My new t61 has a physical defect...

I just received my t61 today and discovered that the thin strip immediately below the space bar and above the upper buttons in bulging upward as if it is not affixed underneath. You can push it down to where it appears it should be. Anyone else have this?? I can't believe I am going to have to rma this brand new thinkpad.

 

here is a photo..kind of hard to see.

 

Superglue?

 

That sucks big time. I'd RMA it.

 

Ducktape might work!!

 

i have a z61t, and it has the same defect. it's hardly noticeable, and i've lived with it for the past several months. i think i was reluctant to RMA it because it was actually a replacement that I had received for another issue with that panel (except the other time
it was bulging on the side, near the junction to the right of the arrow keys.

my suspicion is that the wide screen bottom panels don't fit completely 100% right (i've read about some people complaining about that on the z61t), so there is sometimes a bulge.

i figured i'd much rather have it right under the spacebar (where i barely notice) than on the side with uneven paneling.

i figured they would fix it for the T61's though.

who knows, though... my opinions are based on a sample size of 2 (and some forum comments).

 

Any ideas if the palmrest is catching on the keyboard groove? Perhaps the keyboard or palmrest needs to have its position tweaked?

 

ugh, thats disappointing to see

 

Anyone else have this problem with their T61s?

 

The palmrest can be easily removed. Maybe you can try removing it to see what's wrong?

 

why don't you remove and carefully reinsert the palm rest? on my T60, there are little grooves that have be seated just right or the palm rest will bulge where it meets the keyboard. I assume the T61 is similar...

 

Agreed. You may find that the chassis, and/or the palmrest hasn't been fully trimmed from the mold. You may easily be able to fix the problem with an exacto knife or razor. (You need uncaffeinated steady hands, though)

 

Yeah not sure I want to superglue and it doesn't feel as though there is anything underneath for it to snap into. I suppose I could check the manual to see what it takes to pop the palmrest off to see.

 

let me know if that fixes anything. i think it's definitely worth giving a shot

to the casual reader, even if it can't be fixed, it really is hardly a defect in my opinion. VERY subtle. it should not deter you in the slightest.

 

I find it inexcusable that there would be such a defect. If it's because the panel just doesn't quite fit, that's sloppy quality control. Forget trying to come up with a homebrew fix. I'd call lenovo and demand that they fix their obviously shoddy workmanship.

 

i don't want to raise too many alarms over something that might not be a widespread issue. have any other users of had a similar problem?

but i definitely agree with xnviews that we should not have to fix it by ourselves. if it's just taking off the bottom panel and putting it back on, that's fine. but trimming it or superglue is definitely not cool.

 

I wouldn't lose my cool over trimming one part. It shouldn't happen, but it happens occasionally with molded plastic consumer products. It should've been caught, but they're only human.

 

I'm about to trim the palmrest on my recently bought T60 as well. I looked at other Thinkpads in the store and the edge is rounded and smooth. Mine is razor sharp.

 

I am definitely interested to hear if any other t61 owners have this.
Otherwise it seems pretty nice..quiet and pretty cool. There is noticeable light leakage on bottom as others mentioned, but mostly noticed on boot.

 

My T60WS does this, not quite as bad, doesn't really bother me.

 

For flagship line this is a dissapoinment.

 

They have quality control departments specifically to reduce the number of units that go out with defects due to human error. I would consider it and embarrassment to a flagship product whose main selling point is that it's well built. I don't mean to imply that the entire line is bad because one or two slipped through but I would think that if I called lenovo they should jump on fixing it. If they sent me back a unit with the same problem I would try again and if it happened again I would say goodbye to lenovo.