Lenovo t61 dead!!!!

Hi, I just bought an IBM lenovo t61 a couple of weeks ago and yesterday when i was cleaning the display I accidentally drop some water on the keyboard. The notebook was disconnected from ac-power and battery, and I opened to try to dry inside the case. Today I try to turn it on but nothing happened. No beeps no lights nothing. I tried with battery and ac-power. What can I do?. Is there some security circuit that prevents the computer be turned on till it dries completely or is already fried????. Will the warranty cover this incident?. Any suggestions?. Thanks a lot and sorry for my english

 

Unless you have accidental protection (an extra charge) it will probably not be covered. Did the water fall out the bottom. The T61 has a sealed off keyboard with routing that allows the water to fall out the bottom. It appears it didn't work to well in your case sorry to hear that.

 

So the whole spill free jingle was as real as santa?

 

Well I imagine if you spill enough water, its going to find its way in. Who wants to test?

 

The keyboard is spill-resistant, those "...some water..." would not be sufficient to destroy the internal circuitry of the T61.

When there was even enough water to fall on to the keyboard, I can imagine the amount of wetness you apply on the screen --- simply excessive.

You did not elaborate on what you did to "try to dry inside the case". I would not want to speculate on what you could have possibly done wrong when the notebook was opened up by you.

There is no water detector in the T61 to act as "...security circuit that prevents the computer be turned on till it dries completely...".

You can try your luck on the warranty but I would not be surprised if Lenovo turns you down. If it accepts to service it, it is out of good gesture.

 

I think the keyboard can only take 60cc's of spillage before it flows over into some lovely circuit boards

 

you opened what?? if you disassembled your thinkpad, then it may be you who made more damage than the water.

So if you played a bit with screwdriver, I sugest to check all the cables and connections that you touched. and do it carefully !
For example check your keyboard cable - is it connected or not.

 

I've had water spill on it. It wouldn't power up and IBM told me that it definitely wasn't covered under warranty.

But it came back to life a week later. Maybe wait and see.

Cheers,
Jeremy

 

Oh man, you *drownded* your Lenovo! So, you should say so in the headline! Lenovo don't need any more bad press.
Good luck though..

 

I hope your credit card has accidental damage coverage..I know the amex I used does for 90 days....i would research into your credit card company and see if they offer something similar to the amex coverage

tip: always use amex for large purchases

 

Seems an old thread but I am facing the same problem with my T61 !

So far it happened twice - read on.

The symptom is perplexing - both times the laptop was running for more
than a 12 hours and as I was doing some serious work - poof! - the
entire box just shuts off within a fraction of a second !! no warnings
or errors or messages or sounds - not even HD shutting down noice !
When it happens NOTHING helped to bring it back to life
- the laptop is essentially a brick - I sifted through lenovo and google
and tried removing battery and waiting a while etc - nothing helped !

Since the laptop was always plugged in I know battery power was ok.

The first time I thought it could be due to palm sweat - I could not
believe that would be the case as this laptop is supposed be spillproof
and I dont sweat that much - but anyways, I quickly used a vaccum
over the keyboard to such any wetness and it did not help.
Then I kept the laptop in direct sun for about 30mins (it was a 70degF day)
and when I tried it I was surprised it worked.
So I though somehow some water droplet may have caused some
circuit fault - since the keyboard itself has a small tray to hold some liquid
perhaps my palm sweat went in through the small hole on both sides
where I rest the palm - the holes are meant for laptop screen to lock
when you close it.

I was happy it came back to life but was disappointed at such poor design.

Then it happened again another day under similar conditions
- long work day, palm sweating etc.

So I immediately opened the front cover (palm rest area) and found
no wetness anywhere at all - I then opened the keyboard area and
no wetness at all - so I opened the back cover and no wetness at all !!
So the palm sweat was not the issue - it was something else.

I searched google and the only useful tip was in lenovo hardware manual
that the issue could be due to battery surge protector being shut off
and to recover just unplug laptop for a minute and plug it back on
but that did not help.

Then I found this thread.

Then I called someone who asked me to "reset" the laptop by
removing the battery and then holding the power button for > 10sec
and then putting back battery and trying to switch it on.

I tried that and was surprised it worked!

So the issue with complete sudden death of Lenovo T61 (may be other
models too) is some problem in their hardware/firmware that locks up
not even letting bios boot up !

I plan to call Lenovo and see what they have to say.

I am very disappointed with Lenovo.
In over 15 years of laptop use this is the first time ever I have had a
system turn into a brick in the blink of a second and never come back on!

Hope this helps others who face this issue.