One laptop NOT to buy(until they fix the defect) - LENOVO

After having the same problem(as many others) happen to our new laptop tonight, I searched the internet and found dozens of people posting with the exact same problem. Their new V/Y570 turns into a dead cold brick without warning. It goes from working fine to No lights, no sound, no nothing at all. Just DEAD.

Some were attributing the problem to the fingerprint software but it now seems as though it might be due to some type of motherboard defect as the most recent units with the same problem have come back to the owner with the motherboard being replaced - at a cost of $50 to the new laptops owner.

Mine failed tonight, on the 30th day of use, and 20 minutes too late for me to return it to BB for something that actually works.

So, if I were you and you were considering buying a Lenovo, I would at the very least wait until they have found a fix for their defective V/Y570s.

 

Generalizing on one unit of one laptop model to the entire company is kind of blowing things out of proportion...

 

I guess that depends on how much money you want to risk? The degree of risk depends on how Lenovo responds to the apparent manufacturing defect in the V/Y570s. So far, they want folks to spend $50 to send their new laptops back into them for motherboard replacement. That is just not acceptable to me and definately should not be for anyone else either unless you have money to throw away.

If I was considering a Lenovo right now I'd either wait to see how Lenovo responds or buy something else. YMMV.

 

When saying things like this, say numbers - i.e. how many are having the problems just on this forum, and how many you saw elsewhere. That quantifies things instead of people like me pointing at posts and saying "Sigh, another 'I'm special and what I fish out of my butt is gospel' type..."

 

There's always a number of DOA units in every production run from every company. It should of course be fixed for free though.

 

Speaking of butts , why not get off yours, do the search like I did, and you can find dozens of units with the same problem dating back to the beginning of the second half of 2011 for Y570s and starting about Nov for the BB sold V570s. In one thread alone on the Lenovo Community(where I posted about my problem last night)Forum, you can find a half dozen people having the same problem in a single thread. In that same thread, you will also see that one of those folks were told to send in their laptop and get it repaired. It came back with notes saying that the motherboard was replaced.

Initially, the problem was diagnosed (for Y570s) as being a problem with the fingerprint software and some people had at least temporary resolutions of the problem by deleting the software. Others can't even get their unit to start in order to do anything.

Problems can happen with any manufacturer and what matters most then is how the company handles their defect. In this case so far, Lenovo's solution is to have the customer pay for their sins by requiring the customer to PAY another $50 to ship the laptop back to Lenovo to fix the apparent manufacturing/parts defect.

I don't know how other' inexpensive laptop purchasers are financially, but if I had an extra $50 to spend on this laptop I'd probably have gotten a different brand like HP.

As for an update on my Lenovo, it still doesn't do anything as of this morning and so I will be at BB's door when they open and hoping that they will pretend it is still the 24th(yesterday), when I could have returned the Lenovo without question and used that credit to buy something else.

 

I don't know why people are crucifying you for having a very legitimate complaint....this is not an isolated incident or a random DOA unit...the OP did his research and found MULTIPLE examples of others with the same issue...and for Lenovo to charge their customers to have their units shipped back for repairs is indeed unacceptable....I didn't take it like the OP was denouncing the brand (Lenovo)..just making people aware of the situation with this particular model...

 

Not my problem. I'm not saying what you're saying has no merit, what I'm saying is that you need to give your post merit. Then it would be actually helpful instead of just a rant, which all of us are allowed but is out of place in this subforum.

 

Just got off the phone with Lenovo. First time I contacted them and their service was immediate on the toll free phone line, and support was excellent.

Unfortunately, after a half hour of trying stuff I had already tried many times, to no avail, I was told to send the unit back for repair. Agent said this is a new, but known problem with the V570. We didn't discuss the Y570 so I didn't get any confirmation from Lenovo that that unit has the same problem.

I was given two options:
- try to return the unit back to Best Buy
or
- return it to Lenovo for repair at MY OWN COST for one way shipping.

I will be at BB's door when they open... wish me luck!

 

Please provide links the the problem on Lenovo forums and their response to give this topic more substance. Especially concerned with Y570 users, so far it seems that it's not a common issues reported by owners on these forums. V570 is not quite as popular here.

 

Jeez, why can't folks just do what I did and google V570 will not boot, start, etc and Y570 with the same key words. I really don't give a hoot about the Y570 anyway but was suprised to find that those owners were having the same type problems with their lenovo.

After talking with a couple more local techies and a salesman from Lenovo, it looks like the similar problem experienced by the V and Y owners are caused by different issues. The Y owners, as explained to me, were having problems caused by the fingerprint verification software not getting along with Win7 which caused a long frozen boot up which then if the owner pulled the battery, did something to the BIOs which needed to be reset by pulling the battery and doing the voodoo button pushes. The Lenovo salesman said that an upgrade to the fingerprint software seems to have solved that problem.

With the V problem, that is apparently something having to do with the motherboard which needs to be replaced. The folks at my Best Buy have gotten a handful of the V570s back since Christmas and they knew about the problem when I walked in.... so thankfully, they still let me return the unit for a full refund.

So, I am once again shopping for a good dependable laptop for my son to replace the Lenovo.

 

Govtdog, after Gwilled and I spent a very long time researching and trying to answer a myriad of your questions when you were trying to buy several laptops for your family, we didn't tell you to just go and google it. Why even have a forum where we share information if we can all type things in google. If you already found something interesting and relevant, then please share it with the rest of us instead of sending us on a wild search for it. I believe it's a fair approach.

 

I had a y570, and not have any problem.

have now a thinkpad and I am very happy with this machine. best notbook I have i my live.

my y570 not have a finger reader and I never see one with this.

can you post a picture of your y570 ?

BR

 

i had the same issue on my y470, it died after 30 days of owning it when I got it in July...It got fixed by Lenovo in august and has been fine since..they said the issue had to do with the part " where the charger is plugged into in the laptop"...I forgot what lenovo called the part but that was the issue with the laptop..sometimes when I plug in the charger, it is not recognized but when I take it out and plug in back it, my laptop starts charging again..It happens randomly from time to time.

 

I had a V570, not a Y570 and have no idea what a Y looks like or is like to use? I don't think I have ever seen a Y570?

Elletan, I understand your point and if I get some time to waste, I will go and do another search for V570/Y570 with keywords will not boot, etc and post the links here. In the meantime, just go to the Lenovo Community Forum and check out this link to get you started.

V570 No boot, now no power

 

According to Gartner, these are the worldwide sales stats:

Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 2Q11 (Units)

Company	2Q11 Shipments​	2Q11 Market Share (%)​	2Q10 Shipments​	2Q10 Market Share (%)​	2Q10-2Q11 Growth (%)​
HP	14,888,086	17.5	14,454,971	17.4	3.0
Dell	10,621,436	12.5	10,283,074	12.3	3.3
Lenovo	10,225,358	12.0	8,349,272	10.0	22.5
Acer	9,298,989	10.9	11,689,255	14.0	-20.4
Asus	4,467,611	5.2	4,306,241	5.2	3.7
Toshiba	4,411,400	5.2	4,497,576	5.4	-1.9
Others	31,306,987	36.7	29,732,493	35.7	5.3
Total	85,219,865	100.0	83,312,882	100.0	2.3

I wonder how many V570/Y570's there are in the above total? How many peeved V570/Y570's owner posts do you see in this, and other forums, with this particular problem? 10? 20?

Maybe the "other" smart owners, didn't pinch pennies, and bought the warranty that gave them on site service. Then, when they had this problem, gave Lenovo a chance to fix it, without all the whining. Oh yeah, that's right, this was a BB bargain. Imagine that. They sold it to you, even after "they knew about the problem when I walked in".

As a previous poster said, every production run, has a few lemons. Just look at the number of recalled Fords, Toyota's, even Harley Davidson's for goodness sakes! I didn't see posters in the Harley blogs shouting "Harley brakes are BAD. Don't buy a HOG until they fix the defect!"

I just don't think this post is as earth shattering as you make it out to be. I always work with the OEM when I have any problems, and found that they will work with you, if you approach them reasonably. You had 3 posts at the Lenovo forum where you expected them to reach out and "magically" give you instant gratification for your "bricked" laptop. You complained that you didn't have the time, or money, to have Lenovo do the repair. I'm glad that BB gave you your money back. Maybe now, you have the time to Google every laptop in the world, to see if any of them, meets your needs without ANY reported problems. Then you can go out to BB, and plunk down your 600 clams for another BB special.

Sorry mate. I'm in a snit, due to a personal problem. Take my "advice" with a teaspoon full of salt.

DragonRider

 

And here is one link to get you started on the same/similar problem seen with the Y570.
Lenovo Y570 won´t turn on after being on long peri... - Lenovo Community

No problem. Take care of your personal problem and then come back and re-read my posts as you've got a few "misquotes" of me in your post.

As for Millions of units sold, so what? As you know, the defects(and personal problems) are only relevant to those who experience them, and to those who are considering experiencing them.

As for my first experience with Lenovo, it was a bit of a split decision. We loved everything about the laptop except for the part that broke after one month of use. Unfortunately, that part rendered the laptop useless.

Lenovo's customer service was very good too... except for their in-warranty repair policy which requires the customer to pay extra to have a manufacturer defect fixed. HP pays both ways shipping and so should Lenovo when an in warranty problem is not user related. I've dealt with electronic companies which will pay for round trip shipping but take a CC number just in case the problem is user caused, in which case they then charge the customer for the one way shipping.

And, in the end, Lenovo helped me with Best Buy when BB hesitated in wanting to allow me to return my defective V570 since the store's return period had expired.

My son loved the Lenovo V570 so much that he even wants me to check to see if there is another Lenovo model which is a V570 without the V570 problem.... almost sounds like a refurbed V570 with a different motherboard that doesn't fail would be a good find.

 

Google any laptop model and add will not boot, start, etc. afterwards and you'll find dozens of hits.

Stick with a Thinkpad model. Even for their standard depot warranty they will give you a tag to ship back your laptop or any component so you don't have to pay for shipping.

 

They don't over here. I've not bothered to cover the more recent X's with uplifted warranty and I've had to ship them back myself.

 

The issue with the V570 is not the standard, here and there problem you see with all notebooks but is more like the recent Crucial M4 SSD problem or like a car manufacturer recall, IMO. YMMV.

This notebook was the only Christmas present for my teenage son and times are financially tough in our family so $650 delivered is our upper limit for this notebook... which probably eliminates any Thinkpad.

Except for the defective motherboard, how different is the Z and Y series from the V series with regard to case(brushed aluminum?), keyboard and LED screen?

 

+1

I've worked in IT for years and whenever I Google a computer problem I find so many people have already had that same problem. Does that mean I shouldn't buy any computer model that I can successfully Google a complaint for?

What happens when you perform the same Google search for your runner-up choice of a laptop?

Gottabecareful with these things. Often you can spend all your time running from shadows.

 

I've actually seen a deal for a refurbished T420 with 1600x900 resolution and i5 processor for $600 at the outlet. Just gotta be patient and act fast when you see something like that pop up. Also Thinkpad Edge will definitely be available for that price at the outlet.

 

Thanks. I saw your post in the other thread and wondered why you recommended a $850 thinkpad to a guy who's upper level budget was $700. Didn't realize at the time that Lenovo depot occasionally drops the price on the same unit by a couple of hundred. I wonder on what basis do they do that?

When the price is $600 does that mean that the refurbs they are selling are more beat up or have more wear and tear than those same identically equipped Thinkpads they sell for $850?

 

Can't tell you about all the laptops, can only comment on mine. Bought refurbished for $510, 540 with tax. A new model with identical options was $660 at the outlet, $700 at Lenovo website.
I inspected my laptop thoroughly and didn't find a single scratch or dent. It was missing cds and manuals, but drivers and manuals are available online. So the only thing it's missing is the "new car smell." Sellers are legally unable to resell returned laptops even if those were barely used.

 

Ditto on the warranty. I went ahead and paid $177 for three year on site with accident protection. If just one part goes wrong, or a silly accident would offset the $177. Not to mention nice to have them come to you, rather than mail and wonder.

Paid $1,048 (warranty included) total for a Y470, 2670QM, 500gb 7200rpm, 8gb and Blu-ray. I have read and seen enough to see that no other laptop touches the total value/performance, hardware and warranty for the price. Not to mention the Y470 is built well, nice speakers, mSata ready and has good heat dissipation design. I prefer the Nvidia chip over the ATI in the 470P, due to better graphics switching with the Nvidia chip.

I was looking at the Y570, but decided on more portability.