My take on the T400 after 3+ months...

Ok so this is going to be a short rant about the build quality of my T400. If you want to stop reading now go ahead...

So I ordered this thing mid September 2008 and started using it a week after that. Best laptop Ive ever owned and used, amazing performance, etc. Used it for class last semester, could go a day of use on one charge(9 cell Vista using Lenovo Power Manager settings). Now with Windows 7 I get even better battery life than I did earlier. 6.5 hours left @ 65% charge with wifi on, brightness down, and browsing the web.

Okay so thats what I love about the thing.

Now here's my big problem. This is my first Thinkpad and Ive heard great things about the build quality; I bought this expecting the best. What I got was mediocre. Reason I say mediocre is because for the most part this thing is indeed fairly sturdy. Not as bad as some say. The backside of the lcd, that matte rough like surface, thats fairly sturdy and not a problem at all. The keyboard is stiff with no noticeable flex and as is the left palm rest area and left speaker area.

What is broken about my T400 and perhaps only my particular T400 is the right palm rest area and right speaker, including the DVD slot. The DVD slot has huge gaps on both the top and bottom; its as if this DVD tray is not meant for the T400 at all. As a result of this the right speaker plastic rests with no support below and when pressured, flexes greatly. In addition, the right palm rest area, unlike the left area, has alot of flex due to the fact that the small piece of plastic on the bottom right is not attached properly to the upper plastic.

The whole right side of the laptop is so poorly structured that its no wonder this thing is "Made in China".

Lastly, I'm wondering whether this can be sent in for repair or if they'll laugh at my problem. This T400 was sent in for repair to get a new mobo put in so perhaps thats when the service tech. decided not to reassemble this thing properly. It could have been like this from the start, however, I'm unsure what it was like earlier.

Anyway, does anyone have any of the issues with your own T400? I bought this planning to own it for the next 3 or 4 years, but if I cannot get this resolved I'll likely get something new sooner than expected.

 

I have two of the problems you've described.

Right palm rest issue: I know you've seen my post on the subject already, but I just thought I'd reiterate it for anyone else who reads your post - I almost entirely fixed this issue by loosening the largeish screw that holds in the HD-cover. Others have suggested that double-sided tape is also a potential solution.

Optical drive area: did you get the DVD-burner option? I've got it, and I think that's why it wobbles - the DVD-R drive must be thinner than the other alternatives. My girlfriend has a W500 with the regular DVD player and the drive fits properly, while there is a gap in mine. This is annoying, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much as the palm rest wobble/creak.

After reading your post, it also occurs to me that another issue I've been experiencing might be related to the optical drive wobbling issue. Do you ever hear any buzzing when using the built-in speakers? I hear some buzzing out of the right speaker when the volume is high and the sound involves a lot of treble - like when I'm talking with someone on Skype. I wonder if this has to do with the optical drive issue...

 

no i dont have the DVD burner option, its the CD burner/DVD drive. its a very thin drive and its no wonder it doesnt fit properly in the slot.

and as for your speaker issue, i havent experienced that, but i dont ever take my speakers over level 30 to be honest; i dont want them to blow. usually i just use headphones and even at levels 2 to 5, the sound is very loud.

but to add to my issues, and this may be a result of that screw not being fastened properly, is the intersection of the plastic pieces on the right side. below the speaker and above the thinpad logo. the two pieces are not sitting flush and the lower plastic is raised. i should take pictures of this to show you...

 

You do know ThinkPads have been made in China for quite some time. If you think there's something wrong, call support and see what they say about it.

 

Let's be honest, what isn't made in china these days? Very little in my experience! They've certainly upped their game in the last couple of years quality wise. Don't know if people here remember when "made in Japan" was synonymous with poor quality, until they started the whole zero defect movement.

 

Really? 32 or 64 bit? And where did you get the drivers / which guide did you follow?
And which drivers did you include/exclude?

Veery good news , since I remember reading the battery life not being as good with current beta drivers

 

It's not really an issue of where it's made - take the Macbook Pros. They're all made in China, and few, if any people criticize them for poor build quality. Rather, it's an issue of quality control. In the past, quality control for Lenovo/IBM was probably more stringent, but to cut costs, it's likely more relaxed now.

 

64 bit using lenovo supplied drivers.

well actually theres a newly released, last week i think, driver for the intel 5300 wireless. thats not up on lenovo yet.

yeh they need to TQM at the Thinkpad division and do whatever they'd like for the Lenovo division.

 

so rather than calling tech support i decided to open up my T400 to see what was causing the warping and flexing.

turns out a piece within the case was not snapped in AT ALL, causing all of the issues i mentioned in the OP. after snapping the piece back in nearly all my problems have been resolved.

so it turns out this was a problem caused by assembly and i'm glad its been resolved.

 

Ah, glad to hear it was a simple fix and that your problems have been resolved

Are there still large gaps above and below the DVD drive, or has that been resolved too?

 

yeh the gaps remain unfortunately. unpleasant to look at from the side but under normal use you dont really pay attention to the dvd drive at all. lenovo should definitely fix this down the road though...

anyway, thank god ive fixed that cause it was extremely annoying.

 

Did you fix the keyboard flex as well?

After the debacle with the flexy keyboards (caused not by the perforated plates, which are actually stiffer than plain plates - see aircraft ribs - but by part tolerances), lenovo went back to the old backplate design for the T400 and T500. There was also an option for existing users to send in their flexy keyboard and get the older version back from lenovo that you might want to pursue.

 

i dont think i said the keyboard flexes.

my keyboard is is fairly stiff and there arent any issues with it.

 

Really? So now all the t400 has the old backing of the t61? So there is no more problem with flexing when typing?

 

http://forum.lenovo.com/lnv/board/m...&view=by_date_ascending&message.id=3069#M3069

 

i havent used any other thinkpads so i cant compar, but i dont have prpblems with my keyboard.

perhaps i'll ask my mom to bring one from work for me to compare.

edit: if i PM the guy at lenovo, will they send me a keyboard and i send mine back, or do i have to send my laptop in?

 

I'm glad to hear that you've managed to solve most of your laptop's issues! Can you give some specifics about what piece wasn't snapped in properly? When you snapped it in, did it fix all the issues alongside the right side of your machine, or just those near the speakers or palm rest? More details please!

 

well as i mentioned in post #3, the two pieces of the case that are separated near the arrow keys, theres an indent there. one piece rested higher than the other, it was a sort of bulge.

anyway, i took off the entire lower piece of plastic, the one below the keyboard. once i did that i noticed a piece of plastic was not snapped in near the area mentioned above. its right near a screw located there.

so i snapped that back in as it was clear that was causing the bulge. afterwards the area near the speaker, the bulge area near the ident, and the area near the Thinkpad logo, all of them are now much sturdier.

strange that this one piece caused all of this.

( i was planning to take pictures but my point and shoot camera likely wouldnt focus on such a small thing)

 

ah i see. that's great; thanks. it's pretty unbelievable that they would ship it with a piece not fully assmbled like that!

 

Why? I thought your keyboard was fine?

 

it is, but as said, i cant compare to anything so i dont know if it could be better.