Screen Flex

I went to the local mainline notebooks shop to check out the t43 before buying through the epp program and pushed on the back of the screen to look for screen ripple. AND.... I saw lots! I thought IBM was the benchmark for solid design but there was sooo much ripple. it was a 14" t43 with sxga+ res. Is this just an exception or is this how they're made now?

 

I get zero on mine and my old T41.

 

I have a t42 P 2373-HVU) with a 15" screen; when I push on the back of my laptop not one spec of flex... Then I tried this on my friends T43 with a 14" screen; guess what not one bit of flex. I think you might be a little koo koo... :buyIBM:

 

Yeah, zero flex on mine. Heck, you can imagine why. The LCD side of the notebook is almost thicker than the main part of it. With all that protection, it shouldn't flex at all. Also, the cover's material seems pretty strong for that matter. Though I can't say the same for the palmrests--my palmrests flex a little, though it's not a big problem for me.

 

I have a new T43 with 14" sxga+ display also and I have flex and see ripples if I flex enough. 2686-DGU I am not too happy about it...Are they using different screen for different models?

 

what is screen flex?????

 

screen flex is distortion on the lcd when pressure is applied to the back of the screen (or top of the notebook)

 

so like pushing the screen or tapping the screen the screen gets distorted??...because if that's the case...it doesn't happen to my 9300 laptop

 

Grab your screen with your hand.
Apply pressure to the back of the screen by squeezing gently

Do you see anything change on your screen?
Did the color change? did the Image distort?

 

ok..i did what u said to do..any nothing changed on the screen...the colors didn't change..and the image did NOT distort

 

A few months ago my work got a shipment of new laptops (we sell & repair computers). I walked over to each laptop and did my own little flex test - nothing scientific, I just pushed against different parts of the back. I can't remember the models I tested I just know they included Gateway, Sony, HP, Compaq, and Toshibia. They all had mae major flexing no matter where I pushed, the only decent one was the Sony Viao and one of the 10lbs Compaqs. And they flexed I just had to push a little harder. The center seems to be the sweet spot for most notebooks.

On my T43 however, I don't notice any major flexing. I push on the center and near the sides and nothing happens. There is one spot though that if I press a little hard I do get a little bit of flex (it's about 2-3 inches down from the top of the screen), but thats the only spot. And it's definitly not as bad as the other notebooks I tested.

 

Yeah, it's very strange if you're seeing a lot of ripples on the screen of any ThinkPad notebook. I've owned several and never had the problem, most laptops that use a weaker plastic for the lid it's easy to do this with. I don't know how to explain why one ThinkPad would have a lot of ripples and a majority of the others don't, don't buy that one though!

 

I was just wondering are u sure u don't have an R series notebook cause i've come across a couple R series one that have some screen ripple, but from my experience the T series are very solid.

 

I hope this is some very isolated case because i just bought a T43 and i hope it's a good one T_T. I've been very unlucky with my laptop buying, first one i got, an nc6230 had a screwed up wireless card that would hang my windows, second one had two dead pixels, so i switched company and went for the legendary thinkpad for good build quality but hearing these horror stories makes ma really anxious.

 

I just got my T42 2378FVU and I was disappointed that I also get screen flex and ripples. I'm not sure there's a magnesium cover as advertised. I was wondering if some models are more durable than others. The 14.1 SXGA+ screen is pretty decent though.

 

I have T42 for work (type 2373-T64) and there is a ripple if I press (gently) at the top left hand corner.

I also have an R40 thinkpad for home use (2681-CU1) and when I bought it, the LCD seemed solid. However, a few months ago a backlight on my LCD went off, thankfully, the machine was under warranty and the whole LCD was replaced. Now I have more ripples (but a new screen as well).

I think that ripples are not the exception as a few of my co-workers with T42's have ripples as well.

Before T42 I had T23 and it had ripples as well, though fewer than the T42 I use for work now.

 

My T42 has a fair amount of flex and distortion in the upper left hand corner, although it requires quite a bit of pressure. There's none on the right side, and I attribute that to the lip around the edge of the screen. If IBM had been able to continue that around the whole screen, it would have been excellent. As it is, though, even the metal lid is too thin to be completely rigid.

Now, on the Dell 1150 that I used prior to this, there was absolutely no screen flex whatsoever, no matter how hard I pushed. Of course, the lid is about 1.5cm of plastic.

 

it should flex a bit to relief some stress otherwise it'll break at some point. we've been using IBMs up in the mountains for 5 years. they've taking serious beatings and they still keep going much like the energizer bunny.

 

I orderred and just received a T43p 15" UXGA to compare the flexview display against the 14" sxga in the 2686-DGU....

All I can say it's not even a fair comparision. The 15" flexview is rock solid and not a bit of flex. Built like a tank. The colors are much more vibrant. So much so that looking back to the 2686-DGU it looks washed out...

Down side...it's bigger and heavier...very noticable coming from the compact 14" T43...

I've got one more day to decide to keep the 2686-DGU or not...I may send it back.

 

From the pictures that I've seen of the 15" ThinkPads, the screen lid appears to be much thicker, and the lip looks like it might be carried around the entire screen, although it's really hard for me to tell. Both of those would definitely help keep the back rigid. I'm not surprised it doesn't flex.

 

You are absolutely correct. It is thicker which contributes to the added weight. The entire laptop seems to be thicker material. Feels much more substantial.

 

On my notebook, the cover is thickly armored. It is in fact quite heavy, as the front part of the cover accounts for more than half the thickness of the notebook!

 

If it weren't for the extra weight of the 15" T-series notebooks, I think I would return my 14" T42 and get one of those. Better design there, IMO. The screen flex on mine seems to have gotten worse, although I don't know how that would happen (may just be my imagination, but either way it's looking like the last nail in the coffin for this laptop).

 

my screen only has one little flex (1 cm) located atwhere the keyboard light is (right in the middle top screen)

 

MP5, do you have a 14" or 15" screen? How hard are you pushing?

And has anyone ever tried grabbing both corners of their screen and twisting? Is it too much for me to expect that the screen not seriously flex and horribly distort?

 

i have 14"
i pushed as hard as i can, maybe few kilos. i believe that the keyboard light is the weak spot.

just tried twisting it from sides, no flex either.

 

I have a T42 that I picked up (from IBM) over the summer, 14" XGA, and I recall checking for screen flex a while ago, and finding absolutely none. I don't recall however, what colour background was on the screen at the time, because as many of you probably know, a white background makes for very difficult detection. The other day however, I was checking it, and with little pressure, a circular spot about the size of a quarter appears, about 2 inches up and then 2 inches left of center. With more pressure (moderate to heavy), numerous other spots, mainly on the upper half of the screen, appear. I was surprised (and rather disappointed) by this.
I'm well past the 30 day return deadline (if there even is one for Lenovo Canada), but still under warranty of course, but will not look into the matter as the LCD still operates fine under normal usage.
To those of you looking into buying (or waiting upon the arrival of) a Thinkpad, I must apologize for the horror story. Its an excellent notebook otherwise.

 

Lenovo Canada does indeed do returns; I just shipped my T42 off yesterday.

cibulet, when you press of the screen, do you just see distortion where you press, or does the screen distort in a wider area around that point?

 

Oddly enough, it really comes down to a 'predefined' distortion pattern. For example, the 'quarter-sized spot' (as I aforementioned) on the upper left quadrant of the screen can be produced by taking my right hand and applying pressure to the bottom right quadrant of the screen (pressure applied on the back, of course)! For that matter, (let me check...) I can obtain this distortion by taking a single hand (either left or right) and applying light to moderate pressure anywhere on the back. The other spots that I noticed will occur with more pressure, and the pressure needs to be applied on the area that they show up on.

In answering your question directly, and after some more testing , I think I now need to say that, overall, it looks to me like a pre-defined pattern of distortion areas that manifest themselves, generally, when I apply pressure anywhere.

To make matters worse, and on a side note, I just visited another student at the school that I am attending who recently purchased an Inspiron 6000, and I checked for screen flex on his LCD (in terms of colour distortion) and found none! (By the way, I don't mean to belittle all you happy Dell owners out there, but, as we discuss in these forums, everyone knows what you should be able to expect when you pay the premium price for an IBM .)

Hope that answered your question.

 

Thanks, cibulet. That sounds a lot like what was happening to mine, which was a main reason why I returned it. Crap.

I know what you mean about the Dell. My friend has one, and it sucked that I couldn't put my T42 beside his 6000 without being just a little embarrassed. It's supposed to be the other way around!

 

its true, i'm typing this on my friends Dell 700m and absolutely zero flexing, while my 2686DGU is flexing with a vengence

 

Yeah, let's bump threads!