off) and they sent me a box in 3 days, shipped it to them, and bam, a new Touch. I was pretty pleased with the service. However the nVidia deffect wasn't necessarily the notebook manufacturers fault, it couldn't be absolutely addressed by nVidia since by the time the problem with the high lead solder became realized, they had already started producing the 9M series. There are downsides to Apple as well, it's not like they're a god.

 

While i agree 100% that is is NOT anyone's fault other than nVidia.

Several competing brands have already stepped up with resolutions to the problem, only a small handful of larger players have not and Lenovo falls into the later group.
Therefore understanding this, i personally will not praise them if/when they finally step up to the plate as it will likely be far to late for many of their customers.
Remember, the average Joe users are NOT within these forums so they have no clue as to what the real gpu problems are, they just know their computers went out and it would cost to much to repair, therefore they purchase a replacement computer, very possibly a competing brand, maybe because they have a bad taste in their mouth and feel that a Lenovo product should have lasted longer.

Whereas a public release just may catch the eyes of a few that would have never known.

Then they would have understood that this was nVidia fault

 

Off topic...

Right now they are in my book when it comes to the portfolio.
Just over a year ago was the time to buy BIG into them when the price was just over $80 per share... back then they had nearly $70 per share put away in cash, simply a no-brainer that has paid off on them 2k shares

 

Anyone here have this issue and call Lenovo with success? I'd like to hear one success story before I call.

Also, do you think there is any chance Lenovo will make an official replacement program statement anytime soon like when they replaced (some of) our batteries for the T61p and other systems?

 

No one knows apart from Official Lenovo Employee working on this case would know whether they are going to release the official statement.

 

Called Lenovo support but they didn't help. Here's my post from the Lenovo forums:

I have the 1 long beep 2 short beeps problem. I just called Lenovo support. I described my symptoms but support wasn't aware of the special situation. I then told about Mark's post and asked the support person to double-check his tips, but here's the summary of what I was told. "If it's out of warranty, it's out of warranty. Would you like to pay for a repair?"

What do I do now?

 

I might call back but I don't like my chances. I haven't heard anyone who was successful.

I see that your location is Atlanta, Ga... The same location as the Lenovo Support Center. Maybe you can help "speed up the process" eh heh.

 

gpig,

I've received your information from the Lenovo forum and service will be following up up with you.

We are also working with support to ensure our call screening are updated to alert reps of applicable information on this subject. Thanks for your patience as we work out these process kinks.

Best regards,

Mark

 

Thank you. I have a feeling that in a few weeks Lenovo will once again be my favorite computer company.

 

It is nice to see Mark active here helping.
Without some official Lenovo public release, it seems as cost saving measures Lenovo may just leave it up to the squeaky wheel consumer to pressure for a fix on a case by case, even all the call screening alerts to reps won't help those that can't fully/technically explain the issue or those that will not call due to expired warranties.

 

I got my T61p back and the new motherboard seems to be working perfectly. I did get a blue screen within the first 5 minutes of using the computer, but I think it was a one time thing.

The shipping and repair time was fast: I got my empty box to ship out on Monday, and got the laptop back today (Thursday).

 

Are most of the ones that are failling the 8891-cto models or are the widescreen models also prone to failure? I had mine replaced a year ago after it failed to post. I have noticed with the updated motherboard/bios the fan is always running.

 

most of the failures i have seen are associated with the widescreen T61 and T61p.

 

I called and the CS has never heard of them fixing it out of warranty. Anybody have any luck?

 

T61p exhibiting 1 long and 2 short beep and black ... - lenovo community

lot of people got it fixed under warranty.